Welcome to the 47th 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!
Bi-weekly, we aim to drop a curated list of the most exciting stories & updates that we believe are enabling the future of tech and the emergence of the metaverse.
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Crypto Updates
Coinbase + Stripe team up to expand global adoption of crypto (link)
Solana Foundation unveils “Blinks” tool that turn any website or app into starting point for crypto transactions (link)
Sony Group Planning Launch of Crypto Exchange With Acquisition of Amber Japan (link)
Coinbase sues SEC, FDIC for information relating to crypto regulation (link)
U.S. Marshals Tap Coinbase for Crypto Custody Needs (link)
SEC Sues Consensys Over Alleged Securities Violations (link)
Silvergate Bank Pays $63M Settlement with SEC (link)
Don't Tell Anyone, but Private Blockchains Handle Over $1.5T of Securities Financing a Month (link)
Blast L2 Launches Foundation and the long-awaited $BLAST TGE (link)
Consensys Buys Wallet Guard Safety Tool (link)
MetaMask Launches Pooled Staking for Ethereum Users (link)
Bitcoin miner Northern Data eyes $16B IPO for US cloud and mining units (link)
Animoca Brands Looks to Crypto-Friendly Markets for Potential 2025 Listing (link)
Polkadot’s $245M Treasury Would Last 2 Years at Current Spending Rate (link)
Polygon Miden Launches $35M Grant Initiative to Propel Innovation (link)
Zksync is Introducing the Elastic Chain (link)
Layer3 announces Layer3 Protocol and future chain vision (link)
Secret Network’s Confidential Computing Layer is now integrated with Optimism’s OP Mainnet (link)
UFC and Blockasset Announce Multi-Year Global Marketing Partnership (link)
Former Apple, Google, Meta, Tesla and X execs join Sam Altman's Worldcoin project (link)
Jason Derulo Becomes Latest Celebrity to Promote Meme Coin, Faces Rug Pull Allegations (link)
UFC Star's New Meme Coin Crashes to Zero Amid Insider Trading Claims (link)
Gaming Updates
Notcoin and Helika () Gaming unveil $50M Telegram Gaming Accelerator (link)
Mighty Action Heroes () Unveils GOAT Gaming Platform and Launches Airdrop Campaign: The Road To $GOAT (link)
Team Liquid and Community Gaming () announce 20K USDC Tournament Series For Onchain Summer 2024 (link)
Netmarble is migrating its MarbleX platform to Immutable () (link)
AniLive () officially goes live with their mobile VTubing platform on Android (link)
Shardbound () Open Beta Launching on Epic Games Store (link)
Moonray () goes live with their open beta and play-to-airdrop campaign (live)
Midnight Society Cuts Ties with DrDisrespect Following Scandal (link)
Konami Digital Entertainment unveils critical web3/NFT infrastructure "Resella" in collaboration with Ava Labs (link)
MapleStory Universe Pre-Launch Campaign - 'MapleStory Universe: The Genesis' Begins on June 24 (link)
Earn Alliance and Sky Mavis Partner to Create a Reward-Based Experience for Gamers on Ronin (link)
Sky Mavis onboards Lumiterra (DeFi MMORPG) to the Ronin ecosystem (link)
Crypto exchange OKX announces gaming launchpad (link)
‘Pixels’ Creators Plot More Crypto Games—Maybe on Telegram Too (link)
Keywords Studios reaches £2.2B acquisition agreement with Swedish investment company EQT (link)
VR title Gorilla Tag has earned over $100M since 2021 (link)
Nazara eyes full acquisition of Kiddopia in $36M deal (link)
AI Updates
Investors Pour $27.1B Into A.I. Start-Ups, Defying a Downturn (link)
SK Hynix Plans to Invest $75B on Chips Through 2028 (link)
Google’s carbon emissions surge nearly 50% due to AI energy demand (link)
Meta Introduces Meta 3D Gen for Rapid High-Quality Text-to-3D Asset Generation in Under One Minute (link)
Meta drops AI bombshell: Multi-token prediction models now open for research (link)
Apple Poised to Get OpenAI Board Observer Role as Part of AI Pact (link)
Tech Investor Sean Parker Leads Rescue of Struggling AI Startup StabilityAI (link)
SoftBank Chief Rues Selling Nvidia Stake and Missing Out on $150B (link)
Amazon is secretly working on a ChatGPT killer (link)
How King is using AI to speed up development of new Candy Crush levels (link)
Character.AI now allows users to talk with AI avatars over calls (link)
Other Updates
E.U. Charges Microsoft With Antitrust Violations Over Teams/Office Bundling (link)
Jury Rules NFL Owes More Than $4B in Sunday Ticket Antitrust Case (link)
Hedge fund Jain Global Raises $5.3B, Secures Cash From Abu Dhabi (link)
Assange Freed from Prison Following U.S. Plea Deal (link)
Amazon to Launch Temu-Like Discount Section With Direct Shipping From China (link)
Target taps Shopify to add sellers to its third-party marketplace (link)
Bezos to Sell $5B of Amazon as Shares Hit Record High (link)
VW will invest up to $5B in Rivian as part of new EV joint venture (link)
SpaceX Tender Offer Said to Value Company at Record $210B (link)
Anduril Nears $12.5B Valuation Round Led by Founders Fund, Sands Capital (link)
BlackRock Buys Preqin for $3.2B in Private Data Push (link)
‘Inside Out 2’ tops $1B at the global box office, first film to do so since ‘Barbie’ (link)
Ballmer Is Richer Than Gates, a First for Microsoft Billionaires (link)
Research & Interesting Reads
Helika & Pantera | State Of The Web3 Gaming Nation '23 - '24 (link)
Bitwise | Why Spot Ethereum ETPs Will Attract Billions (link)
1kx | Prediction Markets: Bottlenecks and the Next Major Unlocks (link)
HackVC | Potential Solutions to Crypto's Vesting Problem (link)
Archetype | Crypto-Powered Status Games (link)
Inception Capital | Telegram: Crypto Island’s bridge to the mainland (link)
a16z | How NFT royalties work: Designs, challenges, and new ideas (link)
Variant Fund | The Marketplaces Edition (link)
USV | Collision Course (link)
Arthur Hayes | Zoom Out (link)
Dria | Leveraging AI to Bring Crypto PMF (link)
A Deep Dive Into The Crypto x AI Ecosystem (link)
WolvesDAO | Is P2A dead? (link)
Dracoon Ventures | Web3 Gaming Revolution: The Rise of Decentralization, Interoperability, and Real-Economic Value in the Gaming Industry (link)
Matthew Ball | What A Century (Plus a Pandemic) Does to Moviegoing and Why It Matters (link)
a16z | Death, Taxes, and AI: How Generative AI Will Change Accounting (link)
NFT Drops & Updates
Igloo, Inc. (Pudgy Penguin parent company) acquires the Frame team and announces plans to contribute towards consumer-focused blockchain via AbstractChain (link)
MLB and Candy Digital launch series of games and giveaways with free mints starting July 9th (link)
Hit webtoon and Asia IP ‘Solo Leveling’ joins Avalanche to launch NFT platform named “OtherWorld” (link)
U.S. Judge Sets Stage for NFT Securities Trial as DraftKings Lawsuit Moves Forward (link)
Mark Cuban wallet seen dumping NFTs after 2 years of inactivity (link)
Notable Raises
Kleiner Perkins Pulls in More Than $2B for New Funds (link)
SoftBank Raises $1.86B Overseas as It Boosts AI Bets (link)
Andrew Ng plans to raise $120M for next AI Fund (link)
Hebbia raises nearly $100M Series B for AI-powered document search led by Andreessen Horowitz (link)
Sentient Raises $85M Co-Led by Founders Fund to Accelerate Open AI Development (link)
Solana-Focused Startup Accelerator Colosseum Raises $60M to Invest in Early-Stage Projects (link)
Digital youth safety startup k-ID raises $45M, led by a16z, to help developers comply with age regulations (link)
Roll-up provider, Conduit, closes $37M round co-led by Paradigm, Haun Ventures (link)
Bitget launches $20M TON ecosystem fund (link)
DWF Labs launches $20M fund for Web3 projects in China (link)
MegaLabs Raises $20M Seed Round led by Dragonfly, Builds First Real-Time Blockchain With Full Ethereum Compatibility (link)
ORA raises $20M, led by Polychain, for tokenizing AI models (link)
Lombard Raises $16M, led by Polychain, to Integrate Bitcoin into DeFi (link)
RedStone Oracles raises $15M led by Arrington Capital (link)
Prodia Raises $15M, led by Dragonfly, to Build More Scalable, Affordable AI Inference Solutions with a Distributed Network of GPUs (link)
Blockchain Ecosystem Company Astria Raises $12.5M in Funding for Permissionless Rollup Development (link)
Pi Squared raises $12.5M, led by Polychain, to build universal ZK Circuit powered by Proof of Proof (link)
Crypto Execution-Only Platform Crossover Markets Raises $12M, co-led by Illuminate Financials and DRW Ventures (link)
Redacted raises $10M for Web3 entertainment ecosystem, led by Spartan Group (link)
Bondex Secures $10M for Web3 Networking Platform (link)
SendBlocks Raises $8.2M for Blockchain Data Management (link)
OpenLedger Raises $8M Seed Round Led by Polychain Capital and Borderless Capital (link)
Decentralized Oracle Network Developer AnchorZero raises $8M in seed funding, co-led by Bain Crypto and Spark Capital (link)
QED Protocol Raises $6M for Scaling with Bitcoin-powered Tech, led by Blockchain Capital (link)
Mamori raises $5M in Blockchain Capital-led seed funding (link)
Blockchain data infrastructure firm Covalent raises $5M in strategic funding (link)
ENSO Secures $4.2M in Funding (link)
Decentralized AI network Allora raises $3M ahead of mainnet launch (link)
Decent Land Labs Raises $3M to Build the First EVM Chain With Scalable Permanent Storage (link)
Rebar Secures $2.9M Seed Round to Build Bitcoin-Based MEV Products, led by 6MV (link)
on-chain risk-based social gaming platform, Cambria, raises $2.5M seed round led by Bitkraft (link)
Machine Learning Platform Onaji Secures $2.5M (link)
Farworld Labs Poised to Launch Farcade Platform with $1.75M Fresh Funds, Gears Up for Anticipated Q3 Releases (link)
Shaga, An Emerging Player In The Cloud Gaming Industry, Secures $1M In Pre-Seed Funding Round (link)
Base Superchain XProtocol raises a strategic round ($5.2M to-date), unveils Xardian Nodes (link)
Mo & Andrew's Curated
Macro
A thread:
24.1K
A thread on how I get to this estimate.
Subtitle: While the market has completely reset, the structurally positive election, liquidity and crypto momentum cycles remain intact.
Body: In all of my 5 years in…
Web3
Vote, Donate, Mint, Swap, Pay — use Solana, everywhere.
Someone just smash bought $450m of 
• $10m on ads/sponsorships
• $4.4m on influencers
• $4m on digital ads
Yet Polkadot still seems invisible on X and elsewhere.
. I don’t need money. I give away all my money.. legacy over money . I want respect in the crypto community . Respect is everything. Your word is everything . Your word is the strongest most valuable currency.
Another day in web3, yet another founder cashes in on his community.
It's one thing to fuck the web3 randoms with a soft rug, but it's another level to blatantly…
Some of them trading at absolute…
NFT
@AbstractChain is the blockchain for consumer crypto, pioneering culture, community, and creativity onchain.
Here’s what this means:
Gaming
Freemint DetailsAre you prepared to witness the Darkness?
This week we’ll be announcing
New features
New partners
New integrations
New $ISLAND token details
Strap in islanders
Challenge: accepted
DONE:
Submitted the Epic Games Store and Fortnite to Apple for their required notarization process.IN PROGRESS:
Launch! Targeting the next couple months for the store and Fortnite on iOS in the EU. Bring our games to other mobile…
In this footage, you will see the first location - District 1.
Join us for a journey over the Deathless Chamber, see what awaits you after logging in and explore the basic game mechanics
#Web3Gaming
AI
- crypto and AI are both trillion-dollar technologies
- AI is top-down, came from prestigious research labs and eventually by openAI. crypto is bottoms up, started with relatively low…
The primary purpose of current generative models is content creation and information filtering. However, recent research + discussion around AI Agents - autonomous actors that use external tools to complete user…
Other
He is
→ founder of Liquid Death
→ mastermind behind Gary Vee's socials
→ the greatest branding genius on planet Earth
Liquid Death got to $1,400,000,000 in 4 years by following these 8 simple principles:
(this is 200x more valuable than any Master's)
Here are 27 reading tips from @nntaleb:
1) The minute I was bored with a book or a subject I moved to another one, instead of giving up on reading altogether.
2) The trick is to be bored with a specific book, rather than…
1) magnets got way better, enabling high torque permanent magnet motors.
Electricity is defeating combustion.
noahpinion.blog/p/the-triumph-…
= Sfermion Portfolio Company
Curated by @mopat1214 + @AndrewSteinwold
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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.