Ecosystem Update May 23

Dear investors,

We are thrilled to share our ecosystem update for May 2023, which aims to offer you a detailed summary of the latest advancements and achievements within the Advanced Blockchain ecosystem, along with a brief overview of noteworthy company updates as well as industry developments at a macro level.

ABAG Update

Our dedicated team has been diligently working towards the completion of the company audit for the second half of 2022, to ensure the utmost accuracy, compliance, and transparency in our financial records. 

As part of our commitment to providing increasing transparency and effective performance assessment, we are delighted to announce that we will be receiving and publishing external and independent evaluations of our top ten holdings on a semi-annual basis in order to further increase transparency for our investors. Furthermore, this regular evaluation play a crucial role in ensuring that we remain up-to-date on the progress and performance of these key portfolio companies. By undertaking these assessments, we can offer a holistic view of their development and make well-informed decisions to further enhance our investment strategy. This approach strengthens our ability to maximize returns and optimize our portfolio performance and document the value creation that is taking place in our portfolio already towards our shareholders.

Let's now review the advancements made in the ecosystem during the month of May.

Ecosystem Update

Summary

• Composable Finance introduced their first liquidity pools for DOT and KSM assets
• peaq launch its new portal and partners with Natix Network to enhance decentralized IoT
• Pendulum's Spacewalk bridge now live, connecting Polkadot and Stellar for seamless transfer of fiat stable tokens and crypto assets
• Panoptic team unveiled their options protocol demo at Cornell Blockchain Conference 2023
• Manta wallet reaches 100k+ users, marking a significant adoption milestone.

Composable Finance / Picasso

Composable Finance team has initiated their first monthly recap, providing updates on their development progress to their community. 

Furthermore, following the successful launch of Centauri, a bridge connecting Polkadot and Kusama, the team has introduced multiple liquidity pools encompassing both Polkadot and Kusama assets on Pablo, the native decentralized exchange (DEX) of Picasso parachain. Liquidity pools in crypto context are pools of funds locked in smart contracts that enable decentralized trading and provide liquidity for various assets in the crypto space.

peaq / Krest

NATIX Network and peaq are joining forces to bring together their technologies. NATIX will integrate its Drive& app and AI-powered sensor network with peaq's tools for decentralized infrastructure. This partnership opens up exciting possibilities for the Internet of Things (IoT) and advanced web3 technologies.

Moreover, peaq portal went live enabling the community’s interactions with the peaq network, including managing digital assets, participate in network governance, and experience a preview of upcoming features.

Lastly, the peaq team has announcement their involvement in the upcoming Blockchance2023 conference, where they will be hosting a dedicated booth, conducting a panel discussion, and organizing a side event centered around Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePINs).

Pendulum

The Spacewalk bridge, which establishes a connection between the Polkadot and Stellar blockchains, is now live, facilitating seamless transfers of various fiat stable tokens and crypto assets. This breakthrough fosters genuine interoperability, empowering the utilization of fiat-backed stable currencies on Stellar within Polkadot's thriving DeFi ecosystem.

Pendulum’s Co-founder, Alexander Wilke, attended Blockchain Economy Instanbul Summit where he gave a speech on the promising use cases of DeFi and its associated risks, shedding the light on Pendulum’s role in bridging the gap between the traditional fiat system and the evolving DeFi ecosystem, emphasizing the company's efforts in establishing a crucial connection between the two financial realms.

Moreover, Pendulum team announced releasing exciting updates at Polkadot Decoded, the largest annual conference organized by the Polkadot network where developers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and enthusiasts to come together and explore the latest advancements, innovations, and use cases within the Polkadot ecosystem. 

Panoptic  

Panoptic received honorable mention in Fast Company's prestigious 2023 World Changing Ideas Awards, while also making significant strides on the product front by unveiling a first demo of their decentralized options trending protocol user interface during the 2023 Cornell Blockchain conference. Watch the full demo walkthrough here. 

Manta Network

Manta wallet has achieved an important milestone, reaching 100k+ users.

Moreover, Manta Network team extends support to Arbitrum, a leading Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution, offering on-chain identity verification for Arbitrum users and the ecosystem. With this integration, Arbitrum users can privately verify their on-chain identity while maintaining confidentiality. Additionally, Manta has also partnered with Ultiverse for similar purposes.

NEAR Protocol

The NEAR Protocol team has been actively establishing a multitude of strategic partnerships, encompassing collaborations with various industry leaders, such as:

• Shemaroo to bring Web3 to the Indian Media industry
• Taco Labs to revolutionize customer loyalty programs for e-commerce
• PipeFlare to reshape Web3 gaming on Aurora, NEAR Protocol’s Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
• encodeclub to launch an intensive program for entrepreneurs and developers in Web3
• Knaq to deliver innovative and engaging fan loyalty schemes for creators in Web2 and Web3
• Outlier Ventures to launch the NEAR Base Camp accelerator program

It is worth highlighting the remarkable growth of NEAR's ecosystem, as it continues to expand into various industries, further solidifying the company's influence in the Web3 market. This expansion showcases NEAR's increasing significance and impact in the industry.

Obol

Nethermind, a high-performance and highly customizable Ethereum client, has formed a strategic partnership with Obol Network to jointly work on developing a specification for implementing Distributed Validators for Obol V2. This collaboration not only solidifies Nethermind's position as a key player in the Obol Network but also establishes them as the second core development team of the Obol Network.

MYSO Finance

Myso Finance team has successfully completed an exhaustive security audit conducted by the highly reputable Omniscia team. This comprehensive audit encompassed a thorough examination of the platform's security measures, reinforcing unwavering dedication to upholding the highest standards of cybersecurity within the Web3 landscape.

Security audits are crucial in blockchain industry in ensuring protocol integrity, protecting user funds, inspiring confidence in stakeholders, and ultimately increasing the market value of the protocol.

Furthermore, the team announced the upcoming upgrade of MYSO V2, enhancing capital efficiency, scalability, flexibility, and ease-of-use. It aims to be a scalable and flexible platform for borrowers and lenders, catering to various assets and parameters. It also explores use cases for investment DAOs, institutional lenders, and protocol treasuries, optimizing the DeFi lending experience.

Sentinel dVPN

Sentinel team announced the launch of their new interactive map representing Sentinel dVPN nodes as well as active nodes. This interactive node map will turn into a community-built utility where contributors are free to fork and improve the map in terms of not only its design but also functionalities.

Exciting additions are on the horizon, including the introduction of a leaderboard, dedicated network statistics charts, and various other utilities.

Polymer Labs 

Bo Du, the co-founder of Polymer Labs, made an appearance at the Gateway Cosmos event to deliver an insightful presentation, unveiling a series of exciting product development updates.

DELV (formerly Element Finance)

The Delv team has published a comprehensive article that highlights the recent progress of Council, focusing on its adoption among Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and its technical advancements.

FinPro

FinPro team is actively working towards the finalization of the legal agreement with strategic partners based in the UAE. This partnership holds significant importance for the team, and they are dedicating their efforts to ensure a successful collaboration. Further updates regarding this partnership will be provided as soon as possible. 

Maverick

Maverick team rolled out liquidity incentives for price stability. This rewards system lets token issuers, such as liquid staking protocols or stablecoin issuers target a specific price range, offering extra rewards to liquidity providers in a customized price range in Maverick’s liquidity pools while keeping their prices stable.

Neon Labs

Neon Labs has recently launched their website dedicated to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), providing users with a platform to explore and understand their innovative solutions. The website is now live. Tto visit the website and experience the innovative offerings of Neon Labs, kindly follow this link.

Alluo Finance

Alluo went live on the Optimisim chain, a low-cost and lightning-fast Ethereum L2 blockchain, to bring the various unique Alluo features on the Optimisim chain, while gaining the security of Ethereum mainnet at a fraction of the price and lightning speed.

Macro Industry view

A key event that has been recently dominating the macro discussion has been the approaching of the debt ceiling in the US. With the solution that has been brought in place and was signed last Saturday by President Biden, the short-term danger of a deadlock has been mitigated. This in turn means, that further monetary debasement will take place in the months to come, which has usually favored the price development of Bitcoin and crypto with some timely delay. It is going to be interesting to see the effect of the debt ceiling solution on the strategy regarding rate hikes and the effect on market liquidity. 

With Germany, as the European powerhouse, having officially entered a recession the economic situation in Europe needs to also be monitored more closely. The increasing tensity around the war in Ukraine provides other potential for external impact on the overall markets. 

While the current signs are positive medium- to long-term for Bitcoin and crypto, there are certain influencing factors that may create pressure on the financial markets, which will have further short-term effects on the Bitcoin and crypto market as well. 

On the other side, Hong Kong is lifting its ban on the ability for retail to purchase and trade cryptocurrencies as of 1 June, which will likely give rise to the onboarding of the wider region with certainly potential to seriously increase demand for digital assets further. Additionally, MUFG, Japan’s larget bank, announced that it will utilize the Progmat Coin system to issue bank-backed stablecoins on public blockchains like Ethereum, Avalanche, Cosmos, and Polygon, following new legislation allowing Japanese trust banks to issue stablecoins.

We are looking to provide more frequent updates in different formats (e.g., newsletter, etc.)  in order to provide information about the topics that occupy us, our thesis around them and how they matter with regards to the tech we are building in our portfolio. Please stay tuned and on the lookout for further information and education publishings.

We deeply appreciate your steadfast support and investment in Advanced Blockchain. We eagerly look forward to sharing our upcoming update, including the results of our audit, with you.

Best regards,

Advanced Blockchain Team