This Week in Web3...

📉 This week marks the worst week in crypto since the FTX collapse in November 2022, as the price of Bitcoin went down more than 11%, dipping below $26,000. ETH went down 10% and other altcoins went down between 15% and 20%.

📉 Similarly, the week was not kind to NFTs. Prices on most collections continue to fall, with Bored Ape Yacht Club hitting 25 ETH. Other than the beta launch of Parallel’s new digital trading card game and DeGods Season III (with mixed reviews), there haven't been a lot of interesting launches in NFTs this month.

🤯 On Thursday, Opensea dropped a bombshell:

Opensea will be moving to optional creator royalties on all collections by February 2024.

Full details on the changes are available here. Most of the thought leaders in the space are disappointed in OpenSea’s announcement, especially with how the marketplace blames the ecosystem for the move.

🙊 Yuga announced they will wind down support of Opensea in light of the changes, reiterating their commitment to protecting creator royalties. Yuga Labs assets represent 80% of Opensea’s revenue, so this will a major impact.

🥳 Zynga dives into web3 gaming with NFTs. Gaming giant Zynga, creator of mega-hits like FarmVille and Words With Friends, will launch the Ethereum-based Sugartown later this year. The team plans to launch 10,000 NFTs sometime later this year, required for players to enter the game and play the free-to-play mini games in exchange for in-game currency sugar.

🔵 On-chain summer is on! Daily transactions on Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 BASE pass both Optimism and Arbitrum.

📈 Friend.tech is one application on BASE seeing parabolic growth: a new social media platform where you can buy shares to access a private chat room with a user. Rumors of an airdrop are circling and prices for top accounts tripled (influencers like Cobie and Ansem lead with shares at 2.62 ETH and 1.89 ETH respectively). Paradigm was also revealed as a backer for the platform, adding to the airdrop speculation.

😕 Recur NFT platform has announced that it will be shutting down. Recur raised $50 million less than two years ago and had licenses for huge IP like Nickelodeon, Hello Kitty, and Star Trek. Collectors can cash out their balance and move your NFTs off the platform onto the Ethereum network before the platform closes in November.

Quick Headlines

• Leadership team shakeups as Cool Cats CEO steps down, replaced by artist and founder Clon, and DeGods co-founder Finn leaves the team.

• Solana is back to being the second largest market for NFTs again, after interest in both Bitcoin and Polygon stall.

• The city of Dubai incentivizes web3 and AI companies by offering commercial licenses for a 90% subsidy.

• Helium launches a $5 unlimited decentralized data plan, the first of its kind.

AI Corner

🙋‍♀️ “These women tried to warn us about AI” spotlights the women who uncovered problematic characteristics in early AI models along gender, race, and disability, and how many of these women had their concerns dismissed or were outright fired from leading companies when they tried to speak out about the dangers of AI.

🎨 AI-created art cannot be copyrighted. A federal judge upheld the finding from the US Copyright Office that a piece of art created by AI is not protected under copyright. As the Hollywood writers strike continues, will this ruling give pause to studios on whether scripts written by AI are worth the cost?

Positive Affirmation for the Week

How long have you tied your worth to the things you haven’t done or didn’t work out? 🤷‍♀️

You are not those things. You are so much more! Look at where you’ve been, what you’ve done and how much you’ve accomplished. That shift in perspective is a game changer!

Hope you enjoyed this week's edition of the Alpha newsletter!

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Remember, I'm Bullish on you!

With gratitude,

Shira