Hey, it’s Marc. ✌️
This week’s field notes, your 100% signal in Web3:
Lalique launches Digital Product Passports
Skoda’s new Roblox activation
Top NFTs now down 80-90%, including BAYC
Ethereum beats SEC – clarity on security classificatio
Tether’s new gold-backed stablecoin
Apple halts its high-end Vision headset
Dell’s AI Factory for Elon Musk’s supercomputer
TikTok launches new AI features
Let’s dive in. 🦈 | Read time: 4min
📚 Top 5 Reads
Boson Protocol – Real Web3 Commerce, with Web2 UX
As the next bull market emerges, so does a new crypto-rich, Web3-savvy demographic, who are demanding authentic Web3 commerce experiences. Uniquely, with Boson, you can sell physical things as NFTs, with a slick Web2 experience while running on a fully decentralized Web3 backend. No more Web3 washing required!
✨ Web3 & Consumer
Skodaverse is entering Roblox with "Skoda Bike Planet". Link
Fox and Time use blockchain to combat fake news. Fox’s Verify protocol is set to transition to its own zero-knowledge blockchain, enabling developers to create authentically provable projects and content. Link
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🌎 Crypto & Macro
Ethereum Beats SEC ⚔️
The US SEC has concluded its investigation into Ethereum 2.0, confirming ETH sales are not considered securities transactions. Link
What you need to know:
SEC Investigation: The SEC has launched a campaign to classify Ethereum (ETH) as a security, issuing subpoenas to companies linked with the Ethereum Foundation after its shift to proof-of-stake in 2022.
CFTC vs SEC: Previously, CFTC classified Ethereum as a commodity. Both the SEC and CFTC were in dispute over regulatory authority in the expanding digital assets industry.
Consensys Lawsuit: Consensys sued the SEC in April 2024, following a Wells notice concerning its MetaMask crypto wallet's alleged securities law violations. The lawsuit accused SEC Chair Gary Gensler and the agency of viewing ETH as a security since early 2023.
Why it’s important: The SEC's approval of spot ETH ETFs in May 2024 affirmed Ethereum's classification as a commodity, prompting the agency to cease its Ethereum 2.0 investigation.
This resolution eliminates significant regulatory uncertainty, potentially fostering greater Ethereum adoption and investment by institutional investors.
Tether’s New Gold-Backed Stablecoin🔱
Tether, the leading stablecoin issuer, has launched Alloy, a new gold-backed stablecoin designed to track the US dollar.
Users create digital assets like Alloy USD Tether (aUSD₮), a synthetic dollar, using Tether Gold (XAU₮) as collateral, merging the dollar utility with the millennial store of value gold.
The technology uses Ethereum-compatible smart contracts for reliability and security across platforms such as Ethereum Mainnet, Polygon, and BNB Chain.
Why it’s important: Tether (TUSD) is the most important stablecoin by market cap. This is the first gold-backed stablecoin by a major stablecoin issuer.
Analyst spotlight:
Instead of earning from T-Bills, Alloy could leverage gold's 8% long-term gain. This approach contrasts Terra/Luna's failed model, as Tether's $5.5B annual income and time to build gold reserves provide stronger backing. Future possibilities include Bitcoin-backed stablecoins if market conditions stabilize.
By the numbers:
The stablecoin market, valued at around $162B, is largely controlled by tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), capturing a combined 97% market share.
Tether dominates stablecoin trading with a $45.5B volume out of a total of $55B.
Tether's Q1 2024 profit surged to $4.52B, driven by US Treasury investments and appreciating Bitcoin and gold reserves.
Be smart: It's important to distinguish between stablecoins, which aim to maintain a stable value against a specific asset (like the US dollar), and gold-backed tokens, which track the price of gold. Tether Gold (XAUt), Digix Gold (DGX), and AurusGOLD (AWG) are gold-backed tokens.
Regulatory compliance: Moon Gold NA and Moon Gold El Salvador, both authorized by the National Commission of Digital Assets of El Salvador, will oversee the issuance and management of Alloy by Tether.
Punchline: On USDT Tether makes revenue on the underlying bonds. But, gold costs to store and has no yield, so they don't really make money driving its growth. What’s the business model?
More on Crypto:
Ondo Finance partners with Drift Protocol to integrate USDY, enhancing capital efficiency and liquidity in Solana's DeFi ecosystem. This integration will allow users to earn a yield on collateral while trading. Link
LayerZero Foundation initiates ZRO token airdrop claims with 85M tokens. Link
94% of central banks are exploring CBDCs, with a focus on wholesale over retail versions in the next six years. Link
VanEck launched Australia's first Bitcoin ETF on the ASX, leveraging the success of similar products in the US and Hong Kong amid rising investor interest. Link
🎮 Gaming
Ronin Network will support zkEVM L2 chains using Polygon's technology, enabling third-party game developers to build their own scalable blockchains on Ronin. Link
APhone launches AppNest, a fee-free web3 native app store for DeFi and gaming, offering an alternative to Apple's and Google's restrictive models. Link
🧠Artificial Intelligence
Dell’s AI Factory 🚀
Dell is building an “AI factory with Nvidia” for xAI's massive supercomputer, aimed at training and scaling the Grok AI chatbot.
The supercomputer, powered by 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, could be up to four times larger than current leading AI clusters.
Musk aims to have the supercomputer fully operational by Fall 2025 to expedite the development of advanced Grok models.
Diving deeper on Dell’s new products:
Dell PowerEdge XE9680L: This is a new server designed specifically for high-performance computing tasks, especially those involving AI.
Dell NativeEdge: This is a software platform designed to simplify the deployment and management of AI applications at the edge. It automates the delivery of NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, making it easier for organizations to leverage AI in edge environments.
Full-stack automation: This refers to a suite of tools and solutions developed by Dell and NVIDIA to streamline the deployment and management of AI infrastructure up to 86% faster.
Why it matters: The Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA offers a complete scaling solution for xAI, including infrastructure, software, and services. With the recent capital influx, xAI is poised to leverage this support to emerge as a formidable competitor to OpenAI and Anthropic in the AI landscape.
More on AI:
Apple halts its high-end Vision headset to prioritize a cheaper model, targeting release next year. Expansion of Vision Pro sales to eight new countries is planned. Link
Runway has introduced Gen-3 Alpha, a major advancement in fidelity and motion for its multimodal training infrastructure, powering enhanced Text-to-vide, Image-to-video, and Text-to-image tools. Link
NVIDIA introduced Nemotron-4 340B, an open model family for generating synthetic data to train large language models, optimized for NVIDIA NeMo and TensorRT-LLM. This allows developers across industries to create high-quality training data efficiently and cost-effectively. Link
TikTok launched Symphony, a new suite of AI features including digital avatars, translation tools, an AI assistant, and more. Link
🪙 Regulation Update
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele proposed a Bitcoin Bank, making it the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Link
💰 Money Moves
New funds & grants:
Pantera Capital targets a $1B fund to fuel AI and blockchain innovation. Link
ZKsync allocated 3.68B ZK (17.50% of the total supply) for token airdrop while 14B ZK to the community. Link
Apecoin DAO proposed a new Banana Bill that seeks a 100 million ApeCoin budget to support ApeChain's growth. Link
Polkadot parachain Moonbeam launches a $13M Web3 gaming fund. Link
Funding rounds:
Nuffle Labs: Raises $13 Million to Expand Modular Infrastructure for Blockchain Layers. Link
TABI(Treasureland): BNB NFT marketplace has raised $10M. Link
That’s all for now, folks. Thank you for being part of the journey.
Talk soon,
– Marc
Contributors: Sangam Bharti
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