đ #71: The Crypto Killer App
We're rebranding: New name, new home, new PRO subscription. Plus: Stripe ads crypto. Bitcoin Runes go live. CZ faces 3 years in prison. ConsenSys sues SEC. Telegram to tokenize stickers & more.
Hey, itâs Marc. âïž
We've got big news: A new name, a new PRO offering and a new podcast.
Today weâre rebranding to FiftyOne Insights. Thatâs right - weâve changed our name - and thatâs not the only thing. We also have a new home you can bookmark:
Just as this industry has grown and evolved, so are we. Â
Therefore we feel the need for a new name that better represents our expanded vision of the future of consumer engagement across blockchain infrastructure, data, gaming, immersive commerce, machine learning, and AI. Â
Our expanded research and service offering includes:Â Â
FiftyOne Insights: Delivering high-quality research and strategic intelligence. Â
FiftyOne Ventures: Growing, scaling and investing in the future of consumer engagement.Â
FiftyOne Labs: Together with Maja Vujinovic, one of the early thought leaders in digital assets and crypto (since 2010) and other emerging technologies such as mobile payments and data analytics, we launched đđŁ đđđ©đđ«đđšđ© đđŁđŁđ€đ«đđ©đđ€đŁ đĄđđ to assist corporates and start-ups with hands-on tooling and piloting of emerging technologies mentioned above.Â
Today, weâre also launching our new PRO offering, which includes:
Case studies and data-driven industry analysis
Exclusive community
Founder Calls & AMAâs with invited leaders & me to
Access to our powerful network
This is just the first step. Expect even more robust offerings from FiftyOne as we continue to grow our ecosystem alongside our audience and execution partners.
Some of you will continue to receive emails from our (now old) domain "dematerialzd.xyzâ, until the migration is fully complete.
Now, letâs jump into the weekly field notes!
đ Top 5 Reads
15 Token Thoughts. By joshcrnls.eth. Link
2024 Q1 Crypto Industry Report. By CoinGecko. Link
Why Bitcoin Runes are Significant. By Adam Hollander. Link
The first clear path to hundreds of million crypto users. By Kyle McCollom. Link
What do gamers want from brands? By GEEIQ. Link
Boson Protocol â Real Web3 Commerce, with Web2 UX
As the next bull market emerges, so does a new crypto-rich, Web3-savvy demographic, who are demanding authentic Web3 commerce experiences. Uniquely, with Boson, you can sell physical things as NFTs, with a slick Web2 experience while running on a fully decentralized Web3 backend. No more Web3 washing required!
âš Web3 & Brands
Bitcoin Runes Goes Live đż
Runes are a new protocol that enables fungible tokens on Bitcoin.Â
Runes launched on Block 840,000, following the halving last week, and was created by Casey Rodarmor, the creator of the Ordinals protocol. Link
Why itâs important: Runes creates a new asset class on the worldâs greatest blockchain. Unlike Ordinals, Bitcoinâs non-fungible tokens (NFTs), runes are fungible (similar to Ethereumâs ERC-20 standard).
Zooming in: Runes utilize the existing Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model of Bitcoin for efficiency. While miners earn additional revenues1, some argue that the surge in Rune transactions congests the network and isn't aligned with Bitcoin's core purpose.
By the numbers:
Runes dominated chain activity (81% of Bitcoin activity with 750k Txs) and accounted for 64% of fees
Zooming out: Runes spur a new wave of innovations on Bitcoin, such as DeFi applications or Memecoins, which have become an important driver of protocol adoption.
Punchline: Many expect an upcoming âBitcoin Summerâ with ordinals, runes, and Bitcoin layer 2 protocols taking off. Weâre just getting started.
đ Looking to learn more? Ping us.
More on Web3:
Telegram announces plans to tokenize stickers and emojis as NFTs, with 95% of revenue going to creators. Link
XCopyâs latest piece, Slave, sold at auction for 315E ($965,000). Link
đ” Get a 50% welcome discount on your PRO subscriptionâavailable for a limited time only!
đ Crypto & Macro
The Crypto Killer Appđ
Payments processor Stripe will allow merchants to receive funds in the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin. Link
Stripe will initially support USDC transactions on Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon networks.
How it works: When users make purchases with stablecoins, Stripe works behind-the-scenes to convert merchant payouts - in real time - to their local fiat.
Be smart: Previous attempts to make crypto payments mainstream have failed because providers didnât own critical parts of the payment stack or lacked market power.
By the numbers:
Stripe has over 100 enterprise customers that process more than $1 billion each per year on Stripe.
1 in 10 people worldwide transacted with a business using Stripe in 2022.
Be smart: This could be a good opportunity for other layer one chains, such as Sui and others to achieve mass consumer adaption.
Stripe canât ignore whatâs happening in crypto.
What Maja Vujinovic has been calling since 2017 a âkiller appâ for crypto, which is stablecoins & tokens. Trojan horse, perhaps?Â
Are you still doubting it? Â
Only after 10 years, Tether has a $100B market cap. And USDC has $34B market cap after 6 years.Â
Itâs clear: No incumbent can ignore blockchain technology anymore.Â
Why itâs important: Stripe is one of the biggest payment providers. This is a massive boost for global crypto adoption.Â
Punchline: Watch other big players follow Stripe. We at FiftyOne Ventures believe, that e-commerce is the way to onboard millions of people into crypto.Â
The US Is Dropping the Hammer âïž
The US gov is cracking down on crypto:
CZ, co-founder and former CEO of Binance, faces 36 months of prison and a $50M fine for violating anti-money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and sanctions violations law. Link
SEC is also looking to impose a $5.3B fine on Do Kwon and Terraform Labs, the steepest fine yet.
SEC also recently pressed for a $1.8B fine in the Ripple case.
Why itâs important: These high-profile cases and penalties suggest the US is not mincing words: Crypto crimes arenât worth the risk.
By the numbers: A non-comprehensive list of other crypto founders who went to jail:
SBF, FTX: Sentenced to 25 years in March 2024.
Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road: Life in prison beginning in 2015.
Do Kwon, Terraform Labs: Sentenced to 4 months in prison in Montenegro before being expedited to US.
Arthur Hayes, BitMEX: 6 mths home confinement + 2 yrs probation in 2022.
Ruja Ignatova, OneCoin: She remains at large for running a ponzi.
Charlie Shrem, BitInstant: 2 years in 2015 related to Silk Road
Punchline:Â Jailing founders became part of the industryâs maturation.
Bitcoin halves đ
The Bitcoin Halving is now complete after surpassing block number 840,000, reducing block subsidy from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
Zooming in: The Bitcoin halving is a predetermined event where the reward for mining new Bitcoin blocks is cut in half, occurring roughly every 4 years.
Why itâs important: Historically, Bitcoin's price has seen significant gains in the 6-12 months after each halving event:
2012 halving: Bitcoin price up 1,095% in 180 days after
2016 halving: Bitcoin price up 73% in 180 days after
2020 halving: Bitcoin price up 117% in 180 days after
The big picture: Bitcoin's fixed supply and decreasing inflation rate reinforce its potential as a scarce, deflationary asset class post-halving.
More on Crypto:
Consensys sues SEC over attempts to regulate Ethereum as a security. Link
IRS appears to be preparing to require disclosure of self-custodial wallet addresses from American DeFi users. Link
Hong Kong Spot BTC & ETH ETFs begin trading next week. Link
Hedge Funds are succumbing to mind-boggling memecoin returns. Link
đ§ AI + Metaverse
Meta introduces Llama 3, a free AI assistant available on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Link
Apple releases OpenELM: small, open source AI models designed to run on-device. Link
đ° Money Moves
Turnkey: Crypto wallet built by former Coinbase employees raises $15M Series A led by Lightspeed Faction and Galaxy Ventures.
Tevaera: Gaming ecosystem built on zkSync closes $5M round led by Laser DIgital, Nomura Group.
Prime Intellect: Decentralized AI firm raises $5.5M seed round led by CoinFund and Distributed Global.
Movement Labs: Closes $38M series A round led by Polychain Capital.
Aligned Layer: Closes $20M series A to build a universal verification layer on Ethereum.
Thatâs all for now, folks. Thank you for being part of the journey.
Talk soon,
â Marc
PS: Follow me on LinkedIn and X for shorter insights.
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The Runes protocol itself sets a higher minimum transaction fee compared to standard Bitcoin transactions. This means users creating or trading Rune tokens have to pay more to get their transactions included in a block.
thanks Marc!
hope will see here more about Runes,
I think it will be the new DeFi summer on Bitcoin
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