Sat 26/11

Good Morning. CoinDCX published proof of reserves and revealed its holdings, web3 gaming space is on the rise with fresh funding and decentralized shopping is here to stay. I know we all thought that the Shiba Inu (SHIB) coin was just a joke at some point but some of the major companies have it as their top holding. Who knew a dog could disrupt the blockchain?

• CoinSwitch launches CoinSwitch Pro, a multi-exchange trading platform for advanced crypto traders: The CoinSwitch Pro platform will allow users to view, select, check price differences, and trade in multiple tokens across exchanges. It will allow users to trade crypto assets in INR across multiple exchanges with a single login and charge users a transaction fee for trades executed on the platform depending on the crypto exchange. That way, CoinSwitch Pro will also allow users to buy tokens on one exchange and sell them on another. It is currently only open to crypto exchanges such as CoinDCX and WazirX but will likely add more exchanges at a later date.

• Binance CTO, Rohit Wad differs from his CEO and is optimistic about the Indian Web3 ecosystem: With the recent developments in the crypto world and India still being skeptical about creating laws that help crypto transactions, the CTO of Binance, Rohit Wad, has announced that India is the powerhouse of talent and will be contributing to the crypto world, both in terms of working professionals and start-ups. The Binance CTO also mentioned that they want to hire interns from premier institutes of the country, train them about the know-how of the industry and then motivate them to start their own bootstrapped web3 start-ups. Despite the heavy laws that deter the country's youth from trying their luck in web3 innovation, Wad is very optimistic about the youth and believes that change is very near. He also mentioned that the world should take lessons from India as the country still has a thriving population who invest and work in the Web3 environment of the country. This is in contrast to what Binance CEO said earlier about India not being a viable option for web3 space as of now.

• CoinDCX publishes proof of reserves: Sumit Gupta, the co-founder of CoinDCX, announced on Twitter that they released their Proof of Reserves in collaboration with Nansen, a portfolio tracker platform. CoinDCX plans to post monthly updates on its reserves-to-liability ratio. The exchange has maintained a user-liability to assets ratio greater than 1:1, Sumit Gupta, co-founder of CoinDCX, said in the statement. The CoinDCX portfolio, worth over $131 million, consists of 13% Bitcoin, around 12% Ethereum, and over 10% SHIB. SHIB, worth over $14 million, is the third-largest holding of the portfolio.

• CoinMarketCap introduces a Proof-of-Reserve tracker for crypto exchanges: In response to the increasing call for transparency, CoinMarketCap, the world’s most-referenced crypto price-tracking website, has launched a proof-of-reserve feature for centralized crypto exchanges. The new feature introduced by CoinMarketCap will give users updated financial insights on exchanges. The tracker will audit active crypto exchanges for transparency on liquidity at a given moment. According to CoinMarketCap, the tracker will update every five minutes. It will display info about an exchange’s total assets, affiliated public wallet addresses, address balances, as well as the current price and values of the wallets. CoinMarketCap took to Twitter to share its update on Binance, revealing over $65 billion on its public addresses. CoinMarketCap’s PoR information is also available for Bitfinex, ByBit, Crypto.com, Deribit, KuCoin, Huobi, and OKX.

• Uquid integrates Polygon to bring the best shopping experience in Web3: The integration will enable Uquid to power the best shopping experience thanks to Polygon’s scalability, speed, low fees, and robust developer ecosystem. Through the integration, Uquid will work with Polygon to build Uquid on Polygon’s proof-of-stake chain, and wallet and add MATIC as a payment method for 85 million products. In addition, Uquid users will be able to take advantage of Polygon’s full-stack scaling solution that allows them to minimize transaction fees while accessing smart shopping services offered by Uquid. Furthermore, this integration will support Uquid users to easily access various DApps on Polygon. Launched in 2016, Uquid pioneer in applying decentralized finance and Web3 to e-commerce that aims to bring the best shop-to-earn experience to customers with verified merchants, exclusive deals, cashback and Payin3 with crypto

• Thirdverse raises $15M for Web3 and VR game studio: Thirdverse announced it has raised $15 million in capital through a third-party funding round so it can make Web3 and virtual reality games. Tokyo-based Thirdverse will use the money to strengthen its global recruitment of game creators and other professionals. And it will develop new Web3 and VR titles. Thirdverse’s total list of investors includes 8DAO, B Dash Ventures, Double Jump.tokyo, Fenbushi Capital, Flick Shot, Holdem Capital, Kusabi, MZ Web3 fund, OKCoinJapan, Yield Guild Games, and OKX Ventures. The company plans to release more than 10 Web3 games through 2023 and is currently recruiting more game developers to expand the development line.

• ApeCoin DAO Launches Community-Driven NFT Marketplace: ApeCoin DAO, a community-led governing body made up of ApeCoin holders, has launched its own white-label non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. ApeCoin, the Ethereum-based governance and utility token used within the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)-linked APE ecosystem, launched in March. Built by non-fungible token (NFT) infrastructure company Snag Solutions, the new community marketplace lists for-sale NFTs from Yuga Labs-owned NFT collections like BAYC, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) and Otherdeed for Otherside. Zach Heerwagen, CEO of Snag Solutions, said the platform offers “unique features built specifically for the BAYC and Otherside communities, including ApeCoin staking and NFT metadata integrations.”

Web3 Investment Analyst/Associate at Antler

What are Decentralized Apps (Dapps)?:  Dapps are decentralized apps. They are like normal apps and offer similar functions, but the key difference is that they are run on a peer-to-peer network, such as a blockchain, using smart contracts. As dapps are decentralized, they can’t be controlled by a single person or entity.

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