Welcome back Chain reaction.
Last week, we talked about infinite pessimism in the crypto market. This week, we’re talking parties and tattoos, booze and fun.
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Chance to escape
It’s no secret at this point that many viewers are watching the crypto crash with glee, laughing as tokens drop and NFT volumes shrink. The crypto industry has managed to make a lot of consumer enemies throughout this bull run – with detractors highlighting the investment’s aggressive use of energy, addictive profile Cryptocurrencies and how NFTs became “MLMs for Guys” – as justifications for their distaste.
With the bull market over, it could be a good time here to take an introspection on how investors’ web3 vision for the web could give consumers more to get excited about. I was skeptical, but something tells me that the crypto industry is about to grow wiser than ever.
This week, NFT netizens poured into Times Square in New York. Expensive images are found on giant billboards, crypto parties flourish and a host of less-rich collectors suddenly find a way to double up and down. My co-host Anita had the opportunity to visit NFT NYC in person and offer some thoughts below, but in some ways the positive vibes suggest an industry is going from growth mode to survival mode.
Of course, the survival version of the NFT world looks a bit different. At this week’s event, the Bored Ape Yacht Club hosted a festival with Future, LCD Soundsystem and Amy Schumer performing. Tame Impala made headlines about Kevin Rose’s Moonbirds event where token holders can get an owl tattoo on the spot. The NYPD broke NFT parties with tokens. One project hired dozens of protesters holding placards that read “God hates NFT” to stand outside their event. An NFT startup hired a Snoop Dogg impersonator “Doop Snogg” to walk around their event as a tacit endorsement.
In the end, it’s no secret that the NFT market is filled with loads of bullshit, and any bear market can and should restore sanity to what’s left behind, but the lines The focus is looking a bit blurry in the NFT land.
In a way, it feels like the wealthy collectors of NFT space are flying into space as the world they set for a crisis. So-called blue-chip projects with more than 10 ETH exchanges, venture funds and significant trading volume have shown surprising resilience in the face of a downturn despite falling values. of the underlying cryptocurrencies on which they are based, but the overall NFT project exchange has enjoyed great success as less affluent collectors looking for liquidity escape where they can, struggling in the long run.
newest group
We start this week’s episode by unleashing some controversy provoked by none other than the Godfather himself – Elon Musk. Musk and his companies, SpaceX and Tesla, being sued by a Dogecoin owner for allegedly inflating the value of the cryptocurrency, which has since collapsed.
It’s time for this week’s NFT NYC, a crypto conference that draws influencers, investors, celebrities, and the like to New York (more on that below from Anita, who is pushing the city to speak to the NFT community). We took a deep dive into the NFT market itself and what could be driving the massive growth of the NFT space even in such dire market conditions for crypto and technology in general. We’ve rounded up this week’s news with two DAO-related disasters that could bode well for the future of this trendy, but undeniably messy, governance structure.
Music and visual artist Latasha joined us on this week’s podcast to talk about how NFTs have helped her claim ownership and make a living from her creative work. She shared her vision behind Zoratopia, a festive experience she has hosted at crypto events across the US, as community lead at the NFT platform Zora .
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according to money
Where startup money is moving in the crypto world:
- FalconXa digital asset platform for institutional investors, announced a $150 million Series D round at an $8 billion valuation led by GIC and B Capital.
- NFT Collection Project doodles attracted an undisclosed amount of funding from Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six.
- Solana-based NFT market Magic Garden raised $130 million in a Series B round co-led by Electric Capital and Greylock Partners, bringing its valuation to $1.6 billion.
- Prime Trusta crypto and fintech infrastructure startup, raised $100 million for Series B from investors including FIS, Fin Capital, and Kraken Ventures.
- Margin trading protocol not allowed OpenLeverage won a strategic investment of an undisclosed size from Binance Labs.
- NFT-based comedy and meme engine production company Terrible peta project from the producers of the Silicon Valley TV show, has raised ~$4 million in funding led by First Round Capital, XYZ Capital, and Moment.
- Astariaan NFT liquidity provider, closed an $8 million seed round from investors including True Ventures and Arrington Capital.
- Endstatea sneaker-focused NFT platform, has brought in $5.5 million in seed funding from investors including Archetype and Castle Island.
- Algorithmic exchange rate protocol Get a raise raised $1.56 million for a seed round led by ParaFi.
- Afropolitan raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding from Balaji Srinivasan and other investors to build a digital nation for Africans and the African diaspora.
this week on web3
Hey, it’s Anita, reporting (pretty much) live from NFT NYC this week. Everyone who lives in Manhattan, myself included, has been surrounded by a large number of degens excited to kick the downturn this week. You can listen to this week’s podcast to hear my thoughts on all of that, but I wanted to address another question here: Is the crypto community practicing what they preach?
There were a lot of complaints on Twitter from people queuing for hours to get tickets to NFT NYC. Even the people who were speaking on the boards had to wait in line with all the event attendees, they told me, which seemed to surround three city blocks.
I lived in New York for a while, so I’m not easily shaken by a long line, but it got me thinking about the irony of the whole affair. NFTs and their related technology can provide easy authentication and identity verification. NFT members like to cite examples of events as a key use case for the technology, which they say can create administrative burdens like checking people into a conference much more efficiently. much. So where is that technology at this week’s conference?
I am certain that organizing a crypto event involves creating order out of chaos in a way that is beyond my means, so I am not pointing out the organizers of NFT NYC or any other person. anyone else in particular. But the lines at NFT NYC raised a bigger question in my mind about the contradiction between what the crypto community speak is the future of how the crypto community actually works. Like, why are live webinars such an important part of getting to know people in web3? Haven’t we all passed the point where we need to breathe each other’s air in order to feel the human connection?
Based on what I’ve heard over the past year from much of the web3 community, I can expect that we’ll all be hanging out with our close friends in the metaverse 24/7 by now. It seems like crypto conferences themselves offer a huge opportunity for web3 enthusiasts to really take advantage of the technology they claim will change everything about the way we live. So far, it seems the opportunity has largely been missed.
TC + analysis
Here are some of this week’s crypto analysis that you can read on our TC+ subscription service (written by TC’s Jacquelyn Melinek):
Crypto’s emphasis on community could lead followers off the cliff
The idea of the “family” culture that so many businesses promote is making its way deeper into the crypto world as communities are formed on a sometimes toxic, confusing stance to staunchly support. projects they invest in. Don’t get me wrong, some parts of the crypto community are great – I’m part of a few myself – but when it’s abused it can lead to blind people leading the way. for the blind.
Crypto Founders Face Falling Valuations, Dragged Trades Amid Market Volatility
As the crypto market continues to plummet, founders in the space are struggling to retain investors who are currently trying to mitigate their risk and back out of funding rounds. The market is moving into a VC-friendly environment, but not all founders are happy with the way they are being treated as investors return to the driver’s seat.
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