More turmoil in the crypto markets+ All the Web3 news you missed this week

There’s more shakeout in the crypto markets as the bitcoin price is close to falling below $20k. Most recently, Three Arrows Capital’s debt woes may cause further dominoes to fall. From

From a recent article in The Defiant

Three Arrows Capital is sitting on what are believed to be billions of dollars worth loans secured by cryptocurrencies. With the market down 56% this year in its worst bear market since 2018, investors believe the collateral no longer supports the loans. Now the fund is on the hook to start paying them back, and everyone is wondering whether it will default. 

If you’re looking to better understand what happened iwth Celsius, a recent Coindesk article recaps what happened: How Crypto Lender Celsius Overheated

Now onto the other Web3 news you missed this week.

Here’s the Web3 news from the past week

General

Jack Dorsey: Fuck It, We're Doing Web5 (Vice)

TBD, a business within Block (formerly Square), is building what Jack Dorsey calls “Web5.” Compared to Web3, which Dorsey believes is controlled by VCs and other institutions, Web5 is a vision for a truly decentralized internet — with no tokens for investors to snap up.

NFTs

Bill Gates says NFTs are ‘100 percent based on greater fool theory’ (The Verge)

At a climate-focused TechCrunch event, Bill Gates expressed skepticism about the NFT market, describing it as “100 percent based on greater fool theory.” Gates said that he’s much more interested in investing in farms, factories, and companies that make tangible products.

Floor price of popular NFT collections collapse due to bear market (Cointelegraph)

Even the hottest NFT collections are taking a hit right now. The floor price of Bored Ape Yacht Club has fallen to 74 ETH from an all-time high of 153.70 ETH, while CryptoPunks dropped to 48 ETH from 123 ETH.

Seth Green Pays $300K to Recover His Stolen Bored Ape Ethereum NFT (Decrypt)

In what is presumably the final act of Seth Green’s NFT heist saga, the actor paid more than $295,000 to recover a Bored Ape that had been stolen from him in a phishing scam and sold to another collector.

DAOs

Harnessing the talent of Y Combinator alumni to form a powerful Web3 community (Orange DAO) (Web3 Roundup)

This week, I interviewed Ricardo Garcia-Amaya about OrangeDAO, a group of crypto-focused Y Combinator alumni. OrangeDAO is linked to a crypto investment fund called Orange Fund, which redirects its carry back to the DAO. “There’s a foundational belief that whatever this fund could accomplish, we can probably accomplish 100x if we tie it to a community,” Garcia-Amaya told me.

Metaverse

Probing reality and myth in the metaverse (McKinsey)

McKinsey asked 1,000 American consumers, aged 13 to 70, about their thoughts on the metaverse and concluded that people are more educated about and open to the concept than expected. Based on its findings, the consulting firm has identified 6 myths about the metaverse — including that it’s a fad that’s only for gamers and Gen Z.

Augmented Reality

Tech Giants Start Getting Real on Augmented Reality (WSJ)

Rather than trying to develop expensive AR hardware like headsets and glasses, tech companies may be better served by taking a smaller, lighter approach in the form of AR software. Snap’s AR software offerings have been a “fast success,” for instance, with more than 250 million daily average users.

DeFi

JPMorgan Wants to Bring Trillions of Dollars of Tokenized Assets to DeFi (CoinDesk)

JPMorgan has big plans for institutional-grade DeFi, with the development of its blockchain-based collateral settlement system and participation in a pilot that “tests institutional-friendly DeFi using permissioned liquidity pools that are made up of tokenized bonds and deposits.” As Tyrone Lobban, the head of Onyx Digital Assets at JPMorgan, told CoinDesk: “The overall goal is to bring these trillions of dollars of assets into DeFi, so that we can use these new mechanisms for trading, borrowing [and] lending, but with the scale of institutional assets.”

Gaming

The Crypto Crash Shows The Unearned Confidence In Web3, NFT And Blockchain Gaming (Forbes)

With the crypto market tanking, the gaming community’s suspicion of play-to-earn, metaverse, and NFT-based games has been proven judicious, according to Paul Tassi. “If we can’t trust the relative stability of Bitcoin with these massive crashes, why then should we believe in Axie’s “Smooth Love Potion” or the land value of virtual real estate in Decentraland?” writes Tassi. “You shouldn’t. You never should have. And most core gamers never did.”

The Death of Play-to-Earn: Addressing the Elephant(s) in the NFT Room (Investing.com)

With play-to-earn games looking like flailing pyramid schemes, what lessons can developers apply to future projects? Games need to actually be fun, they don’t necessarily need blockchain technology, and they can’t be this overhyped and underwhelming.

Off topic stories I found interesting

How China’s biggest online influencers fell from their thrones (MIT Tech Review)

The Chinese government appears to be cracking down on top influencers, whose livestreams have inspired fans to spend billions of dollars in online purchases. Some influencers have experienced content censorship, while others have been subject to tax evasion fines and subsequently gone dark. Amid this, the balance of power between livestreamers and brands is shifting, with a new emphasis on small and mid-size influencers and on brands creating their own livestreaming channels.

In case you missed it - this was the most opened article from last week’s news roundup

Are People Leaving Their Tech Jobs for Web3? (Blockworks)

Web3 is pulling top talent away from establishment tech firms, with executives from Google, Amazon, Lyft, and YouTube moving into the sector. Crypto companies may be particularly enticing for the youngest members of the workforce, too: A study showed that 94% of investors in the space are Gen Z or Millennials, suggesting that their career aspirations might follow suit.

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About Me

Hi, I’m Andrew Chang - I created the Web3 Roundup to share what I’m learning in this space. I’ve spent my career at the forefront of the technology industry in areas such as crypto/blockchain (Former COO @ Paxos, co-founding partner of Liberty City Ventures), video and adtech. I learn by meeting with founders, investors and other thought leaders and approach Web3 with the same enthusiasm – and skepticism – I had about crypto/blockchain technologies 10 years ago. 

You can connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter (@DigitalDrex)