NEOPIN and Sevenline Labs collaborate to boost Web3 gaming expansion

Singapore-based startup Pontem, a Web3 product development studio, has successfully raised $6 million in a recent funding round. Broad venture capital participationThe firm announced details of the funding round via a press release published on Thursday.  The round was co-led by Faction and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The financing includes participation from notable contributors such as Pantera Capital, Aptos Foundation, market maker Wintermute, Singaporean trading firm Altonomy, Shima Capital and Kraken Ventures. This latest capital infusion brings Pontem's total raised funds to $10.5 million, building upon the $4.5 million secured in June 2021 through a private token sale led by Mechanism Capital, Kenetic Capital, Delphi Ventures and Hong Kong’s Animoca Brands.Pepi Stojanovski on UnsplashExpanding Move utilityThe primary focus of the funds is to empower developers in creating applications that are compatible with both the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Move, expanding the utility of the Move programming language beyond its current usage on the Aptos and Sui blockchains. Move is a rust-derived programming language which was originally developed by Facebook with the intention of using it to power the Diem blockchain, prior to the company abandoning the project. It’s a platform-agnostic language designed for the writing of safe smart contracts. It distinguishes itself from the EVM's Solidity language by enhancing throughput through parallel processing. Pontem contends that Move is particularly appealing to Web2 developers from traditional finance and tech sectors due to its similarity to familiar static-type languages. Pontem envisions breaking the temporary vendor lock-in associated with the EVM, offering developers a versatile programming language that supports the security and scalability required for widespread adoption. Alejo Pinto, co-founder of Pontem, highlighted the objective of utilizing the capital influx to increase the usage of Move beyond the Aptos and Sui blockchains, providing dApp teams with a programming language that facilitates the addition of new features, promoting security and scalability. Pinto emphasized that Pontem seeks to address the vendor lock-in issue on Ethereum, enabling easier entry for Web2 developers and fostering their confidence in the decentralized space. Banafsheh Fathieh, Partner at Faction, praised Pontem's role in building critical primitives for the Move ecosystems. Pantera Capital Managing Partner Paul Veradittakit expressed excitement about investing in Pontem, recognizing the team's efforts in constructing essential financial and technical infrastructure to attract consumers and developers to the decentralized web. Lumio Layer 2The allocated capital is earmarked for developing Move Virtual Machine products on EVM-compatible blockchains like Ethereum. This includes Lumio, a Move-based Layer 2 solution which the company introduced in December. It operates as an optimistic rollup on Ethereum and leverages alternative Layer 1s like Aptos to process transactions. Pontem disclosed that products deployed on Aptos, such as the Pontem Wallet and Liquidswap DEX, have gained significant traction with 40,000 weekly active users and up to $1 million in daily volume. Looking ahead, Pontem envisions extending its support to the Solana Virtual Machine and other blockchain languages, underscoring its intention to provide a comprehensive development environment for decentralized applications. The funding secured in this round signifies a crucial step for the fledgling company in advancing the compatibility and accessibility of the Move programming language within the broader blockchain ecosystem. 

Huobi Anticipates Break-Even in Q3 Following Consecutive LossesCryptocurrency exchange Huobi, under the guidance of its advisor and Tron Founder Justin Sun, has reported losses over consecutive recent quarters and is now eyeing a break-even point in the current quarter.Photo by Brands&People on UnsplashThree quarters of lossesIn a tweet posted by Sun on Tuesday, the Tron Founder revealed that Huobi hadn’t registered a profit from the third quarter of 2022 through the second quarter of this year. While exact loss figures were not disclosed, Sun attributed these financial challenges to excessive spending on marketing, advertising, and employee salaries. Notably, Huobi has since reined in these expenses, positioning itself for a potential return to profitability by the fourth quarter.Looking at the overall financial performance of Sun’s crypto entities, Huobi and Tron, the group appears to be on an upward trajectory. Sun’s tweet indicated a combined profit of $85 million, derived from $193 million in revenues and $108 million in expenses.Notably, the Q2 profit saw a substantial increase of 183% compared to the $30 million profit in Q1. Sun’s projections suggest that Q3 could see revenue reach $200 million, expenses remain at $100 million, resulting in a projected profit of $100 million for the quarter.Improved financial outlookSun highlighted on Twitter Huobi’s improved financial outlook, projecting a break-even status for Q3 and a modest profit for Q4 based on conservative estimates. Earlier in the year, Huobi implemented a 20% reduction in its workforce as a response to the cryptocurrency market’s bearish trends.Established in 2013, Huobi had maintained consistent profitability until the last few quarters, according to Sun. He clarified that despite reports linking him as the core investor through the M&A fund that acquired a stake in Huobi, he is merely an advisor to the exchange.Exchange business challengesHuobi’s struggles and subsequent efforts to regain financial stability mirror the broader landscape of cryptocurrency exchanges navigating a volatile market. No major exchange has been unaffected by a challenging business and regulatory environment over the past year.US exchange Coinbase is in a legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States. A report by Semafor on Wednesday suggests that the US Department of Justice is planning on bringing fraud charges against Binance, who is already fighting an action taken by the SEC. Binance has also been forced out of key four important European markets over the course of the past three months.Meanwhile, it has been claimed that KuCoin has been executing a layoff plan, something the company itself denies. In March, the company faced an action brought by the New York Attorney General on the basis of a failure to register as a securities and commodities broker-dealer.Huobi’s difficulties serve as a testament to the challenges and opportunities presented to all of the major international cryptocurrency exchange businesses.The company’s recent financial trajectory, marked by consecutive losses, has caught the attention of the industry. Justin Sun remains one of crypto’s most controversial figures, but with his guidance, the exchange will be working towards rebounding and returning to profitability in the coming quarters.

Bithumb and Korbit Struggle to Gain Traction Despite Zero Trading FeesSouth Korean cryptocurrency exchanges Bithumb and Korbit have recently eliminated trading fees, but their bold decision hasn’t yielded much results. Bithumb was the first to implement this change and attracted users for about a week, but it is now seeing a loss in market share. Korbit, following Bithumb’s example, is also struggling to achieve meaningful outcomes.Photo by Alexander Grey on UnsplashLimited impactLocal media outlet Chosun Biz used data from crypto data platform CoinGecko to draw this conclusion. On October 26, Korbit’s daily trading volume represented 0.19% of the total trading volume among South Korea’s top five crypto exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax). This figure marked a 0.14 percentage point increase compared to the 0.05% recorded on October 19. Korbit had implemented a zero trading fee policy at 9 a.m. (KST) on October 20. Additionally, they launched a promotion offering KRW 5,000 ($3.69) worth of bitcoin to users who transferred virtual assets totaling KRW 1 million or more from Travel Rule-compliant exchanges to Korbit. While the promotion did contribute to Korbit’s market share, it still remains below 1%.Bithumb’s performance showed some improvement, albeit briefly. As of October 26, Bithumb’s market share stood at 18%, marking a 4.7 percentage point increase from its 13.3% share on October 3, the day before it eliminated trading fees. However, it’s worth noting that its market share had reached almost 30% shortly after the promotion’s launch. This indicates that its strategy is losing efficacy over time.The less-than-enthusiastic results from their daring marketing endeavors can be attributed to their inability to draw in retail investors. To begin with, Upbit, the leading player in the market, had already been providing a relatively low fee of 0.05%. Furthermore, adapting to new user interfaces on these exchanges posed a challenge. Zero trading fees weren’t attractive enough for crypto investors to leave their current platforms.Trading volume mattersIn the case of Korbit, its lower trading volume was a disadvantage when it came to attracting users. On crypto exchanges, a higher trading volume typically translates to faster trade executions. As a result, users of Korbit might experience delays in executing trades at their preferred price.Jeong Hye-won, a research associate at crypto data analytics platform Xangle, told Chosun Biz that users on exchanges with lower trading volumes tend to experience slippages due to slower transaction speeds and sparsely populated order books. A slippage means the difference between the initially placed order price and the executed order price. Jeong further explained that Korbit’s zero trading fee policy didn’t have a significant impact because it offers fewer listed tokens compared to Upbit and Bithumb.There is speculation that the free-trading fee promotions introduced by Bithumb and Korbit, despite their revenue sacrifices, might conclude sooner than initially anticipated due to their perceived ineffectiveness. Bithumb derives 99.95% of its revenue from trading fees, while Korbit relies on trading fees for 99.79% of its income. An industry insider has commented that trading fees play a vital role in an exchange’s revenue, and given Bithumb’s reported loss in earnings during the second quarter, there are concerns about their capacity to sustain this strategy.