Astar Network: February Dump

February passed by very quickly and the updates on Astar Network kept up with the pace. We have a lot of news for the Astar community:

• Startale Labs
• Japanese Government
• dApp Staking
• zkEVM DeFi
• Astar Stats

Startale x UOB Venture Management x Samsung NEXT.

The latest partnership between Startale Labs, UOB Venture Management, and Samsung NEXT has raised $3.5 million in funding to accelerate the mass adoption of Web3 in Asia. With the total raised in investment rounds, Startale Labs now has $7 million (when combined with the previous investment from Sony). The funds raised in this round will be used for the development of Web3 products and for recruiting top talent worldwide.

zkEVM DeFi x Astar

The zkEVM from Astar Network is about to be launched on the mainnet, and several DeFi projects have already joined the ecosystem:

• Quickswap (DEX) https://twitter.com/QuickswapDEX
• L2x (DEX) https://twitter.com/l2x%5Fpro
• VerylongSwap (DEX) https://twitter.com/VeryLong%5FSwap
• ArthSwap (DEX) https://twitter.com/arthswap
• Keom (Lending) https://twitter.com/KeomProtocol
• C14 (Lending) https://twitter.com/c14%5Fwtf
• Bifrost Finance (Derivative) https://twitter.com/BifrostFinance
• Ether.fi (Derivative) http://ether.fi/

dApp Staking V3 – Build2Earn Period

The voting period (11 days) concluded last week, meaning now stakers can claim rewards at the end of each era and receive ASTR tokens. Stakers who participated in the voting period will be able to claim their bonus tokens at the end of the Build2Earn period.

Japanese Government

The Japanese government is pushing forward an economic reform bill that holds significant implications for the cryptocurrency industry. One key aspect of the proposal involves enabling investment limited partnerships to purchase and retain crypto assets. By incorporating cryptocurrencies into a wider strategy aimed at enhancing industrial competitiveness and fostering innovation, Japan demonstrates its dedication to adjusting regulatory and economic frameworks to align with the evolving digital economy.

https://www.theblock.co/post/277966/japan-vc-invest-crypto-web3-startups

Astar Network Stats

A significant milestone for the Astar Network community was reaching over 700k ASTR token holders and more than 1M on-chain addresses. With the upcoming launch of zkEVM, new challenges and opportunities will emerge. Be prepared for a boom in our community.