This Week In DeFi – July 29

This week, Variant raises $450M for two new crypto funds, Unstoppable Domains acquires unicorn status and Velodrome passes $100M in TVL on Optimism.

Jul 29

To the DeFi community,

This week, another crypto venture firm swings big as Variant announces the launch of two new funds – powered by a total $450 million in capital. Variant raised $300 million for a so-called “opportunity” fund, along with a further $150 million for an early-stage startup fund.

The funds will focus on projects that fall into or more of the following categories: DeFi, blockchain infrastructure, consumer applications in Web3 and experimentation with new forms of ownership.

Jasman @Jasman625

gm. so pumped to share the news that @variantfund has raised $450M in fresh funds to support entrepreneurs building in crypto.

Introducing Variant Fund III – Variantvariant.fund

NFT domain provider Unstoppable Domains has reached “unicorn status” after a $65 million Series A funding round, valuing the company at $1 billion. The round was led by Pantera Capital, with further contributions from a multitude of notable names including Polygon, CoinGecko, Spartan Group and more.

Unstoppable Domains will use its fresh funding to reduce the friction of crypto payments between apps and to build a loyalty reward program.

unstoppable.nft @unstoppableweb

1/ BIG NEWS 🦄🦄🦄 We’re excited to share that we’ve raised $65 million - at a $1 billion valuation - in a Series A led by @PanteraCapital! 🚀 This is a huge milestone for NFT domains and further validation for user-owned digital identity. 🧵👇or blog: unstoppabledomains.com/blog/ud-raises…

Major staking protocol Lido DAO has rejected a proposed deal with Dragonfly Capital, which would have sold 10 million LDO tokens at $1.45 each. The proposal was turned down via LDO holder governance, with many arguing that the firm would be getting “free money” from the deal.

They may have been right, with LDO surging all the way up to $2.42 at the time of writing – almost 67% above the proposed price.

Miles Deutscher @milesdeutscher

Lido DAO just rejected a $14m deal with @dragonfly_cap. But, the deal was almost forced through by a mysterious whale who threatened to override the voting, despite public outcry. 🧵: With serious runway concerns brewing, what's in store for the future of $LDO and $ETH? 👇

Competition amongst decentralized exchanges (DEXes) is heating up on Layer-2 Ethereum scaling platform Optimism, as Velodrome reaches more than $100 million in total value locked (TVL) this week.

The figure puts Velodrome at the #2 spot for TVL on any DApp on Optimism, beating the more-established Uniswap.

Jack Niewold 🫡 @JackNiewold

It's been way cool watching @VelodromeFi execute a plan that people are finally starting to understand and appreciate. Here are the puzzle pieces I'm seeing come together as I watch the 'Velodrome Wars':

The market has bounced back with force over the last week, despite the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates by another 0.75%. The total DeFi market cap – according to CoinGecko – has reclaimed the $50 billion level, while funding rounds continue to close successfully across the ecosystem for new projects.

Most notably, Variant has raised almost half a billion dollars across two DeFi/Web3 focused funds – indicating there continues to be no shortage of interest in the sector among investors.

Similarly, lending protocols have continued to acquire funding and adoption, even as CeFi lending giants such as Celsius go under. Coinbase and Kraken have backed CLST, a new institution-focused digital asset lending platform. Similar (but uncollateralized) platform Clearpool has expanded to Polygon, allowing institutions to access decentralized liquidity pools without collateral.

Overall, it appears that institutional interest in DeFi and CeFi is refusing to die out – even after the recent bloodbath. Whether retail traders follow or not, may be another question.

Will we immediately see a recovery boom, or is this crypto winter going to be longer than anticipated?