Welcome to the third edition of our monthly newsletter, where we'll be sharing recurring updates on Axis, the fundraising landscape, and other relevant topics.

If you want to stay up-to-date in the meantime, make sure to follow us on Twitter and join the community!

To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

On August 6th, Axis became DeFi's first modular auction protocol and went live on Arbitrum, Base, Blast, Mantle, and Mode.

Our production dApp, Origin, also went live with the following features for token launches: EMP Auctions, Fixed-Price Sales, Vesting, Direct-to-Liquidity and Allowlists.

It's been an exciting journey since the start of 2024. After many development and feedback cycles, we're much closer to achieving our goals of:

• Creating a Modular Infrastructure Layer for Auction Development and Deployment: Axis is the first permissionless platform for developers to build auction-driven applications by combining various modules. Auctions are the backbone of many critical use cases in crypto, and we believe there’s potential to push these boundaries even further.
• Showcasing Auction-Driven Mechanisms: We’ve brought sealed-bid auctions on-chain to optimize for price discovery, addressing a recurring pain point in our industry.

We also onboarded our first Curator in Revelo Intel, who has been a leading crypto research platform since 2022, and our first launch partner in Aurelius Finance, a protocol on Mantle that combines mechanisms from Liquity and Aave to offer interest-free loans with an integrated lending market.

At time of writing, their auction remains live with $39.5k in wMNT bids, which is well past their minimum raise target of $9.4k. To view the auction, you can navigate to the Origin dApp here.

Over the past six months, the total funds raised each month have consistently hovered around $1 billion. Meanwhile, the number of monthly funding rounds has gradually declined from ~160 to just over 100.

Although these statistics have remained relatively stable, it remains to be seen whether the total amount raised will eventually mirror the declining trend in funding rounds — especially considering the current market conditions. It's no secret that now is not an ideal time to raise.

The most notable fundraises across crypto in August were:

• Story Protocol: $80M | IP-Focused Blockchain | Series B | Led by a16z and Polychain Capital
• Bridge: $58M | Stablecoin Payment Network | Undisclosed | Led by Sequoia and Ribbit Capital
• Chaos Labs: $37M | On-chain Risk Management | Series A | Led by Haun Ventures
• Morpho: $50M | Lending Protocol | Strategic | Led by Ribbit Capital
• Sahara AI: $43M | AI Blockchain | Series A | Led by Binance Labs, Pantera Capital, and Polychain Capital
• Fabric: $33M | Cryptography Hardware | Series A | Led by Blockchain Capital and 1kx
• WSPN: $30M | Stablecoin Payment Network | Seed | Led by Foresight Ventures and Folius Ventures

• 7/31/24: To introduce Revelo Intel, we published a Meet the Curator. We plan to continue this series for future Curators, so you can quickly learn about their value-add to the Axis ecosystem.
• 8/1/24: We also hosted an AMA with Revelo, which you can find the full recording of here or read the recap here.
• 8/6/24: Our official launch posts were published, which covers everything from features of Axis and Origin, protocol fees, and how to get started. Read the full article here and the thread here.
• 8/8/24: We partnered with Sherlock to offer a unique 50,000 USDC reward through their new bug bounty program. Learn more here and here.
• 8/8/24: Ahead of their token launch, Aurelius published a myriad of educational resources. This included tips for bidding, how users set the price in sealed-bid auctions, and how users can place multiple bids.
• 8/9/24: We published a thread on the Axis Referral Program and how users can participate.
• 8/12/24: Revelo Intel published a full project analysis on Aurelius. This is featured on the auction in our dApp, but you can find it here as well.
• 8/14/24: Eli5 published an infographic covering key metrics of Aurelius and how it stacks up against similar protocols.
• 8/19/24: We published a blog post outlining how vesting tokens work on Axis, when sellers should implement them, and best practices.
• 8/27/24: We joined an episode of Mantle Ecowaves alongside Aurelius to discuss their V2 auction.

Welcome to the second edition of our monthly newsletter, where we'll be sharing recurring updates on Axis, the fundraising landscape, and other relevant topics.

If you want to stay up-to-date in the meantime, make sure to follow us on Twitter and join the community!

To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

Continuing from our May 2024 newsletter, our priority remains on completing tasks to bring us closer to our official launch.

For those unaware, we've been rolling out different versions of the Origin Testnet: V1 with our MVP interface, V2 with upgraded features, and most recently V3.

This latest update includes significant upgrades and will be the final version of the Origin dApp before its official launch. Here's what you can expect:

• Revamped UI Designs: A complete overhaul from Testnet V1 and V2 designs
• New Fixed-Price Batch Auction contracts: Improves UX for buyers and configurability for sellers
• Referral Link Generation: Generate referral links for specific launches
• Enhanced Token Launch Info: Includes details like Target Raise, Minimum Raise, and Fixed-Price/Minimum Price FDV to better inform users during bidding
• Improved Settlement Charts: Get better insights on your bids after a token launch ends
• My Launches Tab: View all of your created token launches in one place
• Token Launch Preview: See a preview of your token launch and review its configuration before deployment
• Callbacks at Auction Creation: Add customizations like allowlists or Direct-to-Liquidity to your token launch

In addition to these changes, we are developing even more features that we aim to have ready for launch. Onboarding curators and launch partners also remains a focus, and we're excited to share those updates when the time comes! Anyone is welcome to apply here.

In the meantime, please try out Testnet V3 and leave any feedback in the General or New Ideas channels in our Discord.

The fundraising landscape in June showed a decrease in investor activity with only 116 rounds, the lowest of all months in 2024. However, the total amount raised was $892M — still a large figure when considering previous bear market fundraises and the current market volatility.

The most notable fundraises across crypto in June were:

• Hut 8 Mining: $150M | Bitcoin Mining | Strategic | Funded by Coatue Management
• Avail: $43M | Modular Blockchain Infrastructure | Series A | Led by DragonFly Capital
• Conduit: $37M | Rollups-as-a-Service | Series A | Led by Paradigm
• M^0: $35M | Institutional Stablecoin Issuance | Series A | Led by Bain Capital
• Nexus Laboratories: $25M | Zero-Knowledge Infrastructure | Series A | Led by Pantera Capital
• MegaETH: $20M | Real-time Ethereum | Seed | Led by DragonFly Capital + participation from Vitalik, Joseph Lubin, and more
• ORA: $20M | AI Oracles | Series A | Participation from Polychain Capital and HashKey Capital

Content releases slowed down in June as we gear up for launch. Nonetheless, there are a few posts worth highlighting:

• 6/11/24: We published The Importance of Bidder Privacy in Token Launches, which explains how our privacy-preserving mechanism, EMP Auctions, makes drastic improvements over open auction formats that negatively impact bidder behavior and price discovery.
• 6/19/24: We posted a tweet inviting Curators, linking to our one-pager that highlights important details like their potential revenue, responsibilities, and more.
• 6/27/24: We posted a tweet covering the insightful analysis on LBPs by Hyphin. Key takeaways are that LBPs often result in Inflated valuations and post-launch volatility, which poses challenges for token launch participants. Read the full article here.

Welcome to the first edition of our monthly newsletter, where we'll be sharing recurring updates on Axis, the fundraising landscape, and other relevant topics.

If you want to stay up-to-date in the meantime, make sure to follow us on Twitter and join the community!

To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

In May, we focused on tasks that are critical for our upcoming launch.

The completion of our Sherlock Audit Contest in late April enabled us to prioritize launching V2 of the Origin Testnet dApp. This version features updated contracts, audit fixes, and other improvements for users. We also opened public access to our Discord and Testnet. If you're interested in participating, checked the pinned announcements in our Discord for the testnet guide.

We launched a new landing page with updated information about the protocol's auction and derivative modules, features like callbacks and allowlists, and ways for users to contribute. This also includes our self-hosted blog and documentation.

Our current priorities are finalizing the production designs and upgrades for the Origin dApp, reviewing our new implementation for Fixed-Price Auctions, and onboarding curators and launch partners.

The fundraising landscape in May remained consistent with the last six months. Over $1B was raised across 156 rounds — a good indicator that no steam has been lost and investor interest remains strong heading into Q3 2024. The chart below via CryptoRank shows fundraising statistics from May 2023 to May 2024.

The most notable fundraises across crypto in the past month were:

• Farcaster: $150M | Social Network Protocol | Series A | Led by Paradigm
• Babylon: $70M | Bitcoin Staking | Undisclosed | Led by Paradigm
• Securitize: $47M | Real-World-Assets | Strategic | Led by BlackRock
• Sophon: $60M | Ethereum Layer 2 | Node Sale
• Polymarket: $45M | | Prediction Market | Series B | Led by Founders Fund + participation from Vitalik
• Humanity Protocol: $30M | Web3/Digital Identity | Seed | Led by Kingsway Capital
• Arbelos Markets: $28M | Trading Firm | Led by DragonFly Capital

Since this is our first newsletter edition, this section also includes all content released prior to May to catch you up:

• 2/27/24: Our first post was a thread introducing Axis, the history of auctions, and our native dApp Origin.
• 3/1/24: Oighty published a blog covering the complexities of on-chain auctions, the importance of bidder privacy, and our exploration of different sealed-bid implementations
• 3/20/24: We posted a thread highlighting the revenue opportunity for Referrers and Curators.
• 3/27/24: We posted an infographic that illustrates how EMP Auction are settled.
• 4/4/24: We published Introducing the Token Launch Trilemma, which explains the three pillars that are impossible to maximize for any token launch. Read the blog here or the thread here.
• 4/17/24: We published Solving the Token Launch Trilemma, which explores the shortcomings of legacy launchpads and how Origin's multi-stage launch sequence tackles these issues. Read the blog here or the thread here.
• 4/18/24: We dove into how insights from previous token launch mechanisms and Vitalik inspired Axis in this thread.
• 4/24/24: We posted a thread highlighting how each feature of Origin can shape a token launch.
• 4/24/24: We posted an infographic covering the three stages to a balanced token launch using Origin.
• 4/30/24: Our frens at Baseline hinted at our upcoming integration.
• 4/30/24: We posted a thread with more in-depth info about becoming a Curator.
• 5/14/24: We posted a promo video of the new Axis landing page.
• 5/23/24: We published The Mechanics of EMP Auctions, which covers the full life cycle of our flagship token launch mechanism, from creation and configuration to bid encryption and settlement process.
• 5/31/24: We published Why Direct-to-Liquidity is Essential, which highlights how this key feature could've prevented over $120M in losses from rug pulls.