The Weekly Wrap - 8th July 2022

Celsius Pays Off $183M in Debt to Maker 

Troubled Lending Platform Seeks to Unlock Collateral

Crypto lending platform Celsius has reportedly paid off $183M worth of debt to Maker in its stablecoin DAI. The move was made to unlock Bitcoin collateral that Celsius had locked in the platform. The platform received 2000 wrapped BTC of collateral worth $40M in return for the repayment. This does not represent the entirety of Celsius’ debt to Maker with 41M DAI still owed.  

Celsius had lent more than $8B worth of assets to its users by May this year. Last month, Celsius halted all user withdrawals to prevent the platform from becoming insolvent. Its native token CEL fell by around 80% as a result. The platform has also fired 150 employees in an attempt to remain solvent.

Konvoy Ventures Launches $150M Web 3 Fund

VC Firm Makes Metaverse/Web3 Bid  

Venture Capital firm Konvoy Ventures has announced the launch of a new $150M web3 fund. The fund will have a particular focus on the development of metaverse gaming projects. It will also allow the firm to expand its operations in Asian and Latin American markets. 

Managing partner Jackson Vaughn stated that the fund will allow the group to focus on “new types of companies and technologies”. He also stated that the web 3 industry represents an enormous opportunity for the group. Over the last 7 months, around $140B has been invested into metaverse related projects. 

Aave Set to Launch Overcollaterlised Stablecoin

DeFi Giant Set to Move into Stablecoin Market.   

Popular DeFi protocol Aave has announced plans to launch its own stablecoin and now awaits  the approval of a DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) vote. The stablecoin (GHO), will be a decentralised and collateral-backed token native to the ecosystem. At the time of writing, Aave’s TVL stands at around $6.6B.

Investors however may be hesitant to adopt this token in the wake of the collapse of Terra’s UST stablecoin. The proposal has described that the token would be “backed by a diversified set of crypto-assets,”, but similar projects have been known to topple even with this approach to collateral. 

DeFi Protocol ‘Tenderize’ Raises $3M

DeFi Staking Protocol Has Successful Seed Round

Tenderize, a protocol offering staking derivatives, has raised $3M in a seed investment round led by VC firm Eden Block, The Block reports. Other investors included Figment, Daedalus and TRGC. The protocol focuses on liquid staking solutions that allow users to trade tokens without having to unstake them. 

Much of the funding will contribute to the team’s development of wallet and exchange functionality, in addition to working with custodial staking partners. The group’s co-founder Nico Vergauwen stated “For the longest time, users had to choose between liquidity and staking rewards/securing their network. With Tenderize’s liquid staking, users have both.” The concept of liquid staking solutions has grown in popularity since the beginning of the year, with Coinbase reportedly in the process of developing its own solution.