gm — firstly, a sincere thanks to the many longtime readers of Digitized. This is our 25th (!) edition of the newsletter and, for us, it’s as clear as it was on day one that consumer x web3 is the most fascinating + creative intersection in crypto.
Thanks again + stay tuned for exciting new Digitized content coming soon™.
Fidelity / Crypto Access — Fidelity, which has about 37 million retail brokerage accounts, announced it recently opened access to BTC and ETH investments. Transactions on the app are commission free and Fidelity will collect a spread of no more than 1%, though withdrawals haven't yet been enabled — more
Salesforce / Web3 + NFT Product Suite — Salesforce, a leading CRM software provider with a market cap of ~$187B, announced it’s launching a suite of products known as Salesforce Web3. The tools aim to help companies build, manage, and integrate NFTs into their businesses as well as provide customer experience insights across Web2 and Web3 via an API integration — more
Epic Games / Crypto Games Ahead — Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite and many other popular game titles, announced it will add about twenty new crypto games to its marketplace by next year, although none will be developed or published by Epic itself. The marketplace currently features five crypto games including Blankos Block Party, launched by web3 gaming studio Mythical Games — more
Nexon / MapleStory — Nexon, a Japanese-South Korean video game publisher, released plans to create an NFT-centered ecosystem around its popular game, MapleStory. Nexon aims to leverage blockchains to allow users and game companies to continue to grow and expand upon the IP of MapleStory — more
The Sandbox x Scenario / Partnership — The Sandbox, a user-generated metaverse environment, announced a partnership with Scenario — a company developing AI tools for generative asset creation in video games. The Sandbox will make the AI toolkit available to all creators within the ecosystem to drive creative development — more
Australian Open / Web3 Fan Engagement — Organizers of the iconic tennis event, The Australian Open, embraced web3 this year to engage with fans and attendees. Fans received “Artball” NFTs that were linked to specific plots on the tennis court. The match point ball landed on Plot #1174 and the fan who owned that NFT won tickets to next year’s tournament — more
Instagram / Winding Down NFTs — Instagram announced it is winding down its NFT program for now “to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses.” In the statement, the company said it will be looking to make an impact at scale, by focusing on messaging and monetization opportunities for Reels — more
Anchorage Digital / Workforce Cuts — Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered crypto bank in the U.S., announced it’s cutting roughly 20% of its staff. The company pointed to "macroeconomic, market, and regulatory dynamics" that are "creating headwinds for our business and the crypto industry.” — more
OpenAI / Releases GPT-4 — OpenAI released a new large language model called GPT-4. The new model is a “multimodal model”, which means it can accept text and images and provide users with a text response. GPT-4 can place in the 90th percentile of test-takers for the Uniform Bar Exam (certification test for lawyers) — more
DressX / $15M Raised — DressX, a digital fashion house offering VR + AR wearables, raises Series A round led by Greenfield Capital, with participation from Slow Ventures, Warner Music, The Artemis Fund, and Red DAO (🤝) — more
Daniel Allan / $1M Raised — Daniel Allan, a pioneering web3 musician and trailblazer of Music NFTs, raises round led by Coop Records, with participation from Palm Tree Crew Crypto, Noise DAO (🤝), Woodstock DAO, Fire Eyes DAO, and support from angels Nic Carter, Adam Levy, Kyle Samani, and others — more
Jungle / $6M Raised — Jungle, a Brazil-based startup building a web3 mobile shooter game, raises round co-led by Bitkraft Ventures and Framework Ventures, with participation from Delphi Digital, 32bit Ventures, Karatage, Stateless Ventures, and others — more
Soul Wallet / $3M Raised — Soul Wallet, a self-custodial Ethereum wallet built on top of ERC-4337, raises round from Struck Crypto, Game7DAO, NGC Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Alchemy, Ankr, and Signum Capital — more
Memes > Utility / Seed Club (🤝) — “Cultural and consumer projects launch tokens to attract early believers, encourage collective experiences, and store the value of their shared belief and excitement. To effectively do this the tokens need to be imbued with meaning. This meaning comes from two fundamental places – the tangible utility (access, benefits, services) that holding the token provides, and the intangible memetic value (status, association, belief, provenance, memory) that it captures.” — more
Mint First / Jacob x Zora — “Mint your content to take ownership of it, and then share it as far and wide as possible across all of your favorite social media platforms. You can do both. Worst case: you're the only one that minted it and now you have a public and permanent archive. Best case: your community has a direct channel to collect and support you and your work. There isn't much to lose.” — more
Better Interfaces, Better Products / Gaby Goldberg — “New interfaces will change the way we both create and consume media on the Internet. This won’t just affect the product experiences themselves, but also the way we organize to develop content and applications to be consumed by others. Blockchain technology is a massive unlock on this front, because it democratizes the ability for any individual to see important activity and information at the inception of its development, and it changes the way these products are built in return.” — more
Narrative Cycles & Conviction in Technology / Michael Dempsey — “Narrative cycles are faster and tighter than ever before, fueled by this idea of winning what is happening now, an extrapolation of the fast dopamine hits we all crave, perhaps more for social capital than financial capital. Few seem to have the patience to sit and watch these themes unfold over a decade, diligently tacking their proverbial ships left and right as storms send them somewhat off path.” — more
Are Web3 Influencers Finally Earning Their Place In Fashion’s Spotlight? / Bethanie Ryder — “The advancement of Web3 technology has fundamentally changed the digital landscape, and it is essential for luxury houses to recognize the influence of Web3 leaders as they are at the forefront of change in this space,” Kenneth Loo, co-founder and CEO of Chapter 2 communications agency. The company works with a number of rising and well-established Web3 innovators, including 9dcc label founder gmoney.” — more
The Emperor’s New Clothes / Tara Kenny x Outland — “Digital garments have been heralded as a revolution for sustainability in the fashion industry. But are they mainly just a cash grab for big-name brands?” — more
Andrew Steinwold’s ‘Zima Red’ Podcast / StoryCo (🤝): The Open Storytelling Platform — “I am always talking about how Hollywood is being disrupted but Justin & JP from StoryCo are actually doing it. Awesome conversation for those who want to learn about media, Hollywood, and the future of entertainment.” — more
Tribute Brand (🤝) x Mona (🤝) / Introducing the PUNK Store — Tribute Brand, a fashion company creating products and experiences at the intersection of fashion and technology, has teamed up with immersive world-builder Mona to create the PUNK Store. With a grand opening on March 20th, the PUNK store is a place for PUNK NFT holders to play and socialize as $PUNKY (a virtual 3D creature + VRM avatar) and discover Tribute Brand’s latest drops — more
Blur (🤝) / NFTs on Mobile — Blur announced that users can now browse and buy NFTs on mobile. Additionally, Blur now notifies users when their NFTs sell across any marketplace and when bids get accepted — more
Mystic Moose x Planet Mojo (🤝) / NFTs to 3D Models — Game studio Mystic Moose, creator of Planet Mojo and Mojo Melee, will now offer users the ability to convert their NFTs into real-time 3D models. The new 3D assets will be customizable and greatly expand the design space for the gaming community — more
POAP (🤝) / Announcing ‘Drops’ — The Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP) built a new interface called Drops that allows for streamlined distribution, access to drop analytics and insights, as well as the opportunity for users to view all their POAPs in one place — more
Arbitrum / Airdrop News — The Arbitrum Foundation announced that $ARB, Arbritrum’s new token, will be airdropped to community members on Thursday, March 23. This will mark Arbitrum’s transition into a DAO, meaning ARB holders will soon have voting power and influence upon the trajectory of the network — more
Capsule / Toolkit for Transaction Signing — Capsule is a toolkit for developers to upgrade their signing, made possible by Programmable MPC and Secure Enclave-Managed Authorization. The project came out of stealth this week and announced support from the a16z Crypto Startup School, Geometry, Spice Capital, Diogo Monica & Nathan McCauley, Rene Reinsberg — more
Formfunction / Shutting Down — Formfunction, a Solana-based NFT marketplace launched in February of 2022, announced that it will be closing down on March 29th. The platform urged artists to export their artworks to another Solana marketplace before the upcoming deadline — more
Uniswap / BNB Chain — Uniswap, the world's largest decentralized exchange protocol by trade volume, was officially released on the BNB Chain network — a decentralized EVM-compatible blockchain initially founded by crypto exchange Binance — more
Aztec Connect / Closing Down — Aztec Connect, a privacy infrastructure that served as an encryption layer for Ethereum, announced it will be closing down and disabling deposits within the next week. Users have the ability to withdraw their assets anytime within the next year — more
Mikey Woodbridge / Sovrn Art: Latent Couture — “Latent Couture presents AI fashion as digital synthesis of lived experience. 555 fashion statements generated from photographs of Woodbridge's years of experience as a performer, painter, designer, and nightlife icon. "A look is a meme – it communicates a belief about what a human being can be. Each of the fashion statements in Latent Couture says, ‘This person is possible.’” Mint details announced soon, follow Sovrn on Twitter for Premint opportunities + drop info — more
Glass Protocol (🤝) / The Glass Pass — “The Glass Pass is your identity on Glass. Everyone who’s created or collected ANY Glass video or has signed the Manifesto will be able to claim one on Monday, March 20. Your own individual .glass username on Ethereum. When the new Creator Studio and Glass Protocol launches in a few weeks, it will only be accessible to creators who own a Glass Pass. All the videos you create with Glass will be linked to your Glass Pass on-chain.” — more
Yi-Wen Lin / Art Blocks (🤝): Rippling — “Growing up on a subtropical island, rain was a big part of my childhood. I can vividly recall those heavy showers in the afternoon of the summer. It washed out the agitating heat and calmed the world. With Rippling, I'm seeking to use a generative algorithm to recreate the feeling of a rainy day or night at different moments. And perhaps, it could remind you of the sound of the rain drops, the scent of the dirt after the rain or that moment the sunset peek through the heavy cloud...” 128 pieces, minting March 17th, 10 am PT — more
Gallery (🤝) / Introducing Search
Cope / Delegate Cash (🤝) x Arbitrum Airdrop Pre-Trading Market?
buffets.eth / A Beautiful Deca (🤝) Gallery feat Art Blocks (🤝)
Jonah / Web3 Backed Content on YouTube w/ BasedAF (🤝)
Beeple / New Studio in Charleston 🔥
SuperRare (🤝) / mr703’s 260 ETH Purchase of Early AI Artwork
0xdgb / ‘Burn Event’ Sold for 20.3 ETH at Sotheby’s
Tim Salikhov / Digital Art as the Next $1T Asset Class
legofan.eth / Blueprint: A Web3 Games Guide by Polygon
WideawakeBeets / ‘The Passage’ on fxhash
Delphi Digital / On the SVB Collapse
Loopify / GPT-4 Goes Back to School
Nick St. Pierre / Midjourney v5 Goes Live
Eliezer Yudkowsky / AI Models, Moats, and Defensibility
🤝 = Collab+Currency Portfolio Company
Curated by @Collab_Currency x @_cutbank
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