Solana ETF?

🎣 w3.catch-of-the-week cw31

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Vicktoria Klich & Quinn Wilhelm
August 02, 2024

GMGM and welcome to the 🎣 w3.catch-of-the-week, your time-saving menu with the best Web3 bites.

The SEC has withdrawn its lawsuit against Binance, in which it had labeled tokens such as $SOL, $ADA & $MATIC as securities.

It seems like the SEC will have to scale back its anti-crypto campaign step by step.

The trigger for this is presumably the change in political sentiment in the USA, as even Democratic voices have recently been speaking out in favor of crypto.

By the way, here is a TL;DR on the Bitcoin conference:

  • Trump wants to turn USA into Crypto Capital

  • Trump wants to establish a Strategic Reserve of Bitcoin

  • Michael Saylor predicts further massive growth in interest in Bitcoin

Forecast by Michael Saylor

🤑 Institutions want your $SOL
💰️ VC Fundings in Web3
🤩 Community Shoutout
💪 Co-Working Fridays with Superteam Germany 

Institutions Want Solana

The Ethereum ETF has been live for more than a week, but institutions are betting on Competitor Solana. Will there be a Solana ETF soon and should we continue to be bullish?

Let's take a closer look at the facts 🤓

Probably the most obvious reason why everyone is talking about Solana is the price. Because hardly any other coin has gone through the roof like $SOL in the last year.

The year 2024 is characterized above all by the strength of Bitcoin compared to other coins. Solana is one of the few to outperform Bitcoin.

The Elephant in the Room: Solana ETF

About one month ago, head of digital assets research Matthew Sige announced via tweet that VanEck had filled out an S1 form for the Solana ETF application.

Strangely enough, this post was deleted and there is nothing more to be found on VanEck's official channels.

The First Institutional Fund on Solana

More positive news came last week when Hamilton Lane announced a private credit fund on the Solana blockchain. This allows investors to access the Senior Credit Opportunities Fund (SCOPE) via Solana. They partnered with Libre to tokenize the fund.

Why the tokenization of RWAs (Real World Assets) makes sense is explained very well here:

Blinks are special blockchain links introduced by Solana that simplify onchain activities.

They allow users to perform transactions, vote, mint NFTs, and make payments directly from familiar platforms like Twitter, without needing complex dapps or interfaces.

This makes blockchain technology more accessible and user-friendly, encouraging broader adoption.

Global Hackathons

Hackathons are a catalyst for innovation. Solana regularly hosts global hackathons. These usually last 1 month.

How does it work?
Smaller teams come together at these events all over the world to work on new ideas. The best ideas then receive support and are developed in incubators.

We have also hosted so-called Build Station three times at w3.hub. At the Build Station, hackers receive mentoring and access to workshops.

The dates for the next hackathon were announced this week:

Current State of Venture Capital in Web3

The interest of VCs in Web3 has returned in 2024, especially Q2 saw significantly more funding than 1 year earlier.

The focus is primarily on AI-related companies such as CorWeave and Mistral AI.

If we zoom out a little, however, it is clear to see that we are a long way from the financial highs of 2021/2022. 

→ In Q4 2021, $10.8 billion was raised in Web3, which is more than 5 times ($2 billion) we saw in Q2 2024.

If we take a closer look at the blockchain sector, the following companies stand out in terms of funding:

$225 million Monad Labs

$150 million Farcaster 

$100 million EigenLayer

$100 million Berachain

$70 million Polymarket

The Community Shoutout of the week goes to w3.hub run club coach Heinrich Tessendorf 👏!

Co-Working Fridays w/ Superteam Germany

Our friends from Solanas Superteam Germany are kicking off a new format at w3.hub: Co-Working Fridays.

From 10AM you can work from Berlins Home of Web3 and exchange with likeminded builders.

Bonus: On the 2nd of August we are combining this with w3.hub Checkout Drinks, hosted by our member Nusha.

Vicky & Marvin are Web3-obsessed. That's why they host a weekly podcast featuring updates and cool stuff.

Don't miss out on any news, updates, & vibes anymore. Discord is so yesterday. Let's meet on Telegram.