Weekly Learnings #19

Hi fam,

Today, I'm walking you through 7 things across NFTs, Web3, and creator economy that I’ve learned and found fascinating this week.

Enjoy!

🎙️ Spaces I spoke in this week:

7 things I’ve learned & enjoyed this week:

1. Animoca Brands raises $20 million for Mocaverse.

We’ve hit the lowest level of VC funding since January 2021. Yet, Animoca managed to secure $20 million for its NFT project Mocaverse to keep building through the bear. What’s the plan? Unify their portfolio of 450+ companies and become an entry for Web3 users. Across their umbrella, they reportedly reach 700+ million users, so that we can expect the onboarding from within. The cheapest Moca is now at 0.9 ETH.

2. BORED AS F*CK movie is coming.

If you joined NFTs in 2021/2022 or before, you likely experienced a crazy ride of insane stories, ups and downs, and moments that shaped your journey. But what if you join now? How can we preserve these stories?

Francis Bored Apela might be the answer for us. Since May 2021, they’ve been working on a BAYC movie that tells the story of NFTs, the Yacht Club, and its members. I saw the sneak peek and had goosebumps going through all these crazy memories. The sneak peek is token-gated, but you can see it here if you have at least 1 ApeCoin in your wallet.

The movie has been self-funded, and they now have a proposal live asking for $400,000 to finance the post-production and final steps. They previously had films on Netflix and even won Grammy, so I personally can’t wait to see it!

3. The next bull starts in Asia. Seoul → Singapore.

The next bull starts in Asia. I’ve been hearing this phrase over and over again. While we’ll see the validity of this statement hopefully soon, we can’t deny that crypto companies and NFT projects have started taking Asia seriously. The Korea Blockchain Week was a success. Token 2049 Singapore just started. Big week. Big Fomo. Can’t wait for Hong Kong.

4. Creator League fucked up. What's the lesson?

Creator League was a promising way to show gamers potential blockchain use cases. But it failed. Why? The team behind the project didn’t do their homework.

Rather than picking up gamers who support or are neutral to NFTs, they picked up at least one gamer who hates NFTs and even dedicated his YouTube videos to expressing he’d never touch that tech. What a mistake.

So, the Creator League is canceled… Lesson? Always do your research.

5. Grab equips users to explore Web3.

The Uber of Southeast Asia, with its 180 million users, integrated a Web3 button into its app. Users can now press it, create a wallet, and collect NFT vouchers for restaurants and services in Singapore. This is huge.

The NFTs are on Polygon - shoutout to their business development team for securing another big partner. The timing is also perfect: Token 2049 just started, and the Singapore Grand Prix starts this week! More use cases like this, please! 👏

6. Metamask lets you cash out to your bank account.

Metamask rolled out crypto to fiat withdrawals! Yes, you can now convert your ETH and send it to your bank account.

It’s still not as smooth (KYC needed) and affordable (MM fees, gas fees, Moonpay fees) as we’d like, but it’s a significant step forward. To use it, open your MM, go to Portfolio, and hit Sell. S4mmy also had a great thread on it below.

7. Walter Isaacson’s book about Elon Musk is here.

Walter Isaacson’s book about Elon Musk goes live this week, and I can’t wait to get a copy. For a warmup, Lex Friedman released a podcast with Walter, where he talks about Elon’s personality, including his dark side and addiction to risk. I am halfway through the pod, and it’s fascinating. Enjoy!!

Hope you enjoyed this newsletter and learned with me.

Have a great new week.

Beast