TL;DR

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

• Web3 gaming and tech: MON Protocol TGE, Metalcore x Portal, Gala admin going rogue, NYAN token, Notcoin launch, Ather Labs, Param Labs raised $7M, MOCA token allocation, RoboKiden, and more news.

• Macro news: ETH ETF approved, $2B settlement with Genesis, the FIT21 act, Donald Trump and Crypto Donations, and the possible ZkSycn airdrop.

🎮 Web3 Gaming and Tech

• The Mon protocol finally announced its TGE date on the 27th of May

  • CryptoGorilla did some moon math and calculated that each Pixelmon could receive $78K worth of tokens at a $5B FDV

• Metalcore announced they are partnering with Portal

  • This likely means the upcoming $MCG token will be listed on the launchpad

• Sugartown is opening “rifts” and is “onboarding big names”

  • It is assumed this has something to do with their upcoming L2

• This week a Gala admin went rogue and minted 5B $GALA ($200M) of tokens

  • The perpetrator managed to sell off millions of the tokens before they managed to make them untradeable

• Nyan Heroes launched its token this week, however, experienced technical difficulties during the claim

  • The issues caused some uproar among airdrop farmers, who felt disadvantaged, however, the truth was that both investors and players weren’t able to claim

  • $NYAN is now trading at ~$28M market cap

• The Notcoin airdrop claim opened, and Binance Users staked $14B for NOT rewards

  • The token launched at an impressive ~$0.01 ($1B FDV) but unsurprisingly faced a lot of selling pressure from its TGE - now trading at $0.004

• The studio behind the game Sipher Oddysey, announced Ather Labs

  • With the coming of Ather Labs, the token will be rebranded from $SIPHER to $ATHER

  • Additionally, they will change from a single game to a game ecosystem, with 4 mobile games in the pipeline

• Param Labs, the developer of Kiraverse announced they raised $7M in a round led by Animoca

  • Other investors included Delphi, Mechanism Capital, Merit Circle, and more

• Castile released mobile gameplay footage, it’s an idle RPG + roguelike

  • Its NFT collection launched a couple of weeks ago, is still at a ~2 ETH fp

• Zkrace migrated its $DERC token to $ZERC

  • A few days ago, the token's price spiked to $0.47 from $0.20, but we are now observing a gradual correction back to $0.28

• Crypto Unicorns goes down to officially migrate to the XAI network

  • Recently, they also migrated from the $RBW token to $CU

• Chibi Clash announced it is minting on Xterio on the 29th

• The MOCA foundation revealed this week that 10% of the upcoming token will be distributed to NFT holders

  • At a $5B FDV every token will receive $78K in tokens

• The Gala Game Last Expedition released the newest pre-alpha Season

  • It’s a PVPVE extraction FPS, probably one of the better things that Gala has worked on

• Delphi Digital released a report on how UGC is reshaping the Web3 gaming industry

  • The report covers various topics such as revenue, growth, engagement, and scaling

• Elixir Games partners with RoboKiden, a promising game on Avalanche

  • “…this could be one of the biggest games on not just AVAX, but in Web3”

🕹️ Gaming Narrative Play

• TON: Recently, there have been 2 catalysts, which are believed to bring the TON ecosystem to greater heights: 

  • Pantera Capital making its “largest investment ever” in the chain

  • The success of Notcoin, launching at such a high FDV

• The thesis for TON is simple:

  • TON is directly integrated with Telegram (TG), and TG has a 900M MAU. The enormous distribution advantage is simply why this ecosystem will thrive, and you likely want to pay attention to promising apps launching here (e.g. Anomaly).

🚀 Nexus V1 Alpha Launch

Welcome to the twenty-ninth edition of the newsletter! We will be shipping key updates this month, including new NFT functionality, launchpad upgrades, and a mobile UI. And many more features for our coming public launch.

In the meantime, this is how you can get involved:

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

When we launch publicly, 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

• The ETH ETF was approved by the SEC. Earlier this week, when analysts changed their predictions positively for the ETF approved in May, we saw a huge ETH pump from $3,150 to almost $4,000.

• New York Attorney General Letitia James has reached a $2 billion settlement with crypto lender Genesis to repay defrauded investors. Genesis, a key business within Digital Currency Group, was significantly impacted by the industry contagion following the collapse of FTX. 

• The United States House of Representatives approved the 21st Century Act (FIT 21) with bipartisan support, signaling that both parties are on board with establishing clear guidelines for allowing blockchain innovation, while also prioritizing consumer safeguards. 

• Former President Donald Trump’s campaign recently announced they will now be accepting crypto donations, fulfilling the presumptive Republican nominee's promise to be the first major party candidate to endorse Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital currencies.

• In a recent X post, ZkSync announced it will soon implement an upgrade to accelerate the decentralization of its protocol. Rumors are swirling that this is an indication the network may conduct an airdrop this summer.

• Coin of the Week: $GPU

• Market Cap: ~$125M

• What is Node AI/GPU? Node AI’s business model is to lend GPU power to AI applications. They address the increasing need for powerful hardware to efficiently run AI algorithms. Now, AI recently reported new sales records, because of the incredibly high demand for AI chips. This narrative is something GPU might be able to ride on.

• 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: Forgotten Runes Wizards Cult

• Why Forgotten Runes?

  • Building an MMORPG for the past 3 years

  • Developing an animated TV show - larger IP play

  • Web3-facing founders

  • Cult-like following

  • Developing another game called Battle for Goblin Town

• Utility

  • Genesis collection: “Wizards get primacy in all resources, airdrops & rewards”

• Catalysts

  • During the last playtest we saw Forgotten Runes gain a lot of attention, and now one of the founders is teasing a potential release soon.

    • The increased attention also led to more liquidity flowing to the NFT collection.

Nexus Market Talk Tweets

See you next week!