GM Vietnam, the highly anticipated blockchain event of the year, will take place on July 7th and 8th, 2023, at THISO SkyHall (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam).

Bringing together over 2,000 participants, including developers, entrepreneurs, investors, and crypto community members, GM Vietnam aims to create an unparalleled experience for Web3 enthusiasts. As the largest cryptocurrency adopting nation globally, Vietnam offers the perfect backdrop to explore the potential of Web3 and foster global connections.

Vietnam – A Prospective Market

GM Vietnam, Vietnam Blockchain Week, is set to be held in Ho Chi Minh City in July 2023. The event is being co-organized by Kyros Ventures, Ancient8, and Coin98. Vietnam has maintained its first place ranking in cryptocurrency adoption for two consecutive years (2021 and 2022), and consistently ranks among the leading nations in terms of MetaMask usage (2021).

GM Vietnam aims to bring together and connect innovators, investors, projects, and leading VC funds to showcase the unique Vietnamese culture and promote the #BUILD spirit of the Vietnamese people to the global crypto community.

GM Vietnam – Networking and Sharing

In order to showcase the unique Vietnamese culture and promote the #BUILD spirit of the Vietnamese people to the global crypto community, GM Vietnam – Vietnam Blockchain Week aims to encompass a wide range of activities. This event is open to everyone and is expected to bring together nearly 2,000 attendees.

Are you eager to discover what our event has in store for you?

• The event offers a professional platform to connect with the top crypto community in Vietnam and around the world, allowing for networking and knowledge sharing opportunities.
• Attendees will have the chance to explore a comprehensive overview of the crypto and blockchain market, along with emerging trends that will shape the industry’s future.
• Experience cutting-edge technologies including Web3, AI, SocialFi, NFT, VR, etc. at the exhibition booths.
• The event is open to all and will offer a place for networking, learning from experiences, and building relationships with startups, builders, KOLs, and leading investment firms. Partners and guests include Binance, Animoca Brands, Amazon Web Services (AWS), ConsenSys, Coinbase, Hooked Protocol, and many other big names.
• The event features an NFT art exhibition, hackathons, and the Axie Tournament.

The list of projects coming to GM Vietnam includes: Animoca Brands, Ava Labs, Aptos Labs, Binance, Chainanalysis, Circle Internet Financial (Circle), Coinbase, ConsenSys, Delphi Digital, Google, OKX, Tezos, and many more.

Event Agenda

Day 1: July 7 | Sunrise

• The event kicks off with a series of insightful talks and engaging exhibitions.
• Engage in discussions centered around the state of the crypto industry in Vietnam and the immense potentials that lie ahead. Gain insights from esteemed panelists, including leaders in DeFi, Web3 innovations, venture capitalists, and regulators in the region.
• Experience the excitement of the Guild Rush S5 LAN Final, featuring a thrilling Axie Infinity competition and showcasing top players in the industry.

Day 2: July 8 | GM Vietnam

• The focus shifts to the technical aspects of blockchain and the practical steps required to bring ideas to fruition.
• Immerse in panels that delve deep into the evolving landscape of blockchain technology. Explore topics such as the next stage of blockchain infrastructure, strategies for projects to achieve mass adoption, and bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3.
• The GM Vietnam HackerSpace will host an awards ceremony, recognizing outstanding contributions in the blockchain space.
• Following the day’s activities, participants can celebrate and connect at the official GM Vietnam Afterparty.

Throughout the week, GM Vietnam will feature a variety of side events that complement the main conference activities. These side events will provide additional opportunities for networking, learning, and engaging with the vibrant Web3 community. To stay updated on the latest information regarding these side events, please visit the official event website at https://gmvietnam.io/.

Whether you are a seasoned professional or just starting out, GM Vietnam is the perfect chance to stay ahead of the curve with like-minded individuals and gain valuable insights.

Event information

There are also two other types of premium tickets available with even more privileges. Please visit the event website at https://gmvietnam.io/ for more details.

• Date: July 7-8, 2023
• Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Register for free tickets: https://app.moongate.id/events/gmvietnam2023

The post GM Vietnam Takes a Leap into the Future: Harnessing Web3 and Blockchain in the Vietnamese Market appeared first on Crypto Insider.

The Madlads NFT is meant to be the first in a novel spin on digital collectibles from Armani Ferrante and Tristan Yver, two well-known figures in the Solana ecosystem.

One of the hottest NFT mints in Solana’s recent history is getting pushed into Friday after a groundswell of interest in the Madlads collection broke the internet infrastructure behind it.

The Madlads collection – a project closely tied to the growing realm of Solana duo Armani Ferrante and Tristan Yver – will open to public minters at 7 p.m. ET (23:00 UTC) Friday, an account tied to the supercharged non-fungible token (NFT) project tweeted late Thursday.

Delaying nearly 24 hours could buy Madlads’ creators time to solve a problem they didn’t think to expect: way too much internet traffic. “Billions” of requests routed through the crypto wallet Backpack (itself a production from Ferrante and Yver) outpaced the platform’s abilities, effectively resulting in a DDoS attack.

“This is orders of magnitude more insane than anything we’ve dealt with up until this point,” Ferrante said on a Twitter spaces with about 9,500 listeners, explaining why the mint was being pushed back.

New kind of NFT

The delay came after a day of electric interest in Ferrante’s and Yver’s custom take on NFTs. They’re called xNFTs, and they’re more than just a JPEG on a blockchain: They also represent “tokenized code representing ownership rights over its execution,” according to the website of Blue Coral Inc., the duo’s startup that focuses on Solana development.

Madlads is meant to be the first xNFT.

On the Twitter spaces, Ferrante recounted a cascading series of internet outages that restricted the public’s chance to access the mint, first for an hour, then a day. He said heavy demand knocked out two RPC nodes (access points to the Solana blockchain) and also the user interface on Cloudflare, which, among other things, tries to prevent DDoS attacks.

Popular demand for the collection of novel JPEGs has already likely spelled a signup boom for Coral’s wallet app, Backpack. That’s the only Solana wallet where would-be owners can mint the Madlads collection, and also the only wallet that supports it, given market leader Phantom isn’t playing.

The palpable excitement among Solana’s developer community manifested in unexpected ways as NFT traders searched for any edge that might guarantee them access to the collection.

Some desperate seekers even followed the advice of a Substack post that implied, erroneously, that buying into custom RPC nodes from Solana developer project Helius could benefit would-be minters.

The signups to Helius’ $19.99 “Hacker plan” grew so much Thursday that it prompted CEO Mert Mumtaz to ward off the ill-informed.

“While I appreciate you thinking of us, it’s important to understand that this RPC won’t actually increase your chances of minting a Madlad all that much, if at all,” Mumtaz posted in Helius’ Discord server midday Thursday.

The post Heavy Demand for Madlads NFT Breaks Internet, Delays Mint appeared first on Crypto Insider.

BitGet started its fund as more crypto projects seek non-U.S. jurisdictions.

Seychelles-based crypto exchange Bitget has started a new $100 million fund targeting Web3 startups as Asian countries build out a framework for developing Web3.

East Asian countries have been making strides to promote crypto in the last few months, with Hong Kong seemingly easing its crypto regulations and Japan approving a whitepaper for Web3 development last week.

“Despite the bear run, Bitget has always been supporting promising and innovative projects and the development of the Web3 environment with a focus on BUIDL. The launch of Bitget Web3 Fund is a continuation of our ongoing efforts to drive the adoption of crypto and Web3, reflecting our ‘Go beyond derivative’ strategy in 2023,” Gracy Chen, the Managing Director of Bitget, said to CoinDesk in a statement.

A spokesperson for Bitget said that the fund is self-funded. “Bitget is debt-free with adequate cash flow, thanks to its steady development and fast-growing business,” her said.

The launch of this fund comes after Bitget invested $30 million into decentralized multi-chain wallet BitKeep.

The post Crypto Exchange BitGet Starts $100M Asia-Focused Web3 Fund appeared first on Crypto Insider.

The event managed to bring senior leaders from India’s ruling party and the opposition benches.

On Saturday, India’s crypto industry pulled off a near coup by bringing lawmakers and members of India’s ruling party to a conference discussing Web3.

Indian exchange CoinDCX, backed by the industry’s policy body, Bharat Web3, and media outlet Forbes brought lawmakers to an event titled “Namaste Web3” at one of New Delhi’s five star luxury hotels, to discuss India’s G-20 presidency and potential opportunities for India in the Web3 sector.

The conference managed to bring senior leaders from India’s ruling party – National Vice President Baijayant Panda and former Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to an event. From the opposition benches it brought a chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee on commerce and a deputy leader of the parliament’s lower house.

While lawmakers and government officials have privately had wide ranging consultations with the industry, this was a rare occasion where they’ve publicly shown up lending the space a fresh legitimacy.

“Web3 is important with a caution…come out of the shadow of crypto,” said Prasad, who has also been a former Information Technology Minister.“

“I am a great supporter of blockchain. But crypto is a different ball game altogether. Let me be very clear about it. Because in crypto there are issues of financial sovereignty of India,” Prasad said, while stating Web 3 needs to find its own ways of decoupling from crypto.

The opposition’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who chairs the country’s parliamentary committee on commerce and said he didn’t stand at the stage as chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee on commerce but as a Web3 enthusiast.

“Web 3 can be one of the biggest factors in bringing to fruition India’s dream of becoming a $5 trillion economy. Negative focus on cryptocurrency, a bit obsessive in the earlier years, has affected the perception about Web3 and its usage. The blockchain narrative needs a paradigm shift from the crypto to the transformative changes that can be brought about with the application of Web3,” he said.

A ‘little caution’

India’s crypto industry remains heavily stifled by a 30% tax on profit and a 1% tax deducted at source which led to volumes plummeting, and a recent move to bring the industry under India’s prevention of money laundering rules.

“A little bit of caution isn’t unreasonable,” said BJP Vice President Baijayant Panda, who is seen as the ruling party’s man of technology.

Panda said Indian policymakers would update rules and regulations based on feedback during a fireside chat on leveraging India’s G-20 presidency to advance the development of Virtual Digital Assets regulatory principles through international cooperation.

“As far as blockchain and bitcoin is concerned, this is the cutting edge of the regulatory questions that need to be answered throughout the world. You are beginning to see a level of consultation that is more than what used to be before,” Panda said.

Gaurav Gogoi, a parliamentarian from the opposition said the crypto ecosystem has a lot to do in removing its perception of being used mainly for money laundering and terrorism financing, but that he was worried about the government’s true position on crypto.

“I hope our government is not telling others (in the G-20) to put a 1% TDS. That could be the global consensus as well, or it could be a ban,” he said.

The post India’s Crypto Industry Finally Sees Lawmakers Engaging appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Sony Network Communications hopes the program will explore “how blockchain technology can solve various problems in their industry.”

Sony Network Communications, a business division of The Sony Group, has teamed up with multi-chain smart contract network Astar Network to launch a Web3 incubation program for projects that focus on the utility of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

According to a press release, the Web3 incubation program will be organized by Singapore-based Startale Labs, a company founded by Astar Network CEO Sota Watanabe, and will run from mid-March to mid-June of this year. Applications for the program open on February 17 and close on March 6.

Those accepted into the program will be split into 10 to 15 cohorts, and learning sessions will be provided by global venture capital firms such as Dragonfly, Fenbushi Capital and Alchemy Venture.

The goal of the program for Sony Network Communications is to explore “how blockchain technology can solve various problems in their industry,” the press release adds. Projects in the program may also be considered for investment from Sony Network Communications.

The incubation program is part of Astar Network’s continued partnerships with companies looking to explore use cases for Web3 technology. Last month, Astar Network – one of the first parachains to come to the Polkadot ecosystem – teamed up with automotive giant Toyota on a Web3 hackathon.

More broadly, Sony has also started to embrace Web3 technology, announcing a motion-tracking metaverse wearable called Mocopi in November 2022.

The post Sony Teams Up With Astar Network for Web3 Incubation Program appeared first on Crypto Insider.

The new application will allow FWB members to connect with each other, read governance proposals and discover in-person events.

Popular decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) Friends With Benefits (FWB) is rolling out a social networking application, the group announced Thursday on Twitter.

FWB launched in 2021 with the goal of building a social community enthusiastic about Web3 adoption and education, as well as hosting local in-person meetups. In September 2021 it raised $10 million led by crypto venture firm a16z to build out its global community on and offline.

While FWB built its initial community through a token-gated channel on Discord, its app will help streamline communication through a decentralized, members-only platform. FWB said in a blog post that the app aims to build genuine relationships by allowing members to connect with each other, read governance proposals and discover upcoming in-person events.

“Our social platform isn’t meant to onboard millions of users as quickly as possible; instead, it is a human-scaled piece of software that optimizes for positive group dynamics, digital socializing, meaning-making and hanging out,” FWB said on Twitter.

To join the app, community members must hold 75 FWB tokens, the community’s native cryptocurrency, which is about $800.
You can apply to join the FWB community through its website. According to the organization, the community is made up of over 3,000 engaged members so far.

In addition to launching its social platform, the organization is also voting on a number of in-person social initiatives, including the 2023 production of its popular music and arts gathering FWB FEST.

The post Friends With Benefits DAO Releases Social Networking App appeared first on Crypto Insider.

A new report released by Web3 developer platform Alchemy suggests that while this past year saw token trading slow, the number of smart contracts deployed on Ethereum continues to grow.

Although the ongoing crypto winter has started to feel like an ice age, new data from Web3 developer platform Alchemy suggests that builders are trudging ahead and continuing to deploy on-chain.

In its Web3 Development Report looking at the fourth quarter of 2022, Alchemy wrote that this past year saw token trading drop but development on Ethereum grow. Non-fungible token (NFT) trading volume was down by 94% year over year, the report said, while the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols fell by 77%. Major cryptocurrencies, like BTC, ETH and SOL, dropped by 65%, 68% and 94% respectively.

And while the fallout from FTX’s collapse in November led to significant losses that rippled across industries, morale amongst Web3 developers remains high. The number of smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum mainnet increased by 453%, the report said, following the Ethereum merge at the end of Q3. And in a survey of 985 developers conducted by Alchemy, 94.2% reported feeling optimistic about the future of Web3.

“Web3’s hallmark highs and lows were on full display in Q4,” Alchemy wrote in a press release accompanying the report. “On one hand, developers leaned into trustlessness – deploying smart contracts at rates that resembled the peaks of 2021. On the other, the implosion of major crypto exchanges rocked the foundations of consumer trust.”

Jason Shah, head of growth at Alchemy, told CoinDesk that while the fall of FTX contributed to the sharp decline in some figures last quarter, positive developer sentiment highlights a growing separation between cryptocurrencies and decentralized tools.

“It’s the tale of cryptos, with centralized exchanges and financial fraud alongside builders and decentralized technological architecture,” said Shah. “And these are very different worlds, frankly, that are becoming increasingly decoupled.”

Shah also noted that among the smart contracts deployed this past quarter, there was 58% increase in the amount of social decentralized applications (dapps) built in Q4.

“It suggests to us that there’s probably a more sustainable and natural set of internet products that are being built around that social sector,” said Shah.

The post Developers Keep the Candle Burning During Chilly Crypto Winter appeared first on Crypto Insider.

The bankrupt crypto hedge fund once aimed for a $100M NFT collection, which now may be worth less than $1M.

Starry Night Capital, a fund backed by bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, had its non-fungible tokens (NFT) moved to smart contract wallet Gnosis Safe, according to Nansen.ai.

Starry Night was set up by the doomed Singapore-based firm in August 2021 to act as an investment arm for digital collectibles following the early NFT boom. The fund partnered with well-known NFT collector Vincent Van Dough to assemble “the world’s finest collection of CryptoArt,” according to its now-defunct Twitter account. The fund’s website has also since been pulled.

CoinDesk reported last year that Three Arrows’ NFT wallets initially swooped up assets from popular collections like CryptoPunks and invested in multimillion-dollar artworks from artists including Dmitri Cherniak, with the goal of raising $100 million. In addition, the firm planned to launch an NFT educational portal and physical gallery.

Ultimately, Starry Night Capital moved its entire collection of 70 works onto NFT marketplace SuperRare, according to CoinMetrics researcher Kyle Waters, ahead of its June 2022 liquidation order. At the time, it was estimated to have spent more than $21 million building the collection.

According to Nansen.ai, NFTs previously collected by Starry Night have since been moved to a Gnosis Safe address, including a Pepe the Frog NFT Genesis, which sold in October 2021 for about $3.5 million; a Fidenza, which sold for about $1.1 million in November 2021; and several CryptoArt NFTs by XCOPY that sold at multiple points last year for around $5.5 million, among others.

The shifting of these assets into a Gnosis Safe is significant, given that the smart contract digital asset management platform requires multiple signatures to move assets – meaning, multiple team members need to approve each transaction in order for it to be executed. This method is helpful for companies that may have multiple owners of a digital portfolio and prevents any single party from running off with the funds inside.

As noted by CoinDesk’s Sam Reynolds, it’s difficult to value all of the NFTs in the Starry Night safe because different valuation tools use different metrics in their estimations. According to Nansen.ai, the portfolio of NFTs is worth about 625 ether (ETH), or about $846,431. In addition, it notes that about 89% of the NFTs in the collection have low liquidity, which it measures as less than 35 sales in the last seven days.

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Prime Minister Fumio Kishida continued calls for Web3 technology integration.

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a policy speech on Monday that the country’s plans for investing in digital transformation include non-fungible tokens (NFT) and metaverse services.

The country has steadily been promoting investment in digital technology, including through tax incentives for companies that embrace a digital future. In his speech to Japan’s parliament, Kishida said the country will continue to focus on “supporting the social implementation of digital technology” and will “promote efforts to expand the use of Web3 services that utilize the metaverse and NFTs.”

Japan’s federal foray into Web3 follows a trend of officials taking strides to implement Web3-related services in the country – rather than following the typical bureaucratic route that policies must often travel through. Kishida’s administration recently established a Web3 policy office under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), which is focused on creating policies for the country’s gradual blockchain expansion.

In April, a task force launched by Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party and led by politician Akihisa Shiozaki released an “NFT White Paper,” which called Web3 the “the new frontier of the digital economy” and outlined plans to advance the national strategy on Web3.

METI is also reportedly looking into a proposal to offer tax exemptions to Japanese crypto companies in order to entice them to keep their business in the country and further fuel the nation’s growing Web3 industry.

The post Japan to Invest in Metaverse and NFT Expansion appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Binance Labs announced a new $500 million fund in June to invest in Web3 and blockchain projects.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has appointed co-founder Yi He to oversee its venture capital arm, Binance Labs, two months after it raised $500 million for a new fund focused on Web3 and blockchain investments.

Binance Labs, which focuses on early-stage investments, manages $7.5 billion in total assets across more than 200 portfolio projects, according to a press release. Portfolio companies include Ethereum sidechain Polygon, crypto exchange FTX and security firm CertiK.

Yi, who joined Binance just before its launch in 2017, will oversee global strategy and day-to-day operations of Binance Labs with a particular focus on supporting infrastructure projects and improving utility in crypto and blockchain projects.

She will continue her work with the parent company, including institutional businesses, marketing, Binance P2P and Earn.

During a CNN appearance on Wednesday, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said Yi is “very aggressive” and that Binance would be making “quite a lot of investments” in the near term. He also said Binance as a whole plans to continue hiring, with a target of expanding headcount from the current 6,000 to 8,000 by the end of the year.

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