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Following 3 Unicorns in 2 Years, Web3 Accelerator Beacon Launches Its Largest Cohort to Date

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[PRESS RELEASE – New York, New York, September 12th, 2024]

Leading web3 accelerator program Beacon has announced the launch of its fourth and largest cohort to date. Beacon, which finances projects from pre-seed to Series A, has selected 17 promising companies for its latest three-month program, marking a significant expansion from previous cohorts.

The latest group is composed of the highest-profile firms in the history of Beacon, which was launched by Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal in 2022. Featuring multiple Series A companies backed by heavyweight VCs firms like Pantera, Founders Fund, Framework, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the cohort spans multiple web3 sectors including DeFi, infrastructure, and AI. Among the notable participants are Stakestone, EXO, Nubit, Aligned Layer, and eoracle.

“We’re thrilled to welcome our largest and most diverse cohort so far,” said Sandeep Nailwal, Co-Founder of Polygon and Beacon. “The caliber of companies joining us in the latest program is truly exceptional, and we’re excited to see how, with the aid of our mentorship and resources, they’ll go on to shape the future of web3 and beyond.”

The announcement comes on the heels of the graduation of Beacon’s highly successful S23 cohort which consisted of 10 companies, many of whom have made a major mark since being selected. S23 alumni included scalable data availability layer 0G and verifiable oracle protocol ORA, both of whom have achieved unicorn status since graduating.

While ORA secured $20 million funding in a round led by Polychain Capital, Inco, a universal confidentiality layer, closed a $4.5 million seed round led by 1kx, with participation from dao5 and Robot Ventures. Ethereum L2 solution Fluent, meanwhile, raised $7.5 million in a seed round co-led by Polychain Capital and dao5.

These success stories have set the bar high for the latest cohort, particularly given the impressive background and early traction of the participating companies. Both Aligned Layer and Nubit have already conducted Series A rounds, raising $20 million and $12 million respectively. The full list of companies in Beacon’s Cohort S24 are as follows:

  • Aligned Layer – Aligned Layer is a decentralized network that verifies zero-knowledge/validity proofs and posts the results to Ethereum. It is designed to provide high throughput, cheap proof verification with low latency.
  • Avantis – Avatnis’ infrastructure provides traders access to up to 100x leverage for major cryptocurrencies, forex and commodities pairs.
  • Compute Labs – Compute Labs leverages its self-developed Compute Tokenization Protocol to financialize AI, enable direct exposure to compute assets, and create compute derivatives, empowering investors to effortlessly yield from compute, the currency of the future.
  • Crynux – Founded by ex-Google engineers and scientists, Crynux is building a permissionless and trustless protocol for truly decentralized AI.
  • eoracle – eoracle is a programmable data layer that extends Ethereum Proof of Stake to connect smart contracts with real-world data.
  • EXO – Exo allows you to run your own AI cluster at home using everyday devices.
  • EZKL – EZKL is a developer-friendly system for verifiable AI and analytics. With tens of millions of proofs computed every month, it powers a variety of delegated and decentralized systems
  • Lorenzo – Lorenzo is the Bitcoin Liquidity Finance Layer, designed to meet the growing global demand for Bitcoin liquidity across L2s, DeFi, and trading platforms. It enables Bitcoin holders to efficiently invest in top yield opportunities through its premier DeFi ecosystem.
  • Nodekit – NodeKit is building Javelin, the first superbuilder restoring composability to rollups.
  • Nubit – Nubit is a scalable, cost-efficient, data availability layer secured by Bitcoin for the Bitcoin community. Nubit enables the scaling of Bitcoin’s data capacities, empowering applications like Ordinals, Layer 2s, and price oracles, thus broadening the scope and efficiency of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
  • Othentic – Othentic provides infrastructure to build distributed services. Their infra simplifies AVS development on Eigenlayer, with over 30 projects leveraging the Othentic stack.
  • PADO – PADO is a Decentralized zkAttestation and Computation Network with the vision of liberating locked Internet data to Web3.
  • Pallet – Pallet Exchange is the hub for digital culture, community, and ownership on Sei.
  • Pin AI – PIN AI is The Open Platform for Personal AI. Built on open source AI, leveraging crypto for data ownership & privacy.
  • Stakestone – StakeStone is an omni-chain Liquid Staking Token (LST) protocol enhancing staking yields and liquidity on Layer 2s. Its architecture supports multi-chain liquidity with its native token, STONE, and introduces the Optimizing Portfolio and Allocation Proposal (OPAP) for transparent and optimized yields.
  • TAC – TON App Chain (TAC) is an interoperability layer for TON blockchain and EVM-based applications.
  • Warlock – Warlock is building new primitives to disrupt and disintermediate the MEV landscape.

“With the level of talent and innovation we’re witnessing in this new group, we are entirely confident that they can emulate, if not surpass, their predecessors,” said Nailwal.

Beacon’s biannual three-month program runs provides startups with mentorship, resources, and capital to accelerate their growth and development, with the program having established itself as a premier launchpad for web3 innovation.

About Beacon:

Beacon is an early-stage web3 accelerator program for promising startups. Launched by Polygon and Symbolic Capital co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, the program supports DeFi, gaming, infrastructure, AI, and other web3 ventures with financing, mentorship and resources, with the aim of identifying projects that serve real-world needs. The 12-week program runs twice per year.

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Here’s Why Bitcoin Could Rally Soon Despite the Negative Coinbase Premium: CryptoQuant

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A key metric that indicates US investors’ interest in bitcoin turned negative on Friday.

Experts, however, believe that this flip could positively affect BTC’s price.

Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Records Negative Value

According to a report by a CryptoQuant analyst, the Coinbase Premium recently recorded a significant negative value. The Coinbase Premium Index is an indicator that measures the percentage difference between the price of bitcoin on Coinbase Pro and Binance.

Coinbase Pro is popular among crypto traders in the United States as well as several institutional investors while Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, caters to a more global audience. Thus, the index provides insight into the trading behaviors of users on both platforms.

Historically, positive Coinbase Premium values typically suggest strong buying pressure from U.S. investors. On the other hand, a negative shift in the index indicates a decline in demand for bitcoin from U.S. investors.

BTC Remains Stable as Buying Pressure on Binance Surges

Per the data, despite waning demand from US investors, bitcoin’s price has remained stable, indicating “that there is strong buying pressure occurring on Binance.”

The CryptoQuant analyst pointed out that bitcoin’s price could see a massive surge if demand for the digital assets increases across global markets. The present market movement hints that it might happen soon.

“For Bitcoin’s price to see a significant increase, buying pressure needs to expand beyond the U.S., driven by FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) across global markets. This movement is quite positive,” the analyst said.

Bitcoin has continued to rally following the US Fed interest rate cut on Wednesday. The leading cryptocurrency briefly crossed $64,000 earlier today for the first time since last month.

The crypto asset has briefly retracted and is now trading at $62,800 at press time. If the upward trend continues, bitcoin could retest its all-time highs, and there are several bullish factors going its way. You can find more of this here.

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Bitcoin Pumps to $64K, Fed Cuts Rates, Saylor Buys More BTC: This Week’s Recap

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There’s been no shortage of news over the past seven days. During this period, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization managed to add close to $140 billion. This happened on the back of significant gains charted by the majority of coins, so let’s take a closer look.

First things first, the long-anticipated rate cut is now a fact. The US Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it is decreasing interest rates by 0.5%, a considerable move that sent ripples across all financial markets, and crypto was no exception.

Bitcoin’s price exploded on the news and reached $64K on the day after. This brings its total gains for the weeks to 7.9%, at the time of this writing. It’s worth noting that the bulls were unable to sustain the positive momentum and the sellers are currently attempting to push the price back toward $62,000. It’s worth keeping an eye on the markets over the weekend when the liquidity is generally thinner and smaller sums can cause larger moves.

That said, one of Bitcoin’s most vocal proponents didn’t fail to surprise us.

Michael Saylor announced Friday another whopping Bitcoin buy. His company – MicroStrategy – bought $460 million worth of BTC priced at $61,750. The company is currently sitting on paper profits of almost $6 billion. That’s a 60% gain. Diamond hand Saylor, indeed.

Elsewhere, in unfortunate news, the popular Singapore-based crypto exchange BingX has apparently been hacked. One of its hot wallets was compromised, leading to a reported loss of around $52 million.

All in all, the week has been favorable for most of the altcoins as well. Ethereum has gained 6.3%, BNB – 3.5%, SOL – 10.%, and so forth. Of course, there are those which failed to capitalize on the move such as XRP, which is only up 1.8%, DOGE, which is actually losing 0.8% during the week and so forth.

With the US Federal Reserve staying true to its word and essentially reversing its fiscal approach, as well as the incoming presidential elections in November, we’re sure in for a wild ride in the next couple of months!

Market Data

Market Cap: $2.278T | 24H Vol: $107B | BTC Dominance: 54.4%

BTC: $62,629(+7.9%) | ETH: $2,522(+6.3%) | BNB: $565 (+3.5%)

market_update_cover

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Better Not Miss

Federal Reserve Announces 0.5% Interest Rate Cut, Bitcoin Soars Above $60K. The long-anticipated rate cut is finally here! The US Federal Reserve decreased the rates by 0.5% in the first reduction in more or less four years. The markets reacted positively to the news, with the BTC price surging to $64K after it.

MicroStrategy to Raise Another $700M, Might Buy More Bitcoin. The largest corporate Bitcoin HODLer, MicroStrategy, announced plans to raise another $700 million. Although $500 million of that will be used to pay off existing debt and redeem outstanding senior secured notes, the remaining might go for buying more BTC.

Singapore Crypto Exchange BingX Suffers Hot Wallet Exploit, Over $52M Reportedly Stolen. Popular Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange BingX suffered a hot wallet exploit. The attack affected several blockchains. Experts are estimating the total loss to be over $52 million. Withdrawals and transfers have been suspended.

Solana Reveals Details of Its New Seeker Crypto Smartphone. After the success of its previous iteration, Solana has introduced a new smartphone called “Solana Seeker.” It’s designed as a Web3 device and combines interesting hardware decisions in conjunction with specialized software.

All These Central Banks May Cut Rates Soon: Bitcoin (BTC) Price to $100K? The US Federal Reserve has announced its decision to cut interest rates, and many other central banks are expected to follow suit. Many believe this will spell good news for Bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency market.

3 Bullish Signals for Bitcoin’s Price as Uptober Approaches. October is traditionally a good month for Bitcoin. It’s no coincidence that many in the community are referring to it as “Uptober.” Here are three bullish signals that may provide for additional increases in Bitcoin’s price.

Charts

This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Binance Coin, and Solana – click here for the complete price analysis.

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Disclaimer: Information found on CryptoPotato is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk. See Disclaimer for more information.

Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.

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TON’s Daily Active Addresses Exceed Leading L1 Blockchains Like Bitcoin, Ethereum

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The Open Network (TON) has continued to record outstanding growth as the protocol recently saw its active addresses outperform leading blockchains in the industry.

According to data from the market intelligence platform IntoTheBlock, the number of daily active TON addresses surged to 3 million in the first week of September.

Per the data, this figure exceeded the number of active addresses recorded on major Layer 1 networks, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. TON’s popularity over the past few months has attracted increasing attention from developers, investors, and users alike, further solidifying its position as a rising contender in the blockchain space.

USDT Trading Volume on TON Surges

In addition to the growing number of active addresses, TON has experienced an increase in on-chain trading volumes, especially in the stablecoins market.

The blockchain is currently among the top networks with the highest USDT trading volumes. According to IntoTheBlock, TON recorded an impressive $1.2 billion USDT trading volume, with 1.5 million unique holders on Sept. 9.

Tron, however, remains the biggest blockchain for USDT trading, with a trading volume of $98.1 billion recorded on Sept. 9. It was followed by Ethereum with $34.3 billion.

According to analysts, the surge in TON’s USDT trading highlights growing interest and adoption among TON users. Earlier in April, Tether, the issuer of USDT, launched the stablecoin on TON.

The Biggest Growth Opportunity

The rapid adoption of popular TON-based decentralized applications (dApps) like Hamster Kombat and Notcoin has contributed significantly to the network’s growth. These tap-to-earn projects have increased user activity on the TON blockchain over the past few months.

Consequently, TON received a $30 million investment from crypto exchange Bitget and Foresight Ventures yesterday to boost the development of tap-to-earn projects.

As the network’s popularity continues to soar, market experts believe that the TON ecosystem is “the biggest growth opportunity” in the crypto market this year.

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