morning,
people always say they’re born in the wrong decade but i am so at home in a zeitgeist where presidential candidates are shilling shitcoins on twitter spaces with niche micro internet celebrities, an entire industry travels 20+ hours to network with their preexisting friends in a typhoon, and a glistening baby hippo is the main character of the timeline.
it's all just really beautiful.
enjoy a week in consumer crypto below.
xx c
Trump joined a twitter space to shill his latest grift. Vitalik's singing in Singapore fuels ETH speculation. Coinbase launched cbBTC on Ethereum and Base, allowing users to hold wrapped Bitcoin backed 1:1 by the exchange’s Bitcoin reserves -- This means BTC holders can now securely access DeFi apps on Base and Eth — with more chains coming soon. You can now swap tokens across Base, Optimism, and Eth mainnet directly on Interface. Decentralized music streaming platform Tune.fm announced a $50M fundraise, bringing its total funding to date to $80M. The platform lets artists receive streamed micropayments, users can earn tokens by discovering new music, and it has an integrated NFT marketplace.
DRiP, the solana-based NFT platform, announced an $8M seed round. They’re helping artists get distribution and build community, and have onboarded 800+ artists, 100k+ DAUs, and distributed millions of NFTs over the past few years. They’re building towards the release of their mobile app which is expected to drop within the next few months. Sony’s Soneium Layer 2 integrated Chainlink for its cross-chain infrastructure. OpenSea kicked off the Creator Legal Defense Fund in collaboration with a16z and Stand With Crypto. Drakula is releasing a new Base app on Oct. 1st. Prohibition is sunsetting. Chipped partnered with Paris Hilton. Doodles partnered with Rubik's to make a Doodles Diamond Cube made of 21.37 carats of intricately-placed diamonds set in sterling silver.
˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ As heard on Internet Explorers ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚
What is vape2earn and why are people so mad about it?
Puffpaw is developing an innovative vape2earn game and a new type of vaping device. This customized vape and pod system is designed to monitor smoking activities with the goal of incentivizing users to reduce their nicotine intake. By opting for nicotine-free pods, users can maximize their daily token rewards. The entire product is manufactured in-house and includes social features that allow users to connect and compete with friends.
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The device is reusable; users spend tokens to purchase additional pods. Equipped with a chip, Bluetooth module, and encryption, the smart device tracks every puff taken, recording data such as duration, timestamp, puff amount, nicotine level, and flavor. This data provides metrics for daily activity and determines token earnings based on three factors: nicotine level, number of puffs, and the rarity of the user’s ticket, which serves as an entry into the game.
Each pod has a unique identifier that the vape reads upon insertion. The primary mechanism for earning tokens is using nicotine-free pods, which yield more tokens, while pods containing 2-5% nicotine result in progressively fewer tokens. The system is designed to offer financial incentives for reducing nicotine addiction rather than necessarily forcing users to fully quit vaping. Puffpaw is leveraging the Berachain platform due to its culture, community, mimetics, and Proof of Liquidity (PoL) mechanisms. Learn more by watching the last week's IE episode below!
Make apps cozy again
The Guardian's recent article highlights a shift away from mainstream social and dating apps towards more niche social networks and hobby apps. This transition is driven by the desire for more intimate spaces that provide a sense of belonging, counteracting the disillusionment with algorithm-driven and content-overloaded feeds.
Strava has seen user numbers grow 20% in a year; Knitting social network Ravelry has 9M+ users; Goodreads has clocked up 150M+ members; Letterboxd for cinephiles now has more than 14M users. Hobby apps might feel like nicer places to hang out, come with fewer expectations, and can eventually turn into services that are more than advertised. It's a lot more palatable to go a run club to find like-minded people, with the added bonus of perhaps converting those new friends to someone you might want to spend time with romantically.... than to spend your sunday soullessly swiping on hinge.
Another article I enjoyed this week, "Total Vibes Locked" by Jovian Browne, reaffirms this, showing how we're already observing trends where audiences are hyper connected across multiple platforms, forming highly aligned groups that are more active than their mainstream counterparts. Brand building is responsively becoming more culturally sensitive to the attitudes and preferences within those specific groups, and community members have a real say in the projects' trajectories. It's also becoming much more considerate of the natural ways people gather into communities, share knowledge via social networks, build trust, and create culture.
This trend presents significant opportunities for consumer crypto apps, particularly those that can integrate with niche networks and provide interoperable identities and open social graphs. The potential for enhancing user experiences through seamless cross-platform interactions is very real and there's a ton of room for novel business models beyond traditional ads and subscriptions, such as transaction fees and token-based engagements, which could offer new avenues for revenue and community empowerment. The growing emphasis on user-driven value within communities could reshape the landscape of social networks. Make apps cozy again.
Crypto's 4-year curse
Matti from Zee Prime Capital dropped a piece talking about crypto's four-year curse. He talks about how the current state of the industry is marked by a lack of genuine innovation and an over-reliance on short-term gains driven by capital optimization and savvy founders who are playing the VC Keynesian beauty contest. This absence of necessity has led to a focus on macroeconomic factors like rate cuts, top-down inflows (ETFs), or new presidents as potential saviors, rather than fostering bottom-up innovation. The industry's obsession with recurring "four-year cycles" has perpetuated short-term thinking and the greater fool theory, where people are motivated by the belief that the current cycle will eventually collapse.
To advance beyond this stagnation, the crypto space must abandon its fixation on these cycles and shift towards creating substantial, innovative solutions rather than merely capitalizing on transient trends. Real progress in crypto should be driven by genuine innovation that inspires enthusiasm and creates meaningful value, not by exploiting memes, fabricating narratives and pushing brute-forcing stories we don’t believe in. Not to say that this game doesn't have a place, but it clearly shouldn’t be the only game in town. By fostering bottom-up innovation and focusing on enduring substance, the industry can potentially escape its current cycle of low-effort projects and repetitive hype, giving space for more impactful and sustainable developments.
Catch up with more consumer crypto updates by watching last week's episode:
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Subjective NYC is hosting its first-ever annual SUBJECTIVE Art Festival at LUME Studios in TriBeCa from September 27-29. With over 150 leading artists and curations by ArtXCode, Verse, Superchief, and more, the festival celebrates art and technology across six floors of immersive installations. Expect panel discussions featuring digital art thought leaders, as well as nightly live performances. It’s a space to explore, connect, and dive deep into the evolving intersection of art and tech.
Grab a ticket and use the discount code SEEDCLUB for 30% off, or $20 off of a weekend pass! See you there xx
Base, Titles, Refraction, Hug, and AAWH Art Collective are throwing an event on October 3 in Brooklyn to teach you how to train AI models on your artwork and earn on Base. RSVP here.
With time, we will re-frame the opportunity from a temporary, mercenary game into an enduring, value-creative medium
New piece out on @t2wrld with @LensProtocol exploring how event designers can implement game design principles for in-person and onchain campaigns for more connected fun.
app.t2.world/article/cm0y62…
We talked about trends in consumer crypto, minting as a behavior, app design, investing, Base vs. Blast, being Tumblr famous + more
Parker is brilliant & this episode is well worth your time - check it out below
