📝 Field Notes #48: Tides Turn

OpenSea layoffs. RaribleX: New NFT marketplace for brands. Yuga x Magic Eden. Web3 in The Simpsons. More banks launch crypto offering. Coinbase Q3 results. Massive OpenAI releases. Top jobs & more.

Hey, it’s Marc. Welcome to my weekly, obsessively curated field notes on crypto & Web3 to help you filter out the noise. ✌️

⏱️ Reading time: 4 min

Boson Protocol – Real Web3 Commerce, with Web2 UX

As the next bull market emerges, so does a new crypto-rich, Web3-savvy demographic, who are demanding authentic Web3 commerce experiences. Uniquely, with Boson, you can sell physical things as NFTs, with a slick Web2 experience while running on a fully decentralized Web3 backend. No more Web3 washing required!

Be inspired✨

“Be ready, and welcome it when it is your turn to experience change, for there is nothing like it to heighten your sensibilities and elevate your mind.” – Marcus Aurelius

📚 Top 4 Reads

  • Transforming Customer Loyalty with Joe O'Rourke. By Crypto Packaged Goods. Link

  • The Wallet-Centric Customer Experience Stack. By Ben Basche. Link

  • Real World Assets. By Spencer Noon. Link

  • What Happened to the New Internet? By Bryan Lehrer. Link

🚨 Top Stories That Caught My Eye

✨ Web3 + NFTs

From OpenSea to red oceans 🌊

  • OpenSea lays off ~50% of staff, adding to a 20% cut in July 2022. Link

  • Once the top NFT exchange valued at $13bn, it has now ceded much of its worth and dominance to competitors.

Marketplaces for brands. Meanwhile, Rarible has launched RaribleX, letting brands establish their own NFT marketplaces with custom search features and user interfaces, all without coding.1 Mattel and Animoca brands will be among the first users.

More competition. Magic Eden, a multi-chain NFT marketplace, partnered with Yuga Labs to debut an Ethereum marketplace that enforces creator royalties. A missed opportunity for OpenSea?

Punchline: The trend is clear. Expect more specialized marketplaces for different types of NFTs and users, and brands leaning towards white-label solutions for stronger brand alignment and better user experiences.

More from Web3:

  • HUMAN ONE, the most famous artwork by Beeple, appeared in The Simpsons. Link

  • Animoca Brands Japan announces strategic partnership with Cool Cats. Link

🌎 Crypto & Macro

Big finance unchained⛓️

With Bitcoin up 120% year-to-date and a possible US BTC spot ETF inching closer, big finance keeps shipping:

  • HSBC and Metaco have announced a new institutional custody platform for tokenized securities. Link

  • DZ Bank, one of Germany’s largest banks, has launched its crypto custody platform. Link

Unchained. JPMorgan went live with its first collateral settlement for institutional clients using a permissioned blockchain last month. UBS is testing a tokenized fund on Ethereum, Citigroup launched "Citi Token Services" in September, and Goldman Sachs unveiled a Digital Asset Platform in January.

Punchline: Big finance is waking up to blockchain's transformative potential for legacy infrastructure. The pace of their strides is picking up. 

More from crypto:

  • Robinhood plans EU crypto trading expansion as Q3 revenue fell short of estimates Link

  • Coinbase posted $674m in revenue in Q3, beating expectations. Volume is down 21% QoQ. Link

  • Binance shipped their first self-custody wallet app, joining competitors like Coinbase and OKX. Link

🧠 AI

  • G7 to agree AI code of conduct for companies. Link

  • OpenAI released GPT Builder that allows anyone to create custom AI assistants (GPTs) without code. Link

  • OpenAI released GPT-4 Turbo that allows it to read prompts as long as a 300-page book. Link

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💰 Money Moves

  • Ritual: The decentralized AI compute platform closes $25m series A led by Archetype. Link

  • Polygon Labs has launched an $85m grant program for its ecosystem. Link

  • Standard Chartered's SC Ventures and SBI Holdings establish a $100m investment firm targeting crypto startups. Link

That’s all for now, folks. Thank you for being part of the journey. Back to building! 🚀

– Marc

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Artwork: Refik Anadol, Living Architecture: Casa Batlló at Rockefeller Plaza.

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