Supply exceeds $310 billion. Monthly volumes run into the trillions. What began as a crypto workaround now looks more like financial plumbing.

In February 2025 Stripe acquired Bridge for $1.1B. A few months later, in March 2025, MoonPay acquired Iron, a German stablecoin infrastructure company, for a reported $100M+.

It was MoonPay’s second acquisition in just 60 days, following its $175M purchase of Helio, Solana’s top payments processor, now known as MoonPay Commerce.

The shift in focus was clear. This was not about trading apps. It was about rails.

“This is our Braintree moment,” said MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright, referencing PayPal’s game-changing leap into payment infrastructure.

The comparison was deliberate. PayPal’s acquisition in 2013 moved it up the stack. Stablecoins are entering a similar phase. The contest is no longer about who owns the wallet. It is about who owns the wiring.

The floodgates opened in July when President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, creating the first federal framework for dollar-pegged stablecoins. Within days, Bank of America’s CEO confirmed the bank is exploring stablecoin issuance. JPMorgan launched JPMD on Coinbase’s Base blockchain. Deutsche Bank, Citi, Wells Fargo, Amazon, and Walmart are all reportedly making moves. Stablecoin market cap surged past $300B.

Translation: The financial stack is being rebuilt. Quietly. Globally. With stablecoins.

And with the GENIUS Act passed and MiCA living in Europe, the window for building defensible positions is shrinking fast.

The prize? Cross-border B2B payments represent trillions in annual volume, where PSPs and Fortune 500 treasuries are finally realizing that wire transfers taking days and costing 3-5% aren’t competitive when stablecoins can settle in seconds for sub-1%.

Today, we break down why this matters, why stablecoin infrastructure is where the real value will accrue, and why the next 24 months will separate the winners from everyone else.

P.S. We spoke directly with Iron’s co-founder and CEO, Max von Wallenberg, in a recent interview to inform this piece. His perspective and quotes are included throughout.

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Why Now: The Stablecoin Moment

After a decade in crypto, we’ve watched countless promises of “mainstream adoption” come and go. And this is the first time we can say, with conviction, it’s different. 2025 was the year stablecoins crossed the chasm from experimental technology to core financial infrastructure, with 2026 confirming their place as the internet’s default settlement layer for global payments.

As of February 2026, over $310 billion in stablecoins circulate globally, facilitating more than $10.3 trillion in monthly volume (Jan 2026). But the number that matters most? Since Q1 2025, stablecoins ($140.5B adjusted volume) have been processing more volume than Visa ($43.3B). Stablecoins moved $46T in the past year, up 106% and are projected to dwarf that number.

This is a paradigm shift driven by three converging forces: regulatory clarity, enterprise adoption, and infrastructure maturity.

The Regulatory Catalyst

In July 2025, President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, creating the first federal framework for dollar-pegged stablecoins. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was explicit about the strategic intent: “We are going to keep the U.S. the dominant reserve currency in the world, and we will use stablecoins to do that.”

Later in the year, the SEC provided equally important clarity: digital dollars used for payments, fully backed 1:1 by real assets, are not securities. This removed significant regulatory uncertainty and signaled openness toward widespread institutional adoption.

Europe implemented MiCA. The Netherlands became an early focal point for licensing under the new regime. Hong Kong launched its stablecoin framework. The direction was consistent, stablecoins would be regulated as financial infrastructure.

The Enterprise Wake-Up Call

Something shifted in early 2025. Within the span of months, billion-dollar acquisitions, major IPOs, and product launches from the world’s largest banks and payment processors signaled that stablecoins had crossed from crypto-native experimentation into mainstream financial infrastructure.

As Jess Houlgrave, CEO of Reown, put it in our recent report: “We’re watching a shift happen in real time. Stablecoins aren’t fringe anymore, they’re quickly becoming the default way users expect to transact on-chain and soon millions of non-crypto native users will be using stablecoins under the hood of applications without even knowing it.”

Max von Wallenberg, co-founder and CEO of Iron, describes it as a the “PSP stamp of approval” effect: once the first major payment processors placed billion-dollar bets on stablecoins, the rest of the industry couldn’t afford to wait.

And the pace has been remarkable. The timeline from Money Movement 2.0 tells the story:

• February 2025: Stripe acquired Bridge

• March 2025: MoonPay acquired Iron

• May 2025: JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo explored a joint stablecoin

• June 2025: Circle completed its landmark IPO; Shopify integrated native USDC payments across its merchant base; Coinbase launched x402; JPMorgan launched a deposit token, JPMD; SG-FORGE issued a stablecoin; Fiserv launched FIUSD

• July 2025: Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon launched tokenized money market fund

• September 2025: HSBC expanded its tokenized deposit service (TDS); CFTC greenlighted stablecoins for derivatives; Stripe launched Tempo

• October 2025: Mastercard reportedly entered discussions to acquire ZeroHash for up to $2B; Zelle and Western Union integrated stablecoins; Ant Group launched Jovay Network; Circle launched Arc

• November 2025: BNY Mellon launched stablecoin‑reserves fund; Circle released xReserve; Japan’s first stablecoin was launched

• December 2025: A consortium of 10 European banks, including BNP Paribas and ING, formed a dedicated company to launch a euro‑pegged stablecoin; Stripe incubated Tempo.

• January 2026: Tether launched USAT; Fidelity launched FIDD stablecoin; Polygon pivoted to payments

• February 2026: MoonPay partnered with Deel on stablecoin payroll; Anchorage Digital launched a stablecoin solution; Citi picked Solana for stable‑value PoC

Within months, Amazon and Walmart began exploring stablecoins. Visa and Mastercard have both rolled out products that let users spend stablecoins through traditional payment networks, while platforms like MetaMask, Kraken, and Crypto.com now offer card-linked stablecoin spending for everyday purchases.

The pattern is unmistakable: institutional FOMO at scale.

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The Infrastructure Pain Point

Why the sudden urgency? Because traditional financial rails are inadequate for modern business.

Cross-border payments remain slow and expensive. Wires pass through correspondent banks. Settlement can take days. FX spreads and fixed fees accumulate. For firms operating across emerging markets, the friction is greater still.

Stablecoins compress clearing and settlement into a single on-chain transaction. They settle quickly and at lower marginal cost. For treasury teams managing liquidity across subsidiaries, that is a practical improvement.

Yet stablecoins do not remove banks from the equation. Fiat still requires entry and exit points. Compliance still applies. Liquidity must be monitored across currencies and chains. The blockchain may be public, but the operational layer is not.

As Max puts it: “Stablecoins are the better rail - instant, programmable global settlement. But what always breaks is fiat connectivity. That’s where the real work is.”

Infrastructure, Not Just Tokens

Iron focuses on that connective layer. It provides APIs that allow fintechs and enterprises to move between fiat and stablecoins. It offers cross-border payouts, multi-chain settlement and named virtual accounts - where incoming funds are immediately auto-minted to local currency stablecoins and delivered to users’ self custodial wallets linked to Iron.

Behind a single integration sit multiple bank relationships, licences and blockchain connections. A company can wire euros to a dedicated IBAN and receive stablecoins shortly after. It can send stablecoins and have funds arrive in a local bank account via networks such as SEPA or PIX.

Iron also supports custom stablecoin issuance in partnership with the M0 protocol. Clients can launch branded, fully reserved stablecoins with embedded compliance logic. Iron manages minting, redemption and fiat rails. Issuance becomes part of the same infrastructure stack.

The complexity is largely invisible. Each jurisdiction has distinct regulatory demands. Each bank integration behaves differently. Each blockchain has separate mechanics. Enterprises expect this to function as a unified system.

“We had to build one API that works across multiple banks and payment providers,” says Max. “You don’t realise how hard that is until you try to make it homogeneous, fast and reliable.”

MoonPay’s acquisition reflects that logic.

For years, MoonPay was synonymous with card-based crypto access. But cards don’t scale for enterprise. And enterprises don’t just need access, they need infrastructure: banking, compliance, liquidity, and local payout rails. MoonPay saw the opportunity for Iron to fill that gap.

By adding Iron’s rails and issuance capabilities, MoonPay moves from access to infrastructure.

The B2B Unlock

The killer use case for stablecoins is B2B payments.

Global corporations move nearly $23.5 trillion across countries annually, equivalent to about 25% of global GDP, resulting in $120B transaction costs per year.

Payroll provides a clear example. In 2026, MoonPay partnered with Deel to enable stablecoin payouts. Employers remain fiat-based. Workers can opt into stablecoins. Conversion, compliance and settlement are handled in the background.

Companies are more concerned with certainty than with blockchains. They want regulatory coverage, counterparty stability and operational resilience. Stablecoin infrastructure providers compete on those dimensions.

Max is explicit about the direction of travel: “Pretty much every fintech in the next 24 months will have stablecoin support. You simply can’t compete globally without it.”

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Today’s Stablecoin Landscape

The market is moving fast, and the major players are each staking out territory. Stripe, through its acquisition of Bridge and the launch of Tempo, is extending its merchant reach into crypto-native settlement. Circle is focused on issuance and the USDC ecosystem. BVNK is building enterprise orchestration tooling. And the large banks are developing token systems, though often within closed, proprietary networks.

Each solves a piece of the puzzle. But for enterprises looking to move on stablecoins, stitching together point solutions across issuance, compliance, on-ramps, settlement, and distribution means managing multiple vendors, multiple integrations, and multiple points of failure.

That’s the gap MoonPay fills.

MoonPay doesn’t do one thing best, it does everything an enterprise needs in a single stack. Consumer ramps, merchant settlement, custom stablecoin issuance, regulatory infrastructure, and deep connectivity into DeFi and crypto-native ecosystems all sit within one architecture. That means:

• Distribution: embedded across wallets, apps, and platforms with 35M+ consumers already transacting

• Regulatory infrastructure: extensive U.S. Money Transmitter Licenses, a New York BitLicense, a Limited Purpose New York Trust Charter and MiCA licensing in Europe

• Issuance: a custom stablecoin issuance stack, including integration with M0

• Agentic payments: An emerging design for AI-driven and autonomous transactions

MoonPay’s strategy is vertical integration. Consumer access, enterprise rails, issuance tooling and DeFi connectivity sit within one architecture. Few competitors offer that combination in a single stack.

EY reports that 13% of financial institutions and corporates globally currently utilize stablecoins, and 54% of non-users expect to adopt stablecoins within 6-12 months.

The question isn’t whether this will happen. The question is who will own the infrastructure when it does.

The Next Fintech Stack Will Be Stablecoin-Native

Today’s Fintechs face brutal expansion constraints.

Expanding from Europe to Latin America means negotiating new banking partners, navigating local compliance, and building country-specific payment rails. Each new region can take 12-18 months to activate.

And cross-border payments? Still stuck with 3-7% fees and multi-day wire transfers.

Max saw this problem everywhere: “What’s the glue to the traditional world?” he asks. “It always breaks at fiat connectivity.”

Stablecoins flip the model.

Instead of building relationships market-by-market, fintechs can plug into one API and unlock global coverage instantly.

The Market Is Already Moving

Max sees the demand daily: “More and more fintechs like the Nubanks of the world, even Revolut, are starting to build on top of stablecoins because you can build global payment and banking experiences on top.”

These aren’t crypto companies. They’re traditional fintechs and enterprises choosing stablecoins because the economics are undeniable.

71% of Latin American businesses and 43% of B2B transactions in Southeast Asia now use stablecoins for cross-border payments.

Globally, stablecoins accounted for about 30% of all on-chain crypto transaction volume in 2025, reaching over $4 trillion in annual transaction volume by August 2025, an 83% increase year-over-year.

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The Stablecoin Endgame

Stablecoins are the new rails of money movement.

If stablecoins become embedded in finance, they will fade into the background. Users will not think about blockchains. They will send and receive money.

The shift will be gradual: Banks will remain central and payment networks will endure, but parts of cross-border settlement, treasury management and even private issuance may migrate to tokenized fiat.

In that world, value accrues to those who connect digital tokens to the traditional system - and who enable others to issue their own. Stablecoins alone are not the moat. Infrastructure is.

MoonPay’s purchase of Iron is a wager on that premise. The tokens may be stable. The contest around them is not.

That’s it for now.

Take care,
Marc

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

This article is published in collaboration with MoonPay. As the authors, I maintain full editorial integrity and the views and insights expressed are my own, ensuring the content remains unbiased and authentic.

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For the last decade, the primary risk in digital assets was moving too early. Allocating to unproven technology. Navigating reputational exposure. That calculus just flipped. In 2025, the risk became inaction.

And here's the data that proves it.

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Today we’re publishing our 2026 Outlook. It covers

• 12 signals from 2025 that rewired the market

• 8 structural patterns reshaping how capital moves

• Our top predictions for what breaks through in 2026

• The institutional reports worth your time

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What actually happened in 2025

After ten years in crypto, 2025 was the first time I could say it with complete conviction: it’s actually different this time.

I know, dangerous words. But hear me out, because I’m not talking about price. Or retail hype. I’m talking about plumbing. This is Fortune 500 companies and trillion-dollar banks rebuilding their financial stack on blockchains into real systems: custody, collateral, settlement, tokenized cash, tokenized Treasuries.

Every major US bank is now upgrading its infrastructure. The biggest payment companies are integrating blockchain. Stablecoins turned into a geopolitical weapon for “dollarization”, and Bitcoin became a geopolitically relevant asset.

Which brings me to the question that’s been rattling around in my head since October: Are we in for a prolonged four-year cycle? Or are we about to enter a bear market? And what do executives need to focus on now?

In 2025, the world’s largest financial institutions stopped testing blockchain technology and started depending on it. This changes nearly everything about how capital will move, who captures value, and where the real opportunities sit heading into 2026.

Three developments stood out:

1. Regulatory clarity

2025 delivered something crypto has never had before. Regulatory certainty. The GENIUS Act passed on July 18th, the first federal framework for payment stablecoins. The OCC approved five national trust bank charters for digital asset companies, including Circle and Ripple.

2. A maturing infrastructure layer

The DTCC, the company that processes nearly every stock trade in America, received regulatory clearance to tokenise U.S. assets, including Treasury bonds and ETFs. SWIFT, the 50-year-old network that moves roughly $5T in payments every day, partnered with more than 30 global banks to build real-time settlement on Ethereum. These are not experiments. They are the replacement of legacy plumbing.

3. The distribution floodgates opened

Bank of America authorised its advisors to recommend digital asset allocations to approximately 70M clients. Vanguard, which spent years refusing to offer any crypto exposure, quietly reversed course. JPMorgan began accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum as loan collateral, alongside gold and U.S. Treasuries. These are the institutions that manage retirement savings, college funds, and pension assets for ordinary Americans. When they move, capital follows at scale.

🚀 A lot more is going on that we’ll tell you in our PRO briefings.

If you’re an institutional professional making decisions in this space, you’re flying blind without PRO. 35k+ executives read us every single week.And they don’t just skim headlines — they use our intelligence to make actual decisions.

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The pattern beyond the headlines

The early narrative around blockchain was fundamentally adversarial, technology built to circumvent banks, remove intermediaries, and return control to individuals. That narrative produced genuine innovation and also a decade of regulatory friction. What happened in 2025 is that the largest incumbents decided the technology was too useful to fight and too consequential to ignore.

JPMorgan now runs its own digital deposit token. A consortium including Citi, Wells Fargo, and PNC is building a shared digital currency for payments. Goldman Sachs expanded crypto lending. BNY Mellon and Citi scaled custody operations. Morgan Stanley plans to offer crypto trading through E-TRADE in the first half of 2026.

The strategic logic: whoever controls the settlement layer, the custody infrastructure, and the payment rails captures a toll on every transaction. Banks understand this better than anyone. They built those moats over decades in traditional finance. They are now rebuilding them in the new architecture, and this time, they are doing it on public blockchains.

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Three numbers you need to know:

• $33T — Stablecoin transaction volume in 2025, up 72% year-over-year. That rivals Visa’s global network. The stablecoin market now exceeds $300B in total value. Stablecoin issuers are the 7th largest purchaser of U.S. government debt. Washington didn’t regulate stablecoins because it feared them. It regulated them because they fund the deficit.

• $40B+ — Total tokenized real-world assets, up roughly 8x since 2022. BlackRock’s tokenized Treasury fund exceeded $2.5B in AUM. More than half the world’s twenty largest asset managers launched or planned tokenized products. BCG and Ripple project this market hitting $18.9T by 2033.

• $37B — Record crypto M&A in 2025, 7x the prior year. These weren’t fire sales. Coinbase paid $2.9B for Deribit. Kraken paid $1.5B for NinjaTrader. Mastercard is acquiring stablecoin firm ZeroHash. Buyers paid full price for one thing: speed-to-market. The acquisition window for established positions is closing.

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Our top 5 predictions from the report

1. The full-stack takeover accelerates. Exchanges, custodians, and wallets will continue merging into single platforms that control the entire customer journey: issuance, trading, custody, and payments. Banks will acquire crypto companies specifically for their stablecoin and compliance capabilities, not their technology. Crypto-as-a-service infrastructure will capture market share faster than any bank can build internally. The race isn’t over who has the best product. It’s over who owns the pipes.

2. 24/7 settlement becomes the baseline, not a premium. Any B2B payment platform that can’t process a transaction on a Saturday will be considered legacy infrastructure by Q3 2026. Worldpay’s round-the-clock USDC settlement on Solana has already forced the question. JPMorgan and Citi will respond by making 24/7 settlement a standard offer. The turning point will be a Fortune 100 treasurer publicly stating they walked away from a banking relationship because of weekend settlement limitations. That moment is coming.

3. Prediction markets reach $50B in notional volume. Polymarket will either IPO or get acquired by a regulated exchange. Kalshi, CME, or Nasdaq are the most likely buyers, after demonstrating sustained quarterly volume above $10 billion. The more interesting development is what the volume will be used for: corporate earnings hedges, studio box office risk, political campaign positioning. Accusations of manipulation will follow. Someone will face legal consequences. Vitalik highlighted structural issues. The category will grow regardless.

4. AI agents take control of $10B in DeFi capital. Autonomous software agents will manage more capital in decentralized finance than the top 50 individual crypto holders combined by Q4 2026. They will handle yield optimization, portfolio rebalancing, and liquidity provision as standard functions. The risk is real: a rogue agent will cause a nine-figure exploit, creating the first major AI liability legal case. Courts will not be prepared for it.

5. For the first time, token fundamentals actually matter. 2026 will be the first cycle where revenue-generating protocols outperform governance tokens and memecoins on a risk-adjusted basis. The structural mispricing is already visible: applications generate roughly 70% of total crypto sector revenue but account for only 7% of market value. As institutional capital learns to apply standard software valuation frameworks, revenue multiples, margin analysis, and competitive moats, that gap closes. Protocols with real cash flows will trade on fundamentals. If you are still allocating based on narratives, you are positioned for the last cycle, not this one.

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The financial system is being rebuilt on blockchain. The regulatory framework supports it. The capital allocation decisions that follow will be massive.

But here’s what most people miss: the biggest value won’t go to the infrastructure layer. It’ll go to whoever builds applications that own lasting customer relationships on top of it.

If you’re still waiting for proof – it shipped in 2025.

Take care,

Marc & team

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This briefing is based on the FiftyOne 2026 Outlook: The End of Crypto Ambiguity. The full report covers 12 market signals, 8 structural patterns, institutional adoption data, and specific predictions for 2026. Nothing here constitutes investment advice.

“There are only two ways to make a film today: pitch a studio and give up all the upside – or find a rich guy on a yacht. We’re building the third way.” – Marc Iserlis, Republic

Entertainment hit $2.9T in 2024, yet 96% of creators can't make a living. The global music market is a $29.6B industry, yet less than 4% of its 200M creators earn a sustainable income. While streaming revenue topped $20B, artists still earn $0.003 per play.

The industry is drowning in middlemen, trapped in 1970s payment rails, and bleeding billions to inefficient systems that add zero value.

This is why today we’re launching our most comprehensive report on “Blockchain & the new music and entertainment economy.” together with Avalanche.

And we give it out for free to all our subscribers.

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We hosted a panel with people actually building the future of entertainment: Mag Rodriguez (Even), Billy Huang (Insomnia Labs / CreatorFi), and Marc Iserlis (Republic).

Watch the Webinar

Why now?

The music and entertainment industries have a structural issue that requires a big infrastructural upgrade:

• $43B flows through music annually, but artists see only $5B. The rest disappears into a maze of intermediaries: labels, streaming platforms, rights organisations, promoters, and distributors. Plus, fan relationships are owned by platforms.

• Superfan economics are exploding: Universal Music Group's direct-to-fan business is growing 33% annually. EVEN artists earn $17 AOV per fan, 41% higher than Spotify subscriptions from 186 countries, with fans paying 14x their local streaming cost just to own something exclusive.

• The payment problem. Top entertainment companies are haemorrhaging money on payment processing that adds zero operational value. The film industry loses $71B annually to piracy alone. Cross-border royalty payments take 30-90 days while artists wait for their money. Meanwhile, stablecoins infrastructure is exploding.

Blockchain infrastructure is an answer to these and the infrastructure shift is already happening: Blockchain in media will jump from $2.68B to $48.5B by 2030 (78% CAGR).

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The use cases driving real value

These blockchain-powered models are already live and creating measurable value.

1. Music Infrastructure & Fan Monetisation is fixing the broken pipes of the music industry. Instead of waiting months for fractional payouts, artists can get paid instantly and own their fan relationships directly.

   • Key Developments:

     • EVEN is building a "Shopify for Superfandom," enabling artists to sell directly to their most dedicated fans. One artist earned $28K from just 600 fans, the revenue equivalent of over one million streams.

     • CreatorFi, built on Avalanche, provides creators with financing based on their actual earnings, not personal credit scores. It has already issued a $1M tokenised bond, allowing artists to invest in their careers without sacrificing equity.

     • 3LAU earned $11.6M by auctioning 33 album NFTs, proving the power of digital collectibles for superfans.

2. Ticketing & Live Events are using on-chain tools to eliminate fraud, cut out scalpers, and create new revenue streams. Bots account for nearly 40% of ticket traffic, with resale markups often exceeding 50%.

   • Key Developments:

     • Seedhe Maut's concert tickets were issued on-chain via Metasky on Avalanche, eliminating scalping and ensuring fair distribution.

     • Tixbase and SI Tickets use NFT-based tickets to reduce fraud, enable dynamic pricing, and create post-event value.

     • The Cleveland Cavaliers launched a blockchain-powered loyalty program with Avalanche and Uptop to reward fan engagement with real-world value.

   Read our Ticketing Report

3. Film Financing & IP Management is democratising an industry traditionally locked behind Hollywood gates. Tokenisation enables fan-funded films and fractional IP ownership, removing the bottleneck.

   • Key Developments:

     • Republic has raised over $30M from 35,000+ investors on Avalanche, allowing them to get real stakes in films through regulated security tokens.

     • Eli Roth (director of Hostel) raised $5M+ from 2,500+ fans for his new unrated horror slate, giving them co-ownership in the "next Blumhouse for goreheads."

     • KOR Protocol is building a purpose-built Avalanche Layer-1 for managing IP on-chain, empowering creators to license, remix, and monetise their work with automated, rule-based systems.

Who is building the new stack?

Avalanche is emerging as the core infrastructure layer for this shift. The key feature? Its subnet architecture allows for the creation of custom, application-specific blockchains for use cases like ticketing, loyalty, and IP licensing. This provides the speed, low cost, and scalability needed for consumer-grade applications, which is why brands like Coachella, Sports Illustrated Tickets, FIFA, and the creators of Maple Story build on it.

Here are the top vendors:

• EVEN leads direct-to-superfan infrastructure with 73% artist retention and sales counting toward Billboard charts. They've abstracted blockchain complexity while delivering premium fan experiences across 186 countries.

• Republic commands regulated entertainment investment with $30M raised and actual returns delivered. Their SEC-compliant tokenisation makes film investment accessible to retail audiences while maintaining creative control for filmmakers.

• CreatorFi dominates creator financing with proprietary credit scoring for YouTube, Spotify, and TikTok creators. Their 0-850 Creator Credit Score enables instant funding decisions based on real earnings, not personal credit.

• KOR Protocol is building programmable IP infrastructure, partnering with Black Mirror and Animoca Brands to create licensable, remixable content for the AI age.

• Legitimate partnered with Puma and Jay-Z's Roc Nation to embed NFC chips in sneakers, unlocking exclusive digital content.

This shift is about moving from renting audiences on streaming and social to owning the fan relationship. And the challenge isn't the technology; it's designing fan experiences that feel intuitive with true ownership, instant payments, and direct access baked in.

Take care,
Marc

Download the full report

• Why the old entertainment model is collapsing

• How the Direct-to-Fan model is evolving with blockchain

• How fans are now funding music and film – and earning from it

• Why EVEN pays artists 10–50x on top of Spotify

• Complete entertainment ecosystem map with 100+ blockchain vendors

• How superfan drops beat streams in engagement and revenue

• The real business case for brands, labels, and platforms

• Playbooks and case studies from EVEN, Republic, and CreatorFi

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We create pioneering thought leadership that helps digital asset and technology companies lead the conversation, earn trust and win business.

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Stablecoins are becoming an operational layer of global finance.

$283B in circulation. $27.6T moved in 2024. $2.3T moving monthly. Instant settlement, real yield, enterprise-grade use cases.

Our new flagship report “Digital Dollar, Real Yield” is our most practical, enterprise-focused stablecoin briefing yet.

And we give it out for free to all our subscribers.

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Why now

Once dismissed as a niche, programmable money is now enabling critical infrastructure for Fortune 500 giants and modern fintechs.

With 90% of financial institutions actively building, acquiring, or launching stablecoin solutions, the question is no longer if this will reshape finance, but who will capture the $10+ trillion opportunity.

This report is an actionable guide for fintech leaders, corporate treasurers, and institutional investors on how to move from exploration to implementation.

Special thanks to our insight contributors and vendor partners featured in the report, including OpenTrade, Agora, Rain, and Ava Labs.

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The great convergence

The narrative of stablecoins has evolved beyond simple transactions. The convergence of regulatory clarity, institutional validation, and mature infrastructure creates a new reality.

• Institutional Adoption is Here: 90% of financial institutions are taking action on stablecoins, with 48% citing speed as the primary benefit. JPMorgan is processing $1B daily via JPM Coin, while BlackRock’s tokenised fund BUIDL surpassed $1B in assets, becoming the fastest-growing tokenised fund in history.

• Regulatory Green Light: The EU's MiCA regulation is live, the US GENIUS Act is approved, and Hong Kong’s licensing framework is taking effect. The primary barrier to enterprise adoption has been removed.

• The Infrastructure is Ready: This report spotlights the three core financial primitives powering the new wave of fintech:

  • Issuance Infrastructure (Agora): Enabling any company to launch its own branded, yield-generating stablecoin in days, not months.

  • Yield Generation (OpenTrade): Delivering 3-9% APR on USD/EUR holdings via tokenised money market funds, powering over 5M users in Latin America and Europe.

  • Global Spending (Rain): Powering Visa-backed payment cards that settle transactions instantly using stablecoins across 100+ countries.

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The use cases driving real value

Programmable money is delivering quantifiable impact now.

• Treasury as a Profit Centre: Enterprises are eliminating 66% of working capital requirements and turning idle cash into a yield-generating asset with tokenised money market funds.

• Instant Global Settlement: Companies like WorldPay have achieved a 50% improvement in settlement times, while PayPal has reduced cross-border B2B payment fees by up to 90% using PYUSD.

• Slashing Transaction Costs: Stablecoin rails reduce transaction costs from 2.9% (credit cards) to less than 0.3%, unlocking billions in savings for large-scale enterprises like Amazon and Walmart, who are actively exploring their own stablecoins.

• The New Infrastructure Layer: Stripe’s introduction of Stablecoin Financial Accounts in 101 countries is supercharging "Payment Finance," enabling everything from on-chain invoice financing to global BNPL for the unbanked.

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Who’s winning

The leaders are those building the foundational layers, the new rails for the global financial system.

• Infrastructure Enablers: Companies like Agora, OpenTrade, and Rain are providing the critical "stablecoin stack as-a-service," allowing fintechs and enterprises to embed issuance, yield, and payment capabilities with simple APIs.

• Institutional Heavyweights: JPMorgan, BlackRock, Societe Generale, and Deutsche Bank have moved past pilots and are launching their own deposit tokens and MiCA-compliant stablecoins.

• Purpose-Built Blockchains: Avalanche has positioned itself as the leading layer-1 for institutional finance, offering a customizable infrastructure that provides the scalability, compliance, and privacy that enterprises demand.

What’s happening now is a fundamental replatforming of financial services. The conversation has shifted from "digital payments" to "programmable yield."

What’s next

What was once a speculative corner of the crypto market has matured into a formidable infrastructure layer for the global financial system, processing trillions of dollars and surpassing the transaction volumes of legacy payment giants.

The convergence of regulatory clarity, institutional adoption, and robust technology has shifted the conversation from risk mitigation to strategic opportunity.

The evidence is clear: programmable money is no longer a distant concept but a present-day reality, enabling faster, cheaper, and more efficient financial services. The foundational rails have been laid, not by crypto-native idealists, but by the world's largest financial institutions and most innovative fintechs.

The transition to a programmable financial stack is creating a market window where early movers will capture disproportionate value. This is about building new business models and creating the financial infrastructure for an automated, internet-native economy.

The question leaders must ask is whether they will be the ones to capture this opportunity or be disrupted by it.

Take care,
Marc

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What's in the full report

• The Programmable Money Revolution

• Why Now: Three Macro-Forces Colliding

• Enterprise Use Cases: The Three Financial Primitives

• The Blockchain Tech Stack: Choosing Your Rails

• The Stablecoin Ecosystem 2025 Map

• What To Do Now: Strategic Playbooks for Business Leaders

What we cover:

• Our complete Stablecoin Ecosystem 2025 map with the key players in issuance, infrastructure, and payments.

• Deep dives into the "stablecoin stack" leaders: Agora, OpenTrade, and Rain.

• The Institutional Stablecoin Tracker, detailing the latest moves from BlackRock, JPMorgan, Citi, and Visa.

• Why Avalanche is purpose-built for institutional and enterprise-grade financial applications.

• How tokenized money market funds are turning corporate treasuries into profit centers.

• The 90-day playbook for launching your first stablecoin initiative, from a low-risk pilot to a full-scale rollout.

• Actionable frameworks for Neobanks, Global Corporations, and Traditional Banks.

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Money is moving – and this time, it’s real. $250B in circulation, moving $2.3T monthly. Stablecoins aren’t crypto speculation. They’re becoming an active, growing infrastructure layer of the global financial system.

This is why today we’re launching our most comprehensive stablecoin report yet.

Once dismissed as speculative or peripheral, they’re now enabling critical financial functions at companies like Stripe, JPMorgan, PayPal, Visa, and Circle. For the first time, we’re seeing blockchain-based money being used at institutional scale and in enterprise-grade contexts.

This report is designed as both a strategic primer and an actionable guide for financial institutions, enterprises, fintech operators, and policy leaders.

Special thanks to our co-publishing parter Fintech Blueprint, and our insight partners Kaiko, Reown, and Keyrails for their contributions.

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The Tipping Point

The adoption curve is accelerating beyond crypto speculation into enterprise infrastructure.

$248B+ in stablecoin circulation is up 60% year-to-date, moving $2T+ monthly—rivaling traditional payment networks like Visa.

Public market validation: Circle's 6x stock surge post-IPO signals institutional hunger, while Stripe's $1.1B Bridge acquisition and launch of stablecoin accounts in 101 countries proves product-market fit.

The regulatory green light finally arrived: the SEC clarified digital dollars aren't securities, the GENIUS Act passed the US Senate creating federal frameworks, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared "we will use stablecoins to keep the U.S. the dominant reserve currency."

Top retailers collectively waste $47B annually on payment processing fees that add zero operational value. Amazon burns $18.5B yearly at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, Walmart wastes $3.5B, and the top five retailers combined pay over $47B to move money at 1970s speeds.

Both Amazon and Walmart are now building teams to launch corporate stablecoins in 2025—not as crypto experiments, but as direct attacks on Visa and Mastercard's revenue streams. This represents infrastructure inefficiencies that stablecoins eliminate entirely, creating a strategic opening for any company processing billions in payments annually.

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Five use cases that matter

These use cases are already unlocking or saving billions:

1. International business payments represent a $60T opportunity by 2030, with companies currently wasting $120B annually on cross-border fees while losing millions in trapped liquidity during 3-5 day settlement windows. Stablecoins processed $6T in cross-border payments in 2024, offering 90% cost reductions and instant settlement.

   1. Key developments:

      1. Visa partnered with Circle to enable instant global stablecoin settlement.

      2. PayPal processes cross-border B2B payments using PYUSD, reducing fees by up to 90%

      3. Stripe embedded USDC payouts across 50+ countries, letting businesses pay international suppliers instantly

      4. Mastercard teamed up with MoonPay to support global stablecoin payments.

      5. Worldpay is enabling stablecoin payouts to 180+ countries, powered by BVNK.

      6. JP Morgan’s Kinexys Digital Payments enables 24/7 , cross-border stablecoin transactions.

      7. DP World (global logistics) deploys stablecoin payment rails for international suppliers

2. Corporate treasury operations are parking idle cash in yield-bearing stablecoins for 4%+ returns while maintaining instant payment capabilities—BlackRock holds $2.9B in their BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund.

   1. Key developments:

      1. Citi launched 24/7 tokenized cash service to help businesses move money instantly across global branches

      2. Modern Treasury launched stablecoin payouts via partner Brale, enabling 24/7 global money movement

      3. BlackRock holds $2.9B in their BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund

      4. Circle works with 300+ banks to provide instant treasury settlement capabilities

3. Capital markets settlement eliminates the T+2 bottleneck that ties up billions in unnecessary capital, with Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Standard Chartered all testing blockchain settlement.

   1. Key developments:

      1. JP Morgan’s JPM Coin allows blockchain-based payments by wholesale clients and handles $1B transactions daily

      2. Goldman Sachs uses blockchain settlement for select institutional trades

      3. DTCC pilots distributed ledger technology and tokenized collateral, including for U.S.

      4. Societe Generale-FORGE launched a US dollar stablecoin on Ethereum and Solana for trading and cross-border payments. BNY Mell

      5. Standard Chartered partnered with Animoca Brands and HKT to issue a HKD-backed stablecoin.

4. Global payroll is seeing 65% of crypto transactions already using stablecoins, with companies like Deel processing millions for 35,000+ companies across 150+ countries, achieving 60% cost reductions and 48-hour time savings.

5. Finally, AI agent commerce is emerging as software needs money that moves at internet speed—Coinbase's x402 protocol embeds payments directly into HTTP requests, enabling autonomous transactions without human intervention.

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Who's winning

Stripe leads the infrastructure land grab with a 730 51 Trust Score™, having acquired Bridge and Privy to own the wallet, rails, and payout stack across 4M+ merchants.

This isn't crypto integration, it's a $1.4T payments heavyweight rebuilding the entire financial stack onchain.

Circle commands the regulated standard with $61B USDC market cap, 98% reserves in U.S. Treasuries, and a successful IPO that 6x'd in two weeks, while launching Circle Payment Network to directly rival Visa and Mastercard.

Tether dominates with $155B USDT and $5B annual profit—more than most fintech unicorns—controlling 64% of global stablecoin market share and recently launching Tether AI for agent-to-agent payments.

Traditional players are catching up: JPMorgan processes $1B daily through JPM Coin, Bank of America/Citi/Wells Fargo are building joint USD stablecoins, and Visa launched the Tokenized Asset Platform while Mastercard partners with MoonPay for stablecoin-linked cards.

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The AI Commerce convergence

The convergence of AI and stablecoins is creating an autonomous economy where software transacts at internet speed.

Google's Gemini 2.5 eliminates traditional e-commerce checkout entirely—AI finds, compares, negotiates, and buys automatically—while traditional payment systems fail on four critical requirements:

• speed (credit cards settle in 3-5 days vs. instant blockchain confirmation),

• geography (cross-border requires currency conversion vs. global stablecoin accessibility),

• authorization (every payment needs human approval vs. autonomous systems),

• and pricing (monthly subscriptions don't work for micro-transactions).

Stablecoins solve all four simultaneously by making money work like internet data—instant, global, programmable, always-on.

The infrastructure players are positioning aggressively: Coinbase launched x402 for HTTP-embedded payments, Tether AI enables peer-to-peer agent networks, and startups like Skyfire and Payman equip agents with pre-funded USDC wallets governed by policy controls.

The real talk

What’s happening in payments resembles the early internet: obvious in retrospect, overlooked by incumbents, transformative for early movers.

Circle and Stripe aren't building incremental improvements to SWIFT. They're constructing parallel financial infrastructure that bypasses traditional payment rails entirely.

The $250B in stablecoin circulation represents early stages of fundamental replatforming: programmable money replacing static account balances, instant settlement replacing batch processing, global accessibility replacing correspondent banking networks.

Winners will be technology platforms embedding stablecoin functionality and early enterprise adopters building supplier network lock-in, while losers face margin compression as companies control financial infrastructure directly. Central banks fear the "privatization of money"—the ECB President recently warned about stablecoins eroding monetary policy control.

The adoption curve is accelerating. Companies late to the party risk missing significant competitive advantages. The winning move: start with low-risk, high-impact use cases, test fast, measure everything, scale aggressively. Stablecoins aren't just better payments—they're programmable money for an AI-driven economy. Internet money for internet speed. The future of commerce runs on both.

Take care,
Marc

What's In The Full Report

• Why Now

• Stablecoin 101

• The Stablecoin Ecosystem 2025

• Stablecoin's Killer Use-Cases

• 4 Ways Stablecoins Are Quietly Transforming Business

• Money, at Internet Speed: How Stablecoins Are Disrupting Commerce

• What to Do Now

What we cover:

• Stablecoin ecosystem map with 200+ vendors and our proprietary 51 Trust Score rankings

• Circle's 6x IPO surge and what it signals for institutional adoption

• Why Amazon & Walmart are secretly building corporate stablecoins

• Stripe's $1.1B Bridge acquisition strategy to own payment rails

• Tether's $5B profit machine and surprise AI infrastructure play

• Coinbase's x402 protocol embedding payments directly into HTTP

• How Google's Gemini 2.5 just killed traditional e-commerce checkout

• The 5 killer use cases already saving enterprises 60%+ on costs

• 90-day implementation playbook from pilot to scale

• Strategic vendor selection framework and compliance roadmap

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Stablecoins and AI are quietly reshaping global finance.

Stablecoin volumes hit $700B monthly, and tech giants like Google and Tether are racing to control machine-to-machine money.

The implications? A complete rewrite of the financial stack and trillion-dollar shifts in business infrastructure.

Here’s the inside scoop executives can’t afford to miss.

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The Trojan Horse for Institutional Adoption

Stablecoins aren’t crypto toys. They’re the backbone of a new financial system. By April 2025, stablecoins topped a whopping $233B in circulation, growing nearly 60% YoY. USDT alone surged 91% in two years, dominating with a $144B market cap.

Why executives care:

• $1.35T transferred in 2024, proving real business adoption.

• Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe are embedding stablecoins for instant, global payments.

• 30M active stablecoin wallets as of early 2025, up 53% YoY, signaling widespread consumer and enterprise adoption.

• Stablecoins are processing about a fifth of Visa's payment volume and over a quarter of Mastercard's.

The bottom line: Stablecoins now rival traditional banks as trusted payment rails, with 60–90% lower costs than SWIFT and instant 24/7 settlements. It’s programmable money made global and composable.

👉 Get your brand in front of 30,000+ decision-makers — book your ad spot now.

And the signals are clear:

• Tether.io hit $150B and is building AI payment rails

• Circle launched a payment network rivalling Visa & Mastercard

• Stripe launched stablecoin accounts for businesses in 100+ countries

• Ripple acquired a prime broker for $1.25B to push its own stablecoin

• Robinhood, MoonPay, Ripple are building stablecoin rails

• Visa and PayPal are integrating stablecoin payouts

• Coinbase launched a x402 internet-native payment standard

• J.P. Morgan, Citi, Wells Fargo & others are exploring a joint bank-backed stablecoin

Why it matters: We're witnessing one of those rare infrastructure flips that happen maybe once per generation. Citi predicts the stablecoin market could balloon to $3.7 trillion by 2030, positioning these digital dollars as core economic infrastructure, not speculative assets.

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AI Agents Need Payment Rails

Here's where things get wild.

Coinbase, AWS, Anthropic, Circle, and NEAR just launched x402. It’s the first protocol embedding stablecoin payments directly into HTTP. No wallets, no APIs, no billing cycles. Just: "Send $0.005 per request" and data flows instantly.

Why this matters: When AI agents can directly purchase data, execute trades, and pay for services using stablecoins, we'll witness exponential acceleration in economic activity. The internet may finally have native, programmable money.

Meanwhile, Tether — the world's largest stablecoin issuer — launched Tether AI, a modular AI runtime with native USDT payments. They're not just issuing digital dollars; they're building the payment infrastructure that autonomous AI agents will use to transact with each other.

The strategic play: The blockchain AI market is projected to grow from $448.5 million in 2023 to $3.4 billion by 2032 at a 25.3% CAGR. But the real prize isn't the market size—it's owning the payment rails of AI commerce.

Google Killed Traditional E-Commerce

Google launched "Shop with AI". Checkout now happens directly in Gemini, not on websites. Shopify lost 5% market cap within hours. The $5.5T e-commerce stack is being compressed into an LLM.

AI Operator

Google kills the checkout

Google's new agentic checkout isn’t just killing pages, it’s killing entire business models…

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a year ago · 10 likes · 3 comments · Marc Baumann

Here's the connection: AI agents taking over commerce need programmable money to transact autonomously. Stablecoins are global, real-time, API-less payment rails. Protocols like x402 + stablecoins = seamless machine-native checkout.

This isn't a UX update. It's a complete rewrite of how commerce works.

The opportunity: Integrating stablecoins into your e-commerce and CRM systems positions your brand at the intersection of AI-driven checkout, capturing agentic consumer spending first.

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What’s Next

Expect a rapid, multi-trillion-dollar convergence of AI and stablecoin infrastructure. Winners in this next supercycle won’t chase crypto headlines—they’ll quietly embed stablecoin payments and AI compute into their core business systems.

The future isn't DeFi 2.0. It's the payment layer the internet never had.

Discover the full story. As a paid subscriber, you'll gain access to detailed data and insights in the full presentation.

What we cover:

• Stablecoin & Blockchain x AI market maps with top players

• The explosive growth driving stablecoins mainstream

• Why Wall Street suddenly loves stablecoins

• Tether’s unexpected pivot into AI infrastructure

• Ripple’s hidden $1.25B stablecoin strategy

• Coinbase’s protocol merging stablecoins with HTTP

• Google’s bold move reshaping e-commerce forever

• The protocol quietly merging stablecoins with HTTP

• Why crypto miners are ditching Bitcoin for AI compute

• Real-world enterprise use cases already scaling globally

• Strategic bets corporates must place now to stay ahead

Upgrade to become a PRO subscriber and receive:

• Subscriber only enterprise reports

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We just published our big flagship report on The Future of Ticketing.

Download the Full Report

This is an abbreviated excerpt.

Global ticketing is facing challenges. Fans get priced out. Bots and scalpers run the game. Artists and organizers lose millions in revenue to predatory resellers. Every major event—whether it’s Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, the Super Bowl, or a global music festival—follows the same pattern: instant sellouts, skyrocketing resale prices, and counterfeit tickets flooding the market.

It’s a system designed for everyone except the people who actually make live events happen—the artists, teams, and their fans.

Blockchain could fix this.

By turning tickets into verifiable digital assets, blockchain eliminates counterfeiting, regulates resales, and puts power back in the hands of event organizers. NFT-based ticketing isn’t just about stopping fraud—it’s about unlocking new revenue streams, building fan engagement, and creating digital experiences that last beyond the event itself.

But let’s be real: blockchain ticketing isn’t mainstream yet. Adoption is slow. Integration with existing platforms is clunky. Transaction fees and user experience still need work. If blockchain is going to redefine ticketing, it needs to prove it can outperform traditional systems—not just in security, but in usability, cost efficiency, and real-world value.

This report breaks down exactly how that’s happening.

We’ll explore:

• How blockchain ticketing eliminates fraud and scalping

• Why NFT tickets are creating new monetisation models

• The challenges preventing mass adoption (and how to overcome them)

• Which companies and events are already leading the charge

The future of ticketing won’t be controlled by a handful of centralized players. It will be decentralized, transparent, and designed to serve artists, teams, and their fans—not resellers and middlemen.

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Ticketing is Changing—And the Industry Must Catch Up

Ticketing has never been more digital, yet it has never been more frustrating. For fans, buying a ticket to a major concert or sporting event often feels like a war zone. While ticketing platforms have embraced digitalization, issues like fraud, price gouging, and resale market manipulation remain widespread. Events sell out within seconds, only for tickets to reappear on secondary markets at exponentially higher prices.

Scalpers and bots dominate high-demand events, locking out real fans and driving revenue away from artists, teams, and organizers. Bots buy up to 60% of high-demand tickets in seconds.

Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act and the EU Digital Service Act aim to regulate the usage of bots in ticketing.

For event organizers, managing ticket sales has become a balancing act between maximizing revenue, minimizing fraud, and ensuring tickets actually end up in the hands of real fans.

But change is happening. Physical tickets are fading into history, replaced by mobile-first experiences that are faster, smarter, and more secure. AI, dynamic pricing, and mobile-first solutions are reshaping the industry.

And the market is only getting bigger. The global online event ticketing market is projected to grow from $50.97B in 2024 to $53.43B in 2025—and expected to reach $69.25B by 2029 at a CAGR of 6.7%, fueled by a shift toward mobile-first purchasing experiences.

Today, more than 70% of all ticket transactions occur via mobile apps, with QR codes and NFC technology becoming the industry standard for entry. Consumers expect seamless, tap-and-go experiences, and digital ticketing is delivering that convenience.

But while the growth is exciting, the real game-changer isn’t just in selling more tickets—it’s in how tickets are sold, priced, and secured.

And for the first time in years, new technology is providing a real opportunity to fix ticketing’s biggest flaws.

What’s driving the shift?

• AI-Powered Dynamic Pricing: Ticket prices are no longer static. AI-driven models now adjust prices in real-time based on demand, availability, and consumer behavior. This approach has been shown to increase revenue by up to 15%, while also ensuring tickets reach real fans instead of scalpers.

• Customer Personalization & Data Analytics: AI-driven insights track consumer behavior, spending patterns, and engagement, allowing event organizers to target promotions and boost repeat attendance.

• Mobile & Cloud Integration: QR codes, NFC-enabled devices, and digital wallets make ticketing frictionless—reducing fraud and speeding up entry times. Cuts admission times by up to 68%.

• Biometric Verification: Facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, and iris detection tie tickets to verified identities, significantly reducing counterfeiting and fraud risks.

• IoT & Smart Venues: RFID wristbands and smart sensors monitor crowd movement, manage entry points, and enable cashless transactions, improving operational efficiency and reducing wait times by up to 30%.

• Eco-Friendly, Paperless Ticketing: Consumers are demanding sustainable solutions, and the industry is responding. The smart ticketing segment—which eliminates paper waste through mobile apps and smartcards—is set to grow from $17.19B in 2024 to $34.97B by 2029, at a 15.9% CAGR.

For event organizers, this shift has made real-time updates, mobile notifications, and personalized engagement possible. Fans can now receive alerts about seating upgrades, last-minute ticket availability, or exclusive event perks—creating new opportunities for monetization and engagement beyond just selling a ticket.

Despite these advancements, the ticketing industry still faces fundamental challenges—fraud, scalping, and resale market chaos continue to plague both fans and event organizers. AI and mobile-first solutions have improved efficiency, but they haven’t solved the underlying trust and security issues that allow bad actors to exploit the system.

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That’s where blockchain enters the picture. Blockchain-based ticketing introduces smart contracts and NFT tickets that can cap resale prices, eliminate counterfeits, and give event organizers more control over the secondary market. Platforms using blockchain are already cutting fraud-related losses by up to 40%.

By introducing smart contracts, decentralized ticketing, and verifiable ownership, blockchain technology offers a fundamentally new approach—one that could eliminate counterfeits, enforce fair resale pricing, and give control back to event organizers and fans.

51: Grow, compete, and win enterprise deals with our end-to-end growth engine:

• 70K+ B2B business leaders & direct corporate access to get in front of decision-makers.

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• Sales enablement & GTM strategy to close enterprise deals faster.

Clients include: Avalanche, MoonPay, Near Foundation, and others.

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Reinventing Ticketing With Blockchain

In early 2024, Coldplay’s highly anticipated concert in India exposed the deep flaws of traditional ticketing. Within seconds, the tickets were gone. Fans who had waited patiently were shut out, only to see the same tickets instantly reappear on resale platforms—at ten times the original price. Bots and scalpers had once again hijacked the system, profiting off artificial scarcity while genuine fans were left scrambling. Worse, many resold tickets were counterfeit, leading to chaos at the venue as buyers were denied entry.

This isn’t just a Coldplay problem—it’s an industry-wide failure. Every major concert, festival, and sporting event faces the same challenges:

• Scalping & price inflation: Automated bots buy up tickets in bulk, driving up resale prices beyond affordability.

• Counterfeits & fraud: Buyers have no way to verify authenticity before purchasing on secondary markets.

• Zero transparency: Fans don’t know if they’re buying from a legitimate source, and organizers have little control over resale.

• Lost revenue: Artists and event organizers miss out as profits are funneled into third-party resellers.

The current system is broken—but it doesn’t have to be.

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Blockchain ticketing presents an alternative by leveraging distributed ledger technology to create unique, tamper-proof digital assets (NFTs) that tracks the entire ticket lifecycle—from initial sale to resale:

• Stops counterfeits & fraud: Each ticket is uniquely recorded on a blockchain, making duplication impossible. Ownership records are public and verifiable in real time.

• Secondary market control: By integrating blockchain, brands ensure that revenue from secondary ticket sales remains within the official channel, preventing unauthorized scalping and preserving brand integrity.

• Revenue streams: NFT tickets create a collectible market that generates additional income through resale royalties, appealing particularly to high-value fans and collectors.

• Prevents scalping & price gouging: Smart contracts can set maximum resale prices to stop unfair markups. Organizers can limit bulk purchases to ensure tickets reach real fans.

• Lower costs, no middlemen: Direct peer-to-peer transactions cut out intermediaries like ticketing agencies. Automated smart contracts reduce administrative costs.

• Better data control: Organizers own audience data instead of relying on third-party platforms. Blockchain allows multiple companies to build around tickets without monopolizing access.

To understand whether blockchain is a viable alternative, we need to break down the critical differences between the two systems in security, transparency, cost, scalability, and user experience—along with a financial analysis.

👉 Download the full report here

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Blockchain vs. Traditional Ticketing: A Cost, Security, and Scalability Breakdown

To understand whether blockchain is a viable alternative, we need to break down the critical differences between the two systems in security, transparency, cost, scalability, and user experience—along with an in-depth financial analysis.

1. Security: Reducing Fraud & Counterfeits

• Traditional Ticketing: Counterfeiting remains a persistent problem. Buyers often have no way to verify if a ticket purchased from a secondary seller is legitimate, leading to financial losses and security risks at events. Even large-scale events struggle with this issue—UEFA EURO 2020, for example, saw ticket fraud despite centralized control.

• Blockchain Ticketing: Each ticket is recorded as an NFT on a blockchain, ensuring authenticity and preventing duplication. At UEFA EURO 2020, blockchain-based ticketing eliminated fraud by ensuring that all transactions were verifiable and secure. Over 1M tickets were distributed using this system across all 51 matches. The system utilized QR codes that were activated via Bluetooth when fans were near the stadium, preventing unauthorized resale, stopping scalpers from exploiting demand.

2. Transparency: Who Controls the Market?

• Traditional Ticketing: Ticket resale markets are opaque, and buyers often have no insight into the validity of tickets or pricing mechanisms. High-profile cases—such as Ticketmaster’s handling of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in 2023—highlight the industry’s lack of transparency, where demand manipulation and platform failures led to fan outrage.

• Blockchain Ticketing: Every transaction is publicly recorded on a blockchain, allowing event organizers to track ownership history and set resale limits via smart contracts. Platforms like GET Protocol have already implemented transparent blockchain ticketing solutions, significantly reducing fraudulent sales.

3. Cost Breakdown: Traditional Fees vs. Blockchain Expenses

One of the biggest arguments against blockchain ticketing is cost. While traditional platforms charge high service fees, blockchain introduces network (gas) fees that vary based on demand.

Break-Even Analysis: When is blockchain the better deal?

Blockchain ticketing has higher upfront costs but lower per-ticket expenses, making it more cost-effective at scale. While traditional systems charge around $3.20 per ticket, blockchain reduces that to $1.30, reaching break-even at 42,000 tickets sold. With resale royalties that can be enforced on-chain, this drops to 15,000 tickets, making blockchain the more profitable choice for large events and businesses handling multiple sales.

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4. Resale Revenue Opportunity

A key advantage of blockchain ticketing is the ability to capture revenue from secondary market sales. In traditional systems, resale profits go to scalpers and third-party platforms, not event organizers or artists. Blockchain allows for automated resale royalties, meaning that organizers can take a percentage of every resold ticket.

5. Scalability: Can Blockchain handle high volume events?

• Traditional Ticketing: Centralized platforms handle massive ticket volumes efficiently, but they frequently crash during high-demand sales (as seen with the Taylor Swift and Coldplay ticketing disasters).

• Blockchain Ticketing: Public blockchains like Ethereum can struggle with scalability, leading to delays and high transaction fees. However, dedicated ticketing app-chain solutions like Avalanche L1’s are addressing these issues, making blockchain ticketing more viable for large-scale events.

Beyond the Ticket: How Blockchain Unlocks Next-Level Fan Experiences

Blockchain ticketing isn’t just about stopping fraud or fixing resale markets—it’s about rethinking what a ticket can be. In traditional systems, a ticket is a pass for entry, nothing more. Once scanned, it loses all value. But with blockchain, tickets become interactive, evolving assets that connect fans and artists beyond the event itself.

By embedding additional features into blockchain-based tickets, event organizers can create new engagement models that extend before, during, and after the event, turning passive attendees into active participants in the fan experience.

Tickets as Digital Collectibles

One of the simplest yet most powerful applications of blockchain in ticketing is turning tickets into collectibles. Instead of a disposable barcode, each ticket can be designed as a unique digital item—featuring exclusive artwork, artist signatures, or even multimedia content that fans can keep, trade, or showcase.

A. Token-Gated Access & Personalized Event Experiences

Blockchain allows for token-gated experiences, where ticket holders gain access to exclusive perks based on the ticket they own. Unlike traditional ticketing systems, blockchain enables a more fluid, interoperable, and personalized access model. For example:

• a fan’s ticket from a festival could link to an artist’s ecosystem (e.g., unlocking a digital album) or even third-party services (e.g. a marketplace for trading perks).

• A fan who has attended five past events might get automatic backstage access.

• A ticket holder who also owns a certain digital collectible from the artist’s collection could receive a signed piece of merchandise.

This creates a fluid, ecosystem-driven experience that traditional, more static setups can’t easily replicate. Tickets become a programmable, dynamic, personalized engagement tool, rewarding fan loyalty in real-time.

B. Post-Event Utility: The Ticket That Keeps Giving

A major limitation of traditional tickets is that they expire the moment an event ends. Blockchain-based tickets, on the other hand, can continue to deliver value long after the event is over. For example: Future discounts, exclusive content or access to partner experiences. The tickets becomes a programmable, ongoing engagement tool that strengthens the connection between fans and organizers.

As blockchain ticketing matures, event organizers who embrace these new engagement models will move beyond just selling access—they will be creating a fully integrated fan experience that lives far beyond the event itself.

Bottom Line

The biggest barrier isn't technology—it’s adoption. Artists, teams, and event organizers must weigh the short-term complexity of implementation against the long-term revenue and engagement benefits.

The industry is at a tipping point. The question is no longer if blockchain will disrupt ticketing—but when. The real opportunity isn’t just in selling tickets securely, but in redefining what tickets can do.

Blockchain Ticketing: Getting Started

Blockchain ticketing is more than just a security upgrade—it’s an opportunity to reimagine fan engagement, ownership, and post-event utility. While blockchain has proven its ability to reduce fraud, prevent scalping, and improve transparency, its most transformative potential lies in how it extends the value of tickets beyond the event itself.

Why Blockchain?

Spotlight: Tixbase

Tixbase is a comprehensive, blockchain-powered ticketing platform for both B2C and C2C applications built on their own Avalanche Layer 1, Tixchain. It empowers event businesses—big and small—to own their ecosystem, manage every sale securely, and deliver an exceptional fan experience.

Tixbase ensures every ticket is uniquely recorded, preventing counterfeiting, and allowing organizers to maintain full control over primary and resale markets. By integrating dynamic pricing, loyalty rewards, and real-time analytics, the platform enables businesses to optimize revenue, enhance fan engagement, and streamline operations.

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Breaking the Traditional Model: Why Tixbase Stands Out

Traditional ticketing platforms—whether giants like Ticketmaster or emerging digital marketplaces—have structural inefficiencies that limit both event organizers and fans. Businesses face a trade-off:

• Lose control to ticketing giants (relinquishing data, branding, and revenue).

• Build their own system (expensive, resource-intensive).

• Use outdated tech (inflexible and hard to integrate).

Tixbase solves these problems by providing an end-to-end, white-label platform, giving ticketing businesses complete control over their ecosystem. Unlike resale platforms like StubHub or primary marketplaces like Eventim, Tixbase allows organizers to:

• Own their ticketing storefront, instead of relying on third-party platforms.

• Monetize secondary markets, capturing revenue from resales.

• Leverage blockchain security, eliminating fraud and unauthorized reselling.

Tixbase functions as both a ticketing solution and infrastructure provider, akin to how Shopify empowers merchants to manage their online stores.

Key Features & Benefits

• Secure & Fraud-Proof Ticketing

  • Blockchain Technology (TixChain): Every ticket is uniquely recorded to prevent counterfeiting and fraud.

  • Digital Identity (TixID): Uses quick selfie verification and government ID matching to secure user identity.

• Scalable, High-Speed Processing

  • Current Capacity: 2,000 transactions per second (TPS).

  • Planned Upgrades: Scaling to 10,000 TPS using custom queues, partner mini-chains, and parallel processing.

• Enhanced Fan Engagement & Loyalty

  • $TIX Rewards: Fans and sellers earn tokens redeemable for perks like skipping queues, pre-sales access, and VIP experiences.

  • Customizable Solutions: Fully white-label options and API integrations empower brands to maintain their identity and control over data.

• Event Management & Data Analytics

  • Smart Ticketing: Dynamic QR codes, NFC capabilities, and mobile apps streamline entry and reduce fraud.

  • Actionable Insights: Real-time analytics for ticket sales, attendance, and in-event behavior to optimize marketing and operations.

Unlike traditional ticketing platforms that extract value through high fees, Tixbase leverages its native $TIX token to create a self-sustaining ecosystem where event organizers, ticket sellers, and fans all benefit.

Tixbase acts as a:

Case Study #1: EXIT Festival

EXIT Festival, a two-time winner of the Best Major European Festival award, partnered with NFT-TiX (now Tixbase), and became the first major festival to sell NFT-based tickets at scale. With NFT-based tickets, it cut out scalpers while offering premium VIP experiences.

Premium Play:

• VIP Gold Ticket – Priority access to exclusive zones.

• VIP Infinite Experience – Backstage entry, artist meet-and-greets.

• €10,000 “Beyond Infinite” Ticket – Ultra-premium festival journey.

Impact:

• Eliminated scalpers—fans bought directly from the source.

• Guaranteed authenticity—blockchain-backed tickets.

• New revenue streams—VIP perks, resale royalties, and digital collectibles.

"We partnered with Tixbase because their technology not only enhances ticket security and transparency but also ensures a secure secondary market with royalties. Together, winning the 2022 Best Innovation Award at UK Festival Awards speaks volumes.”

– Franja Santo, PM at EXIT

EXIT & Tixbase won the Best Innovation Award at the UK Festival Awards 2022.

Case Study #2: Passo (Turkey)

Turkey’s top ticketing company, Passo, teamed up with Tixbase, an Avalanche blockchain-powered platform, in a five-year deal that redefined event ticketing. The goal? To eliminate fraud, improve transparency, and create a seamless experience for both fans and organizers.

Impact:

• 25M+ tickets annually – fraud-proof & verifiable.

• Blockchain-backed tickets – every transaction is recorded on-chain.

• Fair resale system – prevents scalping & fake listings.

• Loyalty rewards – fans earn perks for event attendance.

"Tixbase complements our commitment to a state-of-the-art ticketing platform that protects fans and delivers exceptional results."
– Atil Aykar, GM at Passo

Spotlight: SI Tickets

Sports Illustrated is a name synonymous with sports history, credibility, and fan culture. With a 70-year legacy, the brand has been at the center of the biggest sporting moments, giving fans access to sports, concerts and theater events globally. Now, with SI Tickets, the company is extending that influence into the ticketing space—bringing a fairer, more transparent, and innovative solution to sports, concerts, and theater events.

Leveraging blockchain technology on Avalanche, SI Tickets is eliminating price gouging, turning tickets into dynamic digital assets, and unlocking new revenue opportunities for brands and venues.

From Tech to Impact

While SI Tickets differentiates itself through transparent pricing and enterprise-grade infrastructure, its real game-changer is blockchain —while cutting fees by up to 50% compared to traditional platforms:

• With instant finality and ultra-low transaction fees, Avalanche enables seamless ticket purchases, transfers, and resales, ensuring that each ticket’s provenance is immutable and fraud-proof.

• Smart contract automation allows event organizers to control resale pricing, enforce royalty distributions, and eliminate scalping, ensuring that revenue stays within the official ecosystem. For the first time, event organizers can earn on every resale, turning the secondary market from a liability into a revenue stream.

• Fans can receive exclusive content, loyalty rewards, and long-term engagement opportunities tied to their event attendance.

By embedding blockchain into its ticketing infrastructure, SI Tickets is redefining what it means to own a ticket.

👉 Download the full report here

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Case Study #1: New York Red Bull

Sports Illustrated Tickets and the New York Red Bulls announced a 13-year partnership that transformed the iconic Red Bull Arena into Sports Illustrated Stadium. This historic rebranding marks the first stadium naming rights deal in Sports Illustrated’s 70-year legacy and sets a new benchmark for fan engagement.

• Official partnership: From 2026, SI Tickets will become the official ticketing partner for a range of events.

• Blockchain ticketing: Powered by Box Office, transforming tickets into dynamic digital assets with exclusive perks.

“Events and venues around the world are constantly trying to improve their value to the fans and the overall experience. Sports Illustrated Tickets, part of the Sports Illustrated Family, brings 70 years of experience, and now with a global live event platform to help its partners achieve that goal.”

– David Lane, CEO, Sports Illustrated Tickets

Other Case Studies

Coachella

Coachella has launched Coachella Quests, a loyalty game powered by Avalanche, blending physical and digital festival experiences to boost fan engagement and loyalty.

• Festival-goers can earn NFTs and XP points by completing virtual and on-site tasks, like scavenger hunts or interacting with Coachella’s Discord.

• Blockchain platforms: Solana (2022, FTX partnership), Avalanche (2024, OpenSea partnership)

• NFT offerings: Lifetime passes (2022), VIP passes, exclusive area access, merchandise

• General ticketing system: Traditional, via AXS, wristband registration through Coachella Mobile App

Impact: Loyalty. Blockchain-based loyalty programs create transparent and engaging reward systems that enhance fan experiences.

UEFA Euro 2020

The tournament distributed close to 1M tickets through the UEFA EURO 2020 Mobile Tickets app, developed in partnership with SecuTix Solutions. This system used QR codes activated via Bluetooth near stadiums, preventing copying and ensuring security.

• Blockchain technology: Hyperledger Fabric

• Ticket format: Non-fungible tokens

• Distribution channel: Mobile app (UEFA EURO 2020 Mobile Tickets)

• Verification method: QR codes activated via Bluetooth

• Security features: Each ticket is unique and tamper-proof

• Fan experience: Convenient ticket management and entry

Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix

While not fully adopted, the Monaco Grand Prix in Formula 1 issued NFT tickets on the Polygon blockchain for the event held May 26-28, 2023. Platinium Group, a primary ticket provider for Formula 1, partnered with Elemint and Bary to issue these tickets, which served as both entry passes and collectibles.

• Blockchain platform: Polygon

• Partners: Platinium Group, Elemint, Bary

• Ticket type: NFT (Non-Fungible Token)

• Primary functions: Secure entry, prevent counterfeiting, digital collectibles

• Additional perks: Hospitality benefits, future race discounts, exclusive party access

• User experience: Seamless, QR code or digital wallet for entry, no reported issues

FIFA World Cup 2018 (VIP)

The 2018 FIFA World Cup, adopted blockchain technology for VIP ticket sales. Shankai Sports, a Chinese sports marketing company, collaborated with AlphaWallet to tokenize VIP tickets.

• Company: Shankai Sports (China-based sports marketing)

• Technology partner: AlphaWallet

• Blockchain platform: Ethereum, using the ERC875 token standard

• Ticket type: NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens)

• Functionality: Secure sales, distribution, fulfillment, redeemable for entry, transferable/sellable

• Innovation: First use of blockchain for ticket distribution in major international event

• Additional feature: MagicLink for URL-based token sales, no receiver info needed

The Web3 Tech Stack

First-generation blockchains (e.g. Ethereum) introduced immutable ledgers and smart contracts to combat fraud and enforce resale rules. But their inherent limitations—scalability bottlenecks, high transaction fees, and lack of customization—have made real-world adoption difficult.

Avalanche, one of the leading blockchains, solves this by allowing companies to build purpose-built blockchains (App Chains) tailored to their exact needs—whether it’s gasless transactions, built-in KYC, or ultra-high transaction speeds.

For ticketing platforms like Tixchain, this means seamless performance, reduced costs, and full control over resale and fraud prevention—without the limitations of legacy blockchain models.

Vendor Spotlight

Leading “layer 1” blockchain for consumer applications. Key features include:

• High throughput: HyperSDK with Vryx enables Avalanche L1s to reach 100,000 TPS—ensuring instant ticket transfers even at peak demand.

• Gas-less transactions: Custom gas models remove fees so fans can buy tickets without holding crypto.

• Embedded KYC: Built-in verification (e.g., Tixbase’s TixID) ensures only verified users transact.

• Custom virtual machines: Developers can optimize VMs for fast, secure ticketing operations.

Brands that build on Avalanche: Coachella, Sports Illustrated Tickets, Suntory, Cleveland Cavaliers, Konami, SK Planet, Solo Leveling, Maple Story.

Contact the team

Key Take-Aways For Executives

The future of ticketing is already unfolding, but successful adoption requires smart, phased implementation. Blockchain ticketing presents an opportunity to eliminate fraud, capture resale revenue, and deepen fan engagement—but jumping in blindly is not the answer. Business leaders must test, refine, and scale their approach to maximize ROI…

This is an abbreviated excerpt.

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The Bottom Line

Blockchain won’t replace traditional ticketing overnight—but businesses that start now, test early, and refine their strategy will lead the next era of fan engagement. The real value isn’t just in stopping scalpers or preventing fraud—it’s in monetizing engagement, deepening fan relationships, and controlling the ticketing economy.

— Marc & team

Ready to build?

Reach out to the best-in-class team at Ava Labs (Avalanche Blockchain) to get started.

Contact

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Get in Touch Today

The demand for crypto onboarding is exploding.

Today’s consumers want smarter, faster ways to manage their money. Digital assets promise instant cross-border transactions, lower fees, and accessibility that traditional finance can’t match.

But the infrastructure for crypto onboarding is fragmented, clunky, and full of hidden fees.

Most crypto platforms still treat payments like an afterthought. High fees, failed deposits, and limited local payment options are killing conversion rates. And in a global market where UPI, Pix, and mobile money wallets are replacing banks, businesses that don’t localize lose users before they even start.

The solution? Onramp aggregators.

Onramp aggregators unify fragmented payment systems into a seamless, high-converting solution. Crypto is supposed to be easier, faster, and global. It’s time to deliver on that promise.

Today, we’ll explore how businesses can take crypto payments to the next level:

• Why crypto payments are stuck in complexity

• How aggregator solutions unlock massive growth for businesses

• Onramper’s smart onramping innovations and real-world impact

• Case studies of crypto platforms winning with better payment flows

Let’s dive in. 🦈

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Millions of People Want to Onboard to Crypto

People are looking for financial tools that work for their daily lives. Crypto offers:

• Speed: Instant transactions without borders.

• Savings: Lower fees compared to old-school systems.

• Accessibility: Services that were once out of reach are now available to everyone.

One of the most powerful examples of this shift is stablecoins, which are quickly becoming the backbone of digital payments. Offering instant settlement, low fees, and global accessibility—without the volatility of Bitcoin or Ethereum—stablecoins are bridging traditional finance and the crypto economy.

In 2024 alone, stablecoins settled $27.1T in transactions with a $190B market cap—outpacing some of the largest payment networks in the world. For businesses, stablecoins offer a massive efficiency advantage:

• Remittances via stablecoins cost between 0.25% and 2.00%, compared to the 6.65% charged by traditional banks.

• USDC and USDT dominate the space, holding 90% of the stablecoin market share.

• For users in emerging markets, stablecoins aren’t just convenient—they’re a necessity for preserving wealth, avoiding inflation, and accessing global commerce.

Take Africa, where only 34% of adults have a bank account but mobile money adoption is soaring. Companies like Yellow Card are leading the way by integrating stablecoins into platforms that people already use. Through partnerships with M-Pesa, Coinbase, Onramper, and Lightspark, they enable:

• Instant stablecoin transactions via mobile money—allowing unbanked populations to send, receive, and save in digital dollars.

• Seamless fiat-to-crypto conversions, making stablecoins more accessible than traditional banking services.

• Explosive growth in crypto transactions, with volumes skyrocketing from $1.7B to $3B in just one year.

Stablecoins aren’t just an alternative payment method—they’re becoming the default financial system for entire regions where traditional banking has failed.

Millions of people will need to “onramp” to crypto. For businesses, this presents a massive opportunity. And they need to be ready.

Buying Crypto is a Mess—Here’s How Aggregators Are Fixing It

Crypto platforms promise global access—but getting users on-chain is still a massive hurdle. Traditional banking rails don’t seamlessly connect with digital assets, leaving users stuck with slow bank transfers, high fees, or outright rejection by financial institutions. Even when demand for crypto is high, the onboarding process is clunky, fragmented, and full of friction. Crypto is global, but payments are deeply local.

This is where onramp aggregators come in. Instead of forcing exchanges, wallets, and DeFi platforms to manage dozens of local ramp integrations, these aggregators unify all major ramps into a single solution. The result? Crypto platforms can easily offer any local payment method, with users getting a streamlined, optimized experience that removes the barriers between fiat and crypto.

Example: Let’s say CryptoX, a fast-growing exchange, wants to expand globally. It already has thousands of customers in the US and Europe and is seeing strong demand from India, Brazil, and Nigeria. But there’s one massive bottleneck: making it easy for users to deposit funds.

Here’s the problem:

• In India, users prefer UPI for instant payments, but CryptoX only supports bank transfers, which take days.

• In Brazil, Pix is the dominant payment method, yet CryptoX relies on expensive credit card deposits.

• In Nigeria, many users don’t have traditional bank accounts, making it hard to buy crypto. Mobile money or stablecoins are their go-to options.

Every extra step in the funding process means lost users. If people can’t deposit quickly, they abandon the platform.

The future of crypto payments isn’t just about crypto—it’s about seamlessly connecting fiat and digital assets. That’s what payment aggregators are doing, and businesses that integrate now will lead the next wave of global commerce.

But it doesn’t end here. Even if a platform supports multiple payment methods, the real challenge lies in ensuring transactions actually go through. Aggregators bring together alternative payment methods from around the world—tailored and localized for each market—into one single solution, but it still doesn’t make life easier for exchanges, wallets, and DeFi platforms, forcing them to manage dozens of local integrations.

It’s not just about offering more payment options. Here are some key hurdles:

• Credit card challenges: Auth rates can be as low as 50-80% due to issues like quasi-cash merchant codes (MCC).

• Bank rejections: Transactions may be denied by the user’s bank, issuing bank, or acquiring bank.

• Localization & compliance: KYC processes and payment methods aren’t always tailored to local markets, leading to unnecessary denials.

Each failed transaction means a lost user—and lost revenue. Every extra step or misconfigured integration adds friction, causing potential customers to abandon the process entirely.

Onramper: Smart Routing for Higher Transaction Success

For crypto platforms, getting users on-chain is the biggest friction point. Whether it’s an exchange, a DeFi protocol, or a wallet, onboarding users still depends on fiat onramps—the bridges between traditional finance and crypto.

This is where Onramper comes in, the #1 fiat-to-crypto onramp aggregator trusted by crypto industry leaders like Coinbase, Telegram, Bitcoin.com, and Exodus.

Onramper is a fiat-to-crypto aggregator that connects businesses to multiple onramp providers (like MoonPay, Banxa, Revolut, and Stripe) through a single integration. Instead of managing multiple partnerships, APIs, and compliance hurdles, businesses can plug into Onramper once and instantly offer their users the best fiat-to-crypto conversion experience available.

Why it’s important: Most fiat-to-crypto aggregators simply bundle onramps together and leave businesses to figure out which one works best. But Onramper isn’t just an aggregator—it’s an optimization engine. It doesn’t just show users different onramp options, it actively routes transactions to the most effective provider based on real-time data and significantly increases completion rates.

Intelligent Orchestration: Powering Unmatched Transaction Success

Traditional aggregators leave businesses guessing which onramp will convert best in a given region. Onramper eliminates the guesswork with a smart recommendation engine that automatically routes transactions based on:

• Onramp success rates: Selecting providers with the highest transaction success rates in real-time.

• User location: Matching transactions with the most effective local payment providers.

• Payment preferences: Prioritizing frictionless methods like UPI in India, Pix in Brazil, and credit cards in the US.

By understanding what works where and when, Onramper dynamically directs each transaction to the most reliable onramp. This smart routing optimizes local payment methods and bank requirements, boosting your conversion rates and ensuring a smoother, more successful onboarding experience.

Onramper’s data-driven orchestration ensures fewer failed transactions, lower friction, and higher conversion rates—giving crypto platforms a major advantage over legacy aggregators.

The #1 Metric That Matters: Conversion Rates

In fiat-to-crypto onboarding, conversion rates are king. Failed transactions and user frustration kill growth.

Yet many global onramps suffer from low conversion rates. The biggest culprit? Transaction failures at multiple levels:

• Credit card declines: Many banks flag crypto purchases under quasi-cash merchant codes (MCCs), leading to 50–80% authorization failure rates.

• Bank rejections: The user’s bank, the issuing bank, or the acquiring bank may block transactions outright.

• Non-localized KYC: Mismatched identity verification processes create unnecessary friction, causing users to drop off.

• Limited payment methods: Without tailored payment options, users are forced into inefficient, high-failure pathways.

How Onramper fixes this: Onramper’s intelligent, real-time routing engine solves these issues by optimizing every transaction for success.

• Real-time data routing: Analyzes every transaction instantly to route users to the payment method with the highest success rate.

• Frictionless onboarding: Avoids unnecessary KYC roadblocks by aligning with the right local payment method, reducing failures from credit card declines and bank denials.

• Speed optimization: Ensures users receive their crypto instantly—without delays or hidden fees.

"If teams fully grasped the cost and complexity of building ramp infrastructure from scratch, they’d steer clear. The best companies double down on their core product and integrate solutions that just work. Onramper not just streamlines this process, but boosts volumes by ensuring the right solution is used for each individual user."

— Thijs Maas, co-founder & CEO, Onramper

The data speaks for itself. Onramper’s algorithm significantly improves transaction success rates across all regions. Globally, completion rates more than doubled to 54.03%, underscoring the engine’s ability to optimize user flows at scale:

• Asia: Completion rates rise from 24.07% to 42.7%, showcasing the engine’s capability to navigate diverse payment systems like UPI and Alipay.

• Europe: The largest improvement, with rates jumping from 30.26% to 62.96%, highlights its effectiveness in optimizing card-dominated transactions.

The result? Unlock the potential to onboard up to 70% more customers, every single day.

Localized Optimization = Higher Conversions

Crypto adoption thrives on localized payments, but integrating region-specific solutions is a logistical nightmare. Onramper solves this by automatically routing users to the most effective local payment rails, ensuring seamless transactions worldwide:

• India: UPI (15B+ transactions per month)

• Brazil: Pix (79% of digital transactions)

• Africa: Mobile money services, essential in cash-first economies

• US/Europe: Credit cards & instant bank transfers

So what? For crypto platforms, this means onboarding more users, reducing drop-offs, and scaling faster—without the complexity of fragmented payment systems.

Case Study: How Solflare Boosted Volumes by 280% with Onramper

Solflare, a leading Solana wallet, serves millions of users on its browser and mobile platforms. Despite its popularity, its fiat-to-crypto onramp was falling short, offering limited payment options and a high rate of failed transactions.

The Challenge: Solflare was aware of the fact that building and maintaining a custom onramping solution would be time-consuming and resource-heavy. Most wallets eventually face a “build or buy” dilemma (build an onramp solution from scratch or buy an existing solution) but Solflare was one of the few that understood the pitfalls of going the “build” route: maintenance nightmares, constant firefighting, and runaway costs.

The team needed a simpler way to improve their onboarding experience without slowing down other priorities.

The Solution: Solflare teamed up with Onramper to upgrade its onramp. With just a few lines of code, Solflare integrated Onramper’s widget into its app and browser extension. Onramper handled contracts, updates, and maintenance, making the process quick and easy.

In just weeks, Solflare unlocked:

• 130+ payment methods (up from 7)

• Support in 180+ countries (up from 160)

• 18 onramp providers (up from 1)

The Results: Onramper delivered a smoother, more reliable onramping experience, leading to:

• 280% growth in transaction volume in the first month

• 64% transaction completion rate (up from 22%)

• 37.5% usage of local payment methods (up from 5%)

• 85% authorization rate (up from 54.67%)

"We serve users worldwide, and offering suitable onramp options is challenging. User preferences for payment methods can vary significantly across different markets. Onramper simplifies this process for us by connecting us to over 18 onramp providers, each specializing in their respective markets. This ensures we understand and meet our users’ genuine wants and needs.”

— Filip Dragoslavic, Co-founder, Solflare

As crypto evolves, wallets are becoming the key gateway for mainstream adoption. Onramper is helping enhance these wallets to support adoption, offering faster transactions, broader payment options, and higher success rates—all while delivering a seamless user experience.

Aggregators like Onramper transform the complexity of payments into seamless, scalable opportunities. Whether you're a wallet provider, exchange, or dApp, Onramper is the plug-and-play solution for global growth.

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Takeaways for Business Leaders

For businesses and crypto platforms, payments aren’t just a feature—they’re a competitive advantage. The companies that remove friction, localize payments, and make fiat-to-crypto conversions seamless will dominate global markets. Where to start:

1. Stop Treating Crypto as an Experiment—It’s A Massive Opportunity

Crypto payments aren’t a niche play. Look at stablecoins—they processed $27T in transactions in 2024, outpacing Visa and Mastercard’s combined annual volume. And that’s just one piece of the puzzle. Innovations in DeFi, cross-border remittances, and treasury management are opening up entirely new avenues for growth and efficiency.

• For Web3 businesses: Frictionless fiat-to-crypto onboarding means higher conversion rates, more deposits, and lower churn.

• For corporates: By leveraging crypto, brands can slash remittance costs and accelerate international transactions, thriving in today’s interconnected market.

  • Cryptocurrencies like stablecoins cut cross-border costs from 6.65% to under 2%—instant global expansion without banking headaches.

  • Bitcoin is emerging as a key asset reserve, offering a secure store of value and diversification for corporate treasuries.

Actionable step: Start by integrating a fiat-to-crypto aggregator to enable global customers to purchase crypto assets instantly.

2. Don’t Build Payment Infrastructure—Leverage Aggregators

Managing multiple payment rails, banking partners, and compliance across 200+ regions is an operational nightmare. The fastest-growing crypto businesses are skipping the complexity and integrating aggregators instead.

(Hint: Onramper combines 190+ payment methods into a single API, letting businesses accept credit cards, bank transfers, and local methods without dozens of integrations)

3. Optimize for Conversion Rates, Not Just Cost Savings

Cheap transactions are useless if users can’t complete them. Every failed deposit means a lost customer. Conversion rates—not just fees—should be your north star.

4. Make Payments Feel Like Web2 or Lose Users

Your customers expect instant, seamless payments. If your deposit flow feels slower than PayPal, you’re losing business. Onramps should work like tap-to-pay—fast, intuitive, and effortless. The more friction (extra KYC, delays, hidden fees), the more users abandon the process.

Actionable step: Audit your onramp experience. If it takes more than two minutes for a user to buy crypto, your competitors are winning your customers.

6. Expansion Is No Longer a Banking Problem—It’s a Payment Problem

Global payments used to mean opening bank accounts, dealing with currency restrictions, and navigating slow, expensive remittance networks. Now, it’s just about integrating the right onramp.

• Crypto businesses can scale internationally overnight with onramps that handle local payment preferences, compliance, and KYC.

• Instead of dealing with dozens of banking relationships, companies can accept stablecoin payments from anywhere with one integration.

Crypto onramping is no longer optional—it’s a strategic necessity for mainstream adoption.

That’s it for now.

Talk soon,

Marc & 51 Insights

PS: If you’re interested in working with Onramper, reach out here.

—

This report is published in collaboration with Onramper. As the author, I maintain full editorial integrity and the views and insights expressed are my own, ensuring the content remains unbiased and authentic.

I’ll keep it short: 51 can help your Web3 & AI scale-ups to become the go-to name for enterprises & brands. We’ve built the highest-quality growth engine in Web3:

• 70K+ B2B business leaders & direct corporate access to get in front of decision-makers.

• Institutional-grade research & BD execution to deliver high-intent corporate prospects & higher conversion rates

• Sales enablement & GTM strategy to close enterprise deals faster.

Clients include: Avalanche, MoonPay, Near Foundation, and others.

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We just published our big flagship report on The Future of Fan Engagement.

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This is an abbreviated excerpt.

Sports and entertainment are at a turning point. The traditional playbook—ticket sales, sponsorships, and merchandise—is no longer enough. Fans today expect more. They want deeper connections, real value, and a sense of ownership in the teams and brands they support.

In this report, we’ll unpack:

• The shifting fan economy – Why traditional sports business models are leaving billions on the table and how Web3 is changing that.

• Loyalty beyond transactions – How blockchain-powered rewards and digital ownership are redefining fan engagement.

• Case studies from industry leaders – Real-world examples of teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and platforms like Uptop leveraging Web3 to drive deeper fan relationships and measurable revenue.

• The Web3 tech stack – The key tools, platforms, and strategies that make scalable, frictionless fan engagement possible.

• Actionable insights for executives – A playbook for sports teams, brands, and entertainment companies looking to future-proof their fan engagement strategies.

Let’s jump in. 🦈

Watch the Panel with Industry Leaders

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Why Brand Loyalty Matters

Loyalty is nothing new. In the United States, the concept dates back to the early 1800s when merchants began handing out copper coins that could be redeemed for goods or services on future visits.

Loyalty is a tool that businesses use to reward and retain loyal customers. And for almost every business, having loyal customers is better than having non-loyal customers.

No business can make money on customers who are chronic switchers. Loyal customers spend more, more frequently, and for longer. The numbers don’t lie: Keeping an existing customer is five to 25 times less expensive than acquiring a new one.

Brand loyalty goes beyond a simple preference. It’s a deep commitment, where customers consistently choose one brand, even when competitors offer similar products or services.

Loyal customers don’t just buy—they:

• Make repeat purchases: Trust drives consistency. 45% of loyal customers stay loyal, even after a bad experience. Mature brands derive more than 85% of their growth from their most loyal customers.

• Spend more: Loyal customers are willing to pay a premium. A 5% increase in customer loyalty correlates with a 25% increase in profit.

• Stay engaged: They interact with the brand beyond just transactions.

• Advocate: They recommend the brand to others, expanding its reach. In fact, 86% of loyal customers will recommend a brand.

Loyalty isn’t just about retention—it’s a growth strategy.

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The New Fan Economy

Sport Clubs Are Sitting On A Goldmine

The best loyalty programs print money — sports teams are missing out. Programs like Delta SkyMiles generate billions through partner rewards networks, often outpacing the airline itself in profitability. Sports teams could do the same—but they’re stuck in outdated discount-based models that only reward their most loyal customers instead of monetizing their entire fanbase.

Take clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid, and the Golden State Warriors. These teams command millions—sometimes billions—of global supporters. Yet, their monetization strategies remain anchored in ticket sales, merchandise, and sponsorships that primarily cater to local or hardcore fans, leaving millions of casual and digital-first fans untapped.

Sports fans aren’t just spectators—they’re high-value, deeply engaged consumers. The real opportunity lies in tapping into the full fanbase—not just the diehards. The data speaks for itself:

• Live Attendance: 1,300+ major sporting events in 2023 averaged 21,500 attendees per game.

• Digital Reach: Sports communities now boast over 6.2B social media followers across platforms

• Massive Sponsorship Growth: Global sponsorship spending on the top 10 competitions hit $8.3B in 2024 and is projected to reach $9.95B by 2030.

Yet, sports teams are failing to translate their massive reach into meaningful monetization. The reason? They’re treating fans like passive spectators rather than digital stakeholders in their ecosystem.

The Fan Economy is Shifting—Sports Must Adapt or Lose Billions

The future of sports isn’t just about what happens on the field. It’s about capturing fan attention at every touchpoint—before, during, and after the game. Brands in other industries are moving fast: FMCG giants and service brands are pouring billions into sports sponsorships, recognizing that fans are one of the most loyal consumer groups in the world. But traditional sports engagement is faltering, particularly with Gen Z:

• Gen Z is tuning out: Only 38% of Gen Z cares about sports, and 27% actively dislike it—a stark contrast to previous generations.

• Live sports is becoming a luxury: Rising ticket prices, parking fees, and concessions are pricing out younger fans.

• Streaming and on-demand content dominate: Fans are no longer willing to commit to full-length games when short-form content offers instant entertainment.

• Social media is stealing the spotlight: 65% of Gen Z identifies as content creators. They want to co-create, interact, and feel ownership—not just watch.

• Cultural shifts: The days of gathering around the TV for a big game are disappearing, replaced by fragmented, hyper-personalized entertainment consumption.

This isn’t just an engagement shift—it’s a massive monetization opportunity.

Case Study: Manchester City’s Multi-Platform Strategy

• YouTube: 8M+ subscribers with a £5/month City+ streaming service for exclusive BTS content.

• Instagram & Facebook: 110M+ combined followers, focusing on highly shareable player and match content.

• WhatsApp: Launched in 2023, 27M followers. Used for cross-promotion, e-commerce, and direct fan interaction.

• TikTok: 30M followers, a key growth channel, leveraging short-form, algorithm-driven content to reach younger audiences.

This strategy isn’t just about reach—it’s about control. Clubs that own their fan relationships can monetize engagement at every touchpoint.

The Playbook for the Next Era of Sports Engagement

The solution isn’t just digital—it’s interactive, personalized, and participatory. The most successful sports teams of the next decade won’t just sell tickets and merch. They’ll create digital-first fan economies that incentivize engagement and reward loyalty beyond attendance. How?

• Turn passive fans into active participants: Gamified experiences, exclusive content, and interactive digital ownership models will redefine engagement.

• Move beyond outdated memberships: Instant, blockchain-powered rewards—whether digital collectibles, early access to content, or VIP experiences—can drive real-time fan interaction.

• Monetize global fanbases with Web3, AI, and real-time engagement tools: A fan in Tokyo should have the same access to exclusive experiences as a season-ticket holder in Los Angeles

The sports industry is at a crossroads. The teams that innovate will capture the next generation of fans and create billion-dollar ecosystems beyond ticket sales and merchandise. The ones that don’t? They’ll watch an entire generation walk away.

Whoever Innovates Fastest Will Dominate the Next Era of Sports Business

Entertainment brands have already figured this out. OTT streaming dominates traditional TV, AI-driven content personalization keeps viewers hooked, and fandom-driven engagement has become a revenue machine.

The sports industry must borrow from gaming, entertainment, and Web3 to build always-on engagement models—or risk falling behind. The future of sports fandom isn’t just about watching—it’s about participation, interaction, and ownership. The teams that embrace this shift will unlock billions in untapped revenue. The ones that don’t? They’ll lose an entire generation.

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Uptop: Building Loyalty Ecosystems

Traditional Loyalty Systems slow with costly integrations between brands. Delta and Starbucks have to build custom, bilateral integrations just to exchange rewards. Blockchain eliminates that friction—partners can plug in instantly, no middlemen required. Next-generation loyalty systems create an open ecosystem where clubs, fans, and sponsors connect seamlessly.

Enter Uptop. Built on Avalanche, Uptop transforms sports fandom by creating a scalable, blockchain-powered rewards ecosystem where fans earn, own, and trade digital assets. Instead of outdated, locked-in point systems, Uptop gives fans real stakes in the teams and brands they support

For clubs, the real money isn’t in ticket sales or merch—it’s in creating an open rewards network where brands, teams, and fans interact seamlessly. McDonald’s sponsors the Cavs? Now those same loyalty perks work with Real Madrid. One seamless system, endless monetization opportunities.

Here’s how it works:

• Rewarding Engagement: Fans earn valuable rewards—NFTs, branded tokens, exclusive experiences—for everyday interactions and purchases.

• Real-Time Insights: Uptop’s platform gives brands access to actionable data, helping them personalize offers, boost fan spend, and track ROI.

• Blockchain-Powered Ownership: Using Avalanche blockchain to create a scalable, open-loop rewards ecosystem, rewards are owned by fans—redeemable, tradable, and saved for long-term value.

With Uptop, fans aren’t just getting rewards—they’re gaining a stake in the brands they support. This shift from passive consumer to active participant creates stronger fan loyalty and more meaningful engagement.

For brands, Uptop offers a direct path to deeper fan relationships and measurable revenue. Real-time analytics and ROI tracking ensure that every engagement is valuable, allowing teams to fine-tune strategies and increase profitability.

What it tracks:

• Purchase Frequency: How often fans spend at partner locations

• Spending Habits: Top categories like groceries, restaurants, or retail

• Engagement Trends: Online vs. offline interactions and reward redemption

• Proof of Fandom: On-chain badges validate and reward loyal supporters

The Result:

• Year-round loyalty—even in the off-season

• Data-backed sponsorship decisions

• Sustainable, scalable fan engagement through blockchain

By continuously refining rewards structures and tapping into referral networks, Uptop ensures year-round engagement, boosting loyalty even during the off-season and providing teams with a sustainable, data-driven engagement model using blockchain technology.

Uptop’s Differentiation from Traditional Loyalty Solutions

• Open-Loop vs. Closed-Loop: Unlike traditional loyalty programs, which are siloed and limited to a single brand or ecosystem, Uptop’s open-loop system enables multiple partners to participate, creating broader utility and year-round fan engagement.

• Transaction-Based Insights: Traditional sponsorships rely on impression-based data. Uptop shifts the focus to real transactions, providing teams and sponsors with high-fidelity data on real spending and conversions, making partnerships more impactful and measurable.

• Seamless, Easy-to-Use Platform: Uptop eliminates the friction common in Web3 solutions by allowing fans to link their existing payment cards. There’s no need for crypto wallets or tokens, making the platform accessible to mainstream users and easy for fans to adopt.

• Focus on Sports Fandom: Uptop is tailored specifically to sports teams and leagues, capitalizing on the emotional connection fans have with their teams. This niche focus sets Uptop apart from generic loyalty platforms and ensures more meaningful engagement.

However, the success of open-loop models depends on strong partner networks. While Uptop has successfully onboarded many local, regional, and national brands, securing buy-in from additional partners—especially in smaller markets or with smaller teams—remains an ongoing challenge.

With clear communication and value generation, Uptop helps brands transform fan engagement into measurable sponsor ROI, driving incremental spend through data-rich, conversion-based rewards.

Case Study: How Cleveland Cavaliers boosted fan spend by 40% & generated 1M+ transactions in two months

The problem: The Cleveland Cavaliers wanted to deepen fan engagement and loyalty beyond the game—connecting fans with the team in meaningful ways throughout the year.

The solution: Partnering with Avalanche and Uptop, the Cavs launched Cavs Rewards, a blockchain-powered fan loyalty program that enhances the fan experience with real-world value and rewards.

“We’re building what hasn’t been done before—a scalable, blockchain-powered loyalty network where teams, brands, and fans interact seamlessly. If McDonald’s sponsors the Cavs, that same rewards system works for Real Madrid. One system. Infinite monetization opportunities.”

— John Timoney-Gomez, Co-Founder, Uptop

Here’s how Uptop elevated the fan experience:

• Convenience: Fans can link their credit or debit cards to automatically earn loyalty points on everyday purchases.

• Reward Variety: Points can be redeemed for tickets, VIP experiences, team merchandise, and exclusive autographed memorabilia.

• Seamless Integration: Uptop integrates directly with the Cavs’ ecosystem, powering the NBA’s first open-loop rewards program and connecting fans to affiliate brands in the community, from grocery stores to local restaurants.

Started on October 25, 2024, every Cavs Rewards member gets a blockchain-powered wallet, automatically storing their engagement history. This data is gold—it enables brands to target, reward, and engage fans like never before. Uptop takes fan engagement beyond the arena, enabling the Cavs to track and monetize fan spending off the court. Unlike traditional loyalty programs, Uptop’s open-loop system captures fan activity at scale.

Results So Far:

• 1M+ transactions rewarded in just two months

• 40% increase in member spend at participating sponsor locations

• Six-figure ROI for the Cavs, with projections to reach seven figures as the program matures

• Thousands of fans are participating, with multiple affiliate brands—from grocery chains to quick-service restaurants—on board.

The sports industry is a sleeping giant. The Cavs didn’t decide to build on blockchain—they just needed a way to monetize digital fan engagement. Uptop had the answer, and now they’re pioneering a model that could redefine sports loyalty worldwide.

The best part? Everyone wins: club, fans and partners. Uptop's innovative approach to fan loyalty has proven to be highly effective in driving engagement for partners:

• Open-Loop Rewards Model – Just like airlines sell miles to businesses, Uptop lets local merchants (restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores) buy Cavs-branded points. Fans earn rewards by shopping, extending engagement far beyond the game day.

• Seamless Card Linking & Purchase Tracking: Fans simply link their existing debit or credit cards to Uptop. Purchases at partner locations automatically accumulate loyalty points, making the process frictionless and encouraging continuous engagement.

• Gamification & Digital Badges: Uptop introduces exclusive on-chain achievement badges that recognize different tiers of fandom. These collectible badges give fans bragging rights and enhance their sense of recognition and status within the community.

• Referral Incentives: Uptop also encourages fans to refer friends, amplifying the network effect. Each referral increases program adoption, creating a growing, engaged community.

The sports industry isn’t waking up to blockchain because of hype—it’s waking up because the technology delivers. Uptop didn’t choose blockchain for buzzwords; they chose it because it’s the most strategic way to build a fan engagement program that actually works. Better data tracking, seamless scalability, and a frictionless digital experience—blockchain makes it all possible.

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How Web3 Is Reshaping Fandom

In 2024, sports teams leveraged blockchain to attract and engage the next generation of fans. Major partnerships are proving that Web3 is more than hype—it’s the future of fan engagement.

• Golden State Warriors x Coinbase: Bringing fans on-chain with exclusive experiences, giveaways, and crypto-powered engagement at Chase Center.

• Coinbase x Canadian Football League: Elevating the 111th Grey Cup with crypto-driven rewards and unique digital experiences.

• Sheffield United x Maneki: Featuring crypto branding on kits and integrating digital fan engagement for the 2024-25 season.

Example 1: ATP Tour

In November 2024, the ATP Tour launched Momentum, offering fans 15 free, match-specific digital collectibles at the ATP Finals. These data-driven NFTs use match metrics to visualize player momentum, blending storytelling with fan engagement—no crypto jargon, just exclusive digital experiences.

• 75K participants

• Fans returned five times during the event

• 25K fans claimed all 15 items

• 87% opt-in rate for marketing

“It's tough to say if (Web3) is overhyped when we haven’t seen that many sticky and sustainable use cases yet. For us, Web3 is a pragmatic tool to solve a clear business problem—not about dropping random NFT collections to extract value from audiences”.

— Mark Epps, Director Communications & Web3, ATP Tour

Impact: Direct to Fan Connection. Web3 offers secure, transparent transactions and personalized experiences, removing intermediaries and empowering fans with ownership of digital assets.

Example 2: New York Red Bulls & Sports Illustrated

SI Tickets and the New York Red Bulls agreed to a historic 13 year deal, encompassing stadium rights and exclusive blockchain ticketing partnership. The venue is now known as Sports Illustrated Stadium, ushering in a wave of innovative fan experiences, including a blockchain-based ticketing system starting in 2026.

• Blockchain: SI Tickets leverages the Avalanche blockchain to provide secure, dynamic digital tickets that in turn will enhance fan engagement and personalized content and live perks.

• Enhanced Fan Experience: New features include a Sports Illustrated Fan Cover experience, a 1,000-person Club SI, and exclusive SI-specific entertainment.

This marks the first blockchain-based ticketing partnership with a major team in the US.

Example 3: Tixbase & Passo

Tixbase, a blockchain-powered ticketing platform, entered a 5-year exclusive partnership with Passo, Turkey’s leading event ticketing company.

They’re addressing key issues in the ticketing industry, including fraud, transparency, and secondary market regulation, managing over 25M tickets annually via its Avalanche-based blockchain, Tixchain.

Impact: Ticketing. Blockchain technology is transforming ticketing by ensuring authenticity and reducing fraud, while also enabling secondary markets for ticket sales.

Example 4: Coachella

Coachella has launched Coachella Quests, a loyalty game powered by Avalanche, blending physical and digital festival experiences to boost fan engagement and loyalty.

Festival-goers can earn NFTs and XP points by completing virtual and on-site tasks, like scavenger hunts or interacting with Coachella’s Discord.

These digital rewards unlock exclusive perks—from VIP access to unreleased music—and culminate in the chance to win a rare Coachella Key NFT with free 2025 festival passes.

Coachella is reinventing fan loyalty by using NFTs and blockchain to build deeper connections and gather insights to enhance future experiences.

Impact: Loyalty. Blockchain-based loyalty programs create transparent and engaging reward systems that enhance fan experiences.

Example 5: Watford FC

Watford FC made history as the first major English football club to offer digital equity through blockchain. Partnering with Republic, the Championship League club has launched a tokenized equity sale via the Avalanche network, allowing fans to own a piece of the club.

• Fans become stakeholders: Purchase equity in the club using fiat currencies (USD/GBP), not just crypto.

• Exclusive benefits: Token holders gain access to VIP experiences and are eligible for discretionary dividends.

• Future token trading: The club plans to enable trading of these tokens, unlocking new liquidity opportunities.

This goes beyond loyalty programs by offering tangible ownership and potential financial returns.

Impact. Community-Powered Ecosystems. Clubs are moving towards fan ownership, allowing supporters to buy digital equity or participate in cooperative models.

…

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Feature.io: Connecting Fans to Content

Similar to sports, blockchain-powered rewards, interactive content, and real-time engagement are deepening audience participation—and they’re unlocking entirely new revenue streams.

Sports clubs and brands are spending millions on advertising, sponsorships, and content — but do you really know who’s engaging?

Fan engagement is broken. Brands spend billions on ads that fans ignore. Teams struggle to monetize beyond ticket sales. QR codes? Dead on arrival.

Feature.io solves the last-mile problem of fan and viewer engagement by turning passive audiences into trackable, monetisable customers using Smart Content™ technology and the Avalanche blockchain. No QR codes, no extra steps—just instant, frictionless rewards.

In short: Every viewer interaction turns into a monetizable and trackable moment.

Next-Level Engagement

Sports teams and entertainment brands benefit from deeper fan connections and new revenue streams through premium ad placements that guarantee real-time engagement. Media platforms leveraging Feature.io can unlock higher CPM rates by offering brands verified audience interaction metrics, something traditional digital advertising cannot match:

• New Revenue Channels: Feature’s tokenized rewards and blockchain verification turn every watch into monetizable engagement, actionable insights, and fan retention.

• Seamless Brand & Fan Connection: Advertisers and sponsors get precise, verifiable audience data, improving campaign ROI and unlocking scalable, personalized rewards ecosystems.

• Real-Time Triggers: Sports teams can use stadium presence & streaming behaviours for instant offers.

In short: Feature treats moments and content as a dynamic, programmable asset. Every interaction becomes new revenue, real-time insights, and provable loyalty. This is the next frontier of the engagement economy.

Example: Instand Fan Rewards at Concerts & Music Festivals

• You’re at Coachella, watching Drake perform. Before his final song, a push notification pops up: “Vote for Drake’s encore song & win OVO merch!”

• You vote, and Feature.io instantly sends a 10% discount to your festival app.

• Bonus: The next day, you get a VIP early access code for Drake’s upcoming tour.

Feature.io connects with the official festival app (e.g., Coachella App). Since fans scan their tickets at entry, the system knows who is inside. Instead of just entry, a ticket unlocks interactive perks (exclusive rewards, merch, VIP access). This increases ticket demand, making fans more willing to buy official passes rather than risk scalpers.

This level of first-party engagement data is a game-changer for advertisers and sponsors, who can now prove ad effectiveness and retarget engaged audiences with precision.

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Case Study #1: Netflix: Love, Death & Robots Activation

Digital scavenger hunt connected to the Netflix series “Love, Death + Robots”.

Challenge: Boost viewer engagement in a measurable way.

Solution: Feature integrated Web3-powered rewards into Netflix’s campaign for Love, Death & Robots, incentivizing viewers with NFTs as they engaged with the show.

Results:

• 100M impressions in 60 days with a sub-$250K investment.

• ROI through smart content integration and audience insights.

• Actionable data on viewer behaviors to refine future campaigns.

Case Study #2: Lollipop Racing: Porsche & Mobil 1 Partnership

Streamed series of an interactive fantasy motorsport game. Created by Feature and written and executive-produced by The Fast and the Furious creator David Ayer, Lollipop combines a traditional episodic series with an interactive strategy game that enables fans to engage with each race and impact the story as it unfolds.

Challenge: Drive fan participation in a branded event.

Solution: Feature gamified rewards for fans interacting with Lollipop Racing content, offering blockchain-backed incentives.

Results:

• 5M+ impressions and 2M+ views.

• 78% reward engagement rate.

• 6.8% viewer-to-user conversion, demonstrating high user retention and participation.

Takeaways:

For brands

• Connect through push notifications based on content interaction

• 60%+ engagement vs traditional ads (~2%)

• Know who engaged and who converted

• Segment and re-engage fans who interacted

For teams & platforms

• More revenue: Feature-enabled ads command e premium

• Monetize beyond sponsorships

• Enhance fan experience through gamification

The Web3 Tech Stack

Loyalty programs are evolving—and blockchain is making them faster, cheaper, and more scalable. Uptop and Feature leverage Avalanche blockchain to power next-gen loyalty platforms, ensuring seamless, cost-effective engagement for fans and brands.

Understanding the Tech

• Blockchain: Automates reward distribution via smart contracts, creating seamless integrations between loyalty partners.

• Tokens & NFTs: Represent ownership, access, and rewards—fully interoperable and tradeable. They also contain a ton of data for brands.

• Wallets: The place where users store and access their tokens.

Vendor Spotlight: Avalanche Blockchain

Leading “layer 1” blockchain for consumer applications.

• Performance & Scalability: Avalanche handles transactions with near-instant finality and low fees, enabling millions of transactions and rewards at minimal cost—critical for consumer-scale adoption.

• Customizability: Avalanche supports custom Layer 1 blockchains allowing you to own your stack with tailored governance and regulatory compliance, offering flexibility for Enterprises beyond single-chain platforms.

• Multi-Chain Architecture: Avalanche’s design allows parallel chains to operate independently while communicating seamlessly, ensuring efficiency and scalability.

• Developer Support: A thriving ecosystem ensures fast deployments and frictionless user experiences.

Brands that build on Avalanche: Coachella, Sports Illustrated Tickets, Suntory, Cleveland Cavaliers, Konami, SK Planet, Solo Leveling, Maple Story.

Contact the Team

Key Take-Aways For Execs

Brands and corporates have experimented a lot in Web3, but building lasting consumer loyalty remains a challenge. While token-gated communities, NFTs, and blockchain integrations have shown potential, many initiatives fail to go beyond novelty. Here are a few takeaways that can help brands strategize focusing on personalization, community-driven experiences, and actionable rewards:

• Deliver instant gratification: Fans respond to immediate rewards. Offer perks like discounts, exclusive content, or limited-edition collectibles directly after purchases or interactions.

  • Pro Tip: Use QR codes, NFC technology or instand notifications (cf. Feature.io) at stadiums to trigger real-time rewards for attendees—like a free snack or exclusive merch access.

• Build a community: Loyalty isn’t just about points—it’s about creating a sense of belonging. Build a membership model where fans feel like part of an exclusive community, with unique perks like behind-the-scenes access or live Q&A sessions with players or entertainers.

• Turn consumer loyalty to brand loyalty: Turn consumer loyalty into brand loyalty by aligning your rewards with your brand’s core values and story. Offer perks that resonate emotionally, like exclusive content, early access to products, or branded experiences that deepen the connection.

  • Pro Tip: Use loyalty programs to tell your brand’s story—every reward should reinforce why consumers chose you in the first place.

• Trace each touchpoint and utilize data: Create touchpoints that keep fans engaged during the off-season, like digital watch parties or interactive social media campaigns. Analyze purchase patterns, event attendance, and digital interactions to tailor offers. Fans are more likely to engage when they feel the experience is built just for them.

• Experience over product: Prioritize meaningful social experiences over products. Fans remember how they felt more than what they bought. Create shared moments—like live events, fan challenges, or interactive content—that build emotional connections and deepen brand affinity.

  • Pro Tip: Design experiences where fans collaborate or celebrate together. A strong sense of belonging drives loyalty far beyond individual purchases.

The future of fan engagement belongs to those who move beyond transactions and build lasting, data-driven connections—because in the new era of sports, loyalty isn’t earned, it’s engineered.

— Marc & team

Ready to build?

Reach out to the best-in-class team at Ava Labs (Avalanche Blockchain) to get started.

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Entire industries are being forced to recalibrate in real time. If you’re not paying attention, you’re already behind.

We put this report together with the CEO of OGroup, Maja Vujinovic, to save you time and cut through the noise:

• The Evolution of AI: From Transformers to Multimodal Models

• The AI Compute Race: Cost, Scalability, and Infrastructure Needs

• The Shifting AI Business Model: From Chatbots to Autonomous Agents

• Where Capital Will Flow Next

• Regulatory Pressures and Geopolitics

• AI’s Billion-Dollar Opportunities: What Comes Next?

• Future Predictions

Let’s jump in🦈.

Foreword: AI’s Real Edge

Who Wins, Who Loses, and What Comes Next?

AI is no longer an experiment—it’s a reckoning. Some companies will harness it to dominate their industries. Others will spend billions and see no return. The question isn’t who has the best model, but who is building AI that actually delivers competitive advantage?

Billions of dollars are flooding into AI, yet many enterprises still struggle to turn it into true business value. Hedge funds use AI traders, law firms automate contract review, and large corporations optimize workflows—but which companies will use AI to reshape entire industries? AI’s true competitive advantage lies in its ability to drive revenue, not just efficiency.

But the battle isn’t just corporate—it’s geopolitical. Compute power is the new oil. Nations are scrambling to secure access to critical compute power. China’s DeepSeek-V3 proves it can build world-class AI without U.S. chips. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are buying their way into AI dominance. Meanwhile, Europe’s heavy-handed regulation might protect consumers but could also stifle innovation. Where does that leave Africa and Latin America? Are they the next AI markets—or just the next digital colonies?

For corporate leaders and investors, the real opportunity is not in owning AI models but in owning AI distribution and utility. The companies that will win are those that:

• Turn AI from a cost-cutter into a revenue driver—Who’s using AI to build entirely new business models, not just replace workers?

• Bet on industry-specific AI, not just general models—The next AI unicorns won’t build chatbots—they’ll build AI that revolutionizes supply chains, finance, and legal work.

• Control AI distribution, not just development—The real power lies in who gets AI into businesses at scale, not who trains the largest model.

The AI investment landscape is shifting. Capital is moving away from compute-heavy, inefficient models and toward leaner, more effective AI with measurable impact. The next phase of AI dominance will be defined by who delivers AI that businesses, consumers, and governments can’t afford to ignore.

This paper isn’t just about what’s happening in AI—it’s about who will win, who will lose, and where the next wave of AI-driven business opportunities will emerge—and challenges you to think beyond the hype.

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Read more

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This is our first big report on AI agents and how they intersect with crypto. Use this as a tool for your busy friends to show them what’s going on. We also launched a newsletter called “51x” on AI x crypto where we go deeper and share all the alpha. Subscribe as long as it’s free!

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Today, we will unpack:

• Agents in Web2 & Web3: Filtering signal from noise

• The trillion dollar opportunity of AI agents

• The most important frameworks & agents in crypto x AI

• Crypto x AI: The Perfect Marriage?

Let’s jump in. 🦈

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TLDR

The integration of AI and blockchain is creating a groundbreaking new category of technology: AI agents. These autonomous digital entities extend the capabilities of traditional AI systems, enabling them to act independently, make decisions, and engage in complex interactions, including commerce, without human intervention.

By 2026, AI agents will evolve from today's task-specific tools into autonomous entities capable of complex decision-making, financial transactions, and cross-agent collaboration. When paired with blockchain’s decentralized infrastructure, AI agents unlock opportunities for secure, transparent operations, tokenized economies, and scalable automation. We’re at the beginning of an AI agent economy. Ignoring this trend is like ignoring the early days of the Internet.

Just last week, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, by now the most valuable company, was clear: “AI agents are a multi-trillion dollar opportunity.” And We’re currently witnessing an explosion of AI agent infrastructure.

In Web2, big tech and AI have launched AI agents or announced plans to do so. Platforms emerge to build AI agent workforces such as coding assistants, researchers, marketers, or services agents:

• Salesforce just announced version 2 of “Agentforce” with agents that remember, collaborate, and deliver short/long-term memory, seamless handoffs, and secure teamwork.

• Google launched its “Vertex AI” platform, an enterprise development platform for building and using generative AI and agents, with 300+ counting use cases.

• OpenAI is about to release its ChatGPT “Operator”, an agent capable of executing tasks and assisting users autonomously.

In Web3, frameworks, launchpads, payment rails, and applications are emerging, accumulating billions in value:

• Virtuals Protocol, one of the leading marketplaces for on-chain agents, launched over 15,000+ AI agents in six months, generating $55M in fees and engaging 470,000 token holders.

• ElizaOS, a crypto-compatible agent framework developed by ai16z, has exploded in popularity on Github, accumulating more than 11,000 stars. It’s now one of the most popular open source project in the world.

The total market cap of AI agents sits at around $10B with a good chance of rising to $100B+ if this current cycle continues.

The trend is clear: By 2030, AI-driven automation could add $4.5 trillion annually to the global economy. Adoption is skyrocketing—80% of enterprises are expected to deploy genAI models by 2026, up from less than 5% in 2023.

If you haven’t paid attention, you should start now.

1. Filtering Signal from Noise

With AI driving rapid content generation, by 2025, the world will generate 181 zettabytes of data annually. For businesses and consumers, this tsunami of data presents a critical challenge: How do we cut through the noise, filter what matters, and act on it? How do we make faster, smarter decisions—both online and offline—to stay competitive and informed?

This is where AI agents step in. They mark a significant leap from traditional AI tools, which are largely reactive, require explicit prompts, and operate within narrow parameters. In contrast, agents are dynamic, self-learning entities with reasoning, contextual understanding, and memory. They process and prioritize data in real-time, deliver actionable insights, make decisions, initiate actions, collaborate with systems or other agents, and adapt autonomously by learning from their environments.

Businesses no longer need extensive programming expertise to deploy automation. Non-technical employees can now direct gen AI agents using natural language, democratizing access to AI-driven tools and fostering collaboration across teams.

Some examples:

• Auto-GPT, one of the early prototypes for autonomous agents, demonstrated the ability to break down large tasks—such as creating a new marketing campaign—into smaller sub-tasks, prioritize them, execute them sequentially, and adapt its strategy based on results.

• AutoGen is an open-source framework developed by Microsoft that simplifies the orchestration, optimization, and automation of workflows involving large language models (LLMs). It enables the creation of multi-agent systems where agents can converse and collaborate to solve complex tasks.

• In finance, JPMorgan’s Contract Intelligence (COiN) AI agent reviews thousands of legal contracts daily, a task that once required over 300,000 labor hours annually.

AI agents are a product of our time – poised to become the next digital interface driving productivity and revenue, ready to work 24/7.

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2. Trillion Dollar Opportunity

By combining advanced intelligence with the ability to act autonomously, these agents are not just enhancing existing workflows—they’re fundamentally redefining them. The economic implications are immense: McKinsey projects that automation through AI, including agents, could generate $4.5 trillion in annual global economic value by 2030.

Today, 10% of organizations already use AI agents, more than half plan to use them in the next year, and 82% plan to integrate them within the next three years, according to a Capgemini survey of 1,100 executives at large enterprises. By 2027, agents will reshape work, doubling productivity and contributing to at least 40% of knowledge-based tasks.

Soon, entire business lines need to rethink everything.

Just imagine: Consumers will be equipped with AI agents assisting, researching & buying for them. These agents will autonomously handle mundane shopping tasks by understanding our preferences, budgets, and inventory, ultimately saving time and money for consumers. Brands will deploy AI agents to engage audiences across platforms, deliver customer support, and replace entire workflows.

A few examples in practice:

• LG’s AI Agent: Manages smart-home devices autonomously, patrols homes, monitors pets, enhances security, and improves energy efficiency through advanced robotic and multi-modal AI technologies.

• Klarna’s AI Assistant: Handles service requests, refunds, and returns in multiple languages, performing the work of 700 employees. Achieves a 25% reduction in repeat inquiries, 5x faster task completion, and increased precision.

• Torq’s Cybersecurity AI: Automates alert triaging, incident investigation, and response, resolving 90% of tier-1 and tier-2 tickets while reducing staff burnout and prioritizing urgent issues.

• Commerzbank: Uses Gemini 1.5 Pro to automate client call documentation, significantly cutting processing time and allowing advisors to focus on building relationships and offering personalized advice.

• Five Sigma: Automates claims processing, reducing errors by 80%, increasing adjustor productivity by 25%, and cutting claims cycle times by 10%.

• AES: Deploys gen AI agents with Vertex AI and Claude models to automate energy safety audits, cutting costs by 99%, reducing time from 14 days to one hour, and improving accuracy by 10–20%.

• Suzano: Utilizes AI agents with Gemini Pro to convert natural language into SQL queries for SAP Materials data, achieving a 95% reduction in query time across 50,000 employees.

• Uber: Implements AI tools for customer service, summarizing user communications and surfacing context from past interactions to boost productivity and effectiveness for front-line staff.

• L’Oréal: Developed an AI agent using LangChain and Cloud Run for text-to-text and text-to-image generation, streamlining the creative process and accelerating gen AI application development to save time and money.

See more examples here.

🚀 Work With 51: Scale Your Web3 x AI Corporate Adoption

Our industry OGs, vast network, research team & 70k+ B2B audience help you:

• Co-publish enterprise-grade reports with us, driving traffic and boosting B2B outbound conversion rates.

• Execute a multi-channel growth campaign that delivers better results than anything else in Web3's consumer space.

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Four Areas Where AI Agents are Transforming Workflows

1. Sales: AI agents are transforming sales processes by automating lead generation, qualifying prospects, personalizing customer interactions, and even closing deals. Here are some examples of how companies are using AI agents for sales.

   1. UserGems: Gem-E is an AI-powered sales agent that acts as a lead predictor for sales teams. It analyzes data from various sources, including CRM databases, social media, and web analytics, to identify and prioritize high-quality leads.

   2. Artisan: Ava is an AI sales agent that automates the entire outbound demand generation process. It operates alongside sales teams to find and research leads, craft personalized outbound messages, and engage interested prospects.

   3. Regie: Regie.ai is an AI-powered sales agent that helps sales teams create personalized email sequences, automate follow-ups, and improve overall sales engagement.

   4. 11x: 11x.ai is an AI sales agent that focuses on generating sales content, including emails, proposals, and presentations. It helps sales teams create compelling content that resonates with potential customers.

   5. Lizr: Jazon is an AI sales agent that helps sales teams identify and qualify leads, personalize outreach, and track sales performance.

2. Marketing & Customer service: AI agents are automating content creation, personalizing customer experiences, optimizing campaigns, and providing data-driven insights.

   1. Intercom: Provides a conversational relationship platform that helps businesses build better customer relationships through personalized, messenger-based experiences

   2. Aisera: Offers an AI-driven service experience platform that automates workflows and customer interactions for IT, HR, and other enterprise service departments.

   3. Decagon: Focuses on AI-powered customer service automation, enabling businesses to build intelligent virtual agents that handle customer inquiries across various channels.

   4. Sierra: Delivers AI-first customer service automation to enterprise contact centers.

3. Coding & Software Development: AI agents are rapidly transforming software development, with code copilots leading the charge in adoption.

   1. Tools, like GitHub Copilot, Codeium, and Cursor, enhance developer productivity by automating code generation, suggesting code completions, and assisting with debugging.

   2. Beyond general coding assistance, enterprises are using task-specific copilotslike Harness’ AI DevOps Engineer and All Hands AI that perform end-to-end software development, including pipeline generation and test automation. This leads to faster development cycles, reduced errors, and more efficient resource allocation.

   3. Frameworks like MetaGPT and OpenDevin are further enhancing software development with multi-agent systems, enabling collaborative coding environments. AI agents can also be leveraged for tasks such as code review and codebase migration, further streamlining software development processes.

4. Ops, Workflow Automation & BI: AI agents transform knowledge management by accessing data silos, enabling unified semantic search across emails, messengers, and documents.

   1. Glean makes organizational data easily searchable and actionable.

   2. Beam AI optimizes processes.

   3. Snowflake AI powers actionable insights.

   4. Collectivei transforms internal company data into actionable insights & forecasts with deep learning.

   5. Letta lets companies create, deploy, and manage agents at scale.

General platforms: Lindy.ai, Pyspur, Aui, Lizr, or crewai.com.

Action points for business leaders

1. Data Governance and Security Framework:

Implement a data governance policy that includes strict access controls, data quality standards, and compliance with privacy laws like GDPR or CCPA. Enhance your data platform with tools for encryption, anonymization, and audit trails to build trust and ensure reliable AI outcomes.

2. Build AI Competency

Develop an internal AI training program focused on generative AI. Hire or contract experts in AI model training, bias mitigation, and ethical AI practices. Establish a center of excellence for AI to coordinate knowledge sharing and innovation.

3. Strategic Deployment of AI Agents:

Identify one or two pilot projects where AI agents can significantly impact, such as automating customer service interactions or sales lead qualification. Scale these initiatives based on performance metrics, focusing on ROI, speed, and customer satisfaction. Stay proactive with emerging AI trends. The space is moving fast.

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The AI Agents Stack

3. Crypto x AI Agents

Crypto Al agents represent a novel convergence of Al and crypto, where autonomous Al entities manage tokens, engage on social media, and even influence market trends. By leveraging blockchain’s core attributes—decentralization, immutability, trustless operations, and programmability—AI agents are emerging as autonomous economic entities, revolutionizing how value is created and exchanged.

Some examples:

• Truth Terminal leveraged its memetic AI agent to grow $GOAT token ($1B market cap) by fostering belief systems and incentivizing participation through gamified rewards:

  • In March 2024, Truth Terminal started autonomously posting on X, captivating audiences with its surreal and humorous content. Its influence surged in July 2024 when it received a $50,000 Bitcoin donation from Marc Andreessen.

  • On October 10, 2024, Truth Terminal cemented its impact on the crypto world with the creation of the memecoin “GOAT” (Goatseus Maximus) on the Solana blockchain. The token achieved a staggering $1 billion market cap, demonstrating the AI’s ability to shape market dynamics.

• Zerebro, an AI agent in the creative economy, produces digital music and art, minting them as NFTs. Its first collection generated thousands of USD in revenue, funding its Ethereum validator operations.

• AIxBT: AI xBT, also known by its token AIXBT, is a rapidly growing crypto data aggregator that has gained significant traction, amassing 385,000 X followers in a few months. It leverages AI to provide market intelligence by aggregating data from various sources, including crypto X’s key opinion leaders, to offer insights into market trends and investment opportunities.

• Luna: A TikTok influencer with 500,000 followers, engaging users on-chain.

These agents are built on open-source frameworks or closed-sourced “launchpads” that allow users to easily create “tokenized” agents. In recent weeks, the activity and mindshare around key open-source frameworks has exploded. For example, ElizaOS, developed by ai16z, quickly became one of the most popular genAI open source frameworks on GitHub.

Most of these platforms or frameworks launched tokens, some of them gained 100-1000x in value in recent months and are traded on crypto exchanges.

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The most important crypto agent frameworks & launchpads:

• ElizaOS: Developed by ai16z, ElizaOS is an open-source TypeScript framework commanding ~60% market share. It excels in flexibility and multi-agent systems, allowing for scalable AI applications in social media, customer support, and community engagement. While it boasts robust community backing and better developer tooling, including API references, making it more accessible for engineers, it has a steeper learning curve and is still maturing.

• Virtuals Protocol: A blockchain-based launchpad and framework, Virtuals leverages the GAME framework to enable real-time, adaptive AI agents, particularly in gaming and virtual environments. With 15k+ agents launched, 150K daily API requests and 200+ projects, Virtuals is one of the most popular platforms as it offers no-code tools for easy adoption and exposure for new projects.

• GAME (Virtuals): GAME, by Virtuals Protocol, offers an API-driven, semi-open-source framework optimized for gaming and real-time interactions. Its focus on blockchain integration and no-code tools makes it accessible to non-technical users, although its niche in gaming limits broader utility.

• Rig: Built in Rust, Rig is a high-performance, open-source framework tailored for enterprise-grade AI applications. It leverages modular design and vector store integrations, making it ideal for complex, scalable deployments on Solana. However, Rust’s complexity poses a barrier for less experienced developers, and its community is relatively smaller.

• Zerepy: Zerepy, based on Python, is an open-source framework specializing in creative AI outputs such as social media content, NFTs, and artistic applications. It is beginner-friendly and supported by its association with Eliza but remains limited in scope and scalability compared to broader AI frameworks.

• Vvaifu/Dasha: Positioned as Solana’s counterpart to Virtuals, Vvaifu is a semi-closed-source launchpad designed for rapid AI agent deployment. With its token-burning mechanism and deep Solana integration, it offers streamlined agent creation but lacks the flexibility and multi-chain capabilities of other frameworks.

Most of these platforms or frameworks launched tokens, some of them gained 100-1000x in value in recent months and are traded on crypto exchanges.

Why Tokens?

The presence of corresponding tokens in many AI-agent frameworks stems from their dual roles as technical infrastructure and economic ecosystems. These tokens provide a mechanism to incentivize development, fund ongoing operations, and align stakeholder interests within a decentralized framework. Here’s a detailed breakdown of why tokens are integral to these systems:

• Eliza’s $AI16Z token incentivizes developers to contribute plugins, improve features, and expand adoption. By earning tokens, contributors are financially motivated to enhance the framework. $AI16Z token holders can also vote on feature updates, resource allocation, and partnerships, ensuring alignment with community interests.

• Virtuals Protocol’s $VIRTUAL token rewards projects building agents within its ecosystem, fostering rapid adoption.

• Rig ($ARC) uses its token to attract developers to build Rust-based projects and enhance its Solana integration, ensuring a steady pipeline of innovation.

Similarly, AI agents launched on these platforms come with tokens as well:

• For example, $FARTCOIN, inspired by Truth Terminal: This token incentivized users to amplify the agent’s content, boosting its reach and engagement. The humorous nature of the token attracted a niche but passionate audience, driving its market cap to ~$885M.

• The AIXBT token ($aixbt) functions as a utility token granting access to the AI-powered bot, creating an economic layer that aligns user engagement with the bot’s value.

The most popular agents right now:

These experiments will look primitive to what’s yet to come. Blockchain is poised to become the fundamental infrastructure for an agentic economy, functioning as an API layer that enables seamless interaction and transactions among AI agents via programmable money and smart contracts. AI crypto tokens ($50B market cap) have the potential to capture a significant share of the $3.5T crypto market capitalization.

2025 will be big. Very big.

Crypto x AI: A Perfect Marriage?

The intersection of crypto and AI is rapidly evolving. Four intersections stand out:

1. Decentralized Compute: Blockchain-powered marketplaces for GPUs enable cost-effective AI training and inference.

   • Key players: Bittensor, Akash Network, Gensyn, Render Network

   • Opportunities: Meeting AI inference demand, offering cost-effective solutions, & securing enterprise adoption

   • Challenges: Bootstrapping demand, ensuring reliability, & competing with centralized providers

2. Data Networks: Blockchain platforms let users monetize data while maintaining control and privacy.

   • Key players: Ocean Protocol, OpenMined, Cere Network, Swash

   • Opportunities: Unlocking siloed data value, & empowering individuals to control and monetize their data

   • Challenges: Incentivizing data sharing, ensuring quality & privacy, and clarifying ownership & monetization

3. AI Agents: Crypto-powered programs to automate finance and other personalized services.

   • Key players: Virtual Protocol, ai16z, Olas

   • Opportunities: Automating tasks, enabling decentralized organizations, & unlocking new use cases in key industries

   • Challenges: Building secure agent architectures, defining governance, & interoperability between agents and platforms

Verifiable AI: Blockchain ensures AI outputs are transparent and trustworthy, reducing risks of bias and manipulation.

1. Key players: Modulus, Numerai, Origintrail, Aleph Zero

2. Opportunities: Building trust, ensuring accountability, & reducing black-box AI risks

3. Challenges: Technical complexity, high computational costs, & mainstream adoption

Maja (Maya) Vujinovic

, an early investor in blockchain & AI and CEO ofOGroup, says:

"AI and crypto: A “couple” that simply works better together. Crypto facilitates AI power transactions and decentralized model training while AI enhances crypto usability. Both will profoundly change our financial system.”

The agentic economy refers to a new digital ecosystem where agents leverage blockchain for trustless interactions, secure transactions, and decentralized governance, while AI provides the intelligence to adapt, learn, and execute complex workflows. Together, blockchain and AI enable agents to function as self-sufficient entities, driving commerce, innovation, and collaboration in a fully decentralized digital economy.

5. What’s Next

As AI agents continue to evolve, their impact will be felt across industries, redefining business models, workflows, and economies. The next two years are poised to witness exponential growth in AI agent adoption, while the longer-term trajectory points to the emergence of agent economies that could fundamentally transform traditional commerce and enterprise operations.

In our next report, we’re going to talk about:

• Agent swarms & how you can prepare your business for AI commerce

• The rise of agent economies and where to capture value

• The explosion of agent launchpads and why you need them

• Brands built by AI agents & how you can do the same.

Fasten your seatbelt: AI is going to accelerate faster than we all think.

– Marc & 51x

Download the PDF

Reading List

• 2024: The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise, Menlo Ventures Link

• The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise Q32024, Deloitte Link

• The Post Web, Outlier Ventures Link

• AI Agents Are Taking Over Crypto, Bankless Link

• AI Agents: A New Architecture for Enterprise Automation, Menlo Ventures Link

• AI Agents: Research & Applications, accelxr Link

• AI x Blockchain: Reinventing Data for Corporates with Maja Vujinovic & Scott Dykstra Link

• Building Effective Agents, Anthropic Link

• Crypto's Role In The AI Revolution, Panthera Link

• Demystifying the Crypto x AI Stack, Coinbase Link

• ai16z: the Bazaar of Agents, Teng Yan Link

• The AI Agent Cambrian Explosion, Thomas Pan Link

• The Convergence of Crypto and AI: Four Key Intersections, Multicoin Capital Link

• AI Agnets Will Dominate 2025, Bankless Link

• AI x Crypto: The Next Frontier? Bankless Link

• The Dawn of the Autonomous Agent Economy Link

• The Next Billion-Dollar AI Opportunity: Jansen Teng (Virtuals Protocol) on the Agent Revolution, Bankless Link

• One Billion AI Agents Are Coming (ai16z Creator Interview), Bankless Link

On the surface, 2024 may have felt subdued, but beneath it all, a seismic shift was taking shape. Stablecoins, memecoins, and crypto x AI aren’t isolated phenomena—they’re signs of a larger movement toward decentralization.

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Gaming isn't just fun and games anymore — it's a marketing mega trend.

Over 80% of Interbrand’s Top 100 Global Brands are already tapping into its massive audience with immersive experiences in games like Roblox and Fortnite. 

Meanwhile, the Web3 gaming market is booming, with over 3,100 blockchain-based games and a market cap of $23.5B. 

In this deep dive, we'll explore why gaming has become a must-have strategy for consumer brands and how they can leverage this explosive trend to reach new audiences and boost engagement.

Today we’re going to out to look at: 

1. State of play: Gaming is booming

2. Web3 games: Amplifying engagement

3. Web3 gaming ecosystem

4. Web2 studios going Web3

5. The opportunities for brands

6. Key take-aways

Let’s jump in. 🦈

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1. State of Play: Gaming is Booming

The convergence of consumer brands and gaming is no longer a niche trend.  With billions of active players worldwide, gaming offers an unparalleled opportunity to reach a vast and diverse audience that's deeply engaged with the content they consume and acquire first party data on consumers. 

First, let’s frame the gaming market: 

• Overall gaming market: Expected to reach $189.3B (+2.9% YoY) market size in 2024 and $225B by 2029.

• Gamer demographics: 4 out of 5 gamers are over 18, totaling 3.09B gamers worldwide, projected to increase to 3.32B by 2024.

• Revenue projections: Video game revenue is set to rise from $262B in 2023 to $312B in 2027.

• Regional leaders: Asia Pacific led the market with a 35.26% share in 2023, driven by China and India.

• Mobile boom: Mobile gaming is a major driver, accounting for 45% of the global gaming revenue in 2022, with expectations to surpass $100B soon. The share of mobile gaming in worldwide gaming revenue has increased from 18% in 2012 to 59% in 2021. 

The opportunity: Product placement in games seamlessly integrates brands into the virtual experience. Brands can achieve this through in-game advertising, branded items or characters, sponsored events, or entire branded virtual worlds. On top of that: co-creation and brand building with user-generated content.

By the numbers: Nearly half of gamers (47%) are more likely to buy from brands in their favorite games, and over 50% discover new brands while gaming. Additionally, about 54% of gamers engage with gaming through streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube.

Brand enters gaming: 4 out of 5 of Interbrand’s Top 100 Global Brands are already in gaming / immersive commerce, creating engaging experiences and boosting visibility.

Notable examples include: 

• Nike's 2019 Fortnite collaboration, featuring Air Jordan skins, that kickstarted a trend of gaming brands partnering with luxury fashion. 

• Louis Vuitton's 2019 League of Legends partnership included creating in-game skins and a real-world fashion collection inspired by the game, blending high fashion with gaming. 

• KFC’s 2020 PUBG Mobile event and Travis Scott’s 2020 Fortnite concert also stood out, driving significant player engagement. 

Other brands that successfully integrated gaming into their marketing strategies include Gucci x Tennis Clash, Balenciaga x Fortnite, Wendy’s x Fortnite, Burberry x Honor of Kings, Adidas x Fortnite, and McDonald’s x Pokémon GO.

Noteworthy:

• Roblox: 3.2B virtual transactions, 70.2M daily active users, $1.1B in creator earnings (2021-2022).

• Mobile Gaming: LiveOps (Live Operations refers to the ongoing management, updates, and content releases that occur after a game's initial launch) generated $18.6M in revenue from the top 10 games in 2023.

• Counter-Strike 2: Players unboxed over 400M cases, spending $980M.

• Dmarket: Over 46M transactions after the Mythical Games acquisition.

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📊 Data Drop: Top Brands in Gaming / Immersive Commerce

We have curated a dataset of 150+ of immersive commerce / gaming activations of major consumer brands. Subscribe to PRO to get free access to all the data (at the bottom of the article) 👇

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#1 Case Study: Adidas

Adidas launched the customizable Three Stripe Squad Bundle in Fortnite, featuring Adidas-inspired characters and accessories. 

Zooming in: The Three Stripe Squad Bundle included five unique skins, each priced at 1,500 V-Bucks, along with other items. Watch how it works.

• The bundle allows for extensive customization, including the selection of human and creature heads, color zones, and LEGO-style options.

• It was available in the Fortnite Item Shop from July 23 to July 29, 2024.

Be smart: The take rate (aka the platform fee on sales) on Roblox is considerably higher than the estimated 30% on Fortnite.

Stepping back: Adidas launched its first digital clothing NFT collection, "Into the Metaverse," in December 2021. In July 2024, it released "Adidas Onchain: Summer of Sports," an NFT collection in collaboration with Ethereum L2 Base, followed by a partnership with Manchester United to launch its phygital collection on Roblox. 

Why it matters: By introducing in-game skins and items, Adidas is tapping into a growing trend where virtual and real-world fashion intersect, appealing to a younger, tech-savvy audience. This multi-faceted approach, including NFT collections and collaborations with platforms like Fortnite and Roblox, positions Adidas at the forefront of Gen Z consumer engagement, driving brand awareness, loyalty – and hopefully revenue.

Nike launched the "Airphoria" initiative, introducing exclusive in-game outfits, including Air Jordan-themed skins on Fortnite before, but Adidas’s approach is more streamlines with multiple gaming marketing strategies. 

👉Want to get into gaming and accelerate your growth? Work with us here.

#2 Case Study: OneFootball

OneFootball, Germany’s leading digital football platform, has launched the OneFootball Club (OFC) in partnership with Animoca Brands.

Why it’s important: Built on the L2 blockchain base, it’s the first digital football club designed to recognize and reward the most engaged football fans globally. They boost fan interaction and set the stage for engaging Gen Z, addressing the decline in sports viewership among younger generations.

Zooming in:

• Founded in 2008, OneFootball has over 200M active users, backed by top football clubs worldwide, and partners with over 200 clubs, leagues, and broadcasters.

• Since February, the alpha version engaged 300K+ users, with the next phase launching in July 2024.

Moca Network Partnership: Introducing the .football digital passport to track and reward fan engagement.

New Game: Launched "OneFootball: Striker" on the blockchain-powered gaming platform "Arc8".

They have ventured into web3 before but shut down their AERA NFT marketplace in 2023 due to low user engagement and financial struggles, including significant debt to football leagues.

The big picture: OneFootball is betting on loyalty. They aim to onboard 200M football fans to Web3 through gamification and digital collectibles, integrating Web3 into their Web2 ecosystem.

Their vision? To become the top football marketplace for content, services, and products.

📊 Data Drop: Top Brands on Roblox

We have curated a dataset of 100+ top brands on Roblox and their activation in immersive commerce. Subscribe to PRO to get free access to all the data (at the bottom of the article) 👇

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2. Web3 Games: Amplifying Engagement

Web3 games, or blockchain games, use blockchain to give players true ownership of in-game assets and offer developers more creative options.

These games enhance user engagement and monetization through decentralized elements like NFTs and in-game currencies.

Web2 vs Web3 Enabled vs. Web3 Native games

Web3 enabled and Web3 native games are often used interchangeably:

• Web3 native games emphasize decentralization, user ownership, and interoperability using blockchain.

• Web3 enabled games, a subset of Web3 games, focus on asset ownership and trading and can be centralized and decentralized.

• Web3 native blockchain games align with Web3 principles, while centralized ones use blockchain for specific functions but remain controlled by developers.

Key Features of Web3 Games

Web3 games shift the power from game developers to players, creating a more equitable and engaging experience.

Let’s look at 5 key features: 

1. Ownership: Players in Web3 games own their in-game items, characters, or virtual land as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which fosters a sense of investment and value, driving deeper engagement. Players can earn, trade, or sell these assets, creating real-world economic incentives to participate and play. Example: Players of Axie Infinity own Axies (digital creatures) as NFTs, which they can breed, battle, and trade on the marketplace.

2. Interoperability: Web3 games enable in-game assets to be used across multiple games and platforms, leveraging blockchain technology. This enhances the value and utility of assets, creating a more interconnected and versatile gaming ecosystem. Example: Items earned or purchased in The Sandbox can be used in other Web3 games that support the same blockchain standard (e.g., Ethereum ERC-721).

3. Governance: Development policies, and content moderation. In Web3 games, players influence game updates and policies through decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), boosting engagement and loyalty. Example: The Decentraland community governs the virtual world through the DAO, deciding on land use.

4. Monetization: Web3 games like Play-to-Earn (P2E) and Play-to-Airdrop (P2A) turn gameplay into a potential income source, boosting engagement and drawing a wider audience. Example: In Gods Unchained, players earn cards that can be sold or traded, allowing them to profit from their gaming skills.

5. Transparent and Fair Economies: Blockchain technology ensures transparency in in-game transactions, preventing fraud and manipulation. Example: Games like Gods Unchained and Decentraland build player trust and engagement by securing asset ownership and allowing players to influence the in-game economy directly.

Stepping back: CryptoKitties, launched in November 2017 by Dapper Labs, was the first game to use NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain, introducing true ownership and a play-to-earn model. After CryptoKitties, games like Axie Infinity, Decentraland, and The Sandbox gained traction, expanding the use of NFTs and blockchain in gaming.

Be smart: Financialization in gaming isn't new, but Web3 makes it more transparent and integrated by enabling open economies and property rights for in-game assets, enhancing the overall gaming experience.

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Building a Web3 business OR looking to innovate with Web3 tools? FiftyOne Labs  is your unfair advantage. Powered by FiftyOne Insights, we combine what we know and who we know to help you win:

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3. Web3 Gaming Ecosystem

The web3 gaming ecosystem consists of appchains, Web3 game studios, gaming NFT marketplaces, gaming projects, game tooling, and DAOs. It's built on the foundations of blockchain technology, empowering players with true ownership of in-game assets and giving them a voice in the game's development.

• Web3 games often feature P2E models where players can earn cryptocurrency or other rewards for their in-game activities. 

• Indie games (42%) dominate the Web3 gaming landscape due to their agility, community-driven development, innovation, and financial incentives, while AAA titles (1%) like Illuvium and Ember Sword are still emerging.

• Until Q3 2023, 81 gaming networks (65% gaming-specific) and 223 games were developed, indicating a strong focus on building gaming infrastructure in the Web3 space.

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By the numbers:

• Web3 Gaming Market: Valued $ 4.83B in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 68.3%, reaching $301.53B by 2030.

• Web3 native Games: 30% of dapp activity, 2.1M daily active wallets, Polygon leads with a 429% increase in new daily wallets (1.1 million).

• Daily Active Users: 3M in April 2024, despite market fluctuations.

• Among the top 40 video game companies, 29 have ventured into web3, with 7 (24.1%) actively developing web3 games.

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The Web3 Games Landscape

The Web3 gaming sector, while still in its early stages, is already home to over 3.1K projects, and there is a lot more to come. The space is still in the development phase and many top gaming studios are entering the space slowly. 

• The Web3 gaming landscape is diversifying beyond play-to-earn games, with genres like virtual worlds, collectible card games, and RPGs gaining traction.

• The decentralized governance model is also becoming popular with Web3 games embracing community-driven developments. 

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By the numbers:

• Indie web3 games currently dominate the market at a staggering 94%, with casual, RPG, and strategy genres leading the charge in attracting players with new strategies like P2A.

• Blockchain gaming accounts for 30% of the total Unique Active Wallets in the Web3 industry

• P2A games like Pixels have surpassed 600K DAU with the P2A model, competing with bigger P2E games like Axie Infinity and Splinterlands. 

• The play-to-airdrop strategy has doubled the activity of Polygon and Ronin chains.

Other projects that are gaining traction with P2A models: Illuvium, Nifty Island, Saga, Farcana, and others

What they are saying:

Carlos G. Pereira, Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures, one of the leading VCs in gaming with over $1B AuM: 

“Gaming has always been important for some amount of younger generations for as long as games have been around. But having a platform, proliferation, and game types proliferation has allowed more people to find a game that they love. It's just a media type that people stick with.”

👉Listen to our full podcast with BITKRAFT here. 

Robbie Ferguson, co-founder and President of Immutable: 

“The main blockers to web3 gaming adoption have been infrastructure readiness (wallet creation) and content readiness (game development time). Additionally, the funding that went into web3 gaming over the past few years is starting to pay off, with high-quality games getting published.”

Devil’s advocate: Web3 gaming's slow mainstream adoption is due to the lengthy development cycle of quality games, compounded by evolving Web3 infrastructure and market disruptions, which often misalign with the faster expectations set by early token launches.

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The Rise of “Play-to-Airdrop”

Challenges with the "play-to-earn" model are shifting the focus towards "play-to-airdrop." Blockchain-based gaming is now emphasizing gameplay mastery, skillset, interaction, and engagement.

Zooming in: 

• Game tokens utility: The focus has been shifted towards engagement and increasing value with two newly introduced utilities: Play-to-airdrop and verifier node sales.

• Speculation and experience: Play-to-airdrop's speculative rewards incentivize developers to craft engaging games that retain players while fostering virality through airdrops.

What they’re saying: “Financialization has been around games for a very, very long time. As a matter of fact, every time that we connect a great game to the internet, um there's a parallel economy that emerges of varying sizes.” — Carlos G. Pereira, Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures

The bottom line: Blockchain games are majorly based on the play-to-earn (P2E) model and its sustainability is highly questionable. Play-to-airdrop is a new narrative but not the only narrative that can contribute to the gaming project’s success. It is a better and more sustainable alternative to the P2E model and helpful for developers (especially indie games) to create engagement with the help of token design.

To provide deeper insights, our database includes detailed information on the top 50 Web3 gaming projects. We are continuously expanding the list with added resources. Write to us to gain access to the database. 

📊 Data Drop: Top 50 Web3 Games

We have curated a dataset of top Web3 games with detailed information, incl. user numbers, traction, etc. Subscribe to PRO to get free access to all the data (at the bottom of the article)👇

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Web3 Gaming Investment Landscape

• Over $1.5B was invested in blockchain gaming-related rounds in 2023, with $800 million dedicated exclusively to Web3 gaming

  • In April 2024, blockchain gaming investments soared to $988M, the highest since January 2021.

• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is renowned for their $75M accelerator program and $600M fund targeting AI, VR/AR, and web3 games.

• Sports and Metaverse-related MMO titles have significantly impacted funding activity, attracting over $1B and $990M respectively.

Venture Capital (VC) Investment in Web3 Gaming

• BITKRAFT Ventures: BITKRAFT Ventures is a prominent venture capital firm focused on the gaming industry, particularly in the realm of Web3 gaming and emerging technologies. It has raised $275M for a third fund for early-stage gaming and interactive media companies investments. Once closed, this fund will bring Bitkraft Ventures’ total assets under management to over $1B.

• Animoca Brands: Animoca Brands is a Hong Kong-based company that has emerged as a leading player in the Web3 gaming and metaverse space. They have invested in over 450 companies and projects, including The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, OpenSea and Dapper Labs. 

• Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA): While not a VC firm, BGA collaborates with various stakeholders, including VCs, to promote Web3 gaming. It has emerged as a leading organization in the Web3 gaming industry, helping to drive innovation and adoption of blockchain technology.

Web2 Going Web3

Several Web2 game developers have started exploring and integrating Web3 technology into their existing games to implement in-game digital assets,  enhance player engagement, and offer new revenue streams.

Moreover, some companies are acquiring or investing in Web3 gaming studios to gain expertise and access to this growing market.

Major Web2 gaming studios are venturing into Web3, including Square Enix, Zynga,  and Netmarble Games. 

Let’s look at two examples: 

1. Ubisoft

Ubisoft, a leading video game publisher, has been exploring the potential of Web3 gaming for several years, with a focus on integrating blockchain technology and NFTs into its games and platforms.

• Ubisoft released HashCraft, a Minecraft-inspired blockchain game prototype where players can own and trade in-game assets as NFTs in 2018.

• In 2021, it launched its first blockchain initiative, Quartz, which allowed players to earn and trade NFTs within the game. 

• It officially entered the space with the release of Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles game, built on the Oasys blockchain. The game sold out its free Warlords NFTs in under 20 minutes, generating over $2M in sales, which is now trading on secondary markets.

Upcoming: Ubisoft revealed its upcoming blockchain game, Champions Tactics Grimoria, at Paris Blockchain Week, showcasing gameplay and emphasizing player ownership of digital assets. It is also planning to develop and expand the Quartz platform, integrating it into more games and offering a wider variety of Digits.

Why it matters: As a major AAA game publisher with a massive global audience, Ubisoft's experiments with blockchain-based games, despite community criticism, signal a serious commitment to this technology. Their efforts to create accessible Web3 games, like Champions Tactics (recently partnered with Double Jump.tokyo), which don't require cryptocurrency wallets, aim to bridge the gap between traditional Web2 gamers and the new Web3 ecosystem, potentially accelerating mainstream adoption, and bringing credibility and legitimacy to the sector.

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2. Epic Games: Dipping Toes into Web3

Epic Games, the company behind the massively popular game Fortnite, has been cautiously exploring the Web3 gaming space.

• Epic Games updated its content policy to allow blockchain games on the Epic Games Store, including those that feature NFTs and cryptocurrency mechanics.

• It listed Mythical Games’ Blankos Block Party as its first NFT-based game, which closed in December 2023, to make way for the new Blankos Mobile.

By the Numbers: The Epic Games Store currently has 127 blockchain games listed on the platform, in contrast to its main competitor Steam, which has a zero-tolerance stance on blockchain-enabled games.

Devil’s Advocate: Although 69% of web3 games are free-to-play, however, only 4 out of 10 games are included in mainstream distribution platforms. 

Be smart: The blockchain games are not widely adopted, but they are being watched and definitely listed on Web3 distribution channels. As Epic Games has entered the metaverse with a partnership with LEGO, Tim Sweeney, Epic Games CEO, has made it much clearer, that the state of gaming is going to change. Despite the listing of NFT games, Epic Games has not started developing web3 games but is expected to acquire a web3 game, Shrapnel.

Why it matters: Epic Games is enhancing user experience by introducing Web3 technology to mainstream games. As a leading PC game distribution platform, it shapes industry trends. Through gradual experimentation, Epic Games provides Web3 games with exposure to its 230 million users. 

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The Opportunities for Brands: From Attention to Profit-Sharing

As the gaming industry evolves, brands are moving beyond traditional marketing. They're now taking on integrated roles within games, creating new opportunities for growth and consumer engagement, brand loyalty, and new revenue streams:

• Targeting younger audiences: Brands are aware of their future customers’ preferences. The gaming industry boasts billions of players worldwide and offers a unique platform to connect with them within immersive environments and create brand affinity.

• Acquiring consumer data: With gaming, brands can collect valuable data on user preferences, purchasing behavior, and demographics. This data can be used to personalize marketing efforts, tailor product offerings, and enhance the overall customer experience.

Case Study: Karate Kombat

Karate Combat, a full-contact sports league, has adopted Web3 technology by launching a DAO and its governance token, $KARATE. This approach, combining live-action and CGI with fan-powered tokenomics, enhances fan engagement by removing third-party ads and incentivizing community participation.

So what? 

The big picture: By turning their marketing budget into direct incentives for fans, they’ve pioneered a model that drives engagement and loyalty. Every sport club (and brand!) can adopt this approach, creating a dynamic, interactive ecosystem where fans not only watch but actively participate and profit. 

Punchline: This isn't just a game-changer for sports. It’s a blueprint for any brand looking to foster a deeper connection with its audience. 

We are going to publish a complete case study on Karate Combat next week to our subscribers. Make sure you’re signed up.

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Take-Aways for Brand Leaders

While many brands have successfully ventured into gaming for marketing, some have also faced challenges and ultimately abandoned their efforts. 

Reasons for Failure:

• The games were developed with a primary focus on marketing rather than creating a fun and engaging experience. Example: McDonald’s Treasure Land Adventure.

• Some brands failed to understand the gaming culture and audience, leading to inauthentic integrations and campaigns that felt forced or out of place. Example: Pepsi’s Pepsiman.

• Some brands initially attracted good traction but failed to build a consumer connection due to the lack of a long-term gaming strategy. Example: Wendy’s Fortnite campaign

How can your brand do better? 

Brands need to understand the gaming audience, create engaging and high-quality experiences, and develop long-term plans for community building and sustained engagement. Gaming marketing is multi-faceted and requires experimentation.

The one-off promotional games or campaigns without a long-term strategy can be a one-hit wonder, but will not be engaging for a more demanding gaming community.

One of the great examples is Moster Energy, which has consistently sponsored various esports teams and events but has not expanded its strategies beyond traditional sponsorships. 

On top of that, Web3 technologies can be utilized as a tool to supercharge brand engagement and data collection. 

Example: TON has adopted the same strategy to cater to the Telegram user base through gaming. It has made it simple to integrate branded mini-apps within Telegram and gain traction through games and incentive programs. A brand can create a mini-game for Telegram, reaching almost 1B users, 3x the amount of Roblox.  

So what?

If you’re a brand leader, gaming should be on your radar. Platforms like Zepeto, Roblox, Fortnite, or Telegram have emerged as the next big consumer super-platforms with hundreds of millions of next-gen users. 

This is a massive opportunity for brands to establish new, highly effective engagement and data acquisition channels.  

We’ll publish deep dives on individual games, their mechanics, and how brands can take advantage of that. Make sure to be subscribed to receive it in your inbox:

📊 For access to all our research data, subscribe to PRO below. 👇

That’s it for now. Thanks for being part of the journey. 
Talk soon,

– Marc & Team

PS: Follow us on Linkedin and X for more updates.

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In short: This integration grants PayPal users access to 110+ cryptocurrencies, and gives MoonPay users (and users of MoonPay partners across the crypto ecosystem) the ability to seamlessly fund their purchases through their PayPal accounts. This is different than any other solutions which limit PayPal purchases to PYUSD, BTC, or ETH.

Are you getting it? 

Yes, this also means that you can now buy bitcoin, ethereum, solana and more with PayPal. 

Plus it solves one of crypto’s biggest problems: Easy and seamless access. 

It’s massive. And today, we’re going to unpack this: 

• Key highlights

• Who’s MoonPay? 

• MoonPay x PayPal: Why it matters

• What’s Next

Let’s dive in. 🦈

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Key Highlights

MoonPay, a leading crypto on-ramp and off-ramp provider and a blockchain payments infrastructure firm, has become the bridge between traditional money and crypto with over 20M verified accounts.

Just in the first half of 2024, MoonPay onboarded 550K new crypto users to the ecosystem. 

Their latest move? Partnering with PayPal. 

Highlights: 

• MoonPay is the first and only on- and off-ramp provider to integrate PayPal, offering a frictionless crypto experience for all PayPal users in the U.S., UK and EU to buy, sell or swap.

• Unlike other solutions which limit PayPal purchases to PYUSD or ETH, with MoonPay, PayPal users now have the freedom to buy and sell 110+ different cryptocurrencies

Significance: This partnership allows 426M PayPal users to enter the crypto ecosystem and buy, sell, or swap 110+ different cryptocurrencies through PayPal’s platform. 

Plus: It streamlines transactions for new users who already have a PayPal account. Existing PayPal users won’t need to manually input their card information when they buy cryptocurrency on MoonPay or partners across the ecosystem. 

There’s more: Other crypto companies including Coinbase, MetaMask, and Phantom have also integrated PayPal into their payment offerings. MoonPay, however, is the first on and off-ramp provider to integrate PayPal and extend this functionality to its vast partner network of over 300 wallets and websites, including Uniswap, SafePal, BitPay, and others, offering a competitive edge in the market. 

This essentially directly facilitates traditional finance players to connect to large parts of the crypto ecosystem through MoonPay. 

Let that sink in. 

But wait, how does this work exactly? 

Let’s break it down: When someone buys cryptocurrency on Uniswap using PayPal, MoonPay acts as the bridge between the traditional financial system and digital currencies: 

• MoonPay facilitates the entire payment process, selling a cryptocurrency to the PayPal user, which they can swap on Uniswap.

• MoonPay ensures that the user’s initial purchase complies with all relevant regulations, including Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks.

Be smart: The PayPal and MoonPay partnership does not directly integrate crypto purchases into the PayPal app. But MoonPay's extensive network allows platforms like Uniswap, MetaMask, and BitPay to offer PayPal as a payment option instantly through MoonPay. Competitors like Coinbase have not done this.

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Who’s MoonPay?

Founded in 2019 by Ivan and Victor, MoonPay has become a favorite among crypto consumers due to their focus on simplifying the experience for users. 

Here’s how they’re doing it:

• User-Friendly App: Buy, Sell, Swap and manage multiple assets in one app.

• Cross-chain Swaps: Efficient two-step process that minimize gas fees and number of operations needed to swap over 1,500 trading pairs.

• MoonPay Checkout: Allows users to buy NFTs with just a card on platforms like OpenSea, Magic Eden, ENS, and Sweet.io, expanding market reach and simplifying the purchasing process. 

The numbers prove them right. 

Bird’s Eye View on Performance: H1 2024 marked a record quarter for MoonPay driven by: 

1. Strategic Partnerships: Partnered with some of the biggest names in web3 such as Bitkey, Airtm, Base, Ledger, TonKeeper, and Photon, along with top brands like Adidas, Christie's, Gucci, Mastercard, Nike, and Puma. These partners use MoonPay’s web3 tools for authentication, advanced token-gating, ticketing and more. Each partnership acts like a LEGO piece, connecting and allowing access to new audiences.

2. Regulatory Expansion: Increased global regulatory footprint with a total of 44 Money Transmitter Licenses (MTLs) in the US, including the latest approval in Louisiana and registrations in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, and Canada.  This increased footprint adds substantial value for partners, offering market access without the regulatory headaches.

What drove MoonPay’s momentum?

MoonPay aims to simplify the crypto onboarding process.

They make it easy for consumers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies using familiar payment methods like PayPal, debit and credit cards, bank transfers, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and mobile wallets. This approach has been crucial in attracting new users.

Additionally, MoonPay's integration with over 300 wallets and websites, allows native crypto users to buy crypto without leaving their preferred wallet or exchange interface. This seamless experience has helped MoonPay gain the trust and loyalty of both new and seasoned crypto users.

Keeping up with the market: Recently, MoonPay launched “Web3 Tools” to keep up with corporate adoption.  

• In May, MoonPay launched Web3 Tools, a platform designed to simplify blockchain initiatives for brands

• It combines features like authentication, identity verification, token-gating, collectibles, and ticketing.

• MoonPay has built this platform using technologies from its acquisitions of ethpass, Plex Labs, and Nifty’s.

There’s more: 

• MoonPay Checkout: In response to the growing NFT market, MoonPay launched an NFT-specific checkout solution. This allows brands and marketplaces to offer easy NFT purchases with walletless checkout and integrated payments.

• Mobile App: MoonPay’s solutions are mobile-friendly. Their app, available in 130 countries, supports over 100 cryptocurrencies.

• Regulatory Compliance: MoonPay adheres to all applicable regulatory requirements and has implemented robust AML and KYC controls.

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MoonPay x PayPal: Why It Matters

This partnership is a major milestone.

For the first time, crypto is entering mainstream consumer finance. A crypto application reaching nearly 500 million users with 110+ cryptocurrencies instantly is unprecedented in recent times.

With PayPal's history and reputation in traditional finance, this partnership also adds an extra layer of familiarity and trust.

In short: It solves one of crypto’s biggest problems: Easy, seamless access to digital assets. 

Let’s break this down. Here's why this partnership is significant:

• Unmatched reach: By tapping into PayPal’s user base of nearly 500M people, MoonPay surpasses any other on-ramp provider currently in the market (e.g. Transak, Banxa, Simplex, Mercuryo, Stripe, and Coinbase Pay). 

• Streamlined crypto on-ramp: While not directly integrated into the PayPal app, the partnership allows PayPal users to easily buy and sell cryptocurrencies from MoonPay through all of its partner integrations.

By integrating PayPal, we are enabling consumers to transact with crypto in an already familiar environment and significantly lower the barrier to entry for new users." 

— Ivan Soto-Wright, Co-founder and CEO, MoonPay. 

• Increased accessibility: PayPal operates in over 200 markets worldwide, including many regions with limited access to traditional financial services. However, PayPal is still primarily used in Western developed countries (for example - United States: 278M users, UK: 56M users, and Italy: 22M users). PayPal currently unlocks an older demographic, with the average age of customers being 39 years old which is 8 years older than Apple Pay customers and 2 years older than card customers. In general, older generations, particularly Baby Boomers, are more likely to use and trust PayPal. 

• Data privacy & fraud prevention: Traditionally, buying crypto on external platforms required users to create separate accounts and share sensitive financial information. With the integration, PayPal customers can use their existing accounts and payment methods, eliminating the need to repeatedly provide this information.

• Enhanced trust & security: PayPal's long-standing reputation for security and reliability in the traditional financial sector adds a layer of trust that many crypto-native platforms lack. The PayPal trust factor can boost user confidence in the crypto buying process, especially for those who may be hesitant to share their information with lesser-known platforms.

MoonPay first launched their integration with PayPal in May 2024 for users in the United States. By June 2024, MoonPay expanded to the UK and most of the EU.

Bold Numbers: PayPal is Paying Off

Here’s why this was a smart move for both MoonPay and PayPal. 

MoonPay has: 

• Access to PayPal's nearly 500 million customers

• Higher transaction success rates

• Enhanced security through PayPal's infrastructure

And PayPal benefits from: 

• More choices for users

• Leverage MoonPay's robust security

• Access to 110+ digital currencies and 300+ partners through MoonPay

Let’s look at a more detailed breakdown of MoonPay performance numbers since launching the partnership in May 2024: 

Punchline: This partnership between MoonPay and PayPal is a monumental step in bringing cryptocurrency into mainstream adoption. The integration also leverages PayPal's established reputation in the traditional financial market. 

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What’s Next

Key to further crypto adoption will be easy, regulatory compliant access. 

A major focus lies in simplifying in-app purchases. This trend is seen in Farcaster's partnership with Base, the launch of Solana Blinks, and the integration of Telegram Payments. Recently, Stripe added support for Coinbase Base, to allow Stripe’s network access to faster and cheaper money transfers and payouts. These efforts show a growing emphasis on integrating payment solutions directly into apps, making transactions easier and more user-friendly.

The partnership with PayPal positions MoonPay as a leading on-ramp provider, potentially outpacing competitors like Transak, Banxa, and Simplex due to PayPal's vast user base and established trust.

It also sends a clear message to other payment providers and challenger banks that they need to adapt to the growing demand for crypto services or risk losing market share.

Again: This partnership is one of the biggest and most underrated news stories of the year. 

It allows almost 500M people to seamlessly fund their purchases through their PayPal accounts. 

Boom. 💥

That’s all for now, folks. Thank you for being part of the journey.
Talk soon,

– Marc

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

This article is published in collaboration with MoonPay. As the author, I maintain full editorial integrity and the views and insights expressed are my own, ensuring the content remains unbiased and authentic.

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Despite major challenges, 2023 marked a year of notable progress for the Web3 consumer space:

• Over 40 leading brands of Interband’s Top 100 Global Brands have announced new Web3 activations.

• Among them, brands like Nike and Starbucks are transforming customer engagement and value creation.

Meanwhile, Dematerialzd.xyz has grown from less than …

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What started as a technology called “NFTs”, representing unique digital files that users can trustlessly own and trade over the internet, transformed into a breeding ground for new, consumer-oriented business applications.

Over the last two years, almost 50 of Interbrand’s Top 100 Global Brands started small-s…

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Currently, over 45 start-ups are developing loyalty solutions, with some even building entire Web3 marketing platforms. Salesforce and Shopify have launched their own Web3 offerings for brands.

What has prompted some of the biggest brands to experiment with Web3-based loyalty, where do we stand, and what is its potential?

Today we’ll explore:

• Why loyalty matters

• Loyalty in a nutshell

• The evolution of loyalty

• Web3 loyalty playbook

• Sector snapshot with top brands & start-ups

• Actionable take-aways

• What’s next

Let's unravel this.

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Why Loyalty Matters

Loyalty is nothing new. In the United States, the concept dates back to the early 1800s when merchants began handing out copper coins that could be redeemed for goods or services on future visits. In the late 19th century, S&H Green Stamps emerged as a popular loyalty points system, maintaining its popularity well into the 1980s.

Loyalty is a tool that businesses use to reward and retain loyal customers. It’s designed to enhance the customer experience and build long-term relationships, ultimately benefiting both the customer and the business.

For almost every business, having loyal customers is better than having non-loyal customers.

No business can make money on customers who are chronic switchers. Loyal customers spend more, more frequently, and for longer. Here are some stats:

• Keeping an existing customer is five to 25 times less expensive than acquiring a new one.

• A 5% increase in customer loyalty correlates with a 25% increase in profit.

• 84% of consumers say they’re more likely to stick with a brand that offers a loyalty program. 3 out of 4 members of top-performing loyalty programs changed their behavior to generate more value for businesses. 64% of them are more likely to purchase more frequently.

• 86% of loyal customers will recommend a brand.

• 45% of loyal customers stay loyal, even after a bad experience.

• Mature brands derive more than 85% of their growth from their most loyal customers.

• McKinsey also estimates that 35% are more likely to prefer the brand over competitors, and 31% are more willing to pay a higher price to stay with the brand.

This is why businesses essentially reward repeated transactions (retention), brand engagement.

Common KPIs to measure the success of a loyalty program are

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Eight months later, the Web3 community is again in turmoil:

• NFT markets are tanking. Blue chip collections like Bored Apes, Azuki, Pudgy Penguins, Moonbirds, and CloneX have shed up to 80% of their value in recent weeks.

• OpenSea recently ended mandatory royalty fees for artists, leaving their community wondering how sustainable business models for artists and brands could look like in the future.

• If that wasn’t enough, interest in NFT collections of big brands is at all-time lows:

  • Adidas’s monthly NFT volume is $1k, down from its high of $57m in Dec 2021.

  • Dolce Gabbana’s monthly NFT volume is <$1k, down from its high of $14.8m in April 2022.

“The NFT bubble is finally bursting”, declare the skeptics. “I told you so, remember?!”

We’re in the midst of crypto winter action, folks.

But the situation is more nuanced. Here’s my thesis. 👇

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Why we’re here

Let’s remind ourselves why we’re even here in the first place. I won’t repeat what I wrote here, but here’s a brief.

In their essence, NFTs enable: 

• Digital ownership 

• Transferability

• Permanent data storage

That’s all there is to it. And that’s a lot already. 

This means that if the NFT is stored in a company’s wallet and you can’t transfer it out of your customer account (cf. it’s “non-transferable”), you don’t “own” it and you don’t need an NFT for it. 

It’s that simple.

A quick detour on ownership

What does “owning” mean? 

“Ownership” is a term used loosely, but it has a clear legal definition.

What Web3 natives mean with “owning” an NFT is: You hold the private key of the wallet in which the NFT is stored.

What lawyers mean with “owning” an NFT: It depends. In most cases, you don’t actually own anything. And if you do, it’s complicated. 

An example: Warner Bros recently announced a NFT and AR-based movie experience with its upcoming movie “The Flash”. In the T&C, they write:

“(1) you will Own the NFT associated with that Collectible and (2) you will receive the limited license to the NFT Media associated with that Collectible per the terms in the User License. […] You do not own the NFT Media and you will not have any legal ownership, right, or title to any copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights thereto. […] You acknowledge and agree that the NFT Media is provided under a license and not sold.”

“Owning” just became a lot more complex.

I won't delve into it now, but it's crucial and often neglected. And regularly overlooked. Or ignored. Surprising, given that ownership is a cornerstone of Web3.

For those interested in exploring further, Galaxy offers an excellent primer.

So, let’s keep that in mind: Ownership in Web3 is far from guaranteed. Yet, it’s promise stands.

What brands are doing with NFTs

So, what are brands doing with NFTs? A lot. 

A quick reminder: Almost 40% of Interbrand’s Top 100 Global brands have already experimented with Web3 tech across the full spectrum of brand touch points. 

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Emphasis on “experimented”, as only a handful of brands truly excelled in their efforts (e.g. Nike or Starbucks). 

The most popular use cases include (list of brands is non-exhaustive): 

• Token-gate content, products, or experiences (e.g. IWC Diamond Hand Club, Ticketmaster)

• Augment & incentivise community building (e.g. Adidas & Bored Apes, Lacoste UNDW3, Friends with Benefits, G-Money x Jeff Staple)

• Connect physical goods to virtual counterparts (Dior B33 sneakers, Alo Yoga Aspen Collection, Adidas BAPE, Ambush x Azuki, Dolce & Gabbana, Madhappy)

• Co-create digital goods that are “owned” by users (Nike .SOOSH Studio, Lacoste UNDW3)

• Verify and provenance (e.g. Vacheron Constantin, Dior B33 sneakers)

• Monetize IP (e.g. Gucci, Porsche, Nike)

• Verifiable rarity / limited collections (Prada Crypted)

• Loyalty applications (Starbucks Odyssey, Scotch & Soda, Clinique (Estée Lauder))

Most often, brands use a combination of those use cases.

A plethora of start-ups/agencies have emerged/grown to help brands doing that (e.g. Serotonin’s Mojito, Co:Create, Venly, Decommerce, Arianee, and many more).

Major SasS and e-commerce providers have started integrating Web3/NFT functionalities into their offering (e.g. Salesforce, Shopify).

Ultimately, all those brands aim to increase one/a combination of the following: 

• Brand awareness (top of funnel marketing)

• Customer loyalty 

• Customer engagement

• Revenues 

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What’s in it for the users? What can they do? 

• Collecting

• Receive utility in an ecosystem (e.g. virtual land; coupons; loyalty points; etc.)

• Accessing (e.g. ticketing, proof of attendance)

• Belonging to a community (e.g. membership passes)

• Self express identity & social status 

• Participate & own in co-creation & “own” brand IP (e.g. Nike OurForce 1 challenge)

• Verify provenance of products

• Trading & re-sale

In theory – at least. 

In reality, many challenges remain to achieve consumer mass adoption. No brand has made NFT-based experiences mainstream, and no Web3 app has won over mainstream consumers yet.

The recent buzz around friend.tech, a marketplace that allows users to buy and sell tokenized shares of other users, and the quick growth of decentralized social media protocols such as Lens, hint at Web3’s potential for consumer apps.

But we’re not there yet.

The challenges to mass adoption

In my article “Web3: Beyond the hype” published in January 2023 I said that the biggest challenges to be solved are: 

• UX ❌

• Interoperability ❌

• Scaling ✅

• Privacy ❌

I believe that we’ve solved 1 of 4. 

The good news first.

Scaling ✅

Layer 2s (L2s), chains that extend the underlying layer 1 chain to enhance scalability, are booming:

• In February this year, Arbitrum, one of the biggest L2s by volume, counted more transactions per day than the Ethereum main layer (L1). 🤯 

• Just recently, DeBank, most well-known for its crypto portfolio tracker product, announced its own Ethereum based layer 2 chain built for social.

• Base from Coinbase just launched. 

• Linea, a zkEVM from Consensys, just completed their Alpha mainnet launch. 

• opBNB from Binance just launched. 

And the number of L2’s is likely going to increase in the coming months. 

Layer 2s will be important enablers for the mass adoption of Web3 tech, as they’ll solve scalability while maintaining adequate security and decentralization (not all of them though).

But scalability alone is not enough. We need more.

Now the bad news.

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UX ❌

1. Users still don’t know about Web3 & NFTs

According to a global study, largely 75% of people are completely unaware or don’t know what Web3 means.

Another global study by ConsenSys showed that while 92% are aware of cryptocurrencies, only 8% were very familiar with the concept of Web3. 

I wouldn’t entirely trust those numbers based on the sample size (10-15k respondents). But based on personal experience, that seems fairly accurate.

We still have a disconnect between public perceptions of Web3 and its potential as a solution to issues around privacy, identity, and digital ownership.  

2. and/or they don’t get it (yet). Understandably so!

The UX of interacting with NFTs is still too complicated, cumbersome and non-sensical for the average user. 

In this article, I went through the whole process of purchasing a National Geographic NFT. Without a digital wallet, it took me over 30 clicks – including KYC verification through Blockpass before I could even attempt to purchase an NFT.

Sneaking into a customer’s head being confronted with a NFT-based experience, the same questions come up over and over again: 

• “What’s the difference between a jpeg and this… jpeg?

• “Why do I need to open a “wallet” or whatever the heck this thing is?”

• “Can’t I just keep my loyalty points on my customer account?”

• “Where do I log in with my email? With a password I forget but Safari autofill remembers for me?”

• “Why do I need this?”

Quite a few start-ups are building on onboarding solutions to simplify this process. They allow users to create wallets without private keys or passwords just with an email alone (e.g. Web3Auth, Dynamic, Magic, Tweed, etc.).1

Others, such as Mojito, Arianee, or Whal3s, are building on infrastructure to easily integrate token-gated experiences into existing brand front-ends. This is helpful as users remain within their familiar interfaces.

A brand who simplified the UX quite a bit is IWC (powered by Arianee). Instead of requiring users to install a third party wallet, they created their own wallet that automatically creates a wallet upon opening the app.

No seed phrases, no passwords. And very easy to use.

Moreover, IWC explains the process of joining their “Diamond Hands Club” and earning rewards very well. A user who has never heard of Web3 or blockchain before gets this.

Compared to National Geographic, IWC’s experience is tightly integrated into their brand and customer engagement strategy.

Interoperability ❌

Interoperability crucial for what is commonly referred to as the “open metaverse”. Without it, Web3 is basically worthless.

Lighthouse’s report “The Road to Interoperability” is still the best source I’ve found on that topic. In essence, the idea is simple:

Digital spaces must not resemble the walled gardens of the current internet era, built and circumscribed by Big Tech platforms that prevent the free movement of individuals and their data, assets, and social connections. The promise of an immersive, real-time virtual world can only be built upon technology that allows data exchange between segregated ecosystems.

In short, interoperability enables assets like NFTs to move freely across various chains and platforms, enhancing their value (cf. Transferability)

This means, for example, that I could port an NFT I bought in Decentraland to Sandbox and wear it there. Or that I could take my Adidas virtual gear with me in whatever digital space I go. Or that assets that run on one blockchain can be transferred to another.

Progress is slow, but industry-wide efforts are underway (e.g. Metaverse Standards Forum, OMA3, Metacircle). Recently, Apple and its Vision Pro platform formed the “OpenUSD” alliance together with NVIDIA, Adobe, and Autodesk and Pixar to push a standard format for interoperable 3D tools and data.

Privacy ❌

According to studies, privacy is one of the most important features users expect from Web3. Wallet and on-chain data can be used to:

• Track user behavior for personalized experiences & ad targeting

• Identify illicit activities or transactions

In today’s Internet, giants like Google or Facebook monetize user data collected through “third-party cookies”.

Third-party cookies are small pieces of data stored on users devices by web browsers. They track user behavior and preferences on websites, and are used for targeted advertising.

Many in Web3 argue that the era of “third-party cookies” is ending. 

No more cookies means: no more ad-targeting, i.e. no more monetization of personal data through ads. 

This is an existential threat to business model of modern internet companies like Google, Facebook, or Twitter. It would shift power back to the users, the “rightful owners” of their data.

What’s the alternative?

Instead, brands could target users based on the NFTs in their wallets and past interactions with decentralized apps. This opens doors for a more intimate and granular customer engagement.

Start-ups like Addressable, Absolute Labs, or Safary are already exploring this.

For monitoring transactions and identifying illicit activities, Chainalysis sets the industry standard in on-chain data tracking.

So again, what about privacy? 

In Web3 (at least for now) nothing is private. It’s all pseudonymized. 

Your wallet stays anonymous until it's linked to you, a link that then becomes permanent.

Privacy preserving technologies such as zero-knowledge remain work in progress. You can diver deeper here and here.

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What’s next

Last November, I said that Web3 was rebooting and facing an identity crisis.

Today, we’ve left the worst behind us. Weathering a crypto winter is no small feat. I’ve experienced it once already. It feels daunting and never ending. People are thirsting for positive news.

But the community has come such a long way. Remember that we didn’t even have DeFi, or NFTs in 2019 during the last crypto winter?

That’s how fast the space is moving. 

Now, we’re soul-searching and trying to find answers to:

• How do we make this tech mass-market friendly?

• How does it mesh with the current Internet?

• What apps are actually useful for consumers?

Areas like ticketing, loyalty, digital/physical and decentralized social media have shown promise.

Yet, the challenges remain the same.

With a space blessed with so many smart, passionate, and visionary people, I’m optimistic.

I believe that Web3 is not just a technology but a transformation that's reshaping the Internet and brands around the principles of ownership, community, and decentralization. 

Nothing has changed. 

– Marc

“Wouldn’t You Go to Prison to Help End This War?”

tomorrow 12.1., 3pm ET. The auction will be live and you can access it here.

The NFT was developed together with Edward Snowden and Daniel Ellsberg and pays tribute to Ellsberg’s 1971 release of the Pentagon Papers.

Why “War”? Let’s dig in.

Snowden sold his first NFT named “Stay Free” in April 2021 for $5.1m to PleasrDAO, to fund the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

“Stay Free” combines the entirety of a landmark court decision ruling the National Security Agency's mass surveillance violated the law, with the iconic portrait of the whistleblower, signed by Edward Snowden. 

Why is this symbolic?

Privacy and freedom underpin the core philosophies of Web3, crypto and ultimately Bitcoin. 

The origins of Web3

The idea of a private, state-independent currency originated from the early innings of the “Cypherpunk” movement. Cypherpunk refers to a group of people in the late 1980s and 1990s, who recognized the necessity to protect people's privacy online by using cryptography:

Privacy in an open society requires anonymous transaction systems. Until now, cash has been the primary such system. An anonymous transaction system is not a secret transaction system. An anonymous system empowers individuals to reveal their identity when desired and only when desired; this is the essence of privacy.

Long before Cambridge Analytica, long before the Great Firewall of China, long before the Snowden revelations, the cypherpunks saw it coming:

A regime of online censorship and surveillance that would eclipse the open Internet.

The technical roots of Cypherpunk ideas have been traced back to work by cryptographer David Chaum on topics such as anonymous digital cash and pseudonymous reputation systems, described in his paper "Security without Identification: Transaction Systems to Make Big Brother Obsolete" (1985).1 Over the next several years, these ideas morphed into the cypherpunk movement.

Much the work and writings of that movement would later become the foundation of Bitcoin:

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Bitcoin

In late 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper, titled a "peer-to-peer electronic cash system", to the "Cypherpunks" mailing list. He conceived Bitcoin as an alternative to the current financial system:

The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.

Rooted in cypherpunk history, Bitcoin community was formed around the principles of freedom, transparency, decentralization, and privacy – all of which the current financial system seemed unable to provide.

If you’re not familiar with Bitcoin’s roots, you’ll never going to grasp the full beauty of it.

Here comes Web3 ✨

The vision and power of Web3 is to give power back to the users to own and transact digital assets in a self-sovereign way. 

uh... what?

Here's an example: Lens.xyz (aka. a Web3 Twitter)

Lens is a Polygon based social protocol on which everyone can create their own social interfaces. If you want to build a new Twitter, just build a new interface.

Since users connect with their wallets, they are able to take their profiles and all their data, stored as NFTs, with them.

It transfer full rights and complete ownership of content into the hands of users.

This is in contrast to today's digital world controlled by platform monopolies, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Google, that extract and monetize user data and privacy. 

Kayvon Tehranian, Founder & CEO Foundation:

“The decentralized technologies powering this auction will fundamentally reshape our world — precisely to curb the abuse of power we spoke out against.”

We have a long road ahead, but the vision is here.

Let’s build it.

Onwards! 🚀

– Marc

Further reading:

Beyer, E. J. (2023, January 10). Edward Snowden teams with Pentagon Papers' whistleblower for NFT Auction. nft now. Retrieved January 11, 2023, from https://nftnow.com/news/edward-snowden-teams-with-pentagon-papers-whistleblower-for-nft-auction/

Dixon, C. (2018, October 26). Why decentralization matters. Medium. Retrieved January 11, 2023, from https://onezero.medium.com/why-decentralization-matters-5e3f79f7638e

Johnson, S. (2018, January 16). Beyond the bitcoin bubble. The New York Times. Retrieved January 11, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/magazine/beyond-the-bitcoin-bubble.html

Shilina, S. (2022, October 7). What is Lens Protocol, and how does it work? Cointelegraph. Retrieved January 11, 2023, from https://cointelegraph.com/news/what-is-lens-protocol-and-how-does-it-work

Variant Team. (2022, October 19). The ownership economy 2022. Variant. Retrieved January 11, 2023, from https://variant.fund/articles/the-ownership-economy-2022/