The Mempool
January 7th, 2022
“This is probably obvious, but I don’t know what I’m doing and neither do you. But if you are fortunate enough to do so: get married, have kids, move to the burbs. (Eventually.) You will not give a **** about 5% swings in the market when your day ends with a five year old laughing about one of his farts, a three year old telling you a story via a three minute run on sentence and a half naked one year old tackling you at the knees during your final Zoom call of the day.” — Ryan Selkis, founder of Messari and author of “Crypto Theses for 2022.”
Good Afternoon and Happy Friday! From our Binance.US family to yours, we hope you had a wonderful holiday season full of quality time with loved ones, delicious food, and fresh optimism for what the new year will bring.
To recap some highlights over the past month: Messari released its “Crypto Theses for 2022”, over 90% of all bitcoin to exist has been mined, and our team takes a look back at crypto’s year in review for our January Breakdown.
Also, did you know that you can now trade Fantom (FTM) and 1INCH (1INCH) on Binance.US?
Let's dive in…
*Note that the contents of this newsletter are subject to a legal disclaimer located below*
Top Gainers and Losers in December:
Top Headlines
- Messari released their “Crypto Theses for 2022”. Ryan Selkis and team highlight the key trends, people, companies, and projects to watch across the crypto landscape, with forecasts in 2022. (Read more)
- After the successful addition of Bitcoin block #714,032, mined at 23:26 UTC (6:26 PM EST) on December 13th, 90% of all bitcoin has now been mined. The block increased the circulating supply of bitcoin to 18.9 million BTC exactly, leaving only 2.1 million bitcoin left to be mined, according to The Block. (Read more)
- A new report discloses who in Congress owns crypto, and where their investments are focused. While few congressional members have personal crypto investment allocations, some claim that members should not hold any financial assets (including crypto), due to their ability to access sensitive information and desire to remain impartial when it comes to policy making (Read more).
January Breakdown: Crypto’s Year in Review
To celebrate the end of an explosive year for crypto and web3, we’d like to look back on how 2021 set the stage for what is to come in this new year
This past year marked a seismic shift in the trajectory of crypto/web3
A lot can change in a matter of days in the crypto industry, and as time goes on, attempting to summarize developments in the ecosystem over the course of a year will become increasingly difficult. The beauty of public, permissionless networks has given developers from all over the world the ability to rapidly innovate and deploy applications to user bases that are growing at a speed that is outpacing the original internet adoption rate. The increase in crypto/web3 adoption brings a growing demand for block space and sound infrastructure development, which will support interoperability & bridging across blockchains. In addition, there is increased appetite for solutions that can help scale congested networks. We are expecting significant infrastructure development to continue this year.
Fundraising in the industry goes parabolic
“They have poured more than $28 billion into global crypto and blockchain start-ups this year, four times the total in 2020, according to PitchBook, a firm that tracks private investments. More than $3 billion has gone into NFT companies alone.” - The NY Times
According to The Block, there were over 1,700 venture capital deals focused on the crypto space during last year’s bull run, providing more than ~$25.1 billion in financing to startups, projects, and protocols within the crypto ecosystem.
As projects within the crypto space gained fundraising momentum throughout 2021, so too did funds like a16z (which raised a $2.5B fund) and Paradigm (which raised a $2.2B fund) last year. As for Bitcoin holdings as a standalone metric, Decrypt published “The 10 Public Companies With the Biggest Bitcoin Portfolios” at the end of 2021, —further highlighting the fact that institutional investors are continuing to increase their exposure to the industry.
One of the most exciting crypto fundraising movements, called The Blockchain Association, the leading crypto trade association, grew rapidly in 2021. Binance.US counts itself as a member of the association. Last year, The Blockchain Association, led by Kristin Smith, doubled membership numbers and their funding increased by 4x. Smith told The Block’s Frank Chaparro: "We went from zero to 60 overnight, and we have caught the attention of the entire policy-making class in Washington." More voices in Washington will hopefully lead to additional constructive conversations regarding how as an industry, we can hold hands with US regulators as well as continue to educate policy makers as crypto grows more mainstream.
Regulation came center stage
We witnessed the most productive discussions that we have seen from a Congressional hearing on crypto regulation, as executives from industry leading firms testified during the five hour long House Financial Services Committee meeting in early December. This came in response to the growing need and requests for clarity from policy makers. As we saw in early August, grassroot crypto advocates worked tirelessly to amend crypto related provisions in the infrastructure bill, effectively stalling approval in the Senate. At this point it was clear to policy makers that ignoring this industry and its participants was no longer an option.
Talent will continue to pour in
This past year, we are proud to say that our Binance.US team more than doubled in size. We quickly realized that the ability to expand quickly is one of the biggest challenges that web3 project teams and companies face. As the user base in the industry grows, scaling up operations and properly training new hires in a constantly changing industry will remain a top priority. Fortunately, there is no shortage of jobs or applicants who want to make the jump.
Our role in promoting crypto adoption and education
We are committed to putting our customers first by providing you with the best user experience, the highest level of service, and the right mix of products and services to meet your needs. We also believe the potential for blockchain networks extends far beyond cryptocurrencies and tokens. Through our partnerships with the Blockchain Association, POS Alliance, and the DeFi Alliance, we are committed to fostering the education of policy makers and helping to build for broader inclusion by supporting disruptive startups.
Cryptotrivia
- Over or Under - 150: The number of M&A deals in the crypto industry this year.
- How much did the auction house Sotheby’s net from NFT sales in 2021?
- $24 million
- $250 million
- $8 million
- $100 million
Answers at the bottom!
Venture & Fundraising
- Blockchain security firm CertiK approaches unicorn status following $80M raise
- All-in-One DeFi Platform on Fuse FuseFi Announces DAO Project and Successful Private Raise
- NYDIG raises $1B in funding, valuation now $7B
- Crypto bank Anchorage raises $350 million in new funding from KKR, Goldman Sachs, and others
- Palm NFT Studio raises $27 million in Series B led by Microsoft's M12
- French fintech startup Lydia raises $100 million in Series C funding round
- Maven 11 Capital raise $120M in secondary funding round
- Crypto robo-advisor Stacked raises $35 million from Fidelity International unit and others
- DeFi wallet DeBank raises $25 million in equity funding round
- Cross-chain DeFi hub Umee raises $32M with CoinList token sale
- Ready Player Me: $13M Series A raise
- Crypto companies raised just over $25 billion in venture funding during 2021
- Institutional crypto custodians raised more than $3 billion in 2021
- Binance Labs leads $1.5m seed round of play-to-earn guild
- Battle of Guardians Secured $4.4M in Funding Rounds Led by Good Games Labs
- Port Finance has raised a $5.3M Series A round
- Binance Labs Makes Strategic Investment in Elfin Kingdom to Grow GameFi in BSC Ecosystem
- Blockchain Data Analytics Platform Nansen Closes $75M Series B Round
- Anyswap Rebrands to Multichain, Raises $60M Led by Binance Labs
- Ethereum Privacy Startup Aztec Raises $17M in Paradigm-Led Series A
- NFT lending platform Arcade raises $15 million in Series A funding
- Metaverse infrastructure startup Render Network raises $30 million in token round
- Web3 platform HEIR raises $10 million in seed funding
The Shards
- The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) posted its finalized Form 1040, featuring some minor revisions to its crypto question (The Block)
- Coindesk released it’s “Most Influential 2021,” highlighting the 50 people who defined the year in crypto (Coindesk)
- A Normie’s Guide to Becoming a Crypto Person: How to (cautiously and skeptically) fall down the rabbit hole (The Intelligencer)
From the Binance.US Blog
- Binance.US Introduces Updated Tax Reporting Tool to Help Users File Taxes (Read more)
- Binance.US Lists 1inch Network (1INCH) and Fantom (FTM)
- Carol MacKinlay Joins Binance.US as Chief People Officer (Read more)
- Sidney A. Majalya Joins Binance.US as Chief Risk Officer (Read more)
- Noman Reed Joins Binance.US as General Counsel (Read more)
- What Does HODL Mean? A Crypto Holiday Explainer. (Read more)
Visit our blog to learn about new listings and other news and updates.
We’re Hiring!
We are experiencing rapid growth at Binance.US and we’d love to have you join our team! Please check for any openings on our Career Page that may be applicable to your skillset, including our current Research Analyst and Project Manager (Ops) opportunities. If you do not see something that matches what you are looking for, please send your resume and your interests to recruiting@binance.us.
Cryptotrivia Answers
- Over - more than 197 M&A deals took place in 2021
- $100 million
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