Odaily News In addition to acquiring the Web3 content publishing platform Mirror, the Web3 content publishing platform Paragraph also announced the completion of a $5 million financing round, with participation from Union Square Ventures (USV) and Coinbase Ventures. Paragraph founder Colin Armstrong will serve as CEO, and Mirror founder Denis Nazarov will serve as an advisor. In October 2022, Paragraph announced the completion of a $1.7 million financing round, led by Lemniscap, with participation from FTX Ventures, Binance Labs, GCR and Seed Club Ventures. (The Block) Yesterday, it was reported that Mirror was acquired by Paragraph. The Mirror team will continue to operate independently and will shift its focus to the development of "Kiosk", a Farcaster-based Web3 social application that integrates blockchain and e-commerce. The founder of Paragraph said that Mirror and Paragraph will eventually merge into a unified product suite.

Odaily星球日报讯 据官方消息，由AI驱动的品牌保护平台Doppel宣布完成1400万美元A轮融资，a16z领投，Strategic Cyber Ventures、Okta副主席兼联合创始人Frederic Kerrest、Datadog首席信息安全官Emilio Escobar、Capital One首席技术风险官兼执行副总裁Andy Ozment、Chainguard总裁Ryan Carlson、Material Security联合创始人兼董事长Ryan Noon、 Octant联合创始人Ramsey Homsany、OpenAI研究科学家Prafulla Dhariwal等新投资者、以及South Park Commons、SVAngel、Gokul Rajaram、Sabrina Hahn现有投资者参投。Signal Sciences前联合创始人兼Etsy首席信息安全官Zane Lackey即将加入其董事会。 Doppel是一个由AI驱动的品牌保护平台，其为解决大规模数字风险提供了一套解决方案，目前为各行各业的企业提供服务，包括Coinbase、ARK Invest和VSCO。 Doppel此前定位为NFT欺诈检测公司，2022年5月，Doppel宣布完成500万美元种子轮融资，FTX Ventures领投。

Odaily News Dave Bank of the United States announced that it has reached an agreement with FTX Ventures Ltd. It plans to purchase a convertible promissory note with an original amount of US$100 million previously issued to FTX at a discounted purchase price of US$71 million. The completion of the transaction is also subject to bankruptcy court approval, and a hearing will be held on January 25, 2024. (prnewswire)

Odaily News Venture capital firm Menlo Ventures announced that it has raised US$1.35 billion in new funds, mainly investing in a new generation of artificial intelligence startups. In addition, the announcement also mentioned that Amy Wu, the former head of FTX Ventures, has joined Menlo Ventures and will be responsible for consumer investments together with Shawn Carolan.

Odaily News In todays testimony, the U.S. prosecutor asked SBF: Did you decide to spend billions of dollars in venture capital in 2021 and 2022? SBF responded: I think several billion of them were my decision. SBF also admitted that even before Alameda was ultimately hedged, he decided to spend billions on the venture. Crunchbase data shows that FTX Ventures has invested in nearly 70 startups. (Bloomberg)

Odaily News Former FTX Ventures head and Menlo Ventures gaming partner Amy Wu posted on the X platform that she has not stopped investing in crypto companies. On the contrary, she is as excited about blockchain applications as ever and is always looking to build novel consumer experiences the founder of. Currently, Amy Wu believes that the most important points in Web3 consumer applications are: the general audience is more than crypto-native users; the team fundamentally understands the products that customers need/want/will pay for; the tokens launched are not core products and profitable Means; the core functions of the product are implemented through the blockchain, in other words, it is not an “on-chain version of XX application” or “a token-issued XX application”; login is as smooth as other applications in the same category. In addition, Amy Wu said that we are always looking for founders who build novel consumer experiences and drive the next wave of original technologies that may be completely different from the previous wave.

Odaily News FTX creditor @sunil_trades posted on the X platform that according to a lawsuit document, FTX has filed a recovery lawsuit against LayerZero Labs and other related parties. Allegedly, just before FTX shut down and banned withdrawals, LayerZero used inside information to illegally withdraw $21.37 million in funds from FTX. In addition, FTX also seeks to recover approximately US$13.07 million and US$6.65 million from Ari Litan, the former chief operating officer of LayerZero Labs, and its Skip Goose subsidiary. It was reported in November last year that LayerZero had reached an agreement with FTX, FTX Ventures and Alameda Research for a complete equity acquisition; it also purchased locked STG tokens from Alameda’s community auction; LayerZero said it currently has approximately US$107 million. Direct cash balance and $27 million in on-chain funds (~90% stablecoins), totaling $134 million.

Odaily News: According to informed sources, some pension funds in the United States are providing financing support to the cryptocurrency broker Hidden Road. Andrew Urquhart, a finance professor at the Henry Business School, said, "This is a very risky investment, and if my pension fund says that we will enter the cryptocurrency field, I would be very concerned." If the hedge funds borrowing from this brokerage suffer huge losses, both the brokerage and its investors may have to bear the cost of those losses. A person familiar with Hidden Road stated that the company sees itself more as a private equity investment firm rather than a bank's main broker, raising external funds for investment activities. (Financial Times) In previous news, global credit service provider Hidden Road Partners announced the completion of a $50 million Series A financing round, with Castle Island Ventures leading the investment and participation from Citadel Securities, FTX Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, Greycroft, XBTO Humla Ventures, Wintermute, SLN Capital, Profluent Trading, Coinbase Ventures, among others.

Odaily News: FTX's management team criticized traders and market makers in FTX's unsecured creditors, accusing them of seeking control of assets without regard for the impact on other stakeholders. Recently, the FTX management team proposed a restructuring plan draft. The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors claims that the company lacks negotiation and states that FTX is missing out on opportunities to generate better returns for its significant cash and token holdings. In a rebuttal filed on Wednesday, lawyers representing FTX's management stated that extensive discussions took place between the representatives of both parties. The opposition stance of the creditor group "suggests a bias towards adopting a non-representative plan that would hand over control of the debtor's billions of dollars in liquid assets to unrestricted crypto traders and market makers." According to reports, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors is urging FTX to invest a portion of its approximately $2.6 billion cash reserves in short-term government bonds to generate additional net income, claiming that it would help offset professional fees as high as $33 million incurred in the previous eight months (Bloomberg). Previously reported, FTX's current CEO, John J. Ray III, stated that the team submitted a restructuring plan early in the bankruptcy process to solicit feedback from creditors. FTX hopes to collaborate with creditors to modify the plan in the third quarter of 2023 and submit a disclosure statement in the fourth quarter. The proposed FTX restructuring plan indicates that, in addition to establishing an offshore exchange company, FTX is also considering setting up a new trust company called "FTX Ventures Trust." This trust would hold FTX's investments in private startups and digital tokens that FTX does not intend to sell immediately after emerging from bankruptcy. The purpose of this trust is to manage these long-term investments and distribute cash over time. FTX has not yet decided whether this trust will be owned by FTX's bankruptcy estate or traded separately after the bankruptcy. The goal is to find a way to maximize the value of these illiquid investments, which are not easily sold by FTX's management post-bankruptcy.

Odaily News: Jesse Powell, co-founder of Kraken, tweeted that FTX 2.0 is worse than starting from scratch. It lacks a team, technology, license, banking operations, and its brand has been damaged. The custodian should directly auction the domain name and trademark to the highest bidder. Any other action would be exploiting the creditors. In previous news, FTX's proposed restructuring plan suggests that, in addition to establishing an "offshore exchange company," FTX is also considering setting up a new trust company called "FTX Ventures Trust." This trust will hold FTX's investments in private startups and digital tokens that FTX does not plan to immediately sell upon bankruptcy exit.