Hello 👋
Welcome to the 21st edition of Sfermion’s Collider where we highlight the latest & greatest news in the world of web3 and gaming!
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 the Collider, please don't forget to subscribe below and follow Sfermion on Twitter to get the latest! Check out our Seam (💰) bio here :)
Web3 Updates
Binance | Loses Australian Derivatives Business License : Australia's securities regulator announced that it would be canceling the operating license for Binance's derivatives business. The specific entity is Binance Australia Derivatives, and the license allowed it to offer over-the-counter (OTC) derivative products to Australian users.
Amazon | Leaked (Potential) Launch Partners for NFT Marketplace : Amazon’s upcoming NFT marketplace will be on a private blockchain. One deck, and a separate source, specified day-one partnerships with Beeple, the creators of Pudgy Penguins, Artifact Labs, and Proof Collective. On the fashion front, The Fabricant (💰) has agreed to be what two sources categorized as an anchor participant for the marketplace’s fashion vertical.
OpenSea | OpenSea Pro Live : OpenSea launches Gem V3, a NFT Pro marketplace with NFT rewards in a bid to counter Blur's NFT dominance.
Solana | Introducing State Compression : Solana Introduces state compression, a new way to store data on Solana that lowers cost significantly. The first use of state compression, compressed NFTs, reduces the cost of minting NFTs on Solana by 2,400-24,000x. As of April 5, minting 1 million uncompressed NFTs on Solana costs over $250,000. Using compressed NFTs, it is around $110.
Avalanche | Evergreen Subnets for Institutions : Avalanche launches ‘Evergreen’ Subnets for institutional blockchain deployments.
Celo & Google Cloud | Partnership : Celo Foundation and Google Cloud jointly promote Celo blockchain and Google Cloud services. The collaboration is set to allow founders building on Celo to access credits for Google Cloud and Google’s mobile development platform, Firebase.
SpruceID & Metamask | Sign-In Integration : SpruceID brings support for Sign-In with Ethereum directly into MetaMask.
Unstoppable Domains | AI-generated Avatars : Web3 domain provider Unstoppable Domains is rolling out AI-generated PFPs, allowing users to enhance their digital identities. The NFTs are minted on Polygon.
Coinbase & ENS | Free Web3 Profiles : In partnership with ENS, Coinbase is offering free IDs for wallet users to begin building their web3 profiles.
Serotonin | Free Web3 Marketing Handbook : Serotonin launches the world's first web3 marketing book written by Amanda Cassatt, Founder and CEO of Serotonin. As Ethereum’s first marketer, Amanda shares her wealth of experience and expertise in the field of web3 marketing, offering a comprehensive guide to building successful communities in Web3. Listen on the a16z crypot podcast here.
LuckyTrader (💰) | Lucky Lens AI Assistant Beta : Powered by OpenAI's GPT-4, it's the future of web3 news , providing a more unique and engaging experience for everyone trying to keep up with the quickly evolving NFT, crypto, and emerging technologies spaces.
SlingShotDAO (💰) & MetaMundo (💰) | Community Launch Rewards : Join the MetaMundo & SlingShotDAO collaboration and get rewarded from day 1 as a contributor to SlingShotDAO - The platform where you get funded for building in the metaverse. Get access here.
Magic Eden | Ethereum Expansion : Magic Eden announces Ethereum expansion by partnering w/ 17 ETH Launchpad creators, respecting royalties on native listings for all collections, and providing all ETH Launchpad partners royalties and 2% fee for 6 months. Soon the platform will aggregate other marketplace listings and features will expand over time.
LooksRare | NFT Marketplace V2 : LooksRare launches V2 of NFT Marketplace with slashed fees and improved features. V2 offers a host of benefits to its users, including a significant reduction in protocol fees by 75% to a fixed 0.5%, huge savings on gas fees, and the ability to buy and sell NFTs with $ETH instead of $WETH.
Ralph Lauren | Crypto & NFT Integrations : Gearing up for the launch of the Miami Luxury Concept Store, Ralph Lauren is sending out invites for their private Miami party via ETH NFTs. The NFTs are made in partnership with Poolsuite and powered by BitPay. The invitations, sent to +2,700 wallets, act as collectibles and permit holders to register for the party guest list.
Seedify | ChainGPT Launch : Seedify, a leading launchpad and incubator, has announced the launch of ChainGPT, an AI model designed to offer blockchain analytics services, such as AI trading, smart contract development, AI auditing, risk management and more.
Gaming Updates
Scopely & Savvy Games Group | $4.9B Acquisition : Savvy Games Group acquires Scopely for $4.9B. Scopely will become an autonomous operating company under the Savvy umbrella, joining other complementary games companies such as esports brand ESL FaceIt Group. Through this partnership, Scopely will benefit from Savvy’s ecosystem and long-term commitment to helping us achieve our ambitious goals
Ultimate Champions (💰) | 4 New Leagues : Ultimate Champions is expanding with 4 new summer leagues! Dive in here now to start playing.
Altered State Machine & FIFA | World Cup Mobile Game : Altered State Machine and FIFA have partnered to launch its open beta for AI League: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Edition on Android. The mobile title puts players in the management seat where they must form the strongest AI-powered team.
Meta | Crayta Platform for Facebook Cloud Gaming : Meta announced that it is getting Crayta, a Roblox-like game development platform that authorizes you to create and play games with your friends in real-time, to Facebook Gaming’s cloud streaming service. Crayta provides an easy-to-use developer toolkit and makes game creation more available on mobile or desktop, According to the company.
Avalanche & SK Planet | Blockchain Partnership : SK Planet, a leading data and technology company in South Korea, is building an Avalanche Subnet for their tens of millions of users. Their subnet, UPTN, will be integrated with SK Planet’s portfolio of consumer applications, including OK CashBag.
Ultra | Web3 Games Marketplace & Launcher : Long-running web3 gaming startup Ultra launches its Ultra Games marketplace with a twist: letting users resell digital games. The platform is set to launch April 25th as stated here.
Gunzilla Games & Avalanche | Blockchain Partnership
Game of Silks | Real-World Mirrored Horse Racing
MOBOX | MOBOX 2.0 Web Gaming SDKs & Tools
Aqua | Gaming Marketplace, User Profiling, & Discovery
DappRadar | $739m Invested in Blockchain Games for Q1 2023
DappRadar & BGA | Blockchain Gaming Activity : Blockchain gaming activity in Q1 2023 had an average of 791,474 daily UAWs (wallets), a decrease of 8.58% from the previous quarter.
Saudi Arabia investing $38B to become a video game hub
Research & Interesting Reads
Web3 Studios & BGA & Polygon | Deep Blockchain Gaming Landscape
a16z crypto | A New NFT Launch Strategy - The Wave Mint
Konvoy | Implications of Banning Tiktok
Naavik | Distribution is Everything
How Epic is Doubling Down on the Metaverse
Delphi | TreasureDAO : Decentralized Gaming Ecosystem
Will Robinson | On-Chain Games Part 4
Bankless (Metaversal) | ENS Name Wrapper Explained
NFT Drops & Updates
Yuga Labs | Gucci Koda Pendants Drop : Gucci and Yuga partner for a 3,333 NFT collection of Koda Pendants that will come with a unique silver Gucci necklace and other digital perks. Expect more Gucci X Yuga collabs in the future! see more here.
Yuga Labs | Otherside: LOTM News & Activations : Vessels are now claimable and Kodas can be decoupled. Learn more here.
Nike | Our Force 1 .Swoosh Genesis Drop : Nike teases their upcoming genesis drop, Our Force 1, a virtual-only sneaker collection. All .SWOOSH members will have a chance to purchase an OF1 virtual creation.
Bugatti & Asprey Studios | Ordinals Collection Launch : The Asprey Bugatti Egg Collection Royale Edition is a limited series of sculptures made from premium materials, which come with proof of ownership in the form of generative art Ordinals. There'll only be 111 eggs and ordinals.
RTFKT | RTFKT Creator Program & Tooling : RTFKT launch their creator program and some tools to the community, featuring exploration, learning, creator challenges, easy-to-use tools, clone X resources, and more. Visit the beta website here.
MetaMundo () | Free Avatar Drop : It's time for a FREE avatar drop! LucasGuzman3D is giving away his TinBOT 3000 avatar, an interoperable NFT that can be used across 22+ games and metaverses. Get access here.
Notable Raises
Lore (💰) | $4m raise : Lore, a co-ownership platform for web3 collectives to pool resources and own NFTs together, raises a $4M strategic round led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Sfermion, Seed Club Ventures, Balaji Srinivasan, Zeneca, North Island Ventures, Mischief, CMT Digital, Patricio Worthalter, Spice Capital, Sublime Ventures, and others.
Franklin (💰) | $2.9m raise : Franklin, which provides tax-compliant hybrid crypto and cash payroll services to startups and businesses, has raised a $2.9M seed funding round led by venture capital firms gumi Cryptos Capital (gCC) and CMT Digital. Other investors include Sfermion, Arca, Portage, and Synergis Capital.
Bitkraft | $220.6m Token Fund : Gaming-focused venture capital firm Bitkraft raised $220.6M for its second "token fund," which had a total target of $240M, according to a March 30 filing with the SEC. The firm launched a similar fund in October 2021, with $75M in committed capital that ****was seeking to invest in blockchain gaming and digital entertainment. For the new fund, however, Bitkraft couldn’t comment on the nature of the investment mandate.
ProDigital Future | $100m Fund : Hong Kong investors are launching a new $100M fund, ProDigital Future, aimed at backing early-stage crypto and Web3 companies, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The move comes as the city continues to double down on its efforts to become a fintech and crypto hub.
LayerZero | $120m raise : Blockchain interoperability protocol LayerZero raised $120M in Series B funding. LayerZero is now valued at $3B and plans to expand into APAC and gaming. Investors in the round included a16z Crypto, Sequoia Capital, Circle Ventures, Samsung Next, OpenSea and Christie's.
RACA | $16m raise : Market maker and investment firm DWF Labs has invested $16M in Web3 company RACA, a deal that includes purchasing an unspecified amount of RACA tokens. The funding will help RACA continue its goal of becoming an expansive Web3 gaming ecosystem.
Delphi Labs | $13.5m raise : Delphi Labs, the incubation arm of crypto research firm Delphi Digital, has raised $13.5M in a round led by P2P, the creator of liquid staking provider Lido, with participation from noted investment firm Jump Crypto. The funds will go toward building out an accelerator that aims to foster the growth of teams working to launch Web3 projects. The raise was Delphi’s first time courting outside investments.
Satsuma | $5m raise : Satsuma, Blockchain data indexing platform, raises $5M in a seed round co-led by Initialized Capital and Archetype. The blockchain data indexing platform wants to make the lives of web3 developers easier with its tooling.
Ecosapiens | $3.5m raise : Ecosapiens raises a $3.5M seed round led by Collab+Currency. The project allows users to purchase carbon credits through its nature-themed NFTs to offset the environmental impact of blockchain technology.
Adludio | $2.5m raise : Adludio has raised $2.5M for its mobile advertising platform led by Mercia. The company says it will combine AI with attention-led and data-driven mobile advertising.
ENS Vision | $2m raise : ENS Vision, a leading ENS-focused marketplace, raises a $2M seed round led by 1Confirmation.
GoJoe | $1.2m raise : GoJoe, London-based social fitness app, raises a seed round of £1.2M, led by Superbet Ventures with follow-on from Animoca Brands. GoJoe is a social platform that aims to bring workplaces and individuals together to achieve their fitness goals through a gamified and AI-based platform.
Ensemble | $1m raise : Ensemble closes $1M seed round led by Collab+Currency. On Ensemble, artists mint artifacts from their creative process, presented within stories about their work.
Mo & Andrew's Curated
Zima Red Ep. 140 | Doug Shapiro - How AI will impact and change media forever :
Crypto / Web3 Tweets
The Senator Warren shadow administration writes off crypto as having "no fundamental value."
We should recap how out of touch the administration is with these daily examples:
1,892
More details in the thread
We analyzed 200+ million code commits & 11k+ developer profiles to capture geography data.
Full analysis here: developerreport.com/developer-repo…
Let's break it down
Developer Report
The source for crypto open-source developer data. Built by Electric Capital as a public good.
Type this into terminal:
open /System/Library/Image\ Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/simpledoc.pdf
MicroStrategy Acquires Additional 1,045 BTC and Now Holds 140,000 BTC
April 5, 2023
Macro Tweets
While cash transactions are anonymous, a #CBDC will allow the government to surveil all our private…
Chinese Yuan replaces US dollar becoming the most traded currency in Russia.
Malaysia Prime Minister says there's no reason to continue to depend on the US dollar.
NFT Tweets
NFTs are coming to 
extension! v10.28 will bring an NFT view into the MetaMask Browser extension
And now that they're about to cross 1M inscriptions (yes, actually) you're scrambling to get up to speed?
Don't worry, I gotchu.
Behold – the definitive Ordinals megathread
1/57
One year down. Many more to go.
Zora has generated $1.5m revenue since late February & outpaced OpenSea for 4 consecutive weeks
To comprehend this, here are 6 key points
Last September, the 1st loan was accepted on X2Y2! Fast forward 6 months, and we've now had over $65 million total $ borrowed with ~$400,000/day in loans making us the 2nd largest and fastest-growing NFT lending platform out there!
(1/3)
How to mint?
How to buy?
How to sell?
I've been pinged enough that it's time for a quick thread to get into the details.
High level: Bitcoin Stamps are the most permanent NFTs in the world
The details
Gaming Tweets
€92,825,000 directly to @counterstrike
that's an all-time high by almost double
It reportedly looks like a PS5 controller but with an 8-inch LCD touchscreen in the middle
@a16zGames SPEEDRUN application is here! Apply Now to gaming startup school (<12 questions): a16zgames.typeform.com/SPEEDRUN deadline April 21
More
- Important dates, who should apply, topics, speakers, & how to WIN a limited edition @a16zGames keyboard
a16z Games SPEEDRUN
startup school for gaming beginning the first week of May and ending in a demo day at LA Tech Week DM @ndrewlee on Twitter if you have any questions
They are Launching two new games through a new studio.
Let's go through everything you need to know.
They are launching a new racing franchise.
Let's go through everything you need to know
Let’s dive in
AI Tweets
Here are the 12 most interesting trends that you should know.
They predict 300 million jobs will be lost to automation.
Here are the key takeaways everyone must know:
If augmented reality is an overlay on the world, this is augmented intelligence — an overlay on your thoughts.
Reply for a TestFlight DM soon.
💰 = Sfermion Portfolio Company
Curated by @mopat1214 + @AndrewSteinwold
If you enjoyed reading this edition of Sfermion’s Collider, please subscribe below and follow Sfermion on Twitter to get the latest! Check out our Seam (💰) bio here :)
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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.