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Mo Patel
Welcome to the 53rd 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 :)
Trump nominates Paul Atkins to replace Gary Gensler at SEC (link)
Trump Names David Sacks as White House AI and Crypto Czar (link)
Trump Nominates Pro-Crypto Hedge Fund Manager Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary (link)
Pennsylvania Legislators Introduce Bill to Invest in Bitcoin and Crypto ETFs as a Hedge Against Inflation (link)
Former Facebook exec says Diem (Libra) stablecoin fell victim to a political kill (link)
Bitwise Acquires Ethereum Staking Provider Attestant and Its $4 Billion in Staked Assets (link)
Franklin Templeton Expands $410M Money Market Fund to Ethereum Blockchain (link)
Mastercard and JPMorgan Link Up to Bring Foreign Exchange on the Blockchain (link)
Tether Unveils New Platform to Simplify Asset Tokenization for Businesses and Nation-States (link)
Tether to Shutter Euro Stablecoin as Key MiCA Deadline Looms (link)
Deutsche Telekom to Pilot Bitcoin Mining Scheme Using Surplus Energy (link)
Charles Schwab Plans to Offer Clients Direct Crypto Investments (link)
Ethereum Layer 2 Network Linea (by Consensys) Token Plans (link)
ENS Labs Unveils Namechain Layer 2 Launching in 2025; ENS Token Jumps 10% (link)
Bitcoin Flips Silver, Becomes Eighth Largest Asset by Market Cap (link)
BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF Surpasses Its Gold ETF in Net Assets (link)
Rumble Announces Bitcoin Treasury (link)
MicroStrategy acquires another 15,400 bitcoin for $1.5B, taking holdings to 402,100 BTC (link)
FairShake PAC Secures $103M for 2026 Midterm Elections After Ripple Donation (link)
Xion Foundation (💰) officially launches $XION and $12.6M Anti-Grant Grant Program with Thrive Protocol (link)
Beam Foundation, Aethir, and Metastreet (💰) Unite to Launch Tactical Compute, a $40M AI Compute Project (link)
Coinbase adds Apple Pay onramping support (link)
Coinbase Acquiring Utopia Labs Team to Accelerate Onchain Payments (link)
WikiLeaks Turns to Bitcoin Blockchain to Protect Assange’s Afghan War Logs (link)
Pump.fun Restricts UK Access (link)
Bluesky Hits 15M Users, Pushing Back Against X (link)
Hawk Tuah Memecoin Plummets Amid Controversy (link)
Nifty Islands (💰) announces $ISLAND TGE for December 17th (link)
Mythical (💰) Partners With FIFA for Rivals Game Launching Summer 2025 (link)
Echelon Prime and B3 (💰) partner for gaming chain solution (link)
BreederDAO (💰) Rebrands to Sovrun (link)
VanEck Invests in Web3 Gaming Startup Gunzilla (link)
YGG (💰) Onchain Guilds Launch on Base (link)
Moonray (💰) Integrates with Coinbase’s Base for Enhanced Web3 Gameplay (link)
Bitget Wallet Secures $20M to Support Telegram Mini-Apps (link)
Sky Mavis Slashes 21% of Workforce (link)
Embracer Divests Easybrain to Miniclip in $1.2B Deal (link)
Modern Times Group to Acquire Raid: Shadow Legends Maker Plarium for $620M (link)
Game7 | State of Web3 Gaming 2024 Report (link)
Mobile Gaming Expected to Generate $98.7B Globally (link)
Nazara Nets $100M to Accelerate Strategic Acquisitions and Expansion Plans (link)
Nazara Partners With Lysto to Launch New Layer-1 Growth Protocol (link)
Next Up for Netflix Games: An AI-Powered Stardew Valley Alike and Dual-Screen Gaming (link)
Pokémon TCG Pocket Reportedly Surpassed Over $200M in First Month (link)
Ubisoft Discontinues Development on XDefiant (link)
Elon Musk’s xAI Raising Up to $6B to Purchase 100,000 NVIDIA Chips for Memphis Data Center (link)
Business Spending on AI Surged 500% This Year to $13.8 Billion, Says Menlo Ventures (link)
Google DeepMind Open-Sources AlphaFold 3, Ushering in a New Era for Drug Discovery (link)
Meta Reportedly Planning $10B Global Undersea Cable Network (link)
Meta to Build $10B AI Data Center, Largest Globally, in Louisiana’s Richland (link)
Japan Earmarks Extra $9.9B for Chip Industry Subsidies (link)
Amazon announces Nova, a new family of multimodal AI models (link)
Key Leaders Behind Google’s Viral NotebookLM Are Leaving to Create Their Own Startup (link)
DeepMind’s Genie 2 Can Generate Interactive Worlds That Look Like Video Games (link)
OpenAI and Anduril Team Up for U.S. Military’s National Security AI (link)
Google | Veo and Imagen 3: Announcing new video and image generation models on Vertex AI (link)
Bezos Backs AI Chipmaker Vying with Nvidia at $2.6B Value (link)
Republicans Keep Control of US House in Power Sweep (link)
Trump’s Doge-Led Effort with Musk and Ramaswamy Aims to Cut $2.7T in Waste (link)
Trump Vows Additional 10% Tariff on China, 25% Tariffs on Canada and Mexico (link)
Google Faces Lawsuit Over Alleged Advertising Monopoly (link)
Corporate Security Concerns Rise After UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting (link)
Buy Now, Pay Later Giant Klarna Files for US IPO (link)
BlackRock buying credit investment manager HPS Investment Partners in approximately $12B deal (link)
Jersey Mike's sandwich chain is acquired by private equity firm Blackstone for $8B (link)
Walmart Closes $2.3B Acquisition of Vizio (link)
Wonder Announces Acquisition of Grubhub, at enterprise value of $650M (link)
Capri and Tapestry Abandon Plans to Merge, citing regulatory hurdles (link)
Spirit Airlines Files for Bankruptcy Amid Industry Turmoil (link)
Amazon Haul Discount Storefront Debuts to Take on Temu and Shein (link)
Amazon sellers are flocking to TikTok Shop despite looming US ban (link)
Trump Chooses Billionaire Astronaut Jared Isaacman to Run NASA (link)
Judge rejects Tesla's attempt to revive Elon Musk's $56B pay package (link)
The Rivian-Volkswagen Joint Venture Deal Is Now Up to $5.8B (link)
Oura Valued at $5B Following Major Investment Deal (link)
EU Fines Meta $843M Over Marketplace Classified Ads (link)
Donald Trump Jr. Opts Out of White House to Join 1789 Capital (link)
Stocks Could Trade All Night on Proposed 24/7 Exchange (link)
Spotify Takes Aim at YouTube in Battle for Podcasts (link)
a16z crypto | Big Ideas in Crypto 2025 (link)
a16z crypto | DeBanking Explained (link)
a16z crypto | Understanding Stablecoins & Banking History (link)
a16z crypto | Seven Things to Help Seize the Web3 Opportunity (link)
Naavik | Off the Grid Takes on the Shooter Market (link)
Delphi | Gaming Year Ahead 2025 Report (link)
Placeholder | David and Goliath: How Web3 Can Compete in AI (link)
Accelxr/1kx | AI Agents: Research and Applications (link)
Collab+Currency | Crypto x Consumer AI (link)
Grayscale | When You Give an AI a Wallet (link)
Binance | Exploring the Future of AI Agents in Crypto (link)
Pivot Global | DePIN: The Beginning of the End for Traditional Infrastructure (link)
6MV | DePIN: An Evaluation Framework (link)
Collab+Currency | Growing Consumer DePIN (link)
Galaxy | Bitcoin Layer 2 and the Modular Future (link)
Pantera | 1,000x: Pantera Bitcoin Fund (link)
Binance | The Fed, Interest Rates, and the Economy: A Primer (link)
Konvoy | The Collectibles Market: A $142B Opportunity (link)
The Most Popular VTubers: Everything You Need to Know (link)
Magic Eden officially launches $ME, massive airdrop for platform users (link)
Pudgy Penguins Expands to Solana With New $PENGU Token Launch Plans (link)
Nike's NFT Arm RTFKT to Shut Down After Launching Final Collection (link)
Shaq Agrees to $11M Settlement in Solana NFT Lawsuit (link)
Kraken to close NFT marketplace, shift focus to other projects (link)
Adidas and STEPN (💰) Move from NFTs to Physical Products with Planned Sneaker Drop This Month (link)
Yuga Labs acquires Tokenproof tech team to boost NFT R&D (link)
McDonald's McNugget Buddies NFT Collection (link)
Peter Schiff Launches Bitcoin Ordinals Collection (link)
Anthropic Raises an Additional $4B from Amazon, Makes AWS Its Primary Cloud Partner (link)
Hut 8 Raises $500M to Buy Bitcoin as Strategic Reserve Asset (link)
Crypto-AI startup 0G Labs raises $40M seed and receives $250M token purchase commitment (link)
Writer Raises $200M at $1.9B Valuation (link)
Play Ventures Launches $140M Fund to Invest in Gaming (link)
$115M Crypto Fund Plans Latin America Investment (link)
Merak Capital Launches $80M Fund to Support MENA Games Startups (link)
USDXMoney, stablecoin infra, Secures $45M New Financing at $275M Valuation (link)
Avalanche9000 launches on testnet with $40M for developers building on the network (link)
Yurts Raises $40M to Be the DOD’s AI Chatbot (link)
Crypto Casino Monkey Tilt Raises $30M Series A Led by Pantera Capital (link)
Justin Sun invests $30M in Trump World Liberty Financial (link)
How Wordware’s $30M Seed Round Could Disrupt the Entire AI Development Industry (link)
SayGames to Invest $30M in Hybrid Casual Studios Over Next Three Years (link)
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) Platform Appcharge Secures $26M (link)
Alluvial Raises $4.3m Strategic Round (Total Funding to $22.5M) to continue developing their enterprise staking standard (link)
StakeStone secures $22M investment round led by Polychain Capital, with strategic investments from Binance Labs, and OKX Ventures (link)
Pantera Capital raises $20M to back Telegram-linked blockchain TON (link)
DWF Labs Launches $20M Memecoin Fund (link)
Ruckus Games Raises $19M for Suburban Invasion RPG Shooter with Disruptive Multiplayer (link)
Finland’s Bit Odd, Former Supercell leads, Raises $18.2M with Eccentric Approach to Mobile Games (link)
Zurich-Based Wyden Raises $15.9M (link)
Noble Closes $15M Series A to Fuel Growth of Digital Asset Issuance Platform (link)
Neon Raises $14M to Build Direct-to-Consumer Stores for Games (link)
Union Labs, a Connector of Blockchains, Raises $14M in Series A Round (link)
Deblock Raises $13.3M in Fresh Funding for Crypto Wallet Startup (link)
Agentio $12M Series A Announcement (link)
Bitfinity Raises $12M to Bridge Bitcoin and Ethereum with New Layer 2 Mainnet (link)
Spexi Secures $11.5M Series A Round for Decentralized Drone Imagery Network (link)
Balance.fun's node sales have successfully secured over $10M in institutional investment after previously completing a $30M financing round (link)
Kratos Gamer Network (KGeN) (💰) Raises $10M, Valuation Jumps to $500M (link)
Earos Raises $10M from Lemon Ltd to Build Decentralized AI Infrastructure (link)
Brighty Raises $10M to Enable Crypto Payments in the Real World (link)
Animoca Brands Raises Additional $10M for Mocaverse (link)
Top App Games Raises $10M in Funding (link)
Interlace Raises $10M in Series B1 Funding (link)
Influur Raises $10M Series A and Introduces New AI Tool (link)
Ennoventure Raises $8.9M for AI-Driven Cryptographic Anti-Counterfeit Technology (link)
Brevis Announces $7.5M Seed Round to Shape the Future of Verifiable Computing (link)
Shuman Financial raises $7M to scale Euro stablecoins (link)
Bitcoin ecosystem project BLIFE Protocol completes $7M in financing, with Animoca Brands and others participating (link)
TAC raises $6.5M to provide TON and Telegram users in-app access to EVM applications (link)
Avant Protocol raises $6.5M in seed funding for Ethena-like platform (link
Rise Secures $6.3M in Series A Funding for its Hybrid Payment Infrastructure (link)
Talus Network raised $6M led by Polychain, plans TikTok-linked 'AI dating experience’ (link)
FanDuel Founders Launch Crypto Casino BetHog with $6M Seed (link)
Metalstorm Developer Starform Raises $6M (link)
Suilend raises $6M for DeFi on Sui (link)
Shinami Raises $5.65M in Seed Funding to Be 'ConsenSys for Move' (link)
Cat Labs Lands $5.4M to Take on Digital Kingpins with New Tools for Law Enforcement (link)
Former Robinhood employees raise $5M for crypto-AI startup OpenLayer (link)
GAIB Raises $5M Pre-Seed to Build the First Economic Layer for AI Compute (link)
TrueMarkets Raises $4M from Public NFT Sale, Attracting Vitalik Buterin as Buyer (link)
Framework Ventures Leads $3.5M Seed Round for Web3 AI Firm Eidon (link)
Sekai Raises $3.1M to Revolutionize Storytelling with AI and Blockchain (link)
Moongate Secures $2.7M in Seed Funding to Create Web3 Engagement Layer for Real-World Activations (link)
Ex-Revolut duo raise $2.3M USD for blockchain bank account Bleap (link)
Macro
US National Debt is absolutely exploding higher, increasing by $850 billion in just the last 3 months. In the past 5 years we've seen a 56% increase. The Federal Government is borrowing from our future to spend money like drunken sailors today.
Crypto
Hong Kong's largest digital bank, ZA Bank, launches crypto trading.
NFTs
the Doodles community is about to get a lot bigger
Gaming
SYNERGY SEEDS ARE HERE
Ronin
AI
We’re entering the next phase of Vana: with the creation of the Vana foundation, we're gearing up for the upcoming launch of Vana mainnet, a bold step forward in accelerating the AI data revolution.
Beginner's Guide to AI Agent Landscape
Other
💰 = Sfermion Portfolio Company
Curated by @mopat1214 + @AndrewSteinwold
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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.
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