🕵️ mystery solved
Zcash reveals John Dobbertin's real identity, Meta's metaverse division loses $2.96B in Q1, Dragonfly Capital raises $650M and more.
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Crypto Market Update 📈
The global cryptocurrency market cap rose to the $1.82 trillion mark, rising 1.68% over the last 24 hours. The total crypto market volume fell 14.46% to $86.43 billion during the same period.
Bitcoin (BTC): $39,649.04 (+1.91%)
Ethereum (ETH): $2,928.79 (+1.62%)
Tether (USDT) : $1 (-0.01%)
Binance Coin (BNB): $404.06 (+3.42%)
Top Stories 📰
1. Edward Snowden revealed as mysterious Zcash creator
Edward Snowden is back in the news, and, once again, for good reasons.
The famed National Security Agency contractor who leaked the US government's spying tactics in 2013 has been unveiled as one of the six members behind the privacy token Zcash (ZEC) deployed in a secret ceremony.
Snowden had participated under the pseudonym John Dobbertin, a reference to a German cryptographer, while the identity of the other five people remained public ever since.
What's Zcash? Developed by Electric Coin Company, it's a privacy-enabled, blockchain-based payments system that uses zero-knowledge proofs, a type of cryptography that makes the contents of a transaction private even on a public blockchain.
To create its genesis block, the group conducted a secret ceremony where each member performed a different task and possessed a piece of Zcash's private creation key that was destroyed after the ceremony's completion. The extent to which these people went to for creating Zcash is insanely unbelievable.
For his involvement, Snowden didn't receive crypto or any other compensation. "He did it as a service, as a public good, and believing in privacy," Electric Coin Company SVP Josh Swihart said.
The revelation didn't have much effect on ZEC's price, which is currently up 1.7% at $148. So far, there are 90 privacy-protecting tokens with a market cap of $11.3 billion.
Why it matters? Snowden’s association with Zcash isn't surprising as he’s previously spoken about it on social media. They’re now planning to release a software update, known as Halo, which completely removes the need for such ceremonies altogether.
2. Meta’s Reality Labs posts $2.96B loss
Since Facebook rebranded itself to Meta last year, things have been pretty rough for the social media giant. And it seems that this downward trend isn't going to end anytime soon.
According to its Q1 2022 earnings report, Reality Labs, a division which includes its augmented and virtual reality operations, reported a loss of $2.96 billion—a $1.16 billion increase in losses incurred during the same period last year. The loss ballooned to over $10 billion for the entire year.
Despite such dismal returns, Zuckerberg had hoped to see growth in revenues. But witnessing the plummeting stock price has compelled him to dial down on his vision.
Meta will “slow the pace of some of our investments” due to “our current business growth levels,” Zuckerberg told investors during an earnings call.
That said, he's still bullish on the metaverse as he expects the division, which makes the Quest VR headset and future AR glasses, to eventually become as big as the mobile internet.
“This is laying the groundwork for what I expect to be a very exciting 2030,” he added. Apparently, this was enough to reassure investors as shares jumped almost 15% to $201.14 on Wednesday.
Other key stats:
profits for Q1 fell 21% to $7.5 billion
revenues grew 7% to $27.9 billion, missing analysts' 7.8% expectation
daily active users grew merely 4% to 1.96 billion YoY
Why it matters? Zuckerberg reiterated that Reality Labs is now working on a browser-based version of Horizon Worlds metaverse platform set to launch this year, along with a new virtual reality headset called "Project Cambria" aimed at the professional market.
Deal Street 🤑
Dragonfly Cap launches third crypto fund
Investment firm Dragonfly Capital announced that it raised $650 million for its third crypto fund. Known as "Dragonfly Fund III," it's the largest ever fund raised by the company, which previously raised $100 million in 2018 and $225 million in 2021. The fund's limited partners include KKR, Tiger Global, Sequoia China, Ivy League endowments, and Invesco. Dragonfly invests in firms operating in sectors such as NFTs, Web3 development, DeFi, smart contracts, DAO infrastructure, and the metaverse. Since its inception in 2018, Cayman Island-based firm has invested in around 60 companies, including Avalanche, Near, Anchorage, Dune Analytics, Bybit, and Matter Labs. With Dragonfly Fund III, the company intends to lead rounds in later-stage companies.
DeFi platform Ondo Finance raises $20 million
Ondo Finance, a crypto startup that provides structured products built on top of decentralized exchanges, has raised a $20 million Series A funding round. The fundraiser was co-led by Panthera Capital and Peter Thiel's Foundation Fund, with Coinbase Ventures, Tiger Global, Flow Traders, Wintermute, GoldenTree, and Steel Perlot joining as strategic investors. To accelerate DeFi adoption, Ondo Finance is creating a decentralized investment bank that connects several stakeholders, including institutions, DAOs, and retail investors, to the DeFi ecosystem. So far, the startup has collaborated with over 10 DAOs and has more than $200 million in liquidity deposited into the protocol. Due to its rapid organic growth, Ondo Finance plans to launch its native token ONDO and a DAO "in the next few weeks." The latest capital will be used towards expanding its team and supporting the launch of its new products, including its multi-chain expansion.
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