OpenReserve raised $25M in a seed round led by a16z crypto to build a blockchain-native US national bank with OCC approval and a compliant
CryptoBriefing•Editorial Team3 Sept
Argentina's stablecoin adoption highlights a shift towards digital financial systems, reflecting deep currency distrust and influencing global trends.
CryptoBriefing•Editorial Team31 Aug
Crypto payment card spending has jumped 2.5 times from a year earlier to reach $759 million in July, supported by nearly 9 million purchases settled mainly through dollar-backed stablecoins. A16z crypto reported the figures using data from Paymentscan, which tracks…
ARK Invest’s director of research disputed a16z crypto’s thesis that traditional finance will adopt permissioned blockchain infrastructure instead of decentralized finance, saying institutions will increasingly rely on DeFi rails.
Cointelegraph•Cointelegraph by Yohan Yun16 Jul
The rapid growth of tokenized assets signals a transformative shift in finance, potentially expanding DeFi markets and influencing regulatory frameworks.
CryptoBriefing•Editorial Team15 Jul
The intellectual-property blockchain that raised $140 million led by a16z crypto is migrating its $IP token to $DATA one-to-one and integrating data marketplace Kled, registering 1.1 billion user records on the network.
The Defiant•The Defiant Team25 Jun
Prediction markets set a weekly trading record as volume reached $10.8 billion, according to A16z crypto. The surge coincided with major finance, sports, and geopolitical events, with activity topping the $10 billion mark for the first time. Prediction Markets Hit a Record $10.8 Billion in Weekly Trading Volume Data from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz’s […]
Bitcoin.com News•Kevin Helms20 Jun
Digital Asset has closed a $355 million funding round led by a16z crypto, with HSBC, Apollo, CME, BNP Paribas, ADIA, ABN Amro, S&P Global, Tradeweb and more than 20 other institutional names joining as investors.
The Defiant•The Defiant Team11 Jun
Morpho Association has raised $175 million in a round co-led by Paradigm, a16z Crypto, and Ribbit Capital, with Apollo Funds and VanEck among the strategic participants. The round, which values Morpho at $2 billion, is among the largest fundraises in DeFi history.
The Defiant•The Defiant Team9 Jun
The digital cooperative governing Uniswap, the biggest decentralised exchange, is voting on a proposal to take back some $42 million worth of governance tokens from delegates. Between 2022 and 2023, Uniswap’s decentralised autonomous organisation, or DAO, loaned out 12.5 million UNI to the nonprofit Uniswap Foundation and several top delegates in a bid to boost governance participation. According to Erin Koen, the proposal’s author and governance lead at Uniswap Labs, the protocol’s governance is now much more active, meaning that the loaned tokens have served their purpose. “Today, Uniswap’s governance environment looks very different,” Koen said. “UNI holders have been actively delegating voting power, and since DUNI was established, passed proposals have averaged roughly 75 million votes in turnout, exceeding quorum by approximately 88%.” DUNI, Uniswap’s Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association, is a legal entity that recognises onchain governance votes as legally binding and shields DAO members from personal liability for collective decisions. Truly decentralised? The proposal to take back the loaned tokens comes as Uniswap Labs and the Uniswap Foundation work to address criticism that the protocol’s governance system isn’t as decentralised as it appears to be. Critics have previously argued that the Uniswap Foundation holds too much influence. They say it often makes key decisions unilaterally or pushes proposals without sufficient community input. Others lament how much of the decision-making at the DAO happens behind the scenes, and how large token holders and venture capital firms — in Uniswap’s case a16z crypto — dominate voting power, creating circumstances where smaller holders have little real say. The situation has even attracted the attention of US Representatives. Sean Casten, a Democrat from Illinois, questioned Uniswap DAO’s decentralisation during a hearing regarding the Clarity Act in June. Misalignment issue In response, Uniswap Labs and the Uniswap Foundation authored a proposal aiming to align incentives across Uniswap Labs, the Foundation, and the DAO, which passed a DAO vote in December. Its main objectives are to add fees to the Uniswap protocol and use the proceeds to buy UNI tokens and remove them from circulation, accelerate protocol growth, and to merge the Uniswap Labs and the Foundation, among other things. That, in addition to other changes, such as setting up a legal entity for the DAO, incentivising governance participation, and reforming governance processes are all aimed at increasing governance decentralisation. There are now 56 delegates with greater than 1 million UNI of voting power, according to data compiled by Snapshot, a DAO voting platform. Taking back the loaned governance tokens also resolves a potential incentive misalignment, Koen said. When the tokens were distributed, the Uniswap community selected delegates based on their participation in governance. However, it didn’t ensure alignment between delegates’ voting power and economic exposure. In other words, delegates with little of their own skin in the game could potentially command an outsized amount of voting power in the DAO. “The potential for this misalignment should not persist indefinitely when the original reason for implementing it is no longer a concern,” Koen said. The vote to return the governance tokens to the DAO ends on May 8. So far, 53% of votes have been cast in favour, 46% voting to abstain, and a negligible amount against the proposal. Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com .
