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#385: Pudgy Penguins' Content ➡️ GIF Onramp

Pudgy Penguins’ content superpowerAlthough I’m on X for an unhealthy amount of time every day, I don’t use other social media apps often. However, I still use Instagram 1-2x per week to keep in touch with friends by sharing memes and of course, to watch the latest Reel from the Pudgy Penguins account. While reading through the comments of a recent post, I realized the brand’s GIF strategy has not only paid off, but it has broadened and deepened the fan base in a unique way. Pudgy Penguins has...

#384: The Strategy in TokenWorks’ NFTStrategy

TokenWorks’ NFTStrategyI’m back from my trip, hope you didn’t miss me too much! 😘 It feels like I’ve missed a lot, and at the same time being away has helped me reset my filter for what’s interesting while the vibes are up.One development that has piqued my interest over the past few weeks has been TokenWorks’ NFTStrategy product, which has led to this chart and hubbub among certain circles.Looks like a chart that screams crime or ponzi, but upon further inspection, is the result of the elus...

#383: The Rise of the In-House Influencer

I missed last week’s edition (bad TPan!) so I’m making up for it with an earlier one this week. I’ll be out next week, don’t miss me too much 😘Creating a new role in the era of attention, mindshare, and storytellingTo put it lightly, getting a sliver of attention in today’s world is hard. Like really hard. Announcing a new round of funding? Several other companies are sharing similar news as you on the same day, all overshadowed by the 689th DAT (digital asset treasury) company announcement....

#382: Colosseum's Accelerator Demo Day

Earlier today attended Colosseum’s Demo Day for their 3rd Accelerator cohort. Colosseum is a hackathon, accelerator, and venture fund focused on the Solana ecosystem.The Demo Day featured the 10 companies that went through their 2-month accelerator program. Without further ado, here they are in the order they presented:TrepaNote: I am an angel investor What is it? ‘Precision’ prediction markets. Stake your prediction for clout and cash. Why is it interesting? Prediction markets in their domin...

#381: The Grand Integration of Prediction Markets

The rise, sustained relevance, and expansion of prediction marketsIt was only about a year ago when Polymarket was off to the races, with market volume peaking thanks to the 2024 US presidential election. Fast forward a year later, volume has dropped but held impressively as other categories have expanded to fill the void.The prediction market platform has added new features to complement the topical expansion. Recently the platform introduced a breaking news tab, highlighting markets that ha...

#380: 4 Ways Pudgy Penguins Has Become the Face of Crypto

Pudgy Penguins = The Face of Crypto?If you were to ask the average person what they think of when they think of ‘crypto’, they’d probably say Bitcoin. And for ‘web3’, probably NFTs. But what if the first thing they thought of was something friendlier, cuter, and cuddlier? That’s what Pudgy Penguins is trying to do, with the goal of becoming the ‘face of crypto’. It might not make sense to natives or people who care about the tech. However, for onboarding new consumers, it’s certainly more dig...

#379: 3 Articles That Made Me 🤔

3 framework expanding articlesIn the last week, I’ve come across several good reads that have expanded the way I think about consumer behavior and the next chapter of building at the intersection of crypto/web3. With more accommodating regulation, chances are we’ll see these themes accelerate what this space will look like in the coming months and years.Pop Mart, Not Poker: Gambling For WomenDespite the clickbait headline, John Wang published an article about the rise of ‘softcore gambling’, ...

#378: The SEC's Project Crypto

The SEC announces Project CryptoToday the SEC announced Project Crypto, an effort to support crypto innovation in the US. Although the signs were there (eg: ETP in-kind redemptions, dropping lawsuits and investigations against Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Immutable, Yuga, Kraken, Gemini, Consensys, OpenSea, Uniswap and countless others), this is a move that not just reverses the damage done over the past several years, but productively sets the stage for the next chapter of building in cryp...

#377: Everything is a Launchpad

Everything is a launchpadAs crypto prices continue to grind up (hoping we all can go home to our relatives this holiday season and not be made fun of for once, jk) another theme has emerged: things are coming onchain! Yes, this is obvious and has been happening for a looooooooong time, but more as experiments. As more practical use cases are being discovered and repackaged for broader adoption, our jpegs, art, fiat currencies, financial assets, and content are all gaining legitimacy as they e...

#376: Wallets: The New Class of Superapps

Wallets as the next superappsWhen we think about wallets, both in the traditional and digital sense, we still think of them as a tool that holds financial assets. For the physical wallet, they hold cash or credit cards. For the digital wallet, they hold digital cash, cards, alternative assets (eg: crypto), and goods like NFTs or tickets.Speaking of wallets, here’s a meme that’s been beaten to death for all the ETH holders out there 😂 Fortunately not true anymore!However we’re seeing these wa...

Anime.com | Your Source for Latest Anime Updates & News

Explore your favorite anime series in detail—full cast lists, characters, staff credits, and episode info—plus real-time updates from industry insiders so you never miss breaking news. Only on Anime.com.

#375: Azuki Launches Anime.com

Happy early 4th of July for those in the US! Web3 doesn’t stop though 🫡Anime.com launches in BetaAlthough I’m not a huge anime fan (I did grow up on Naruto and Bleach, and have watched Attack on Titan, all very good!), it’s hard to ignore the massive global fan base and cultural movement:Crunchyroll, an anime streaming service and Sony subsidiary, has 17 million paid subscribers as of MayThere are an estimated 1 billion anime fans globally outside of Japan and ChinaThe anime industry grew to...

#374: The Crypto Advertising Supercycle

The Crypto Advertising SupercycleIn crypto, there is the concept of a 4-year cycle, where the boom and bust phases, and corresponding prices, are attributed to the halving of Bitcoin supply emission rates.As crypto and Bitcoin reached mainstream acceptance, a new buzzword concept came along: the ‘supercycle’. With institutions, countries, and companies warming up to the idea that Bitcoin could be a store of value and currency, Bitcoin would break the standard 4-year cycle and grow into someth...

#373: 7 Ways Stablecoins Will Improve Traditional Incentive Structures

The past several weeks have been filled with positive news around stablecoin adoption:Senate passes GENIUS stablecoin bill, providing a regulatory framework for stablecoin adoption and usage in the US. It still needs to be voted on by the House 🤞Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, IPO’ed 2 weeks ago at $31 and recently tapped $200 with a chart outperforming 99.99% of memecoinsRetailers like Walmart and Amazon are actively looking into offering their own stablecoinsTech companies such ...

#372: How Rekt Sold 180,000 drinks in 17 Minutes

Alright folks, there’s a bunch of topics into today’s piece, too many interesting things going on 😉“I’m bullying you with knowledge. It’s good for you!”Rekt sells 180k drinks in 17 minutesA couple weeks ago, I wrote about REKT and the introduction a new subcategory of memecoin: brand coins. Rekt’s public push was ahead of the launch of their newest drink flavor Ship Rekt in collaboration with OpenSea. How did the drop work?Ship Rekt dropped in the form of NFTs on OpenSeaThere were two collec...

#371: Getting Loud with Loud

Are you seeing the terms ‘loud’, ‘loudio’, or ‘$loud’ pop up in your X feed lately? Is your favorite mercenary content creator talking about a ‘Loud leaderboard’? Well get ready to mute those terms, or let the chaos of the Loud experiment commence!A small team introduced Loud, a tokenized attention experiment. We already have memecoins which are essentially tokenized attention, but this one is arguably a purer form of this.What is Loud?Earlier this week, 0x_ultra shared an overview of Loud an...

#370: REKT and Brand Coins

Before we get into it, I want to share this hilarious picture of my cat Nara I took last week. Despite the look of terror she has, I promise she’s a happy cat! She just isn’t the biggest fan of being carried…😅Alright, on to the serious stuff.REKT and brand coinsOver the past years, we’ve seen the memecoins proliferate to a point where there are subcategories of them. From my piece on memecoins last year, we’ve seen these terms pop up along with others that I didn’t mention below (celebcoins,...

#369: Believe and the Proliferation of Token Launchpads

If you’ve tuned in this week, you may have heard of Believe and all the projects and companies that launched on it this week. As the buzz around Believe took off, the term “ICM” (Internet Capital Markets) started making its rounds again, reminding me of the chaotic weeks post-TRUMP memecoin back in January. I mean, remember my pieces on VINE and jellyjelly (holding at $48M and $35M market caps which, all things considered are respectable)? It’s round 2 for the ICM movement and it’s off to a s...

#368: Leveraging Playbooks for Growth

Happy $100k Bitcoin…again! The milestone may have lost some luster compared to the first time back in December 2024, but it still brings a sense of joy and excitement. Sorta like how your favorite holiday comes around every year. Anywho…PlaybooksOne trend that’s been popping up on my radar has been publicly published playbooks that share best practices from ecosystems, platforms, and apps for various audiences they’re trying to attract.Ronin’s Growth PlaybookRonin (a gaming-focused blockchain...

#367: MegaETH's Crossy Fluffle Game

MegaETH walks the talk with Crossy FluffleThese days, new blockchains highlight how fast they are with TPS (transactions per second) to show what they’re capable of. However, nothing beats showing vs. telling. Last week MegaETH launched Crossy Fluffle, inspired by the popular Crossy Road mobile game. Like Frogger, players have to get their Fluffle bunny character as far as possible in 1 minute. The way the MegaETH team showed it was also notable:Each move is a transaction, reflected in the lo...

#366: Defi App's Path to Becoming the Operating System for Defi

Over the past several years of my journey in crypto and web3, one trend has been clear and encouraged me to remain optimistic despite all the ups and downs: Consumer apps are improving at a rapid pace on many non-technical dimensions: accessibility, onboarding, GTM, design, and UX. And time has passed, we’re within striking distance of the web2 apps and user flows that have been hyper-optimized thanks to a multi-year lead. When Shreddy from Defi App reached out to me a few months ago to see i...