MicroStrategy has bought another 467 BTC since June 30. And at the end of July, it owned 152,800 Bitcoins

Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy may raise up to $750 million by selling its shares to three companies. And the proceeds may be used, among other things, to buy Bitcoins. And this is what the company said in a statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on August 1.

“As with previous programs, we may use the proceeds for general corporate purposes. And which include the purchase of bitcoins and the repurchase or repayment of our outstanding debt,” the company clarified.

MicroStrategy bought another $361.4 million worth of Bitcoins in the second quarter of 2023. And what was the largest coin purchase by the company since the cryptocurrency’s price peak in late 2021. Since June 30, the company has purchased an additional 467 coins. This brings the total value of Bitcoins held by the company to about $4.53 billion. As of July 31, the company owned 152,800 BTC.

Our experts note that the company purchased between April 29 and June 27 at an average price of about $28,136 per 1 BTC. Additionally, another 12,333 bitcoins for a total of $347 million.
This purchase brings the total number of Bitcoins held by the company to 152,333 BTC, which is approximately $4.6 billion at the exchange rate at the time of publication. The company paid a total of about $4.52 billion for these bitcoins, with an average purchase price of about $29,668 per 1 BTC, including commissions and other expenses.

Today, let’s consider the idea of investing in four altcoins. Each of the presented options has a fairly high capitalization.

And volatile technical model and are real active projects. The assets are also traded on large centralized exchanges. So why invest in altcoins. And not to buy Bitcoin  or ETH? There are quite a lot of reasons, let’s highlight the main ones:

• Moving away from the classic concept of buying market leaders;
• Achieving more meaningful financial results due to volatile asset models;
• Portfolio diversification;
• Striving to “beat the market” in terms of returns;
• Some altcoins are near historical lows, which increases the calculated mathematical expectation of the transaction.

All of the above points lead to one goal – to increase portfolio returns by acquiring volatile assets.

Filecoin (FIL)

30th place by market capitalization. Up to 40% of the crypto portfolio. In 2023, the price approached the $2.3 multi-year lows twice. Each test of the level resulted in creation of trend source – market maker’s position to buy. The source consolidation level is $4.3 and is equal to current prices. From a technical point of view, this is a great time to buy the asset.

After the breakdown of the $9 level, the price will move into the global growth phase with the aim of reaching the locked volume (market maker’s position to sell) – $24. And then to the range of $35 – $41.5, where it is necessary to close the position.

Thus, the trade would look as follows:

• Buying at current prices ($4.4)
• Take Profit (TP) $35 – $41.5
• Stop Loss (SL) $2.2
• Expectation up to x10

VEChain (VET)

38th place by capitalization. This is one of the altcoins that is suggested to buy up to 20% of a cryptocurrency portfolio.
This technical combination is the basis for the formation of a position in the asset with the main goal of reaching the locked volume of $0.076. Based on which, we can plan the trade as follows:

• Buying at current prices ($0.0186)
• TP $0.076
• SL $0.013
• Expectation x4

EOS (EOS)

52nd place in Crypto Market Capitalization. This is one of the altcoins that is suggested to buy up to 20% of a cryptocurrency portfolio.
The technical picture of the asset differs from the previous ones. Mainly by the fact that the source of the trend is just forming in the market. And as a consequence, it is possible to form a position at the beginning of a growing cycle.

It is possible to enter the deal both at current prices ($0.744). And in case of decrease to the level of $0.69. It is also possible to consider a combined option – to enter the deal at current prices. And on the part of the capital allocated for this asset, and after the decrease to gain on the rest. Thus, it will be possible to utilize all allocated funds for this asset. And form a position with a low average purchase price.

After exceeding the level of $0.832, the source will be considered fixed. And the asset will move into the growth phase with the targets of $1.36, $2.75, $5.

The trade will be as follows:

• Buy at current prices
• Extra at the decrease to $0.69
• TP $1.36, $2.75, $5
• SL $0.48
• Expectation up to x6.7

Dash (DASH)

93rd place in capitalization. This is one of the altcoins that is suggested to buy up to 20% of a cryptocurrency portfolio.
At the moment, a trend source is being created. At this stage, a position with a low average purchase price can be formed.

Transaction structure:

• Purchases at current $31
• Additional at the decrease to $28.6.
• TP: $68, $126, $215
• SL: $20

Disclaimer:

Crypto-Upvotes does not provide investment advice. This material is for information purposes only. Cryptocurrency is a volatile asset that can lead to financial losses.

Our experts talk about the new trend in the crypto market and the associated risks of trading through Telegram bots

Trading bots in the Telegram messenger have quickly gained popularity among cryptocurrency traders. And those who prefer trading assets on decentralized exchanges (DEX). They are easier to use for quick and more precise trades. And skipping not the most user-friendly interface of blockchain-based trading platforms. However, the convenience of bots comes at the cost of trusting such bots with access to investors’ wallets.

Based on predetermined rules, having received a message, bots can recognize trading commands. And interpret them and then promptly execute trades on decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap. When first launched, the bot creates a wallet for the user. And providing him with access keys, after which funds need to be deposited into that wallet to start trading.

Bots also give a set of useful tools such as limit orders. And copy-trading (automatic copying of trades of given addresses) and so-called token sniping – tracking the appearance of new tokens on the Ethereum blockchain with automatic purchase. The bots have their own tokens, and rising prices are creating a speculative frenzy around them.

Unibot, launched in May this year, is considered the obvious leader in terms of the number of users and trading volumes

Its own token, UNIBOT, rose in value by more than 50% over the past week. And since its launch, it has increased in value almost 50 times. The demand for the token is supported by the fact that it must be held to pay trading commissions. However, 40% of these commissions are returned to users and are distributed proportionally to the number of tokens held by all owners.

The daily trading volume of the UNIBOT token at the time of publication exceeds $10.5 million, according to the aggregator CoinGecko. The site has a separate section for tokens of Telegram bots. And their list already numbers in the dozens – the developers are obviously trying to repeat the success of the pioneer and capitalize on the new market narrative.

Other popular bots include Swipe, WagieBot, Bolt and others. According to Dune Analytics, since May, more than 63,000 users have made transactions totaling about $193.7 million using bots, with Unibot accounting for the vast majority of the transactions. And more than $1 million in commission refunds have been distributed to bot token holders.

When making transactions on decentralized exchanges, users have to constantly log into their wallet. And check the correctness of information about tokens and face high commissions. At the same time, they still have full control over their own assets and do not need to entrust their wallet keys to a third party.

The appeal of trading bots is likely due to their ease of use compared to platforms. And which run on smart contracts. That said, users are forced to trust the wallets. And which are created inside the bots, with the condition that the bots have full access to them.

Safety and risks of Telegram bots

Despite the surge in popularity of trading bots. Security experts are critical of their approach to user assets.

In a comment to The Block, former Microsoft security chief Christian Seifert calls the emergence of trading bots in Telegram a “scary development.” And at the same time referring to their closed source code and the need to share wallet keys with them. In his opinion, this can be more dangerous than transferring funds to dubious crypto exchanges or to the addresses of unverified smart contracts. “In the second case, at least you can limit the level of access to funds. With bots, you are essentially just trusting them with your funds and hoping they won’t misappropriate them,” the expert cautions.

Yajin Zhou, co-founder of BlockSec, a blockchain security company. Similarly expressed similar concerns about the growing trend of bots on Telegram in a comment to reporters. He also talks about possible risks associated with the transfer of tokens to third-party wallets created by applications.

The high speed and ease of use of bots often comes at the cost of reduced security.

When such services automatically create a wallet for the user. There is a risk associated with permanently storing private keys inside the bot. If there is a data leak or a hack, it can turn into a disaster for bot users. After all, the bot developers themselves, often anonymous, can misappropriate user funds.

When a bot creates a wallet, it essentially creates a cryptographic key pair. The public key represents the address for incoming funds. The private key, gives access to those funds. This is what could potentially be the primary target of attackers. And who can easily withdraw assets from the wallet if it is compromised. On the other hand, if a user loses the private key without a backup, they will lose access to their assets.

Since private keys for wallets are not generated by users themselves. And their security is not always guaranteed, and this opens the door to abuse. He confidently says that in the future, unscrupulous bot developers will steal users’ funds.

Our experts note that if we draw parallels with past periods of excitement around memcoins or DeFi-tokens promising quick profits. Most of them turned out to be outright fraudulent projects. And that “countless investors” suffered.

Cyber scammers have increased their use of hidden mining due to increased law enforcement activity and heavy regulation

Over the past 12 months, the number of hidden mining (cryptojacking) cases worldwide has increased by 399%. This is according to data from the SonicWall report.

Cybercriminals are increasingly resorting to remote hacking of servers. And cryptocurrency mining devices. Recent data suggests that cybercriminals have become more likely to use this method due to increased law enforcement activity and strict regulation.

Hidden mining, or cryptojacking, is a cybercrime involving the unauthorized use of someone else’s devices (computers, smartphones, tablets, or servers) to mine cryptocurrency. It is often conducted through vulnerabilities in mobile apps, web browsers and their permissions and remains unnoticed by the victim.

In the UK, cryptojacking incidents have increased by 479% since 2022. In the US, there were 214 million such attacks in 2023 alone. And that’s a 340% increase from the year before.

Our experts note that in June, Google Cloud launched a program to compensate customers for up to $1 million in losses from hidden mining. If an attacker bypasses the cloud service’s built-in defenses. Users with special subscriptions will be able to get compensation for their losses. A subscription to Security Command Center Premium includes specialized hidden mining detection capabilities built into the Google Cloud infrastructure. The service scans virtual machine memory for malware. It can also detect compromised identities. And which allow attackers to access cloud accounts and quickly inject malware.

In July, prices for CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club and other popular NFT collections fell by more than 60%. Our experts talk about the trends in the market. And the existing trading opportunities and its further prospects

In early July, the prices of the well-known and best capitalized collectible NFTs plummeted. And which are considered the blue chips of the NFT market. Collections such as CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) or Azuki fell in price by more than 60% in just one month. This is attributed to market trends. However, even a bearish period leaves traders with opportunities to make money.

BAYC, which is backed by Yuga Labs, saw its floor price fall below 30 ETH for the first time since October 2021. At the time of publication, the price has recovered to 32 ETH (about $60k). But it is still far below the historic high of $370 thousand in April 2022. The news that singer Justin Bieber bought BAYC image #3001 for $1.3 million (500 ETH at the exchange rate at the time of purchase) had fallen in price by more than 20 times by early July was widely circulated on the web.

The fall in the NFT market comes on the back of Bitcoin’s rise

So far, NFT prices have been falling systematically since the beginning of the year. And bitcoin kept going to new annual highs, and now its return for the year exceeds 80%. Most altcoins have also been rising in price, but less aggressively. This is evidenced by bitcoin’s growing dominance – for the first time since April 2021, the figure exceeded 50% of the total crypto market capitalization.

Along with the fall in prices on the NFT market, the volume of trading on the platforms significantly decreased. This indicator can be seen as a marker of interest in the market. And the low volume indicates a smaller number of participants. According to NFTGo data, over the month the total daily volume of NFT secondary trades fell by 55% from $22 million at the end of June to $10 million or lower.

Copyright royalties (royalties) from NFT creators have also hit a two-year low. According to a recent report from analytics platform Nansen, weekly royalty payments peaked at $76 million in April 2022. And by the end of June, they fell 95% to $3.8 million. Royalties are directly tied to trading volume – many NFT projects include a commission on secondary trades when creating collections. And that is paid to them in the form of royalties and serves as revenue.

In addition, the total volume of royalties fell as some trading platforms made them optional in order to attract traders. This was the case with the market leaders Blur, OpenSea, Magic Eden and LooksRare. Thus, the reduction in trading volumes and changes in the market structure led to a noticeable decrease in royalties as the main source of income for companies and teams behind NFT projects and art creators.

Whale Games

The fall in NFT prices and trading volumes is also attributed to the growing dominance of the Blur platform. It is initially oriented at more professional traders and speculators. But due to its scale, transactions on it inevitably affect the entire market. After the launch of its own token BLUR and its sensational airdrop in February this year. Blur has implemented a user reward program where traders receive tokens for placing orders and listing NFTs.

Traders on Blur with significant capital (“whales”) who can afford short-term losses sell large NFT positions en masse. And which they previously purchased and then buy them back again, gaining more tokens through more trades. This is called “farming” the tokens. Selling these tokens in the future is likely to compensate them for their losses.

Such activity increases selling pressure and collapses minimum prices in collections. It also provokes panic selling by smaller traders. And some of them in addition take loans for trading against NFT or other crypto-assets in specialized services. The combination of these factors leads to fewer and fewer new users entering the market. Alternatively, they act as the buyer of last resort.

However, there is a contrary view that token farming increases liquidity on the platform. Those traders who engage in it get an incentive to place more assets on it. And thus preventing an even greater collapse of prices on NFT.

The resulting farmed tokens are actively traded on exchanges – at the time of publication, the price of BLUR is near an all-time low of $0.30, according to CoinMarketCap. This is nearly 80% below the all-time high of $1.40 reached in late February.

NFT market prospects

Like the broader cryptocurrency market, the NFT market is likely to continue to exhibit cyclical price dynamics. As new projects emerge in the sector, bullish cycles occur. And leading to increased innovation and adoption of new technologies. This eventually leads to the emergence of lower quality projects. And then a market crash and the start of a new cycle.

The NFT sphere could, in theory, benefit from the gaming business. Blockchain gaming has become one of the popular destinations for venture capitalists in the Web3 segment. And investment in this sector is estimated at $10 billion. Many of these games involve using NFT to represent ownership of in-game assets or players’ digital avatars. However, developing truly high-quality, high-budget games can take several years. And so it’s not yet obvious which developers can take on this niche and carve out a leadership role in it.

The NFT market is no longer limited to marketplaces like OpenSea or Rarible, where you can release new NFTs or trade them with other users. There are credit services or platforms for trading derivatives on NFTs from large collections. And allowing you to speculate on NFTs without actually owning them.

Earning opportunities

For those who believe the bearish trends in NFT will continue, there is an opportunity to make money on a short position (on a “short”). And roughly the same as in the traditional or cryptocurrency markets. To do this, you can use credit platforms such as NFTfi, Arcade or the Blend service on the Blur platform. In order to “short” NFT, the trader first defines a collection. And whose value he believes will decline. Then he uses the lending platform to borrow NFTs, sells the asset at the current market price. And then re-buys it at a lower value, after which he closes the loan.

Because such platforms require lenders to actually own the underlying asset. So borrowers can only “short” NFTs from the largest and most liquid collections. Those who, conversely, believe in market growth can use these same platforms to borrow against their NFTs. And accumulating more assets and taking profits if the market goes into a bullish phase.

Platforms for trading perpetual futures for specific NFT collections. NFTPerp, for example, allow speculating on the floor prices of popular collections without the need to own the underlying assets. However, this is still a new market segment and the services are highly dependent on external data providers (aka oracles). And who can distort the data, which creates corresponding risks. In addition, as in the traditional market, there is margin call risk when trading NFT futures.

Music NFTs

Our experts note that in addition to collectible NFTs or blockchain games, there are NFT-related initiatives from big brands or, for example, music NFT platforms. In July, the market decline did not prevent the Sound service from raising $20 million from investors. And that includes Andreessen Horowitz’s largest crypto fund (a16z crypto). The platform allows you to trade musical compositions in the form of NFT. And musicians who place compositions on it have already collectively earned more than $5 million.

Our experts have told us what events. And market factors could lead to the beginning of a more noticeable change in the price of Bitcoin

Bitcoin (BTC) exchange rate has been in the range of $29-31 thousand since the end of June. And in case of short-term price changes, it quickly returns to its previous values.

According to Glassnode, a huge number of Bitcoins changed hands in the range of $30,400 to $31,100. Due to this, the Bitcoin price has formed strong resistance levels that will not be broken without significant fundamental triggers in the next few days.

The current period of consolidation of the cryptocurrency price is primarily due to the market’s expectation regarding the denouement of the Bitcoin-ETF story. And uncertainty about the US Federal Reserve policy and interest rates.

On the one hand, based on the 30-day federal funds rate data, there is a 99.8 percent probability of a rate hike. And what is traditionally a bearish signal for the market. On the other hand, analysts are expecting very soft rhetoric from Jerome Powell regarding further rate hikes. And there is a probability that he will announce the current rate hike as the last one in this cycle. In that case, we can expect a bull rally for Bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies.

Also, anytime before August 12, we may get news on the SEC’s decision on Bitcoin-ETF applications by BlackRock and other investment funds. If the applications are approved, Bitcoin could “fly” to $35-40k. But if they are rejected or returned for revision, the price will most likely return to the $27-28k levels.

BTC exchange rate seems to have frozen up

The main reason Bitcoin is stagnating is the lack of bullish momentum. To overcome the $32.5k mark and consolidate above it. Now Bitcoin lacks the inflow of institutional money. And this inflow is hindered by the lack of clear and precise regulation.

Bitcoin’s noticeable growth stopped at the end of June. And since then, the main cryptocurrency has been hovering around $30 thousand for a whole month. This was the case until recently, when several notable events occurred in the crypto market. First, Ripple won a partial victory in court against the SEC. Second, there was the collapse of the dollar in the global currency market. All this, of course, affected the growth of interest in Bitcoin.

Today it continues to trade at the same level, but in the near future it will begin a steady, albeit small growth. Some analysts make predictions based on the 200-day moving average indicator (MACD). And they forecast its reaching the value of $32 th. at the moment of halving. Our experts think that this is quite a balanced position. And it is unlikely that by the halving the indicator will exceed this value by more than 50%. At this point, our experts see a price opportunity between $40k and $50k (most likely $47k).

The Aave project has launched a GHO token with a peg to the dollar exchange rate. We tell you how it works and how it can help popularize the sphere of decentralized finance

The Aave lending platform eliminates traditional intermediaries such as banks. And the service runs on the Ethereum blockchain and uses software smart contracts to automate lending and borrowing operations. Aave was founded in 2017 by Stani Kulechov, a Finnish entrepreneur with a legal and financial background.

A user-friendly interface and a number of innovative functional solutions have made Aave one of the leading DeFi platforms. The protocol allows users to earn interest on their crypto assets. And by investing them in so-called liquidity pools. From these pools, borrowers get loans. They pay interest on the funds. And that is shared between the lending users and the platform itself. Interest rates depend on market conditions and are set on the basis of supply and demand.

To work with Aave it is enough to have a cryptocurrency wallet with the function of signing transactions, such as MetaMask, and cryptocurrency to deposit into the protocol. Once deposited, there is an immediate opportunity to either lend the funds. And at the same time receiving interest, or to borrow some assets against their collateral. Borrowers have access to many assets, including the cryptocurrencies bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). As well as the largest by capitalization stablecoins – Tether USD (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). Aave is now entering the territory of the latter, but is taking a slightly different approach.

Stablecoins linked to the dollar exchange rate are some of the most popular assets on Aave and other similar platforms

The most capitalized stablecoins are USDT and USDC, issued by Tether and Circle, respectively. Both coins are managed by centralized organizations. And which maintain reserves for their “stablecoins” in fiat currencies, gold, securities, and other assets. These reserves provide stability to the exchange rate. And the loss of that stability, even short-term, is considered an abnormal event for the market.

However, Aave’s own stablecoin, issued under the ticker GHO, is backed by assets backed on Aave. And is programmed so that its value on the Aave network is always exactly $1. This is another attempt by the crypto market to create less volatile cryptocurrencies that are not dependent on a centralized issuer.

Borrowers often pledge cryptocurrencies on Aave to borrow specifically stablecoins. Due to the lack of exchange rate volatility, they can be more convenient for payments than, for example, the same bitcoin.

There are already several decentralized (algorithmic) stablecoins on the market. The most capitalized of these is Dai (DAI), operated by MakerDAO, a credit DeFi platform that competes with Aave. Like Dai, GHO will not be issued by a single issuer. It will be managed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) known as AaveDAO. And its issuance will take place in transactions on the lending platform. To oversimplify somewhat, it will actually be collateralized by collateral.

GHO platform stablecoin

The platform’s native stablecoin helps diversify [traditional] stablecoins. And that includes in the Aave protocol itself. As well as the GHO revenue generated by the interest. And charged to borrowers in the Aave protocol, will allow AaveDAO to allocate more funds to community participants. And including risk managers, developers and security experts.

Our experts say that GHO in its own way will help popularize DeFi as a non-volatile crypto asset. The company is also developing a social protocol called Lens. And it needs a network effect and interested users. On the basis of this protocol it is possible to build full-fledged analogs of existing social networks.

The launch of the Bitcoin ETF could boost daily demand for bitcoins by $100 million, analysts predicted

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) can grow by 521% from current values to $180 thousand before the planned April 2024 halving. This is reported by Business Insider with reference to the data of the research company Fundstrat.

Now the daily demand for BTC in the amount of about $25 million is equivalent to the daily reward for mining in the amount of about $25 million. But the situation may change in the case of the launch of the Bitcoin-ETF, the analysts of the company believe.

In their opinion, Bitcoin funds can increase the daily demand for BTC by $100 million. Such growth taking into account the halving in April 2024. And which will reduce the daily reward for mining to $12 million. It means that the price of BTC must grow significantly for an equilibrium between buyers and sellers to be reached.

In July, NYDIG analysts said that spot Bitcoin-ETFs will provide demand for cryptocurrency for $30 billion. Experts came to this conclusion after the largest management companies submitted applications for the launch of such funds.

Our experts note that at the same time, Bloomberg senior analyst Eric Balchunas believes. That the approval of applications for the launch of spot exchange-traded BTC funds (ETFs) in the United States will open the bitcoin market access to capital of $ 30 trillion.

In July, two venture capital funds raised more than $350 million to invest in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups.

The volume of investments in crypto startups has fallen for five consecutive quarters. But some venture capitalists are still making multi-million dollar bets on blockchain projects.

Fortune’s source said Polychain Capital, one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the cryptocurrency space. And has raised about $200 million in its fourth fund. This fundraising can be considered a positive signal for the industry. The event indicates continued investor interest, despite a period when the volume of funding has decreased for both startups and venture capital firms.

The event indicates the continuing interest of investors. And despite the period when the volume of funding has decreased for both startups. As well as for venture capital firms.

Founded in 2016 by Olaf Carlson-Wee – one of the first employees of the Coinbase exchange – Polychain Capital has quickly joined the list of leaders in the cryptocurrency venture capital market. The firm has invested in Coinbase, Uniswap, CoilnList, dYdX, Matrixport, Scroll and dozens of others.

According to Pitchbook, Polychain has raised three funds with $2.6 billion in assets under management, and while this amount is volatile due to the fact that some of the Polychain funds are held directly in a few liquid crypto stocks. Several services, such as CoinMarketCap or Messari, separately highlight Polychain’s portfolio. According to them, the company invests in bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Polkadot (DOT), Avalanche (AVAX), Cosmos (ATOM), Filecoin (FIL), Maker (MKR), Tezos (XTZ), Compound (COMP) and other assets.

Polychain has deployed most of the previously raised capital in 2022 and 2023, according to a Fortune interviewee.

And before starting to raise a fourth $400 million fund, which reporters have now learned about. As for the $200 million already raised, Polychain has signed new agreements with investors or partners to begin placing those funds. At the same time, the company will continue to attract new investors in order to raise the full amount.

The attraction of new financing was accompanied by a reorganization of Polychain’s team of about 25 people, about 15 of whom are engaged in market research. According to the interlocutor of the publication, three employees from the research group were dismissed. And another with a background in data science was hired. One of the general partners also left the company to start his own project.

According to Fortune’s source, Polychain will primarily consider Ethereum-based “second-tier” infrastructure solutions for investment. And such as Arbitrum or Scroll, as well as in projects such as EigenLayer.

According to Pitchbook, global cryptocurrency VCs raised just $1.7 billion in 12 funds in the first half of 2023.

In comparison, they raised $22.5 billion in 91 funds over the course of 2022. On the same day as the new fund raising from Polychain was announced. And Bloomberg reported that another cryptocurrency venture capital firm, CoinFund, raised $158 million to support early-stage crypto startups.

According to the company’s CEO Jake Bruchman. That for the new fund managed to attract more funds than originally planned. Investor interest in the fund was higher than expected.

The last year and a half in the cryptoindustry was held in the crisis. But during this time CoinFund managed to raise $550 million, Brukhman told reporters. The year 2022 was “extremely challenging,” he said. Part of the problem was that major players in the market became interested in cryptocurrencies at the stage of their growth. But they changed their minds about investing when they saw prices fall sharply.

The new investment fund CoinFund is also the fourth for the company. Under the previous funds, the company supported startups such as, for example, Dapper Labs (creators of the FLOW blockchain). Or the blockchain infrastructure service Blockdaemon. Funds from the new fund have already been partially invested in the startup Giza. And which deals with the implementation of artificial intelligence in smart contracts. And in the company Superstate, which plans to combine decentralized finance (DeFi) with mutual funds.

More investments

CoinFund plans to invest the raised funds in startups. Which are at the intersection of cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence. Previously popular areas such as NFT are now not interesting to investors due to the market lull and capitalization decline of the largest projects.

Our experts note that CoinFund will also continue to invest directly in cryptocurrencies and tokens. And the company has an advantage here. When it comes to crypto market regulation in the US, there is uncertainty over whether cryptocurrency tokens are considered securities. And that was vividly demonstrated in the recent ruling by a judge in the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit against Ripple Labs. However, CoinFund is a registered investment adviser. And can make investments in securities, so even equating their portfolio crypto assets with securities shouldn’t pose a problem.

According to Alex Felix, CoinFund’s chief investment officer. That now about 90% of the company’s transactions are directly related to the purchase of cryptocurrencies and tokens. According to him, the company still believes that this industry can coexist with traditional finance in a regulated manner.

Our experts tell you what you need to know about Sam Altman’s blockchain project Worldcoin. And who supports it financially, and when it will have its own token

In addition to leading the development of ChatGPT and GPT-4. Sam Altman, head of OpenAI, is also a co-founder of Tools for Humanity. It creates technologies for the blockchain project Worldcoin. And its tokens will be distributed among users in a rather unusual way.

According to the developers’ plans, the future WLD token will be issued to those who will be identified by iris scanning. The company’s own device called Orb scans the eye. And based on that, creates a digital World ID for the user. And which can be used “in a wide range of everyday applications without revealing identity.”

About 2 million people are already expecting to receive their share from this airdrop of Worldcoin tokens

Airdrop was planned back in the first quarter of this year, but was later postponed. However, this project has big ambitions.

“Once launched, we will begin to rapidly expand market by market, connecting more and more people,” reads a presentation distributed to potential investors in the project late last year.

In May, the project said it had raised $115 million in an investment round. Which was led by Blockchain Capital, a venture capital firm focused on the crypto market. For it, this is the second largest investment package, second only to investments in Matter Labs, the developer of the zkSync solution.

Worldcoin as a project consists of several components

First is Tools for Humanity, co-founded in 2020 by Alex Blania, Max Novendstern and Sam Altman. Acting as the lead developer of the Worldcoin project. Tho the company has raised over $240 million to date from venture capital funds including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Tiger Global, Khosla Ventures and the venture capital arm of the Coinbase exchange.

Worldcoin is now valued at $3 billion at the end of its latest fundraising. This is the same amount as in March 2022, when the company raised the first $100 million. Previously, the project was funded by Khosla Ventures, crypto fund Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto) and the founder of the bankrupt FTX exchange Sam Bankman-Fried. Spencer Bogart of Blockchain Capital joined the board of directors of Tools for Humanity after the new investment round closed. And a16z crypto managing partner Chris Dixon has joined as an observer.

Sam Altman is the co-founder of Worldcoin. His main contribution to the project is to create a strategy for how best to scale it.

“Internally, we call it the Sam Altman effect,” Blockchain Capital’s Bogart wrote in a comment to The Block. “Focus on scaling. Everything else is irrelevant,” he quoted Altman as saying.

Structure and products of Worldcoin

Worldcoin also has a non-profit foundation, the Worldcoin Foundation, registered in the Cayman Islands. According to its website. It is engaged in “protocol support and development of the Worldcoin community until the community becomes self-sufficient”. The foundation is a step toward creating a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) under Worldcoin. Worldcoin’s website states that the foundation is designed to “enable prioritization of the protocol based on DAO decisions.” Next steps, according to the description, include transferring intellectual property to the fund. And a grant program for developers.

As for the product, there’s World ID, an identification protocol. And with which people can prove their identity on the Web. It’s also a proprietary software creation package, the World app. Which allows you to manage the confirmed ID and a number of cryptocurrencies and, the actual token Worldcoin. All of these tools, with the exception of the token, appeared earlier this year.

A company called Tools for Humanity is responsible for the app. And it is likely that in the future it will earn on commissions on transactions or exchanges within the wallet. According to the company, by May this year, more than 500,000 people used the app at least once a month.

Black market accounts

Worldcoin’s chosen method of token distribution is that. People are asked to prove their identity by scanning their retinas with an Orb device. In March, Worldcoin struck a deal with manufacturer Jabil to ramp up production of its devices. According to The Block’s sources, Worldcoin could produce up to 400 Orb per month.

Worldcoin has an operator program where companies are paid in stablecoins. For performing eye scanning procedures on volunteers. So far, about 2 million people have joined the program. And mostly in Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe. For example, in Kenya, by December last year, about 250 thousand people were registered. And only 45 devices were in circulation among operators in the country.

However, Worldcoin faced a black market of verified accounts. In May, there were reports that in China, where it is still impossible to register in Worldcoin. People are now buying iris scans taken in Cambodia and Africa for as little as $30. The buyers were probably expecting to get airdrop tokens. Which, when released on crypto exchanges, could return on their investment many times over.

The company then took a number of steps to try and address this issue. And including “adjusting the initial in-person registration process” and introducing dynamic and static QR codes.

Token and Airdrop

The token launch is a watershed moment for the project. Airdrop has already been postponed multiple times. A Worldcoin spokesperson told The Block that the exact launch date will be chosen by the Worldcoin Foundation. According to his other source of the publication, the launch is expected soon. And possibly as early as the third quarter of this year.

In exchange for eyeball scans, registered users will receive Worldcoin tokens. In investor documents published last December, it is assumed. That users will be able to request tokens every week. And their total number will decrease over time.

The same document reveals more details about the future tokenization of the project. Our experts note that the total number of WLD tokens will be 10 billion pieces. And of which 80% will be intended for users, operators and ecosystem. And 20% – for the Worldcoin team and investors. The tokens of team members and investors will be unlocked gradually over three years. The developers also intend to make WLD a governance token. That is, to give holders the ability to vote on proposals in the DAO. WLD tokens will not be available in the US and other countries.