Inventory of 34 projects launched on the mainnet and testnet in January
ChainCatcher has organized these projects chronologically in this article to help everyone discover quality early projects and interaction opportunities.Author: Runsheng, ChainCatcher
Since January, with the overall rebound in the prices of mainstream cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH, the crypto industry has begun to welcome a long-awaited warmth. At the same time, many projects are also continuously making efforts in construction, consistently announcing good news regarding financing, launching testnets, and mainnets. According to the crypto data platform RootData, there are a total of 34 projects that launched mainnets and testnets in January 2023, of which 21 projects launched mainnets and 13 projects launched testnets, primarily within the Ethereum, Polygon, and BNB Chain ecosystems.
Of course, this data does not represent a complete picture of the crypto ecosystem, but it mainly consists of projects with certain influence or background. ChainCatcher has organized these projects chronologically in this article to help everyone discover quality early-stage projects and interaction opportunities.
1. 21 Projects that Launched Mainnets:
On January 2, the decentralized exchange Gamut launched on the Kava mainnet. Gamut is a decentralized exchange designed specifically for volatile assets, maximizing the upside potential of positions while addressing complex DeFi challenges such as impermanent loss.
On January 5, the automated market maker Thena launched on the BNB mainnet. Thena is an automated market maker based on BNB Chain, inspired by Solidly, creating a simpler liquidity acquisition process for new and existing protocols through capital-efficient liquidity guidance.
On January 7, the lending platform Commodo, based on Comdex, launched its mainnet. Commodo is a decentralized collateralized lending platform built on Cosmos infrastructure. Any user can earn interest by depositing assets into the platform. Any user can borrow from the platform by over-collateralizing assets at a paid interest rate.
On January 10, the decentralized DeFi platform launched on the Avalanche mainnet. DeltaPrime is a decentralized lending and investment ecosystem that unlocks constrained liquidity by enhancing capital efficiency. On DeltaPrime, users can easily deposit and borrow to enhance their DeFi investment capabilities, with a minimum collateralization rate of 20% for these loans.
On January 10, the cross-chain NFT protocol Holograph officially launched on the Ethereum, Polygon, and Avalanche mainnets. Developed by CXIP Labs, Holograph mints NFTs (hNFTs) that share the same contract address and token ID across all EVM environments, enabling them to move between different EVM networks. Currently, Holograph has launched the Holograph App, allowing creators to create, deploy, mint, cross-chain, and sell multi-chain NFTs. In April 2022, Holograph completed a $6.5 million seed round led by Courtside Ventures and Wave Financial.
On January 10, the real estate derivatives protocol Parcl Protocol launched on the Solana mainnet. Parcl is a startup that digitizes real estate investment through the Solana blockchain, providing investment exposure via synthetic assets called Parcls, allowing everyone to participate in the real estate market without the burdens associated with owning or trading hard assets. In May last year, Parcl completed a $7.5 million strategic financing round with participation from Archetype, Dragonfly, Not Boring, and Solana Ventures.
On January 11, the DeFi lending protocol MYSO Finance launched its mainnet. MYSO stands for "Million Yield Structure Opportunity," aiming to combine concepts from the DeFi world with TradFi to build game-changing financial products. IKARUS, as its first product, is a non-liquidation, fixed interest, and oracle-free lending solution. On April 30, 2022, MYSO announced the completion of a $2.4 million seed round, with participation from Huobi and others.
On January 11, the liquidity NFT creation and trading hub GumBall Protocol launched on the Arbitrum mainnet. GumBall Protocol is a liquidity NFT creation and trading hub that creates a corresponding number of ERC20 tokens (GBT) for NFT collections launched on the GumBall protocol. These tokens are specific to the collectibles and are sold on a joint curve, with the liquidity from these sales retained in the joint curve for use by collectible holders. This allows users to easily swap in and out of GumBall NFT positions, stake their positions, borrow, and more.
On January 12, the decentralized customizable crowdfunding platform wagmifund launched on the Polygon mainnet. Previously, on January 3, wagmifund had just launched its testnet. WagmiFund is built on top of the Lens Protocol, allowing users to easily and quickly fund themselves, projects, and ideas. Users can customize their profile views and build personal websites in the way they envision.
On January 12, the decentralized protocol Exactly Finance launched on the Ethereum mainnet. Exactly provides a fixed and variable interest rate market, enabling users to trade the time value of their assets and complete DeFi credit markets. On the same day, Exactly completed a $2 million financing round led by Daedalus.
On January 14, Core DAO announced the launch of the Core mainnet. Core is a Turing-complete blockchain that utilizes Bitcoin mining hash rates and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The Core network aims to maintain the Bitcoin network by acting as a second BTC block reward. When Bitcoin block rewards are exhausted in 2040, the Core network will provide rewards to Bitcoin miners just as they do for Core.
On January 17, the decentralized comprehensive credit protocol Masa Finance launched its mainnet. Masa is a decentralized comprehensive credit protocol that enables on-chain credit scoring for people worldwide and allows individuals and businesses to bridge the gap between CeFi and DeFi data. Masa links traditional financial accounts and assets (credit bureau records and bank data) with cryptocurrency holdings to generate comprehensive non-fungible credit reports, enabling lenders and developers to easily obtain tools to assess borrower risk and launch loan products for individuals and businesses globally.
In May 2022, Masa completed a $3.5 million seed round. On January 17, Masa launched an Ethereum-based soulbound Web3 identity protocol aimed at minting standardized soulbound tokens on-chain for KYC verification, credit scoring, and other use cases, expanding DeFi users' opportunities to build credit and obtain loans.
On January 17, the decentralized stablecoin protocol xBacked launched on the Algorand mainnet. xBacked is a decentralized stablecoin protocol that allows anyone holding ALGO to mint xUSD, over-collateralized by assets such as ALGO, BTC, and ETH. On January 7, xBacked completed a $1.5 million seed round led by Borderless Capital.
On January 18, the Web3 asset management platform DeSyn Protocol launched on the Ethereum mainnet. DeSyn allows users to freely create and manage various smart contract-based portfolios and supports multiple asset management strategies for portfolios. Additionally, DeSyn provides a complete fundraising, investment, management, and exit process, thereby reducing the costs of creation, management, and participation.
In conjunction with this launch, DeSyn will also initiate an airdrop event of 100,000 USDT. On February 23 last year, DeSyn completed a $5 million financing round.
On January 20, the NFT lending protocol Unlockd launched on the Ethereum mainnet. Unlockd is a decentralized protocol that provides cross-chain NFT liquidity and utility for gaming, metaverse, art, and DeFi digital assets, allowing users, DAOs, investors, gamers, and guilds to maximize their NFT returns through NFT-backed instant loans while maintaining 100% holder privileges. In August 2022, Unlockd completed a $4.4 million seed round led by Blockchain Capital.
On January 21, the decentralized exchange WYND announced its launch on the Juno mainnet. WYND is a cross-chain DeFi hub for trading, earning, and building. Previously, WYND launched WYND DAO in September last year.
On January 23, the decentralized betting platform ZKasino announced its official launch on the BNB Chain and Polygon mainnets. Players can now use USDC on Polygon or BUSD on BNB Chain to bet on their favorite games.
On January 24, the decentralized exchange Zyberswap launched on the Arbitrum mainnet. Zyberswap is a decentralized exchange with an automated market maker (AMM) that allows the exchange of crypto assets at the lowest fees. At the same time, Zyberswap aims to fully involve users in decision-making, with all significant changes determined by governance voting. On February 8, Bitget globally launched the Zyberswap token ZYB and opened the ZYB/USDT trading pair.
On January 30, the DEX protocol Megaton Finance launched on the TON mainnet. Megaton is an AMM-based DEX protocol that will bring various mainnet assets into the TON ecosystem through Orbit Bridge. The governance token "MEGA" has a total issuance of 100 million, and users can obtain it through liquidity mining and exchanges (DEXs or CEXs).
On January 31, the NFT lending market aggregator and liquidity routing protocol Spice Finance launched on the Ethereum mainnet. Through lending and cross-exchange aggregation, Spice can help lenders deploy funds in the NFT market for yield.
Specifically, Spice will develop algorithmic lending strategies at the top level by aggregating all outstanding loans and liquidity pools, providing users with a simple and transparent treasury to achieve excellent NFT lending yields, greatly improving the complex and time-consuming NFT lending process. In October 2022, Spice Finance completed a $1.7 million financing round led by Shima Capital.
On January 31, the cross-chain trading and liquidity routing protocol Squid launched its mainnet. Squid is a cross-chain trading and liquidity routing protocol on the Axelar Network. Squid facilitates trading and sending any native tokens across chains using existing DEXs. Transactions can be combined with Axelar's universal messaging, allowing Squid to enable one-click trades using any asset between any application and any user. On January 31, Squid completed a $3.5 million financing round led by North Island Ventures.
2. 13 Projects that Launched Testnets:
On January 1, the leveraged yield farming aggregator EZ Finance launched its lending feature on the Aptos testnet. EZ Finance is a leveraged yield farming aggregator based on Aptos and Sui, supporting various DEXs and offering up to 5x leverage, with almost zero price impact during exchanges. On January 20, EZ Finance completed a $2.1 million private placement financing round with participation from three angel investors from Intrax Venture.
On January 2, the DeFi hub StarkDeFi launched on the StarkNet testnet. StarkDeFi is a DeFi hub based on StarkNet, aiming to increase the adoption of blockchain technology using ZK-Rollup technology. The protocol facilitates and simplifies the onboarding process for "next-generation users" in the blockchain space through a hub accommodating various DeFi solutions. StarkDeFi products include DEX, Yield Farm, NFT minting platform, staking pool, Launchpad, and more.
On January 3, the decentralized perpetual contract trading protocol Uniwhale launched on the BNB Chain testnet. Uniwhale is a decentralized perpetual contract trading platform based on oracles, allowing users to trade many mainstream crypto assets like BTC and ETH directly from their wallets, with leverage up to 200x. Users can also provide liquidity using stablecoins like BUSD, USDC, and USDT to earn actual returns from market making and leveraged trading.
According to the official introduction, users participating in the test will receive the "Uniwhale Genesis Pass" NFT airdrop, consisting of 10,000 OG member NFTs, which grant platform benefits including: a 20% discount on trading fees, a 10% reduction in trading spreads, a 5% yield increase for staking, and governance token airdrops.
On January 5, the NFT decentralized trading protocol Collection launched on the Ethereum Goerli testnet and plans to launch on the Ethereum mainnet later in the first quarter of 2023.
Collection is developed by the NFT infrastructure company Gomu, creating incentives for trading pools by grouping tokens based on features, rarity, or other attributes. Users can create automated buying and selling trading pools for NFTs based on any logic or strategy, whether through premium features, social curated lists, or other metadata, making it easier to buy and sell NFTs.
On January 9, the decentralized derivatives exchange KTX launched on the BNB Chain testnet. According to KTX, since the testnet launch less than three weeks ago, the total trading volume has exceeded $1 billion, with over 1,200 unique addresses and more than 15,000 trading orders. The testnet will continue until the mainnet launch in the first quarter of 2023, allowing traders to earn rewards while trading.
Additionally, KTX expects to launch its token KTX in the first quarter of 2023. Users who actively trade during the test period will be eligible for a KTX token airdrop. Eligible users must trade perpetual contracts with a margin of 100 BUSD within 14 days after the mainnet launch to claim their rewards.
KTX utilizes a unique multi-asset liquidity pool to achieve leveraged trading, allowing traders to use leverage up to 50x while enjoying low swap fees and no counterparty risk. Essentially, traders are trading against the KTX native liquidity pool or KLP pool. KTX aims to establish an internal OI balancing mechanism through social trading.
On January 10, the modular Ethereum Layer 2 Mantle Network launched its testnet, and developers can contact the Mantle team for registration. Mantle is incubated and developed by the BitDAO community, built with a modular architecture featuring low fees, high security, and high performance. Builders can easily create dApps on Mantle, leveraging Ethereum's security advantages.
Mantle uses the BIT token as its governance token and for paying gas fees, with no intention of launching a new Mantle token. Its goal is to bring as much value and utility to the BIT token as possible, promoting the development of the BitDAO community.
On January 16, the decentralized exchange forbitswap launched on the Aptos testnet. Forbitswap can generate AMMs and liquidity pools to facilitate P2P trading without a centralized intermediary using an order book or MOVE language. Liquidity providers can add tokens to forbitswap pools and earn fee rewards proportional to their share in the pool.
On January 18, the metaverse blockchain network Lamina1 launched its testnet. The first phase of the testnet is open to everyone to test the basic functionalities of the Lamina1 blockchain platform based on the Avalanche codebase. Lamina1 plans to release new features at a pace of 2-3 weeks while incentivizing the community to test each version through weekly challenges.
In June 2022, Lamina1 was co-founded by Neal Stephenson, the author of "Snow Crash," and Bitcoin pioneer Peter Vessenes, aiming to create an immersive 3D virtual world inspired by the novel "Snow Crash." In December last year, Lamina1 announced the launch of an ecosystem fund (L1EF) to allow startups to raise funds from angel investors.
Lamina1's early investors include Joseph Lubin, founder of ConsenSys, Peter Vessenes, founding chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, Wu Ying, the father of PHS, and Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn.
On January 20, the decentralized Optimistic oracle network Muon Network launched the ALICE testnet, which is open to everyone. Muon can execute data requests from any source and serves as a data availability network between blockchains, enabling messaging and secure data interfaces between otherwise incompatible chains.
To incentivize community members to run public nodes on the ALICE testnet, participants will be eligible to receive a free node on the Pioneer Canary network, and eligible users will receive collateral in PION tokens required to run the node. According to Muon, the ALICE testnet has had over 900 active nodes since its launch, surpassing Chainlink (86 nodes) and Band Protocol (77 validators).
On January 24, the NFT options trading platform Fetα launched its testnet. Fetα allows users to write and trade on-chain NFT options and aims to become the most user-friendly NFT options trading platform with a simple design. In April 2022, Fetα proposed a new ERC721 compatible standard: ERC721C, claiming it could save about 30% on gas fees for the most common NFT trades.
On January 28, the decentralized index perpetual contract trading platform DIPX launched on the Polygon testnet and is open to everyone. All eligible testnet users will receive DIPX governance tokens and DIPX Genesis Pass whitelist rewards.
Users can trade BTC and ETH price indices on DIPX using other crypto assets, with leverage up to 100x, and the platform's optimized design can provide unlimited liquidity. Traders can use dipx.io directly from their wallets without needing to pledge any assets to the platform.
On January 31, the Sui ecosystem domain name service Sui Name Service (SuiNS) launched on the Sui testnet, allowing users to register domain names on the testnet. According to the official website, the number of independent wallet addresses for Sui Name Service has exceeded 290,000, with over 340,000 registered domain names.
Anthony, founder and CEO of StorkLabs, the developer of SuiNS, has stated that the SNS token is expected to be issued in the third quarter of 2023, with a total supply of 100 million, of which 25% will be airdropped to the community and 75% will be allocated to core contributors and the project treasury. On October 14, 2022, SuiNS completed a seed round financing with participation from Mysten Labs, but the specific amount has not been disclosed.
On January 31, the decentralized derivatives protocol Vega Protocol launched a mainnet stress test. Users can earn rewards of up to 150,000 VEGA by completing designated tasks, and Vega will launch the Alpha mainnet as soon as the testing is completed.
Vega is built on the Tendermint consensus algorithm, offering trading products including futures and options. Modules built using Vega can achieve open access and lower costs, allowing anyone to create trading markets on any underlying asset and attract liquidity through liquidity incentive mechanisms. In July 2021, Vega Protocol completed a $43 million public fundraising round.
