gm + welcome back folks.
February marked another huge month for crypto. This month’s newsletter covers a ton of ground, but one of the key takeaways is that we seem to be entering an explosive phase for crypto across categories like consumer, AI, coordination, and culture. There’s a new internet era on the horizon — all of which is being built on-chain.
A few quick hits to get us started. Blast launched its L2, unlocking nearly $2.3B in TVL. Yuga Labs acquired PROOF, expanding its web3 footprint. Uniswap proposed turning on its fee switch, lifting early DeFi protocols. Fountain facilitated a 5,000 ETH sale, elevating Autoglyphs. An Alien CryptoPunk sold for 4,500 ETH this morning, clocking the second-highest punk sale ever. Crypto never sleeps.
After a week at ETHDenver, I’m feeling energized. Builders, enthusiasts, investors, mascots, and more, all gathered to share thoughts and exchange views. The cross-pollination of ideas was inspiring and reminded me of the simple, but powerful notion that there’s no end to innovation.
Thanks for being here. Hope you enjoy the read.
Until next month,
Fountain (🤝) / 5,000 ETH Sale — A set of ten Autoglyphs by Larva Labs sold for 5,000 ETH to a private collector. The sale was facilitated by Fountain, a high-end blockchain art brokerage — more
CryptoPunk / 4,500 ETH Sale — CryptoPunk #3100, an "Alien Punk," sold for 4,500 ETH ($16.03 million), marking the second-highest sale in the series both in USD and ETH, shifting its rank to the second-highest ever sale on a Punk — more
Blast / L2 Mainnet Goes Live — Blast's mainnet went live last week, boasting $2.3B in TVL. Blast is an Ethereum layer 2 optimistic rollup offering native yields on Ether and stablecoins. With plans to convert points to tokens in May, Blast stands as a major player in the L2 landscape by TVL — more
Blast / Big Bang Competition — Blast announced the winners of its Big Bang Competition. Amongst the winners were Vertex/Blitz (🤝) and Decentral Games (🤝), with honorable mentions for Nibbl (🤝), Rabbithole/Boost (🤝), Delegate (🤝), Clusters (🤝), and others — more
Uniswap / Fee Switch Proposal — The Uniswap Foundation proposed a governance upgrade for the Uniswap Protocol to reward UNI token holders with protocol fees, leading to a 40% price surge of UNI from $7.24 to $10.22 in under an hour following the announcement — more
Robinhood / Arbitrum Integration — Robinhood announced at ETHDenver that its wallet now supports transactions with Arbitrum, aiming to simplify DeFi access for users — more
MetaMask x Robinhood / Broaden Crypto Access — MetaMask partnered with Robinhood to enhance crypto access. This integration, leveraging Robinhood Connect, bridges traditional banking with the crypto economy, facilitating transfers to MetaMask wallet — more
Solana Mobile / 100,000 Preorders — Solana Mobile's second smartphone hits 100,000 preorders, securing $45M for its development, with a planned early 2025 release — more
Yuga Labs / Acquires PROOF (🤝) — Yuga Labs, the powerhouse behind Bored Ape Yacht Club and Otherside, acquires PROOF, including Moonbirds and Oddities, to expand its web3 and NFT domain and bolster its vision to become “the front door of web3” — more
Glenlivet / 50-Year-Old Whisky via NFTs — Glenlivet, a Scotland-based distillery, is leveraging NFTs and AI to sell a 50-year-old whisky collection. The company is offering 12 bottles at ~$43k each. AI created unique labels for each bottle and NFTs are providing digital ownership and authenticity, enabling traceability and provenance — more
Helium Mobile / Google Pixel Partnership — Google and Helium Mobile announce a partnership, offering bundles that include Pixel phones with Helium Mobile service and hotspot, featuring a year of free unlimited service — more
OpenAI / Introducing Sora — Sora, a text-to-video AI model, generates up to minute-long videos from text prompts, aiming to simulate real-world interactions with high visual quality and prompt accuracy — more
Citi / Tests Avalance (🤝) Subnet — Citi explores tokenization in private markets using Avalanche's "Spruce" Evergreen Subnet, testing blockchain's potential to revamp capital markets with firms like Wellington, WisdomTree, and others. The focus is on enhancing transparency and efficiency in the $10T AUM private assets sector — more
Pixels (🤝) / $4.8M Raised — Pixels, a play-and-own game on the Ronin Network where users can build games that natively integrate digital collectibles, raises round from Collab+Currency, Framework, Volt, Sky Mavis (🤝), and others — more
Atlas (🤝) / $4.5M Grant — Atlas, a platform for 3D generative AI and 3D asset creation tools, received a grant from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). Vienna-based Atlas said the grant will amplify Atlas’s research and development initiatives — more
Squid / $4M Raised — Squid, a cross-chain liquidity layer powered by Axelar (🤝), raises strategic round led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Nomad Capital, North Island Ventures, Maelstrom, Chorus One, and others — more
Glif / $4.5M Raised — Glif, a liquid leasing protocol for Filecoin (🤝) holders and storage providers, raises seed round led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Zee Prime Capital, Fintech Collective, Big Brain Holdings, Protocol Labs, and others — more
Lava / $15M Raised — Lava Network, a modular blockchain infrastructure developer, raises round co-led by Jump Capital, Hashkey Capital, and Tribe Capital with participation from North Island Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Alliance DAO (🤝), and others — more
PublicAI / $2M Raised — PublicAI, a Web3 distributed AI training network, raises seed round from investors IOBC Capital, Foresight Ventures, Solana Foundation, Everstate Capital — more
Code / $6.5M Raised — Code, a global payments platform, raises seed round from M13 and Union Square Ventures, as well as participation from Balaji Srinivasan, Roham Gharegozlou, Anatoly Yakovenko, Raj Gokal, Mert Mumtaz — more
FuzzLand / $3M Raised — FuzzLand, a Web3 security and analytics company, raises seed round led by 1kx, with participation from HashKey Capital, SNZ, and Panga Capital — more
IntentX / $1.8M Raised — IntentX, an OTC marketplace and trading terminal, raises round led by Selini Capital, with participation from Orbs, Mantle Ecofund, Mirana, Kronos Research, and Manifold Trading — more
Fordefi / $10M Raised — Fordefi, a startup building an institutional-focused wallet offering for retail-facing platforms, raises round led by Electric Capital, with participation from Paxos and Alchemy — more
Watches / $1.9M Raised — Watches, an end-to-end tracking and trading ecosystem for watches, raises round led by Lemniscap, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Marin Ventures, Soft Holdings Inc, Builder Capital, and others — more
Ethena Labs / $14M Raised — Ethena Labs, a synthetic dollar protocol built on Ethereum, raises round from DragonFly, Bybit, OKX, Deribit, and others — more
AltLayer / $14.4M Raised — AltLayer, a rollup infrastructure protocol, raises round co-led by Polychain and Hack VC, with participation from OKX Ventures, HashKey Capital, Bankless Ventures, Primitive Ventures, SevenX, Mask Network, and others — more
Hack VC / $150M Raised — “Despite a steep downturn in crypto startup funding over the last year, Hack VC has raised a $150 million fund dedicated to the digital asset industry” — more
Inco / $4.5M Raised — Inco, a modular, confidential computing Layer-1 blockchain powered by fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) and secured by Ethereum, raises round led by 1kx, with participation from Circle Ventures, Robot Ventures, Alliance, and others — more
EigenLayer / $100M Raised — EigenLayer, a restaking protocol on Ethereum, raises $100M from a16z — more
Helius / $9.5M Raised — Helius, a Solana-based dev tooling startup, raises Series A led by Foundation Capital, with participation from Reciprocal Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, Chapter One, Propel, and others — more
Talus / $3M Raised — Talus, a startup building an ‘AI Smart Agent Hub’, raises round led by Polychain, with participation from dao5, Hash3, TRGC, and others — more
Initia / $7.5M Raised — Initia, a rollup-focused blockchain, raises round co-led by Delphi Ventures and Hack VC, with participation from Nascent, Figment Capital, Big Brain and A.Capital, with angels Cobie, DCF God, Split Capital co-founder Zaheer Ebtikar, Fiskantes, and others — more
Backpack / $17M Raised — Backpack, an ecosystem of companies including Mad Lads and Backpack wallet, raises Series A led by Placeholder VC, with participation from Hashed, Robot Ventures, Amber Group, Wintermute Ventures, Selini Capital, Delphi Digital, and others — more
Running Bittensor (🤝) / Ronan Broadhead + Derek Edws — “As we move into a new future, the true unlock is pushing forth on the ideals of censorship resistance, credible neutrality, and data transparency. These values are a natural counterbalance to the gravitational pull of centralized technology and money. We have seen this story play out on the biggest stages, both in our global financial systems and technology monopolies. Projects like Bittensor ensure the next digital frontier remains in the hands of the many — and not the few.” — more
Beyond the hoodie: Why tech bros have money but nothing to wear / Maghan McDowell x Vogue — “Web3 fashion founder and crypto investor Gmoney is hoping the new collection for his label, 9dcc (🤝), will give tech guys the confidence to shop for luxury.” — more
How to Win a Colosseum Hackathon / Matty Tay x Colosseum (🤝) — “A guide to successfully navigating crypto’s most competitive hackathon.” — more
VitaDAO (🤝) 2024-2025 Mandate proposal / VitaDAO Core Team — “VitaDAO's new mandate prioritizes tokenized asset efforts, aims to create up to 10 IPTs, and fosters community growth, all within a $2.5m budget by 2025.” — more
DAOs Might Be Cure for Biotech Startups and New Drug Development / Joseph Perkins + Stephen Thau —” Orrick partners Joseph Perkins and Stephen Thau explain how early-stage biotech startups can use decentralized autonomous organizations to provide an alternative to traditional sources of capital.” — more
endoftheworld.txt :: Crypto x AI / Accelxr x 1kx — “While many have pronounced crypto’s incursion into the world of AI as unnecessary, we see it as a vital and synergistic relationship … This piece attempts to cover a lot of ground, therefore it is a whirlwind overview of some of the emergent areas of crypto x AI thus far and in the foreseeable future.” — more
Our TAM is Bigger Than Yours / Charlie Edwards x ID Theory — “Crypto and AI are the biggest software developments in recent history. Fortunately, they are uniquely synergistic.” — more
VanEck's Crypto AI Revenue Predictions by 2030 / Patrick Bush + Matthew Sigel — “We outline AI crypto revenue scenarios by 2030, highlighting a base case of $10.2B, and emphasize the crucial role of public blockchains in driving AI adoption through essential features.” — more
THE NEMESIS GUIDE TO BEING EARLY / Nemesis — “The next big thing might already be here, and it just might end before it ever really began. What will you do with the big blank slate that arrives in its wake?” — more
Critiquing DePIN: False Hope or Real Dawn? / SevenX Ventures — “This piece sets out to provide a balanced critique of DePIN's historical shortcomings, exploring areas such as regulatory hurdles, lack of demand, flawed tokenomics, and the risk of rugs … it also highlights the substantial prospects within this space, including overcoming profit margins, value anchors, token incentives, and robust community engagement.” — more
Arbitrum vs Optimism / Matthew Fiebach x Blockworks — “Arbitrum and Optimism, optimistic rollups based on fraud proof technology, are the reigning kings over the Ethereum scaling landscape today … This report delves into the intricate workings of these rollups, unpacking their potential to redefine the core theses of every crypto investor.” — more
Beyond Markets: Why Data Could be the Killer Use-Case For Music & Blockchains / Music Ben — “Fan relationships are the most valuable thing artists have. This relationship should exist without platforms holding the most valuable data captive.” — more
Understanding the Intersection of Crypto and AI / Lucas Tcheyan — “If blockchain technology provides a new template for transaction settlement, data storage, and system design, artificial intelligence is a revolution in computation, analysis, and content delivery.” — more
Helium Mobile vs Wifi Calling / Fred Wilson — “I've always thought of Helium as a way of participating in a network and earning rewards for doing so. But now Helium is also providing "single user utility" in the form of way better cellular service in locations that don't have that.” — more
State of Wallets Part 1: Wallet Technologies / Coinbase Ventures x Ryan Yi — “The two most important technologies created in crypto/web3 are the concept of blockspace and cryptographic keys/wallets. Wallet technologies have now expanded beyond self-custodial wallets, and we believe within the next 5 years wallets will change dramatically – marking crypto’s “iPhone” moment.” — more
Fast Forward: Building Consumer at Internet Speed / Katie Chiou x Archetype — “Users, culture, and value are flowing more rapidly, more abundantly, and more expansively across physical and digital spaces than ever before. We are still in the very early innings of developing new tools for individual identity, community-building, and culture creation for this new paradigm. The products of tomorrow will look wildly different than the products of yesterday, and they’re already being built today.” — more
Doodles / G-SHOCK x IYK (🤝) — Doodles collaborates with G-SHOCK, launching an exclusive watch collection. The event kicks off with a pop-up at 2G TOKYO, offering watches, alien vinyl, and a collab capsule, each with a digital collectible powered by IYK — more
Tensorplex Labs (🤝) / Introducing $stTAO + Bittensor (🤝) Validator Launch — Tensorplex introduced $stTAO — a reward bearing $TAO LST boosting accessibility and liquidity. The team also launched a validator on Bittensor, marking a significant step in their two-month journey of contributing to the ecosystem — more + more
Lit Protocol (🤝) / Introducing Lit V0 — Lit Protocol launches Lit v0, a pioneering decentralized key management network, after three years of R&D. Utilizing threshold cryptography, it offers developers a platform for creating privacy-focused, immutable, and automated applications — more
Pixels (🤝) / Native Token Launch — Pixels, a Ronin-based farming game, launched its PIXEL token on Binance. The games has over 180k daily users engaging in pixel-by-pixel farm building — more
9dcc (🤝) / NFT Paris + Fashion Week — 9dcc, a web3 luxury fashion brand, is set to unveiled its Ethereum NFT-linked collection at Paris Fashion Week, introducing "Networked Products" that blends luxury with digital innovation, featuring NFC chips for enhanced brand and community interaction — more
Faktory (🤝) / The AI Workforce — Faktory is launching an AI workforce that integrates with platforms like Slack and Discord, designed to be personable and support decision-making. Check out their demo and join the waitlist at faktory .com — more
Introducing Boost (🤝) / The Distributed Incentives Network — Boost, formerly known as Quest Protocol and from the creators of Rabbithole (🤝), simplifies incentivizing onchain actions. Boost enables any wallet to issue ERC20 token rewards for diverse onchain activities — more
Dynamic / Introducing Solana Embedded Wallets — Dynamic is launching embedded wallet functionality. This allows devs to integrate Solana wallets with email, social, and soon phone logins, facilitating seamless onboarding and crypto-enabled experiences with minimal setup time — more
MagicEden x Yuga Labs / ETH Marketplace — Magic Eden launches a royalty enforcing marketplace with Yuga Labs on Ethereum, aiming to support the web3 ecosystem by valuing the contributions of creators — more
Helium Mobile / Introducing WiFi — Helium Mobile introduces WiFi via its hotspots, offering businesses like cafes and stores the chance to provide free public Wi-Fi and join a community-led connectivity movement — more
Various Artists / Verse: MORE .zip — “MORE.zip pushes the boundaries of cultural lexicon and thematic imagery to new extremes of surreality, taking the familiar and twisting it into strange reinterpretations of iconic symbols and situations from our world. It’s the absurd, recursively reworked to become even more absurd…” March 4th-April 22nd — more
Various Artists / Feral File: SOUND MACHINES — “Seven artists explore the world of sound through new technologies. Their works cross optical and aural domains, creating new interfaces between the realms of sound and technology and art.” Curated by MoMA, collecting opens March 14th — more
Ronan / Running Bittensor (🤝)
Digitized / Featured: 9dcc (🤝) at NFT Paris + Fashion Week
Digitized / Spotlight: Riffing on Consumer Crypto
Derek Edws / Networked Digital Objects
VitaDAO (🤝) / New Perks for Stakers
clusters (🤝) / Explainer + Docs Live
mert / Drip Haus (🤝) Hits 100k DAUs
IYK (🤝) / Powering ETHDenver
DFarmer / Parallel (🤝) Ecosystem Conviction
Colosseum (🤝) / Solana Renaissance Hackathon
brian flynn / New Boost (🤝) Product for Creators
jmo / Helium (🤝) Mobile’s Moment
Azuki / Magic Eden Partnership
Accelxr / Crypto x AI x Gaming
MetaStreet / New ERC404 Governance Token
Dan Romero / Generative AI Frame from Botto
🤝 = Collab+Currency Portfolio Company
Curated by @Collab_Currency x @_cutbank
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