This Week In DeFi - May 27

This week, a16z raises a record $4.5B for its fourth crypto fund, Terra 2.0 is on the way and StarkWare reaches an $8B valuation.

May 27

To the DeFi community,

This week a16z has raised a mammoth $4.5 billion for its fourth crypto fund – also its largest to date. The fund will be split into $1.5 billion for seed investments and $3 billion for venture financing. Overall, the fund will focus on web3 gaming, DeFi, decentralized social media, zero-knowledge proofs, self-sovereign identity and more.

AriannaSimpson.eth @AriannaSimpson

Today we are announcing a16z crypto Fund 4. We’ve raised $4.5B to invest in promising web3 founders and startups, bringing our total crypto funds raised to more than $7.6B. 💪 a16zcrypto.com/crypto-fund-fo…

Crypto Fund 4 - a16z cryptoa16z crypto is a venture capital fund that invests in crypto and web3 startups. We back bold entrepreneurs building the next generation of the internet (what many call web3), which unlocks a new wave of creativity and entrepreneurship.a16zcrypto.com

Ethereum Layer-2 scaling platform developer StarkWare has reached an impressive $8 billion valuation, following a $100 million Series D raise. The raise quadrupled StarkWare’s previous valuation of $2 billion, with Greenoaks Capital and Coatue leading the round.

StarkWare @StarkWareLtd

We are thrilled to announce our $100M Series D at an $8B valuation. We would like to thank Greenoaks and Coatue - our lead investors, Tiger Global, and many of our existing investors, for their vote of confidence in the technology, products, and ecosystem that we’re building.

Tether has launched a new stablecoin pegged to the Mexican peso – its fourth fiat-pegged stable token. Chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino says that Tether made the move after noticing an uptick in cryptocurrency use across Latin America throughout the last year. The token, MXNT, will launch on Ethereum, Tron and Polygon.

Stacy Herbert 🇸🇻 @stacyherbert

Tether peso has launched This gives all the unbanked Mexican businesses and individuals a way to on and off ramp into bitcoin; now when they receive bitcoin as payment, they can still pay their peso bills w/o a bank account

Leones de BFX - Comunidad @BFXLeosESP

🚨BREAKING🚨 @Tether_to anunció el lanzamiento de #MXNt, un stablecoin que tendrá paridad 1:1 con el peso mexicano🇲🇽 "Una stablecoin vinculada al peso proporcionará una reserva de valor para aquellos en los mercados emergentes y, en particular, en México", dijo @paoloardoino 📢 https://t.co/d3uZh2EecE

Do Kwon's new, UST-less version of the Terra blockchain will go ahead, following 65.5% of voting power being in favor of a replacement Terra platform. Multiple major exchanges have also indicated that they will support the chain, while the original Terra blockchain will be known as “Terra Classic” going forward.