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- Pokemon Cards Theft Pushes Collectors towards NFTs, T.Swift Dodged FTX Bullet
Pokemon Cards Theft Pushes Collectors towards NFTs, T.Swift Dodged FTX Bullet
Plus: Blockchain to Grown Faster Than AI, S.E.C. Blocking Digital American Dream
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 1,392 words, a 5½-minute read.
This week’s TL;DR:
🃏 Pokemon cards theft vs NFTs fixing it
📈 Blockchain to grow faster than AI
🚧 S.E.C. blocking a digital American dream
👱♀️ Taylor Swift dodged FTX bullet
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The Big One
Collectors compelled to turn to NFTs after Pokemon cards theft exposes trust issues
A photo showing hundreds of rare Pokemon trading cards stacked and neatly organized for a sale has shocked card fans and collectors.
The sheer volume of the attempted transaction rang alarm bells with the merchant, who later discovered that allegedly a printing company worker stole hit cards off the line and tried to dump them for profit.
How this works: Pokemon trading cards are distributed in blind packs — neither buyers nor manufacturer is supposed to know what is inside each pack.
As each pack is guaranteed to have one rare card, collectors weren’t happy to learn that the system might have been rigged
What fans suggested: cards on a blockchain (or NFTs) remove the need for trust as every transaction, such as minting or transfer, is publicly visible.
Provenance and authenticity of each card (as well as stolen inventories) can be easily tracked and accounted for, giving fans peace of mind that they’re participating in a fair distribution.
By the Numbers
Bankers forecast blockchain & web3 total addressable market to grow the fastest
Citi is predicting the size, growth, and time to adoption for blockchain and web3 relative to AI and metaverse in its latest “Money, Tokens, and Games” report:
TAM (bubble size): relatively smallest markets today (~$150B in 2027)
Time to Impact (vertical axis): longer than AI (~6-8 years) as it requires collaboration, standardization, and interoperability
Growth rate (horizontal axis): the highest among emerging technologies (~75%+) driven by large institutions and governments now beginning to adopt it
+ For a deep dive & report takeaways, check out my post here.
Crypto Twitter Explained
S.E.C. Chair grilled over blocking the pathway to a digital American dream
House Republicans grilled S.E.C. Chair Gary Gensler over his agency’s handling of digital assets, especially a lack of clarity over whether cryptocurrency is a security.
Crypto Twitter was taken aback by some bizarre statements by Gensler:
He testified that he taught multiple courses on crypto but has never owned or used it. (“Using crypto” is not limited to trading; one can write code or set up a computer node)
He also named Algorand blockchain's token as security despite calling it a "great technology" just four years earlier while teaching at MIT.
In the end, an effort was made to oust Gensler with a new bill due to allegations of power abuse and inadequacies in regulation.
The big picture: Crypto community is unified on that front: anti-crypto regulators are blocking the pathway to a digital American dream.
On a Lighter Note
Taylor Swift dodged FTX sponsorship bullet after doing due diligence on the exchange
Taylor Swift rejected the $100 million from crypto exchange FTX to sponsor her Eras tour after conducting due diligence (in contrast to a dozen celebrities in a $5B lawsuit).
The deal all fell apart when the artist asked: 'Can you tell me that these are not unregistered securities?’
“Taylor is smart, and her father is a well-regarded investment banker,” commented Elon Musk on Twitter.
Twisted big picture: “Selling unregistered securities” wasn’t the main faul play by FTX; instead, it was rather losing billions of dollars of customer money.
+ For a deep dive into the FTX influencers lawsuit, check out this podcast episode.
Top Headlines
🛍 Consumer & Mainstream
NFT. NYC, the leading NFT conference on the calendar, gathered 60% fewer attendees and side events compared to last year’s hype. On the upside, it felt more inclusive than ever.
Starbucks NFT program announced tiered member “Benefits”, including 30 days of free coffee and Reserve Bar IRL experience. It has also just dropped another $100 apiece NFT collection.
Donald Trump made his first posts on Instagram after a two-year hiatus to promote his second $99 apiece NFT collection, which sold out ($4.6M) within hours. His recent filings show he’d earned between up to $1M from licensing the first collection.
🤖 Metaverse
Roblox gaming platform is rolling out "Limiteds" - rare, resealable digital items that act like NFTs, but technically are not NFTs (I wrote more here)… and as it’s attracting older audience, brands are taking notice.
Coachella festival launched Coachella Island in Fortnite gaming platform that allows players to virtually experience the popular music festival and its most recognized art installations.
Meta has shifted away from pitching the metaverse to advertisers after suffering its first-ever drop in ad sales, and instead prioritizing playing catchup with Reels and AI tools.
💍 Fashion & Luxury Goods
Nike .SWOOSH web3 platform pre-selected a third of its 330,000 members for its first-ever digital sneaker collection - “Our Force 1".
Gucci and Vans launched the first co-branded Roblox that gamifies the brands’ pre-existing virtual worlds and challenges players to complete a scavenger hunt to collect a free avatar.
Hugo Boss is adding NFC tags to a range of baseball caps, allowing buyers to create NFT digital twins and dress their Metaverse avatars.
🎬️ Entertainment & Media
Canon USA has announced a dedicated NFT photography platform that will feature both initial drops of photo collections as well as a secondary marketplace.
Deadmau5 and celeb photographer Timothy White launched digital collectibles series that explores the digital alter-ego of the Grammy-nominated producer.
The Smurfs characters will debut as digital collectibles in a new collection as a part of gamified Smurfy world.
‘Wolf of Wall Street’ producer - tied to 1MDB scandal - will sell NFTs of film scenes to cash in on the movie’s enduring popularity.
🏈 Sports
Michael Jordan’s son Jeffrey launched a Gen Z sports app that provides curated, community-focused content and NFTs focusing on favorite players.
Brazilian Football Confederation teamed up with Binance to introduce an NFT collection aimed at increasing soccer fan engagement and drawing in more crypto exchange customers.
🛠️ MarTech & CreatorTech
Replay will enable streaming services, FAST channel owners, and media brands to lock video behind an NFT experience on any smart TV or device.
Mad Realities, a decentralized Web3-based entertainment studio, is launching an invite-only program for creators to develop interactive shows they can monetize.
Influencer and celebrity price list has leaked, suggesting how much social media personalities would charge to promote web3 projects.
💰️ Deals
Tonic raised $5M seed round for its curated fine generative art marketplace.
EVEN raised $2.2M seed round to help artists sell directly to fans.
Pillz raised an undisclosed funding round to combine physical and digital luxyry fashion into digital identity.
DSTLRY came out of stealth to publish original comics and enable a digital collecting experience that’s technically not NFTs.
Crypto dealmaking reaches all-time high (in terms of transactions count) as VC funding remains scarce and firms that struggled to raise funds put themselves up for sale.
NFT founders, builders and collectors alike are still flooding into the space and looking for fresh capital despite the market downturn.
🤓 Guides and Tutorials
Everything you need to know about NFTs and taxes in 2023
How to track the health of your community and build a strong marketing strategy
🗃 Additions to the Web3 Tools database (288 total)
Dialog: personalized in-app messages to better onboard, convert and retain web3 users
Enefty: web3 memberships for brands to boost community engagement with
Lost Worlds: geographically bound NFTs in the real world
OneOf: enterprise-grade suite to gamify rewards programs, build next-generation marketplaces, and track customer behavior
Reveel: trustless protocol for distributing web3 earnings with collaborators
📚️ For the Weekend
Why Classic Gaming Names Like Atari and MapleStory Are Still Going in on the Blockchain (The Verge)
The U.S. Cracked a $3.4 Billion Crypto Heist—and Bitcoin’s Anonymity (WSJ)
Web3 Startups Tap Influencers and Celebrities to Get in with Fashion (Vogue Business)
How to Defend the Metaverse: Next Steps for Virtual Worlds (Bankless)
Unlocking Brand Value via Web3-Enabled Programs with Mars (🎙️Apple; 31 min)
Why the $1.7 Trillion Fashion Industry Is Going Digital (🎙️Apple; 58 min)
Meme of the Week
That’s all. See you next week!
Question, feedback or collab? Send me a note.
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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