Weekly News Highlights | Terra's collapse triggers a series of reactions; Coinbase reports a net loss of $429.7 million in the first quarter

Organizer: Lin Qi, Hu Tao, Chain Catcher

Important News

1. Do Kwon: I am heartbroken over the pain caused to everyone by Terra; I did not sell LUNA or UST during the crisis

On May 14, Terra founder Do Kwon tweeted early in the morning that he had been calling members of the Terra community in recent days—builders, community members, employees, friends, and family—who were deeply affected by the UST depeg, stating, "I am heartbroken over the pain my invention has caused all of you."

"I still believe that decentralized economies should have decentralized currencies—but it is clear that UST in its current form will not be that currency," Do Kwon said. "We are currently working to document the use of LFG's BTC reserves during the depeg event. Please be patient as our team handles multiple tasks simultaneously."

Do Kwon also stated that neither he nor any institution he is affiliated with profited from the event in any way, and he did not sell LUNA or UST during the crisis. (Source link)

2. Do Kwon proposes to rebuild the Terra ecosystem and issue a new LUNA token with a total supply of 1 billion

On May 14, Terra founder Do Kwon released a plan to rebuild the Terra ecosystem on the Terra forum, proposing to issue 1 billion new LUNA tokens. Of these 1 billion, 400 million will be allocated to LUNA holders at the moment before the UST depeg, 400 million to UST holders, 100 million to LUNA holders at the moment the original Terra chain stopped, and 100 million reserved for future ecosystem development.

Except for the 100 million in the third part, the other three parts will be staked at the time of the network restart. The annual inflation rate for the new LUNA can be set at 7%. This proposal is currently under community discussion. (Source link)

3. Azuki founder admits to abandoning three NFT projects in a year; Azuki floor price once dropped to 10 ETH

On May 10, Azuki team founder ZAGABOND.ETH admitted in a social media post that the Azuki team had operated three projects—CryptoPhunks, Tendies, and CryptoZunks—in the past year. ZAGABOND stated that although the project operations were not satisfactory, the Azuki team gained a lot of experience from them.

Subsequently, ZAGABOND.ETH's tweet caused dissatisfaction among Azuki and the holders of the aforementioned NFT projects, leading to the Azuki series NFT floor price dropping to 10 ETH at one point. (Source link)

4. Zhao Changpeng claims Terra fork will not bring any value to the new chain and questions the whereabouts of the BTC reserves

On May 14, regarding Terra's plan to fork, Zhao Changpeng stated that the fork would not bring any value to the new chain, calling it wishful thinking. "No one can cancel all transactions after the old snapshot, including on-chain and off-chain (exchanges)." Early this morning, Do Kwon proposed to rebuild Terra and announced the issuance of 1 billion new LUNA tokens.

Additionally, Zhao Changpeng questioned where all the BTC that should have been used as reserves went and retorted that shouldn't that BTC be used to buy back UST first? Chain Catcher previously reported that according to The Block's analysis, the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) still has over $1.2 billion in BTC reserves that are unaccounted for. (Source link)

5. Vitalik and others jointly publish a paper titled "Decentralized Society: Finding the Soul of Web3"

On May 12, Ethereum founder Vitalik, along with E. Glen Weyl from Microsoft Research and Puja Ohlhaver from Flashbots, published a 37-page paper titled "Decentralized Society: Finding the Soul of Web3."

The paper points out that today's Web3 revolves around expressing transferable financialized assets, but many core economic activities—such as unsecured loans and building personal brands—are based on enduring, non-transferable relationships. Therefore, the paper elaborates on how non-transferable "soulbound" tokens (SBT) representing commitments, credentials, and affiliations can encode trust networks in the real economy. At the same time, SBT supports applications such as community wallet recovery, anti-witch governance, and new markets with decomposable, shared rights. (Source link)

6. Coinbase reports Q1 earnings: net loss of $429.7 million, revenue down 53% quarter-over-quarter

On May 11, Coinbase released its Q1 earnings report through a shareholder letter, reporting total revenue of $1.17 billion, a 53% decrease quarter-over-quarter, and a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $429.7 million, reversing from profit, with monthly active users at 9.2 million, down 19.2% quarter-over-quarter; trading volume was $309 billion, down 43.5%.

Due to the generally disappointing data compared to analysts' expectations, Coinbase's stock price plummeted 12% in after-hours trading, currently priced around $73. Since its listing last year, Coinbase's stock price has dropped 71%. (Source link)

7. Former Terraform Labs engineer: Do Kwon is an anonymous co-founder of the algorithmic stablecoin Basis Cash

On May 12, according to Coindesk, former Terraform Labs engineer Hyungsuk Kang and a Basis Cash developer told the media that Do Kwon, the CEO of Terraform Labs, is one of the anonymous co-founders behind the failed algorithmic stablecoin Basis Cash. According to the revelation, Do Kwon deliberately distanced himself from the project's daily operations but proposed most of the core ideas behind Basis Cash and its underlying token model.

It is reported that Basis Cash is an algorithmic stablecoin project launched in 2020, whose token BAC fell below $1 just one month after its launch, currently priced at only $0.0071. (Source link)

8. Etherscan, CoinGecko, and several crypto data websites report malicious pop-up incidents, warning users not to confirm any transactions

On May 14, Etherscan, CoinGecko, DexTools, DeFi Pulse, and other crypto data websites reported malicious pop-up incidents prompting users to connect their MetaMask wallets.

CoinGecko tweeted: "If you are on the CoinGecko website and your MetaMask prompts you to connect to this site, it is a scam. Do not connect it. We are investigating the root cause of this issue." Etherscan stated in a tweet regarding this matter: "We have received reports about phishing pop-ups through third-party integrations and are currently investigating. Please do not confirm any transactions that pop up on the website."

Although the exact cause has not been confirmed, preliminary indications suggest that malicious code delivered through ads on the affected websites is the vehicle for the phishing attack. The affected website DexTools blamed a crypto advertising platform called Coinzilla. (Source link)

Important Financing/Venture Capital News

1. Web3 social platform SO-COL founded by Irene Zhao is raising funds at a $100 million valuation, led by Blockchain Capital

On May 9, The Block reported, citing informed sources, that the Web3 social platform SO-COL, co-founded by Irene Zhao and Benjamin Tang, is raising funds at a $100 million valuation, led by Blockchain Capital. The platform is a social platform that helps creators issue NFTs, aiming to become a decentralized alternative to Discord, Snapshot, and OnlyFans.

Previous report noted that on February 8, SO-COL announced the completion of a $1.75 million seed round financing, led by DeFiance Capital and Animoca Brands, with participation from Three Arrows Capital, Mechanism Capital, Global Founders Capital, Double Peak Group, Antifund, Genblock Capital, and Kronos Research. (Source link)

2. South Korean internet giant Naver plans to invest 100 billion KRW in funds focused on Web3 and other areas

On May 9, according to the Seoul Economic Daily, South Korean internet giant Naver plans to invest approximately 100 billion KRW (about $78.4 million) in the TVT No. 3 startup fund created by venture capital firm TBT, which focuses on investments in Web 3, SaaS, and B2C platforms. If the investment is confirmed, it will be Naver's largest investment in a South Korean venture capital fund. The TVT fund is expected to attract more investors outside of Naver and is expected to complete its formation in June and officially start investing. (Source link)

3. NFT startup Arianee completes €20 million Series A financing, led by Tiger Global

On May 10, Paris-based NFT startup Arianee announced the completion of €20 million (approximately $21 million) in Series A financing, led by Tiger Global, with participation from Bpifrance, ISAI, Noia Capital, Cygni Labs, Commerce Ventures, and Motier Ventures. The new funds will be used to expand its New York office, recruit new talent, and continue developing its products and services to accelerate its international business.

Arianee has built an end-to-end solution for brands that allows the creation, distribution of NFTs, and the use of tokens and wallets to build new customer relationship management (CRM), new loyalty programs, personalized options, and metaverse deployments. It previously pioneered "utility NFTs" related to the provenance and ownership of luxury goods. It completed a $9.5 million seed round financing in March 2021. (Source link)

4. NFT startup Freeverse completes €10 million Series A financing, focusing on Web3 digital ownership

On May 10, NFT startup Freeverse announced the completion of €10 million in Series A financing, led by Earlybird Venture Capital and Target Global, with participation from Adara Ventures, 4Founders Capital, football media giant OneFootball and its CEO Lucas von Cranach, football star Mario Götze, TravelPerk CEO Avi Meir, and fintech entrepreneur Maex Ament.

It is understood that Freeverse will use the financing to bring real value to Web3 digital ownership. Founded in 2019, Freeverse is developing technology to create value for digital assets in a scalable and verifiable way. (Source link)

5. NFT infrastructure Co:Create completes $25 million seed round financing, led by a16z

On May 10, The Block reported that NFT infrastructure startup Co:Create completed $25 million in seed round financing, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with other investors including Tom Brady's NFT platform Autograph, Packy McCormick's Not Boring Capital, FTX Ventures' Amy Wu, VaynerFund, and the teams behind the NFT fractionalization platform Fractional.art and NFT studio RTFKT.

The Co:Create protocol essentially provides a smart contract platform that projects can use to mint NFTs and control royalties paid in native tokens. The initial version of Co:Create will be launched this fall. Ultimately, Co:Create plans to transition to a DAO and launch its own native token CO, transferring governance of the protocol to the community of its NFT projects. (Source link)

6. Public chain Flow launches a $725 million ecosystem fund, supported by a16z, HashKey Capital, and others

On May 10, Dapper Labs' public chain Flow announced the launch of a $725 million ecosystem fund, with supporters including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), HashKey Capital, AppWorks, Cadenza Ventures, Coatue, CoinFund, Digital Currency Group (DCG), Dispersion Capital, Fabric Ventures, Greenfield One, L1 Digital, Mirana Ventures, BitDAO, OP Crypto, SkyVision Capital, Spartan Group, Union Square Ventures, and Dapper Ventures.

It is reported that Flow will support Flow developers through investments, FLOW token donations, and more, focusing on games, infrastructure, decentralized finance, content, and creator sectors to further promote ecosystem development. (Source link)

7. KuCoin completes $150 million financing at a $10 billion valuation, led by Jump Crypto

On May 10, according to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin completed $150 million in financing at a $10 billion valuation, led by Jump Crypto, with participation from Circle Ventures, IDG Capital, and Matrix Partners.

It is reported that KuCoin will use the funds to expand its product line, such as cryptocurrency wallets, DeFi, NFT platforms, and the infrastructure and applications for developing the KCC public chain. (Source link)

8. NFT infrastructure Co:Create completes $25 million seed round financing, led by a16z

On May 10, The Block reported that NFT infrastructure startup Co:Create completed $25 million in seed round financing, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with other investors including Tom Brady's NFT platform Autograph, Packy McCormick's Not Boring Capital, FTX Ventures' Amy Wu, VaynerFund, and the teams behind the NFT fractionalization platform Fractional.art and NFT studio RTFKT.

The Co:Create protocol essentially provides a smart contract platform that projects can use to mint NFTs and control royalties paid in native tokens. The initial version of Co:Create will be launched this fall. Ultimately, Co:Create plans to transition to a DAO and launch its own native token CO, transferring governance of the protocol to the community of its NFT projects. (Source link)

9. Blockchain data analytics company Chainalysis completes $170 million Series F financing, led by GIC

On May 11, according to The Information, blockchain data analytics company Chainalysis completed $170 million in Series F financing at a valuation of $8.6 billion, led by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC.

It is reported that Chainalysis provides blockchain data investigation, compliance, and risk management tools to address cybercrime cases, aiming to enable governments and financial institutions to use cryptocurrencies more safely.

Previously, Chainalysis completed a $100 million Series E financing in June 2021 at a valuation of $4.2 billion, led by Coatue; and a $100 million Series D financing in March 2021 at a valuation of over $2 billion, led by Paradigm. (Source link)

10. Investment platform Republic plans to launch a $700 million crypto fund

On May 11, investment platform Republic plans to launch two crypto-focused funds, including a $200 million venture fund and a $500 million crypto-specific fund.

The venture fund will allocate 20% of its funds for investments in cryptocurrency tokens, while the remaining 80% will be used for equity investments in web3, fintech, and deep tech. The crypto-specific fund will focus on supporting late-stage protocols.

It is reported that Republic is a platform that helps crypto projects raise funds through regulated issuance and is planning to establish a compliance-focused secondary market for digital securities. Previously, Republic completed a $150 million Series B financing led by Valor Equity Partners in October 2021 and raised over $20 million through a cryptocurrency token sale before that round. (Source link)

11. FTX founder SBF acquires 7.6% stake in Robinhood

On May 12, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried purchased 56 million shares of Robinhood, representing a 7.6% stake, becoming Robinhood's third-largest shareholder. As a result, Robinhood's stock price rose 28% in after-hours trading, with SBF's stake valued at approximately $560 million. (Source link)