Three Arrows Capital

Disrupting the traditional financial system using blockchain

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Lido Finance offers a liquid staking protocol for Ethereum that enables users to unlock staked ETH without minimum deposits and earn yields across the DeFi ecosystem. The platform issues a native token named stETH (a tokenized version of staked Ethereum) for every ETH token staked through its protocol in a decentralized manner, removing the reliance on a single party's private key management. Lido charges a 10% fee on staking rewards and is governed via its native “LDO '' token.As of May 2024, Lido served over 420,000 users, with a total value locked (TVL) of over USD 28 billion.The protocol released V2 of its platform in May 2023. The upgrade enabled users to unstake their stETH and receive ETH at a 1:1 ratio. The platform provides users with an NFT as an intermediate step while their request to unstake is processed.In July 2022, Lido announced plans to expand stETH support across the ecosystem of Ethereum layer 2 (L2) networks, enabling users to stake directly on these L2 networks without bridging their assets back to the Ethereum mainnet. Lido went on to deploy on Arbitrum and Optimism networks in October 2022 and subsequently announced that it would be ending its staking program on Polkadot and Kusama in August, and Solana in October 2023.Key customers and partnershipsIn June 2024, Lido <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/30403">partnered with Mellow Finance</a>, a liquid restaking protocol, to enable holders of stETH to earn yields from restaking. Users can deposit stETH into vaults on Mellow Finance to be deployed across different actively validated services (AVSs) to earn yields. Moreover, the protocol will allow users to also create their own vaults and distribute deposits according to their own risk parameters and investment theses.Funding and financialsIn March 2022, Lido raised USD 70 million in venture capital funding from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The firm also used Lido to stake an undisclosed amount of a16z Crypto’s (its crypto investment fund) Ethereum holdings on the Beacon Chain. In May 2022, the Lido DAO token was listed for sale on Binance.

Founded in April 2022, Orderly offers a permissionless, decentralized exchange (DEX). Built on the NEAR protocol, it provides users with a risk engine, matching engine, and asset pools for users to build decentralized applications for trading. The platform enables users to spot and margin trade, perform perpetual swaps as well as lend and borrow cryptocurrencies. The company launched on the NEAR mainnet in October 2022 and had plans to release new features such as an on-chain order-book, community pool, and swap functionality, as of the same date.Key partnerships and customersThe development of the platform was supported by <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/600556">NEAR </a>and WOO Network (a DeFi liquidity solution), which also incidentally launched its DEX on the protocol. WOO DEX was the first dApp to be launched on Orderly Network, later becoming the platform’s main interface for trading tools. The protocol also partnered with Kronos Research, a DeFi market-maker, to access liquidity. The platform went on to <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21873">partner with Google Cloud </a>to co-develop user-centric developer tools for DeFi applications in September 2023. Functioning as off-chain components of DeFi infrastructure, these tools will enable specific interactions to be processed away from the main blockchain while others are carried out on-chain. The partnership also saw Orderly becoming a listed DeFi infrastructure provider on Google Cloud Marketplace. Funding and financialsIn June 2022, Orderly Network raised USD 20 million in funding from Three Arrows Capital, Pantera Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Sequoia China, Jump Crypto, and Alameda Research, among several others. The company earmarked the funds to expand its employee base, invest in product development, and establish new ecosystem partnerships. It also stated that the funding will enable it to launch new community lending pools for token holders.

NEAR Protocol offers an open-source blockchain platform that enables users to build decentralized applications using smart contracts. Governed by the NEAR Foundation, the protocol uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and provides a range of tools for developers to simplify development and scaling. The platform’s native token NEAR is primarily used for transaction fees and storage. It can also be used for staking by holders who want to validate transactions and promote network consensus. As of May 2024, NEAR supported almost 300 applications, with a global community of over 120,000 members. In April 2021, NEAR enabled users to transfer ERC-20 tokens between the Ethereum and NEAR blockchain with the launch of a new feature named “Rainbow Bridge.”In March 2023, NEAR launched a new operating system that acts as a common layer for browsing and discovering blockchain-based applications such as crypto exchanges, NFT marketplaces, and social networks. The solution was to be compatible with several blockchains, with NEAR operating as the common entry point. Users can build and launch dApps using existing pieces and components, such as profiles, payments, and notifications.Key customers and partnershipsNEAR has undertaken several partnerships in the blockchain space. These include partnerships with 1) Ardana (November 2021), a decentralized stablecoin ecosystem, to bridge the flow of assets between Cardano and NEAR.2) <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/1400804">Curve Finance</a> (April 2022) to integrate its Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) layer Aurora with Curve’s platform and enable users to connect their wallets to the Aurora network and access its liquidity pools using Curve.3) GK8 (July 2022), a blockchain security company, to enable GK8 customers to manage their assets on the NEAR Protocol, stake NEAR tokens natively, and access the protocol’s smart contracts.In November 2023, NEAR went on to <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/23671">partner with Polygon</a> to create zkWASM, a zero-knowledge (zk) prover for web-assembly-based blockchains. ZkWASM aims to strengthen interoperability across the Web3 ecosystem, enhance the secure bridging between NEAR and Ethereum, and offer WASM chains access to Ethereum’s liquidity.As of May 2024, the protocol was used by several enterprises including Alibaba, Shemeroo, ICC, SailGP, DropT, and CosmosAI. Funding and financialsIn April 2022, NEAR raised USD 350 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global to increase the number of regional hubs in community centers around the globe.

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 Thetanuts Finance offers a yield aggregation platform that enables users to earn returns by leveraging liquidity pools as well as long and short options strategies. The platform packages these strategies into structured products in the form of decentralized vaults where users can deposit their crypto funds. Thetanuts also plans to launch a buy-side altcoin options market powered by these decentralized options vaults.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 
 In April 2023, Thetanuts Finance 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18352">
 raised USD 17 million
 </a>
 in funding led by Polychain Capital, Hyperchain Capital, and Magnus Capital. The company earmarked the funding to support new partnerships with layer 1 and layer 2 networks, liquidity providers, blockchain foundations, market makers, and exchanges.
 
 
 
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Hubble Protocol is a Solana-based DeFi protocol that enables users to borrow and mint USDH, a native US dollar-denominated stablecoin. Users can deposit several assets on the platform and leverage up to 11x on their deposits. Hubble Protocol allows users to borrow at a one-time fee of 0.5% instead of a variable interest payment. The platform also incorporated Kamino Finance, a Solana-based liquidity aggregator, to enable users to use Kamino-based stablecoins as collateral.&nbsp;The protocol also operates as a DAO that is governed by holders of its native token, HBB. The token also enables users to earn yields from fee sharing, liquidations, and providing liquidity for the minting of USDH. In January 2024, the platform introduced a Dutch auction system for distributing fees to token holders.Funding and financials&nbsp;In September 2022, Hubble Protocol <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12919">raised USD 5 million</a> in a funding round led by Multicoin Capital to expand its employee base and invest in the development of its stablecoin.

Aave is an Ethereum-based, open-source, non-custodial protocol for users to take out loans and earn interest on deposits on a number of cryptocurrencies. The protocol creates ERC20-compliant tokens at a 1:1 ratio to supplied assets, and interest is immediately compounded to be redirected to any address. Additionally, Aave offers “flash loans,” which are trustless, uncollateralized loans where borrowing and repayment occur within the same transaction. The protocol operates as a DAO where holders of its native token AAVE can propose improvements, integrations, and partnerships on its governance forums to be voted on by other token holders on a majority basis. As of May 2022, Aave had USD 14.5 billion in total value locked (TVL).In July 2022, Aave proposed a new native, collateral backed stablecoin (pegged to the USD) named GHO, to its DAO. The proposal stated that GHO would be created by users, and backed by a “diversified set of crypto-assets chosen at the users’ discretion.” The protocol went on to <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15995">launch the third version of its platform </a>following a governance proposal in January 2023. Dubbed “Aave v3”, the upgrade aims to reduce user risk and improve capital efficiency when staking or borrowing correlated assets, such as stablecoins and liquid-staking derivatives via a “High Efficiency Mode”. The feature enables users to increase the highest borrowing power for correlated assets by leveraging larger amounts of assets, such as wstETH, and reduces gas costs across all functions by 20%-25%. In August 2024, Aave deployed Aave V3 on the Era mainnet, powered by the Ethereum scaling solution ZKsync.In November 2023, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24168">acquired Los Feliz Engineering, </a>the creators of Ethereum-based crypto wallet Family, for an undisclosed sum. With this acquisition, the company aimed to facilitate users entering the Web3 ecosystem.Key customers and partnershipsAave entered into a partnership with cryptocurrency service provider Fireblocks in July 2021 to launch a permissioned version of its platform called Aave Pro for institutional investors. Aave Pro assets include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Aave, and USD Coin, and its pools are segregated from Aave’s other deployments. The platform configures its v2 smart contracts to ensure that only “institutions, corporates, and FinTechs” that have been whitelisted through Fireblocks’ know-your-customer (KYC) verification can access it. Fireblocks was to also support the launch by implementing anti-money laundering (AML) and fraud controls.In September 2022, the company partnered with Pocket Network, a blockchain infrastructure provider, to let developers build their apps on the Aave protocol to access on-chain data from several blockchains.&nbsp;In September 2024, Aave<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/33252"> partnered with Sky</a> (formerly MakerDAO) to launch the “Sky Aave Force” initiative. The initiative featured key proposals such as integrating newly launched USDS and sUSDS stablecoins (native to Sky) on Aave’s V3 protocol, introducing an incentive program for sUSDS suppliers, and deploying a direct deposit module for USDS into the Aave Lido Market. Collectively, these initiatives enable users to earn yields on their sUSDS deposits from the revenues generated by Sky’s protocol and mint USDS directly on Aave without meeting the usual collateral requirements.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Bluefin offers a decentralized derivatives exchange built on the Sui network, which enables users to trade several crypto-based perpetual contracts. The platform also allows users to earn yields on their stablecoin holdings by lending liquidity to market makers.&nbsp;As of June 2024, Bluefin saw over USD 25 billion in trading volume and achieved monthly revenues exceeding USD 1 million. Moreover, during the same period, the company announced plans to provide users access to spot markets with liquidity aggregation services, as well as "Bluefin Pro," which will offer cross-margin trading and faster executions. Moreover, Bluefin, which operates as a DAO, announced plans to launch a native governance token named BLUE in July.Funding and financials&nbsp;In June 2024, Bluefin <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/30881">secured an undisclosed amount</a> in a strategic investment from Flow Traders to expand beyond perpetual trading and develop a decentralized financial ecosystem on the Sui network.&nbsp;

Based in Israel, StarkWare Industries provides infrastructure solutions that address the scalability issues of the Ethereum blockchain. The company offers two platforms: 1) StarkEx, a scaling engine for Ethereum, and 2) StarkNet, blockchain infrastructure for building decentralized applications. The company’s solutions work together to cut transaction costs by reducing the amount of information sent to the Ethereum blockchain. This results in faster transactions due to the reduction of blockchain congestion.This technology supports a number of use cases including NFT minting, derivative trading, automated market making, spot trading, payments, and DeFi pooling. As of May 2022, the platform was used to mint over 52 million NFTs. The company also planned to decentralize StarkWare but has not disclosed whether the process would involve a token.Funding and financialsIn May 2022, StarkWare Industries raised USD 100 million in Series D funding led by Greenoaks Capital and Coatue at a valuation of USD 8 billion. The company earmarked the funds for product and business development, engineering, and growing its peripheral ecosystem.

Balancer Labs offers an automated and non-custodial portfolio manager as well as a trading platform that acts as a liquidity provider and price sensor. The company targets three types of end-users—investors, traders, and developers.&nbsp;The protocol provides investors with access to portfolios that automatically generate yield (primarily in the form of the protocol’s native BAL token) and rebalance without needing to pay any fees. Traders can use the platform to access decentralized trades at optimal prices by pooling crowdsourced liquidity of over USD 1.1 billion from over 230,000 liquidity providers (as of April 2024) and using a “Smart Order Router” to find the best available price. Lastly, developers are able to use Balancer for programmable liquidity and to build custom token weights and swap fees as well as liquidity pools that can operate on any price curve. ‘Additionally, Balancer also planned to launch v3 of its protocol in Q2 2024. The update was to introduce a range of new features, pool types, and tooling.&nbsp;Funding and financialsIn May 2021, Balancer raised USD 24.3 million through an initial coin offering (ICO) of BAL. The round was led by Blockchain Capital, Fintech Collective, LongHash Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Continue Capital, and Kain Warwick. The funds were to be used to strengthen market presence as a core infrastructure provider.In July 2021, Balancer earmarked USD 10 million for the launch of support on the Layer-2 solution Polygon (formerly known as MATIC). This partnership will enable Balancer to further reduce Ethereum gas costs and enables its users to experiment with pools without risking higher trade fees.

dYdX is a decentralized exchange (governed by its native token DYDX) that offers perpetual, margin, and spot trading in a number of cryptocurrency markets via Ethereum smart contracts.&nbsp; In August 2021, dYdX reportedly became the first perpetual decentralized exchange protocol to implement a layer-2 solution to allow traders to deposit funds and trade instantly without paying gas fees for every transaction. This was achieved through a strategic partnership with StarkWare, a blockchain scalability solutions provider. As of June 2024, the exchange had over USD 142.7 million in open interest.&nbsp;In May 2022, dYdX launched a mobile app of its platform on the Apple app store (which had over 200,000 people already signed up for the beta version of the platform ahead of the full launch). In June 2022, dYdX <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11264?industryIds=64">announced that it would be moving away from Ethereum </a>to its own blockchain on the Cosmos Network. The migration, dubbed “V4” aims at fully decentralizing the protocol. dYdX leveraged the Cosmos software development kit (SDK) to decide the parameters of its own chain and create new tools such as an in-memory off-chain order book as well as a matching engine.In June 2021, the exchange raised USD 65 million in a Series C led by Paradigm. It also received direct support from Kronos Research, MGNR, Menai Financial Group, QCP Capital, CMS Holdings, CMT Digital, Sixtant, and Finlink Capital as liquidity providers.

A decentralized version of the web powered by the blockchain

Web3 Ecosystem

P0x Labs is the developer behind the Mantra Network, a modular ecosystem for zero knowledge (zk) applications. The network consists of Manta Atlantic and Manta Pacific.Manta Atlantic is a layer-1 blockchain powered by zk technology and a parachain that connects to the <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/528487">Polkadot </a>network. It offers programmable privacy to Web3 applications and Manta Pacific and uses proof keys, which allow users to access and prove their identities in a private and trustless manner even without connecting a wallet address.Manta Pacific is an EVM-native layer-2 (L2) scaling platform for zero-knowledge (zk) applications. It supports different use cases including DeFi, infrastructure, bridging, social, and gaming. The L2 also utilizes Celestia’s data availability layer for security and low gas fees, as well as the modified OP Stack through Caldera for scalability.Funding and financialsIn July 2023, P0x raised <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/20275">USD 25 million in a Series A </a>funding round at a valuation of USD 500 million. The round was co-led by Polychain Capital and Qiming Venture Partners. The company aimed to use the fresh funds to help scale the network, user base, and use cases for Manta Pacific and fuel its expansion in key Asian markets.

Mina Protocol is an open-source layer-1 blockchain launched in March 2021 by ​​O(1) Labs. Mina uses recursive Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge (zk-SNARKs) and advanced cryptography in its architecture, which allows the blockchain to maintain a consistent size of 22 kB regardless of the number of transactions carried out. As a result, the nodes across the blockchain are required to store only a small part of the blockchain instead of the entire database. Mina’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, combined with the underlying architecture, reduces the resources required to process and validate transactions, reducing the barrier to entry in order to become a validator. The platform’s native token, MINA, can be used to transact and participate in the blockchain.Mina also enables the easy programmability and implementation of zero-knowledge smart contracts (zkApps), which provide a range of benefits such as preserving user privacy, the ability to execute unlimited off-chain computations at a flat fee, and connecting Web2 websites to Web3. The blockchain also enables zkApps to be accessed by other chains and devices such as a smartphone.Key customers and partnershipsMina partnered with Celestia to integrate Celestia's modular Data Availability layer with Mina Protocol to improve the functionality and performance of zkApps built on Mina. This integration offers a programmable component within Mina's existing developer toolkit to enable higher throughput.Funding and financialsIn March 2022, Mina raised USD 92 million in an initial coin offering co-led by FTX Ventures and Three Arrows Capital. The company aimed to use fresh funds to attract developers to the Mina blockchain.

Ava Labs develops the open-source layer-1 blockchain, Avalanche. The Avalanche network architecture contains three separate blockchains in order to address the decentralization, security, and scalability limitations of blockchains. These include 1) the Exchange Chain (X-Chain), which is the default blockchain on which assets are created and exchanged and also includes Avalanche’s native token–AVAX; 2) the Contract Chain (C-Chain)—which is based on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)—allows for the creation and execution of smart contracts with cross-chain interoperability; and 3) the Platform Chain (P-Chain), which coordinates validators and enables the creation and management of subnets (a sovereign network that defines its own rules for membership and tokenomic). Avalanche uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and is able to execute 4,500 transactions per second. As of December 2022, ~1,000 projects were built on Avalanche, including DeFi projects like Tether, SushiSwap, Chainlink, and Circle. As of the same date, the network processed on average two million daily transactions and was secured by more than 1,200 validators.Ava Labs launched Core, a dedicated non-custodial crypto wallet for AVAX as a browser extension, through which users are able to browse dApps on the Avalanche blockchain. In April 2023, the company announced plans to launch “ <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17583">Evergreen Subnets </a>,” a suite of blockchain deployments, tooling, and customization services specifically designed for financial institutions to run their own private, permissioned chains with approved parties. In addition, financial institutions will be able to communicate and transfer data with other subnets through Avalanche’s native communication protocol Avalanche Warp Messaging (AWM) without relying on any third parties. It also launched <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18842">AvaCloud </a>in May 2023, a no-code Web3 launchpad that assists businesses in building fully managed blockchain ecosystems. AvaCloud consists of four main components: an automated blockchain builder, managed validators, comprehensive data tools, and chain interoperability within Avalanche subnets.Key customers and partnershipAvalanche has partnered with several cloud services providers to improve its network such as <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15079">Alibaba Cloud </a>(December 2022) to improve its infrastructure and support for its validators. Users of the Avalanche blockchain can launch new validator nodes using Alibaba Cloud’s plug-and-play infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), while dApp developers can use the latter’s storage and computing resources for the efficient running of their dApps. It also collaborated with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15640?industryIds=144">AWS </a>(January 2022) to scale and improve blockchain adoption and support its dApp ecosystem, while also enabling one-click node deployments through the AWS marketplace.

Based in Israel, StarkWare Industries provides infrastructure solutions that address the scalability issues of the Ethereum blockchain via two platforms–StarkEx and StarkNet. These platforms use STARK (Scalable Transparent Arguments of Knowledge) proof technology and support a number of use cases including NFT minting, contract trading, automated market making, spot trading, payments, and DeFi pooling.StarkEx is a customizable app-specific scaling engine run on a cloud. It is a compression service that bundles and validates transactions with a cryptographic computation, which is sent in a STARK proof to the Ethereum blockchain for finality.StarkNet, launched in February 2022, is a permissionless decentralized ZK-rollup solution that works on top of the Ethereum blockchain. It allows developers to scale dApps by bundling transactions and producing STARK proofs off-chain and verifying the proofs on-chain in Ethereum. The company also reported that StarkEx dApps can migrate to StarkNet if developers choose to.Key customers and partnershipsThe company partnered with Herodotus to launch <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/26480">Cairo Verifier </a>, a system that enables the verification of cryptographic proofs on its layer-2 network, StarkNet. Additionally, they collaborated to develop <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/29348">Integrity Verifier </a>, a tool that will allow StarkNet to support layer-3 app chains, thereby enhancing its scalability and reducing transaction costs. StarkWare also partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/786111">Polygon </a>to develop and implement a new cryptographic proof system called <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/26924">Circle STARKs </a>, aimed at improving the rollup proving process on Ethereum.Funding and financialsStarkWare Industries raised USD 100 million in Series D funding in May 2022, co-led by Greenoaks Capital and Coatue, at a valuation of USD 8 billion. The company aimed to utilize the fresh funds for product and business development, engineering, and to grow its ecosystem.

NEAR Protocol is an open-source layer-1 blockchain launched in October 2020. The blockchain uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to validate transactions. Its native token is NEAR, which can be used to pay for transactions and storage on the blockchain, while also allowing token holders to participate in the platform’s governance process. In August 2024, NEAR launched a significant upgrade called "<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32890">Nightshade 2.0</a>" to enhance scalability and usability. This update is a major step in integrating sharding into NEAR's core architecture, which divides the blockchain into smaller segments, allowing the network to process more transactions at a lower cost. Validators no longer need to store shard states locally; instead, they retrieve "state witnesses" from the network to validate changes. This improves shard performance and boosts the network’s ability to support more shards.NEAR allows users to sign up for a wallet (account) using unique human-readable names (e.g., johndoe.near, in comparison to cryptographic and randomly generated private keys, which is a characteristic of chains such as Ethereum), which in turn enables easy sign-ins for dApps for users and improves the overall usability of the blockchain. The platform also allows developers to prepay gas fees for first-time users, allowing the latter to interact with a dApp for free. NEAR also offers the Rainbow Bridge, which allows users to transfer ERC-20 and NEAR tokens or any other digital asset between the Ethereum and NEAR blockchain. In addition, the platform provides tools such as SDKs, CLIs, and APIs for developers to create dApps on its blockchain. In addition, NEAR allocates 30% of the transaction fees to developers to encourage them to build applications on its platform, with the remainder being burnt.The protocol also incorporates <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32771">Chain Signatures</a>, a technology that allows smart contracts to sign transactions across multiple blockchains without relying on cross-chain bridges. This aims to simplify multichain dApp development by reducing the need for multiple wallets and manual bridging, as well as enhancing user experience and increasing asset liquidity and utility across blockchains.As of July 2022, NEAR had 100 validators on its blockchain, which it expected to increase in proportion to the number of transactions. The platform uses an auction system to select and determine the seat price for its validators every epoch (time interval of 12 hours). The platform claims to be able to scale infinitely by adding more validators owing to its underlying architecture.Key customers and partnershipsIn June 2021, NEAR joined ICON’s Blockchain Transmission Protocol (BTP), which seeks to improve cross-chain communication. The partnership allowed data to be transferred between the NEAR blockchain and other BTP partners such as Polkadot and Harmon. Moreover, NEAR partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/23393">Nym Technologies </a>to integrate end-to-end encryption and privacy safeguards into the NEAR blockchain ecosystem.In addition, NEAR partnered with Ardana, a stablecoin and decentralized exchange (DEX) liquidity pool built on the Cardano blockchain in November 2021, to build a bridge to support integrations and token transfers between the NEAR and Cardano blockchains. It had also planned to enable cross-chain smart contract functionality and allow the NEAR token to be used as collateral on Ardana to mint stablecoins in the future.

A foundational component to the next generation of digital entertainment.

Esports

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 Spun out from HBO’s Interactive and Immersive Group in April 2020, the company (also known as Shrapnel) is developing its triple-A title using blockchain technology. Shrapnel is run by a group of industry veterans from leading game companies including Xbox and Electronic Arts. The company intends to make Shrapnel suitable for competitive gameplay coupled with community creator tools to encourage shared gaming experiences.
 
 
 Neon Media raised USD 7 million via a private token sale. Investors including Dragonfly, Defiance, and Three Arrows Capital participated in the sale. This follows a USD 10.5 million seed funding round in late 2021. The new funding was earmarked for the development of its debut title Shrapnel, a triple-A first-person shooter game. Since its previous funding round, the team has grown to 30 from seven and it continues to scout for new hires. 
 
 
 
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Cryptocurrencies

Worldcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency project that aims to create a global digital identity and financial network. Its key offering is World ID, a privacy-focused decentralized identity protocol that utilizes iris scans to verify an individual's "personhood" and uniqueness through a mechanism called Proof of Personhood (PoP). The technology employs custom hardware called the Orb, which captures iris scans to generate a unique iris code for each user without storing any biometric data. Upon successful verification, individuals receive Worldcoin tokens (WLD), the native cryptocurrency of the Worldcoin network.
The Worldcoin project was co-founded in 2020 by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, alongside Alex Blania and Max Novendstern. The goal was to distribute a new cryptocurrency evenly to every person on the planet, fostering financial inclusion and facilitating applications like universal basic income (UBI). As of July 2023, Worldcoin had amassed over 2.1 million verified users across 35 countries through its Orb network.
Worldcoin's business model involves providing World ID as a secure and verifiable digital identity solution for various online services and applications, addressing challenges like bot armies and fraud in the age of AI. The company has pivoted to position WLD as a governance token for a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that manages the World ID platform.

Laevitas is a data analytics platform based on quantitative finance models for the crypto-asset market. The company aims to provide analysis by implementing mathematical models on data from a variety of crypto-asset derivatives markets

Orderly Network is a permissionless, decentralized exchange protocol built on NEAR. Founded in April 2022 with the mission to create the most robust liquidity layer infrastructure for any dApp to utilize and build on, Orderly Network offers market-leading execution with low latency, minimal fees, and access to ample liquidity options.

Size develops a virtual auction marketplace designed for users to participate in sealed-bid auctions for vested or unvested tokens. The platform allows for the participation of users in sealed bid auctions for unvested and vested tokens. Top 250k Enrichment Emp Range Freshness 2024 - Not Found

Branch Technologies was founded in 2020 under the visionary leadership of our esteemed CEO, Dayton Mills. Our sole purpose is to explore and develop groundbreaking ideas that seamlessly merge the worlds of social apps and gaming, redefining the very fabric of interactive entertainment. We invest in people who have surmounted many obstacles yet remain steadfast with an unwavering determination to cultivate the remarkable and enduring. Our culture of relentlessly pursuing excellence has earned us a globally recognized reputation as innovators at the forefront of gaming.

Bastion is a lending and exchange protocol built on Aurora, the Ethereum-compatible layer of the Near blockchain. Bastion builds an autonomous interest-rate engine with high-quality capital efficiency, quick transactions, low transaction fees, accurate liquidations, and leverages NEAR's underlying UX benefits. Users can deposit assets into the Bastion liquidity pool, and the protocol will generate collateral tokens. These cTokens earn interest based on the underlying asset value and can be used as loan collateral in the future.

Civitas is a Play & Earn community-driven 4X strategy game.

Neon Media produces realtime sets for virtual productions.

Crypto Raiders is a highly-interactive dungeon crawler game built on the blockchain. Players have the ability to buy characters and mobs, go on missions, build teams in a virtual universe all while discovering NFTs they then own. Crypto Raiders is built on the Polygon blockchain, and all NFT loot is randomized, ensuring that the value of all discovered loot is random as well.

zkLend is an L2 money-market protocol built on StarkNet, combining zk-rollup scalability, superior transaction speed, and cost-savings with Ethereum’s security.

Ultiverse is an AI-powered gaming platform that allows gamers to participate in multiplayer gaming battles against other players. It platform helps users to create their characters and also offers a way to redeem the nonfungible tokens for real-life replicas and deliverables on request.

Mina is building a privacy-preserving gateway between the real world and crypto — and the infrastructure for the secure, democratic future we all deserve.

Praxis is a membership-based platform aiming to build an autonomous city. Cities needed to be built around a source of economic opportunity to attract businesses that would create jobs and entice people to relocate. The platform enables people to live healthier, more purposeful lives. Praxis was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in New York.

Thetanuts Finance's DeFi structured products and its customizable vaults are the future of generating yield. The platform is designed to provide treasury management for DAOs, as well as help retail traders earn yield on their tokens. Thetanuts' vaults simplify the process of options trading, making previously complex instruments easy for any investor to access, empowering users to monetize volatility in a risk-adjusted manner.

LFG is dedicated to supporting a vibrant community of blockchain innovators committed to developing a decentralized global economy.

SO-COL is a platform where creators and fans can connect like never before. They are the bridge between web2 social channels and the shiny new web3. But better. And easier.

Dropp GG is a social NFT minting platform that aims to bring the metaverse into the real world. Dropp Land is a metaverse where NFT tokens for virtual land plots have counterparts in the physical world. Dropp GG is integrated with Dropp 3D, an augmented reality feature that bridges virtual and physical experiences.

Rebase develops a lifestyle application that enables users to explore, collect, and redeem exclusive digital rewards in real life.

Cyber is a metaverse company that lets artists and collectors construct and sell their 3D virtual showrooms for non-fungible tokens(NFTs). The company was founded in 2021 and is based in New York, USA.

Stader Labs is building decentralized financial protocols and applications for efficient stake management on public blockchain networks. It aims to be the distribution layer of staking while building protocols and products which enhance the security, decentralization, liquidity, governance of some of the major DPoS blockchain networks like Ethereum, Terra, Polygon, and Solana.

NEAR  is decentralized storage and compute platform that is secure enough to manage high-value assets like money or identity. NEAR is a scalable smart contract platform that supports decentralized applications of almost any kind. Leverage an ecosystem of components backed by cutting edge technology. NEAR was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in California.

Multichain is a cross-chain router protocol (CRP) providing a mature real-time CRP system.

Gear is a technology company actively contributing to the development of the Gear Protocol.  The protocol, supported by the Gear Foundation, unlocks remarkable Web3 capabilities while ensuring a user experience similar to Web2. It introduces improved speed, security, and automation, bringing significant advancements to smart contract development.

Hubble is a decentralized financial protocol that allows for long-term borrowing, lending, and structured products.

Platypus Finance is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that offers a new mechanism for Automatic Market Makers (AMM) for stablecoins to optimize capital efficiency.

Solice is a virtual reality and cross-platform PC game inspired by decentraland and the sandbox.

MeanFi provides a service that automates payment and banking workflows and allows for flexible payment schedules.

Avocado Guild (AG) is an NFT-based play-to-earn blockchain gaming company.

Imperium Empires builds an AAA-quality metaverse with an experienced team of in-house game developers, game designers

Pstake is a platform that stakes your assets safely to receive staking rewards and pegged staked representative tokens that can be utilized in DeFi.

Neon Labs builds innovative blockchain products.

WOO Network is a trading platform provider that aims to provide above-average liquidity for spot and futures trading while charging zero or negative trading fees. The company's platform connects traders, exchanges, institutions, and Defi platforms, democratizing access to liquidity and trading execution

Jet Protocol Holdings offers a borrowing agreement focusing on innovative loan products and cross-chain interest rate arbitrage, allowing users to simplify borrowing and lending transactions.

Nyan Heroes is an immersive NFT based shooter of futuristic revolutions, cats in robots, evil corporations.

World connects users through a privacy-focused network with secure digital asset management. The company is a privacy-focused human network incorporating a financial system to enhance global connectivity and trust. The World App allows users to securely store a World ID, manage digital assets, and easily access various Mini Apps.

Orca is a decentralized crypto exchange based on the Solana blockchain.

AVA Labs makes it simple to launch finance applications using blockchain technology–with highly scalable and efficient networks, customizable public and private blockchains, the capability to create any digital asset, and more. We are empowering people to build an open, simple, and democratic internet of finance.

Shipyard Software is building a fleet of exchanges and DeFi tools to suit every crypto trader. Our first flagship product, Clipper DEX, is specifically tailored for retail traders and is designed to offer the best prices for crypto trades valued at <$50k. Shipyard’s latest product, Longship, is a derivatives DEX that prevents toxic order flow while giving savvy traders access to DeFi-native perpetual contracts with up to 100x leverage. Shipyard’s products occupy a broader DeFi ecosystem governed by AdmiralDAO, a vanguard of builders working to level the playing field of global exchange by creating free and fair markets. The company was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

dYdX is a leading decentralized exchange built by developers on a mission to build open, secure, and powerful financial products. dYdX runs on audited smart contracts on Ethereum, which eliminates the need to trust a central exchange while trading. We combine the security and transparency of a decentralized exchange, with the speed and usability of a centralized exchange. Founded back in 2017 from ex-Coinbase and Uber engineer, Antonio Juliano, dYdX is a leading decentralized exchange offering Perpetual, Margin, & Spot trading, as well as borrow / lend pools on Ethereum. Users can earn interest or take loans for a nominal fee as well as trade on margin with custom leverage. Trade your crypto, the safe and secure way, with dYdX

Lido middleware is open-source software that extends the functionality of Ethereum network block validation. The middleware is deployed on the Ethereum blockchain and running in perpetuity. It is publicly accessible through multiple interfaces and channels.

Gro builds products, called protocols or autonomous programs, for a more simple and friendly DeFi experience. Gro empowers people to easily create and share wealth, by combining the best of decentralized and legacy finance.

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.

Volmex. Finance is the creator of the volmex index-linked products, the BVIV Index, and the EVIV Index. They were supported by top cryptocurrency investors and dealers. Their volmex indices are the market's fear gauge, and EVIV and BVIV capture not only important information about the current market state.

Bluefin is an orderbook-based derivatives exchange that uses the most innovative decentralized infrastructure to support both first-time users and professional traders. Bluefin is backed by Polychain Capital, Susquehanna, Cumberland DRW, Brevan Howard Digital, Alliance and other leading investors.

Balancer Labs is a non-custodial portfolio manager, liquidity provider, and price sensor.

Poolin is a multi-cryptocurrency mining pool.  We currently mine: Bitcoin Litecoin Zcash BitcoinCash BitcoinSV Dash Monero Dogecoin Vcash Namecoin

Manta Network is building a secure and interoperable future with Zero-Knowledge.

P0x labs is the team behind Manta Network is a privacy-preserving technology operating on the Polkadot blockchain.

Founded in 2017, o1Labs is a blockchain technology company with a core focus on zero knowledge (zk) and other forms of novel cryptography. Their notable achievements include the incubation of the Mina Protocol, the world’s first zk blockchain that is lightweight, scalable, and decentralized, and the creation of o1js, a powerful and intuitive framework for zk application developers. o1Labs’ vision is to catalyze a new generation of applications powered by zero knowledge cryptography.

DODO is a liquidity protocol powered by the Proactive Market Maker (PMM) algorithm and built for capital efficiency. DODO offers a low barrier-to-entry, pain-free token issuance mechanic for long-tail assets.

Perpetual Protocol is a decentralized perpetual contract trading protocol for every asset.

KeeperDAO provides an efficient mechanism for large scale arbitrage and liquidation trades on all DeFi protocols. KeeperDAO can be used for capturing any on-chain opportunity on Ethereum. This could be liquidating a position in Compound or dYdX, taking over a Maker CDP, rebalancing a SET basket, or taking advantage of arbitrage between Kyber and Uniswap. By joining KeeperDAO, both Keepers and LPs benefit from economies of scale. LPs benefit from shared capital and profit, and Keepers benefit from incentivized collaboration (and hence reduced competition)

DerivaDEX is a community-governed derivatives exchange that unites performance and autonomy with the security of a decentralized exchange. It's a community-owned exchange with a (sane) liquidity-mining token model that puts users in control. Its native DerivaDEX token (DDX) allows users to participate in the exchange's governance and operations. DerivaDEX will be a next-generation exchange by leveraging trusted hardware and gaining decentralization on the base layer.

Aave (from the Finnish word for ''ghost'') is an open source non-custodial protocol on Ethereum for decentralized lending and borrowing. For lenders, the protocol mints ERC20-compliant aTokens at a 1:1 ratio to supplied assets. Interest immediately starts compounding continuously, represented by a steady increase in the amount of aTokens held by the lender. This interest stream may be redirected to any address, separate from the aTokens that represent the underlying principal. Aave offers flash loans: trustless, uncollateralized loans where borrowing and repayment must occur in the same transaction. Aimed at developers, this feature could lead to innovative uses of DeFi.

BlockFi is a secured non-bank lender that offers USD loans to crypto-asset owners who collateralize the loan with their crypto-assets. Their products bring additional liquidity to the blockchain asset sector and meet the needs of both individuals and institutions holding blockchain assets. BlockFi holds clients' Bitcoin and Ether with a registered custodian and issues loans in USD to their bank accounts. Currently operating in beta launch, lending in 35 US states to retail investors and companies. BlockFi’s mission is to provide liquidity, transparency, and efficiency to digital financial markets by creating products that meet the needs of consumers and corporations across the globe. They leverage a sophisticated infrastructure that integrates with multiple blockchains, they plan to expand their product set based on their retail and institutional client's needs.

Three Arrows Capital is a hedge fund manager that provides risk-adjusted returns. The firm was established in 2012 by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies and is headquartered in Singapore, Central Region, Singapore.

Three Arrows Capital (3AC) was a Singapore-based cryptocurrency hedge fund that managed approximately USD 10 billion in assets at its peak in 2022. The firm, founded by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, focused on digital asset investments and trading strategies within the crypto market. 3AC's operations involved a complex network of entities registered in various jurisdictions, including Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, and Delaware, US. The company's business model centered on high-risk trading strategies in the volatile cryptocurrency market. However, in June 2022, 3AC faced significant liquidations of around USD 400 million due to a sharp downturn in crypto markets, leading to its inability to meet creditor obligations. As a result, the firm filed for bankruptcy in July 2022, with estimated creditor claims totaling about USD 3.3 billion. The collapse of 3AC had far-reaching consequences, triggering a series of bankruptcies across the crypto sector due to its extensive list of counterparties.

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