Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_628d839a80758" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Injective&#8217;s Wormhole integration enables the ability for greater sophistication of transfers across its network, the company said</li>
 <li>The move will also allow for cross-chain trading across various networks, according to Injective Labs&#8217; CEO Eric Chen</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Decentralized blockchain network Injective said Wednesday it has integrated with cross-chain messaging protocol Wormhole in an effort to drive liquidity and boost the accessibility of its platform.



With the addition of Wormhole, Injective is aiming to tap into more than ten additional layer-1 and layer-2 blockchains, including Polygon, Algorand and Solana, by bridging them to its network.



The move is an attempt to transform Injective from an exchange-focused blockchain to a decentralized finance hub. The aim is to provide more use cases for owned digital assets to be utilized beyond their origin chain, Eric Chen, CEO of Injective Labs told Blockworks in an email.



Wormhole is a generic message-passing protocol that connects high-value blockchains allowing applications to leverage the messaging layer to facilitate interoperability between different ecosystems. 



The protocol has not been impervious to nefarious actors seeking to <a href="https://twitter.com/wormholecrypto/status/1489001949881978883?s=20&amp;t=XaNgH_RbKd5dNrdqqTKZWw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">exploit</a> it when it became the target of an attack in February.



Still, the area of focus following the integration is to allow applications on other chains to access and compose with the Injective ecosystem as well as enable more sophisticated transfers — such as arbitrary messages, Chen said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;This integration will help increase the range of possibilities and functionalities for builders,&#8221; said Chen. &#8220;The first key area of focus is to enable asset transfers from all chains.&#8221;</blockquote>



Apps developed on Injective could open possibilities for cross-chain trading across various networks or offer yields on Solana-based assets, the CEO added.



Injective is a Layer 1 proof-of-stake blockchain geared toward building financial applications. Its ecosystem touts the ability to enable developers to leverage critical DeFi primitives including liquidity, risk, leverage and arbitrage opportunities.



&#8220;This integration opens up the pool of users that can utilize an application,&#8221; Chen said. &#8220;It broadens the audience scope for the developer, which allows a larger market to exist when thinking of a product-market fit.&#8221;



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Injective Integrates Wormhole Bridge in Effort to Enhance Cross-Chain Accessibility

<div id="highlights-block_6262db7c94ca7" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The exchange said it wants to lower the barrier to entry for investing in high-value NFTs through crypto perpetuals</li>
 <li>The contracts will allow investors to bet on the direction of NFT projects, starting at $1</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto derivatives exchange Injective Pro said Thursday it has listed perpetual contracts based on Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs in a bid to make them more accessible to the average investor.



The exchange also said it was the &#8220;first-ever&#8221; to bring an NFT (non-fungible token) floor price perpetual to market via its BAYC listing, according to a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/injective-pro-launches-the-first-ever-bored-ape-nft-floor-price-perpetuals-301530113.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>.



Crypto perpetuals are a form of derivative agreement allowing investors to purchase or sell a digital asset for a specified amount at an unspecified point in the future. They differ from futures contracts in that they allow an individual to hold onto the contract indefinitely.



Demand for NFTs has soared in recent years. Minted on the Ethereum blockchain, Bored Ape NFTs — founded by parent company Yuga Labs last year — have continued to ride the fervor of speculation, pushing prices beyond the reach of many investors.



The minimum price for a single Bored Ape NFT for immediate purchase stands at 127.7 ETH, or roughly $378,000, according to the project&#8217;s floor price listed on marketplace <a href="https://opensea.io/collection/boredapeyachtclub?search[sortAscending]=true&amp;search[sortBy]=PRICE&amp;search[toggles][0]=BUY_NOW" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">OpenSea</a>.



Injective Pro’s latest perpetuals will attempt to lower the barrier to entry by providing retail investors a means to speculate on the floor price of NFT collections without the need to custody the underlying asset.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;Just like NFTs, we believe that with an intuitive product and education on the true value of an NFT floor perpetual market, users will be able to benefit from this innovative technology, without needing to know all the intricacies of how perps work,&#8221; Injective Labs CEO Eric Chen told Blockworks.</blockquote>



Users will be able to execute long or short positions of a particular NFT project starting at&nbsp;$1. This would allow more users to gain exposure to high-value assets or hedge against NFT market volatility, Injective said.



&#8220;NFTs are still in a stage in which price points are stopping many people from joining these communities,&#8221; Chen said. &#8220;That is why we chose BAYC as the first project to list in an NFT floor perpetual market on Injective Pro. We wanted to lower the barrier to entry to join projects that people do understand the value of, yet at the same time, are blocked to enter because of price.&#8221;



Injective Pro, which is the first major decentralized application built on the Injective blockchain, offers cross-chain margin trading, derivatives and forex futures trading, including perpetuals.



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Crypto Exchange Injective Pro Rolls Out BAYC Perpetuals Amid Heated NFT Market

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_61e568efbb6e5" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Burnt Finance’s protocol will allow users to completely control their auctions by enabling the minting and trading of NFTs in a permissionless ecosystem</li>
 <li>&#8220;We are now looking to expand onto other chains such as Terra and Fantom while building out new functionalities that bridge the worlds of DeFi with NFTs,” the founder said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Decentralized NFT auction protocol Burnt Finance has raised $8 million in a Series A to scale its team as it deploys and integrates new chains and product features, the founder of Burnt Finance, who goes under the alias Burnt Banksy, told Blockworks.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Over time, we will become an all encompassing multichain hub for NFTs by integrating DeFi functionality which include NFT lending, liquidity mining with staking incentives, fractionalization, and GameFi,” he said.&nbsp;</blockquote>



The round was led by Animoca Brands and include investments also from Multicoin Capital, Alameda Research, DeFiance, Valor Capital Group, Figment, Spartan Capital, Tribe Capital, Play Ventures, HashKey, Mechanism Capital, DeFi Alliance, Terra and Fantom, among others.&nbsp;



“We are excited to have Animoca Brands lead our Series A, which will help tremendously as we look to partner with the hundreds of games and guilds within their umbrella,” Banksy said. “A number of prominent guilds and gaming focused VCs also participated in the round, which helps us gain first-hand access to a number of gaming projects,” he added.&nbsp;



The company began through its “Burnt Banksy” campaign, when Injective Protocol, the Cosmos SDK-based decentralized exchange protocol — which incubated Burnt Finance — bought an original Banksy piece for $95,000 to burn it and broadcast it live on <a href="https://twitter.com/BurntBanksy/status/1367262496529211392?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter</a> in March 2021. From there, it created an NFT of the piece and sold it for about 229 ether, or $400,000, at the time on NFT marketplace OpenSea.&nbsp;



“Despite the successful sale, a number of challenges were faced while holding the auction, from expensive Ethereum gas fees to bad actors manipulating the bidding process,” the protocol said in a statement. “After this experience, it became clear that a fully-decentralized marketplace was needed,” it added.&nbsp;



The protocol was founded shortly after the stunt in April 2021 and accumulated over 200,000 users on its waitlist to date and launched its non-fungible token auction protocol mainnet on Monday, Burnt Banksy shared.



Burnt Finance’s protocol will allow users to completely control their auctions by enabling the minting and trading of NFTs in a permissionless ecosystem, it said. The platform will support NFTs, digital assets, among other items and can transact quickly with minimal fees due to its creation on Solana’s architecture.



The protocol plans to expand its product offerings into initiatives like lending or GameFi in the coming months. “We already have a few collaborations in the works with major GameFi platforms which will go live in the next month or so,” Burnt Banksy said. However, he could not disclose additional details about those product plans.&nbsp;



Burnt Finance raised $3 million in a seed round in May 2021, led by Multicoin Capital and Alameda Research. There is no valuation disclosed at this time due to non-disclosure agreements, Burnt Banksy said.&nbsp;



“The Burnt team and product vision have both grown significantly since the close of the seed round,” Banksy noted.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We are now looking to expand onto other chains such as Terra and Fantom while building out new functionalities that bridge the worlds of DeFi with NFTs,” he added.&nbsp;</blockquote>



Burnt Finance has deployed testnet contracts into layer-1 protocols like Cardano, but plans to be fully functional on “multiple chains” before the end of 2022, Burnt Banksy said.



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