Hello 👋

Welcome to the 36th edition of Sfermion’s Collider where we highlight the latest & greatest news in the world of web3 and gaming!

Weekly, we aim to drop a curated list of the most exciting stories & updates that we believe are enabling the emergence of the metaverse.

If you're looking forward to reading this edition of Sfermion’s Collider, please don't forget to subscribe below, share within your network, and follow Sfermion on Twitter to get the latest! Check out our Seam (💰) bio here :)

Web3 Updates

Court hands Grayscale win in long-running suit against SEC (link)

Court sides with Uniswap over class action suit (link)

SEC Delays Spot Bitcoin ETF Decision for All Applicants Including BlackRock, Fidelity (link)

SEC brings first NFT enforcement action in case against podcast studio (link)

Treasury, IRS release proposed crypto tax reporting rules (link)

Mastercard, Binance to end crypto-card partnership in September (link)

Twitter Obtains License for Cryptocurrency Payments (link)

Lufthansa Launches NFT-Based Loyalty Program on Polygon (link)

Polygon Labs unveils Chain Development Kit to develop and connect Ethereum Layer 2s (link)

OpenSea introduces ERC-7498 as a new standard for NFT redeemables (link)

Mercado Libre, Circle expand into Chile with USDC (link)

Indian Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Firm Will Explore Blockchain Platforms and CBDCs (link)

LimeWire continues Web3 journey with ‘creator studio’ on Polygon (link)

MoonPay launches venture arm to invest in web3 infra, gaming and fintech (link)

AI Updates

Google DeepMind Launches SynthID, a Groundbreaking Watermarking Tool for AI-Generated Images (link)

New York Times, CNN and Australia’s ABC block OpenAI’s GPTBot web crawler from accessing content (link)

Nvidia’s stock closes at record after Google AI partnership (link)

The US Air Force wants $5.8B to build 1,000 AI-driven unmanned combat aircraft (link)

Snapchat is expanding further into generative AI with ‘Dreams’ (link)

Meta launches own AI code-writing tool: Code Llama (link)

OpenAI names Scale AI ‘preferred partner’ to fine-tune GPT-3.5 (link)

Figma introduces Jambot, an AI assistant widget for its whiteboard platform, FigJam (link)

Animoca’s Ed-tech Subsidiary Rolls Out AI Tools for Educators (link)

Gaming Updates

Marques Brownlee and BasedAF (💰) Team Up for Studio Build in Fortnite (link)

The Pokémon Company made $11.6B from licensed products in 2022 (link)

Epic's First Run offers 100% revenue share to game devs in exchange for exclusivity (link)

EA Sports FC Explores Uncharted Territory: NFTs and Web 3 Integration (link)

NFL Rivals Game Now Lets You Buy NFTs on iOS and Android (link)

Cradles (💰), available on Steam, is a time-traveling MMO that is set to launch an open beta phase on September 10th (link)

Immutable (💰) and Meta X Studios Form Partnership (link)

Walmart launches new digital and metaverse offerings (link)

Walt Disney Pictures VFX workers file for unionization (link)

Cocone, a Japanese immersive entertainment studio, enters U.S. gaming and entertainment market with avatars and digital fashion (link)

Grand Theft Auto 6: Everything You Need to Know (link)

Retro Gaming Console Atari 2600 Is Making a Comeback (link)

Research & Interesting Reads

Pantera Capital | A Positive Black Swan

Andrew Chen (a16z Gaming) | Creator Economy 2.0: What we’ve learned, why it’s hard, and what’s next

Konvoy | Copyright Law and GenAI Content

Ben Roy | Ethereum is a Game Environment

Bankless | Your Brain on Crypto

StoryCo | The "Storyline" from StoryCo - Issue 004

Binance Research | Ethereum’s Rollups are Centralized. A Look Into Decentralized Sequencers

GameDev Reports | InvestGame: The gaming investment market in H1 2023

Naavik | Zynga Dives into Web3 with Sugartown

Blockchain Gamer | Top 10 most anticipated blockchain games

NFT Drops & Updates

IZUMO (💰) | SAI #5 Free Mint Claim is available until September 6th, 8am PST. Don't miss your chance to win his autographed physical art! (link)

IZUMO (💰) | SAI #4 Free Mint Claim is available until August 31st, 8am PST. Don’t miss your chance to win 1 of 3 limited-edition autographed physical pieces! (link)

Cryptoys and Disney partner to launch digital toys called “Mickey and Friends” priced at $39.99. The 15-piece collections features different "skin designs" and levels of rarity. (link)

Maui Strong: Hawaii Artist Teams Up With Decrypt for NFT Fundraiser (link)

Digital friends platform Fini & Base team up for final on-chain summer mint (link)

Introducing Igloo, a brand by Pudgy Penguins (link)

Bright Moments | Introducing the CryptoPatagonians of Crypto Citizens. Buenos Aires, Argentina. November 2-5, 2023 (link)

Karim Rashid, Beeple, and more artists collaborate to create the world’s most beautiful digital analog clock. Available for purchase now and while supply lasts. (link)

Notable Raises

Hugging Face Receives $235M Investment Raising Value To $4.5B (link)

Modular secures $100M to build tools to optimize and create AI models (link)

Vessel Capital emerges from stealth with $55M fund focused on web3 infrastructure and apps (link)

Qualiti.ai Secures $6.5M Seed Funding to Ensure Software Engineers Never Need to Test Again (link)

Interactive drama developer Scriptic has raised a total $6.2M in additional seed funding, including an investment from Sony Innovation Fund. (link)

Web3 marketing firm DeForm raises $4.6M in seed funding (link)

Wand.app raises $4.2M to scale its AI-powered creative tool for artists (link)

FirstMate, a startup aiming to equip NFT creators with digital storefronts, raises $3.75M in Dragonfly-led round (link)

Stroom Network Raises $3.5M to Launch Bitcoin 'Liquid Staking' on Lightning (link)

NPCx raises $3M for better game character mocap (link)

Tako Protocol, a startup building an open social recommendation layer for web3 social, raises $2M pre-seed from UOB Ventures and others (link)

Mo & Andrew's Curated

Web3

Brian Armstrong 🛡️

@brian_armstrong

1/ I'm sharing the 10 ideas I'm most excited about in crypto right now. If you're building something in crypto or thinking about doing so - check it out.

We’re building lots at Coinbase, but we don't have time to tackle everything. So I figured I'd share these. Bear markets are…

4,207

4:32 PM • Aug 30, 2023

nic 🌠 carter

@nic__carter

i dont think people realize just how quickly fintech frontend / stablecoin backend apps have proliferated. faster & cheaper than ordinary remittance channels. plus self custody USD if desired. and here we have half of fintwit saying crypto never found a killer app

825

4:10 PM • Aug 30, 2023

Andrew "The Metaverse Guy" Steinwold

@AndrewSteinwold

More positive news on the regulatory front for crypto!

Kathryn Haun

@katie_haun

On the Uniswap dismissal today

Today’s decision out of SDNY highlights the extent to which some in the federal judiciary appreciate the uncharted territory on the applicability of securities laws to an asset class as broad as crypto. For example, the judge:

*Recognizes…

7

2:05 AM • Aug 31, 2023

Fini

@finidotworld

Dark forces are closing in. There’s FUD at every turn. But the fightback starts now.

Join the Base Wars this Thursday, August 31st

It’s the final drop of Onchain Summer and it’s going out with a BANG

182

5:14 PM • Aug 28, 2023

amanda

@amanda0x

1/ @friendtech has reached 400k+ transactions across 32k unique buyers. And their mobile app wasn’t even listed in an App Store.
dune.com/cryptokoryo/fr…

Will hundreds more Web3 mobile apps follow in their footsteps? My take below

dune.com

Friend.Tech

Blockchain ecosystem analytics by and for the community. Explore and share data from Ethereum, Bitcoin, Polygon, BNB Chain, Solana, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, Fantom and Gnosis Chain for free.

87

8:43 PM • Aug 18, 2023

anotherblock

@anotherblock_io

new drop alert

JUSTIN BIEBER - COMPANY
live on base 7.09.23//7.sept.23

stay tuned for the full drop details

our next music rights collectible, don’t miss it

due to an uncertain regulatory environment, US minters will be geo-blocked for this drop

29

7:05 PM • Aug 31, 2023

NFTs

Bored Ape Yacht Club

@BoredApeYC

Happy Mutant Monday and thanks to everyone who celebrated 2 years of MAYC with us. Special thanks to @AppliedPrimate, @mutant_cartel, @notthreadguy, and Ferg for throwing a party only fit for Mutants.

1,647

12:00 AM • Aug 29, 2023

SuperRare 💎

@SuperRare

Curation Staking is live on Rare Protocol!! Now is the time to be 1st to stake in the artists (or collectors!) you .

Staking will transform the SuperRare user experience. For details, read the thread below (including a “how to” video), & get started here:…

Rare Protocol

@rare_protocol

The moment is now!! Rare Protocol has officially launched and Curation Staking is live on Ethereum mainnet. Read on to learn more, or head to Rare.xyz to get in early and be the first to stake on your favorite artists (or collectors!)

139

4:46 PM • Aug 29, 2023

Foundation 🌐

@foundation

A solo show.
An exhibition.
A seasonal collection.

Introducing Moments.
A new way to create events in Worlds.

↳ foundation.app/blog/worlds-me…

334

6:52 PM • Aug 29, 2023

RTFKT

@RTFKT

Cryptokicks iRL dispatch initiating

Shipping will begin in the first week of September.

1,113

9:21 PM • Aug 30, 2023

doodles

@doodles

Color the world with joy on your next walk outdoors!

The limited edition Doodles @Crocs collection is coming next week.

24-hr OG Holder presale beginning Aug 28th and 48-hr public sale goes live Aug 29th.

859

5:13 PM • Aug 25, 2023

Pudgy Penguins

@pudgypenguins

Introducing Igloo, a brand by Pudgy Penguins.

The debut collection for Igloo is now live. More information below.

439

8:09 PM • Aug 25, 2023

IZUMO

@IZUMOofficial

[SAI by IZUMO #5: Limited-Time Claim]

Art drawn by KEI @keigarou is now available as a free NFT.
Don't miss your chance to win his autographed physical art!

sai.izumo.com/mission/5

Available until September 6, 8 am PST
#SAIbyIZUMO

sai.izumo.com

SAI by IZUMO - KEI

KEI's illustration. The SBT is distributed from Sep 1-Sep 7 (JST).

197

2:03 AM • Sep 1, 2023

Keepers

@keepers

Congratulations to the first 500 Keepers – this is just the beginning

Now that our inaugural mint is closed, you have until tomorrow morning PST to custom configure your avatar before a unique configuration is randomly assigned

182

2:04 AM • Aug 29, 2023

Wu Blockchain

@WuBlockchain

In the past week, the transaction volume of the entire network NFT market was only 73.2 million US dollars, the lowest in the past two years. In addition, in recent weeks, the number of NFT trading users on the entire network has fluctuated around 50,000, which is also the lowest…

72

2:07 AM • Aug 29, 2023

Gaming

Marques Brownlee

@MKBHD

Still insane to me that @BasedAF_ created our ENTIRE STUDIO as a playable Fortnite map. The internet goes so hard sometimes

8,142

6:58 PM • Aug 28, 2023

Othersidemeta

@OthersideMeta

Next month we release the open beta for LoTM — and there’s much more to come. We’ve partnered with @farawaygg and are building a major expansion in Unity. But we want to get an early version in the community’s hands now so you can play and provide feedback while we keep building.

Othersidemeta

@OthersideMeta

Otherside has some visitors. And not all of them are happy to see you.

1,166

10:05 PM • Aug 30, 2023

STEPN | Public Beta Phase VI

@Stepnofficial

Happy International Dog(e) Day

Embrace the meme and join the raffle to win co-branded @ownthedoge x @PleasrDAO x #STEPN Genesis Sneakers on Ethereum!

Read on for the details on how to get your hands on these beauties! [1/5]

#InternationalDogDay #DogDay

557

12:46 PM • Aug 26, 2023

Random

unusual_whales

@unusual_whales

BREAKING: Mitch McConnell once again has just frozen during questioning.

This is the second time this month this has happened on camera.

11K

5:33 PM • Aug 30, 2023

💰 = Sfermion Portfolio Company

Curated by @mopat1214 + @AndrewSteinwold

If you enjoyed reading this edition of Sfermion’s Collider, please subscribe below, share within your network, and follow Sfermion on Twitter to get the latest! Check out our Seam (💰) bio here :)

Note: All information in this Newsletter regarding any company or investment is the sole responsibility of the company providing the information. Sfermion, and its affiliates, makes no representation or guarantee to the accuracy or completeness of the information presented. Sfermion is not responsible for any information contained in any links outside our websites and official social accounts.

Sfermion does not offer investment advice/analysis and makes no recommendations on how to act. Information regarding any company or investment in this Newsletter, including any links to information on our website, should not be viewed as an endorsement or recommendation of that company or investment for any purpose whatsoever. Any person receiving this Newsletter is encouraged to consult with their own financial advisor, or relevant personnel, before making any investment decision.