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- Polygon Spinoff Avail Secures $27M in Seed Funding
Polygon Spinoff Avail Secures $27M in Seed Funding
Ben Ornstein
February 26, 2024
Hi NoRamp Community,
Proof of Work Podcast:
Last week, NoRamp chatted with Mike Seckler, CEO of Justworks, and Maite Diez-Canedo, Co-Founder of Via. Justworks recently acquired Via to form Justworks International.
We talk on how the idea for Via came to be, Justworks’ amazing synergistic exercise while considering acquiring Via, the future of the HR industry, and much more. Mike and Maite are incredible entrepreneurs and there’s a lot to learn from both of them. Check out our conversation:
Daily News:
1) Eigen Labs Raises $100M From A16z Crypto
2) Polygon Spinoff Avail Secures $27M in Seed Funding
3) Wrangler Launches NFC-Tagged Archival Pieces & Connected Content Hub
4) Pyth Network Launches Real-Time Market Data on Hedera
5) Xalts Acquires Contour to Accelerate Digitization in Supply Chain Finance
Eigen Labs Raises $100M From A16z Crypto:
Eigen Labs, the developer behind the Ethereum restaking project EigenLayer, has raised $100 million from venture capital investor a16z crypto, signaling strong interest in the emerging trend of restaking in the decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape.
EigenLayer enables the repurposing of staked Ethereum tokens to secure additional networks and protocols, with its total value locked (TVL) soaring to nearly $8 billion and benefiting from new liquid restaking protocols like Ether.fi and Puffer, which simplify restaking for users and offer extra rewards.
Despite the hype around EigenLayer, some Ethereum developers, including co-founder Vitalik Buterin, have cautioned that its shared security model risks straining the Ethereum network, with the platform yet to launch its actively validated services (AVSs) that will power third-party network security.
Polygon Spinoff Avail Secures $27M in Seed Funding:
Avail, a Polygon spinoff, raised $27 million in seed funding led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Dragonfly, aiming to develop three key products within its platform: Data Availability (DA), Nexus, and Fusion, collectively known as the Avail Trinity, to accelerate the unification of Web3.
The funding will support Avail's vision to unify the Web3 space and address fragmentation, with a focus on a rollup-centric future for scaling blockchains, including both EVM and non-EVM rollups, with the goal of making deploying app-specific rollups as easy as deploying smart contracts.
Avail, which started as part of Polygon Labs and became an independent entity to focus on being a protocol-neutral, open-source, and community-driven initiative, is operational on a testnet and aims to secure additional funding before its mainnet launch, with the DA timeline projected for early Q2 and Nexus and Fusion Security releases planned for later.
Wrangler Launches NFC-Tagged Archival Pieces:
Wrangler collaborated with vintage clothing brand MNTGE to create a blockchain-integrated line of vintage Wrangler clothing, launched on February 22 for Wrangler NFT holders, featuring 60 pieces with phone-scannable NFC tags for traceability and access to exclusive brand content.
The collection, showcased at the February 22 Future Fashion Summit in Paris, was assembled in six weeks, with items thrifted from Parisian vintage stores and NFC tags linking to a customized web page detailing Wrangler's 77-year history and its connection to rodeo culture.
The initiative is part of Wrangler's Reborn program, launched in April 2022, focused on bringing old garments back to life and enriching customer experience through storytelling, with plans to add NFC chips to Reborn items over the next few years.
Source: Cointelegraph
Pyth Network Launches Real-Time Market Data on Hedera:
Pyth Network, a provider of real-time market data for blockchain applications, will launch more than 400 price feeds and Pyth benchmarks on the open-source, proof-of-stake public ledger Hedera, offering ultra-low-latency price updates across various asset classes.
The Pyth price feeds will feature a pull oracle design and a confidence interval feature, enabling Hedera users and developers to access the latest price updates and information about ongoing volatility and market dislocations.
HLiquity, a decentralized borrowing protocol on Hedera, will be the first application to integrate with Pyth data, using it to track the current prices of HBAR and Swiss francs to ensure overcollateralization. The Hedera Global Governing Council has also allocated 4.86 billion HBAR for further development and advanced decentralized governance, following over 33 billion real-world transactions on the network in 2023.
Source: Fintech Finance
Xalts Acquires Contour - Accelerate Supply Chain Finance Digitization:
FinTech platform Xalts has acquired Contour Network from a consortium of global banks to accelerate digitization in trade and supply chain finance, combining Xalts' expertise with Contour's network connecting global banks and businesses.
Contour Network, launched in 2017, has grown to include more than 22 banks and 100 global businesses using its digital trade finance solutions, with Xalts planning to leverage Contour's workflows and integrations to facilitate transactions within the network.
Xalts aims to create a "Plaid for Trade," expanding Contour's network to enable businesses to access digital solutions for trade and supply chain finance, with a focus on embedded solutions, blockchain, and tokenization, and support from investors like Accel and Citi Ventures.
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