Blockchain Insights — May 12th
Today is an expresso shot kind of morning for the blockchain industry. Only a few short hours into the start of the day and the industry is heating up. I’ll keep it short today. Here’s the rundown of what’s happening in the blockchain industry.
Brex has launched a new rewards program for customers allowing them to redeem in Bitcoin and Ether. Additionally, the company is looking closely at crypto exposure for itself. This is important to watch as both Visa & MasterCard continue aggressively investing and building in their respected ecosystems. Yet, Discover and American Express have sat quietly on the sidelines.
eBay will now be allowing the sale NFTs through its online marketplace. According to reports, the functionality will be rolling out in the coming months and stay focused on (at the moment) digital collectibles like trading cards, images, or video clips. Quick take, this is good for the industry’s growth however…the NFT marketplace category is starting to get a little crowded. The question will be can eBay make an impact over others or bring an improved user experience that others haven’t yet? We will see…
Christie’s auction house has sold nine CryptoPunk NFTs in a recent sale that netted around $17m.
Early today Ethereum reached a $500m market cap surpassing both Visa & JP Morgan.
We have new venture funds emerging. Yesterday, May 11th, the Bangkok-headquartered Brooker Group launched a $48m fund to invest in DApps & DeFi companies. Pantera Capital is said to be preparing a new $600m fund to invest in early-stage tokens, venture equity, and liquid tokens, a growing standard we’re seeing among new funds alike. Crypto exchange, Bitrue also announced a $50m fund to invest in blockchain & crypto companies.
Congratulations on recent funding 💸 to Brail-based Hashdex on closing $26m from Valor Capital Group, Coinbase Ventures, SoftBank, and others along with JennyDAO, a new decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) focused on fractionalized NFTs that closed $7m from Multicoin Capital and Mr. Beast.
That’s the quick rundown. As I said, an expresso shot. Have a great day!
