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LeBron James (Literally) Sets Foot into NFTs with Nike Sneakers

Plus: NFT Markets Out of Balance, Venmo P2P Crypto Transfers

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 988 words, a 4-minute read.

This week’s TL;DR:

  1. LeBron James onboards into web3 with Nike sneakers

  2. NFT markets are out of balance

  3. Venmo enables P2P crypto transfers

PLUS: Mastercard, Sotheby's, Adidas, LimeWire, Sports Illustrated, and more!

📅 Upcoming events: NFT Rome (until May 7); NFT Tallinn (May 9-10); AdAge Web3 Marketing Summit, virtual (May 9-10); Shoptalk Europe, Barcelona (May 9-11); Vogue Business Technology Forum, virtual (May 11)

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The Big One

LeBron James onboarded to NFTs with RTFKT x Nike sneakers and an honorary avatar

The NBA legend was photographed wearing special-edition Nike sneakers that can only be purchased by minting an NFT created by Nike subsidiary, RTFKT. Its co-founders also presented LeBron with an honorary avatar. Read more 

The Takeaway: While we don’t know if the engagement was a part of LeBron’s existing deal with Nike, the photo was a credibility boost for the ecosystem and a pleasant distraction from the deteriorating NFT market and the progressing extreme financialization.

By the Numbers

NFT markets are out of balance: trading in decline, sellers dominate buyers

NFT sellers outnumbered buyers every single day since April, NFT data reveals. In addition, the daily NFT traders have dropped from a 20-60k range to 7k, suggesting the market is “not functioning” at the moment. Read more 

The Takeaway: The data reflects the overall decline in demand and speculation on collectibles, potentially driven by the US banking sector uncertainty and flight of specualtive capital to meme coins.

Bold Strokes, Long Marches

PayPal extended crypto transfers to Venmo’s 77 million American customers

Venmo customers will now also be able to send and receive crypto to and from other Venmo & Paypal accounts, as well as external crypto wallets and exchanges. Read more 

The Takeaway: The parent company is doubling down on P2P crypto transfers after the initial rollout to only PayPal users last June. Venmo, which processed nearly $250 billion in transactions last year, can help push mainstream adoption.

Top Headlines

🛍 Consumer & Mainstream

🤖 Metaverse

💍 Fashion & Luxury Goods

🎬️ Entertainment & Media

🏈 Sports

🛠️ MarTech & CreatorTech

💰️ Deals

  • Everdome raised $50M in additional funding to enhance the infrastructure of its UAE-based metaverse project

  • Mark Cuban’s Fireside raised $25M in Series A funding to accelerate its interactive streaming app for creators and brands (no longer dabbling in NFTs)

  • Goals raised $20M in Series A funding to continue development of NFT soccer video game

  • Neowiz, a South Korean game publisher, launched a $10M gaming accelerator

  • Samsung inked a partnership with Crypto.com to enhance its smartphone experience with the crypto app

🎓 Guides and Tutorials

 🧰 Additions to the Web3 Tools database (296 total)

  • Nansen Connect: wallet-to-wallet messaging tool for token-gated communities

  • Gallery: Platform to view, curate, share, and discover favorite NFTs

📚️ For the Weekend

  • Is the Federal Government Trying to Kill Off Crypto? (New York Magazine)

  • Genies CEO on Identities, Passion Economy, and Leading with Avatars (Forbes)

  • Seismic Waves of Gen Z Behavior: Three Generational Shifts Shaping Technology & Culture (Substack)

  • Adidas Web3 Product Head Reflects on the Past Months’ Work (Twitter)

  • Evaluating the Web3 Music Ecosystem with Warner Music Group (🎙️Apple / Spotify; 28 min)

  • Building Your Web3 Digital Identity (🎙️Apple; 27 min)

Meme of the Week

That’s all. See you next week!

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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.

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