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Welcome to the latest edition of the Weekly Pulse, a weekly Algorand news wrap-up segment presented by Algopulse. As ever, we welcome your feedback so if there is anything you would like us to add, please let us know on Twitter, Discord, or Telegram.
Six Banks In El Salvador Will Be Using Wrapped $BTC On Algorand In Partnership with Koibanx
South American financial tokenization project Koibanx have confirmed that they are working with six banks in El Salvador to use wrapped $BTC on Algorand. The announcement was made during an AMA with Koibanx that was hosted by Algorand and represents another significant milestone in the wider institutional adoption of Algorand. Three of the involved banks have already actively implemented wrapped $BTC on Algorand with the remaining three set to be onboarded by June.
Folks Finance Close $USD 3 Million Seed Round
Algorand based capital markets protocol for borrowing and lending, Folks Finance, have this week closed their seed round at $USD 3 million partnering with several reputable Venture Capital firms. The round was led by Borderless Capital with participation from Jump Crypto, ParaFi Capital, Coinbase Ventures, OKX Blockdream Ventures, Genesis Capital, the Algorand Foundation, and others.
“We are proud to join Folks Finance as the lead investor in this round,” said Borderless Capital Managing Partner David Garcia.
“Folks Finance is a key pillar of the Algorand DeFi ecosystem.”
“The team has done an amazing job developing their protocol and building a network of highly strategic partners, setting them up to hit the ground running at launch.”
“The debut of Folks Finance will enable unprecedented amounts of composability among Algorand DeFi dApps and decentralized communities, empowering projects to actively participate in more inclusive and fair capital markets on-chain “
Algorand and Algorand Foundation Sponsor EthDenver 2022
In a new commercial partnership, Algorand and Algorand Foundation have been announced as sponsors at the upcoming EthDenver 2022 event. EthDenver is the world’s biggest web3 BUIDLathon. The event’s ethos states, “The ETHDenver #BUIDLATHON is about bringing diverse creativity around a common purpose. Distributed computing is the future and Colorado is a leading community supporting this emerging technology. Our event empowers participants to shape this new world, while cementing the Rocky mountain region and the State of Colorado as a thriving hub of Ethereum and blockchain innovation.”
TxnLab Closes $USD 1.25 Million Seed Round to Build NFDomains
TxnLab have this week closed a $USD 1.25 million seed round led by Borderless Capital and GoldenTree Asset Management. The project is focused on building what they call non-fungible domains that allow users to build digital identities under the .algo domain.
“We are excited to join NFDomains and support their vision of simplifying on-chain naming and identity,” said Borderless Capital Managing Partner David Garcia.
“This core building block for on-chain transactional activity will reduce the users’ friction to participate in the ecosystem and will provide unique features, making the Algorand blockchain a much better social and friendly network.”
ClimateTrade Raises €7 Million in Funding
Blockchain climate offsetting protocol and official Algorand carbon offsetting partner ClimateTrade have completed a €7 million raise with the project now eyeing a further €13 million in funding. This round of fundraising was led by Conexo Ventures, ClearSky, Borderless Capital and Algorand, SIX FinTech Ventures, Wayra, the investment arm of Japanese corporation Omron Ventures, Amasia, and Zubi Capital.
“For four years, ClimateTrade’s vision has been to enable climate action through technological innovation,” ClimateTrade CEO Francisco Benedito.
“Our blockchain-backed marketplace allowed companies to offset almost 2 million tons of CO2 in 2021 alone.”
“This oversubscribed funding round is a testament to the impact ClimateTrade has already generated, and we are excited to further our action against climate change with this new infusion of capital.”
EXA Finance Completes $USD 2 Million Seed Round
EXA Finance have concluded a $USD 2 million seed round raise led by Borderless Capital. The full list of investors was as follows Borderless Capital, Lemniscap, Encode Club, Meld Ventures, 11–11 DG Partners, Algorand Foundation, 0xVentures, Speedinvest, Al Goanna, Stonks, and Big Brain Holdings.
“We are excited to join EXA Finance as a lead investor and support their vision of building the peer-to-peer rails for trading and exchanging different assets classes fully on-chain and in a trustless fashion by leveraging the unique atomic swap primitives of Algorand,” said Borderless Capital Managing Partner David Garcia.
“Definitely, the EXA platform will be a game-changer for the FT and NFT markets.”
Prismatic Close $USD 2M Seed-Round
Algorand based treasury management and tooling protocol Prismatic has this week concluded the closure of a $USD 2 million seed round. The round was led by Borderless Capital, a blockchain VC firm, as lead investor, joined by other investors including Meld Ventures, Valhalla Capital, Chiron Partners, Cluster, Ellipti, MEXC, 0x Ventures, Kangaroo Capital, 8186 Capital, SigmaDAO, Fork Ventures, and several other investors.
“Decentralized Autonomous Organizations are one of the core building blocks of a borderless economy. We are excited to work with Prismatic and drive their vision of upgrading the stack for DAOs and enable a new wave of innovation and business cases on-chain through their platform” said David Garcia, CEO and Managing Partner of Borderless Capital.
Prismatic seeks to serve organizations, and DAOs in particular, by providing efficient and adaptive solutions in four core areas: spending, strategic asset allocation, borrowing, and reporting, so that requirements for effective treasury management can be met while keeping a strong focus on security.
Yieldly Levels-up Xfinite Partnership With New Liquidity Pool
Yieldly and Xfinite have announced the second edition of their liquidity pools staking partnership to feature TEAL 5 LP pool. Beginning Thursday January 27, users will be able to stake their Xfinite (XET)/Yieldly (YLDY) pair to generate rewards in the form of YLDY. This setup is designed to help complement the already existing Xfinite staking pools (TEAL 3) available on Yieldly.
University of Florida Partners With Algorand Foundation to Establish Blockchain Lab
The Algorand Foundation has awarded a $270,000 grant from the education and community category of its 250 million ALGO Grants Program to the University of Florida to facilitate the launch of a blockchain lab.
“The creation of the Blockchain Lab at UF marks a significant moment in the history of the university, akin to the first labs dedicated to internet technology in the mid-90s,” said Associate Professor of Digital Arts and Sciences Marko Suvajdzic.
“Collaboration with Algorand Foundation is especially important, as it provides UF with an outstanding partner capable of dreaming big, and, even more importantly, capable of delivering on those dreams.”
“Together UF and Algorand are set to trace the path to the future of blockchain education.”
xBacked Testnet Launch Date Confirmed
Algorand stabelcoin protocol xBacked have this week announced that their testnet is set to go public next week. In an announcement on Twitter the project confirmed that it will be made available to users on Wednesday, February 2nd. xBacked have been conducting a closed testnet in preparation for this launch.
Algomint Launches Community Memes Competition
Algomint have teamed up with Tinyman, and Algofi to launch a community-driven giveaway contest centered around the recently announced Algorand Foundation Viridis Phase II: Aeneas Liquidity Program. Instructions about how to get involved can be found here.
Price Watch
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Thank you for reading this week’s edition of the Weekly Pulse as we look forward to continue bringing this content to the Algorand Community. Was there anything that we missed? If so let us know on Twitter, Discord, or Telegram where you can also send us any news you see throughout next week for our next instalment.
