gm + welcome back folks.
November felt like one of those months where we all got to experience a glimpse of what may be in store. The feeling of being on the precipice. Digital assets saw inflows of $346M last week, the largest since the bull in late 2021. Momentum across PFPs, generative art, gaming, AI x crypto, L2βs, airdrops, ETFs, and beyond, reignited enthusiasm and conjured up a new realm of narratives to explore.
Just yesterday, Flamingo DAO swept 26 NFT collections and spent ~450 ETH in about an hour, once again cementing their conviction in collecting high-quality store of value digital objects. Blastβs new native yielding L2 accumulated > $645M TVL since launching on November 20th. Blink and youβll miss it.
Builders and creators continued to push the space forward. New products, protocols, and games are being shipped at a more rapid pace than ever, supported by powerful infra and AI tooling that was almost unimaginable a couple of years ago. It became clear this month that weβre entering an era of cross-pollination across major fields of tech, with crypto primed to play a key role.
Hope you enjoy this edition. Thanks for being here.
Until next month,
J.P. Morgan x Apollo x Axelar (π€) / New Proof-of-Concept β Axelar, Onyx by J.P. Morgan, and Apollo collaborated on a successful blockchain-based experiment for managing client portfolios of tokenized financial assets, offering a method for portfolio managers to compose and manage portfolios across multiple interconnected blockchains β more
Disney / Dapper Powered NFT Platform β NBA Top Shot creator Dapper Labs is launching Disney Pinnacle, an officially licensed NFT collectibles platform featuring Disney-themed digital collectibles inspired by the physical pins sold at Disney's theme parks β more
CZ / Steps Down From Binance US β Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao stepped down as chairman of the board of directors for Binance US, removing his influence on the firm's governance. This follows his guilty plea in a Seattle court for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, agreeing to pay a $50M fine, and resigning as CEO of Binance. 4! β more
China / Adds Protection for NFTs β The Chinese government issued legal commentary on NFTs, stating that digital collectibles like NFTs exhibit characteristics of online virtual property due to their unique features, codes, and transaction information, thereby affording them legal protection β more
$346M Flows Into Digital Assets Last Week β A recent CoinShares report indicates that $346M in inflows came into digital asset investment products in a week, the largest surge since late 2021 β more
Ubisoft / Immutable Partnership β Immutable, a web3 gaming platform, has partnered with Ubisoft, a major video game creator and publisher, to create a frictionless web3 gaming experience β more
Animoca Brands / AWS x Polygon Partnership β Animoca Brands, Amazon Web Services, and Polygon Labs have collaborated to launch the MoonRealm Express Accelerator program, which aims to foster development in areas like decentralized identity, SocialFi, and GameFi β more
Coinbase Cloud / Introducing Verifications β Coinbase introduced "Coinbase Verifications," allowing users to verify their account and country credentials onchain, all verified by Coinbase. This is designed to streamline the user experience while maintaining security and compliance β more
Yuga Labs / Magic Eden Partnership β Magic Eden is partnering with Yuga Labs to launch a marketplace for Ethereum NFTs that enforces creator royalties. This marketplace is set to launch by the end of the year and is being touted as the first major ETH marketplace contractually obligated to honor creator royalties β more
Atlas (π€) / $6M Raised β βAtlas, a 3D generative AI platform, is launching with $6M in seed funding after two years in stealth. The funding consists of two rounds: a $4.5M round led by 6th Man Ventures and a $1.5M round led by Collab+Currency. The platform partners with game developers and brands to build virtual worlds in a fraction of the time it takes using traditional methods.β β more
Blast / $20M Raised β Blast, an Ethereum L2 with native yield for ETH and stablecoins, raises round from Paradigm, Standard Crypto, eGirl Capital, and numerous crypto angels β more
Wormhole / $225M Raised β Wormhole, a platform enabling builders to expand to 30+ blockchains with one integration, raises round from Jump Trading, Brevan Howard, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin, and others β more
Privy / $18M Raised β Privy, a NYC-based builder of APIs to onboard users to consumer crypto products, raises Series A round led by Paradigm, with participation from existing investors, Sequoia Capital, BlueYard Capital, Archetype, and others β more
Llama / $6M Raised β Llama, a startup aiming to build blockchain governance protocols to encode role-based functionality, raises seed round from Founders Fund and Electric Capital, with participation from Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon) and Stani Kulechov (Aave) β more
Ritual / $25M Raised β Ritual, a decentralized AI compute platform, raises round led by Archetype, with participation from Accomplice and Robot Ventures β more
Pimlico / $4.2M Raised β Pimlico, a startup aiming to make Ethereum easier to use by leveraging smart accounts via the ERC-4337, raises seed round led by a16z β more
The Block / $70M Valuation β βCrypto media company The Block sold a majority stake to Singaporean venture capital firm Foresight Ventures in a deal valuing the crypto outlet at $70 millionβ β more
Modhaus / $8M Raised β Modhaus, a South Korean blockchain-based K-pop startup, raises round led by Sfermion, with participation from SM Culture Partners, Laguna Investment, KDDI Open Innovation Fund III and Foresight Ventures β more
Superstate / $14M Raised β Superstate, a blockchain-based asset-management firm, raises round led by CoinFund and Distributed Global, with participation from Arrington Capital, Breyer Capital, CMT Digital, Department of XYZ, Folius Ventures, Galaxy Digital, HackVC, and others β more
Taproot Wizards / $7.5M Raised β Taproot Wizards, a Bitcoin-focused Ordinals project, raises round led by Standard Crypto, with participation from Geometry, Collider Ventures, StarkWare, UTXO Management, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Masterkey, and Newman Capital β more
Saga / $5M Raised β Saga, a scalability protocol for the automated deployment of dedicated blockspace, raises seed extension led by Placeholder, with participation from LongHash, Tykhe Block Ventures, and others β more
Setter / $5M Raised β Setter, a consumer app that aims to onboard web3 brands into commerce, raises seed round led by a16z, with participation from Marcy Ventures Partners, Superlayer, Thirty Five Ventures, and retired tennis player Serena Williams β more
Wind / $3.8M Raised β Wind, an app focused on facilitating borderless payments, raises round co-led by Global Founders Capital and Spartan Group, with participation from Saison Capital, Alumni Ventures, and Tiny VC β more
Faction / $285M Raised β Faction Ventures, a blockchain-focused VC firm, raised a new $285M fund that will focus mainly on early-stage blockchain projects raising seed or Series A rounds β more
AnotherBall (+ Izumo) / $12.7M Raised β AnotherBall, the company behind v-tuber platform Izumo, raises round co-led by ANRI and Hashed, with participation from Global Brain, Globis Capital Partners, Sfermion, HashKey Capital, Everyrealm, Ethereal Ventures, and others β more
November Network Update / Opentensor Foundation β βOctober was another exciting month for Bittensor (π€). The network continues to grow: together, we are onboarding developers, creating applications and building a collective intelligence flywheel.β β more
The 7160 Standard Explained / Transient Labs (π€) β βThe 7160 standard builds upon the concept of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) by introducing a multi-metadata functionality. This feature significantly expands the capabilities of NFTs, allowing for a richer and more interactive collector experience.β β more
Snowfro and Ciphrd on a Symbiotic Relationship / Peter Bauman x Le Random (π€) β βIn conversation with the founder of Art Blocks, Erick Calderon (Snowfro), and founder of fx(hash), Baptiste Crespy (ciphrd), Peter Bauman (Monk Antony) reflects on the trenchant moment that is November 2023 for on-chain generative art.β β more
My techno-optimism / Vitalik β βWe need to build, and accelerate. But there is a very real question that needs to be asked: what is the thing that we are accelerating towards? The 21st century may well be the pivotal century for humanity, the century in which our fate for millennia to come gets decided.β β more
A Comparative Analysis of Decentralized Social Protocols / Accelxr x 1kx β βAlternative social media platforms built on decentralized and federated protocols offer a return to the original conception of online sociality.β β more
Eyes and Orders: On Crypto Front-ends / Trace x Figment Capital β βWeb3 front-ends provide 2 services. They allow users to read from the blockchain and to write to the blockchain. Front-ends can monetize from both reads and writes.β β more
Love vs. fame: A framework for social applications / Li Jin β βWhile βsocialβ is often generalized as a single monolithic category, thereβs actually a ton of variance in todayβs landscape of social apps. An axis on which I like to analyze social networks is how much they appeal to usersβ desire for love vs. fame.β β more
Progressive Ownership: A Model for Application Tokens / Li Jin + Jesse Walden β βIn this framework, we outline previous eras of token distribution mechanismsβPoW mining, ICOs, and airdropsβand their key lessons and problems. We then propose high-level steps and tactics for a new token distribution model, which we believe could sustainably grow applications with early product-market fit.β β more
Gaming Summer / Jez β βThis post will serve as a guide to thinking about crypto and gaming, establishing that: Game economies are great fits for blockchains, Cryptoβs killer use case is incentivization, Games are an even better fit for incentivization than DeFi protocols.β β more
Blockchains and the Future of AI / Danny Sursock x Archetype β βCrypto x AI is quickly becoming one of the most inspiring design spaces β¦ Together, we believe these technologies will reshape the world in the coming decades. β more
AI x Crypto / Paul Verdittakit β βThe Intersection of AI and Crypto: Exploring Opportunities, Challenges, and the Horizon Aheadβ β more
AI Agents That Can Bank Themselves Using Blockchains / Ian at Syndicate β βLast night I created a GPT that can bank itself using blockchains. The GPT autonomously manages USDC in its own Safe multisig wallet on Base.β β more
Exit games for EVM validiums: the return of Plasma / Vitalik β βPlasma is a class of blockchain scaling solutions that allow all data and computation, except for deposits, withdrawals and Merkle roots, to be kept off-chain. This opens the door to very large scalability gains that are not bottlenecked by on-chain data availability.β β more
DePIN: Decentralized Hardware Meets the New Data Economy / Paul Verdittakit β βTLDR: DePIN is the gradual merging of a decentralized hardware layer with a community-owned new data economy.β β more
What is Firedancer? A Deep Dive into Solana 2.0 / 0xIchigo β βLearn everything you need to know about Firedancer, Solana's new independent validator client developed by Jump.β β more
Delegate (π€) / Delegate Tokens Marketplace β Delegate introduced Delegate Market β a backward-compatible marketplace for buying and selling NFT delegate rights without counterparty risk. Users can tokenize, transfer, and trade delegate tokens as ERC721s with no collateral or liquidation β more
Blast / New Ethereum L2 β βIntroducing Blast: The only Ethereum L2 with native yield for ETH and stablecoins β¦ Blast is an EVM-compatible, optimistic rollup that raises the baseline yield for users and developers without changing the experience cryptonatives expect.β More than $645M has been deposited at the time of writing β more
9dcc (π€) / Announcing Powered by 9dcc β 9dcc introduced "Powered by 9dccβ β a collaborative platform for brands and creators to merge physical products with digital experiences, fostering deeper connections with communities and consumers β more
Hydra Ventures (π€) / MetaCartel to MC DAO to MCV to Hydra β βNew episode alert! Dive into Hydra Origin Stories as we chat with pet3rpan about the birth of MetaCartel & its pivotal role in the DAO space. Discover the challenges, triumphs, and the journey to Hydra Ventures.β β more
Reservoir / Introducing Cross-Chain Minting and Buying β Reservoir now offers cross-chain minting and buying, allowing users to collect NFTs across chains without bridging β more
Sound xyz (π€) / Magic Upload β Sound introduced Magic Uploads, enabling users to create an account using just an email and upload music without incurring gas fees β more
DRAUP / New Drops REDUCE + REUSE β Digital fashion pioneers, DRAUP, recently launched REDUCE β the world's first collection of digital shapewear. The REUSE drop is coming in the next few weeks and explores the issue of digital waste β more
Succinct Labs / Developer Community for ZK β βWe believe the novel affordances of ZK will enable the next wave of onchain innovation. But today, the ZK developer experience is too burdensome and prevents adoption. Our alpha release is the easiest way to discover, develop, and deploy ZK. β β more
Redstone / New L2 for Onchain Games β Lattice introduced Redstone β a cost-effective L2 solution for on-chain games, built on the OP Stack. Redstone utilizes a Plasma-inspired data availability design, with aims to enable widespread availability verification without the need for new consensus mechanisms outside of Ethereum β more
Upshot x Modulus / Introducing zkPredictor β Upshot and Modulus Labs collaborated to introduce zkPredictor β a ZK machine learning price predictor. This enables verifiable machine learning on-chain, enhances trustless modeling for DeFi, and expands the possibilities of creating liquid markets for various assets while protecting proprietary model IP β more
Summer Wagner / PROOF (π€): Midamerican Fever Dream β βA dream nearly two years in the making begins. Wave One of Midamerican Fever Dream drops December 5th.β β more
Various Artists / Transient Labs (π€): Alter Ego β β8 renowned creators, 8 digital canvases, total anonymity, [if no one knows who you areβ¦what might you create?]. this is alter ego.β Revealing Dec. 8th β more
Richard Nadler / Verse: Izanami Islands β βWelcome to Izanami Islands, where the ancient meets the innovative. In this exhibition, Richard Nadler has created a series of 128 unique artworks, each crafted with his custom AI model, yet deeply rooted in the rich and ancient tapestry of Japanese mythology.β Dropping Dec. 14th β more
Flamingo DAO / π§Ήπ§Ή Store of Value Digital Objects π§Ήπ§Ή
Derek Edws / Doubling Down on Atlas (π€)
Snowfro / Generative Goods (π€) Soft Launch
Gallery (π€) / Share Ensemble (π€) Mints Directly on Gallery
Digitized / Spotlight Podcast featuring IYK (π€)
Digitized / Featured #31 x Rainbow (π€)
Eli Scheinman / ZENTRUM by PROOF (π€) Sells Out
Vertex (π€) / $VRTX Liquid Claim + Staking now Live
DRiP (π€) / Solana Breakpoint Presentation
Trame / Two New Collections in the Craft Noveau Series
Decent / Consumer Crypto Landscape
sudoswap / Introducing Gradual Dutch Auctions
Jito / Introducing $JTO Token on Solana
Fellowship / Roope Rainisto at the Paris Photo Fair
π€ = Collab+Currency Portfolio Company
Curated by @Collab_Currency x @_cutbank
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