Web3 Roundup 11-27-23
A roundup of activity in NFT, Metaverse, Gaming and AI
Brand Web3 Activity
NHL Launches Highlight Platform on Polygon
The NHL along with the association of retired players has launched their own digital collectible marketplace titled “Highlights”
The concept is very familiar to that of NBA Top Shot where users collect specific moment that happen in games (though has no association with Dapper Labs)
Highlights is a bit more gamified than Top Shot:
Fans can earn rewards like rare packs or NHL experiences by fulfilling challenges, like completing a set of great plays or players from their favorite team
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Nike and RTFKT Begin to Work Together (Joint Sneaker Release)
Since Nike acquired RTFKT people have wondered how closely RTFKT would be working with its new parent company and after the acquisition and initial co-posts, it seemed the two companies would stay in their own lanes
This was further expanded when Nike dropped .SWOOSH leaving many RTFKT customers feeling as if they had been left to the side
RTFKT has currently been running a sale of their reimagining of the classic Nike Dunk
These shoes have a unique futuristic look and were only available in limited color ways to RTFKT NFT holders
However at ComplexCon Nike and RTFKT teamed up to drop two color ways that would be available for everyone with heavy marketing support from Nike
The shoes will retail for $222 with no NFT requirement for purchase
Each shoe will come with an NFC chip that ties the owner of the physical sneaker to a digital sneaker
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Disney (Re)Enters Web3 With a New Marketplace
After backing off the Metaverse, Disney has found a new avenue into the web3 world in partnership with Dapper Labs (Creator of NBA Top Shot)
They will be releasing their own NFT marketplace for Disney ‘Pins’ on the Flow blockchain
Physical Disney Pins have been around for almost 100 years and has a healthy collector market with several rare physical pins being quite valuable
What is unique about this marketplace is that it will be taking a mobile first approach, releasing first on the app store and then expanding into web browsers
There is currently an app based beta which will be followed by the full release
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Native Web3
Cool Cats is the First NFT Company to Have IP in the Macy TG Parade
Cool Cats has partnered with Macys to have their main character IP Blue and Chuggs featured as floats in their annual Thanksgiving Parade
Exclusive physical merch was made available at local the local Macy’s which included digital clones (via NFC chips)
Article links:
https://decrypt.co/207254/cool-cats-nft-collection-joins-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade
Seek Raises $5m for Specialized Marketplace for Tokenized Knowledge
The web3 social company Seek has raised $5M in a round led by Binance Ventures to create a specialized marketplace that would allow users to “tokenize their knowledge”
Seek hopes to capitalize on the proliferation of online educational content by turning online creators’ knowledge into ‘liquid and accessible assets’
Seek debuted its first product earlier this year in the form of business cards that can share telegram contact info and display NFTs when placed near a phone
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Decentraland Has Annual Music Festival
The metaverse platform that saw a major drop in usage during the bear market is still working to build experiences to draw users
Compared to previous years, there was an emphasis on accessibility: there was no admission fee and users did not need a VR headset to participate
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FVCKRENDER and Ledger Released Limited Collaboration
Popular digital artist FVCKRENDER has released a limited edition collaboration in partnership with the hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger
The collaboration sees one of FVCKRENDER’s artworks laser etched onto the Ledger Hardware
The collaboration also includes a hat with pockets to hold your Ledger
This was widely mocked online as most people who use a ledger have quite valuable digital assets that would not want be held on your person
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New Marketplace Allows Users to Sell NFT Utility
In a novel application, the “Delegates” marketplace aims to allow users to sell off specific utilities provided via holding an NFT
So, say for example your Bored Ape grants you access to Ape Fest, the Delegates marketplace would allow you to sell that access to someone wishing to attend without selling the NFT
One collection that is gaining momentum from this feature is “Loud Punx”
Each Loud Punx acts as a forever ticket to any Rolling Loud music festival, and multiple festivals are held all over the world on a yearly basis
Holders are now able to sell off the ability to attend specific festivals in locations they don’t live or don’t wish to attend
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NFT Founder Indicted on Defrauding Buyers
NFT collection “Mutant Ape Planet” was minted during the bull market of 2021 and was a knock off of the wildly successful Bored Ape Yacht Club
The developer pocketed over $3M and then abandoned the project
This developer has now been arrested, faces 5 years in prison, and must pay back $1.4M in damages
While it is great seeing law enforcement target bad actors in the space this was a pretty open and shut case due to the developer posting in the discord that he was rugging the project due to the communities toxicity
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AI News
Sam Altman Fired and Rehired from OpenAI
Many were shocked to read that the board of OpenAI had fired the founder and CEO for relatively vague reasons that came as a surprise to him, Microsoft (49% shareholder), and the public
Over the weekend, there was a steady stream of updates to the drama revealing an internal struggle at OpenAI:
Another co-founder had left in protest to the board’s decision…
Shortly after, Microsoft announced hiring Sam to lead their AI division
Upwards of 90% of workers at OpenAI signed a petition, and were ready to leave should Sam Altman not be rehired
As the dust has finally settled, the struggle seems to have been won by Sam Altman who was reinstated as the Open AI CEO
Sam requested that if he were to return as CEO the current board must resign and limitations are to be put on the new board’s control over OpenAI
Speculation abounds about the details of the power struggle
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Music Platform Behind Grimes AI Voice Raises $4.6M
Triniti Music is a music platform that allows producers and writers to leverage the latest in AI music technology
They are most well known for creating the Grimes voice creator suite that allows song writers to use Grimes’ voice in their music for a royalty fee
Triniti raised $4.6M which will be used to expand their AI tool kit for creators
The round was lead by Polychain Captial and included investments from Kendrick Lamar’s manager, Paris Hilton's venture capital fund, and Moon Pay, among others.
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Metaverse / Gaming
Ubisoft Releases Rayman into the Sandbox
Last week, Ubisoft continued to expand into the world of web3 with a few announcements:
They will be creating an NFT enabled game in the future
And will sending some of their beloved IP into the Metaverse (Sandbox) in support of their upcoming Netflix show “Captain Laserhawk”.
The upcoming series and Sandbox collaboration will incorporate several Ubisoft IP’s
On November 29th, Sandbox users will be able to mint 1866 avatars spanning 9 character IP, the most recognizable being Ray Man
At present the price to mint has not been revealed
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Crypto
Aave Rebrands
Popular DeFi company Aave has rebranded to Abara and acquired a wallet company in hopes of expanding their reach into the wider web3 ecosystem
Aave has been one of the most successful and trusted defi companies with about $8.6B in liquidity locked on Aave across 15 different blockchains
The CEO was quoted saying “the rebrand and acquisition signifies the company’s want to do more and focus beyond DeFi by bringing web3 to all users globally with different kinds of use cases.”
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DOJ Charges Binance and Their CEO
The DOJ has officially charged Binance, the world biggest crypto exchange with a massive fee of $4.1B in one of the largest penalties the U.S. has ever obtained from a corporate defendant
Binance was accused of failing to maintain a proper anti-money laundering program, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and violating sanction laws
The DOJ also charged Binance founder and long time CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) with violating the Bank Secrecy Act
He was fined $50M and may not operate as an executive at Binance for at least 3 years
CZ has has appointed Richard Teng, a former Abu Dhabi regulator, as the new acting CEO
General sentiment from the crypto community is actually positive, as the charges had been looming for some time causing anxiety around a market crash
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SEC Comes after Kraken… Again
Not to be outdone by the DOJ the SEC has filed charges of their own against the crypto exchange
The SEC is alleging the Kraken has been selling unregistered securities and commingling customer funds with company funds
The SEC has provided a list of which tokens they are alleging as securities and confusingly enough most of these tokens are available on other exchanges that the SEC is not going after such as Polygon, MANA and SAND.
Kraken has released a statement that they plan to vigorously defend their position and that it does not list securities
The SEC had previously charged Kraken in regards to their staking services. Kraken agreed to pay $30m to settle those charges and discontinued their staking services within the US
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Unstoppable Domains Faces the Wrath of Crypto Users after Recent Patent Filing
In January, Unstoppable Domains was granted a patent which claims the founders are the inventors of a technology that uses blockchain technology to determine domains
The only problem? Anyone who has been in the space longer than a year knows that the real inventors of this technology work for a company called ENS the popular and widely used .ETH domain technology
Following the news of this patent getting out, the CEO of ENS has publicly called out the CEO of Unstoppable Domains on Twitter urging him to drop this patent or face a lawsuit
The wider crypto community quickly jumped on this exchange with the vast majority siding with ENS
Patents are widely hated by the crypto community as many programmers believe in an open source internet and freedom in innovation
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SEC Delays Bitcoin ETF and Ethereum ETF Decision Again
Unsurprisingly the SEC has delayed their decisions on approving a Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF
However the pressure is starting to ramp with Greyscale, Fidelity, BlackRock and ARK Invest all having their own applications seeking approval
There is still hope that the ETFs will be approved (potentially en masse in 2024)
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