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📝 Field Notes #57: Laser Eyes

📝 Field Notes #57: Laser Eyes

Bitcoin spot ETF approved. PepsiCo goes virtual. Roblox & loyalty. X removes NFT profile pics. Circle files for IPO. Apple Vision Pro release. OpenAI launches GPT store. Top charts, fundings & more.

January 12, 2024

Hey, it’s Marc. Welcome to my weekly, obsessively curated field notes on Web3 & crypto to help you filter out the noise. ✌️ Follow me on LinkedIn.

⏱️ Reading time: 3 min

Be inspired✨

“Achieving scarcity in digital form was Bitcoin's great technical breakthrough” — Matt Huang, Paradigm

📚 Top 5 Reads

New rules of brand marketing. By Ana Andjelic. Link
New year, new ideas: 2024. By a16z crypto. Link
From revolution to real-world value: How companies can benefit from Web3 in 2024. Fortune. Link
Consumer crypto’s breakout cycle. By Amanda Young. Link
Consumer crypto report 2023. By ThirdWeb. Link

Boson Protocol – Real Web3 Commerce, with Web2 UX

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

✨ Web3 + NFTs

Bubbly about loyalty 🫧

bubly Sparkling Water (PepsiCo) launched a Roblox limited-time rewards campaign, bridging digital & physical with on-and-off platform rewards.1 Link
The game attracted 2.7m+ visits so far. Link
The initiative was jointly developed by Flaunt, Vayner3, and Zero Code.

Zoom in: Flaunt enables PepsiCo to capture first-party data at scale from Roblox and attribute ROI. Its integration with Salesforce Marketing Cloud also enables PepsiCo to personalize future marketing campaigns to known-Roblox fans.

Be smart: As cookies are fading, this is way for brands to rebuild direct consumer relationships with first-party data.

By the numbers:

With 200m+ daily active users, Roblox is the most popular virtual platform.
Half of them Gen Z, with an average user spending 2.6 hours on Roblox – every day.

Zoom out: Flaunt’s Roblox integration enables brands to connect their Roblox experiences to off-platform loyalty programs — an industry first.

Punchline: Going into 2024, expect more omnichannel experiences connecting loyalty activations across digital and physical, on- and off-chain and across different platforms.

⚡️ Get in front of 8k+ of Web3 leaders 👀

Partner with Dematerialzd to get your brand in front of thousands of Web3 industry leaders. Get in touch today or reply to this email.

🌎 Crypto & Macro

The laser eyes are back💥

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved 11 spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Link
Standard Chartered Bank says that spot bitcoin ETFs may bring $50-100bn of inflows in 2024, Galaxy expects $14bn.

Off to a great start: Spot bitcoin ETF volumes eclipse $4.5bn on first day of trading.

Stepping back: A Bitcoin spot ETF is a type of investment fund traded on the stock market that allows investors to buy shares representing direct investment in actual Bitcoin, without needing to purchase Bitcoin itself — making it accessible to a much broader investor base.

Zooming out: The Bitcoin spot ETF has been in the making for over 10 years (see its full history). First proposed by the Winklevoss brothers in 2013, Bitcoin’s market capitalization has risen from less than $1bn to $600bn since.

Punchline: SEC approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF is a watershed moment for crypto, which is now officially legitimized in traditional finance. It comes with rising institutional interest and may pave the way for a ETH spot ETF down the road.

🧠AI

OpenAI launched its GPT store. Link

💰 Money Moves

PerplexityAI: The “Google killer” announced a $73.60m series B with a 520m valuation, led by IVP with Jeff Bezos participating. Link
Tune.FM: The Web3 music platform has raised $20m from LDA Capital.
Finoa: The Germany-based crypto custodian and staking provider has raised $15m.

That’s all for now, folks. Thank you for being part of the journey.Talk soon,

– Marc

PS: Follow me on LinkedIn for shorter insights.