🎮 Web3 Gaming and Tech

• Gunzilla Games’ GUN launched on Binance this week, one of the most anticipated launches in gaming

  • Unfortunately, it largely underperformed. Is it a sign of a lack of buyers in the market, the lack of appetite for gaming, or something else?

• TreasureDAO announces a huge pivot away from gaming and cuts a large chunk of its staff

  • The company is reducing its burn rate to try to stay afloat amidst this market. Honestly, Treasure seemed like a very bloated company, with 40 employees and $6M in annual spend on wages

  • As a result, games on Treasure, such as The Beacon, announced its pivot away from the chain. And now the gaming support falls away, expect all games to find a new home

• Amberbella, the CMO of Blade of God X (BOGX), detailed how the team abandoned everything Web3-related

• L3E7 announced that they secured a grant from the Arbitrum Foundation

• The MMORPG Ravenquest launched its QUEST token this week, opening at a $60M FDV, now trading at a $98M FDV

  • Interestingly, it was a DEX-first token launch on Immutable

• Intella X announced its pivoting away from gaming to a prediction platform

  • The company didn’t manage to find success in the gaming market

• Shrapnel partners (gets saved) by the Chinese government to launch the first licensed Web3 game on the nation’s official blockchain

• Defi Dungeons launched its NFT collection this Monday and officially launched its idle RPG this week

  • Notably, its 11K-supply NFT collection sold out at $325 a piece

• OpenSea introduced Ronin Shipments, granting XP to users who trade Ronin NFTs

• Project O announced that they partnered with Upptic

  • “Upptic has helped grow titans like Marvel Snap, MTG Arena & Hearthstone”

• Dream Catalyst, the grant program from Somnia, welcomed a new game called Dark Table CCG

• Ultra io raised $12M for its next-gen gaming platform

  • Ultra has ambitious plans to break the mold of the traditional game development and distribution cycle

• Skarly, the founder of Onchain Heroes, details what the team has been working on and shares that S2 is coming in weeks, not months

• Legends of Elumia has been acquired by Triumph Games

• Ronin welcomes Compound and introduces new DeFi incentives to its chain

🚀 Nexus V1 Launch

Welcome to edition #72 of the Nexus Power Up Newsletter. Once again, Trump kills our charts by returning to his tariff announcements…when will we go up again?

You can now download the Nexus app on the App Store and the Play Store.

Try the free features (game database, crypto market overview, and token and NFT charts) of the platform without having to log in 👇

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

• Tether, the company behind USDT, boosted its Bitcoin stash with a $735 million buy in Q1 2025, snapping up 8,888 BTC. This lifts its total to 92,647 BTC—worth $7.64 billion—making it the sixth-biggest Bitcoin holder worldwide.

• As Congress nears the end of stablecoin legislation debates, crypto leaders are pushing for laws that allow stablecoins to offer interest, such as the 4.1% APY on USDC, making them rivals to low-yield bank accounts.

  • However, they’re facing resistance from lawmakers—current drafts of the House’s STABLE Act and Senate’s GENIUS Act ban interest-bearing stablecoins. 

• Mastercard is diving into crypto with a blockchain-based network that simplifies digital asset transactions for consumers, merchants, and banks.

  • The payments giant aims to use its vast experience to become a key infrastructure backbone for the crypto industry.

• Circle, the company behind USDC, filed an S-1 with the SEC to launch an IPO, aiming to list its Class A shares on the NYSE under “CRCL.” 

  • The filing offers an unspecified number of shares from Circle and existing shareholders, with no price range set yet. 

• President Trump unveiled an aggressive tariff plan, marking a significant shift in U.S. trade policy dubbed "Liberation Day."

  • The plan features a 10% baseline tariff on all imports, effective tomorrow, alongside higher "discounted reciprocal tariffs" targeting specific nations.

• American Bitcoin Corp. is set to go public this week with Hut 8 Corp. and private investors, including Eric and Donald Trump Jr., sons of President Trump, building on Hut 8’s interest in American Data Centers Inc., a firm backed by the Trump brothers.

• OpenAI closed a record-breaking $40 billion funding round, valuing the ChatGPT creator at $300 billion with the new capital. 

  • This places OpenAI just behind SpaceX ($350 billion) among the world’s top-valued private firms.

• Larry Fink, BlackRock’s CEO, warned in his shareholder letter that the U.S. risks losing the dollar’s reserve currency status to Bitcoin if debt and deficits spiral, despite its decades-long benefits. 

  • He praised decentralized finance for making markets faster, cheaper, and clearer.

• NFT marketplace X2Y2, a rival to OpenSea and LooksRare, will close on April 30 due to plummeting trading activity and stiff competition.

  • Founder TP announced on March 31 that after three years, the team is shutting down the platform, citing a 90% drop in NFT trading volume from its 2021 peak as a key factor.

• Strategy (MSTR) kept its Bitcoin buying spree alive, snagging 22,048 BTC for $1.92 billion—averaging $86,969 per coin. The company’s total stash now stands at 528,185 BTC, acquired for $35.63 billion, or an average of $67,458 per coin. 

• MARA Holdings, the top publicly traded Bitcoin miner, plans to raise up to $2 billion through a stock offering to grow its Bitcoin reserves.

  • MARA noted that it intends to use the proceeds for "general corporate purposes," including the acquisition of bitcoin and for working capital.

🌟Token Spotlight by Hustle

• Coin of the Week: $GUN

• Market Cap: ~$438M

• What is Gunzilla Games (GG)? GG is the developer of Off the Grid, the only AAA game to come out of crypto so far. This week, they launched their GUN token on Binance. GUN has been largely underperforming since its launch, as the majority of the token supply was held by “Binance launchpoolers.” So, this wasn’t too big of a surprise. However, one would expect that with such a low circulating supply (~7%), the team would exert more control over it. It’s hard to say whether this chart bottomed or not in the short term, so we will observe for a bit more.

• 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. 

Nexus Tweets

See you next week!