OKX Blockdream Ventures monthly report — May 2022

OKX Blockdream Ventures Portfolios in May

SSV Network

Project overview

• The SSV Network is a decentralized staking infrastructure that enables the distributed operations of Ethereum validators. An open-source protocol for simple and scalable access to decentralized ETH staking, SSV has years of experience running large-scale blockchain infrastructure and operating an Ethereum staking service.

• SSV is short for Secret Shared Validators. The SSV Network consists of three main pillars: stakers, operators and DAO members.

• The SSV team is preparing to launch its testnet V2, which will be the last test version before the mainnet. After the launch, the team will introduce an incentivized testnet program to scale and test the code’s limitations. 

Project highlights

• SSV solves staking issues and eliminates staking risks by allowing users with no prior knowledge of blockchain technology to effectively and securely create and distribute a validator over multiple nodes. It achieves active-active redundancy without violating Ethereum protocol rules. More importantly, it provides a fault-tolerant, slashing-free and decentralized security layer that allows stakers to know whether their validator is safely attesting online while they are asleep at night.

• SSV radically changes private-key security and validator liveness. It proposes innovative methods that allow both stakers and operators to earn profits — while staying true to the spirit of decentralization.

• The SSV DAO is currently offering grants to teams and builders who wish to build next-gen staking services on top of the SSV protocol.

Investment logic

• Operators and stakers can take dual roles. Not only can they stake ETH but can also assist other users to manage assets.

• With SSV, the Ethereum staking network can become more secure and robust without losing decentralization. SSV can essentially become a great complement to Ethereum’s validator system.

everFinance

Project overview

• everFinance is a decentralized financial services provider for everyone — offering everPay, Permaswap and more.

Project highlights

• everPay is a real-time financial protocol built on Arweave. It locks crypto assets from public chains into smart contracts, then maps them into the everPay protocol for transfers and payments. For 1 million transactions, everPay can reduce the transaction cost to as low as $1. Meanwhile, the Storage-based Consensus Paradigm, or SCP, elevates everPay’s performance and allows it to compete with traditional internet applications in terms of transactions per second.

• Permaswap is the first cross-chain DEX on Arweave. Permaswap is an omnipresent peer-to-peer exchange with 100% permanence and 0% slippage. Its primary goal is to provide decentralized exchange services for the Arweave ecosystem and improve the liquidity of Arweave-native assets. 

• The Permaswap Network is a fully decentralized peer-to-peer network. Any individual or institution may deploy programs and provide liquidity to the network. Traders can trade on Permaswap without a gas fee or MEV issues. Furthermore, it provides multiple automated market maker algorithms and allows liquidity providers to adjust their market-making strategies to flexibly protect their assets.

Investment logic

It is always a significant innovation to refactor the AMM. Inspired by Arweave’s SmartWeave, everFinance proposed the SCP theory. Following that, it adopts a new architecture to build decentralized applications different from the traditional on-chain VM model. This gives other DApps a development sample and may “break the impossible triangle and provide users with a perfect experience,” according to the founder and CEO of everFinance.

WAX

Project overview

WAX Studios is building a multi-chain Web3 platform that includes a wallet, NFT marketplace, NFT exchange, blockchain games and 3D metaverse.

Project highlights

• The core of the WAX platform is a multi-chain cloud wallet, which now has more than 13 million accounts and more than 500,000 daily active users. 

• WAX Studio’s first game, Blockchain Brawlers, has generated more than $14 million from nonfungible tokenNonfungible tokens, or NFTs, are tokens representing some digital asset that reside on a blockchain linked to a distinct digital... sales and is among the top 25 games across all blockchains on DappRadar for number of daily users. The game will soon move from its “mining phase” to a player-versus-player phase — which is developed by Richard Garfield, a well-known game designer and the creator of Magic: The Gathering.

Investment logic

WAX Studios views itself as a Web3 version of Epic Games. It develops high-quality content utilizing in-house tools while making those tools available as a service to third-party developers. 

Sweatcoin

Project overview

Sweatcoin is a free app that rewards daily steps with a new-generation currency. It can be spent on products, donated to charity or converted into SWEAT tokens.

Sweatcoin plans to build centrally, attract users, deploy the product and move toward Web3. 

Project highlights

• Fiscal incentives are a method for changing movement habits. SWEAT is one of the main reasons why people download the app and use it to get quantifiable and objective rewards. Furthermore, it brings in something far deeper and more powerful: It changes people’s living habits and thoughts.

• Sweatcoin has real power. It allows people to care about their movement and health, and is good for the economy — which is a win-win.

Investment logic

The foundation includes all the founders of Sweatcoin, which was based upon the data: 90M+ users, $165M exchanged in eight months on the in-app marketplace for SWEAT, a top app in 45 countries, and users are 20% more active after downloading the app.

AlienSwap

Project overview

AlienSwap is a truly community-based NFT marketplace with a membership program. It gives 100% revenue back to the community. All collectors and artists can enjoy the trading and get rewards.

Project highlights

• AlienSwap develops a feature where users can experience bulk trading and batch listing in the NFT marketplace, which was clamored by OpenSea’s community — but not yet implemented by OpenSea.

• AlienSwap will support NFT aggregation. Then, users can get liquidity from multiple NFT markets to ensure the best deal.

• On the AlienSwap NFT marketplace, users will be rewarded with trading-fee bonuses and trading rewards. Its rates are lower than the mainstream market’s, too.

• Users can get an AlienSwap Pass and become the first VIPs on the membership-based NFT market.

Investment logic

AlienSwap is a developing an NFT marketplace built around the community. AlienSwap and its community members may eventually accomplish the unmet needs of current NFT markets. 

Crypto market and investment insights 

1. Institutions evade fluctuation and risk.

Market insights

• The total amount of funds raised in May was $1.43 billion, with a month-on-month decrease of 78.6%.

• $28.8 billion was raised in the first five months of 2022, compared with $7.85 billion in 2021 — with a year-on-year increase of +291.46%.

Source: Footprint

As for the number of investments: 

• The sum of investments in May was 82, with a year-on-year decrease of 66.3%. It was the lowest month since April 2021.

• Web3, infrastructure and NFTs were the three largest sectors.

• Source: Footprint

Despite the tumbling market, institutional investors have raised sufficient funds. a16z announced a $4.5 billion USD fundraising effort for crypto and blockchain startups — totaling over $7.6 billion.

Blockdream Ventures outlook

According to the data, institutional investors seem to be evading fluctuations and risks, retaining funds and preparing for more secure investments. Startup teams may keep polishing the products with more confidence.

2. On-chain Bitcoin and Ethereum metrics are still relatively healthy

Market insights

According to Glassnode, in May, Bitcoin’s on-chain fundamental metrics were:

• The number of active addresses (monthly) in May was 16.99 million, with an increase of 3.8% when compared to April’s 16.36 million.

• The number of transactions (monthly) in May was 8.05 million, with an increase of 2.94% compared to 7.82 million in April.

• Total transaction fees in May were 517.7 — with an increase of 65.8% compared to 312.2 in April.

• The number of addresses holding more than 0.1 BTC hit a record high of 10.06 million, compared to 285 million three years ago.

• Bitcoin’s overall network activity remains healthy and growing.

Source: Glassnode

Ethereum’s on-chain fundamentals remain strong:

• The number of active addresses (monthly) in May was 7.22 million, with an increase of 9.23% compared to 6.61 million in April.

• The number of transfers (monthly) in May was 17.5 million, with an increase of 1.92% compared to 17.17 million in April.

• The mean transaction gas price in May was 67.9 gwei, with an increase of 23.9% compared to 54.8 gwei in April.

• Ethereum’s overall network activity remains healthy.

Source: Glassnode

Blockdream Ventures outlook

The on-chain metrics for Bitcoin and Ethereum are still relatively healthy, and real users are still growing steadily — which represents the healthy growth of the industry.

 3. Explosive growth of NFTs spurred marketplaces 

Market insights:

• The explosion of NFTs spurred on many marketplaces — not only the total market but also subdivided fields focusing on art, music, photography, sports, games, etc.

• According to OKLink, by June 1, 2022, the total market cap of NFT marketplaces was $16.972 billion, an explosive growth of 533 times compared to $31.7781 million two years ago.

• The competition among the top 15 NFT marketplaces is intense, as usual. OpenSea still occupies more than 40% market share, but the popularity of individual NFT projects does bring opportunities to competing chains and marketplaces.

Source: OKLink

Blockdream Ventures outlook

Besides the marketplace, there are several NFT-related problems that need to be solved — such as high barriers to entry, low transaction accuracy, low capital utilization and inadequate price-discovery mechanisms. 

OKX Blockdream Venture will keep an eye on NFT areas — especially aggregators, lending protocols, fragmenters, oracles and derivatives.

About OKX Blockdream Ventures

OKX Blockdream Ventures is the investment arm of the world-leading global cryptocurrency trading platform OKX. 

We help entrepreneurs build great companies, supporting cutting-edge blockchain innovation and promoting the development of the global blockchain industry. The initial capital of OKX Blockdream Ventures is $100 million.

Contacts

For further information, please contact:

Richard Kay, Global Communications Lead, OKX
Richard.Kay@okx.com

Jack Sutherland, Communications Manager, OKX
Jack.Sutherland@okx.com

Or reach out to media@okx.com 

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