Quick Take
Starkware confirms Starknet token launch.
GameStop NFT hits $1 million in 24-hour volume.
Pods Finance releases Pods Yields vault.
Animoca Brands raises $75 million.
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Starkware Confirms Starknet Token
Starkware has confirmed the launch of its native Starknet token. The news comes after 3AC founder Zhu Su revealed details about Starkware token warrants in a letter to liquidators. The Starknet token will have a total supply of 10 billion with an ERC-20 version coming to Ethereum. The token distribution includes 17% for StarkWare investors, 32.9% for Starknet software developer partners, and 50.1% for a newly created Foundation. The foundation’s allocation is further broken down into 9% for StarkEx L2 users, 9% for community rebates, 12% for Starknet grants, 10% for ecosystem activities, 2% for donations, and 8.1% unallocated. The token is part of Starkware’s road to decentralization and will be used for governance, transaction fee payments on the network, and staking. Starkware plans to launch the token in September of this year. Next year, the company will release token allocations to the community based on verifiable work.
GameStop NFT Marketplace Hits $1 Million Volume
GameStop’s launched a public beta release of its NFT marketplace this week, generating more than $1 million in 24-hour volume. The non-custodial marketplace is built on Loopring’s Ethereum-based L2 network, enabling low-fee transactions. The marketplace has already surpassed Coinbase NFT’s all-time volume of 1,704 ETH. Users can connect to the marketplace with a browser-based wallet, including GameStop’s own wallet browser extension. GameStop earns a 2.25% fee for each sale as part of the marketplace fee. In February, GameStop partnered with L2 network Immutable X which included a fund of up to $100 million in IMX by Immutable.
Pods Finance Releases Pods Yields
Pods Finance, a decentralized options protocol, has launched its first Pods Yields vaut. Coined stETHvv, the vault focuses on ETH accumulation using a weekly stETH strangle to capitalize on volatility. A strangle is an options strategy in which both a call and a put option are held with different strike prices. Pods is opening the vault gradually with an initial cap of 500 stETH. The code is not yet fully audited. Pods finance supports vaults on Arbitrum, Ethereum and Polygon. Pods Finance is a Brazil-based DeFi protocol seed funded by Boost VC and The LAO.
Animoca Brands Raises $75 Million
Game publisher Animoca Brands has raised $75 million in fresh capital at a $5.9 billion valuation. The funding was the second part of a previous round in January, which raised close to $360 million at a $5.5 billion valuation. The company’s valuation has more than doubled from a $2.2 billion valuation in October 2021. Animoca Brands said it will use the fund for acquisitions, investments, and product development. The company also plans to secure licenses for IP rights in popular projects. Animoca Brands’s investments include more than 150 NFT-related projects including The Sandbox, OpenSea, and NBA Top Shot.
Aztec Network Website Refresh
Aztec Network, a privacy-focused ZK-rollup, updated its website after the launch of Aztec Connect. The Aztec team is the inventor of Plonk, an industry-standard universal zk-SNARK. More than 6k users have made deposits into its zk.money privacy dapp. In total, users have deposited more than 1500 ETH into the rollup.
