Ecosystem Update March 24

Dear investors, 

We're excited to present our March 2024 Ecosystem Update. This comprehensive report delves into the most recent market trends, commemorates achievements within the Advanced Blockchain ecosystem, and showcases our organization's latest developments. It offers an in-depth look at both our progress and the broader industry context.

Macro Industry View

The overall crypto market cap hit a new record, crossing the $2.8 trillion mark. This achievement underscores the prevailing optimistic sentiment within the market. Bitcoin’s market cap alone surpassed $1.4 trillion, making it larger than many of the world’s biggest companies, such as Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.

Bitcoin has soared to a new all-time high, crossing $73k, with a year-to-date increase of 53%, as per CoinMarketCap. Similarly, Ethereum hitted the $4k mark for the first time since December 2021. 

The first quarter of 2024 marked a notable milestone with eleven spot Bitcoin ETF got approved by the SEC, culminating in more than $12 billion in net inflows, as reported by BitMEX Research. Here are the cumulative Q1 2024 inflows for each of the eleven approved spot Bitcoin ETFs: 

Blackrock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) remains the leader with $13.9 billion in inflows, followed by Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust ($7.5 billion) and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF ($2.3 billion). Several industry researchers speculate that the flows into the spot Bitcoin ETFs will continue in its growth trajectory for the years to come, outlining long-term and sustained demand in Bitcoin. 

Continuing on a similar path, the spot Ethereum ETF has been gaining traction with applications submitted by notable asset managers, including Blackrock, Fidelty and Bitwise. The US securities regulators expects the final approval to take place by the end of May 2024 which in return will contribute to further inflows in the market and increase of the overall market cap, potentially surpassing the $3 billion threshold.

Aside from the overall market development, Japan has been also in the front row in crypto adoption with its recent announcement of potential inclusion of Bitcoin as part of their broader strategy for portfolio diversification. The Japanese state pension fund, the largest globally with $1.4 trillion in assets under management (AUM), has sought various resources, such as academic research, analytical tools, and indexes for evaluation. Although the integration of Bitcoin into its portfolio is not yet confirmed, this move signals the growing confidence and adoption of cryptocurrency assets in global markets.

The announcement comes weeks after the Japanese cabinet signed a bill allowing venture capital firms and investment funds to hold crypto assets. The bill has yet to be passed by parliament. 

The crypto market is currently in Zen Mode in April 2024 with the upcoming fourth bitcoin halving, taking place roughly on the 19-20th of April. Exciting times lie ahead as we advance in this vibrant phase of the crypto market.  

Ecosystem Key Updates

Summary

• peaq raised $15 million in a pre-launch funding round led by Generative Ventures and Borderless Capital
• Composable continues their diligent work on Ethereum IBC testnet improvement, paving the way for the mainnet launch 
• KYVE network partners with Celestia for historical data management 
• Hodooi.com launches on Neon EVM mainnet and elevates the NFT marketplace with streamlined purchasing, minting, and a gateway to Solana, enriched by multi-token gas fee options.
• Polymer launches their Polyverse testnet aimed test the infrastructure efficiency, foster a community of innovators and growing the Polymer ecosystem
• NEAR’s Co-Founders joins a panel discussion with Jensen Huang at Nvidia GTC
• Pendulum's Spacewalk bridge launches, connecting Stellar and Polkadot for direct stablecoin and XLM transfers

Peaq

peaq team announced just before the end of March a major milestone, securing $15 million from leading investors, including Generative Ventures and Borderless Capital, among other contributions from several more top funds and investment firms, paving the way for peaq’s network mainnet launch. 

The funding will be used to expand peaq’s ecosystem of more than 20 Decentralized Physical Networks (DePINs) in areas including multi-blockchain machine IDs, AI agents and data verification, according to a statement shared with The Block. More specifically, the capital will be allocated toward developing peaq’s Modular DePIN functions and Software Development Kit (SDK), enabling DePIN projects to build and deploy their applications on peaq more efficiently.

The ecosystem continues to grow, recent partnerships included: 

• Acurast joining peaq ecosystem to introduce a novel method of app hosting for DePINs building on peaq network
• peaq partnering with Outlier Ventures to launch DePIN Base Camp

Composable

Composable’s team is working diligently on further optimizing their Ethereum IBC testnet, laying the groundwork for the eagerly anticipated launch of their mainnet.. This milestone is set to facilitate smooth interactions and liquidity transfers across prominent blockchains such as Ethereum, Polkadot, and Cosmos, among others, once the mainnet goes live.

Furthermore, by channeling Ethereum's substantial capital to other blockchains, not only is liquidity unlocked and collaboration between various ecosystems fostered, but a revenue share is also granted to Composable through transaction fees, thereby further stabilizing their business.

Celestia

Celestia team attended EthDenver 2024 where they gave a presentation and were primarily involved on topics around the acceleration and further adoption of modular blockchain technology with focus on data availability.

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Moreover, KYVE network has recently integrated with Celestia, providing a custom data rollup to manage the chain’s historical data in a decentralized, immutable way.

Celestia maintains its leading position in data availability, surpassing other significant contenders in this domain. In addition, Celestia team has announced the launch of the first global online hackathon, scheduled to run from April 2 to May 17. 

Neon EVM

HoDooi.com, an innovative multi-chain NFT marketplace, went live on Neon EVM mainnet, opening up a world of possibilities for creators, collectors, and NFT enthusiasts alike. The deployment of HoDooi.com on Neon EVM offers users a seamless NFT purchasing and minting experience.

With the recent deployment on Neon EVM, HoDooi.com is set to improve NFT accessibility, offering a seamless entry point into the Solana ecosystem for artists, musicians, creators, collectors, and traders. This latest move to Neon EVM aims to enhance the NFT experience by utilizing Neon EVM’s cutting-edge technology and introducing upcoming features such as multi-token gas payments.

Furthermore, Neon EVM team actively participated in ETHDenver 2024 and has been featured in several panels. Learn more about the key highlights from the event participation here. 

Polymer

Polymer team has launched their Polyverse testnet aimed to not only test the robustness and efficiency of its infrastructure, but also to foster a community of innovators who share the vision for an open, neutral and permissionless interoperability layer and growing the Polymer ecosystem at large.

NEAR

Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR, participated in Nvidia GTC, the leading AI conference for developers, and took part in a panel discussion alongside Nvidia's founder, Jensen Huang.

Since launching NEAR mainnet, 100 million NEAR accounts have been created, marking a modest stride towards the goal of one billion active users.

Pendulum 

Pendulum’s bridge, Spacewalk, finally went live, enabling seamless transfer between Stellar and the Polkadot ecosystem. Stellar users can now bridge stablecoins and XLM to Pendulum, enabling their use in DeFi, including future XLM trading pools.

ABAG Update

Keeping pace with the positive market developments and the flourishing progress of our portfolio companies, we were proud to announce the snapshot release of our financial milestones for the fiscal year 2023 preliminary numbers: 

• Revenue: €5.2m
• EBIT: €2.2m
• Value of the top 10 portfolio increased by more than 45%

The results reflect a notable growth and strategic foresight of our management strategy, successfully navigating the complexities of the 2023 market and achieving delivering on the predefined targets. 

The revaluation of our top 10 #investments, showing a 45% increase to €57.5 million, speaks volumes about the ability to identify and nurture potential from the ground up. Our top key holdings have set the stage for innovation and growth, including  Peaq, Composable, Celestia, Panoptic, Polymer Labs, Neon Labs, Mero (TLX), Light Protocol, and Delv (Element Finance).

We are dedicated to publishing the consolidated audited business figures for 2023 in June 2024, which will be followed by an Investor Update Call.

As communicated in the previous ecosystem update, our team, along with members of peaq team, will participate in the forthcoming Token2049 event in Dubai, which not only be a valuable platform for sourcing investment opportunities and identifying potential partners from the region but also promote synergy and enhance future collaboration with the peaq team.

Looking ahead to 2024 and beyond, we are committed to pursuing our goals, expanding our business model, and increasing transparency to fulfill our investors' expectations. Your ongoing support is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for being a part of our journey.

Best regards,

Advanced Blockchain Team