Crypto banking startup Juno raises $18M to launch its tokenised loyalty programme

Juno raises $18M in a Series A round led by ParaFi Capital

Digital banking platform Juno on Saturday said it raised $18 million in a Series A round led by ParaFi Capital’s Growth Fund. Marquee investors Hashed, Jump Crypto, Uncorrelated Fund, Greycroft, Mithril, Antler Global, 6th Man Ventures, and Abstract Ventures, also participated in the round

Indian entrepreneurs Varun Deshpande, Ratnesh Ray, and Siddharth Verma co-founded Juno — an online banking platform that provides checking accounts with integrated Bitcoin and Ether crypto wallets for American users.

Introducing tokenised loyalty programme:

The firm will use the capital to expand its digital banking offerings, besides its tokenised loyalty programme. In a conversation with The Decrypting Story, Varun Deshpande said, "Based on activities that the users do on the platform, they will receive coins from Juno."

“Whether it's in paycheck with us or spending with the Juno card, users will start earning these coins. Further, they can be used within the platform and redeemed for exclusive access to products and services," he said.

5 most sound businesses in Web3

Earlier last week, Token Terminal—a platform that aggregates financial data on leading blockchains and decentralised applications—introduced a sound business leaderboard with data comprising 52 protocols, including Polygon, Ethereum, Uniswap, Looksrare, and others. This data entails the list of protocols and their performance throughout time frames ranging from 24 hours to 365 days.

Based on this data, YourStory Research and The Decrypting Story examined 52 protocols in a 30-day time frame and determined the top protocols in terms of four separate metrics — earnings, revenue, fees, and token incentives.

Key findings:

Earnings—determined by revenue minus token incentives—are led by MakerDAO, 1inch, MUX, Index Cooperative, and Ribbon Finance 30 days, ended September 27.

The revenue category is led by Ethereum, dYdX, Synthetic, GMX, and LooksRare. Revenue is the fees generated for tokenholders by the protocol in a given time frame.

In terms of transaction fees, which refer to the amount paid by end users for using the platforms, the rankings are led by Ethereum, Uniswap, Lido Finance, Convex Finance, and Aave.

And finally, the top five spenders on token incentives are Ethereum, Synthetix, Polygon, dYdX, and Lido Finance. When they pay higher token incentives, the protocol users stand to earn.

Binance Smart Chain halted over $100M cross-chain bridge exploit

Transactions on Binance Smart Chain (BNB Chain), the blockchain of crypto exchange Binance, were halted on Friday due to an exploit on its cross-chain bridge, with hackers making off with cryptocurrency worth an estimated $100 million.

The BNB Chain developer on Reddit confirmed the exploit saying, "Initial estimates for funds taken off BSC (Binance Smart Chain) are between $100-$110 million. However, thanks to the community and our internal and external security partners, an estimated $7 million has already been frozen."

Implications:

As per reports by blockchain security firm SlowMist, the exploit allowed hackers to get away with over $570 million in digital assets, including Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Fantom, Arbitrum, and Optimism.

As per CoinMarketCap data, BSC's native token BNB dropped by almost 4% since the opening hours.

MakerDAO to invest $500M in US government bonds

Decentralised finance (De-Fi) lending protocol, MakerDAO, announced its plans to invest $500 million in short-term US treasury bonds and investment-grade corporate bonds. As per reports, a pilot transaction of $1 million is completed.

Nearly 20% investment will go into investment-grade corporate bonds, and 80% into US treasury bonds.

Recent developments:

Earlier in June, MakerDAO's community had voted in favour of the allocation proposal.

The same month, Sebastien Derivaux, a member of MakerDAO’s strategic finance core unit, in a statement said, "An investment of $500 million DAI in this context, that is expected to remain liquid and low volatility, is therefore not a significant risk for the DAI peg nor the solvency of MakerDAO."

WazirX lays off 40% of its staff in a bid to weather volatile markets

Earlier last week, Indian crypto exchange WazirX laid off 40% of its staff, including members from its policy, communications, and marketing teams as part of its efforts to manage costs amid the impending economic downturn.

As per reports, around 50 to 70 WazirX employees were laid off, who were informed that they would be paid for 45 days and would no longer be needed to report for work.

Other instances:

Of late, the crypto exchange has come under the Enforcement Directorate (ED) radar. On August 5, ED froze bank deposits worth Rs 64.67 crore as part of a money laundering probe against the exchange. Shortly after this move, WazirX's assets were also unfrozen on September 12.

The company itself has been embroiled in controversy for a little over a year now as Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that it did not own WazirX shortly after the ED's actions.