In a move to expand his footprint in the AI industry, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is reportedly creating a startup to rival one of his own previous ventures, OpenAI. According to the Financial Times, Musk is putting together a team of AI researchers and engineers to develop a new AI company that will compete with OpenAI. While Musk resigned from the board of OpenAI in 2018, the launch of his new AI startup will put him in direct competition with other tech giants like Google and Microsoft.
The report also suggests that Musk is in talks with investors, including existing supporters of SpaceX and Tesla, for investment in the new AI venture. According to a source, “a bunch of people are investing in it, it’s real and they are excited about it.”
This revelation follows a recent report stating that Musk procured almost 10,000 graphics processing units to power Twitter’s AI initiatives. On March 9, Musk also incorporated a company named X.AI, which he listed as the sole director. He changed the name of Twitter to “X Corp” in company filings as part of his plans to create an “everything app” under the “X” brand.
Interestingly, despite Musk’s involvement in AI development, he and over 2,600 other tech leaders and researchers signed an open letter on March 30 calling for a temporary halt on further AI development due to “profound risks to society and humanity.”
In the broader context of AI competition, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has also recently launched its Amazon Bedrock initiative. This will allow AWS users to build generative AI from foundation models.
Overall, Musk’s new AI venture will undoubtedly be one to watch in the coming months. As one of the most well-known and influential tech entrepreneurs of our time, his latest AI startup will undoubtedly capture the attention of the industry and the wider public.
Mantle Core, a subsidiary of BitDAO, has recently proposed the creation of a $200 million fund dedicated to early-stage Web3 startups. The proposal aims to accelerate the adoption of Mantle, an Ethereum layer-2 network, among developers and Dapps. The Mantle EcoFund will be deployed within the Mantle ecosystem over the next three years, with BitDAO’s treasury providing $100 million in USD Coin (USDC), and another $100 million coming from external matching capital from strategic venture partners.
Several funds have expressed interest in participating in the Mantle EcoFund, including Dragonfly Capital, Pantera, Folius Ventures, Play Ventures Future Fund, Spartan, Lemniscap, Selini Capital, Cadenza Ventures, and QCP Capital, according to Mantle’s proposal. If approved, the EcoFund and venture partners will participate in projects with a 1:1 co-investment ratio. The ecosystem fund will target Web3 startups raising pre-seed, seed, and series A rounds.
The Mantle spokesperson has stated that “the fund targets to invest in more than 100 projects deployed on Mantle and have a multiple on invested capital (MOIC) of 1.5x of cumulative performance through the fund’s lifecycle.” Management fees for the EcoFund team, including sourcing, due diligence, legal, portfolio support, and fund administration, will be “industry standard,” with a 2% fee to support operational expenses.
The proposed Mantle EcoFund is part of a broader trend across the crypto industry, with similar initiatives seeking to drive adoption and innovation. For instance, in 2021, Polygon, an Ethereum scaling solution, launched a $100 million fund aimed at improving access to decentralized finance, onboarding users, and accelerating adoption.
In summary, the proposed Mantle EcoFund has the potential to significantly boost the development and adoption of Web3 startups by providing early-stage funding for promising projects. With the backing of BitDAO’s treasury and external venture partners, the Mantle EcoFund could become a significant player in the Web3 ecosystem, fueling innovation and growth in the years to come.
According to Fortune media, three top executives at JPMorgan have left the leading major bank to join the cryptocurrency industry.
Despite the current crypto winter, this week has seen three executives working at the giant bank depart and joined crypto firms.
Eric Wragge, a former managing director at JPMorgan with 21 years working at the bank, has joined the Algorand blockchain technology firm as Head of Business Development and Capital Markets.
Puja Samuel, a former Head of Ideation and Digitization at JPMorgan, has also joined Digital Currency Group (a parent company that owns Bitcoin brokerage firm, Genesis Trading and CoinDesk crypto media) as Head of Corporate Development.
Also, early this week, Samir Shah, JPMorgan Chase’s Head of Asset Management Sales, left the bank and assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer at cryptocurrency-focused investment firm Pantera Capital.
Wragge’s joining Algorand shows that he will report to Algorand Foundation CEO Staci Warden. In the new role, he will be expected to chair the foundation’s investment committee as well as lead initiatives in both traditional capital markets as well as decentralized finance (DeFi).
Wragge talked about his appointment at Algorand and said: “Coming from a leading global investment bank, I understand the uncompromising performance requirements for a layer 1 blockchain to compete against and improve upon many aspects of traditional finance.”
Samuel, also commented about his role at Digital Currency Group: “I am excited to help build out new strategic partnerships alongside an energized team that is driving change across the financial system.”
Embracing Crypto World
The latest move of JPMorgan executives jumping ship to the crypto industry is a trend that has been developing lately. Several executives have moved from big corporations to crypto startups.
In February, Goldman Sachs executive Roger Bartlett left the leading global investment bank after 16 years and joined the Coinbase crypto exchange. In his LinkedIn profile, Bartlett stated that it was time to embrace the cryptocurrency economy. He described the change as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become part of building the next stage of the digital revolution.
That is the same sentiment held by several big tech executives and finance professionals making the move into cryptocurrency, as they look to be part of the rapidly growing crypto industry.
Some Wall Street executives have left to launch their own crypto or Web3 ventures. In 2018, Amber Baldet, a prominent blockchain executive at JPMorgan Chase, left the bank and co-founded decentralization startup Clovyr.
In March, Revolut’s chief revenue officer Alan Chang departed the British fintech to start a new crypto venture.
In April last year, Konstantin Shulga, a former senior executive of Russia’s largest bank, Sber, co-founded Finery Markets, a crypto-over-the-counter service, where he serves as the CEO.
The rise in executive moves is an indication of the growing attraction to the crypto world for financial and tech executives who are believed to have amassed a fortune but are keen to become part of the next disruption.
Hong Kong-based start-up PANGU, a metaverse agency appointed by Sandbox, is helping clients to enter into the metaverse by providing asset creation and branding consultation services. The company said it is building various business models, including the play-to-earn (P2E) model for clients to support its growth.
Kenny Ng, the founder of PANGU by Kenal (left) believes the Metaverse would be the tendency of the future; and Zero Chung (right) thinks that providing customied solutions to clients is key advantages of the company.
Interior designer in the Metaverse
Stepping into the office located at Kowloon Bay, Eastern Kowloon in Hong Kong, a mini botanical garden has been set up at the base’s main entrance. Agave americana, more commonly known as Century Plant, and other various potted plants are growing under the care of the owner. The vibe of the working environment and its inspirations also come from the green belief.
PANGU, the visual design production company established as its affiliate of the Kenal Group, has hired over 20 staff and still rapidly expanding. Kenny Ng, Founder of PANGU by Kenal, established his team around eight months ago. Ng shared his experience with Blockchain.News, “just like other start-up companies, we are gradually expanding our scale, starting from building up our products with designers, then developing business and marketing teams at the following stage.”
Furthermore, the company plans to establish community management in the long term, PANGU’s Ng shared his ongoing business plans to Blockchain.News.
This company has connected with the Sandbox since last November in 2021 and was just appointed as the official TSB Metaverse agency in April, which is rare for HK-based startups in the global market. According to PANGU, the agency raised its capital independently followed by grants from Sandbox’s “game maker fund”, which aims at connecting with the next generation and the tendency of web 3.
These services support its business growth by providing a one-stop solution, including land purchase with development, offering marketing strategy, digital assets creation and branding collaboration for clients from online to offline.
Kenny Ng, Founder of PANGU said:
“As an agency of (the Sandbox), we wish we are able to provide complete solid service with own our resources, instead of outsourcing works to other parties, which is not practical. So, that would be our direction in practice.”
“Our partnership (between Sandbox and clients) is more like property developers, and we play our role as the builder and property management unit as a contractor, offering consultations for clients on how to develop their own lands and promote their branding through online and offline activities,” Chung added.
Projects such as Metagreenor clients from Standard Character are part of their key clients, these corporate firms have entered into the Metaverse through the Sandbox. In the project of Metagreen, PANGU said they are mainly responsible for purchasing land and its development, non-fungible token (NFT) creation, but also partnerships from online to offline, including partnerships with NFT gallery, NGOs and running other community channel management, such as Discord.
The founder told Blockchain.News that “in this early stage of the Metaverse, most clients are still discovering and exploring what they can do after investing in these virtual lands. Some clients prefer to shape a revolutionized image and identity in the virtual space, while some clients prefer to promote their branding traditionally,” adding that “we are working together with clients to find out a potential and possible (virtual) identity by helping them to build its ecosystem in this space.”
The Chief strategist suggests customized design and creative solutions for various clients would be one of the advantages for the company to remain competitive in the industry, as the company is not just serving local customers but serving globally.
P2E Development
Meanwhile, inspired by environmentally sustainable beliefs, the company also transformed itself into a game developer, trying to bring different scenarios to this virtual space.
Earlier this month, the game developer virtually launchedan NFT drop project, connecting with a gamification-based metaverse space. Featuring ecology conservation and environmental sustainability, the company is introducing a gamification-based platform for players to explore another virtual world– Ecoland.
The Ecoland is a diversified ecosystem, featuring environmental and educational theme interaction for players, according to PANGU. The company said its assets creation is fully designed from scratch by itself. Their voxel characters are unique with high quality.
Operating through the Play-to-Earn (P2E) model, the platform has associated with the Sandbox, players can earn SAND tokens or win some exclusive NFTs after completing several missions in the game in exchange for upgrading their equipment and tradings.
In addition, the gaming platform also wishes to escalate its landscape in the Metaverse, bringing more interactive ways in different scenarios, such as “Play to learn”, to deliver educational messages to players by completing some mini-games in the space. “We are also cooperating with several environmental NGOs, so we will donate serval amount to NGOs we cooperate with when customers buy specific NFTs from them. These objectives would help us fulfil social responsibility obligations,” Chung added.
Regarding crypto adoptions, PANGU said currently it would only use tokens for necessary transactions or trading among campaigns during the execution stage, such as paying gas fees during the minting of NFTs. “The company might use tokens in the future as the incentive for staff, encouraging them to stay tuned in the crypto space,” Ng added.
Previously, the company participated in the event the Artaverse, to increase its exposure to the industry.
PANGU discloses the company is expanding regional and overseas markets during Q3 and Q4 this year.
Promising Potential Value in the Metaverse
According to the latest researchfrom McKinsey & Company, the study suggests the preliminary value of the Metaverse it creates in the space could grow up to $5 trillion by 2030.
E-commerce would be the largest driving force, which takes up to $2.6 trillion, followed by virtual learning ($270 billion), advertising ($206 billion) and gaming ($125 billion) sector.
Meanwhile, the blockchain-related application and scenarios on the Metaverse are still expanding.
Author of “Snow Crash”, Neal Stephenson, who created the term “the Metaverse” nearly 30 years ago, has recently announced a new project named LAMINA1, according to online media outlet Decrypt.
The project was described as a “free metaverse”, a blockchain-based network for building the open Metaverse. “We’re going to have all the facilities of a full layer one (blockchain) to help support and encourage the creators who want to build with us. That is my and Neal’s strategy—align everything around getting the best thing built and getting everybody all the tools they need to build what they want,” Vessenes explained.
Imagination of Virtual Land
The land issue in Hong Kong remains one of the most challenging issues in the city. With limited space and high demand, physical land has become one of the rarest resources for housing, real estate and other property developments.
Since the arrival of Metaverse and virtual lands in recent years, the bond and chemistry between these two topics have the caught attention of investors who wish to join the virtual space instead of trading physical land. More local entities or corporate firms in Hong Kong, as a result, foresee the potential benefit and investment opportunities in the Metaverse. However, these firms still need a builder’s help to construct the Metaverse infrastructure.
Apart from projects coordinated by PANGU, more local firms, such as Telcom operator PCCW and local railway operator MTR, also shared optimistic views by joining the Metaverse space, aiming at raising their awareness and exposure in the virtual space. Meanwhile, Yahoo and Meta, formerly named Facebook, have also announced to launch of a metaverse connection in the city in the hope that to reserve the old style and image of the city.
BlockFills, a digital asset electronic market making, trading and prime brokerage, has announced the completion of a $37 million Series A funding round.
Institutional investors, including Susquehanna Private Equity Investments LLLP, CME Ventures, Simplex Ventures, C6 Ventures, and Nexo Inc., led the round. Since its inception in 2018, the firm has received a total of $44 million from institutional investors in two funding rounds.
We’re excited to announce the successful close of our Series A #funding round totaling $37 million! See how this funding will support our global expansion and help institutions safely and efficiently engage #digitalasset markets: https://t.co/lfXHHxCaS1. #VC #fundingnews
— BlockFills (@blockfills) January 19, 2022
As per the announcement, the funding round will help Blockfills’ worldwide expansion and support technology debuts aimed at enticing global Fortune 500-sized businesses, hedge fund/asset managers, banks, and other institutions into the digital assets sector as well as miner development.
“The successful close of our Series A funding round will help ensure that BlockFills and our technology platforms are industry leading and continue to meet the demand for end-to-end solutions that help institutions safely and efficiently engage digital asset markets,” stated Nick Hammer, co-founder and CEO of BlockFills.
The company began as a bootstrapped business and raised its first external capital last year in May. The majority of the investors from that round retained their interest in the firm by investing again this time around. Over the years, it has seen a 400% yearly growth in top-line revenue, with spot trading volumes growing by more than 20 times on an average monthly basis since January 2020. The firm now has over 600 institutional clients.
Related:Checkout.com raises $1B in Series D, bringing valuation to $40B
In Nov. 2019, Blockfills teamed up with New York-based fintech firm Tassat to offer an institutional Trade at Settlement service for spot Bitcoin (XBT/USD). At present, Blockfills is concentrating on international growth and technological developments. It went on to say that the new cash will be used to fulfill its objectives of expanding new verticals and strengthening its market position.
KuCoin Labs, the company behind the world’s sixth-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume with more than 500 crypto assets listed, announced on Wednesday that it would be launching a $100 million metaverse fund for early-stage projects. The money is also available for entities that develop blockchain-based games, nonfungible tokens, and decentralized applications. In addition, Kucoin will also provide business incubation services, branding, incentives, and business partnerships for developers selected into the fund.
Johnny Lyu, CEO of Kucoin, said the following in a prepared statement obtained by Cointelegraph:
“KuCoin Metaverse Fund will be launched to accelerate the evolution of the Internet industry. We hope to mature the emerging blockchain industry by further strengthening the application of blockchain technology to the metaverse projects.”
Lou Yu, the head of KuCoin Labs, added:
“The concept of metaverse has remained at the theoretical level since it was proposed in the last century. It was not until the birth of the blockchain that metaverse became the next migration destiny for mankind.”
The concept of a metaverse, or augmented virtual reality with its own digital economy, has been gaining traction ever since Facebook rebranded itself as Meta last month to focus on its development. Shortly afterward, Microsoft ventured into the metaverse with Team updates and Xbox upgrades. Then, Animoca Brands unveiled its plans for a K-pop NFT Metaverse. As more global brands move in, the total addressable market of the Metaverse is projected to grow to over $1.5 trillion by the end of 2030. Meanwhile, debates are ongoing as to whether or not the Metaverse should be centralized.
Following a $680 million funding round, nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Sorare is looking to be an active player in bridging the gap between sports and digital entertainment.
Now valued at $4.3 billion, Sorare told Cointelegraph that the company plans to use the fresh capital to expand its business with new hires and partnerships, as well as support community-led programs.
Besides working with community-led football programs aimed at helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and backing underprivileged entrepreneurs in sports and gaming, Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia explained via email that the NFT unicorn would also support female representation in sports. He said:
“We believe that NFTs can significantly accelerate the development of women’s sports. We will actively invest in this by beginning with women’s football.”
Sorare, a Paris-based NFT marketplace focused on sports, made headlines in September following a SoftBank-led $680 million Series B funding.
Julia further detailed how Sorare would use the raised capital for business purposes, starting with the new hires to expand the team. “We’re looking to fill many new roles,” he said, both in Europe and the United States.
He added that new partnerships would introduce new football leagues and national teams to the NFT marketplace. Such partnerships require an upfront payment, and Sorare is loaded enough to sign the deal with the top 20 leagues and top 50 national teams, thanks to the hefty funding.
Related:Sports-themed NFTs spark gold rush as projects raise $930M in a week
Sorare also plans to reserve some part of the funds for mobile and marketing efforts. “Our fantasy game will be a mobile-first experience,” Julia explained, adding that the company’s growth was organic till now.
The last topic on Sorare’s agenda is to bring new sports to the platform. “We’ve received interest from leagues and fans across the globe to replicate our model in other sports,” Julia said.
Social token infrastructure provider Roll raised $10 million in Series A funding, bringing the company’s total funds raised to $12.7 million to help creators tokenize their interactions with communities.
Led by IOSG Ventures, the funding round saw participation from Animoca Brands, Alchemy, Huobi Ventures, Weekend Fund, Mischief Fund, Audacity and existing investors like Galaxy Interactive, Hustle Fund, Gary Vaynerchuk, Trevor McFederies, Ryan Selkis and Balaji Srinivasan.
Social tokens are blockchain-based digital currencies that have the potential to be used as the basis of a decentralized creator economy. “Through Roll, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and communities can tokenize, trade, and gate-keep content for those that are part of the community,” IOSG Ventures Founding Partner Jocy Lin explained, adding a social token enables its holders to join and contribute to a community.
Defining the explosive growth and popularity of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as a “cultural bull market,” Roll Co-founder and CEO Bradley Miles said that this bull market became a renaissance for artists, musicians and creators worldwide: “NFTs represent the future of content on blockchains. At some point this decade it will emerge as a new normal for art, videos, games, music and any other content that creators want to make ownable.”
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Miles explained that the launch of a social token is similar to the launch of a YouTube channel or Patreon: “Let your closest supporters know beforehand and broadcast it out on your largest platform when you are ready.”
On the technical side, Roll helps integrate social tokens into web applications such as marketplaces, streaming services and DAOs, by providing the infrastructure and application programming interfaces or APIs. Powered by Ethereum smart contracts, Roll’s social tokens can interact with traditional web platforms and DeFi protocols.
Related: Sports-themed NFTs spark gold rush as projects raise $930M in a week
The company said that the service is currently being used by over 350 creators, including Whaleshark and Terry Crews. Listing some of Roll’s social tokens, crypto exchange Huobi is among the investors via its venture arm. Jerry Yip of Huobi Ventures commented on Roll’s expansion, saying: “Roll’s platform for social tokens has stepped on the two relatively clear trends of influence tokenization and a new emerging economy for communities.”
The company plans to open up its APIs to more developers as early as next year.
The adoption of crypto as a payment method for everyday goods and services has risen in recent months. Digital parking startup, Seety, has made it possible to pay for parking tickets with Bitcoin in some Belgian cities. According to a report by DataNews on Thursday, the Belgian startup released this crypto payment feature in Antwerp and Brussels.
Related Reading | New To Bitcoin? Learn To Trade Crypto With The NewsBTC Trading Course
In addition to Bitcoin, users can also use other digital currencies to make payments. The options include cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and stablecoins like DAI and USD coin.
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The company expects cryptocurrencies to become more environmentally friendly in due course, meaning they will increasingly be used to pay for everyday goods and services.
How Seety Works
To use crypto coins to pay for a parking space via Seety, users can purchase Seety credits on the app. The transaction costs are the same as for the payment by credit card.
Seety features an interactive map on its app that helps users locate the cheapest or free parking spots. Additionally, they can determine the prices and parking regulations for any street or parking lot in town. A community feature notifies a member in case a parking officer is spotted near their car. With Seety, users can find the cheapest parking zones, avoid parking fines and pay for their parking in two clicks.
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The company also recently introduced its app in more than a hundred Dutch cities and municipalities. The app, available for iOS and Android, now has 355,000 active members and expects a turnover of 400,000 euros in 2021. For 2022, the startup aims for a turnover of 2 million euros.
The startup is one of the firms bootstrapped by the Belgian accelerator program Start it @KBC.
Using Crypto For Everyday Transactions
Using crypto to pay for parking services dates back to years ago. In 2014, a Reddit user posted that he had paid a parking ticket with Bitcoin using the online marketplace Brawker.
Related Reading | Visa Customers Have Spent Over $1B On Crypto-Linked Cards This Year
Recently, Visa stated that its crypto-enabled cards processed over $1 billion in crypto spending in the first half of 2021.
Featured image from AppWikia.com, Chart from TradingView.com
The United States-based blockchain startup Simba Chain, which provides technology for several U.S. defense organizations, raised fresh funds to scale the business and tap new opportunities like nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
The $25 million Series A funding round was led by Valley Capital Partners with the participation of Notre Dame Pit Road Fund, Elevate Ventures and Stanford Law School Venture Fund, according to an official announcement.
Simba Chain would use the new funding to scale several departments within the company and to dedicate resources to emerging trends like NFTs. The company aims to be the tech provider for business enterprises, academic institutions and others who want to monetize digital and physical assets.
As a startup incubated at the University of Notre Dame, Simba Chain offers a cloud-based smart contract platform with enterprise-level security for organizations that wants to deploy blockchain technology.
The company says that its technology is currently used by the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines as well as Boeing. Simba has grown its revenue by 360% over the last 18 months and surpassed 6,000 users.
“Users across multiple spectrums have embraced and validated the SIMBA Chain model, which simplifies the development of smart contracts,” said Simba Chain CEO and co-founder Joel Neidig. “The market has also responded positively to our support of multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Avalanche, RSK, Stellar, and many others, making SIMBA Chain-based applications simple, highly portable and sustainable.”
Related:US Air Force prioritizes blockchain security with new Constellation Network contract
Simba Chain first drew attention when the startup was picked by the U.S. Air Force in 2019 to provide a blockchain-based supply chain for the organization. Six months later, a California-based research group of the U.S. Navy paid Simba Chain $9.5 million to develop a secure messaging platform on the blockchain for the Department of Defense (DoD).
The company scored another contract from the U.S. DoD, this time to develop a proof-of-concept for a blockchain-based data management system. Last year, Simba Chain won the Advanced Manufacturing Olympics, organized by DoD, with its use of blockchain to provide a secure network for a virtual wargame.
Earlier this year, Simba Chain received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Office of Navy Research to revamp the supply chain of the United States military with a blockchain-based solution to enable demand sensing for critical military weaponry parts.
