TL;DR

• Follow the Hustle and the Nexus Twitter accounts for the latest news.

• Web3 gaming and tech: Persona mints out (+ FUD), Today the game: free mint Q1, $PIXEL is live on Binance, Helika raised $8M in a Series A, Revolving Games: RG Bytes mint concludes, Arcade plans to airdrop $3M worth of tokens, Yuga Labs acquired PROOF_XYZ, and more news.

• Macro Cryptocurrency News: Uniswap V4, Hawaii becomes pro-crypto, Puffer Finance: $1B in deposits, SBF news, Optimism airdrop, Binance plea deal, and Solana x Filecoin.

🎮 Web3 Gaming and Tech

• Persona mints out, but due to poor contract optimization, there was an unexpected gas war during the bidding process

  • Trading is live now, with the floor price opening at around 0.5 ETH.

• Today the Game is holding a free mint in Q1

  • It’s one of the most-hyped Web3 gaming projects for the past year.

  • Launched by APCollective, the marketing agency behind Tatsumeeko, AOFVerse, Overworld, and more.

• Sekai Glory announced its round of angel investors

  • Dingaling, Grail, NFTboi, and others took part in the round.

• $PIXEL is live on Binance and went up to $0.67 for a moment

  • Its price is hovering at around $0.50, which puts the coin at $2.8B FDV.

  • Pixels also announced a 20 million PIXEL airdrop over the weekend for users who staked Ronin’s RON token.

• Yoshiki Okamoto, a highly experienced game developer joined Creta

  • In his introduction video, he mentions a new project is in the make

  • Creta is a Web3 studio with three titles in development: Kingdom Under Fire, Fortress 4, and this new still unnamed project.

• The Web3 analytics platform Helika raised $8M in a Series A led by Pantera Capital

  • The funds will be used to accelerate the launch of Helika’s AI-powered game management products.

• Matr1X announced that Animoca Brands invested in the studio

• Revolving Games concludes the mint of RG Bytes

  • The floor price is now at ~0.20 ETH, which is under the mint price.

• Arcade plans to airdrop $3 million worth of tokens to holders of Mega SOL, ETH, and BTC NFTs.

  • 21, eligible collections will include Solana’s Mad Lads and Tensorians; Ethereum’s Pudgy Penguins, Lil Pudgys, and Sappy Seals; and Bitcoin Ordinals‘ Bitcoin Puppets, NodeMonkes, and RSIC.

• Gaimin is collaborating with MovementLabs, and BNB Chain to create the fastest gaming blockchain in the world

  • A blockchain-based L2 on BSC with 150K TPS, low latency, and native gaming DePIN features.

• TapNationGames (TNG) is building its games on Immutable

  • TNG was a top #11 worldwide publisher by downloads in 2023.

• Citizen Conflict announced the launching of its token on ByBit on the 29th

• Yuga Labs acquired PROOF_XYZ, including Moonbirds, Mythics, Grails, Mythics, and Oddities

• Proof of Play shared a (potential) token teaser

  • People are speculating Pirate Nation - Founder’s Pirates are the best way to gain exposure right now.

• XAI, Treasure DAO, and Helika submitted a proposal to the Arbitrum DAO to support gaming

• Crystal Fun (CF) raised $5 million in funding from KuCoin and other investors.

  • CF is a decentralized gaming mega-ecosystem & studio

• Kaidro is a new project coming to Ronin

  • Its manga has over 50M+ online views, and now they are expanding the IP through an anime and IP

• It became clear that Arbitrum remains the chain of Treasure DAO

• Pixels reached a new player record of 315K+ DAU

• Holders of Infinipasses, Elder Gods, and Elder God sets will receive an airdrop of $FATE in mid-March

  • $FATE will be the on<>off-chain currency for games in the Infinigods ecosystem

• Mocaverse has collaborated with OKX Wallet, Crypto.com DeFi Wallet, and Halo Wallet to enhance and broaden the Moca ID ecosystem.

🕹️ Gaming Narrative Play

• On-chain gaming: Proof of Play (PoP) recently introduced its Multichain, which is a chain optimized for speed, scalability, and costs. Making on-chain a much more feasible endeavor for gaming studios to pursue. We see these developments attract more on-chain builders, and so push the application of on-chain games, and push the narrative.

• Proof of Play’s flagship game is Pirate Nation.

🚀 Nexus V1 Alpha Launch

Welcome to the sixteenth edition of the newsletter! We’re still polishing the Alpha Build, and working to provide to optimize the experience, before moving on to later launches of the product. In the meantime, this is how you can get involved:

• Get a Nexus Pass NFT now for exclusive and immediate lifetime access.

In a later stage, you can:

• Subscribe for $49/month to unlock the full potential (live at a next-stage launch), or

• Use the free version (limited in features) of the platform

Don't miss out—follow our journey on Hustle's Twitter, YouTube channels, and Nexus Twitter.

📈 Macro Cryptocurrency News

• Uniswap’s version 4 protocol will likely launch in Q3 2024. Version 4 is designed to feature a more modular structure, incorporating "hooks" for customizing liquidity pools

• Hawaii has quietly transitioned from being one of the most restrictive states to one of the most permissive in the country regarding cryptocurrency

• The Liquid Restaking Protocol Puffer has amassed $1 billion in deposits in only three weeks

• While awaiting sentencing next month for his involvement in the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, the former billionaire and son of Stanford University law professors, has reportedly formed new acquaintances during his time in federal lock-up in Brooklyn

• Optimism has airdropped over 10 million OP tokens, valued at nearly $41 million, during its fourth airdrop

• US government prosecutors are advising a federal judge to approve the plea deal offered by crypto exchange Binance. In November 2023, the leading global crypto exchange faced a $4.3 billion fine from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to resolve a multi-year investigation

• Solana is incorporating the services of Filecoin, a blockchain system protocol for file storage launched in 2020, to enhance the availability of specific data within its blockchain. Solana's integration involves utilizing Filecoin's capabilities to store its block history.

🌟 Token Spotlight by Hustle

• Coin of the Week: $PIXEL

• Market Cap: ~$410M

• What is Pixels? Pixels is a social and farming game on the Ronin blockchain. Over the past few months, they become the biggest Web3 game in the space. More recently, the project phased out its $BERRY token and shifted its focus completely on $PIXEL, listed on Binance last week.

• Outside of the incredible run-up we have already seen, since its launch on Binance, we still believe there’s space for upward potential. Especially, now Ronin has shown it wants to cross-incentivize investors in both the chain and its games.

• Delve into Hustle's market wisdom with his “Daily Watchlist” and deep-dive analysis available on the TTOO Discord server and through his “In the Game" show. 

✍️ NFT of The Week

• Pick of the week: RG Byte

• Why Revolving Games?

  • Backed by Animoca Brands, Pantera, and more

  • Advised by Dan Houser, former co-Founder of Rockstar

  • The team generated over $3B in lifetime revenue collectively

  • The success of Skyborne Legacy

  • The focus is on building a gaming ecosystem powered by nodes

  • It might be undervalued (the floor price was pretty much equal to the mint price)

• Utility

  • RG's focus is on building a gaming ecosystem powered by nodes, with BYTES serving loyalty points and incentives within this network

  • You earn loyalty points by staking, playing, engaging, and inviting friends to play

  • Redeem the loyalty points for real-life rewards, exclusive NFTs, and future rewards

• Catalysts

  • The potential upside includes a significant allocation in a community token sale, with favorable vesting terms

  • There's potential for a PFP airdrop for BYTE holders, possibly tied to holding a BYTE and a GEM

  • The node network project aims to decentralize storage and computing for game servers, success in this endeavor could lead to a significant valuation increase of Bytes

See you next week!