Dissecting Web 3.0 Misconceptions
Doing something a bit different for this months newsletter - excited to share a recent thought piece dissecting common misconceptions about Web 3.0 and why institutional investors should seek to understand the space. The piece untangles and refutes three common perceptions about digital assets:
Web 3.0 is all about digital tokens or crypto currencies
Aside from speculation, there is no use for blockchains
Web 3.0 is too volatile to be included in an institutional allocators portfolio
While lower than the torrid pace of the last several years, the Web 3.0 ecosystem remains active logging an estimated $20 to $30 billion in new private capital during 2022.3 Aggregate deal value of emerging technologies (including Web 3.0) accounted for 11.6% of all seed- and early-stage venture capital investment in 2022 — a notch higher than the historical average of 10%.4 Consumer adoption and developer activity have also continued to show progress with active developers across the Web 3.0 environment increasing more than 60% in the last three years, and active addresses doubling over the last two years to hit an all-time high of 15 million in March 2023.5 Total Web 3.0 AUM is now estimated at $94 billion, with the bulk amassed in the last 3 years.6 Bottom line: I think Web 3.0 is here to stay.
Click the image or link below to read the full piece!
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/harbourvest-partners_dissecting-web-30-for-private-markets-investing-activity-7079549948878348289-MWrL
Who did what this month?
Deutsche Bank AG has applied for a digital assets license with Germany's financial regulator BaFin.
EDX, the new institutional cryptocurrency exchange backed by Citadel, Virtu, Charles Schwab and Fidelity, officially launched operations.
On the heels of BlackRock filing for a spot Bitcoin ETF, Wisdom Tree, Bitwise, Valkyrie, Invesco have all also filed. The WSJ also covered the Bitcoin ETF application bonanza.
CACEIS, Crédit Agricole and Santander's asset servicing arm, has gained approval to provide crypto custody services by French regulators.
Russian bank giant Rosbank will start using crypto to make cross-border payments. The bank was sanctioned by the US Treasury department last year. Link.
Nike announced a partnership with Electronic Arts, publisher of the Madden and FIFA video game franchises, where players can use NFTs from Nike’s .Swoosh platform. Link.
Argus, a web3 gaming company, raised $10 millionfrom Haun Ventures, Robot Ventures, Anagram, Dispersionand others.
Web3 wallet as a service provider Magic announced it raised $52 million in funding led by PayPal Ventures. Link.