Polkastarter Community Update #7 - April 2021

April was a busy month for us! Here are some highlights from our seventh community update:

• Ten projects launched their IDOs on Polkastarter for a total of 826 ETH and 397 BNB raised.
• We updated the whitelisting rules for future IDOs. If you’re part of the Polkastarter community, you should check them out!
• Genesis Shards became the first IDO to be completed simultaneously on both Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. Refinable became the first IDO to launch exclusively on BSC.
• $480k rewarded to LPs in April. We’re extending the rewards into May with 40,000 POLS to be distributed and supporting PancakeSwap! Learn more.
• We released our Q2 product roadmap.

A breakout month for Binance Smart Chain IDOs

Genesis Shards raises $125k in first Ethereum and BSC dual IDO

On April 14, Genesis Shards, a new marketplace for pre-IDO tokens on NFTs, launched their IDO on Polkastarter. The IDO was our first ever to occur simultaneously on both the Ethereum and BSC networks. Both Ethereum and BSC pools sold out successfully, with the Ethereum pool selling out in less than 60 seconds! The project garnered a mention in Investing.com’s The Top 3 Projects Set For Explosive Launches in April and NewsBTC’s The Top Blockchain Launches to Watch in Q2.

Check out our recap of the sale!

Refinable raises $180,000 in first IDO exclusively on BSC

On April 27, Refinable, the first major NFT marketplace on Binance Smart Chain, launched the first Polkastarter IDO exclusively on BSC. Refinable pools sold out in less than 5 minutes, raising $180,000 and claiming the most participants of any IDO in Polkastarter history! The project made headlines in Binance, Bitcoinke, CryptoSlate, and InvestorPlace, and further signaled Polkastarter’s continued plans for multi-chain offerings.

Upcoming Polkastarter IDOs

Stay up to date with the IDOs happening in May. Note that information is subject to change and more IDOs will be announced - always check the Polkastarter website for the latest information.

• May 5 Sienna Network. Privacy-first, cross-chain decentralized finance protocol powered by Secret Network.
• May 10 Dfyn. L1 Liquidity, L2 scalability. DeFi done right, for everyone!
• May 11 Wilder World. A decentralized artist DAO and liquid #NFT marketplace for AR/VR.
• May 14 Pinknode. The gateway to Polkadot - API endpoints and node operation services for blockchain innovators.

Community Highlight: Wilder World

The Polkastarter IDO community is packed with innovation, creativity, and excellence. Wilder World is a recently-announced decentralized platform that brings together the emerging worlds of NFTs, DeFi, and AR/VR into a visually stunning metaverse.

Wilder World is a decentralized artist DAO and liquid NFT marketplace, built on top of Zero protocol and claiming world renowned 3D artist Frank Wilder as a founding member. It aims to bring to life the full potential of a decentralized metaverse - i.e. the opportunities of AR/VR with the real-world economies and assets enabled by NFTs and cryptocurrency.

Among other features and capabilities, Wilder World offers:

• In-game NFTs. Thousands of pieces of 3D art native to the Wilder World metaverse with unique capabilities and features.
• Liquid NFT market. Leveraging a unique bonding curve model, Wilder World enables the fractional sale of NFTs, opening up NFT ownership, investment, and trading to a broader group of in-game individuals and investors.
• Artists guild. Wilder World is committed to empowering artists. Creating an in-game community for artists to work together, create together, and benefit together is paramount to the vision of Wilder World.
• Mint FactOry. Bridging the virtual and the physical, Mint FactOry connects artists in Wilder World with real-world brands and creators to drop NFTs in the metaverse with robust features, royalties, and more.
  

And that’s just a taste of Wilder World! Learn more about the project and its vision on its website, and apply to be a creator or a collector. Also, check out their blog for more.

Product and Platform Updates

This month, we also unveiled our Q2 product roadmap, moved our blog from Medium to our website, and hosted 11 AMAs with projects. Here are some updates from April!

• 🙋‍♂️ Check out our April AMAs with: Genesis Shards, Refinable, Saito, Standard, UnoRe, and more.
• 👨‍🏫 We published a tutorial about how to participate in BSC IDO pools - check it out!
• 🥂 Announcing eight new members of the Polkastarter Council
• 🔀 Our Multi-Chain Offering plans are growing
• 🗣 Our whitelisting rules have changed! TL;DR it’ll now be easier than ever to participate in Polkastarter IDOs. Learn more.

And some highlights from our Q2 roadmap announcement:

• 💪 Polkastarter 2.0 is coming soon with new and improved features
• 🎨 We are launching NFT drops that offer access to token sales
• 🤝 The Polkastarter platform is going to support Polkadot Crowdloans

Community and Growth

The success of Polkastarter and of our Polkastars would simply not be possible without you. Thanks for helping us build the future of IDOs, and redefining how groundbreaking tech projects go to market!

• Over 800K+ website visits
• 103k+ more Twitter followers than last month
• Over 10 million Twitter impressions in April!
• Our main Telegram channel passed 50,000 members! 🥳

April IDO Recap

Ten projects launched their IDOs on Polkastarter this month. We celebrated our first dual Ethereum and BSC IDO with Genesis Shards, and our first BSC-only IDO with Refinable. Together, these IDOs raised 826 ETH and 397 BNB.

• EPNS raised 44 ETH for their decentralized notification protocol. Learn more.
• Genesis Shards raised 38 ETH and 65 BNB for the first marketplace for pre-ido tokens on NFTs. Read our AMA with the team.
• Kattana raisex 96 ETH for their trading terminal, providing cutting edge trading tools for both pros and beginners. Learn more.
• Polkadex raised 102 ETH for their decentralized peer-to-peer exchange that solves the problems of traditional DEXes by eliminating transaction fees and frontrunning. Learn more.
• Polkalokr raised 72 ETH for the first all-in-one, multi-chain token locking & escrow platform with built-in privacy functionality. Learn more.
• Refinable raised 332 BNB for the first major NFT marketplace on BSC, empowering both individual creators and beloved brands to easily and affordably create, discover, trade, and leverage NFTs.. Read our AMA with the team.
• Saito raised 164 ETH for its open network layer that lets users run blockchain apps in-browser without closed plugins, private APIs, or non-open infrastructure. Read our AMA with the team.
• Standard raised 120 ETH for the first Collateralized Rebaseable Stablecoin (CRS) protocol for synthetic assets operating across the Polkadot ecosystem. Read our AMA with the team.
• UnoRe raised 78 ETH for the world’s first decentralized reinsurance platform powered by Polkadot. Read our AMA with the team.
• NAOS Finance raised 112 ETH for the world’s first decentralized reinsurance platform powered by Polkadot. Read our AMA with the team.

Token ($POLS)

• We have over 37,000 POLS holders!
• ~1,500 liquidity providers are contributing to the $25,961,475 pooled in the POLS/ETH Uniswap pair.
• Liquidity providers were rewarded 35,000 POLS in April. At the current POLS price (~$3.70), that’s $130,000! In April, Uniswap also had over $118m in volume. Polkastarter LPs earned 0.3% in fees, and collectively took home ~$355,000. Together, in rewards and fees, that equals nearly $485,000 to Uniswap LPs!

Stay Up to Date

Thanks for tuning in to our April recap! Make sure to connect with us on Twitter and Telegram.