Alpha Schedule #19 - Pharrell Williams Joins Doodles
*Read this newsletter on the web for the best experience*
Hi friends,
I absolutely loved seeing so many of you during the NFT NYC satellite events over the past few days; I had so much fun partying alongside everyone!
Hearing everyone's WEB3 stories energized me, and seeing how many brands are about to enter the space makes me bullish for the future.
Next to the latest news, I stumbled upon a few interesting articles that grabbed my attention. Hope you like them as well.
See you soon!
— 🩸💀 AMERICAN RADASS
PHARRELL WILLIAMS JOINS DOODLES
Pharrell Williams has expanded his presence in the NFT space by going “all-in” with Doodles.
Pharrell joined Doodles as its Chief Brand Ambassador and board member, which was announced at an event hosted alongside the NFT NYC conference. “I’m here to announce that I will be joining Doodles as a member of the board and Chief Brand Officer,” Williams said in a pre-recorded video message at the event. “When the Doodles team presented its vision for business, I was immediately all-in”.
Williams will guide the collection’s approach to music, events, artwork, consumer products, and animation. He will also produce a Doodles-inspired music album, dubbed “Doodles Record: Volume 1,” in partnership with Columbia Records.
SHOPIFY UNVEILS NFT FEATURES
Shopify is updating its platform to allow consumers and merchants to connect through their crypto wallets.
According to its website, Shopify is releasing a framework enabling merchants to launch “tokengated stores” to which fans can have early or exclusive access, should they possess tokens from the particular brand. Limited edition merchandise, experiences, and drops were among the rewards suggested by the company to sellers to “incentivize” fandom.
The company is now also offering the possibility of minting and selling NFTs straight from the blockchain and onto the online store. A dozen NFT minting apps are suggested to smoothly complete the operation, with Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and Flow indicated as the supported blockchains.
In addition, Shopify announced that it is working with Adam Bomb Squad, Doodles, World of Women, Invisible Friends, Superplastic, Stapleverse and Cool Cats programs on Tokengated stores.
CHRISTIE’S HEAD OF NFT JOINS CRYPTOPUNKS
Christie's head of NFTs announced that he would be joining industry heavyweight Yuga Labs as brand leader for its recently-acquired collection CryptoPunks.
Additionally, BAYC co-founder Garga wrote on Twitter that new terms for Punks will be rolled out in the next couple of weeks.
📰 OTHER NEWS FROM THE PAST WEEK
AltPress releases Deadfellaz magazine cover.
Tomorrowland will launch their 2nd of 3 NFT Collections on Solana marketplace Magic Eden.
Social media influencers who were collaborating with Coinbase have received an email stating that their payments would be reduced because of the market crash and downtrend in the field.
Bored Ape Yacht Club has teamed up with the American magazine Rolling Stone to release special edition digital collectibles.
FTX is set to acquire Canadian crypto trading platform Bitvo.
A class-action lawsuit was launched against Coinbase, claiming the trading platform was irresponsible in listing the TerraUSD stablecoin and charging that it neglected to disclose its financial connection with Terraform Labs.
Solana NFT Marketplace Magic Eden secures $130M in Series B investment
The Korean government imposed a travel ban for all ex-Terra employees.
Coinbase has stated that it will eventually stop offering its Coinbase Pro service and instead enhance the user experience on its web and mobile platforms.
✨ NEW IN THE SPACE
Global e-commerce giant eBay has acquired NFT marketplace KnownOrigin, as part of efforts to become a leader in digital collectibles.
Nickelodeon is the next brand to launch Rugrats and Hey Arnold! NFTs as part of our overall partnership with Paramount Global.
Uniswap Labs acquired NFT marketplace aggregator Genie in an effort to ramp up its presence in the NFT business.
Crypto payments firm MoonPay announced that it has launched a new service, HyperMint, which allows brands to mint up to 100 million NFTs at once.
Fashion brand Gucci is joining its first DAO through a partnership with SuperRare, an NFT marketplace.
After Meta’s pilot testing of NFT display options on Instagram back in May, the firm is now expanding the test pool, bringing the digital collectibles feature to Facebook, ‘starting with a small group of US creators’.
KPMG’s US and Canada businesses have launched a so-called collaboration hub in the metaverse as it seeks to help clients develop strategies within the space.
DJ Alan Walker, a world-renowned DJ and producer, has sealed a partnership with Corite to launch a new NFT collection.
In response to growing security issues around cryptocurrency and digital assets, Ledger developed Ledger Market to be an NFT distribution platform that prioritizes safe NFT mints, sales, and storage.
The team behind Solana is seeking to gate-crash the telecom industry with the launch of an Android phone and a new subsidiary focused on web3 mobile apps.
Hublot, the Swiss luxury watchmaker, has announced it will accept BTC and other crypto payments.
Cryptoys, an NFT-native gaming platform, announced that it has closed a $23 million Series A, along with its parent company OnChain Studios, led by Andreessen Horowitz
Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo has signed a multi-year partnership with Binance to launch a series of NFT collections.
💀 HOW TO RECOGNIZE A RUG PULL
FBI special agent Sean Ragan warned Linkedin users of investment scams, such as cryptocurrency. As a reminder; here is Linkedin's report about content violations.
The organizers of the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) have found themselves embroiled in a dispute with a group of anonymous crypto investors who tried to scalp tickets.
🔮 LOOKING FORWARD
It’s no financial advice, but you might want to start doing your research and grinding for these allowlists before it’s too late.
📖 LEARN HOW TO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH
A bear market is a perfect moment to work on your skills, which is why I loved Advik's Twitter thread that describes how you can become a web dev in less than 180 days.
😂 LAUGH OUT LOUD
I loved the GOD HATES NFTs protest outside of Adam Bomb Squad's NFT NYC event, but this Kmoney joke made me laugh out loud 😂😂😂
😊 ENJOYED THIS WEEK'S ALPHA?
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🤓 DISCLAIMER: NFA & DYOR
This newsletter is a curated overview of the most interesting things I’ve read the past week, the projects I’ve researched, and the NFTs I’ll be trying to buy.
This means I’m - per definition - biased, so don’t consider this as financial advice and keep doing your own research if you see something you like.