TL;DR

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

• Web3 gaming news: TON introduced TON Ventures, ReadyGG rebranded to PLAY, Off the Grid on PS5, The Bornless gets featured on IGN, Auto Legends raised $8M, SKALL introduced SWELL, Seedworld released its whitepaper, BasedVC raised $2M, and more.

• Macro news: New CPI data, Grayscale launches new fund, Polymarket partners with Perplexity, MetaMask Mastercard, Uniswap backers are facing SEC scrutiny and more.

🎮 Web3 Gaming and Tech

• TON introduced TON Ventures, a $40M fund for early-stage projects

  • The fund will focus on consumer apps that empower Telegram’s social features and mini-apps.

• The Web3 infrastructure company ReadyGG rebranded to PLAY

  • “PLAY is a gaming layer 0 protocol that allows web2 studios to run any game on any chain”

  • The company raised $4M earlier this year and is advised by an ex-PlayStation boss

• Off the Grid launched its Pioneer Playtest on the PS5 last weekend

  • 400K transactions were created by over 30K players, all on AVAX

  • This marks the milestone of the first blockchain-powered game on console

• The Bornless released its official trailer, which was featured by IGN

  • The game accumulated over 200K+ wishlists already on Steam, and is one of the most-anticipated Web3 launches

• Auto Legends announced they raised $8M in a round

  • The team behind this game, Autoverse Studios (AS), is building a social and competitive drag racing game on PC and mobile

  • AS’s strengths lie in its experience of building games in the line-racing genre before

• SKALE introduced a new initiative called SWELL

  • It’s an “invisible blockchain network” where users can live and pre-TGE dApps, complete quests, climb the leaderboard, and win prizes

• Seedworld released its whitepaper, including more details on dates, the first game, the game economy, and more

  • The WP mentions SWORLD will TGE on the 26th of September 2024 and release its first game mode on the 26th of February 2025

• Chibi Clash launched its CLASH token through the Clash Foundation last Wednesday

  • CLASH went live on MEXC and Aerodrome

  • There’s little information out on its current MCAP and FDV

• Avalon announced they are launching on Base

• BasedVC has raised $2M in a seed funding round

  • Projects such as NeoTokyo, BAYC, and Cyberkongz were involved in the round

• BLOCKLORDS’ LORDCHAIN website is now live

  • The game will have its own chain and will conduct a Node sale soon

  • By locking in NFTs, players can start earning Node power, unlocking exclusive events and higher tiers on the Lordchain

• Immutable suddenly retired its marketplace this week

  • The company will focus on growing its ecosystem-based marketplaces (TokenTrove and AtomicHub)

• Shadow War completed its Master Drive mint

  • It was a 400-supply-free mint, and it’s now trading at ~0.20 ETH

• Kokomo Games announced its first game is launching on Telegram: “We think we reinvented the tapping meta”

  • The project is also launching a low-supply NFT collection soon

• Sugartown is releasing something in 5 days

  • It’s most likely the event that concludes Chapter 1 and represents the start of Chapter 2

• Uprising, “the world’s first native yield gaming blockchain” launched its NFT collection

  • The 1111-supply collection is trading at ~0.07 ETH

• The Lost Glitches, a TCG with RPG elements, launched its Open Beta on XAI Games

🕹️ Gaming Narrative Play

• Off The Grid (OtG): OtG is the first blockchain-powered game launching on console, marking a remarkable milestone for Web3 gaming. This is the first time a “AAA” (not in terms of budget) title is breaking into the mainstream console audience. As this is a game mostly focused on Western markets, a very critical market, it will be interesting to see how players respond to “crypto gaming”…

• Will they enjoy the game, but be put off because the game’s involved with crypto? Will a vocal minority of haters be able to kill this game? We will see

• OtG is a true testament to how this space has progressed, and we are pushing beyond a space of grifters, scams, and shitty games

🚀 Nexus V1 Alpha Launch

Welcome to #41 of the Nexus Power Up newsletter. As you know, we finally announced our public launch date, the 21st of August. To reward your readership of this newsletter we will have a special early bird deal for you next week!

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

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

When we launch publicly, you can:

• Subscribe for $9.99/month to unlock Standard Tier access

• 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 CPI, a broad-based measure of prices for goods and services, increased 0.2% for the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.9%, its lowest since March 2021.

• Grayscale has launched a new investment fund focused on MakerDAO's governance token, MKR.

  • This new fund, available to accredited investors, provides exposure to the decentralized lending platform and its ecosystem.

• Prediction marketplace Polymarket, which lets users bet on real-world events, is partnering with AI-powered search engine Perplexity to display news summaries of events.

  • When users click on an event on Polymarket, they will now see a summary of news related to the event based on search results from Perplexity.

• MetaMask, Mastercard, and Baanx have teamed up to create the MetaMask Card. This groundbreaking debit card allows users to spend their cryptocurrency directly from their MetaMask wallets at any Mastercard location.

  • This new service is currently in a pilot phase and is expected to revolutionize how people use digital assets in everyday life.

• Solana developers, validators, and client teams addressed a critical security vulnerability.

  • “By 14:00 UTC on August 8, detailed instructions for implementing the patch had been distributed to stakeholders, securing 66.6% of the network's stake. The vulnerability was publicly disclosed only after 70% of the network had applied the patch.”

• Venture capital firms backing Uniswap are facing SEC scrutiny. High-profile investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures have received letters from the SEC regarding their involvement with the decentralized crypto exchange.

  • Regulators are reportedly investigating whether Uniswap should be classified as an unregistered exchange. 

• The SEC has filed a lawsuit against NovaTech, accusing the company of defrauding investors out of $650 million through a crypto pyramid scheme. 

  • The lawsuit comes on the heels of a similar case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleging the scheme targeted vulnerable communities.

🌟Token Spotlight by Hustle

• Coin of the Week: BUB

• Market Cap: ~$12.5M

• What is Lil Bub? Lil Bub was a celebrity cat, known for sticking out its tongue. The cat accrued millions of fans during its life but passed away in 2019. BUB is the SOL meme token, representative of this cat, using the phrase “the tongue stays out”.

• 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: Tribo Flameys

• Why Rumble Arcade?

  • Under-the-radar team with Web3-native leadership

  • The team worked on Plants vs Zombies, Angry Birds, and more

  • Raised $3.3M in total

  • In development for the past 2+ years

  • Promising playtest results from early builds

  • Never oversold on its expectations

• Utility

  • Flameys will be the source of “Flamey Points”, these points “unlock deeper participation into the game economy”

  • Points can be used to “heat up events”

  • Speculation: points will lead to some type of token or in-game coin allocation. The former would be the most beneficial from a value accrual perspective

• Catalysts

  • The release of a whitepaper usually means more is coming.

  • In Nov ‘23, one of the founders mentioned in a Discord message:

    • “The rumbler economy and everything related to it is one of the big development areas we are currently pushing forward. The intent is to give players better long-term goals, plus some economic gameplay outside of rumbles/tournaments”

• Counterpoint

  • It’s uncertain whether the game will introduce an on-chain game token

  • Recent volume was created through a buyback of the team

Nexus Tweets

See you next week!