Polygon lays off 20% of staff; Helium sets Solana migration date

The biggest news in the cryptoverse for Feb. 21 saw Polygon announce a mass layoff. Meanwhile, the wireless hotspot project Helium set a date for its migration to Solana. Plus, news on Web3 gaming, a British NFT charity project, and Friendsies NFTs .

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Polygon sacks 20% of staff, says it remains financially healthy

Ethereum (ETH) layer 2 protocol Polygon (MATIC) revealed it has laid off about 20% of its staff, according to a Feb. 21 statement.

Polygon added that the job cut affected about 100 positions in the firm. The affected employees would receive three months of severance pay regardless of their positions.

“Earlier this year, we consolidated multiple business units under Polygon Labs. As part of this process,  we’re sharing the difficult news that we’ve reduced our team by 20% impacting multiple teams and about 100 positions.”

Polygon said it remains financially healthy, stating that it has a balance of over $250 million and holds 1.9 billion MATIC tokens — worth roughly $2.7 billion according to current value.

Helium announces migration date to Solana, 1M hotspots worldwide

Solana (SOL) experienced a surge in price following an announcement that Helium (HNT) would be migrating towards the platform beginning Mar. 27.

In a blog post from Feb., Helium announced the move.

“The Network migration to the Solana blockchain and deployment of Oracles represents the most significant upgrade to Helium Network scalability and reliability.”

Helium’s decentralized network of hotspots totals almost one million as of Feb. 2023.

News of the migration date sent the price of both tokens up last week. Following the news, Solana’s value has seen an over 21% surge — to a high of $27.11 on Feb. 17, from $22.34 on Feb. 16.

Web3 gaming sees strong start to 2023 with on-chain surge

A new report released by DappRadar has outlined that the web3 gaming industry has had a strong start in 2023, with $156 million raised across ten investments in January.

Among the notable developments, TreasureDAO emerged as a platform for building metaverse projects, Square Enix launched its first NFT game, and Courtside Ventures invested $100 million for its third venture capital fund focused on sports, collectibles, wellness, and gaming. The total value of investments in web3 games and metaverse projects totaled $156M.

The crypto gaming sector has also seen a rise in on-chain activity, with daily active wallet (dUAW) increasing by 1.31% to 858,621 and making up 48% of dApp activity in January. On average, the market cap for top gaming tokens has risen by 122%, with GALA leading the charge at 218%.

British MP Matt Hancock launches NFT charity project for Ukraine

British MP Matt Hancock is continuing his mission to support blockchain technology through a new NFT collection called “From Ukrain with Love,” according to a statement given to CryptoSlate.

The NFT collection comprises works painted by Ukranian artist Oleg Mischenko before the war and will be sold at The NFT Gallery in London’s Mayfair on Monday, 27th February. Funds from sales will go toward CARE International UK’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. The collection, “From Ukraine with Love,” was curated by Irina Korobkina, who fled Kyiv with her 5-year-old daughter following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Friendsies NFT collection rug pulls, deactivates Twitter

Popular NFT collection Friendsies tweeted Feb. 15 that it would pause its development, citing “challenging” market conditions as the primary reason for its hiatus.

“We had the best intentions to create a genuine digital companion for the future,” the company tweeted. “However, the market’s volatility and difficulties have made it increasingly challenging to advance this project in a manner that meets our standards.”

Former Binance executive aims to raise $100M to start crypto adoption focused VC

Bill Qian, the former head of venture capital investments and acquisitions at Binance Holdings Ltd., says he aims to raise over $100 million through a new crypto venture capital fund.

Qian told Bloomberg he sees a need for significant user growth as one of the crypto industry’s most critical challenges, a key factor in founding Cypher Capital.

As the chairman of Dubai-based Cypher Capital since leaving Binance in June, Qian told Bloomberg that he plans to back startups focused on web3 and the decentralized internet powered by blockchain technology.

Digital asset investments recorded over $30M outflows in a week

Digital-asset-based investment products recorded $32 million of outflows between Feb. 13 and Feb. 19, according to a recent CoinShares report.

Bitcoin (BTC) investment products saw $24.8 million in outflows in the same timeframe, according to the CoinShares report, which accounts for 77.5% of the total amount. On the other hand, Short-Bitcoin investment products recorded $3.7 million in inflows.

Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC) based investment products also saw $7.2 million and $800,000 of outflows, respectively. Binance and Ripple (XRP) investments, on the other hand, recorded $300,000 inflows each.

Crypto Market

In the last 24 hours, Bitcoin (BTC) fell 1.2% to trade $24,494.65, while Ethereum (ETH) was down 1.96% at $1,669.88.

Biggest Gainers (24h)

• Ankr (ANKR): 35.8%
• Conflux Network (CFX): 15.46%
• UMA (UMA): 15.45%

Biggest Losers (24h)

• IOStoken (IOST): -14.62%
• FLOKI (FLOKI): -12.99%
• Keep Network (KEEP): -11.11%