Daily Report | New Senate Bill: Venture capital investing over $25 million in DeFi projects must hold DeFi platforms accountable for sanctions violations; Manta Network developer p0x labs completes $25 million Series A funding at a valuation of $500 million

Organizer: Grapefruit, ChainCatcher

"What Important Events Happened in the Last 24 Hours"

1. New U.S. Senate Bill: Venture Capital Investing Over $25 Million in DeFi Projects Must Hold DeFi Platforms Accountable for Sanction Violations

According to ChainCatcher, U.S. Democratic Senators Jack Reed and Mark Warner, along with Republican Senators Mike Rounds and Mitt Romney, have jointly introduced a new Senate bill that imposes strict anti-money laundering (AML) requirements on DeFi protocols. The bill also plans to require DeFi protocols to implement bank-like controls over their user base, necessitating that entities controlling DeFi conduct due diligence and collect information about their customers, maintain AML programs, report suspicious activities to the government, and prevent sanctioned individuals from using their protocols.

The bill will also require venture capital firms and other large investors to be held accountable for sanction violations occurring on DeFi platforms in certain cases, to prevent criminals from using DeFi for money laundering and evading sanctions. If a sanctioned individual (e.g., a Russian oligarch) uses DeFi services to circumvent U.S. restrictions, the individuals controlling the DeFi project will be held liable for facilitating the violations. If no one controls the service, this liability will shift to investors who have invested over $25 million in the project. (Source link)

2. Tesla Payment Page Source Code Shows Bitcoin, Unclear if It's New

According to ChainCatcher, Tesla's official website shows that the word "bitcoin" appears in the source code of its payment page. The last update of this code file was on July 11, but this does not indicate that the "bitcoin" related code was added on that date, nor can it prove whether the related code was removed after the support was canceled in May 2021. Additionally, Tesla had previously included "doge" related terms in the payment page source code, but ultimately only supported it for purchasing merchandise. Therefore, whether Bitcoin payments are accepted should be confirmed by relevant announcements and displays on the front end.

Previously, ChainCatcher reported that Tesla announced support for Bitcoin payments for car purchases on March 24, 2021, and later stated on May 13 of the same year that it would cancel support for this payment method.

3. EthSign Opens Free Access to Common Contract Template Library for Web3 Industry Users

According to ChainCatcher, the decentralized electronic agreement signing platform EthSign has officially announced the launch of its Contract Library. The library features a selection of the most commonly used legal contract templates in the Web3 industry, created by top law firms and renowned legal professionals, including Cooley LLP (the creator of the SAFT white paper for Web3 project financing), and is provided free of charge to all users.

Currently available templates include: employment agreements for hiring, inviting consultants, or providing token grants; fundraising agreements, such as Simple Agreements for Future Tokens (SAFT) or Simple Agreements for Future Equity (SAFE); commercial transaction agreements, such as event sponsorship or terms of use; and intellectual property protection agreements, such as unilateral or mutual non-disclosure agreements (NDA), among others.

Additionally, EthSign will integrate the Contract Library into its upcoming upgraded product EthSign Next in the coming weeks, allowing users to directly select templates, prepare contracts, and send them to co-signers. (Source link)

4. Web3 and Blockchain Solution Cosmic Wire Completes $30 Million Seed Round Financing, Led by Solana Foundation and Polygon

According to ChainCatcher, Web3 and blockchain solution Cosmic Wire has completed a $30 million seed round financing, led by the Solana Foundation and Polygon.

It is reported that this round of financing will be used to drive Cosmic Wire's development of decentralized applications and expand the Web3 ecosystem. (Source link)

5. Manta Network Developer p0x Labs Completes $25 Million Series A Financing at a $500 Million Valuation, Co-led by Polychain Capital and Qiming Venture Partners

According to ChainCatcher, techcrunch reports that Manta Network developer p0x Labs has completed a $25 million Series A financing at a $500 million valuation, co-led by Polychain Capital and Qiming Venture Partners, with participation from Alliance, CoinFund, and SevenX Ventures.

It is reported that this round of financing will be used to expand the ZK Layer 1 blockchain of Manta Pacific and Manta Atlantic to achieve compliant on-chain privacy. (Source link)

"What Excellent Articles Are Worth Reading in the Last 24 Hours"

1. "RootData: 9 Emerging Crypto Venture Capital Firms Not to Be Ignored in a Bear Market"

In recent months, the crypto investment and financing market has been sluggish, with financing amounts hitting new lows, with a total financing amount of only $507 million in June, which is even less than the single financing amounts of some projects at the beginning of 2022. Behind this is the conservative and cautious investment strategy adopted by crypto venture capital firms during market turbulence, even pausing investments, in an attempt to readjust their investment strategies when the market becomes clearer.

However, amidst the overall market downturn, many emerging crypto venture capital firms have also emerged, providing richer options for early-stage crypto projects. They are going against the trend, helping projects grow with a faster investment frequency during the bear market, betting on the next bull market's hundredfold projects. In this ebb and flow, crypto venture capital firms may also face a new round of reshuffling.

In this article, RootData will review emerging crypto venture capital firms established or becoming active in 2022, introducing 9 promising new venture capital firms.

2. "Short-term Benefits vs. Signs of Recovery: Is Solana Summer Here Again?"

The warming on the Solana chain has ignited optimistic sentiments in the community, with calls of "SOL GOOD," even believing this marks the reopening of "Solana Summer." But is the continuous growth of Solana's TVL driven by short-term regulatory policy benefits and FOMO sentiment, or is Solana really poised for a comeback, and is this a good start?

This article reviews the development dynamics of the Solana ecosystem over the past six months to explore whether Solana's recovery truly has signs to follow.

3. "Which zkEVM Performs Best? How Should Developers Choose?"

As the holy grail of scalability, zkEVM has a crucial impact on developers' contract deployment experience. Faced with a plethora of ZK rollups projects, how should developers choose?

By deploying smart contracts (one Solidity smart contract and one NFT contract) on currently popular ZK rollups projects, the performance of zkEVM for projects like Taiko, Polygon, Linea, Scroll, and ZkSync Era was tested, comparing their respective advantages and disadvantages and the time taken for L2 to L1 transactions, providing a practical guide for developers looking to try deploying layer two contracts.