🎯 Ticketmaster's Swift NFT Adoption, Disney Shareholders Meh-taverse

💰️ Deals

• Hadean raised additional $5M funding for cloud-based metaverse infrastructure solutions.

• So-Col unveiled $4.5M in two token funding rounds to expand its web3 social platform for paywalled creator content.

• LandVault raised $3M Series B extension round to build out metaverse infrastructure and gaming tech.

• Animoca Brands reduced the target for its metaverse fund from $1B to $800M (from $2B in January), citing FTX and banking crises as cause.

• Tomi raised $40M funding round to build ‘alternative internet’ for content creators.

🛠️ MarTech & CreatorTech

• ⭐ Instagram’s abrupt decision cut NFTs spells an opportunity for newer, younger NFT platforms, and inspires brands and creators to pursue web3 tools to build and own their communities outside the social media algorithms.

• Web3 commerce, or rather “direct-to-avatar” commerce, offers novel models to captivate Gen-Z consumer through gaming, community-oriented experiences and virtual-first goods.

• Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) brands are leveraging digital collectibles loyalty programs to capture customer data, drive engagement, and build loyalty.

🛍 Consumer & Mainstream

• Nasdaq expects to launch its cryptocurrency custody services in Q2 in a move to fill the role of recently shut crypto middlemen. Safekeeping crypto would be the first step to building a broader offering for traditional finance (and hence driving mainstream adoption).

• Amazon’s NFT plans were teased in a receipt mailed to a crypto journalist suggesting the existence of digital tokens and a “gallery” on Amazon (unfortunately, the links were broken).

• UK government drops plans for NFT made by Royal Mint, originally proposed by now-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to show the UK’s forward-looking approach towards crypto assets.

🤖 Metaverse

• ⭐ Apple announced its annual conference dates in June, hinting unveil of VR headset. Some execs remain concerned about the device’s $3,000 price tag, limited utility and unproven market.

• Epic Games CEO presented a "unified" vision of the metaverse, adding that "the metaverse has to be open”, and adding that Apple "will either try to crush the metaverse, or extract all the profit from it".

• MIT Technology Review published a report on the industrial metaverse, which mirrors and simulates real machines, factories, cities, and other highly complex systems through ‘digital twins’.

💍 Fashion & Luxury Goods

• Metaverse Fashion Week returns to Decentraland’s Luxury District, where global fashion brands, including D&G, Tommy Hilfiger, COACH, adidas, DKNY will display their virtual storefronts. The actual fashion designs, however, still appear a bit cartoonish.

• Gucci announced a multiyear partnership with Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, and is set to appear in Yuga’s fictional digital fashion shop 10KTF and its Otherside metaverse game.

• Cult & Rain is dropping a new collection of NFT-linked products that include near-field communication (NFC) chips to unlock new capabilities around authentication, post-purchase marketing and secondary trading.

🎬️ Entertainment & Media

• Andy Warhol’s four tokenized paintings are making S.E.C.-compliant debut on blockchain, following a Reg A clearance that allows selling tokens just like shares.

• Pussy Riot protest art NFT depicting the Virgin Mary triggered Russian criminal charges, adding to many ways how web3 is being used against the regime.

• CoinTelegraph, a large crypto news site, has launched NFT mint of its articles to test alternative revenue and reader engagement models.

🏈 Sports

• ⭐ Major League Baseball’s rookies will wear special jersey patches during their debuts games, which will be later authenticated as game-used and sent off to become a Topps digital collectible. Meahwile, Candy Digital is launching its third season of MLB collectibles after recent separation from Topps owner Fanatics.

• Panini is staying in the sports NFT business amid the market’s collapse and top leagues IP licensing wars; debuts its new NFT store.

• Arsenal FC Journey Pass NFTs, which is essentially a game ticket and a hotel room, will be auctioned by two startups hoping to promote their NFT and tokenized timeshare businesses.

🤓 Guides and Tutorials

• Understanding ‘Proof of Attendance’ NFTs: unique collectibles to commemorate events

• How to start an NFT collection

🗃 Additions to the Web3 Tools database (271 total)

• Layer-E: NFT “operating system” and CRM for creators, brands, and fandom

• HUG: curation and discovery marketplace for verified artists

• Idexo: web3 revenue and loyalty infrastructure provider

• Dework: web3-native project management with token payments, credentialing, bounties

• Mintplex: tools to launch and grow NFT projects

📚️ For the Weekend

• Corporations, Culture and Coins: Paris Might Be Burning but Its Crypto Ecosystem Isn’t (TheBlock)

• Why Participatory Artwork Might Actually Work for Your Web3 Brand (CoinDesk)

• The Metaverse Is Much More Than A Cool New Channel For Luxury Brands (Forbes)

• Tokenized Products and Tokenized Relationships (Spotify; 32 mins)

• Web3 Gaming & On-Chain Games (Apple; 1 hr 7 mins)

Free resources:
10+ Best Reports on Brands in Web3 & NFTs
260+ NFT Tools For Brands & Creators