Sfermion is an investment firm focused on backing the founders building the metaverse.

Hello 👋

Welcome to the 37th edition of Sfermion’s Collider where we highlight the latest & greatest news in the world of web3, gaming & entertainment, macro, AI, and more!

Weekly, we aim to drop a curated list of the most exciting stories & updates that we believe are enabling the emergence of the metaverse.

If you're looking forward to reading this edition of Sfermion’s Collider, please don't forget to subscribe below, share within your network, and follow Sfermion on Twitter to get the latest! Check out our Seam (💰) bio here :)

Web3 Updates

Southeast Asia super-app Grab adds support for web3 services (link)

JPMorgan exploring blockchain-based payment and settlement system (link)

Visa’s crypto stablecoin settlement expands to merchant acquirers via Solana (link)

Swift unlocks potential of tokenization with successful blockchain experiments (link)

Race for a spot ether ETF begins with bid from Ark Invest, 21Shares (link)

MetaMask adds 'cash out' function allowing users to sell crypto for fiat (link)

Drake-Backed Crypto Casino Stake Loses $40M in 'Unauthorized' Transfers (link)

FBI blames North Korea’s Lazarus Group for $40M Stake hack (link)

Half of the People in Turkey Now Own Crypto (link)

Chinese fintech giant Ant Group launches overseas blockchain brand ZAN (link)

Robinhood Buys Back Sam Bankman-Fried’s Seized Shares Worth $600M (link)

Casio to release virtual G-SHOCK NFTs on Polygon (link)

OP Labs hires former Google exec as chief operating officer (link)

DApp store for your wallet: Consensys readying cross-chain Metamask Snaps (link)

Riot compensated $30M to shut off Texas bitcoin miners in August (link)

Vitalik Buterin co-authors paper on regulation-friendly Tornado Cash alternative (link)

Storygrounds (💰) announces Storygrounds Alpha with pre-registration now live! (link)

Avalanche and Hyperspace (💰), a leading marketplace & launchpad on SOL and Sui, forge partnership (link)

Individual loses $24M in likely crypto phishing attack (link)

ByBit Launches AI-Powered Trading Assistant (link)

Monax Labs launches Aspen to guarantee royalties for Web3 creators (link)

Kraken gradually rolling out PayPal deposits in UK and Europe (link)

Gaming Updates

Google loosens ad guidelines for NFT game providers (link)

PUBG Developers Unveil Cosmos-Based Settlus Blockchain for USDC Settlements (link)

NPixel is looking to sunset metaverse/web3 operations (link)

UAE Looks Set to Legalize Gambling (link)

Roblox Is Finally Coming to PlayStation This Year (link)

Hurley Drops Super Surfer Game NFTs on SKALE Blockchain (link)

MrBeast-Promoted 'Creator League' Postponed After Gamers Bail Amid NFT Backlash (link)

Gala Games Co-Founders Sue Each Other Alleging Corporate Waste, $130M Theft (link)

YouTube’s latest experiment is playing games (link)

TikTok wants to become mobile’s new launchpad, not a game platform (link)

Epic Games Embraces AI In Games, In Break With Steam (link)

Former PlayStation boss says Amazon, Netflix pose huge threat to the game industry (link)

Cradles is set to launch its open beta on September 10th (link)

Enjin Blockchain is finally launching on September 13th (link)

Deadfellaz announces TCG and pre-access vault sale (link)

Sorare unveils 3D and AR player cards (link)

Noonoouri becomes first digital artist to be signed by Warner Music (link)

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Mobile already has 17 million pre-orders (link)

AI Updates

Elon Musk Reportedly Wants to Fold Neuralink and Tesla Into One Big Weird AI Company (link)

Arm, the Softbank Group-owned chip designer, is headed for a $52 billion IPO (link)

Google DeepMind co-founder argues US should set AI global standards (link)

OpenAI Plugs ChatGPT Into Canva to Sharpen Its Competitive Edge in AI (link)

Google's Generative AI Tools Now Turn Text Into Online Worlds (link)

Other Updates

China Bans iPhone Use for Government Officials at Work (link)

The End of Airbnb in New York (link)

Clubhouse is trying to make a comeback (link)

Research & Interesting Reads

Delphi Digital | Opportunities in Web3 Mobile Gaming

Konvoy | Distributing Games on TV

David Phelps | The Proto-App Thesis

GamesTX | Gala imbroglio

Metaversal | Arbitrum: The Future of Gaming

Eigenlayer | Intro to EigenDA: Hyperscale Data Availability for Rollups

Polygon Labs | Lawnmower Racing, NFT-Powered Girl Capitalism and the Rise of Korean Web3 Superpower

Polygon Labs | Hang’s Guide to Next Gen Loyalty in Web3

NFT Drops & Updates

Yuga expands TwelveFold collector experience with cipher puzzle series, spanning 12 weeks with weekly BTC rewards (link)

Reddit Kicks Off Football Season With NFTs of Every NFL Team (link)

Zynga’s Sugartown will have their first NFT mint on September 13th (link)

Via AnotherBlock, Justin Bieber Producer Is Selling Royalties for the Song 'Company' as NFTs (link)

Casio to release virtual G-SHOCK NFTs on Polygon (link)

Hot Wheels Introduces New NFT Collection: Garage Series 6 (link)

“Captain Tsubasa” Tsubasa Team Collection - Sandbox Avatars (link)

Notable Raises

Podium (💰) raises 2M€ from Fabric Ventures, Sfermion, and Seedcamp to further develop fantasy sports data tooling (link)

Coinbase shares more on The Base Ecosystem Fund, and announces their first 6 investments : One of them being Paragraph (💰), an on-chain newsletter & publishing platform (link)

Story Protocol launches with $54M round led by a16z to tap IP ownership (link)

aelf Ventures Launches $50M Ventures Fund to Boost Blockchain Innovation (link)

Alpha Protocol Ventures (APV) has established a $20M fund to invest in undervalued Web3 projects and companies focused on blockchain gaming and tokens (link)

Pantera Capital leads $16.5M round for StarkWare-powered DEX Brine Fi (link)

Trident Digital Group, a newly launched startup founded by former Coinbase executives, raised $8M (led by Whitestar and New Form) for its “next generation” crypto lending business (link)

Galactic War P2E Game Receives $6M Funding from KaJ Labs (link)

Interoperability Protocol Socket Raises $5M Co-Led by Coinbase Ventures and Framework Ventures (link)

Web3 arts startup TRLab raises $5M from Hivemind Capital, OKX Ventures (link)

Gleen announces a $4.9M fundraise to push the boundaries of customer support using generative AI (link)

GAM3S raises $2M to build the #1 web3 gaming platform (link)

Helix raises $2M to connect crypto investors with private credit yields (link)

Metahorse Unity raises $1.9M to continue building the ultimate RPG horse racing game (link)

Mo & Andrew's Curated

Macro

Watcher.Guru

@WatcherGuru

JUST IN: JPMorgan Chase is developing a blockchain-based digital deposit token to speed up cross-border payments.

Watcher.Guru

@WatcherGuru

JUST IN:

Turkish crypto exchange CEO sentenced to 11,196 years in prison for stealing $2 billion in customer funds.

The Spectator Index

@spectatorindex

JUST IN: The New York Post reports

Americans are defaulting on credit cards and auto loans at the highest levels since the financial crisis.

Watcher.Guru

@WatcherGuru

BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase are helping the Ukrainian government launch a recovery bank to raise hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild Ukraine.

Watcher.Guru

@WatcherGuru

JUST IN:

Mexican billionaire says he only holds #Bitcoin, MicroStrategy, Bitcoin miners, oil companies and gold miners in his portfolio.

The Kobeissi Letter

@KobeissiLetter

The US is now paying ~$2 billion PER DAY in interest expense on federal debt.

This has doubled since the pre-pandemic levels of ~$1 billion per day.

Since 2020, the US has added a historic $9.1 TRILLION to the national debt.

Meanwhile, 31% of outstanding debt is going to…

Bitcoin News

@BitcoinNewsCom

NEW:

Chinese Yuan at its lowest level vs.

the dollar since 2008

Is the dollar wrecking ball back?

Web3

Wu Blockchain

@WuBlockchain

Breaking: Southeast Asia’s largest Uber-like app Grab adds Web3 crypto wallet. Grab has 180 million users. Currently, the Singapore region shows that it can be used. It currently shows that the Polygon wallet is supported, and there are guidance content for wallets and NFTs.…

DeFi Made Here

@DeFi_Made_Here

Recently, @BankofAmerica released a report predicting asset tokenization will exceed $16T in the next 5-15 years,

And cited @Avax Subnets as one of the key platforms driving the future of transferring value globally.

S4mmy.eth

@S4mmyEth

MetaMask just rolled out ETH to fiat withdrawals.

∼9% in transaction fees and 5 minutes later my fiat withdrawal dropped into my bank.

(1/8)

Storygrounds

@storygrounds

Today our team is delighted to announce the Storygrounds alpha. Pre-register now at

storygrounds.com

SG brings anyone into stories they love! Our platform allows folks of all skill levels to unleash their creativity, and together, create everyone’s fav new Webcomics!

Patrick Hansen

@paddi_hansen

Really cool to see huge brands like @lufthansa tapping into NFTs to create a better loyalty/miles & more program that will include an own marketplace where customers can buy & sell their #NFTs that can be used for flight upgrades etc.

These kinds of NFTs, with real utility in…

Lore

@loredotxyz

𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗩𝟮 𝗢𝗙 𝗟𝗢𝗥𝗘

Where communities turn social energy into collective power.

In a few weeks, we launch an app for Collective Crowdfunding.

Exclusively on @BuildOnBase. Mobile and newbie-friendly.

fiskantes.lens ⭐️🩸

@Fiskantes

Imo there will be more than one narrative, not a single one will be totally dominating the others, the biggest potential ones:

Web3 gaming: Many are jaded about this vertical because we never saw actually good and fun games touching crypto, just DeFi degen games with gamified…

Che 👹

@Cheguevoblin

What are the possibilities for “Main Narrative” of a possible 2025 Bull Run

For me right now it’s like

Gamefi 35%
Memes 30%
Defi Again 10%
Ai 10%
Nft Main 5%
Social Fi 5%
Something Else 5%

Open and interested in any and all thoughts on this salient question

EigenLayer

@eigenlayer

Intro to EigenDA: Hyperscale DA for Rollups

This post represents our 1st public, long-form content about EigenDA - what it is, how it works, what benefits it offers to rollups. There's too much to summarize fully, so please read at the link below!

blog.eigenlayer.xyz/intro-to-eigen…

1/5

blog.eigenlayer.xyz

Intro to EigenDA: Hyperscale Data Availability for Rollups

We’ll assume that you know what data availability is, and why it’s important for blockchains and rollups. For more information on data availability, see the Ethereum Foundation docs on Data Availab...

Sam Sends

@sam_sends

We’re stopping development of @GlassProtocol.

The website, protocol, and NFTs will remain operational and are stored safely.

Two years ago, we ventured into the NFT space to improve monetization for video creators. A lot has changed in the last two years, and the space has…

Franklin 🪁

@franklinpayroll

In a belated celebration of Labor Day, we're releasing the first

Web3 Jobs Report

You can learn more about:
- average comp for different positions
- most popular skill sets for the most in demand jobs
- where are the hiring hotspots

Check it out here and let us know what…

Panda Jackson

@pandajackson42

@reservoir0x has announced the launch of NFT dataset on @DuneAnalytics.

After 100+ hours of deep diving, I want to explain why this partnership matters to the whole crypto world.

If you are an NFT degen or Web3 data expert, this is the unmissable ALPHA leak for you.

thread

NFTs

NFTstats.eth

@punk9059

“Pudgies is on pace to do $10mn in toy sales in our first 7 months. That’s sustainable. That forecastable.

At some point you have to ask yourself are you here to give from the space or to take from the space. I know which side I’m on.”

@LucaNetz in Seoul

Holograph

@holographxyz

Holograph is now live on @ourZORA

Mint natively multichain digital assets on this exciting new L2

Magic Eden on Bitcoin 🟧

@MEonBTC

Why is Bitcoin being thrown around on Magic Eden?

BECAUSE ITEM BID OFFERS ARE LIVE!

Make & accept offers on any Ordinals & BRC-20 listed on Magic Eden today!

Leonidas

@LeonidasNFT

BREAKING: Ethereum 10K PFP collection @OnChainMonkey is migrating their entire collection to Bitcoin!

nft now

@nftnow

SALE: Mutant Ape #30002 has sold for 500ETH ($800K).

Backpack 🎒

@xNFT_Backpack

October

Max Branzburg 🛡

@maxbranzburg

2/ As part of Onchain Summer, we worked with 23 partners to showcase onchain art, culture, music, gaming, and more

These collections generated 700,000 total mints from 268,000 unique wallets

Gaming

Bored Ape Yacht Club

@BoredApeYC

The time for HVs to Forge their own destiny is near.

Explore. Battle. Win. Evolve.

The Hunt begins on Sept. 7th.

Gas Hero Official

@GasHeroOfficial

Gas Hero x Polygon

We’re thrilled to announce that #GasHero will be launching exclusively on @0xPolygon

The game developed by @FSLWeb3, the makers of #STEPN is expected to launch in Dec 2023.

A thread

[1/8]

Cradles

@cradlesio

BIG NEWS from CRADLES!

We're launching our Public Beta on September

th! Inviting everyone to experience our world:

Date: September 10th

Participation: Open to all!

Download on:

Steam (Bonus: Secure an exclusive NFT when you download via Steam!)

Jonah 🎮

@RealJonahBlake

This team has worked very hard to get where they are. They raised money from web3. While it is now 2.5, you should
watch them because the game is actually fun and they’re pushing the horror genre.

Josh Lu

@JoshLu

Ben Feder is a board director of Epic (makers of Fortnite) and is now running his own venture fund. Here's his advice to games investors and founders:

1/ Taste matters
2/ Investors and founders should think big
3/ Raise more than you think you need

1/8

cartridge

@cartridge_gg

Hello World

Introducing @cartridge_gg: an onchain gaming company

Excited to share more about our mission, funding and the games, tools and infrastructure we're building

Backed by @chapterone @dunevc @__geometry__ @fabric_vc @voltcapital @starkwareltd

cartridge.gg

Hello World - Cartridge Gaming Company

Build, deploy, and scale fully onchain games and Autonomous Worlds

BlockGames

@GetBlockGames

Excited to announce our Mint details

September 21st, 4 pm UTC.

[5555 Supply]

[Free Mint]

Make sure to set your reminder on @opensea

opensea.io/drops

Don’t miss our Founder's message @benbaltram

Daily Loud

@DailyLoud

AI-generated Drake and The Weeknd song “Heart On My Sleeve” has been submitted to The Grammys.

According to Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. in an interview with The New York Times, “it’s absolutely eligible because it was written by a human.”

Random

ChainLinkGod.eth

@ChainLinkGod

The reality is that there is no net new money coming into crypto at the moment

- Retail is rekt and normies mostly think crypto is a scam

- Funds are largely rekt and capital inflow has significantly slowed down

- Institutions are largely on the sidelines waiting for…

Watcher.Guru

@WatcherGuru

GTA 6 is rumored to cost $150 per copy.

Watcher.Guru

@WatcherGuru

JUST IN:

Apple lost $200 billion in market value over the past two days after China banned its government from using iPhones.

Marques Brownlee

@MKBHD

NEW VIDEO - I used a "crypto phone" so you didn't have to. Full video here: youtu.be/hRSMJGs0YMg

Breaking911

@Breaking911

KJP: “[Biden] will be masking while indoors and around people. [...] As has been the practice in the past, the President will remove his mask when sufficiently distanced from others indoors and while outside as well."

💰 = Sfermion Portfolio Company

Curated by @mopat1214 + @AndrewSteinwold

If you enjoyed reading this edition of Sfermion’s Collider, please subscribe below, share within your network, and follow Sfermion on Twitter to get the latest! Check out our Seam (💰) bio here :)

Note: All information in this Newsletter regarding any company or investment is the sole responsibility of the company providing the information. Sfermion, and its affiliates, makes no representation or guarantee to the accuracy or completeness of the information presented. Sfermion is not responsible for any information contained in any links outside our websites and official social accounts.

Sfermion does not offer investment advice/analysis and makes no recommendations on how to act. Information regarding any company or investment in this Newsletter, including any links to information on our website, should not be viewed as an endorsement or recommendation of that company or investment for any purpose whatsoever. Any person receiving this Newsletter is encouraged to consult with their own financial advisor, or relevant personnel, before making any investment decision.

Sfermion's Collider #37