Hope you’ve been well! We’re heading into the summer, the weather is getting warmer, and vacations are around the corner.

That didn’t stop May from being a super busy month for the Deep Ventures crew!

In this edition of our newsletter, we talk about:

• Upcoming launches for Panther Protocol and Exa Protocol

• Our coverage in the NY Times and NY Post

• The Building on Bitcoin panel we hosted

And more.

Let’s go!

Syndicate Portfolio Highlights

Panther Protocol

Panther Protocol is a zero-knowledge, cross-protocol layer unlocking compliant DeFi.

And they’ve had a busy May!

Panther’s code base is now open-source, the foundation received a $1.15M grant for ecosystem growth, and they recently received coverage in Messari highlighting their efforts.

They’re taking major steps to launching their mainnet.

Compliant privacy is near…

Bitflow Finance

Bitflow Finance is the top DEX Aggregator for the best swap rates on Stacks.

They made some huge product improvements last month:

• They launched non-custodial DeFi automation services for BTC and tokens on Bitcoin and introduced Smart Wallets, where each user gets their own personal smart contract for auto-processing limit orders, DCA, yield harvesting, staking, etc.

• Bitflow now charges fees on their multi-DEX aggregator and automation services, driving sustainable revenues.

• They designed a new type of stableswap AMM called "Flex Pools" which are infinitely more capital efficient for liquid staking tokens. It recently passed the final audit and launched in production.

Let Bitcoin DeFi flow!

Exa Protocol

Exa Protocol is a decentralized compute and storage protocol for AI workloads and data.

Here is what they’ve been up to:

1. Launched ExaCompute testnet with desktop client available on Mac, Windows, and Ubuntu, enabling distributed GPU/CPU computation beyond storage infrastructure.

2. Recruited over 400 distributed compute nodes.

3. Acquired 70+ Web3 projects to use Exa's services.

All of this is in preparation for their impending mainnet and $XAP token launch!

Interested in investing with us? We’ve launched our Fund 1 and we’d love for you to be involved. Please take a look at our deck, ping me at [email protected], and schedule a chat!

New Content

Building on Bitcoin Panel

We hosted an awesome panel titled “Building on Bitcoin: From Digital Gold to Global Infrastructure” on May 20.

Panelists included:

• Shailee Adinolfi - Head of BD for Trust Machines / Stacks)

• Toby Lewis - Co-Founder of OrdinalsBot, a DV portco

• Vakeesan Mahalingam - Co-Founder and CEO of Torram, a DV portco

They discussed:

• How Bitcoin went from store-of-value asset to a growing developer ecosystem

• The pros and cons of building on the L1 versus L2s

• The hot trends and products being built now

If you missed the event, you can view it here:

Stay tuned for future panels!

Coverage in the NY Times and NY Post

I tweeted about Trump’s crypto conflicts of interest and received coverage in the NY Times and NY Post!

And I’ve written an Op-Ed about this topic, which should be published soon!

Mik and Mike Crypto Cast

Check out the latest Mik and Mike Crypto Cast episodes below.

May 6 - Movement Labs drama, Google brings ZK to billions

May 13 - GENIUS Act stumbles, Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade

May 20 - Coinbase’s up and down week, JP Morgan allows clients to buy BTC

May 28 - SUI / Cetus hack, stablecoin news, latest fundraises

Let us know what you think of these episodes!

Industry News

Here are links to three of the biggest crypto stories of April.

We discuss them in the Mik and Mike Crypto Cast episodes above, so give those a listen to learn more!

• Senate advances GENIUS stablecoin act

• Circle files for IPO

• SUI’s top DEX Cetus hacked for $220M

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the DV monthly newsletter!

Hit me up at [email protected] or @mikewchan on Telegram with your thoughts about the newsletter, what’s happening in crypto, or anything else!

Talk soon!