Sfermion's Collider #52

Sfermion is an investment firm focused on backing the founders building the metaverse.

Hello 👋

Welcome to the 52nd edition of Sfermion’s Collider where we highlight the latest & greatest news in the world of crypto, gaming & entertainment, consumer trends, AI, macro, and more!

Bi-weekly, we aim to drop a curated list of the most exciting stories & updates that we believe are enabling the future of tech and 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 :)

Crypto Updates

Optimism Foundation Agrees to Give Kraken $425M of OP Tokens in Layer-2 Deal (link)

Anchorage Digital, Bullish, Galaxy Digital, Kraken, Nuvei, Paxos, and Robinhood Partner to Introduce Global Dollar Network (link)

Circle and Hong Kong Telecom Provider HKT to Collaborate on Blockchain-Based Customer Loyalty Solution (link)

Trump’s Liberty Financial Stablecoin Project Announced (link)

Major League Soccer and Sui Team Up for MLS Quest (link)

Cleveland Cavaliers Launch New Rewards Program (link)

Coinbase-Based Agent AI Powers Crypto Transactions, Says Brian Armstrong (link)

Visa Celebrates Coinbase Partnership to Offer Instant Crypto Deposits (link)

Crypto.com Aims for 2025 Launch of Own Stablecoin, ETF Listings, Stocks, and US Expansion (link)

$5.7T Banking Giant UBS Launches First Tokenized Fund on Ethereum (link)

StraitsX Leverages AvaCloud and Avalanche to Simplify Cross-Border Payments in Southeast Asia (link)

OpenSea (💰) teases a “new OpenSea” is coming in December 2024 (link)

Stacks Launches Nakamoto Upgrade for Bitcoin Layer-2s (link)

FTX Settles Suit Against Bybit for $228M (link)

Florida’s CFO Says State Holds About $800M in Crypto Investments (link)

Tether Reports $2.5B Profit in Q3, Holds Over $100B of US Treasuries (link)

River Protocol Acquires Llama to Strengthen On-Chain Governance for its Decentralized Communication Products (link)

ConsenSys Plans Layoffs Amid Crypto Market Challenges (link)

Crypto Exchange Kraken Cuts Staff (link)

Gaming Updates

Immutable (💰) Receives Wells Notice Over 2021 Token Sale (link)

Immutable (💰) Introduces Telegram Integration for Blockchain Gaming (link)

Mystery Society (💰) web3 game goes live on Google Play Store (link)

Pudgy Penguins and Mythical Games (💰) are launching “Pudgy Party,” a AAA mobile game expected in 2025 (link)

Epic Games’ Fab Marketplace for Digital Assets Goes Live (link)

Elon Musk Revealed as Top 20 Diablo 4 Player (link)

AI Updates

OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Search, Competing with Google and Perplexity (link)

LinkedIn Launches Its First AI Agent to Take on the Role of Job Recruiters (link)

Meta Releases an Open Version of Google’s Podcast Generator (link)

NVIDIA and xAI Plan to Build World’s Largest AI Supercomputer in Memphis (link)

Meta AI Gains Access to Reuters News Content in Multi-Year Deal (link)

T-Mobile and OpenAI Ink $100M AI Deal (link)

U.S. Regulators Block AWS Nuclear Power Deal to power AI endeavors (link)

Anthropic Teams Up With Palantir and AWS to Sell Its AI to Defense Customers (link)

MIT Debuts a Large Language Model-Inspired Method for Teaching Robots New Skills (link)

Spot AI Introduces First Video AI Agents for the Physical World as it Nears $100M in Funding to Date (link)

Google Debuts New Code-Generated AI Tools in Q3 2024 (link)

Mistral Launches a Moderation API (link)

Other Updates

Donald Trump Wins Presidential Election Against VP Kamala Harris, Securing 300+ Electoral College Votes and Winning All Seven Swing States (link)

Robinhood Enters Betting Arena with Presidential Election Wagers (link)

Jeff Bezos Addresses Trust in The Washington Post (link)

Federal Reserve Announces November 2024 Rate Decision (link)

New York Stock Exchange to Extend After-Hours Trading (link)

Boeing Raises $21B in Capital Hike to Boost Liquidity (link)

China’s Economic Stimulus Measures Highlight Concerns Over Debt (link)

Nvidia Is Joining the Dow Jones Industrial Average (link)

Founder of TikTok Owner ByteDance Jumps to Top of China’s Rich List (link)

Research & Interesting Reads

Forbes | Web3 Infrastructure M&A: The Tough Road to Exit (link)

Pantera | Crypto’s Role in the AI Revolution (link)

Nansen | Future of GameFi in Web3 (link)

Delphi | DeAI IV: The Agentic Economy (link)

A Gentle Introduction to DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) (link)

The Crypto Game: How to Play and Win (link)

MrBeast Investigation (link)

Sentient AI Models - Monetising Open Source AI (link)

Notable Raises

Crypto Venture Funding Hits $860M in October, Highest in Over 6 Months (link)

Alphabet’s Self-Driving Unit Waymo Closes $5.6B Funding Round (link)

Apple Will Invest $1.5B in Globalstar to Expand Satellite Services (link)

Robot Brain Startup Physical Intelligence Raises $400M At $2B Valuation, Led by Jeff Bezos, Lux Capital, and Thrive Capital.

Bret Taylor’s (OpenAI Chair & ex-CEO @ Salesforce) customer service AI startup just raised $175M at 4.5B Valuation (link)

Aramco’s VC Arm Commits $100M to AI Startups (link)

Peter Thiel's Founders Fund invests in Infinex's Patron NFT sale as total amount raised hits $67.7M (link)

Ethereum-Based Solar Project Glow Raises $30M in Funding Round Led by Framework Ventures and USV (link)

Privacy Blockchain Project Nillion Raises $25M to Expand Blind Computing (link)

Ellipsis Labs Raises $20M from Haun Ventures to Launch Verifiable Finance Blockchain Atlas (link)

Bitcoin Rollup Citrea (developed by Chainway Labs) Aims to Make BTC a Programmable Asset With ZK Proofs, Raises $14M Series A led by Founders Fund (link)

Gelato secures $11M in series A funding, adds Kraken’s Ink to rollup platform (link)

AI Data Collection Startup Sapien Raises $10.5M Seed Funding Led by Variant (link)

OKX Ventures, The Open Platform Launch $10M Telegram Growth Hub (link)

PumpBTC Raises $10M Seed Funding to Build a New Standard in BTC Yield Vaults with BTC-fi (link)

VLayer Secures $10M Pre-Seed to Build Verifiable Data Infrastructure on Ethereum (link)

bitSmiley, a suite of DeFi protocols on Bitcoin, raises $10M (link)

Pharos Closes $8M Seed Round Led By Lightspeed Faction and Hack VC (link)

Capsule Corp Labs, a platform specialised in the creation and development of utility NFT, Raises €7.3M in Seed Funding (link)

Pond, a crypto-AI startup building a decentralized AI model layer, has raised $7.5M in a seed funding round led by Archetype (link)

Ethereum scaling infrastructure startup Spire Labs raises $7M in seed funding (link)

Shuttle Labs Raises $6M to Build Genius, the Binance on-chain: Secure, Self-Custodial, and Decentralized (link)

Naptha AI Raises $6M to Lead the Evolution of AGI Towards a Web of Trillions of Cooperating Agents (link)

Web3 gaming infrastructure Alliance Games completes $5M Series A funding (link)

Phylax Systems completes $4.5M seed round funding for security protocol, led by Nascent and Figment Capital (link)

81Ravens raises $4.5M for Paravox Web3 arena shooter, led by Digital Hearts Holdings and Gree Ventures (link)

OpenOrigins secures $4.5M (led by Galaxy Interactive) to combat AI deepfakes with blockchain tech (link)

Nitro Labs Secures $4M (led by Lemniscap) For Termina: Pioneering Solana VM Network Extensions (link)

Magma to Build Out Liquid Staking on Monad and Restaking with Etherfi Following $3.9M Seed Fundraise (link)

Web3 gaming platform GameBeast completes $2M in financing, led by Tido Capital and others (link)

Mo & Andrew's Curated

Macro

unusual_whales

@unusual_whales

BREAKING: Donald Trump has won the US Presidency and is the 47th President of the United States, per Decision Desk HQ

Brian Armstrong

@brian_armstrong

This seems like the first election where new media has fully flipped traditional media.

Long form podcasts, X/social, prediction markets etc deciding this election. Also holding traditional media accountable. Happened gradually then suddenly.

Brian Armstrong

@brian_armstrong

We get the U.S. election results in 6 days, and no matter how you slice it, it will be the most pro-crypto congress ever.

But we're not slowing down post-election.

Today I'm announcing that @coinbase has committed another $25M to support Fairshake PAC, which they will use…

David Sacks

@DavidSacks

The major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) operate on free licenses of public spectrum in exchange for requirements to serve the public interest. They no longer do, and this is an obsolete model anyway. The spectrum should be auctioned off, with the proceeds used to pay down…

Bitcoin Archive

@BTC_Archive

JUST IN: VanEck predicts #Bitcoin will become global reserve asset worth $3m and central banks will make a 2% allocation by 2050.

+16% compounding return for 26 years.

There is no second best.

Eric Balchunas

@EricBalchunas

$IBIT took in more cash than any other ETF in the world over the past week. This is out of 13,227 ETFs, which includes $VOO $IVV $AGG etc. It's so hard to beat those veteran Cash Vacuum Cleaners, even for a week, especially for an infant ETF (3mo-1yr old)

The Kobeissi Letter

@KobeissiLetter

Warren Buffett In 2024:

1. Sold over $100 billion of Apple, $AAPL, stock

2. Halted Berkshire Hathaway, $BRK, stock buybacks

3. Built largest cash balance in company history, at $325 billion

4. Holds a record $288 billion of US Treasury bills

5. Now owns $93 billion more…

Frank

@frankdegods

if you are in crypto

and you're not checking this all day

you're missing out on the new internet capital markets

Ayesha Tariq, CFA

@AyeshaTariq

The US Equity Market remains extremely concentrated... almost at the highest level in 100 years.

Crypto

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

I would like to wish our great Bitcoiners a Happy 16th Anniversary of Satoshi’s White Paper. We will end Kamala’s war on crypto, & Bitcoin will be MADE IN THE USA! VOTE TRUMP! #Bitcoin #FreeRossDayOne

Senator Cynthia Lummis

@SenLummis

WE ARE GOING TO BUILD A STRATEGIC BITCOIN RESERVE

Kasper Vandeloock | bangkok

@KasperLoock

An investigation into @MrBeast's crypto activities and how he profited over $23M from a multitude of scams, shady deals & his network

in collaboration with @hxnterson @angelfacepeanut @somaxbt @rfparson

loock.io

MrBeast Investigation — loock.io

INTRODUCTION MrBeast, one of the most popular YouTubers with over 320 million subscribers across his main and side channels, has recently faced public scrutiny over various controversies. Allegations...

Anthony Pompliano 🌪

@APompliano

The central bank of Argentina opened an "art exhibit" yesterday that includes bitcoin mining equipment actively mining bitcoin.

This is the first central bank in the world I am aware of to be openly mining bitcoin.

The future is coming very fast.

Viktor Bunin 🛡️🇺🇸

@ViktorBunin

Crypto won. Next we're going to:
- Free Ross
- Fire Gary
- End Operation Chokepoint 2.0
- Pass common sense stablecoin legislation
- Enable in-kind redemptions
- Turn on staking in ETH ETFs
- Shutter SEC lawfare investigations
- Provide regulatory clarity for crypto

nic carter

@nic__carter

The guy who manages a centibillion of Tether’s reserves is about to be in charge of Trump’s cabinet decisions. Tether truthers galactically, dynastically BTFO

Lyle Pratt

@lylepratt

“I have hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of exposure to Bitcoin…and it will be billions.” — @howardlutnick CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald

Bitcoin Magazine

@BitcoinMagazine

JUST IN:

MicroStrategy’s #Bitcoin holdings surpass $20 billion.

They are now over $10 billion in profits

maria 🐸

@MariaShen

We @electriccapital analyzed 110k+ developer profiles to understand crypto devs geographically.

Asia is now #1 for crypto devs. The US is losing market share.

Crypto impacts every state in the US -- crypto should be non-partisan.

Here’s what the data shows & why it matters:

0xKawz

@0xKawz

After careful consideration, I along with the @timedotfun team have decided to migrate the product to Solana.

I want to take the time to write this post about my thoughts on Solana, the Ethereum ecosystem as a whole, and why we made this decision.

First - I want to make it…

time.fun

@timedotfun

Timefun is migrating to @solana!

We are bullish on Solana and what it enables for our platform. We believe we'll reach our full potential there.

You'll still be able to use our platform during the migration process, but please read the below post for important details

wassielawyer （哇西律师）

@wassielawyer

1/ Foundations for Web3 projects - what they are, what they are not and why you even use them.

In crypto law, the 'foundation' is one of the least understood and most expensive products sold to founders.

Oftentimes, it feels like most lawyers themselves do not understand it.

wassielawyer （哇西律师）

@wassielawyer

Nothing like reviewing the absolute fucking dogshit some lawyers sell to founders to motivate me to write my monthly legal thread to remind people I'm a real lawyer.

I will be spending my afternoon demystifying one of the most expensive products lawyers sell.

Foundations.

TylerD 🧙‍♂️

@Tyler_Did_It

Pump Fun fees and revenue have soared during the AI meta

They are approaching 10k SOL/day ($1.66M) in daily fees in October.

And total revenue has reached 973,000 SOL ($161.5M).

Of which they've sold 500k SOL ($78M) according to @lookonchain

The house is winning, big time

NFTs

OpenSea

@opensea

A new OpenSea is coming. December 2024.

opensea.io/waitlist

$ME

@MEFndn

Tokenomics for $ME will be published on 11/18. Cheers.

jpegs.fun

@jpegsdotfun

Launch and trade NFTs instantly.

Today we are announcing our partnership with @TensorFdn.

With the integration of TensorSwap, jpegs will flow free, unleashing a new era bonded by curves and secured by AMMs.

1/2

Pudgy Penguins

@pudgypenguins

The growth continues.

Pudgy Toys with Pudgy World are now available in 2,000 @Walgreens nationwide.

More information below.

OpenSea

@opensea

We’re thrilled to announce we’re partnering with @artblocks_io to power a new chapter for generative digital art.

Through this partnership, @ArtOnBlockchain and the team at Art Blocks will help guide OpenSea’s roadmap for creators and new product features. We’re also…

Gaming

Immutable

@Immutable

Immutable has received a Wells notice from the SEC, the latest in their de facto policy of regulation by enforcement. We received this within hours of our first ever conversation, on a timeline clearly accelerated to land before an election.

Sadly, stories like this are becoming…

IGN

@IGN

The Harris campaign's Fortnite map, Freedom Town, USA, is themed around some of Kamala Harris' campaign pledges, like tax breaks for small businesses and affordable housing, in a bid to reach gamers and younger voters. bit.ly/3Ae4iiw

Community Gaming

@CommunityGaming

Our [redacted] prediction market is coming!

Come TGE, stake your $CGX to earn credits used to make predictions on your favorite streamers, esports teams, and gaming tokens, and IRL events -- earn from your insight

Today - 🧱/🌿

@todaythegame

THE GARDEN IS OPEN

You can now all stake your seeds in the new Garden platform to earn SEED Points.

We are going to extend the one-time 5555 SEED Point bonus for staked Mythic Seeds for the next 48 hours to avoid anyone missing out.

GARDEN LINK:
staking.todaythegame.com

The Mystery Society

@InviteToMystery

The Mystery Society is now LIVE in the Google Play Store!!!

We are in open beta which means you can download the game from the store but its not available in search yet. This is part of the process with launching on Android.

So follow this link and DOWNLOAD NOW!!…

Dror Poleg 🎗

@drorpoleg

"KKR and Energy Capital Partners have agreed to invest a combined $50 billion in data-center and power-generation projects to support the development of artificial intelligence."

Other

Dennis

@dkardonsky_

Tried to make the scariest pumpkin I could think of for halloween

Christian Dean

@christiandean_

The single biggest question in the world right now is: How is Elon Musk so effective?

Marc Andreessen gives some nice personal anecdotes of what he's seen Elon do.

Hosun

@hosun_chung

Steven Bartlett will be a billionaire by 2029.

Not because he started the podcast with over a BILLION listens that got young people interested in business.

But because he cracked the code of Gen Z attention:

💰 = 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 :)

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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.

Sfermion's Collider #52

Hello 👋

Crypto Updates

Gaming Updates

AI Updates

Other Updates

Research & Interesting Reads

Notable Raises

Mo & Andrew's Curated

MrBeast Investigation — loock.io

Sfermion's Collider #52

Sfermion's Collider

Sfermion's Collider #52

Sfermion's Collider #52

Curated news from the world of crypto, gaming & entertainment, consumer trends, AI, macro, and more