ChainCatcher news, Bitcoin payment startup Breez announced the completion of a $5 million funding round, with participation from Entrée Capital, ego death capital, Plan ₿ Fund, and Timechain.According to Web3 asset data platform RootData, Breez is a provider of Lightning Network solutions, reimagining how the Lightning Network works with embedded non-custodial SDKs, allowing any company to easily integrate P2P payments and enabling users to access their Bitcoin from any device or application. With this Lightning SDK, companies can create value for users more quickly without worrying about their Lightning infrastructure, liquidity management, or on-chain interoperability.

ChainCatcher news, according to the popularity index data from the Web3 asset data platform RootData, as of January 7th, 10:00, in the Top 50 ranking of skyrocketing projects, RootData's popularity index shows that Sovrun has surged 997 places, with its Token BREED experiencing a 24-hour increase of 164.02%.Sovrun (formerly BreederDAO) has evolved from a Web3 game asset creator, dedicated to supporting the development of an ever-expanding gaming ecosystem, aimed at enhancing the capabilities of players, creators, and communities. These ecosystems are based on on-chain experiences, allowing participants to manage, create, and develop their virtual worlds without restrictions. At the core of Sovrun is the integration of value creation, technological infrastructure, and community engagement to redefine the gaming landscape. By promoting the growth of virtual economies, developing powerful frameworks and tools for creators, and deploying engaging games and applications, Sovrun paves the way for the future of autonomous worlds and on-chain gaming innovation.It is reported that RootData has launched the first "Web3 Hot Projects Ranking." This popularity ranking helps users capture the real pulse of attention through 4.3 million genuine user behavior data, improving the accuracy of user investment decisions. The ranking is calculated in real-time based on weighted factors such as the frequency of searches by platform users, project click-through rates, user votes, and the popularity and influence on the X platform.

ChainCatcher news, the stablecoin protocol Usual has completed a $1.5 million community financing round, with participation from The Echonomist, Breed Syndicate, and Comfy Capital.According to RootData, Usual is a stablecoin protocol that has launched USD, a permissionless and fully compliant stablecoin backed 1:1 by real-world assets (RWA). USUAL is a governance token that allows the community to guide the future development of the network. Usual addresses current issues in the stablecoin market by redistributing profits to the community and rewarding token holders with actual earnings generated from RWA.

ChainCatcher news, XRPL Grants announced the list of selected projects for the seventh batch, with seven projects selected for XRPL Grants Wave 7, totaling over $700,000 in funding.It is reported that the selected projects include: cryptocurrency payment infrastructure BitBob, stablecoin payment platform Breezepay, cryptocurrency consulting service provider Kodelab, multi-chain DEX and cross-chain DEX aggregator Moai Finance, decentralized exchange and tokenization platform Propto, cryptocurrency point-of-sale terminal Tender Merchant, and cross-chain key management network VWBL.

ChainCatcher news, according to China Economic Net, Ge Xiaoyan, a member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, stated that current cybercrime is accompanied by new technologies and new business formats, with the black and gray industries accelerating their iteration and upgrading. New types of cybercrime that use the metaverse, blockchain, binary futures platforms, and other gimmicks are continuously emerging, and virtual currency has become an important breeding ground for the growth and facilitation of cybercrime.

ChainCatcher news, the second session of the "Zhen" series event hosted by ChainCatcher and RootData was held today in Hong Kong. In this session, ChainCatcher invited several industry Builders and investors to discuss the theme of "New Cycle and New Narrative." Bree, the market partner of the Web3 operating system dappOS, delivered a speech titled "The operating protocol for dApps."Bree introduced that dappOS is an operating protocol designed to lower the barriers to interacting with crypto infrastructure. Through dappOS, users can enter DApps with a Web2 experience, avoiding usage friction such as mnemonic phrases, accounts that cannot be reset, and data or wallets distributed across different chains. dappOS also optimizes the seamless experience for users on Chain A when using dApps on Chain B. For example, after integrating the dappOS dApp frontend SDK into OP Perpetual, users can use and receive assets on Ethereum with only 4 clicks instead of the previous 76 clicks, reducing the time from 12 minutes to less than one minute, greatly simplifying various user operations and saving time. In addition, dappOS has launched a Mini-program Platform that allows users to view multiple assets through a unified account and complete complex operations such as cross-chain transactions, supporting cross-chain and cross-currency merged payments within the account.Currently, dappOS has integrated 15 dapps including GMX, Benqi, Perpetual, Pangolin, Kyber, and public chains like Polygon, Avalanche, and zkSync, with the number of addresses exceeding 10,000 and a total TVL exceeding 3 million USD.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency-focused investment firm Breed VC has completed fundraising for its first fund of approximately $20 million, with supporters including Castle Island Ventures, Tribe Capital, and Shima Capital.It is reported that Breed VC will focus on Pre-Seed and Seed stage financing, with interested verticals including DeFi, consumer-centric dApps, NFT infrastructure, and blockchain scaling solutions. Breed VC founder Jed Breed previously worked at Circle and helped launch the US dollar stablecoin USDC. (source link)

ChainCatcher news, according to Bitcoin Magazine, the Lightning Network solution provider Breez announced the completion of a new funding round of $4.5 million, led by ego death capital and Entrée Capital, with participation from Hivemind Ventures, Fulgur Ventures, Hawk Digital Innovation, and Bitcoiner Ventures.It is reported that Breez's Lightning Network client provides services such as Lightning Network point-of-sale software and a local podcast player, and develops Lightning Network-based applications and use cases through its non-custodial Lightning SDK. Breez has previously received investment from Seetee, a subsidiary of the Norwegian investment group Aker focused on Bitcoin. (source link)