Hey, it’s Marc. ✌️

This week’s top insights across consumer Web3, crypto, gaming, and AI:

NFTs are back (at least partially): Doodles, a blue chip collection, goes big with a cinema movie. Also: Versace enters gaming with Fortnite 💥 We’ll take it apart.

Plus: Rumors broke that Trump will announce a USA 210,000 Bitcoin strategic reserve, if re-elected. We’re witnessing a pivotal moment in the intersection of crypto and politics.

Let’s dive in. 🦈

⏱️ Read time: 5min

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📚 My Top 6 Reads

• Polymarket: The Truth Machine. By Marc Baumann. Link

• What is Old is New Again.By Gergely Orosz. Link

• A Pivotal Moment for Crypto.By George Kaloudis. Link

• Prediction Markets: Bottlenecks and the Next Major Unlocks.By 1kx. Link

• Getting LLMs and AI agents on-chain (audio). With Scott Dykstra. Link

• Bitcoin miners seek deals with AI companies.By Financial Times. Link

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✨ Web3 & Consumer

Doodles coming to life

NFT project Doodles has released the official trailer of ‘Dullsville and the Doodleverse’, directed by Burnt Toast, with music by Pharrell Williams and produced by Golden Wolf.

• The movie is part of a broader campaign that includes storytelling, games, and community-building focused on non-Web3 users.

Zooming in:

• It features Lil Wayne as Captain Stoke, Lil Yachty as Breakfast Bot, Coi as Deysi, and Swae Lee as Thirsty.

• The animated experience is set to have an immersive premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, followed by a global release.

Why it matters: Doodles is moving beyond traditional NFT collectibles with ‘Dullsville and the Doodleverse’, creating an immersive universe with animation, music, and interactive experiences.

Be smart: Doodles intellectual property (IP) beyond simple collectibles in search of new revenue streams.

Beyond NFT: Launched in October 2021, Doodles is a collection of 10,000 NFTs, known for its colorful and playful artwork.

• In January 2023, Doodles acquired the animation studio, Golden Wolf, which enabled it to expand its content offerings, tell richer stories, and connect with its audience on a deeper level, solidifying its position as a web3 entertainment company.

• It also introduced Doodle 2 on Flow blockchain, transforming Doodles from static collectibles into dynamic, customizable avatars and incorporating elements of gamification.

• Doodles has engaged in several high-profile collaborations including Casio, CAMP, Crocs, and Shopify.

By the numbers:

• Doodles’ NFT has a market cap of $71M with 9,463 unique holders.

• The floor price surged to 2.09 $ETH by 24.4%, following the release of the trailer.

The big picture: Blue chip NFT collections are struggling to stray relevant and make money by building IP brands, moving away from royalties and mints. Pudgy Penguins did it with toys and gaming.

More Web3 Highlights:

• 💸Crypto commerce:Helio’s major update to Solana Pay on Shopify lets millions of merchants accept hundreds of tokens and enjoy fast, low-fee crypto transactions. New features include stablecoin payouts, NFT discounts, auto off-ramping, memecoins, and loyalty programs to enhance the buying experience. Link

• 👟Roblox first: Vans launches Vans World 2 on Roblox, offering a first look at its new shoe, the Mixxa, before its real-world debut. This virtual activation aims to engage young consumers and boost brand presence amid declining sales. Link

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🌎 Crypto & Macro

Blackrock: Bullish on Bitcoin

This week, Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, moved the markets by saying on CNBC that Bitcoin is:

• "Digital Gold"

• "Legitimate financial instrument"

• "Protection against countries debasing their currency"

• “An instrument of hope”

• “One of the asset classes we all look at”.

Read his full quote here.

Why it matters: Blackrock is the world's largest asset manager with $10.6 trillion AUM.

Zooming in: It launched a Bitcoin ETF, with $17B AUM, and led a $47M investment round for Securitize, the leader in tokenizing real-world assets, earlier this year.

Punchline: Crypto is now officially legitimized. More big names will follow. Gradually, then suddenly.

More Crypto Highlights:

• Trump to announce a USA 210,000 Bitcoin strategic reserve. Bitcoin = the new gold standard? Link

• Grayscale Investments has launched a Decentralized AI Fund to provide accredited investors exposure to AI protocols in the crypto ecosystem. The fund includes assets like Bittensor, Filecoin, Livepeer, Near, and Render. Link

• Indian crypto exchange WazirX was hacked for over $230M, primarily in SHIB and ETH, with Elliptic attributing the attack to North Korean hackers. The breach affected a multisig wallet, leading to a temporary halt in withdrawals and the sale of stolen funds on Uniswap. Link

• Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warns against voting solely for "pro-crypto" candidates, a day after a16z founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz support Donald Trump. Link

• Former President Donald Trump has chosen Senator J.D. Vance as his VP running mate for 2024, highlighting Vance's support for Bitcoin and crypto-friendly policies. This move signals a strategic embrace of crypto to court voters and reflects a significant shift from Trump's previous skepticism towards digital assets. Link

🎙️ Podcast Highlights

Episode: Transforming media and food with Web3

In our latest podcast episode, we had the pleasure of hosting Zack Guzman, founder of Trustless Media & host of Coinage. Trustless Media is a company that builds media outlets with co-ownership by the audience.

Key Takeaways:

• Decentralized Collaboration: The DAO Co-op model fosters decentralized decision-making and engagement, enhancing content quality and audience loyalty.

• Creator Independence: Web3 offers creators a direct connection to their audience, reducing dependency on traditional media platforms and allowing for more authentic and engaging content.

• Ownership & Influence: Web3 shifts the power dynamic, enabling audiences to co-own media outlets and actively shape content.

Listen to it on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts.

🎮 Gaming

Versace enters gaming

Versace has partnered with Fortnite to bring its new Versace Mercury to virtual and gaming space and reach new audiences and create unique experiences.

What you should know:

• The Versace Mercury sneaker is integrated into one of the most popular Fortnite Creative maps called "Murder Mystery."

• Players can explore an archaeological dig site on the map, competing to find the digital sneaker for exclusive in-game rewards and recognition.

• Streamer Agent 00 hosted a Twitch stream to celebrate the launch, where viewers had the chance to win a real pair of Versace Mercury sneakers.

• Versace previous virtual space activations: Snapchat AR experience and Bitmoji collection.

Be smart: Fortnite has a massive, diverse player base, including younger audiences luxury brands struggle to reach.

Why it matters: By integrating products into the game, Versace gains exposure to a new generation of customers. It also offers a unique experience for players, testing the potential of virtual commerce for luxury brands and highlighting the growing importance of virtual worlds for brand expression, customer engagement, and commerce.

More Gaming Highlights:

• Web3 gaming project, Pixelverseis integrating the popular Pudgy Penguins NFT character into its Telegram mini-game, joining other well-known crypto characters. Link

• Eden Games launches Cosmic Royale, a blockchain-integrated kart racing game in Animoca Brands' Motorverse, with exclusive beta access and rewards for Moca ID holders. Link

• Zeebit is launching the first Web3 microgaming platform on Solana's Sonic SVM, offering casino and PVP games with on-chain verifiability. Link

• Arbitrum L3 blockchain Anomaly has launched its AI gaming network on Telegram, offering ChatGPT-based mini-games with rewards and referral points. Link

• Balenciaga has teamed up with the racing game Need for Speed Mobile to offer both in-game and physical merchandise. Link

🧠Artificial Intelligence Highlights:

• Trump allies are drafting an AI executive order aimed at boosting military AI, removing regulations, and shifting U.S. policy if the party returns to power, contrasting with Biden's cautious approach. The move signals potential changes in AI regulation ahead of the 2024 election. Link

• Tech giants like Apple, Anthropic, Nvidia, and Salesforce used transcripts from 170,000 YouTube videos without creators’ permission to train AI models, sparking ethical concerns and potential PR fallout despite the dataset being public through EleutherAI. Link

• Mangointroduced an AI-generated campaign for its Teen line's Sunset Dream collection, showcasing images created digitally from real garment photos, a first in fashion. Link

• Meta's new AI model, 3D Gen, converts text into 3D images in under a minute, outperforming existing solutions by 3-10x. This technology could transform creative fields like game design and VR. Link

• Google DeepMind's new research on robot navigation uses Gemini 1.5 Pro's large context window to help robots understand and navigate environments from human instructions. Link

🪙 Regulation Highlights

• The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the participants in its stablecoin issuer sandbox, incl. Standard Chartered Bank and Animoca Brands. The sandbox, launched in March 2024, aims to facilitate stablecoin development while ensuring risk control and regulatory compliance. Link

• SEC approves Grayscale and ProShares Ethereum ETFs for NYSE listing, Trading Begins July 23.Link

• SEC drops a three-year investigation into Stacks with no action. Link

💰 Money Moves

New funds & grants:

• Arthur Hayes’ Maelstrom fund has announced a new Bitcoin grant program, offering up to $250K per developer to advance the technical development and innovation of Bitcoin-native DeFi. Link

• Anthropic and Menlo Ventures have launched a $100M ‘Anthology fund’ to support early-stage AI startups. Link

• Marc Andreessen granted $50K to Truth Terminal, an AI agent on X, for upgrades and projects after it personally requested funding. Link

That’s all for now, folks. Thank you for being part of the journey.
Talk soon,

– Marc

PS: Follow me on LinkedIn and X for shorter insights.

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