Solv Protocol, a decentralized finance (DeFi) project that aims to bring native yield to Bitcoin and other assets, has experienced a rapid increase in April. Its total value locked (TVL) figure has surged from $114 million at the beginning of the month to $672 million as of this writing, gaining 490% in four weeks, according to data from DefiLlama. The spike propelled Solv to the top 40 DeFi protocols by TVL. Solv offers native yield to multiple networks via tokenized trading strategies, although it focuses on Bitcoin, which lacks a staking ecosystem similar to that of Ethereum. For example, u ..read more

Quick take: The campaign leverages SBINFT’s “SBINFT Mits” marketing platform to distribute NFTs and conduct giveaways without Futabasha collecting personal information. Futabasha will use the “SBINFT Mits'” marketing platform to create a campaign website and run the lottery for giveaways. All participants will receive a commemorative NFT with winners receiving a signed book and or a newly drawn coloured paper. Futabasha, the Japanese publisher of a wide range of entertainment magazines has partnered with SBI Group subsidiary SBINFT’s comprehensive NFT management support service “SBINFT Mits ..read more

Quick take: VeChain’s Marketplace-as-a-Service (MaaS) offers a no-code NFT platform for both digital and physical goods. Fans of mainstream brands can own both the memorabilia enhanced with digital features. The integration with Transak provides a seamless checkout solution for Genesis Racing’s largely web2-native community. VeChain, the blockchain focused on the tokenisation of real-world assets has integrated Transak’s Fiat on/off ramp service with its Marketplace-as-a-Service platform. The integration opens fiat-to-NFT purchases for the platform in over 160 countries and at a low purchasi ..read more

Quick take: The program is launched in partnership with the Digital Worlds Foundation. It offers incentives for exploring games in the expansive Immutable ecosystem, which currently boasts more than 270 gaming titles. Beginning April 25th, players can receive rewards by exploring quests, playing games and owning collections on Immutable. Immutable has secured $50 million in token rewards for The Quest Program, a Web3 gaming rewards program that rewards players for engaging with the Immutable ecosystem. The company expects more token commitments to come from the games building on Immutable. L ..read more

Quick take: Hack VC, Placeholder, Archetype, Maven 11, Robot Ventures, Figment Capital, Nomad Capital, Bankless Ventures, OKX Ventures, dao5, and Aptos Labs also joined the round. The fundraising is part of Movement Lab’s vision to address smart contract vulnerabilities within the Ethereum ecosystem. The company is introducing a novel execution environment capable of handling more than 30,000 transactions per second. Movement Labs has completed a $38 million Series A round to bring the Move Virtual Machine (MoveVM) to the Ethereum ecosystem, the company said in a press release on Thursday. W ..read more

Stablecoin activity continues to gain traction in 2024 as demand for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications increases. The monthly stablecoin trading volume on Ethereum alone is likely to hit the $1 trillion mark for the first time this April. As of April 25, trading volume is at over $989 billion, which is already a record five days prior to the end of the month, according to data from The Block. Ethereum-based stablecoins account for 55% of the total stablecoin market, with Tron and other chains winning significant market share. The total supply of Ethereum stablecoins has recovered to th ..read more

Quick take: The company will use the funds to accelerate the development of its platform, which helps gamers monetize their data Carv, which was last valued at $40 million in a seed round announced in 2022 did not disclose its current valuation in the latest round. The company’s modular data layer will initially focus on gaming and AI before extending support to other verticals. Carv, a modular data layer for gaming and AI has closed a $10 million Series A round led by Tribe Capital and IOSG Ventures. The fundraising also attracted participation from Arweave, Consensys, Draper Dragon, Fenbus ..read more

Quick take: The company will use the funds to accelerate the development of its platform ahead of its mainnet launch. Aligned Layer already has a testnet working with Cosmos SDK, but plans to migrate to an EigenLayer testnet in the coming weeks. The company’s UVL platform verifies proofs cheaply and quickly and then posts the results in Ethereum and any data availability layer that the developer wants. Aligned Layer, a Universal Verification Layer (UVL) being built on Ethereum has announced a $20  million Series A round led by Hack VC. The fundraising also attracted participation from D ..read more

Quick take: Merit Circle primarily looks at founder mentality to decipher who is in it for the long-term and who is looking for a “quick buck”.  The company’s treasury grew by $94 million in the first quarter, with its studio arm among one of the main drivers. Although the blockchain gaming industry is widely viewed as a genre, Marco thinks in five years, the technology may not be as widely advertised as it will be used in games. Although blockchain gaming has been one of the most resilient categories of the Web3 industry, over the past several months, there has been an emerging trend ..read more

The number of buyers of Solana-based NFTs surged to an all-time high on April 23, according to CryptoSlam data. Although Solana NFT sales in USD terms were near the lowest level since December 23, a record number of over 61,000 unique buyers acquired Solana NFTs on Tuesday.   According to CryptoSlam, one of the top collections by the number of buyers was DogeZuki Collection, which saw over 28,000 unique buyers during the last week and over 6,000 buyers during the last 24 hours. https://www.cryptoslam.io/dogezuki-collection?tab=historical_sales_volume&headerPeriod=1d DogeZuki is an NFT ..read more