TL;DR

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

• Web3 gaming news: Trial Xtreme announced they raised $24M, Maplestory's NXPC token, Catizen mini game center, Soneium chain, Magic Eden ME token, Dobule Jump announced $10M raise, and more.

• Macro news: Victory against inflation, PayPal stablecoin surpassed $1B, Pavel Durov, Kraken gets sued, OpenSea receives Wells notice from the SEc, and more.

🎮 Web3 Gaming and Tech

• Trial Xtreme (TX) announced they raised a total of $24M, with an additional $11M extension led by Blockchain Capital and Merit Circle

  • TX is an IP by Gameplay Galaxy, which has been building this mobile game franchise since 2011. In the past 10+ years, their games have accumulated 300M+ downloads

• Pixelmon kicked off a new event  this week called "Hunting Season." 

  • Players can stake their Pixelmon NFTs to earn $MON, the game's native currency. The event features multiple phases with structured rewards, encouraging players to participate in multiple seasons to maximize their earnings.

• Maplestory revealed its tokenomics and more info on its game economy

  • NXPC will be MU’s utility token and will be rewarded to creators based on their contributions to the ecosystem

  • Players will earn off-chain NESO tokens and items, that can be turned into NFTs

  • Overall, the economy will focus on rewarding UGC, instead of the typical P2E or P2A model

• Catizen released the beta for its mini-game center

  • It’s an ecosystem of casual games where players can play various games to farm the airdrop

  • The plan is to add 18 mini-games eventually, all based on popular games in Web2

• Last week the Soneium chain was announced, the blockchain built by a new arm of Sony: Sony Block Solutions Labs

  • Recently, it announced the start of its Incubation program, where builders can apply to build apps on the platform

  • Note: this initiative has no ties to Sony Entertainment, the company’s largest arm by far - Sony is a large company

• During a podcast, Faze Banks spoke on how he sees the future of Web3 gaming

• DARKTIMES announced its launch on the Sui network

  • Additionally, they are kicking off the Rune Rune initiative on September 2nd

• IntellaX formed a strategic APAC collaboration with Monad

  • The partnership will include the co-development of a decentralized crowdfunding platform, and Intella games being serviced on the chain (e.g. EOS Gold)

• Magic Eden announced the $ME Foundation and token

  • Soon people will be able to claim their allocation in the Magic Eden wallet on mobile

• The L2 Uprising, announced that Maelstrom, a naval BR game is launching on the chain

  • Maelstrom is a well-rated Web2 game that launched in 2019, you can still download and play it on Steam.

• Pirate Nation’s Boss Chain is launching today

  • The chain will work alongside the existing Apex chain and allows Proof of Play to scale their operations

• 77Bit made a fresh start with its Twitter account and released a new cinematic trailer

• Double Jump Tokyo announced they raised $10M in funding in a Series D round

  • The investment’s purpose is to accelerate the development of blockchain games and infra

  • Additionally, they announced plans to build apps on the new Soneium blockchain

• GameSwift will be the first project to collaborate with FetchAI

  • Players will be able to host AI models locally using the Gameswift launcher

  • There will also be a marketplace where players can trade computing power, transforming idle resources into earnings

🕹️ Gaming Narrative Play

• Will Q4 be a war for liquidity? August has been a slow month in terms of gaming token launches, with only 3 new tokens hitting the market. On the contrary, it looks like the end of Q3 and Q4 will be when a bunch of new gaming tokens are launching. This is evidenced by a few confirmed token launches (e.g. SWORLD and HMSTR) and a multitude of ongoing/ending P2A campaigns that mean a token is coming.

• The question is whether the amount of liquidity available in the market in Q4 can sustain the vast increase in the # of expected launches. Most of “retail” has already been burned in Q1/Q2, so why would they be returning and buying new TGEs?

🚀 Nexus V1 Alpha Launch

Welcome to edition #43 of the Nexus Power Up Newsletter, last week was just the beginning of a new era. Expect many more exciting features coming in the next few months.

You can now try out the basic features of the platform for free or purchase a standard subscription to get access:

You can also get access through:

• Getting a Nexus Pass NFT now for exclusive lifetime access

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

📈Macro Cryptocurrency News

• In a highly anticipated speech on Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell all but declared victory in the battle against inflation and hinted that interest rate cuts are on the horizon.

  • With inflation steadily decreasing, investors now anticipate that the Fed will begin cutting rates at its next meeting in September — a belief that Powell essentially endorsed in his speech.

• PayPal's stablecoin has surpassed a $1 billion market capitalization.

  • The cryptocurrency initially launched on Ethereum, experienced a surge in activity after expanding to the Solana blockchain and implementing DeFi reward programs.

• Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, was arrested in France this week, due to allegations that his platform has been used for illegal activities such as money laundering, drug trafficking, and the distribution of child sexual abuse images.

  • The arrest has sparked a global debate about the limits of digital freedom of speech and the responsibility of social media companies to monitor and regulate content on their platforms.

  • A few days ago Pavel was let go on bail, however, he isn’t allowed to leave the country and will be prosecuted.

• Kraken is being sued by the SEC for allegedly operating as an unregistered securities exchange.

  • Specifically, the SEC alleges that certain cryptocurrencies offered on Kraken's platform, such as staking services, are considered investment contracts and therefore fall under the purview of securities laws.

• Cardano is gearing up for its most significant upgrade in two years, the ‘Chang hard fork.’ This major update is set to introduce significant changes to the blockchain's structure and pave the way for a more decentralized and community-driven network.

• MakerDAO, a leading decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in the crypto space, has recently unveiled its new stablecoin and governance token, collectively known as Sky. 

  • This significant development marks a major shift in the platform's strategy and aims to expand its reach within the DeFi ecosystem.

• A South Korean court was the scene of a violent attack on the CEO of a crypto firm.

  • Hugo Hyungsoo Lee, head of Haru Invest, was stabbed in the neck during his company's trial. Three executives from Haru Invest were accused of defrauding 16,000 users of $826 million in crypto back in 2023.

• OpenSea has received a Wells notice from the SEC threatening to sue OS because they believe NFTs on their platform are securities.

  • OpenSea CEO and co-founder Devin Finzer posted on X on Wednesday, “We're shocked the SEC would make such a sweeping move against creators and artists.”

🌟Token Spotlight by Hustle

• Coin of the Week: SUPER

• Market Cap: ~$327M

• What is the Superverse? Superverse is the largest Web3 community that has partnered with some of the largest games in the industry, e.g. Off the Grid, My Pet Hooligan, Wilder World, Avalaon, Guild of Guardians, etc. Recently, they announced they have been working on Ton Station in collaboration with Sidus, the fastest-growing app store on Telegram.

• 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: Uprising Genesis: Origins

• Why Uprising Blockchain?

  • Uprising is a gaming-focused blockchain with a native yield

  • Backed by Sega, Square Enix, Bandai Namco, and more

  • Built on the Oasys blockchain

• Utility

  • Not much about its utility is known at the moment

• Catalysts

  • Uprising NFTs hit a high of 0.07 a few days ago and recently dipped to 0.03. After the Maelstrom announcement, we saw the NFTs bounce back to 0.05 ETH.

  • Depending on what kind of utility we can expect, which will likely be related to the blockchain’s native yield, we can expect some upward momentum.

  • Furthermore, there are multiple partnerships upcoming, and considering the blockchain is backers are well-established game devs, these might be promising.

• Counterpoint

  • The expectation that the NFTs get exposure to the token might already be baked in the price

Nexus Tweets

See you next week!