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- Aoki and Diplo Mix Views on Web3, Adidas ALTS vs Nike .SWOOSH NFTs
Aoki and Diplo Mix Views on Web3, Adidas ALTS vs Nike .SWOOSH NFTs
Also: Crypto Funding Bottom, Moderately Optimistic State of Web3, Six Seed Round Announcements, and many more!
Hello from Dante’s 10th circle of hell NFT.NYC, and happy Friday!
Welcome to The Web3 Marketer, where I help brands and marketers stay ahead of the web3 curve. Every week, I bring you top stories on web3 & digital collectibles across consumer & loyalty.
Today's write-up is 1,266 words, a 5-minute read.
This week’s TL;DR:
🎛 Iconic DJs contrast views on web3
💸 Crypto funding record low
🌐 a16z’s complex charts and nudges that web3 is doing OK
👟 Adidas and Nike expand NFTs
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The Big One
Spinning in Web3: Iconic DJs Drop Beats and Contrasting Views

@3lau / PUNX
Three iconic DJs, Steve Aoki, 3LAU, and Diplo offer contrasting perspectives on the value web3 adds to their creative endevors.
Aoki, who runs his own A0K1VERSE NFT project and collaborates with 3LAU on PUNX “audiovisual IRL meets metaverse supergroup,” sees NFTs as an expansive new way to connect with fans.
By distributing NFTs tied to his work, he can identify his “superfans,” communicate and even collaborate with them.
3LAU, meanwhile, is using NFTs to create novel copyright arrangements between musicians and fans through his company Royal.
Artists can directly monetize their current work and raise funds for future projects by selling the rights to a portion of streaming royalties from a song or album.
Diplo, who in fact, dropped a track on Royal, confessed his “letdown” in web3, specifically the lack of greater demand for the music owned on the blockchain.
“Blockchain in its ethos is a great idea (…) It was just overexposed and there was so much hype around it that it absorbed all of the goodwill,” he said.
+ Dig deeper into Aoki & 3LAU’s projects, and Diplo’s thoughts on ChatGPT, TikTok, and VC investing.
By the Numbers
VC Crypto activity has dried up in Q1 2023
Global investment in crypto firms has declined by nearly 90% from an all-time peak 12 months ago.
The tough fundraising environment has been the key driver of budgets & people cuts across web3 in the last 6 months.
Apart from a few recent exceptions, such as hardware wallet maker Ledger and blockchain interoperability protocol LayerZero, 9-figure funding rounds are likely a thing of the past.
On the creator economy side, funding has also radically dried up over the course of the last 24 months.
For Q1, creator crypto has ranked third behind creator services and platforms, evidencing (yet) limited potential of the current web3 creator market.
Crypto Twitter Explained
Crypto VC giant report suggests web3 is not in as bad a shape as you’d think

a16z / midjourney
a16z, a VC giant heavily invested in crypto, released its second annual “State of Crypto” report.
The content and language are very newcomer-friendly, e.g., fundamental concepts, simple terms, and mainstream topics.
Three things to take away:
Environmental concerns are gone, as Ethereum now consumes 0.001% of the energy that YouTube consumes annually.
Crypto developers are sticking around after coming in during the 2022 bull market.
The U.S. is losing its lead in web3 both in terms of the share of developers and end users.
Some more diligent Twitter users, however, have pointed to the fund’s bias towards presenting an overly optimistic crypto picture given its portfolio investment, as well as, at times, unclear chart data methodology.
+ For a deep dive, check out their State of Crypto Index tracking 14 metrics (a bit arbitrary).
Top Headlines
🛠️ MarTech & CreatorTech
Marketing executives still say they will spend more on the metaverse this year even as some consumers and tech companies lose interest in the concept. (More commentary).
Watch-to-Earn loyalty program, piloted by Bleacher Report with Co:Create, allows brands to reward fans through real-time trivia and rewards
3D marketing software is allowing apparel brands to increase conversion rates and reduce returns by publishing 3D assets online for consumers’ 360-degree view
🛍 Consumer & Mainstream
Japan approved a web3 white paper as part of “Cool Japan” strategy (which may permit promoting NFTs in sports); Hong Kong and France are also advancing explorations.
Reddit botched the release of its third-generation NFT collection as the site was overwhelmed with demand, and the third-party payments glitched.
Fortune sold (just) 221 of its $170 NFT covers during a 24-hour sale and published a “Fortune’s Crypto 40” ranking - as web3 gets the spotlight in April/May issue.
🤖 Metaverse
American teens are not really interested in VR tech; only 29% of surveyed teens own a device capable of VR (just 4% use it daily), and 52% were either unsure or uninterested in buying a VR headset.
Meta’s recently developed AI model, called “Segment Anything,” which can cut any object out of any digital image or video, could have big implications for the company’s metaverse and ads business.
MIT Technology Review: metaverse community-building will require enterprises to adapt emerging technologies like Web3 and blockchain, meet customers where they are, and improve employee capabilities.
💍 Fashion & Luxury Goods
🔥 Adidas has unveiled the third and final phase of its 2021 NFT project. Holders will be able to “burn” their tokens and join the new “ALTS” dynamic NFT ecosystem with interactive storytelling.
Nike revealed the details of its first digital shoe collection drop on the native .SWOOSH platform, using “digital posters” nomenclature and emphasizing the shoe is not physical.
Bugatti partnered with British jeweler Asprey to create a limited edition Egg Collection, comprised of a physical object and generative artwork inscribed on the Bitcoin (!) blockchain, priced at $20K-200K apiece.
🎬️ Entertainment & Media
David Bowie’s never-before-heard version of hit "Let’s Dance" will be sold via pay-what-you-want NFTs for music charity (the previous Bowie NFT project caused some backlash).
The Rolling Stones announced limited edition digital collectibles linked to accompanying vintage, real-life photo slides, but called “Digital Certificates of Authenticity” instead of “NFT” for optics
Mastercard launched a free Music Pass NFT, which opens access to a web3 training program for emerging musical artists
🏈 Sports
Marquee sports licensing deals are getting renegotiated by NFT companies as consumer demand wanes, employees are laid off, and legal questions arise.
Getting active or going outdoors is increasingly incentivized by web3 and NFT projects in an effort to bridge their communities from URL to IRL
💰️ Deals
Absolute Labs raised a $8M seed round to accelerate growth of its wallet CRM platform.
HUG raised a $5M seed round to integrate creator-first commerce features to its social NFT marketplace.
Lore raised a $4M “strategic” round to expand its co-ownership platform for web3 collectives.
Ecosapiens raised a $3.5M seed round to enable collectors offset carbon emissions with NFTs.
LALA raised a $3M seed round to enable fans to own a piece of revenue streams from TV and movies.
TOPGOAL raised a “multi-milion dollar” round to build football metaverse powered by AI and blockchain.
Aptos launched a $20M grant program to increase the number of artists and creatives using its blockchain.
🤓 Guides and Tutorials
Metaverse Essentials: Building the Future of Sports (free course; ~2 hrs)
Permissioned vs Permissionless Blockchains
How the Metaverse Can Transform Education
🗃 Additions to the Web3 Tools database (283 total)
Paragraph: web3-powered newsletter platform
Passes: premium content gating & monetization for creators
Remx: exclusive memberships and rewards for web3 communities
Salsa: P2P chat via Proof-of-Attendance collectibles
Showtime: social network where fans earn free digital collectibles from their favorite creators
Xpand: web3 rewards for attention retention
📚️ For the Weekend
Crypto (Could) Fixes This: Elon, Substack, and Crypto as Insurance (Not Boring)
Coming Soon to a Theater Near You: Web3 (Variety)
How Talent Agency WME Is Expanding Into Crypto (Coindesk)
Will NFTs Ever Catch On? (Fortune)
On Gaming and Brand Building with Polygon Labs (🎙️Apple; 50 min)
The AI/Web3 Intersection Will Be Mindblowing (🎙️Apple; 56 min)
Meme of the Week
That’s all. See you next week!
Question, feedback or collab? Send me a note.
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Author Bio
Kuba Szewczyk is an NFT Product Strategy Lead at ConsenSys, helping build NFT tools for brands and creators. He previously worked at Bain & Co. Digital Assets and earned Harvard MBA.
No 'End Credits (AKA Also Made the News)' this week?Should I bring this section back? |
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