Hi all, and welcome to the first edition for the week for Datawallet Daily, your trusted source for digital asset insights. Today’s drop will cover these key news items making waves in the industry:

• Mantle Mainnet goes live after 6-month testnet
• BNB coin heavily shorted
• Australian bank to block risky crypto investments
• Snoop Dogg backed NFT music service raises $20 million
• Binance integrates BTC lightning network

Mantle Mainnet Goes Live

Mantle Network has launched its Mainnet Alpha following an intense six-month testnet phase with 14 million+ on-chain transactions and 140,000+ smart contracts. The mainnet is ready to connect developers and users in the web3 environment.

With a developer-first approach, Mantle has hosted 20+ hackathons and seen 400 project submissions. It continues to boost ecosystem growth through its Grants Program and a $200M EcoFund. Initiatives like Sozu Haus provide a platform for bright minds in the web3 space.

Looking ahead, Mantle aims to facilitate token-governed technologies with a focus on community involvement and Ethereum compatibility. Decisions are made through community votes, ensuring transparency and robust governance. To get started on the network, you can learn how to bridge to Mantle.

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BNB coin heavily shorted

The perpetual futures market linked to the BNB token has traders adopting a pessimistic outlook, as the troubled digital currency deals with difficulties from various directions. Coinglass's data indicates a drop in open interest and volume-weighted funding rates in perpetual futures to -0.18%, a record low since the end of April. 

These figures suggest that short sellers, who benefit from a fall in price, are the majority and are ready to pay long holders to maintain their pessimistic wagers. These funding rates are calculated every eight hours. The co-founder of Pear Protocol, known as Huf, stated, "BNB is experiencing a significant short sell," pointing to the extremely negative funding rates.

Huf further explained, "The atmosphere has deteriorated due to the recent departure of key staff members, irregularities concerning BCH withdrawals from Binance.US, and the impending lawsuit from the Department of Justice against Binance's CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao."

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Australian bank to block risky crypto investments

The prominent Australian financial institution, National Australia Bank (NAB), has decided to impede transactions to certain "high-risk" cryptocurrency exchanges as a security measure for its clients. On July 17, the bank publicized a variety of fresh initiatives as a component of its comprehensive "scam prevention strategy." However, NAB did not disclose the specific crypto platforms that will be impacted by this directive.

The announcement further stated: A significant rise in cryptocurrency scams has been observed, emerging as one of the most rapidly escalating security hazards. Last year, Australians fell victim to such scams, leading to a loss of over $221 million.

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Snoop Dogg backed NFT music service raises $20 million

This week saw a successful round of funding for sixteen cryptocurrency startups, amassing over $94 million. The Web3 music platform, Sound, was at the forefront of this group.

Sound garnered $20 million in its Series A funding round, with a16z crypto taking the lead and contributions from Palm Tree Crew, Scalar Capital, Coinbase and more.

Prominent figures from the music industry such as rapper Snoop Dogg, singer-songwriter Ryan Tedder, and record producer Tay Keith also pitched in their support.

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Binance integrates BTC lightning network 

Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, has successfully incorporated the Bitcoin Lightning Network into its platform for BTC transactions. This advancement was acknowledged by Binance in a blog post dated July 17, stating that its users are now able to utilize the layer-2 scaling solution for BTC transactions.

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Other breaking news

• ARK investment continues to sell Coinbase shares
• European Union Data Act ignores pleas from the blockchain industry
• Lens Protocol, a decentralized social media graph, releases version 2
• Philipines see crypto adoption accelerating
• Unstoppable domains introduce .eth domains

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Wrapping up

There it is folks, another Datawallet newsletter. Today’s key updates include Mantle Network's Mainnet launch and Binance's BTC Lightning Network integration. Amid the optimism, we're reminded of the sector's volatility, shown in BNB token's bearish market and Australia's crypto transaction restrictions. Notably, Sound's successful funding signals blockchain's growing impact in entertainment. Stay tuned for more updates in our rapidly evolving space.