Hello 
Welcome to the 52nd edition of Sfermion’s Collider where we highlight the latest & greatest news in the world of crypto, gaming & entertainment, consumer trends, AI, macro, and more!
Bi-weekly, we aim to drop a curated list of the most exciting stories & updates that we believe are enabling the future of tech and the emergence of the metaverse.
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Crypto Updates
Optimism Foundation Agrees to Give Kraken $425M of OP Tokens in Layer-2 Deal (link)
Anchorage Digital, Bullish, Galaxy Digital, Kraken, Nuvei, Paxos, and Robinhood Partner to Introduce Global Dollar Network (link)
Circle and Hong Kong Telecom Provider HKT to Collaborate on Blockchain-Based Customer Loyalty Solution (link)
Trump’s Liberty Financial Stablecoin Project Announced (link)
Major League Soccer and Sui Team Up for MLS Quest (link)
Cleveland Cavaliers Launch New Rewards Program (link)
Coinbase-Based Agent AI Powers Crypto Transactions, Says Brian Armstrong (link)
Visa Celebrates Coinbase Partnership to Offer Instant Crypto Deposits (link)
Crypto.com Aims for 2025 Launch of Own Stablecoin, ETF Listings, Stocks, and US Expansion (link)
$5.7T Banking Giant UBS Launches First Tokenized Fund on Ethereum (link)
StraitsX Leverages AvaCloud and Avalanche to Simplify Cross-Border Payments in Southeast Asia (link)
OpenSea (
) teases a “new OpenSea” is coming in December 2024 (link)
Stacks Launches Nakamoto Upgrade for Bitcoin Layer-2s (link)
FTX Settles Suit Against Bybit for $228M (link)
Florida’s CFO Says State Holds About $800M in Crypto Investments (link)
Tether Reports $2.5B Profit in Q3, Holds Over $100B of US Treasuries (link)
River Protocol Acquires Llama to Strengthen On-Chain Governance for its Decentralized Communication Products (link)
ConsenSys Plans Layoffs Amid Crypto Market Challenges (link)
Crypto Exchange Kraken Cuts Staff (link)
Gaming Updates
Immutable () Receives Wells Notice Over 2021 Token Sale (link)
Immutable () Introduces Telegram Integration for Blockchain Gaming (link)
Mystery Society () web3 game goes live on Google Play Store (link)
Pudgy Penguins and Mythical Games () are launching “Pudgy Party,” a AAA mobile game expected in 2025 (link)
Epic Games’ Fab Marketplace for Digital Assets Goes Live (link)
Elon Musk Revealed as Top 20 Diablo 4 Player (link)
AI Updates
OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Search, Competing with Google and Perplexity (link)
LinkedIn Launches Its First AI Agent to Take on the Role of Job Recruiters (link)
Meta Releases an Open Version of Google’s Podcast Generator (link)
NVIDIA and xAI Plan to Build World’s Largest AI Supercomputer in Memphis (link)
Meta AI Gains Access to Reuters News Content in Multi-Year Deal (link)
T-Mobile and OpenAI Ink $100M AI Deal (link)
U.S. Regulators Block AWS Nuclear Power Deal to power AI endeavors (link)
Anthropic Teams Up With Palantir and AWS to Sell Its AI to Defense Customers (link)
MIT Debuts a Large Language Model-Inspired Method for Teaching Robots New Skills (link)
Spot AI Introduces First Video AI Agents for the Physical World as it Nears $100M in Funding to Date (link)
Google Debuts New Code-Generated AI Tools in Q3 2024 (link)
Mistral Launches a Moderation API (link)
Other Updates
Donald Trump Wins Presidential Election Against VP Kamala Harris, Securing 300+ Electoral College Votes and Winning All Seven Swing States (link)
Robinhood Enters Betting Arena with Presidential Election Wagers (link)
Jeff Bezos Addresses Trust in The Washington Post (link)
Federal Reserve Announces November 2024 Rate Decision (link)
New York Stock Exchange to Extend After-Hours Trading (link)
Boeing Raises $21B in Capital Hike to Boost Liquidity (link)
China’s Economic Stimulus Measures Highlight Concerns Over Debt (link)
Nvidia Is Joining the Dow Jones Industrial Average (link)
Founder of TikTok Owner ByteDance Jumps to Top of China’s Rich List (link)
Research & Interesting Reads
Forbes | Web3 Infrastructure M&A: The Tough Road to Exit (link)
Pantera | Crypto’s Role in the AI Revolution (link)
Nansen | Future of GameFi in Web3 (link)
Delphi | DeAI IV: The Agentic Economy (link)
A Gentle Introduction to DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) (link)
The Crypto Game: How to Play and Win (link)
MrBeast Investigation (link)
Sentient AI Models - Monetising Open Source AI (link)
Notable Raises
Crypto Venture Funding Hits $860M in October, Highest in Over 6 Months (link)
Alphabet’s Self-Driving Unit Waymo Closes $5.6B Funding Round (link)
Apple Will Invest $1.5B in Globalstar to Expand Satellite Services (link)
Robot Brain Startup Physical Intelligence Raises $400M At $2B Valuation, Led by Jeff Bezos, Lux Capital, and Thrive Capital.
Bret Taylor’s (OpenAI Chair & ex-CEO @ Salesforce) customer service AI startup just raised $175M at 4.5B Valuation (link)
Aramco’s VC Arm Commits $100M to AI Startups (link)
Peter Thiel's Founders Fund invests in Infinex's Patron NFT sale as total amount raised hits $67.7M (link)
Ethereum-Based Solar Project Glow Raises $30M in Funding Round Led by Framework Ventures and USV (link)
Privacy Blockchain Project Nillion Raises $25M to Expand Blind Computing (link)
Ellipsis Labs Raises $20M from Haun Ventures to Launch Verifiable Finance Blockchain Atlas (link)
Bitcoin Rollup Citrea (developed by Chainway Labs) Aims to Make BTC a Programmable Asset With ZK Proofs, Raises $14M Series A led by Founders Fund (link)
Gelato secures $11M in series A funding, adds Kraken’s Ink to rollup platform (link)
AI Data Collection Startup Sapien Raises $10.5M Seed Funding Led by Variant (link)
OKX Ventures, The Open Platform Launch $10M Telegram Growth Hub (link)
PumpBTC Raises $10M Seed Funding to Build a New Standard in BTC Yield Vaults with BTC-fi (link)
VLayer Secures $10M Pre-Seed to Build Verifiable Data Infrastructure on Ethereum (link)
bitSmiley, a suite of DeFi protocols on Bitcoin, raises $10M (link)
Pharos Closes $8M Seed Round Led By Lightspeed Faction and Hack VC (link)
Capsule Corp Labs, a platform specialised in the creation and development of utility NFT, Raises €7.3M in Seed Funding (link)
Pond, a crypto-AI startup building a decentralized AI model layer, has raised $7.5M in a seed funding round led by Archetype (link)
Ethereum scaling infrastructure startup Spire Labs raises $7M in seed funding (link)
Shuttle Labs Raises $6M to Build Genius, the Binance on-chain: Secure, Self-Custodial, and Decentralized (link)
Naptha AI Raises $6M to Lead the Evolution of AGI Towards a Web of Trillions of Cooperating Agents (link)
Web3 gaming infrastructure Alliance Games completes $5M Series A funding (link)
Phylax Systems completes $4.5M seed round funding for security protocol, led by Nascent and Figment Capital (link)
81Ravens raises $4.5M for Paravox Web3 arena shooter, led by Digital Hearts Holdings and Gree Ventures (link)
OpenOrigins secures $4.5M (led by Galaxy Interactive) to combat AI deepfakes with blockchain tech (link)
Nitro Labs Secures $4M (led by Lemniscap) For Termina: Pioneering Solana VM Network Extensions (link)
Magma to Build Out Liquid Staking on Monad and Restaking with Etherfi Following $3.9M Seed Fundraise (link)
Web3 gaming platform GameBeast completes $2M in financing, led by Tido Capital and others (link)
Mo & Andrew's Curated
Macro
27.6K
Long form podcasts, X/social, prediction markets etc deciding this election. Also holding traditional media accountable. Happened gradually then suddenly.
But we're not slowing down post-election.
Today I'm announcing that @coinbase has committed another $25M to support Fairshake PAC, which they will use…
JUST IN: VanEck predicts #Bitcoin will become global reserve asset worth $3m and central banks will make a 2% allocation by 2050.+16% compounding return for 26 years.
There is no second best.
1. Sold over $100 billion of Apple, $AAPL, stock
2. Halted Berkshire Hathaway, $BRK, stock buybacks
3. Built largest cash balance in company history, at $325 billion
4. Holds a record $288 billion of US Treasury bills
5. Now owns $93 billion more…
and you're not checking this all day
you're missing out on the new internet capital markets
Crypto
in collaboration with @hxnterson @angelfacepeanut @somaxbt @rfparson
MrBeast Investigation — loock.io
INTRODUCTION MrBeast, one of the most popular YouTubers with over 320 million subscribers across his main and side channels, has recently faced public scrutiny over various controversies. Allegations...
This is the first central bank in the world I am aware of to be openly mining bitcoin.
The future is coming very fast.
- Free Ross
- Fire Gary
- End Operation Chokepoint 2.0
- Pass common sense stablecoin legislation
- Enable in-kind redemptions
- Turn on staking in ETH ETFs
- Shutter SEC lawfare investigations
- Provide regulatory clarity for crypto
MicroStrategy’s #Bitcoin holdings surpass $20 billion.They are now over $10 billion in profits
Asia is now #1 for crypto devs. The US is losing market share.
Crypto impacts every state in the US -- crypto should be non-partisan.
Here’s what the data shows & why it matters:
I want to take the time to write this post about my thoughts on Solana, the Ethereum ecosystem as a whole, and why we made this decision.
First - I want to make it…
Timefun is migrating to @solana! We are bullish on Solana and what it enables for our platform. We believe we'll reach our full potential there.
You'll still be able to use our platform during the migration process, but please read the below post for important details
In crypto law, the 'foundation' is one of the least understood and most expensive products sold to founders.
Oftentimes, it feels like most lawyers themselves do not understand it.
I will be spending my afternoon demystifying one of the most expensive products lawyers sell.
Foundations.
They are approaching 10k SOL/day ($1.66M) in daily fees in October.
And total revenue has reached 973,000 SOL ($161.5M).
Of which they've sold 500k SOL ($78M) according to @lookonchain
The house is winning, big time
NFTs
Today we are announcing our partnership with @TensorFdn.
With the integration of TensorSwap, jpegs will flow free, unleashing a new era bonded by curves and secured by AMMs.
1/2
Pudgy Toys with Pudgy World are now available in 2,000 @Walgreens nationwide.
More information below.
Through this partnership, @ArtOnBlockchain and the team at Art Blocks will help guide OpenSea’s roadmap for creators and new product features. We’re also…
Gaming
Sadly, stories like this are becoming…
Our [redacted] prediction market is coming!Come TGE, stake your $CGX to earn credits used to make predictions on your favorite streamers, esports teams, and gaming tokens, and IRL events -- earn from your insight
THE GARDEN IS OPENYou can now all stake your seeds in the new Garden platform to earn SEED Points.
We are going to extend the one-time 5555 SEED Point bonus for staked Mythic Seeds for the next 48 hours to avoid anyone missing out.
GARDEN LINK:
staking.todaythegame.com
We are in open beta which means you can download the game from the store but its not available in search yet. This is part of the process with launching on Android.
So follow this link and DOWNLOAD NOW!!…
AI
Other
Marc Andreessen gives some nice personal anecdotes of what he's seen Elon do.
Not because he started the podcast with over a BILLION listens that got young people interested in business.
But because he cracked the code of Gen Z attention:
= Sfermion Portfolio Company
Curated by @mopat1214 + @AndrewSteinwold
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