Hello 
Welcome to the 45th edition of Sfermion’s Collider where we highlight the latest & greatest news in the world of crypto, gaming & entertainment, AR/VR, AI, macro, 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 (
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Crypto Updates
Robinhood Doubles Down on Crypto With $200M Deal for Bitstamp (link)
Kraken preparing for $100M funding round ahead of possible IPO: Report (link)
Coinbase | A New Era in Crypto Wallets: Smart Wallet is Here (link)
Telegram Launches TON-Linked 'Stars' Currency After Toncoin Hits All-Time High Price (link)
Japanese crypto exchange DMM raises $320M to recover funds after major hack (link)
Mt.Gox Transfers $9B Bitcoin to Single Address as Part of Repayment Plans (link)
Gemini to distribute $2.18B in crypto back to Earn users (link)
Wisconsin Pension Fund Embraces Bitcoin ETFs (link)
Coinbase Boosts Fairshake Super PAC with an Additional $25M Donation (link)
Ripple backs crypto super PAC with a second donation of $25M (link)
A16z backs crypto super PACs with $25M donation (link)
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) proposes migration to Layer 2 (link)
Introducing Gravity (): A Layer 1 Blockchain Designed for Mass Adoption and an Omnichain Future (link)
Caitlyn Jenner Meme Coin Sows Confusion as Observers Question Its Provenance (link)
Watford FC to sell 10% of club as digital equity, including tokens, to investors and fans (link)
Solana validators approve 100% allocation of priority fees, ending 50/50 burn split (link)
EU Declares MEV Illegal Under New Crypto Market Regulations (link)
FTX’s Ryan Salame, One of Sam Bankman-Fried’s Associates, Is Sentenced to 7½ Years (link)
Franklin Templeton considers new altcoin-focused crypto fund (link)
Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Abandons Spot-Ether ETF Ambition (link)
CME Looks to Take On Binance and Coinbase, Could Launch Spot Bitcoin Trading: Report (link)
NYSE Would Consider Crypto Trading If Regulatory Picture Were Clearer, President Says at Consensus 2024 (link)
Binance Launchpool Introduces IONET $IO (link)
Binance Resumes Mastercard Payments for Crypto (link)
StarkWare plans to bring ZK scaling to Bitcoin alongside Ethereum (link)
Arweave acquires crypto social media app Odysee: ‘We haven’t won until it replaces Twitter’ (link)
MoonPay launches Web3 platform for brands, digital experience (link)
MoonPay lays off 10% of staff despite having 'years of runway' (link)
Gaming Updates
Today () Introduces AI-Powered Character Engine Dreamia (link)
Pudgy Penguins and Mythical Games () Partner to Create AAA Mobile Video Game (link)
The Mystery Society () Joins Immutable () Ecosystem (link)
Mon Protocol () successfully launches $MON on May 27th (link)
Arbitrum to Unlock $250M in $ARB for Ethereum Gaming Projects (link)
Netflix announces Minecraft animated series (link)
YouTube Playables are out now with over 75 games available (link)
Discord’s turning the focus back to games (link)
'The Sandbox' Launches DAO to Let Players Shape Its Future (link)
‘Final Fantasy’ Maker Square Enix Moves to Arbitrum for Ethereum Game NFTs (link)
How Immutable Nexus is Enhancing Gaming with Dedicated zkEVM Chains (link)
Big Games Machine: How People Discover New Games in 2024 (link)
Hyper casual games lead ad media buys at 34% share, with US at the forefront of ad spend (link)
AI Updates
China Creates $47.5B Chip Fund to Back Nation’s Firms (link)
Cisco advances intelligent networking and security as it announces $1B AI investment fund (link)
Nvidia Flips Apple As Stock Hits $3T Market Cap Amid AI Boom (link)
Microsoft’s $650M deal with Inflection AI is facing FTC probe: report (link)
OpenAI launches official ChatGPT support for universities and nonprofits (link)
Vox Media and The Atlantic sign content deals with OpenAI (link)
OpenAI Offers a Peek Inside the Guts of ChatGPT (link)
Microsoft Copilot Is Now on Telegram: Here’s How to Use It (link
Meta’s WhatsApp Is Adding a New AI Assistant for Businesses (link)
OpenAI Says It Has Begun Training a New Flagship A.I. Model (link)
Humane is reportedly trying to sell itself to HP for $1B (link)
Other Updates
Trump Raises $400M in Campaign Donations Since Guilty Verdict (link)
Exclusive: Google, augmented reality startup Magic Leap strike partnership deal (link)
MrBeast Becomes Most Subscribed YouTuber with 266M Subscribers, Surpassing T-Series (link)
Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Sells 10% Stake for $1.05 Billion (link)
Blackstone agrees to buy Japanese manga firm for $1.7B (link)
T-Mobile to Acquire UScellular Wireless Operations and Deliver Exceptional Value, a Superior 5G Experience and Unparalleled Benefits to Millions of Customers (link)
ConocoPhillips to Acquire Marathon Oil in $17.1B All-Stock Deal (link)
GameStop shares jump more than 20% after $933M stock sale (link)
Salesforce's stock suffers its biggest drop in two decades (link)
China fines Evergrande's Hengda $577M for fraudulent bond issuance (link)
Warner Bros. Discovery hikes prices for Max streaming service (link)
Amazon, Walmart, and Big Retail’s race to cut prices (link)
Research & Interesting Reads
Delphi Digital | UGC Gaming & Web3 (link)
Bitkraft | Exploring the Future of Gaming: The Rise of Fully Onchain Games (link)
Khosla Ventures | Plausible tomorrows (link)
Haun Ventures | A Marketing Mantra for Founders (link)
a16z games | Why everything looks like a game (link)
Portal Ventures | Chapter Two of Bitcoin (link)
Binance | The Future of Bitcoin #3: Scaling Bitcoin (link)
How Stumble Guys beat Fall Guys at its own game (link)
Konvoy | Virtual Pets (link)
NFT Updates
Feds Charge UK Nationals With $3M ‘Evolved Apes’ Ethereum NFT Scam (link)
Dapper Labs’ $4M settlement reaffirms NBA NFTs aren’t securities: CEO (link)
Galaxy Digital uses historic violin NFT to secure loan (link)
F1 Team McLaren Reveals Free Ethereum NFTs With OKX (link)
Super Punk World begins trading on Magic Eden (link)
Notable Raises
Stashh Labs () Raises Over $3.3M for NFT Platform Upgrade (link)
Elon Musk's xAI secures $6B in funding (link)
Nvidia and Salesforce double down on AI startup Cohere in $450M round (link)
US-Listed BitDeer Secures $150M Investment from Tether, Stock Rises 7% (link)
Paradigm Leads $70M Funding Round for Babylon Bitcoin Project (link)
Peter Thiel's Founders Fund co-leads $43M Series A for modular blockchain Avail (link)
Bain Capital Crypto leads $35M Series A for M^0, a network for minting digital dollars (link)
The Sandbox raises $20M at $1B Valuation (link)
Tether invests $18.75M in XREX to facilitate cross-border payments in emerging markets (link)
Fhenix Raises $15M and Launches Testnet of Confidentiality-Focused L2 (link)
Coinbase and Haun Ventures invest $11M in Neynar, a toolbox for Web3 social networks (link)
Web3 Cybersecurity Company GoPlus Raises $10M to Build Permissionless Security Layer (link)
Riema Labs (Nubit) raised $8M in a Seed funding round (link)
Mountain Protocol raises $8M to bring USDM stablecoin to Solana, real-world businesses (link
Glacier Network Raised $8M in Angel and Seed Rounds at 100M Valuation (link)
‘Xociety’ Developer Raises $7.5M to Launch Sui Shooter Game (link)
Switchboard raises $7.5M to help provide blockchain projects links to real-world data (link)
ARPA Network Secures $6M Investment to Advance On-Chain Gaming and Cryptographic AI (link)
OpenSocial Protocol Raises $5M to Boost SocialFi Super Apps (link)
DWF Labs Invests $5M in Milady, Pioneering Meme Capital Movement in Web3 (link)
Mint Blockchain raises $5m in Seed funding (link)
NodeOps Raises $5M in Seed Round to Transform Node Infrastructure (link)
TRALA Successfully Raised $5M From Fundraising Rounds (link)
Gamefam Launches $5M Fund for UGC Creators (link)
Supervillain Labs $4.5M Funding - Web3 Gaming with Aptos and Intella X (link)
Play AI Raises $4.3M at $70M Valuation (link)
Anzen Finance Raises $4M Seed Round from Mechanism Capital, Circle Ventures, Frax, Arca and More to Bring the Benefits of Real-World Assets (RWA) into DeFi (link)
Cookie3 secures $3.3M in a Strategic funding round led by Animoca Brands (link)
El Dorado Raises $3M to Build Crypto Payments Superapp for Latin America (link)
Juicy Button Games launches with $3M in funding, led by The Games Fund (link)
Mo & Andrew's Curated
Macro
President Biden vetoes bill that allows highly regulated financial firms to hold #Bitcoin and crypto.
12K
BREAKING THE US TREASURY WILL INITIATE A
BUYBACK PROGRAM FROM MAY 29
ABOUT $2 BILLION WILL FLOW INTO
THE ECONOMY EVERY WEEK.
FRESH LIQUIDITY WILL ENTER THE
MARKET, WHICH IS HUGELY BULLISH
FOR #BITCOIN AND CRYPTO.
Second reading of US Q1 2024 GDP just fell to 1.3%, below the initially reported growth of 1.6% last month.
This is ~60% less than the 3.4% growth seen in Q4 2023.
This downward GDP revision primarily reflected slower consumer spending of…
Web3
"Financialization as a means toward an end", I can respect if the end is worthy (healthcare, open source software, art, etc). Financialization *as the final product*,
Ashton and Mila's…
I like trading and memecoins. I like people making money on the platform I built
But I’m not a fan of the memecoin people who’ve been here for 1 year or less harassing the…
Went from no wallet (no extension) to minting an NFT in 20 seconds. All while signing securely with Touch ID.
This is how we bring mass retail onchain, huge kudos to the Coinbase team.
go live now and live forever
@Grayscale, the largest crypto asset manager, is launching the $STX Trust.This will give investors exposure to the leading Bitcoin L2 solution.
Read more about what the #Stacks Trust means and unlocks
(1/5)(Image by Grayscale)
Big increase in BTC OI + big ETF inflow coinciding suggests to me tradfi ppl growing that basis trade (long ETF vs short futures).
BTC funding is back up to 20% atm so that makes sense --> this is a…
NFT
The Magic Eden Mobile Wallet is now available for testing on iOS.
The first 2,000 users will be able to download & then you’ll still need a beta code.
Wen codes? Notis on
Download here: testflight.apple.com/join/j7sCYVZO
The Penguin has crossed 20b views on our gifs solidifying itself as an immutable part of internet culture.
but after expenses still managed to A NET LOSS FOR THE YEAR OF -$11MM
HOW???????
is @yugalabs the most incompetent organization in the history of human civilization???????????
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Gaming
but no one seems to be playing any crypto games
so where did all this money go and what happened with it? ↓↓↓
Forte $725m (Series B)Sorare $680m (Series B)Limit Break $200mImmutable $200m (Series C)Sky Mavis $152m (Series B)Mythical $150m (Series C)Animoca $110m (Convertible)Rally $57m (ICO)Parallel $50mGunzilla $46m…
Our in-game token that fuels your adventure through Thanabus
Use $EMBER to customise your characters and weapons with exclusive cosmetic items!
Check out our Economy Overview for more details
embersword.com/blog/Economy-O…#PlayEmberSword #Ember $EMBER
Commitment Period will end on 5 June, 10 AM UTC
LaunchPool: app.monprotocol.ai/launchpool
For more information visit our discord: discord.gg/thepixelmon
Join our X Spaces with Aethir Ecosystem Lead
AI
I'm lucky enough to be an early investor in @CoreWeave, one of the most incredible startup stories I've ever seen. one of the most interesting things…
1. AI agents from Insight Partners
By leveraging the power of decentralization, the coming together of @Fetch_ai, @oceanprotocol & @SingularityNET aims to create a more equitable, transparent, and…
At its core, GAIA is a multiplayer creation engine designed to bring democratized Generative AI abilities to everyone, hence its name. It abstracts away the complexities of leveraging open-source…
Other
Some thoughts on this transition and on my own behavioral changes:
For over $1 million
= Sfermion Portfolio Company
Curated by @mopat1214 + @AndrewSteinwold
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