Greetings Rainmakers! ⛓️🌴
Welcome to the latest edition of the Chainforest Weekly Recap, where you’ll find up-to-date information on upcoming Chainforest DAO programming and industry events, the community feature of the month, a round-up of the most exciting happenings in our Discord this week, and a welcome to our new Rainmaker’s!
The top three channels were: 💬│general-chat, 📶│jobs-in-crypto, and 🔗│links.
Discord Highlights 👀
⚖️ Regulatory: The FTX crypto exchange has initiated a lawsuit against Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, the parents of Sam Bankman-Fried. The suit alleges that they benefitted from money their son allegedly misappropriated from FTX customers, seeking to reclaim millions, including a $10 million cash gift and a $16.4 million Bahamas residence acquired by the exchange. FTX's lawyers claim that Joe Bankman helped cover up complaints about his son's business, and Barbara Fried coached Sam Bankman-Fried and another FTX executive to evade political donation disclosure requirements. Check out the full details here
📱 Social: Friend.tech's daily trading volume on Ethereum surged to $12.3 million on September 9th, surpassing NFTs once again. This notable achievement was accompanied by a significant inflow of 4.06k ETH on the same day, marking a new daily peak. This remarkable resurgence stands in stark contrast to the challenges the platform faced in late August when daily transactions nosedived by 95%, prompting doubts about its sustainability
Galaxy Research shared a graphic showing the Friend.tech Volume against the Total NFT Volume on Ethereum:
Background: Friend.tech was launched on the Base Network in August 2023 and rapidly gained popularity, generating over $25 million in fees and attracting more than 100,000 addresses within its initial ten days
🔥 Funding: Blockchain Capital has raised $580 million across two new funds. This includes $380 million for an early-stage fund targeting emerging crypto ventures in pre-seed and Series A stages, and $200 million for an opportunities fund focusing on late-stage investments from Series B onward
👩💻 Hackathon: The Solana Foundation has launched its eighth hackathon, "Hyperdrive," a global online competition offering a prize pool of up to $1 million in prizes and seed funding. The objective is to inspire innovators to create startups on the Solana blockchain. Over the years, Solana's hackathons have seen more than 50,000 participants, resulting in over 3,000 projects launched and $600 million in venture funding. Hyperdrive will take place from September 6 to October 15, 2023, featuring various tracks and significant rewards, including the top prize of $50,000 USDC and tickets to Solana’s Breakpoint 2024 conference. To view the full list of prizes, click here
💵 Finance: Over the last nine weeks, cryptocurrency funds have experienced substantial outflows, amounting to $455 million, with Bitcoin-related products accounting for 85% of these outflows, including $45 million withdrawn in the previous week. This marks the fifth consecutive week of outflows for cryptocurrency funds. Despite recent legal victories, such as Grayscale's success against the SEC in its Bitcoin ETF case, investors are withdrawing funds from digital asset funds, resulting in a decline in assets under management and year-to-date net inflows of $51 million as of September 15
💰 DeFi: Circle has introduced the native version of the USDC stablecoin on Polkadot, making it available to parachains and projects within the Polkadot ecosystem like Centrifuge, HydraDX, and Moonbeam. This expansion to Polkadot adds to USDC's native availability on several other blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, and more, reinforcing its position as the second-largest stablecoin with a market value of $26 billion
💵 Finance: Genesis Global Trading (GGT) is discontinuing all of its cryptocurrency trading services both in the United States and internationally. This encompasses spot and derivatives trading, and it comes after the closure of its over-the-counter trading platform earlier this year and the bankruptcy filing of its crypto lending arm. GGT attributed this voluntary decision to business considerations and clarified that it no longer provides trading services through any of its business entities
🤝 Interested in viewing or sharing deal flow with the Chainforest community? Members can also earn $RAINDROP token along the way!
One new deal was shared with the community last week! Access our Deal Flow tool here!
The deal flow tool allows you to:
Share new deals
Comment and ask questions
Tag members
Search past deals using our filtering system
Ways Rainmaker’s can earn $RAINDROP token:
Source a deal that Chainforest invests in
Aid in the due diligence process for a Chainforest investment
Support a Chainforest portfolio company
What kinds of deals does Chainforest invest in?
Check out our Investment Framework here!
Chainforest DAO Network (Open Roles) 💼
Investment Associate (Republic - Full-Time): Republic is looking for an Investment Associate to join Republic’s rapidly growing Investment Team. You’ll work with high-growth businesses early in their life cycle, and support their team with deal sourcing, due diligence, sales calls/operations, and strategic growth initiatives. You’ll gain unique exposure to the US startup and VC investment ecosystem while learning business skills invaluable to any high-growth company
Investment Associate, Application Software (Bain Capital Ventures - Full-Time): BCV is looking to add an Investment Associate to the team in San Francisco. Associates work directly with Principals and Partners to support all aspects of the investment process. This associate will focus specifically on early-stage application software (including AI), fintech and commerce companies
Investment Associate, Infrastructure (Bain Capital Ventures - Full-Time): BCV is looking to add an Investment Associate to the team in San Francisco, CA. Associates work directly with principals and partners to support all aspects of the investment process. This associate will focus specifically on early and growth-stage infrastructure software investing
Investor Relations Associate (Coinbase - Full-Time): Coinbase is looking for a highly motivated finance professional to join their Investor Relations team and play a key role in our continued growth and achievement of operational excellence. The Investor Relations associate must possess a deductive mind, an ability to communicate complex ideas to leaders internally and investors externally over time, and a desire to make a meaningful impact on a dynamic, high-growth technology company
Mobile Engineer (Tholos - Full-Time): Tholos is seeking a motivated, creative, and driven Mobile Engineer with a passion for technology and an interest in solving complex problems. At Tholos, they value individuals who are fast learners, self-starters, and eager to deliver high-quality, end-to-end working solutions. Tholos believes in providing an environment that encourages learning and cultivates a strong passion for technology
Upcoming Events 🗓️
Mainnet 2023: Mainnet is an immersive, agenda-setting summit held annually by Messari, the leading provider of market intelligence products that help professionals navigate the world of crypto and Web3. The summit gathers crypto leaders, operators, builders, and investors for three days of future-focused collaboration, networking, and programming
When: September 20-22, 2023, New York, NY
Details: here
NY Tech Week - a16z presents Tech Week 2023! Join us for tech weeks in LA this year to create IRL connections across the major tech hubs
When: Oct 16-22, 2023, New York, NY
Details: here
Interested in joining Chainforest? ⛓️🌴
How to apply: You can apply to become a member by completing our application on Typeform. We will review your submission and grant access after approving your profile. Apply here!
What is Chainforest?
Chainforest's mission is to build the most powerful ecosystem in the world leveraging an exceptional community of leaders to build, grow, and invest together to create the future of web3. We leverage the collective power of the Chainforest community to create incredible value for our Rainmakers, the ecosystem, and our LPs and other partners. The outsized performance will create a flywheel effect, allowing us to build an enviable ecosystem that attracts, develops, and inspires high-caliber talent to be their best selves and to make the future of Web3 collectively
Learn more about our DAO structure here!
Benefits of being a Rainmaker:
Exclusive Content: Access Town Hall AMAs, Workshops, IRL Events, Discord Discussions & Games, and Women in the Forest meet-ups! Expand your knowledge, network with experts, & enjoy the vibrant community
Rainmakers also have the opportunity to support Chainforest's VC fund. Rainmakers have the opportunity to earn $RAINDROP, our token backed by carry in our VC fund, in exchange for:
Sourcing a deal that Chainforest invests in
Aid in the diligence process for a Chainforest investment
Support a Chainforest portfolio company
Help Chainforest as an organization (e.g., take a part-time role with the community, design an NFT collection for the community
Note: Rainmakers are not required to invest in order to participate, but also do not have a vote on investment decisions
Deal Flow: Unlock the Chainforest x @proofofteamwork Deal Flow tool! Share deals, engage in discussions, ask questions, search prior deals, & earn $RAINDROP token by sourcing deals CF invests in, aiding in the due diligence for a CF investment, or supporting CF portfolio companies
Member Directory: Discover the invaluable Chainforest x @proofofteamworkdirectory: Strengthen bonds, explore business prospects, amplify deal flow, and unlock hiring opportunities. Search by location to connect Rainmaker's locally & also connect with Women in The Forest
Earn TEAM points: Earn valuable TEAM points as a Rainmaker by actively contributing to our community through discussions, content interaction, and sharing deal flow. Climb the leaderboard, unlock prizes, and make a rewarding impact in the Chainforest community
I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of the Chainforest Weekly Recap!
Till next week,