Hey, it’s Marc. ✌️

Your 100% signal on Web3 this week:

• SEC wants innovation “sandbox” for on-chain trading
• BlackRock and Citadel plan to launch a new national stock exchange
• Coinbase introduces Smart Wallets
• Robinhood acquires Bitstamp: Challenger to Coinbase?
• Kraken’s upcoming IPO
• Nvidia’s power play with a new AI chip
• Consensus 2024 highlights
• Christiano Ronaldo’s failed NFT sale
• The Sandbox raises $20M

Let’s dive in. 🦈 | Read time: 4min

📚 Top 5 Reads

• Food and Drink Brands in Gaming. By GEEIQ. Link
• How We’re Thinking About AI. By Variant. Link
• The state of AI in early 2024. By McKinsey & Company. Link
• A marketplace for algorithms. By Jack Dorsey. Link
• LLMs and AI agents get on-chain (audio). By Chain Reaction. Link
• Pudgy Penguins: A Blueprint for Community-Led Brands. By Marc Baumann. Link

Boson Protocol – Real Web3 Commerce, with Web2 UX

As the next bull market emerges, so does a new crypto-rich, Web3-savvy demographic, who are demanding authentic Web3 commerce experiences. Uniquely, with Boson, you can sell physical things as NFTs, with a slick Web2 experience while running on a fully decentralized Web3 backend. No more Web3 washing required!

✨ Web3 & Consumer

Consensus 2024: All Eyes on Regulation🇺🇸

Consensus 2024, one of the biggest crypto & web3 conferences, wrapped up in Austin last week. It was highly political.

Highlights:

• U.S. Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, advocated for recognition of decentralized currencies like Bitcoin, followed by a statement on Trump verdict on X. 
• A16z Crypto's Chris Dixon announced a $25M donation to Fairshake PAC to support pro-crypto candidates.
• Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest, stated that the approval of ether ETFs is due to crypto becoming a significant election issue
• The CEO of Ripple ($45M contributor to Fairshake PAC) anticipates more crypto ETFs, including for XRP, Solana, and Cardano

Zooming in: Fairshake PAC is a pro-crypto political action committee that aims to support political candidates who favor responsible regulation of the crypto industry

Beyond Regulation: Goldman Sachs' Mathew McDermott emphasized tokenization's potential and called Bitcoin ETF approval as the "big psychological turning point.”

Punchline: The mood at Consensus 2024 was optimistic, driven by ETH ETF approval, FIT21 and a heating political debate in the US.

More on Web3:

• Animoca Brands introduced Japanese NFT marketplace, SORAH. SORAH is designed to cater to the unique preferences and regulatory requirements of the Japanese market, offering a curated selection of NFTs from local creators and brands. Link
• Coinbase introduced Smart Wallets. It allows onboarding with simple passkeys and enables gasless experiences. Link
• Magic Eden unveils new analytics pages for Bitcoin Runes, with chart integration into collection pages. It’s the leading marketplace for Runes, next to OKX and Unisat. Link
• Christiano Ronaldo sells only $10k NFTs in latest drop. Again: We’ve moved beyond simple NFT drops. Link

🌎 Crypto & Macro

Where there’s smoke💨 there’s fire🔥

• Backed by BlackRock and Citadel Securities, TXSE Group plans to launch the Texas Stock Exchange in Dallas
• Armed with a hefty $120M in funding, TXSE plans to file for US SEC registration later this year, commence trading in 2025, and unveil its initial listings by 2026.

Why it matters: These are of the largest asset managers in the world.

The TXSE is challenging NYSE and NASDAQ and could potentially run on a distributed ledger infrastructure, potentially Ethereum or Base.

Larry Fink (CEO of BlackRock) has been talking about tokenization for the last 2 years. And the market is huge.

Only last year:

• J.P. Morgan started tokenising funds as a proof-of-concept Link
• Standard Chartered investment arm launches tokenization platform, “Libeara”. Link
• Singapore Central Bank started tokenization pilots. Link
• UBS is testing a tokenized fund on Ethereum. Link
• Swift started tokenization experiments. Link

By the numbers:

• AB Bernstein projects $5 trillion in assets could be tokenized over the next five years.
• Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimated tokenized assets could reach $16 trillion by 2030.

Meanwhile: SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce wants to create a "sandbox" for issuing, trading and settlement of securities on a distributed ledger.

In the same months it approved an Ethereum ETF. 

Punchline: Where there’s smoke there’s fire. Usually.

More on Crypto:

• Robinhood, the popular stock and crypto trading app, is set to acquire Bitstamp, one of the oldest crypto exchanges, for $200M in 2025. This is major news and part of a bigger consolidation trend. Link
• Kraken in talks for pre-IPO fundraising round, IPO expected in 2025. They’ve been preparing for this for years. Link
• Eigenlayer surpasses $20BN in TVL, becomes 2nd largest DeFi protocol. Link
• The Sandbox raises $20M in convertible debt at $1B valuation, $SAND spikes. Link
• Biden vetoes pro-crypto bill. Link

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🎮 Gaming

• Mythical Games announced a partnership with Pudgy Penguins to build an icy new mobile party game. Link

🧠AI

Nvidia’s Power Play 💪

• Nvidia unveiled its next generation of AI chips, just months after announcing its previous model.
• It’s the next iteration of high-bandwidth memory and will be released in 2026.

Not just any chip:

• Nvidia plans to release a new AI chip every year with ‘Blackwell Ultra’ in 2025, and ‘Rubin’ in 2026, following ‘Rubin Ultra’ in 2027.
• Rubin architecture, featuring 8-Hi HBM4 stacks, is expected to debut with R100 CPUs.
• Rubin strengthens the market position of Nvidia as it has an estimated 80% market share in AI chips.

Why it’s important: By bringing powerful AI training capabilities to the edge, Rubin can enable a wider range of devices and applications to utilize advanced AI models.

This enables new possibilities in areas like autonomous vehicles, robotics, and healthcare.

Meanwhile: Nvidia flips Apple as stock hits $3 Trillion market cap amid AI boom. Link

🏗️ Start-ups & Tools to watch

• Certhis: The all-in-one Web3 Infrastructure to democratize brands' Web3 adoption to create new interaction, communication, with their community. Link *

*partner of FiftyOne Insights

💰 Money Moves

• Babylon: Bitcoin staking project raises $70M led by Paradigm. Link
• Chainge: Secures $13M investment from GEM Digital and Alpha Token Capital. Link
• Twelve Labs Inc: Nvidia co-led a $50M round for an AI startup focused on video search. Link
• The Sandbox: Metaverse gaming platform has raised $20M at $1B valuation. Link

That’s all for now, folks. Stay tuned for more on Memecoins and the big crypto consolidation.

Talk soon,
– Marc

PS: Follow me on LinkedIn and X for shorter insights.

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