Ryze Ledger: Edition 2
Unlocking the potential of crypto, one insight at a time. Don't miss our portfolio news and emerging market focus.
Contents
What to Expect
Market Overview
Spotlight: Rise
Regulatory Updates
Ryze Labs Portfolio News
Emerging Markets Focus
1. What to Expect
In this issue, we spotlight Rise's innovative global payroll solutions, simplifying international contractor management with a focus on compliance and efficiency.
Regulatory updates cover significant developments like BlackRock's Ethereum ETF proposal and crypto-related legislation.
Our portfolio news features exciting announcements from Clearpool, Pyth Network, and MetaGravity, Zeta, Anboto Labs, Indus, showcasing advancements in DeFi lending, community rewards, and metaverse scaling. We also delve into Polygon's POL contract launch on Ethereum, enhancing Layer 2 interoperability.
Finally, we turn to emerging markets with updates on virtual asset regulation in Hong Kong and India's approach to managing seized digital assets.
2. Market Overview
Over the last 30 days, Bitcoin (BTC) has seen a significant increase of 39.30% in price, Ethereum (ETH) has risen by 34.12%, Solana (SOL) has experienced a substantial surge of 168.75%, and Polygon (MATIC) has also had a notable increase of 72.59%. This data indicates a period of strong performance and positive market sentiment across the markets.
3. Spotlight: Rise - Pioneering Global Payroll Solutions
Rise emerges as a beacon of innovation, redefining how businesses manage their global workforce. With a mission to streamline the complexities of international payroll and compliance, Rise offers a suite of services that cater to the modern, borderless economy.
Unlocking Efficiency with Rise
Rise transforms the administrative labyrinth into a highway of efficiency. Here's how:
Onboarding Contractors: Rise’s platform simplifies the onboarding process, ensuring that welcoming international contractors is as seamless as integrating local talent.
Custom Pay Schedules: With Rise, businesses can tailor payment schedules to fit the unique dynamics of their contractor engagements, ensuring punctuality and consistency in compensation.
Compliant Contracts: The platform's robust contract generation tools ensure that all agreements meet the stringent standards of legal and industry compliance.
Workforce Management: Rise centralizes workforce oversight, providing a unified platform for managing contractor interactions and payments.
Innovating Global Payroll for a Borderless Future
Rise's vision is clear: to facilitate compliant, effortless hiring across borders without the need for local entities or deep knowledge of regional complexities. This vision came to life when founders Andrew Maurer and Hugo Finkelstein pivoted from a marketplace model to a comprehensive payroll solution in 2021. Their goal? To empower businesses to hire and pay international contractors with the same ease as local ones.
The Rise Advantage
Rise stands out by integrating Web3 technologies, offering both fiat and crypto payment infrastructures. This dual approach allows businesses to fund payrolls in their preferred currency while giving workers the freedom to choose their payment method, independent of the company's treasury.
Security and Compliance at the Forefront
Rise is committed to the highest standards of security and data privacy, pursuing SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications, and ensuring data encryption both at rest and in transit. Their compliance service providers are trusted by major banks and industries, adhering to GDPR protocols.
The User Journey with Rise
Businesses can set up with Rise in a few simple steps: create an account, invite team members, and choose a subscription method. Managers can then create contracts, set pay schedules, and fund payrolls with fiat or crypto. Rise's platform is designed for ease, automation, and efficiency.
Future Horizons
Looking ahead, Rise plans to expand its Employer of Record service, starting in the US and scaling globally. Their ambition is to support organizations at every stage, from startups to established enterprises, and to bridge the gap between traditional business and the world of Web3.
A Word from the CEO
In an episode of Founder's Funnel, CEO Hugo Finkelstein shared insights on Rise's journey, the importance of moving swiftly, staying customer-focused, and the value of a strong network. He also highlighted the strategic partnership with Ryze Labs, whose global perspective and expertise have been instrumental in Rise's growth.
4. Regulatory Updates
BlackRock Ethereum ETF: BlackRock has proposed the creation of an Ethereum-based exchange-traded fund (ETF), to be listed with Nasdaq. The iShares Ethereum Trust would enable investment in Ethereum without the complexities of direct cryptocurrency transactions. The ETF, which aims to simplify investment in Ethereum, is awaiting regulatory approval. BlackRock has previously shown interest in digital assets by applying for a spot bitcoin ETF with the SEC. The company's increased involvement in the cryptocurrency space signals a rising institutional interest.
Self-Custody Crypto Bill: US Senator Ted Budd has introduced the "Keep Your Coins Act" to the Senate, which aims to safeguard individuals' rights to self-custody their cryptocurrency assets. This legislation is particularly significant in the context of increasing regulatory scrutiny following high-profile cryptocurrency exchange failures. While Budd promotes financial freedom and a decentralized crypto ecosystem, the bill contrasts with previous attempts by other legislators to regulate self-custody wallets more stringently.
NY Attorney General’s Lawsuit: New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against Gemini Trust Company, Genesis Global Capital, and Digital Currency Group, alleging fraud of over $1 billion. The suit accuses these companies of misleading investors through the "Gemini Earn" program, which was promoted as a low-risk investment despite Genesis's unstable financial situation. The lawsuit also names key executives, alleging they concealed significant losses that adversely affected investors, including substantial financial hardships for individuals who lost their life savings.
China and Digital Property Theft:
China has announced that theft of digital collections, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs), will now incur criminal theft sentences. The Chinese government's statement classified such theft as a crime against both data and virtual property, indicating that stealing digital collections by system intrusion constitutes a violation of property law. Despite China's 2021 ban on most cryptocurrency activities, there is notable activity in the NFT space, with recent developments suggesting a growing interest in NFTs and digital collections, including moves by Chinese state-owned entities to establish NFT platforms.
The Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) has garnered support from 47 countries, committing to incorporate this new international standard into their domestic laws for the automatic exchange of tax information. The CARF, introduced by the OECD, is a response to the G20's mandate and outlines reporting requirements for cryptocurrency and digital asset transactions, whether conducted through intermediaries or service providers. By 2027, the framework aims to enhance tax compliance and curb tax evasion, which undermines public revenue and places a heavier load on compliant taxpayers. The initiative, however, has notable gaps, missing key markets such as China, Hong Kong, the UAE, Russia, Turkey, and lacks representation from African and several Latin American countries, with only Chile and Brazil participating from the latter region. This framework complements other international tax information protocols like the EU's DAC8, designed to monitor cryptocurrency transactions for tax purposes.
5. Ryze Labs Portfolio News
Clearpool introduced a new borrower pool in collaboration with Wincent, a significant crypto market maker. This pool, transacting in USDC, is part of the Optimism marketplace. Clearpool is also experiencing rapid growth on the Optimism Mainnet, evidenced by an increase in total value locked (TVL). They are offering a boosted yield campaign where lenders will receive additional liquidity provider rewards in OP tokens.
Pyth Network announced a retrospective airdrop as a token of appreciation for its community. It's open to contributors to the Pyth oracle network, users of applications utilizing Pyth data across 27 blockchains, and members engaged via social channels. Eligibility and allocation details are available through a checker on their official blog.
MetaGravity partnered with Pavia to scale up their metaverse application, aiming to support 10,000 concurrent users. This collaboration leverages MetaGravity's scalable engine technology to achieve significant multiplayer support with minimal cloud costs. They are swiftly progressing with Unity integration for Pavia's game client, with a beta phase involving web3 partners set to follow. The next step is to onboard communities to Pavia's metaverse, working towards the 10k user milestone. Comments from both companies underscore the advancement and expected positive outcomes of their integration. MetaGravity is touting its parallel computing, scale, cost efficiency, and game engine integration, while Pavia focuses on building a vibrant, community-driven virtual world.
Zeta Markets introduced a new system called Z-Score, which precedes the launch of their token. Z-Score allows traders to earn points based on their trading activity, with every $1 in taker volume adding one Z-Score point. Traders' profits and losses within a 24-hour period affect a multiplier that influences their total Z-Score. Higher scores lead to better rewards. Zeta aims to distribute its token to active users, with Z-Score calculated retroactively for past trades. Season 1 of Z-Score runs until December 20, and further partnerships and experiences are planned to enhance trader involvement.
Polygon announced the implementation of POL contracts on the Ethereum mainnet as part of the Polygon 2.0 advancements. This milestone is pivotal for Polygon's aim to establish a Value Layer on the internet. POL tokens will facilitate the operation of zero-knowledge Layer 2 chains, allowing holders to validate chains and participate in various roles. This step sets the stage for future developments, such as a new staking layer for Polygon L2s, an upgrade of Polygon PoS to zkRollup, and the creation of a ZK-powered interoperability protocol for L2 liquidity.
Rise launched a new payment feature for global contractors, allowing them to instantly withdraw their earnings in GBP and EUR. The funds are delivered to bank accounts within the same day or up to one business day, depending on the transfer time. This new feature is available to all individual contractors associated with Rise.
Anboto Labs partnered with WOO X to launch a trading competition with a prize pool of up to $25,000. The competition rewards higher trading volumes with larger prizes and offers fee-free trading for the duration of the campaign. Only future pairs traded on Anboto's platform are eligible. The competition runs from October 24th to November 13th, with rewards distributed on November 27th.
Indus Game has been awarded the title of 'most popular game' at the India Game Developer Conference (IGDC) 2023 in Hyderabad. The team expresses gratitude to the Indus community for their support and votes.
6. Emerging Markets Focus
Hong Kong Virtual Asset Policy Update: Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission has revised its regulations for virtual asset activities, adding two investor protection measures. The new rules pertain to intermediaries providing virtual asset products, such as non-derivative exchange-traded funds, which are now classified as complex products. The first measure restricts sales to professional investors only. The second requires intermediaries to conduct a "virtual asset-knowledge test" to assess clients' understanding of virtual asset investments. Clients must pass this test before proceeding with a transaction, unless they receive sufficient training from the intermediary. However, institutional professional investors and qualified corporate professional investors are exempt from this test.
UBS Crypto ETFs in Hong Kong: UBS Group has enabled its affluent clients in Hong Kong to invest in three crypto ETFs: Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF, CSOP Bitcoin Futures ETF, and CSOP Ether Futures ETF. These ETFs, which total around $72 million in assets, have been authorized by Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission. This move coincides with Hong Kong's broader push to establish itself as a hub for virtual assets, which includes permitting retail investors to trade spot crypto ETFs and engage in tokenization. UBS's participation in the virtual assets market is part of the bank's broader engagement with digital currencies, which also includes working with the Swiss National Bank on a CBDC pilot.
India CBI's Digital Asset Management: India's Central Bureau of Investigation has contracted Liminal, a digital asset custodian, to manage digital assets it has seized. Liminal has aided the CBI by creating secure multi-sig and multi-party computation wallets for the safekeeping of these assets. This partnership follows major cryptocurrency scams in India, emphasizing the need for secure management of digital assets in law enforcement operations. Liminal, which is committed to fostering a regulated digital asset ecosystem in India, has previously raised $4.7 million in seed funding from various venture capital firms and notable individual investors.