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Welcome to the 23rd 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 Sfermion’s Collider, please don't forget to subscribe below and follow Sfermion on Twitter to get the latest! Check out our Seam (💰) bio here :)
Coinbase | May Leave US Due to Regulation : CEO Brian Armstrong indicated that the crypto exchange would consider moving away from the U.S. if the regulatory environment for the industry does not become clearer. Coinbase received a Wells Notice from the SEC in March. Armstrong said Coinbase had met with the SEC "30 times" without getting feedback regarding the nature of its business before receiving the notice.
a16z crypto | Magi OP Layer 2 : a16z crypto releases Magi, a blazing fast OP Stack rollup client written in Rust. Magi acts as the consensus client (often called a rollup client in the context of the OP Stack) in the traditional execution/consensus split of Ethereum – it feeds new blocks to the execution client in order to advance the chain. In its early stages, Magi will be built in public with few key milestones in the coming months.
Romania | NFT Collection & Trading Platform : Romania’s National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics, or ICI, plans to launch “ICI Decentralized Services,” an NFT trading platform on MultiversX. The platform will officially launch on April 26 and a handful of NFT collections — of Romanian sports teams, athletes and libraries — will be ready for purchase at launch. The Romanian NFT trading platform will mark one of the very first government initiatives in the country to join the digital asset ecosystem.
Binance & Brazilian Football Federation | Free NFT : Binance and the Brazilian Football Federation are launching an NFT aimed at not only boosting fan engagement but also attracting more consumers. Fans who nab one of the NFTs will join a "Fanverse" and be able to take part in "gamified" experiences and win prizes and tickets. Joining the crypto-football fan community will also offer lower trading fees when using Binance.
Canon | “Cadabra” NFT Photography Marketplace : Canon USA, the American division of the global camera and imaging giant, announced today that it will launch an Ethereum NFT marketplace dedicated to photography later this year. Cadabra, described as a curated marketplace for tokenized photographs, is set to roll out later in 2023 following an initial preview at NFT NYC conference.
Sui | Mainnet Launch for May 3rd : Following a $96M buy-back of FTX’s equity and token stake, Sui announces Mainnet will officially launch on May 3, 2023!
Solana Foundation | Ecosystem Convertible Grants & Investments : Solana Foundation announces that its capital deployment strategy is expanding to include convertible grants and investments to further support ecosystem development.
DefiLlama | NFT Dashboards : DefiLlama launch their NFT dashboard feature for collections and marketplaces, allowing one to see detailed stats, with wash trades filtered out.
Singular | Pro NFT Trading Marketplace Launch & Free Mint : YC-backed pro-trading NFT marketplace enters open beta and drops an NFT collection celebrating the launch of the platform - roughly 2,000 have been minted so far! The platform aims to gain market share against the likes of Blur, OpenSea Pro, and LooksRare V2.
SEGA | Acquisition of Rovio : Japanese gaming giant Sega has confirmed that it’s buying Finland’s Rovio in an all-cash deal worth €706 million ($775 million). Sega’s offer represents a 63.1% premium on Rovio’s closing price on January 19th, the last trading date before reports first emerged of a potential acquisition, and a 19% premium on Rovio’s final closing price on Friday, April 14th.
Merit Circle & Avalanche | Gaming Subnet Partnership : Merit Circle announces Beam, a subnet created for the Merit Circle DAO to launch on the Avalanche network. This gaming-focused blockchain will not only facilitate the DAO’s products, but become the home for dozens of fascinating games. $MC, the DAO token, will be used as gas on the network. Beam will be home to titles like Trial Xtreme, Walker World, Hash Rush, Sphere and Edenhorde Eclipse. There will also be products such as an AMM and a wide range of infrastructural products.
Square Enix & Elixir | Web3 Strategic Partnership & Investment : Square Enix partners with web3 gaming platform Elixir to drive mass adoption of web3 gaming among traditional gamers in a strategic move to generate visibility and adoption of web3 games.
Roblox | Limited Edition Items, P2P Trading, & Royalties : Roblox announced a big change affecting its UGC virtual item program. The company explained that creators in their Roblox UGC Program now have the ability to created limited items. Creators can dictate the quantity of items and set the pricing of these assets. Limiteds can be resold, and the original creator earns 10% every time the item is resold. The practice of paying out royalties, which has become standard in the world of NFTs, has officially made its way into Roblox via UGC limiteds.
Planet Mojo (💰) | Open Beta for Auto Battler Mojo Melee : Be sure to check out the open beta gameplay for Planet Mojo’s Mojo Melee!
Naavik | Gen AI Game Development
Espresso | The Non-Narrative Plays
Decentralised | From JPEGs to AI Models
Deconstructor Of Fun | The 8 Things Supercell is Doing to Level Up
Naavik | Fortnite Creative Millionaires
The Harbinger China | Building off the Beaten Path in Asia — with Metatheory COO Adam Bao
CoinDesk | Top 10 Most Expensive NFTs of All Time
CyberBrokers (💰) | Mech Mint Live : CyberBroker’s long awaited Mech Mint has gone live! Check out twitter and discord to see all the epic mints, and read here for more info on how to get involved.
Mythos Studios (💰) | Eko Genesis Teaser & Launch : David Maisel, who pioneered the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is spearheading a new digital art collection from Mythos Studios, featuring artwork by noted comic book artist Michael Turner.The Ekos Genesis Art Auction is set for May 2nd at 10am PT. It will be a Dutch-style auction of 995 Ekos Genesis Art pieces that begins at 10 ETH. All 1/1 original hand-crafted digital art.
Nike | .Swoosh Genesis Digital Sneaker Drop : Nike announces their first-ever virtual collection, inspired by the AF1 Low, a classic style remixed hundreds of times since it dropped in ‘82. Posters have been airdropped and serve as mint passes for the collection. Read this thread for a deeper breakdown!
Starbucks Odyssey | 2nd NFT Collection Launch : Starbucks drops their 2nd NFT drop for their web3 rewards program on Nifty Gateway - selling out the 5k collection at $100 per NFT. Read more here.
Yuga Labs | More LoTM Updates & Litepaper Soon : A lot is happening in the Yugaverse. Stay updated on Otherside: Legends of the Mara (LoTM), decoupled Kodas, Vessels, Otherdeed Expanded NFTs and all else via the official news site. The official LoTM Litepaper will be released in the near future. View the gaming blog here.
CoreDAO | $200m fund : Core DAO has introduced a $200M Ecosystem Fund aimed at speeding up the development of decentralized applications and protocols built on the Core layer-1 blockchain.
Karate Combat | $18m raise : Karate Combat has landed an $18M funding round to realize its vision of tech-enhanced full-contact sports. Investors joining fund lead Bitkraft Ventures in the raise include Delphi Digital, The Operating Group, Alpha Wave Global, Hashkey, among others. Karate Combat says the $18M will go towards launching a Karate Combat "Up Only Gaming" app and a $KARATE token on the Ethereum and Hedera networks on May 10th.
RSS3 | $10m raise : Information protocol RSS3 has raised $10 million via a token sale to prolific Web3 investor DWF Labs. RSS3 aims to be a bridge between blockchain technology and AI, search engines and social media. The protocol's latest investment follows its unveiling of RSS3 AIOP, an AI training environment providing Web3 information to the likes of ChatGPT.
Tableland | $8m raise : Tableland announces a Series A funding round of $8M to support the development and growth of Tableland. CoinFund leads the round with support from Multicoin, BlueYard, Protocol Labs, among others. The funding will go towards network expansions, a developer studio, and a network token launch.
Social Future | $6m raise : Social Future, an AI-driven social metaverse company, announces that it has successfully raised $6M in funding. SocialFuture is backed by crypto investors including SNZ, Everest Venture Group, Folius Ventures, Y2Z Ventures, Mask Network, Tess Ventures. Social Future aims to create the future of social experience with phygital interaction, immersive content, and self-sovereign communities.
CAT Labs | $4.3m raise : CAT Labs, a start-up building forensic and cybersecurity tools to fight crypto-enabled crime, raised $4.3M in its pre-seed round led by Castle Island Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital, CMT Digital, and RW3 Ventures.
Yoz Labs | $3.5m raise : Yoz Labs, a Web3 notification platform, has raised $3.5M to further its aim to make scalable messaging rails that would enable developers to send immediate on-chain notifications directly to users. Led by early-stage venture firm Electric Capital, the funding round included several Web3 investors and angels such as Collab+Currency, Coinbase Ventures, Dapper Labs, Form Capital, North Island, Mike Krieger and Naval Ravikant.
Skillprint | $3.5m raise : Skillprint, an Oakland, Calif.-based science-backed AI powered gaming platform, disclosed the raise of $3.5M in previously unannounced pre-seed funding. Backers included Shanda Ventures, LearnStart, Niremia Collective, and a number of private individuals with experience and in the gaming world.
Natix | $3.5m raise : Hamburg-based Natix Network, a decentralised network of cameras creating real-time maps of cities, has raised $3.5M in Seed funding to launch its first mobile app Drive& and build its team while developing the network. The round was led by Blockchange Ventures.
Helio | $3.3m raise : Helio raises $3.3M in a seed round to bring Web3 payments to the masses. Helio was founded by serial entrepreneurs Jim Walker and Stijn Paumen with a vision to build a “Stripe” for the Web3 economy that makes integrating blockchain-native payments as simple as setting up a Gmail account. The round is led by Peak and Lightspeed Faction.
Wallet Guard | $1.5m raise : Wallet Guard, the user-centric security browser extension that protects users’ digital assets and data from theft, scams, and fraud, announces their pre-seed raise which was led by Ethereal Ventures, with participation from ConsenSys and IOSG Ventures.
SuperDuperSecretCo | $1m+ raise : SuperDuperSecret Co. has successfully raised over $1M to remake classic games such as chess with the modern element of a ten-player battle royale. For the oversubscribed pre-seed funding round, investors included Round 13 Digital Asset Fund, Merit Circle, Polygon, Solana, among others.
Metaverse Live Ep. 13 - Has Crypto Bottomed?
Zima Red Ep. 143 - Omega Runner: Universe, brand & IP in the age of AI
Macro Tweets
I’m calling to restructure the @SECGov and the removal of Chair @GaryGensler. 
Russia prepares draft law to allow use of #crypto for international trade settlements.
NFT Tweets
Weebox × Afro Samurai
discord.gg/weebox
Woah looks like some of the 3AC grails are going to Sotheby's!
Gaming Tweets
AI Tweets
A thread
Other Tweets
💰 = Sfermion Portfolio Company
Curated by @mopat1214 + @AndrewSteinwold
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Collect this post as an NFT.
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