Big Investments in the Bear Market

Good morning. Today we've got multiple stories on growth/funding in this bear market. First, a16z and Variant team up to back a new DeFi lending platform. Second, Pomp comes out of "stealth mode" with a recruiting firm, and lastly, a crypto wallet firm spins off part of their business and lands $100 million. All that and more today!

Market Update (as of 8:54am ET):

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Top 5:

1. A16z, Variant Lead $18M round for lending protocol Morpho Labs. It may be crypto winter pt. 2, but some venture funds are still bullish. a16z and Variant led an $18 million funding round, along with 80 other investors, in decentralized lending protocol Morpho Labs. Morpho plugs into existing lending protocols like Compound and Aave to offer higher yields via peer-to-peer lending. The protocol "directly matches suppliers and borrowers...unlocking rates that are competitive both on and off-chain," according to Variant co-founder Spencer Noon.

2. Anthony Pompliano's crypto recruitment firm raises $12.6 million and buys rival. Inflection Point, Pomp's crypto recruitment firm that was operating in "stealth mode", has raised $12.6 million and is acquiring rival firm Proof of Talent, founded by Rob Paone. According to a press release, the company has been profitable since inception and has done seven figures in revenue. The company previously operated as PompCryptoJobs with a job board and crypto training being offered to users.

3. BlockFi quickly reverses plan to stop accepting GBTC as collateral. The struggling crypto lender announced on Tuesday that they would stop accepting shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) as collateral for loans before backpedaling with a statement clarifying that, "we are not saying that we won't support GBTC as collateral moving forward." The company previously had significant exposure to the product which at one point was trading at a 34% discount to NAV. BlockFi has been unwinding this exposure in an effort to de-risk their holdings after the market downturn.

4. Gnosis spinoff Safe gets $100M to further ecosystem. More bear market funding...this time in the crypto wallet space. Gnosis Safe, an Ethereum-based multi-signature smart contract wallet allows multiple users to securely store funds, with many DAOs using the project to manage treasury assets. A community vote earlier this year spun off the Gnosis Safe project from Gnosis Ltd. and rebranded the product as Safe. The Safe Ecosystem Foundation, which was created as part of the community vote to foster the Safe ecosystem, is the entity picking up the $100 million round of funding led by early-stage crypto fund 1kx. Safe plans to use the funds to expand the ecosystem of applications and tools being built on its smart contract account protocol.

5. Solana NFT marketplace Magic Eden launches gaming venture arm. The largest NFT marketplace in the Solana ecosystem is deploying funds to launch a venture investment arm focused specifically on web3 gaming. The company hired Tony Zhao of Chinese gaming giant Tencent to serve as its head of gaming investments. When game developers sign with Magic Eden, they will enter an ecosystem that provides a marketplace for new NFT sales and a secondary marketplace for ongoing trading. From Zhao:

We're not thinking about returns—never have and never will, it's just to align our partnership together, right? We truly want to be the go-to partners for these developers.

Updates and other stories:
- Celsius pays off Aave loan, moves $418M 'stETH' stack to unknown wallet...Read More
- Vermont regulator joins ‘multistate investigation’ into Celsius...Read More
- US Treasury opens door for public comments on Biden’s crypto order...Read More

Top Sharers of the Crypto Top 5:
1. Donna Y. - Nashville, TN
2. Jake Y. - Greenville, SC
3. Forrest H. - Evansville, IN

External Resources:
1. Cryptopedia from Gemini - if you see a word, acronym, or phrase in this newsletter that you don't understand, there's a good chance you can find an explanation here
2. Crypto Explainer+ - intro level courses on Bitcoin, Ethereum, decentralized finance, NFTs, and more
3. Crypto Jobs! - looking for a new job? Check out this page from Anthony Pompliano with hundreds, if not thousands of listings

Disclaimer: The information contained in this newsletter shall not be understood or construed as financial advice. I am not an attorney, accountant, or financial advisor, nor am I holding myself out to be, and the information provided is not a substitute for financial advice from a professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation.