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

[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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Cryptocurrency
MORI COIN (MORI) Explodes by 300% in a Day: The New Crypto Sensation or a Downright Scam?

TL;DR
- The price of the Solana-based meme coin skyrocketed after drawing massive attention across social media platforms.
- One trader turned $290 into $1.6 million but still holds the position – risky, as the valuation could crash just as fast. Moreover, the token lacks real utility, making the rally purely speculative.
The Impressive Jump
It’s a familiar sight in the meme coin sector: a token suddenly skyrocketing by double or even triple digits in a short period. Today’s best performer is the lesser-known MORI COIN (MORI), whose price has exploded by over 300% on a 24-hour scale, while its market capitalization has surged past $150 million.
The Solana-based asset is one of the top-trending cryptocurrencies on CoinGecko, and among the most talked-about on the social media platform X. Its rally is driven by considerable interest from traders.
Earlier today, Stalkchain estimated that MORI headed north due to a wave of fresh wallets that were “aggressively buying in.”
While the meme coin’s rally is undoubtedly impressive, investors contemplating whether to jump on the bandwagon should keep some important notes in mind. For one, MORI was launched by a notorious Russian YouTuber (with over 3.2 million followers) who allegedly runs a massive Darknet marketplace.
That said, many X users labeled the asset as one of the biggest scams in the crypto space. David Crypto Scam Hunter supports that thesis, albeit suggesting that further gains in the future are not out of the question.
⚠️⛔️$MORI
One of the biggest scams rn
It might go higher – why not?
But no doubt… it’s a massive scam
Update coming soon. https://t.co/idZMnn6MdK pic.twitter.com/u2BOo496HR
— David Crypto Scam Hunter (@CryptoScamHuntO) June 30, 2025
Besides its purported connection to a Dark Web marketplace, MORI lacks intrinsic value, and its price is driven purely by hype, speculation, and insider promotion. There’s also limited transparency regarding the token’s supply, developer wallets, or whale distributions. Its marketing strategy mirrors previous pump-and-dump schemes, which have caused crucial losses to investors in the past.
Early Birds Make Fortunes
Scam or not, MORI (just like many other meme coin that recorded massive gains in its early days) allowed savvy traders to generate substantial profits.
The X account, DexCheck AI, revealed the case of one person (or entity) who turned $290 into $1.6 million by investing in the token. As of this writing, the wallet still holds the position. This is a risky move, as a potential crash could wipe out the paper profits entirely. However, MORI’s bull run might still be in its early stages, and the fortune could potentially grow even larger in the coming days.
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Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin Taps $109K While Arbitrum Explodes by 15%: Market Watch

Bitcoin is starting the week with a test of the $108,000 level. The primary cryptocurrency also attempted to break above this level during the weekend but failed to do so.
Meanwhile, certain altcoins are charting notable gains, while the majority of the market is trading in the green.
Bitcoin Price Testing $108K
Bitcoin is seemingly attempting to break above the $108,000 level – something that it’s been trying to do for quite a while now. Unfortunately, at least up until this moment, the cryptocurrency has been unsuccessful in doing so. Today, however, it almost reached $109,000 before the sellers took the stage.
The most recent attempt comes amid news that the Japanese comapny MetaPlanet has made yet another Bitcoin buy worth some $108,000 and amid growing expectations that Michael’s Saylor’s Strategy will announce its own strategic purchase.
At the time of this writing, BTC’s price retraced to around $107,700 and it’s interesting to see if it will finally be able to break above this relatively narrow range that it’s been trading within for the past week.
Altcoins Mixed, ARB Rallies
Today’s heatmap is rather mixed with the majority of altcoins trading mostly flat. However, there’s an obvious exceeption to it all in the face of Arbitrum’s ARB token, that’s up 15% on the day. In fact, it soared by around 20% but has since retraced a little bit.
As CryptoPotato reported, the primary reason behind Arbitrum’s surge today is that there are some rumors that the popular retail-oriented trading app Robinhood might use the network to build its own protocol. Hours ago, the fintech comapny revealed that it will be conducting a fireside chat with Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin and the CSO of Arbitrum’s Onchain Labs – A.J. Warner.
Other than ARB, the majority of other altcoins are trading relatively flat with PENGU, OP, and HYPE up by 3.5% in the past 24 hours – slightly ahead of the curve.
KAIA, Pi Network (PI), and Mantle (MNT), on the other hand, are the worst performers, down 6.1%, 5.4%, and 5.7%, respectively.
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Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.
Cryptocurrency
Why is the Arbitrum (ARB) Price up Today?

TL;DR
- ARB spiked to a two-week high following a combination of rumors and positive factors.
- While some analysts believe it may rally even further in the short term, the RSI’s ratio of over 80 suggests an incoming pullback could be on the horizon.
The Top Performer
ARB, the native token of Arbitrum, has been the best-performing cryptocurrency from the top 100 club over the past 24 hours. Its price is up an impressive 20% for that timeframe, reaching $0.38 (per CoinGecko’s data).
Its market capitalization shot to almost $2 billion, thus flipping Official Trump (TRUMP), Render (RENDER), Filecoin (FIL), Algorand (ALGO), and other well-known altcoins. Currently, ARB is the 60th-largest cryptocurrency.
The most likely reason for the uptrend is the rumor that Robinhood might team up with Arbitrum to build a blockchain platform that enables European investors to trade US stocks. Just a few hours ago, the fintech company revealed it will conduct a “fireside chat” with Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin and A.J. Warner (CSO of Onchain Labs – an entity that stands behind Arbitrum).
Another factor that may have positively impacted ARB’s valuation is the further support coming from Binance. The world’s leading crypto exchange recently announced it will add the trading pair ARB/USDC to its Trading Bots section, although this one is more on the speculative side and not as likely to have fueled any meaningful price change.
More Gains on the Way?
ARB’s surge has garnered attention across the cryptocurrency industry, with several analysts suggesting it may signal the start of a significant bullish trend. One X user envisioned a potential breakout of a certain trendline, which could send the price to $0.50 and beyond.
Crypto TA King thinks “ARB looks amazing” at its current levels, saying they will “take entry” if the valuation drops to the $0.32-$0.34 range.
Despite the prevailing optimism, investors should exercise caution because the token’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) has spiked above 80. This is generally viewed as bearish territory, as it indicates that the price has increased too rapidly in a short period and may be poised for a short-term correction.
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