They are a team of technologists, researchers and investors who buy assets of, who build for, and who participate in open crypto networks. At its core, Framework is a technology company, building products and services to support the open blockchain networks that they invest in. Framework was started in 2019.

Framework Ventures

ABCDE

Kronos Research

NXGEN International is the global Merchant Service Provider (MSP) serving over 13,000 merchants in multiple countries.

NXGEN

Kenetic is a proprietary trading and VC investment firm focused on digital assets and blockchain related companies. They have developed technology to facilitate their quantitative trading strategies and offer various digital asset related structured products to counterparts.

Kenetic

StarkWare Industries uses Stark technology to develop a full proof stack in generating and verifying proofs of computational integrity. It was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Netanya, HaMerkaz, Israel.

StarkWare Industries

Mindfulness Capital is an investment management firm.

Mindfulness Capital

Samara Asset Group essential investments into crypto assets and blockchain companies.

Samara Asset Group

What Crypto insiders are reading around the world.

Global Coin Research

Capital6 Eagle is a venture capital firm led by experienced technologist and investors. The firm incubates new technology solutions and invests in companies applying blockchain and other emerging technologies in bold and promising ways.

Capital6 Eagle

Alliance is the leading Web3 accelerator and founder community.

Alliance DAO

DuckDAO is a community-backed incubator powered by a network of engaged investors in the digital asset ecosystem.

DuckDAO

UTXO Management is a digital asset fund investing in the analog to digital transformation of money and the emergent financial system.

UTXO Management

PAKA

CSP DAO offers a unique blockchain system designed to address fair investment rights.

CSP DAO

DCI Capital is a venture capital that invests in startups. DCI aims to promote, educate and inspire crypto enthusiasts. DCI helps start-ups get off the ground with initial funding, marketing, and strategic partnerships.

Dutch Crypto Investors

Pragma is the leading investment banking firm in Turkey. The Company provides its clients with buy-side, sell-side M&A and debt finance advisory services. Our typical transactions are mostly complex cross-border projects in Turkey involving sophisticated investors, investee companies and financing sources. Pragma completed 102 M&A and project finance transactions since 2005.  Pragma also makes investments from its balance sheet into special situations and in high growth technology companies.

Pragma

Faculty Group is a collection of synergistic blockchain-native firms with exceptional access to opportunities within web3, and the unique capabilities to create deep value. We build, fuel, and guide the web3 game changers of tomorrow. Faculty Group unites innovative thought leadership, strategy, token modeling, branding & mar-comms, market making, business development, and capital - all under one roof, for a seamless & synergistic experience with best-in-class outcomes.

Faculty Group

OKX Ventures focuses on exploring the best blockchain projects on a global scale, supporting cutting-edge blockchain technology innovation, promoting the healthy development of the global blockchain industry, and investing in long-term structural value. Through its commitment to supporting entrepreneurs who contribute to the development of the blockchain industry, OKX Ventures helps build innovative companies and brings global resources and historical experience to blockchain projects.

OKX Ventures

We are a thesis driven technology investment fund. Picking winning investments is hard and having an opinion and view of where the world is heading is our edge. Technology has always been a rapidly evolving sector and the pace is only accelerating. We expect the world in 20 years to look starkly more different than the world of 20 years ago. Now is the time to build the companies that will shape that future. Our founding team has decades of combined experience across the technology, investing, and banking sectors. We work closely with our portfolio companies to maximise their success and in turn maximise returns for our investors.

Kestrel 0x1

Gate Labs is the investment arm of Gate.io

Gate Labs

Asymmetric is a technology company with a fund mandate, founded by solo GP and Investment Manager, Joe McCann

Asymmetric

Cogitent Ventures operates as a venture capital firm.

Cogitent Ventures

Web3Port is an accelerator of Web 3 projects helping startups build from zero to one and to the next level.

Web3Port

Comma3 Ventures is funds for founders that is looking for disruptive innovation entrepreneurs in Web3.

Comma3 Ventures

Rising Capital is a digital asset management firm that specializes in crypto space investing, DeFi, and gaming solutions.

Rising Capital

Quotient Ventures operates as an investment firm.

Quotient Ventures

Think about us as the RPC in the blockchain world, facilitating transactions and connections across the entire crypto ecosystem. We represent the nexus of Community, VCs, Projects, Agencies, Incubators, and everything in between, forming a vibrant circle of collaboration and innovation. At our core, we prioritize Respect, Profit, and Community. With a team boasting over 5 years of experience and deep passion for the crypto market, we’re dedicated to delivering the best solutions to our clients. Let’s explore the possibilities together and see how we can elevate your crypto journey

RPC Ventures

Pivot Global is a Venture DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) that is open to members by invitation only.

Pivot Global

Franklin Resources is a global investment management organization known as Franklin Templeton Investments. They have an extensive global presence, including offices in 35 countries and clients in more than 150. Their common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BEN and is included in the Standard & Poor’s 500:registered: Index. Franklin Resources Inc. NYSE: BEN is an investment firm originally founded in New York in 1947 as Franklin Distributors, Inc. It is listed on the NYSE under the ticker BEN as in Benjamin Franklin, whom founder Rupert Johnson, Sr. admired. In 1973 the headquarters moved from New York to San Mateo, California. The firm specializes in conservatively managed mutual funds. It offers products under the Franklin, Templeton, Mutual Series and Fiduciary brand names. Like other large investment companies, the firm offers a wide variety of funds but is traditionally best known for bond funds under the Franklin brand, international funds under the Templeton brand, and value funds under the Mutual Series brand.

Franklin Templeton

GSR Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on technology companies developing AI-enabled enterprise software, consumer platforms, and healthcare technology. The firm backs entrepreneurs building disruptive businesses that have the potential to dominate multi-billion dollar markets. GSR Ventures currently manages about $3.7 billion across its funds.

GSR Ventures

Skyland Ventures (SV) is a venture capital (VC) fund focusing on seed startup investments. With a mission of “The Seed Maker. & Unlearning.”, we make equity and token investments that provide seed money to startups that will have a significant impact on the technology industry. To date, we have invested in over 120 startups, mainly in Japan. From 2022 onwards, the company is focusing on investing in Web3 (Crypto, NFT, Blockchain) startups.

Skyland Ventures

Flow Traders, named “ETF Market Marker Europe'' by the Annual Global ETF Awards for the last six consecutive years is an international leading trading house. Their office in Singapore was also recognized as ‘ETF Market Maker Asia Pacific 2012’ winning this award for the second consecutive year.  Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Amsterdam with offices in New York and Singapore, Flow Traders trades equities as well as derivatives, currencies and bonds on exchanges around the world. Flow Traders is a privately held financial firm that keeps pace with global markets. Their business expands each day by adding new products across an ever-broadening range of markets around the globe.  Flow Traders stays ahead of the competition by focusing on technology and niche competencies in markets where every second counts. This requires access to the best information and the ability to respond instantly. To achieve this, Flow develops its own software in-house. Their team of software developers works in partnership with experienced traders to identify and execute tomorrow's strategies, making Flow a daily pioneer in professional trading.  In order to maximize their performance and facilitate their international growth, Flow Traders heavily invest in their employees. The backbone of their success is the collection of creative doers, thinkers, and above all, believers who form their company. They at Flow believe in the team effort and value their people.  Flow Traders offers you an exciting job with an excellent compensation package. They encourage employees to take advantage of opportunities to work internationally within the firm to maintain and grow their success as a worldwide leading proprietary trading house. They provide their employees with the best working environment, continuous support, team outings, sport events, company parties and trips. It’s all part of the deal!

Flow Traders

FalconX is a cryptocurrency brokerage and digital asset trading platform. It specializes in the fields of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and fintech. Its platform provides reliable execution using data science to eliminate slippage and hidden fees. It was founded in 2018 and is based in San Mateo, California.

FalconX

Stake Capital provide highly available and secure blockchain validation services for all the leading proof-of-stake networks.

Stake Capital Group

One of the pioneering market-makers in digital assets, Caladan has been generating exceptional returns since 2017. Today, we operate thousands of algorithms across 1000+ digital assets and 65+ exchanges, both centralised and decentralised. We see blockchain as the foundational technology of our generation. Just as ship-building innovations in the 1450s launched the Age of Exploration or TCP/IP in the 1970s launched the internet as we know it, blockchain now opens up new worlds of possibility. Much of the infrastructure, applications, and software that we will all take for granted in a few decades are only glimmers in someone’s imagination today. We founded AlphaLab because there is huge potential in building that future. It’s also going to be a lot of fun.

Caladan

Jets Capital supports crypto and Web3 startups at initial stages. Our mission is to help modern technologies to smoothly enter our lives and change the world for the better. We provide a holistic ecosystem for startups to grow and have partners to take care of all aspects - be it advertising, legal, promotion, lisitings, go-to-market expertise and more.

Jets Capital

Metalpha Technology Holding Limited (NASDAQ: MATH) went public on October 20, 2017. The listed Company, through its subsidiaries, is dedicated to providing investing and wealth management services with a full-service, institutional-grade platform. With dedicated blockchain expertise, the Company aims to become a leader in the field of crypto wealth management services, bringing robust innovation and transparency to the customers and businesses it serves.

Metalpha Technology Holding Limited

Presto Labs is a quantitative trading start-up that is rapidly expanding.

Presto Labs

WAGMI Ventures invest in web3 companies through a collective network .

WAGMI Ventures

280 Capital serves as the Web3 investment arm of the Huang, Liu, and Chen Family Office, managing a $2 billion portfolio. With roots the Web3 domain since 2014, the family currently manages a $400 million digital assets portfolio, anchored by an early acquisition of Bitcoin, showcasing a profound commitment to advancing the blockchain industry.

280 Capital

Bitlayer

Bitlayer is the first Bitcoin second-layer network, based on BitVM, offering ultra-scalability and L1 security, aiming to be Bitcoin's computing layer.

Bitlayer offers a Layer 2 network that enables users to build and deploy decentralized applications natively on the Bitcoin blockchain. It provides developers access to a novel computational paradigm named BitVM, which verifies off-chain transactions on Bitcoin without requiring changes to the network's consensus rules. This mechanism enables the network to support multiple virtual machines, including Ethereum virtual machine (EVM), so that developers can migrate existing decentralized applications and digital assets on other blockchains to the Bitcoin network.

Disrupting the traditional financial system using blockchain

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Bitlayer offers a Layer 2 network that enables users to build and deploy decentralized applications natively on the Bitcoin blockchain. It provides developers access to a novel computational paradigm named BitVM, which verifies off-chain transactions on Bitcoin without requiring changes to the network's consensus rules. This mechanism enables the network to support multiple virtual machines, including Ethereum virtual machine (EVM), so that developers can migrate existing decentralized applications and digital assets on other blockchains to the Bitcoin network.In July 2024, the protocol <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/31906">announced the development of “Mainnet-V2,"</a> a Bitcoin-native rollup that combines zero-knowledge and fraud-proof technology.Key customers and partnersAs of March 2024, Bitlayer’s ecosystem partners included Hacken, AWS Cloud, Ankr, Polyhedra, Babylon, Particle Network, Meson, Nubit, and BitSmiley, among several others.Funding and financialsIn March 2024, Bitlayer <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/29667">raised USD 5 million</a> in seed funding led by Framework Ventures and ABCDE Capital at a USD 80 million valuation. The company earmarked the funds for product development and the expansion of its business development and engineering teams. Bitlayer went on to secure an undisclosed amount in a strategic investment from OKX Ventures, the venture capital arm of crypto exchange OKX, in May 2024.

MakerDAO is a DAO (governed through the MKR token) that manages the Maker Protocol.Developed on the Ethereum blockchain, the Maker Protocol allows users to place their funds (through cryptocurrency) as collateral in exchange for its stablecoin DAI, which is pegged to the USD. DAI can be used like any other cryptocurrency and even as savings since holders of DAI are entitled to a return based on the DAI Savings Rate (DSR). The DSR is determined by members of the DAO using a mix of public and proprietary market data.MakerDAO offers access to investing and borrowing DAI through the Oasis app which was developed by some of the creators of Maker Protocol. In addition, the Maker Protocol is available for developers of DeFi apps who can build apps to facilitate earning, investing, and borrowing DAI. As of May 2024, the Maker Protocol had integrated with over 400 applications ranging from payment systems to gaming platforms. MakerDAO generates revenue through stability fees (akin to interest payment on borrowed DAI) and liquidation fees which is an additional charge that occurs when the value of the submitted collateral falls below a set liquidation amount.In April 2022, MakerDAO announced that it was bridging to StarkNet, a reportedly cheaper and faster zero-knowledge (ZK) overlay chain built by StarkWare. Along with its expansion on Ethereum, the DAO had planned to move toward a multi-chain offering with this rebuild. It planned to roll out this offering in four phases, beginning with a simple bridge between the main blockchain and StarkNet’s Layer 2.In February 2023, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16269?industryIds=64">launched a new lending platform</a> named Spark Protocol, to enable users to borrow, lend, and stake DAI, the protocol’s stablecoin. The platform, which is a fork of Aave's version 3 (v3), will be built by Phoenix Labs, a research and development company formed by the DAO. Additionally, the company also announced the deployment of etherDAI, a liquid staking derivative for Ethereum that will be pegged to the value of ETH. Furthermore, in March, MakerDAO went on to<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17322"> approve several new proposals </a>that make changes to both its governance structure and the investment of its treasury. These changes divide the DAO’s current structure into smaller self-governed and self-sustained units named SubDAOs, which will also have their own tokens in the MakerDAO ecosystem. Moreover, the proposal also planned to increase the protocol’s revenues by investing a part of its reserves (worth USD 7 billion) into real-world assets and money-market funds.The platform outlined its plans for a major update (named Endgame) in May 2023. The launch was proposed to take place in five phases and will ultimately lead to the creation of a new blockchain. The road map is as follows: 1) launching new branding and website as well as upgraded versions of Dai and MKR tokens; 2) launching six Maker SubDAOs, specializing in user acquisition, decentralized frontends, and collateral allocation; 3) introducing new AI tools to assist governance, including tools for summarizing, interpreting, and generating governance proposals; 4) enabling rewards for governance participation; and 5) deploying a new blockchain to house backend logic for SubDAO tokenomics and MakerDAO governance security. The first phase of the update is expected to be rolled out in the summer of 2024.In August 2024, the protocol followed through with the first phase of its plans by <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32993">rebranding itself under the new name "Sky"</a>, and launching new versions of Dai and MKR tokens named the USDS and SKY. Funding and financialsAs of May 2024, MakerDAO had around USD 8.1 billion in total value locked (TVL). The company’s most recent funding round was in April 2020 for an undisclosed sum. Previously, the company had raised USD 27.5 million through the sale of its MKR token to Dragonfly Partners and Paragon to expand its operations to Asia.

MakerDAO

Founded by former executives of Qualcomm, Solana Labs is the developer of the Solana blockchain, which uses the native cryptocurrency SOL. The company enables developers to create decentralized applications in its blockchain and is capable of carrying out 50,000 transactions per second (TPS) with a theoretical upper limit of 710,000 TPS for the architecture. As of May 2024, the blockchain averaged around 2,400 TPS. This is in contrast to Ethereum’s average of between 13 to 15 TPS. In addition to transaction speed, Solana also has other advantages such as lower transaction fees and improved scalability, given its proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and underlying architecture. The mechanism also enables users to stake their SOL and earn yields for validating the network. Solana provides the ability to create specialized tooling and programming functionality to tokens through <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25910">Token Extensions</a>. This allows developers and businesses to establish rules for tokens, such as dictating their functionality and determining their holders, as well as embed features like whitelisting, automatic transfer fees, and confidentiality provisions for transfers.Solana also provides guides and a content aggregator website for developers to discover tools to create dApps on its blockchain. As of May 2024, more than 440 dApps were created on Solana, ranging across use cases such as DeFi, NFTs, and gaming. It also <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18094">launched a ChatGPT </a>(a chatbot built on OpenAI's GPT model) plugin to allow developers and users to query the blockchain for on-chain data. The plugin works through the ChatGPT interface and allows users to perform various tasks such as checking wallet balances, transferring tokens, and purchasing NFTs.Key customers and partnershipsWeb browser developer Opera partnered with Solana in December 2021 to integrate the blockchain and create a built-in crypto wallet onto the Opera browser to improve accessibility to dApps hosted on the blockchain.As of May 2024, the company served several enterprise clients such as Shopify, Asics, Helio, and Tiplink.Funding and financialsThe total value locked (TVL) in DeFi projects across the Solana blockchain amounted to USD 4 billion as of May 2024. The company raised USD 314 million through an initial coin offering (ICO) of SOL. The ICO was co-led by Polychain Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. The funding was to be used to create a venture investing arm, a trading desk, and support the development of new applications in its blockchain.

Solana

Swiss-based Eidoo is a developer of a wallet that supports cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, along with tokens such as DAI, MKR, AAVE, and UNI, among others. In addition, Eidoo provides a DeFi marketplace that integrates with its wallet, allowing users to trade any tokens that they hold. Eidoo also offers a debit card that allows the conversion of digital assets into fiat currencies, such as the GBP and EURO, and spending or even withdrawing cash from ATMs.Eidoo began with the proprietary token EDO, which it also used to raise USD 27.9 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017. The token was then upgraded following its merger with blockchain oracle provider Provable Things to establish pNetwork, the infrastructure that facilitates cross-chain interactions between multiple decentralized apps, governed by the token PNT. To obtain an Eidoo debit card, users are required to stake PNT ranging from 20 to 200,000 for various service tiers.Eidoo had several applications such as virtual account numbers to deposit money and obtain a tokenized representation of their deposit as well as features to buy, hold, and trade NFTs in the roadmap as of December 2021.

Eidoo

Synthetix is a DAO (governed by holders of its native token SNX) that offers a platform on which users can trade and vote on the creation of on-chain synthetic assets, which are derivatives based on real-world assets. These synthetic assets enable traders to capture the price movements of assets such as cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, stocks, and commodities, among others, with zero slippage. The protocol allows users to stake SNX as collateral for the debt pool and earn weekly rewards. As of April 2022, Synthetix had USD 642 million in total value locked (TVL).Additionally, Synthetix also offers the opportunity for developers to build on top of the platform to tap into its liquidity as well as develop decentralized perpetual futures, options markets, deal coordination markets, and more. As of December 2021, the protocol served large DeFi platforms including 1inch, Curve Finance, Yearn Finance, and Paraswap.In February 2023, Synthetix <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16609?industryIds=64">deployed version 3 (v3) of its platform </a>on the Ethereum mainnet. V3 reportedly offers more efficient architecture that enables developers to create products that offer a liquid market for any financial derivative, as well as more complex decentralized applications. Additionally, the solution also offers staking and differentiated debt pools, to enable stakers to earn fees from supplying collateral to specific asset pools. The company went on to deploy its protocol on Base, an Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain developed by Coinbase, in April 2024. Moreover, the company announced plans to launch a new perpetual futures exchange named Infinex in the following months.Funding and financialsIn March 2023, Synthetix <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17267">received an investment of USD 20 million </a>from DWF Labs, a Web3 venture capital company. Synthetix plans to use this investment to drive volume for its protocol across both centralized and decentralized exchanges and invest in product development.

Synthetix

Compound is an open-source lending protocol built on Ethereum that allows developers to build DeFi applications for functions such as deposits and lending. Compound offers adjusted money market interest rates based on asset-specific supply and demand and supports a number of Ethereum-based assets for users to take collateralized loans and lock-up assets without borrowing. Locked assets are automatically liquidated if an independent oracle determines that the price has dropped too low. Additionally, since assets are stored in a shared pool, even users with liquidated collateral can claim tokens if they are able to repay the general pool. Compound also <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13038">offers borrowing services</a> for institutional clients that allow them to borrow USD or USDC at a fixed annual percentage rate of 6% using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ether as collateral, with a loan-to-value of 90%.As of April 2024, Compound had a total value locked (TVL) of USD 2.3 billion. The protocol is governed by its native-token COMP, which along with a variety of other digital assets that are a part of the Compound ecosystem, are supported by Coinbase Custody, a crypto asset custodian. In August 2022, Compound launched a version of its protocol named “Compound III” which features a single borrowable asset. Users can supply collateral that can never be withdrawn by other users (except during liquidation) and borrow USDC.In May 2022, Compound<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10267"> received a B- credit rating from S&amp;P Global Ratings</a> on its enterprise credit facility which offers 4% annually on deposits of the stablecoin USDC. Notably, Compound claims that this is the first time an "institutional DeFi" product has been scored by a major credit rating agency.Funding and financialsCompound’s last funding round was in November 2019 where it raised USD 25 million in a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z crypto fund to help the company further decentralize the protocol by enabling crypto exchanges and custodians such as Coinbase to maintain the protocol going forward.

Compound

Organizations and protocols that allow individuals to lend their crypto assets and take out collateralized or uncollateralized loans from to/from these projects

Organizations that allow individuals to invest in tokenized financial and real assets

Organizations that provide fully decentralized insurance products

Organizations that apply NFTs across areas of finance such as documentation and non-fractionalized ownership records for assets

Decentralized exchanges that help connect buyers and sellers of DeFi tokens without the need to rely on an intermediary

Organizations that provide digital wallets for users to take custody of DeFi tokens

Blockchains and related protocols that allow developers to build DeFi apps

All companies within this industry are either blockchain-based platforms or offer blockchain-centric services

Promotes financial inclusivity, allowing those that won't traditionally have access to credit to raise funds

Companies with the infrastructure segment offer solutions for users to build decentralized applications

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 
 Portal to Bitcoin, has declared new DeFi integrations with Bitlayer, Sovryn, and Tari. Bitlayer is a Bitcoin layer-2 network, Sovryn a Bitcoin-based lending protocol, and Tari a layer-1 blockchain network.
 The integrations will provide many new capabilities for its users. These include improved transaction speeds and privacy through Bitlayer, BTC-backed stablecoin trading via Sovryn, and digital asset tokenization and exchange using Bitcoin as the settlement layer through Tari. All of these are in preparation for the upcoming launch of its testnet.
 
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 The Bitcoin DeFi space has seen a steady increase in disruptor activity and funding throughout 2024. This news comes just&nbsp;six months after Portal to Bitcoin raised <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/26200"> USD 34 million </a> in seed funding, and less than a week after <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/companies/3529715"> Bitlayer </a> raised <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/31906"> USD 11 million </a> in Series A funding. While investor interest has grown, many companies have strengthened their positions through inter-ecosystem partnerships, with players such as <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/companies/2939840"> Velar </a> ( <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/29564"> May </a> ) and <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/companies/1738417"> iZUMI Finance </a> ( <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/31137"> July </a> ) collaborating with Bitcoin layer-2 networks to expand their Bitcoin-based DeFi solutions.

Bitlayer

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