Hello 👋

Welcome to the 35th 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, share within your network, and follow Sfermion on Twitter to get the latest! Check out our Seam (💰) bio here :)

Web3 Updates

Mastercard forms CBDC partner program with Ripple, Consensys (link)

Coinbase takes stake in Circle, launching USDC on six new blockchains (link)

Solana Pay integrates with Shopify for digital dollar currency payments (link)

USDC launching on Polygon PoS, Base and Polkadot blockchains (link)

Ex-OpenSea Exec Receives 3-Month Sentence in NFT Insider Trading Case (link)

UK Issues NFT Trademark Guidance For The Metaverse (link)

China Is Taking Its Social Credit System to the Metaverse (link)

Gaming Influencers FaZe Banks, Nadeshot Emerge as Among Friend.tech's Top Earners (link)

Yuga Labs slams OpenSea's shift to optional royalties (link)

Magic Eden Presents $1 Million Fund to Boost NFT Projects on Polygon (link)

Binance.US Partners with MoonPay to Regain USD Ramps (link)

Decentralized Social Media Farcaster Migrates to OP Mainnet (link)

Gaming Updates

K-Pop Titans Blackpink Launch Roblox Metaverse Experience (link)

Samsung Game Launcher lets you play mobile games over cloud without downloads (link)

Oasys and Amazon Web Services Launch Web3 Gaming Hackathon (link)

Capcom Turns Mega Man X DiVE Characters Into NFTs (link)

Star Atlas teases Solana-based SAGE Labs, the first ever web3 space economy simulation game (link)

Roblox adds avatar bodies and heads to UGC marketplace (link)

Samsung has sold over one billion more smartphones than Apple in the past 10 years (link)

Horizon Blockchain Games’ Sequence and Planet Mojo (💰) Forge Web3 Partnership (link)

RallyHere, a platform for cross-platform video games-as-a-service, has formed a partnership to provide live service support for ExoGP, a competitive flight racing game in development from Atmos Labs (💰) (link)

Aptos Foundation Forges Partnership with NEOWIZ and Intella X to Redefine Web3 Gaming (link)

NCSoft's new AI suite is trained to streamline game production (link)

Super Evil Megacorp is making a Netflix-exclusive Rebel Moon game (link)

Skillz announces $65M share repurchase program (link)

PLYXR launches PLXYER Game Portal, a new web3 game distribution platform (link)

AI Updates

Meta introduces SeamlessM4T, an AI model that translates and transcribes nearly 100 languages (link)

YouTube and Universal Music Group Join Forces to Explore the Future of AI Music (link)

Meta’s Next AI Attack on OpenAI: Free Code-Generating Software (link)

Google reportedly building A.I. that offers life advice (link)

Research & Interesting Reads

Naavik | Wreck League Crashes onto the Web3 Gaming Scene

Bixin Ventures | 3 Paradigms in Web3 Social

Konvoy | AI Non-Player Characters

Sealaunch | The network economy - where content creators' network becomes their net worth

Wolves DAO Files #18: 'Bury the Blockchain' or Shout it from the Rooftops?

NFT Drops & Updates

Mercedes announces their next collection, Mercedes-Benz NXT Icons, as they look to expand their web3 presence (link)

Patrick Mahome’s Museum of Mahomes teams with Azuki for limited edition physical card drop (link)

Reddit teams with Team Alpine for 3D Collectible Avatar Collection drop on August 23rd (link)

Eigenlayer launches EigenWorlds - EigenLayer’s second NFT collection, an open edition for all community members to mint their own names and visual emblems in the EigenLayer ecosystem. (link)

Digital fashion house The Fabricant (💰) releases The Wholeland: Primal Rave, its latest NFT fashion collection featuring items that owners can virtually wear in AR. (link)

Optimism Foundation and Base partner up for on-chain summer with a OP-themed free mint (link)

Boomland Games & Magic Eden partner for NFT chest mint on August 28th (link)

Fableborne, upcoming F2P web3 mobile ARPG x Base-Builder, announces mid-September PFP polygon mint exclusively on Magic Eden (link)

Notable Raises

Paradigm announces a seed investment into FriendTech (link)

ZetaChain, a new Layer 1 focused on interoperability, raises $27M in funding (link)

Jada AI, an artificial intelligence project that harnesses blockchain technology, has raised $25M from alternative investment group LDA Capital (link)

Japanese VTuber studio Brave group secures $13.7M funding round led by Simplex Capital to strengthen global expansion (link)

San Francisco-based crypto-native fund Momentum Capital secures $10M investment from Canada's BM Fund (link)

Ex-Meta Engineer’s Layer-1 Blockchain Linera Raises $6M in New Funding led by Borderless Capital (link)

Made on Earth Games raises $3.2M in seed funding led by GEM Capital to release their upcoming mobile title Everbright, currently in open beta. (link)

DRiP announces $3M seed round led by PlaceholderVC to accelerate the growth of collectible content & Web3 social platforms (link)

SportsVisio raises $3M round led by Sapphire Sports for AI-powered basketball analysis and more (link)

Portkey.ai Raises $3M To Help Clients Build With Generative AI (link)

Lore wages war on Etherscan with fresh $2.3M funding round led by SALT.org (link)

Hungri Games, mobile gaming studio known for unique hybrid genres like Racing RPG & Action Strategy games, complete $1.9M seed investment round (link)

BingX Announces Strategic Investment in AI and Web3 Startup Moonbox (link)

Mo & Andrew's Curated

Zima Red #148 | Greg Castle - Funding Emerging Technologies at Anorak Ventures

Web3

Mark Cuban

@mcuban

Not collecting and paying royalties on NFT sales is a HUGE mistake by @opensea. It diminished trust in the platform and hurts the industry. And I say this as an @opensea investor @DevinFinzer

5,042

2:20 PM • Aug 18, 2023

friend.tech

@friendtech

We've renamed Shares to 𝗞𝗲𝘆𝘀. The original name was a placeholder during development and we think Keys better illustrates their purpose as in-app items used to unlock your friends' chatrooms

3,406

10:03 PM • Aug 21, 2023

Daan Crypto Trades

@DaanCrypto

The All-in-One Guide to Friend Tech

@friendtech has taken this space like storm. It's been getting a lot of traction, capital inflow and bringing up opportunities for everyone involved.

Here's all you need to know

1,386

1:54 PM • Aug 20, 2023

cygaar

@0xCygaar

I reverse engineered @friendtech's backend to better understand how it works and to see the potential risk factors to both users and the app itself.

Here's the full breakdown :

1,033

7:22 PM • Aug 21, 2023

Optimism (✨🔴_🔴✨)

@optimismFND

#OnchainSummer coming in hot!

We're thrilled to be participating in @BuildOnBase's campaign highlighting some of the amazing art and culture happening onchain.

Keep an eye out for an Optimistic NFT dropping next Thursday, August 24th at 5PM UTC.

onchainsummer.xyz

Onchain Summer

Get onchain this summer to join a multi-week celebration of art, culture, gaming, community, and more. New mints happening daily August 9th - 31st. Base is open for everyone; come bask in the Onchain...

369

2:12 PM • Aug 17, 2023

OpenSea Pro

@openseapro

With the upcoming changes to creator fees, we will add a 0.5% platform fee to all OpenSea listings and offers created on OpenSea Pro starting August 31st. This change is necessary to prevent inorganic volume and keep our data as accurate as possible

OpenSea

@opensea

We launched our Operator Filter so creators could restrict secondary sales to web3 marketplaces that enforce creator fees.

But we relied on opt-in by the entire ecosystem, which didn't happen. So we’re making a few changes to our approach to creator fees.

254

4:02 PM • Aug 21, 2023

NFT

beeple

@beeple

FRIENDTECH GRAND OPENING

4,232

2:49 AM • Aug 20, 2023

Snoop Dogg

@SnoopDogg

Skechers x Snoop Dogg x Dr. Bombay. Out now

skechers.com/snoop-dogg/sno…

1,959

6:42 AM • Aug 18, 2023

Teng Yan 🥕

@0xPrismatic

Blur launched by airdropping $BLUR tokens.

Tensor, its counterpart on @solana, decided to launch an NFT instead.

Are NFTs the new playbook for web3 airdrops? Some thoughts:

155

3:35 PM • Aug 17, 2023

Gaming

Star Atlas

@staratlas

Coming soon to your browsers:

SAGE Labs, the first ever web3 space economy simulation game! Only Possible on Solana.

Learn more: Medium.com/star-atlas/sta…

754

6:04 PM • Aug 16, 2023

DigiDaigaku

@DigiDaigaku

A year ago today, we released the @DigiDaigaku Genesis collection. Within minutes, the collection was FULLY minted, reaffirming our belief in the power of FREE-TO-OWN. Since then we’ve released 17 different NFT collections, all for FREE!

What an INCREDIBLE journey it’s been for…

202

11:15 PM • Aug 9, 2023

EVERSEED 🌱

@PlayEverseed

CLOSED ALPHA v3.0 UPDATE
INTRODUCING FROSTPAW
NEW MAPS
NEW TRAILS

(Enter our Discord for more info)

25

6:04 PM • Aug 22, 2023

Polkastarter Gaming

@PolkastarterGG

Wildcard Reveals Wildlife SBTs

@PlayWildcard has introduced a new feature for its community, known as Wildfiles. These soulbound Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are designed to track and record participation within the game's environment. Currently, Wildfiles are offered free of…

33

4:13 PM • Aug 13, 2023

💰 = 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.