FiftyOne Ventures

Big moves this week crypto/macro & AI: – Sony launches new blockchain – Tether.io teases its new UAE stablecoin – Telegram Messenger founder Pavel Durov arrested, faces 20 years – State Street partners with Taurus for custody – X releases new improvements to Grok 2 – Salesforce launches AI agents. and much more. 💥 We drop these notes weekly to our subscribers. Don’t miss out on future notes 👇🚨 👉Subscribe here & join 10k+ Web3 leaders: www.dematerialzd.xyz

🚨BREAKING: The SEC is cracking down on NFTs: Today, OpenSea received a Wells notice from the SEC threatening to sue them. They believe NFTs on OpenSea are securities. And OpenSea is one of the biggest NFT trading platforms for NFTs. Wow. This is a big blow for the whole NFT space, which has been in a regulatory limbo over the past years. And a big blow for OpenSea: OpenSea's trading volumes imploded from $5B/month in January 2022 to 43M/month last July. That's a decrease of over 99% 🤯 Implications are huge: ⚡️ 1. Brands Brands already retreating from NFTs. More will follow, due to regulatory risk. Many already turned their collectibles into better "gift cards" through lengthy terms and conditions. 2. Creators     Cost and complexity of creating and selling NFTs would increase massively. The creator community would likely die out. 3. Trading platforms Trading platforms would need to comply with securities regulations. This means: stricter KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) checks. The end of wash trading? Maybe. So what? NFTs as we've known them would become practically unusable for the mainstream consumer. This is another big blow for the NFT space. Over the last year, NFTs imploded massively. Prices of most bluechip collection dropped 50%+ in 2024. More pressure will follow with this. Trading volume shrank from $18B in 2023 to to $4B YTD. And about 90% of the 180+ consumer brands with NFT projects stopped them due to lack of engagement and revenue. Maja Vujinovic, MD of OGroupLLC, investor & builder: "99% of NFTs were worthless from the beginning. For OpenSea, this was big business, robbing people with large fees and never worrying about utility. Reminder: a16z crypto led the series A for $23M and series B for $100M – who made the money?" Is this justified? Why isn't a piece of art a security? Let the debate begin. _ 🔻 We'll soon dive deeper on this story. Subscribe & join 10k+ Web3 leaders already profiting (it's free): www.dematerialzd.xyz 🎁Bonus: you’ll get 3 of our top lists that save you 50h+ hours of research.

Digital identity will reshape your business & the internet 🌊 Here’s how: “The real issue is that everyone wants to own your data—decentralized identity puts control back in the hands of the people.” 51 Insights sat down with Vinny Lingham, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman at Civic Technologies, Rumi.ai , Newton Partners and GP at Multicoin Capital to talk about digital identity. Digital identity will be key to securing customer data and driving innovation in a digital-first, blockchain-based economy. We cover: - Decentralized identity as a trust enabler for secure data management - User control vs. data centralization - Adapting to the decline of third-party cookies - The future of digital trust in business - Crypto’s long-term viability and strategic importance Thank you for this great conversation Vinny Lingham! 🙏 🎧 Listen here: https://lnkd.in/ecb3B9A2 Want more? 👉 We cover these topics in our weekly newsletter. Join 10k+ Web3 leaders already benefiting (it's free): www.dematerialzd.xyz 🎁Bonus: you’ll get 3 of our top Web3 lists that save you 50h+ hours of research.

🚨BREAKING: Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Arrested in France, Faces 20 Years in Prison: Toncoin DropsPavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, was detained at Le Bourget Airport in France on Saturday evening. TON coin powering The Open Network (hence TON) blockchain has dropped 17% on the news. TON is tightly integrated into Telegram Messenger Messenger with 900M+ users. French authorities are investigating allegations related to Telegram's alleged facilitation of crimes, including terrorism,drug trafficking, and money laundering. Durov, who arrived on a private jet, under a warrant for allegedly refusing to cooperate with law enforcement and being implicated in crimes facilitated through Telegram, including terrorism, drug trafficking, and money laundering. Durov, who holds French citizenship, could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He is expected to appear before a French judge soon. The case highlights the ongoing tension between tech companies' commitment to privacy and the need for law enforcement access to combat criminal activity. More to follow. 🔻 Subscribe to follow the story 👇We brief our readers weekly👉 join 10k+ others: www.dematerialzd.xyz

Big moves this week in consumer Web3 & gaming: – adidas partners with Doodles – Crypto.com partners with UEFA – Drake’s new memecoin? – IP protocol raises $80M from a16z crypto. – Pantera Capital eyes TON for gaming – The Sandbox partners with leading Indian content company (4.5B market cap). and much more. 💥 We drop these notes weekly to our subscribers. Don’t miss out on future notes 👇🚨 👉Subscribe here & join 10k+ Web3 leaders: www.dematerialzd.xyz

Franklin Templeton, $1.6T AuM, is launching a tokenized money market fund on Avalanche This is big news for blockchain x TradFi: With $402M, it’s the second-largest tokenized fund behind BlackRock ’s BUIDL (on Ethereum). And this is not just any fund: FOBXX is the first and only U.S.-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain as its system of record for transactions and share ownership. One share of the $402M fund is represented by one BENJI token, which is issued on the Avalanche blockchain. 🔥 This is a big win for Avalanche. Why tokenizing? It increases: - Accessibility - Transparency - Liquidity - And reduces costs. Franklin Templeton already announced: – 👯 On-chain P2P transfers of FOBXX shares – 🪙 USDC conversion for investments – 🔜 Future utility like secondary market trading   Earlier this year, Franklin Templeton launched a Bitcoin ETF and an Ethereum ETF. The big picture?🌎 Blockchain x TradFi is just getting started. The tokenized U.S. money market fund market has grown to $1.81B. This is a major milestone for blockchain x TradFi –  it's happening on Avalanche.💥 What’s your take? __ 👉 If you like this, you'll love my newsletter. Subscribe & join 10k+ Web3 leaders already profiting (it's free): www.dematerialzd.xyz 🎁Bonus: you’ll get 3 of our top lists that save you 50h+ hours of research.

Using ChatGPT or Google Gemini? Think again: Your data is for sale. (There’s a better alternative) What's at stake? 🤔 When you use ChatGPT or Gemini, your conversations are stored on their servers… …potentially exposing your personal thoughts, ideas, and data to third-party access. Even worse: 🤯 This data can be harvested for profit through targeted advertising, sold to data brokers, or even shared with governments and law enforcement agencies. BUT: We’ve got a new kid on the block. Enter Venice.ai It’s a new LLM that prioritizes user privacy. Everyone is talking about it. Unlike its competitors, Venice doesn't store user data on its servers. Your conversations remain private, stored only in your browser, using local storage to keep your data safe. But how does it stack up to the likes of GPT-4 (ChatGPT)? Venice is built on Llama 3.1, and open-source model developed by Meta The key difference: It’s not censored or fine-tuned to suppress certain topics or ideas. This means: 💡 You get unfiltered access to information and ideas, without the constraints of corporate or government agendas. Plus: it outperforms GPT-4 in many areas. As Erik Voorhees recently pointed out, "AI is a double-edged sword... it can be used to empower or enslave." Venice is a powerful step towards empowerment. 👉Try it out here, it’s free: https://lnkd.in/et-Efgp6 🔺If you like this, you'll love my newsletter. Subscribe & join 10k+ Web3 leaders already profiting (it's free): www.dematerialzd.xyz

Is Web3 for brands dead? – “Brands will be back” Justin Breton, Head of Brand Marketing Innovation at Walmart on why the biggest company by revenue doubled down on Web3: “We’re creating brand destination and meaningful experience that engage with the next generation of customers on platforms that they're spending their times through mediums that are familiar to them and really thinking about what comes next. And so to us, it's not so much about the ROI today as much as it's about getting the learnings to be the smartest, most adaptive retailer for the future.” Thanks for joining the 51 Insights podcast Justin Breton🙌 🎧 Listen/watch here: https://lnkd.in/gMZ4Uwqw 👉 We cover these topics in our weekly newsletter. Join 10k+ Web3 leaders already benefiting (it's free): www.dematerialzd.xyz

Walmart’s Web3 strategy: “Show up early, be data driven, target communities.” I talked to Justin Breton, Head of Brand Marketing Innovation at Walmart. Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue ($611B), serving over 230M customers weekly. 3 key insights:   1. Focus on engagement, no immediate ROI required 2. Everything starts with data: For example, using Pinterest to recognize trends in data 3. Focus on communities, not target groups. Example: For instance, Walmart leverages Discord to support its efforts on Roblox, creating a dedicated community with 34,000 active members who discuss and nominate experiences and virtual items for Walmart's platform. Thank you for joining Justin Breton! 🙌 🎧 Listen/watch here: https://lnkd.in/gMZ4Uwqw 👉 We cover these topics in our weekly newsletter. Join 10k+ Web3 leaders already benefiting (it's free): www.dematerialzd.xyz 🎁Bonus: you’ll get 3 of our top Web3 lists that save you 50h+ hours of research.

🚨: Norway's sovereign wealth fund ($1.71 trillion AuM) + Swiss & Norway’s central banks invest in ‘Bitcoin’ 💥 What’s happening: Central banks & funds have revealed significant holdings in MicroStrategy: 🎰 Norges Bank: 1.123M shares = 0.45% = $154M 🎰 Swiss National Bank increasing its stake by 60% to 466,000 shares = 0.24% = $63M 🎰 Norway's sovereign wealth fund: $217M, 3x its stake over the past year, with a 0.89% ownership ($304M). Why Microstrategy? That’s not Bitcoin, right? Wait: ☝️ Microstrategy is the company of Michael Saylor … a US business man an prominent Bitcoin evangelist. In Aug 2020, he started a risky strategy: Buy Bitcoin with Microstrategy’s treasury reserves. You bet: By now, Microstrategy holds 226,500 BTC valued at $13.8B, That’s HALF of its $26.3B market cap.🤯 Here’s where it gets interesting: As the company is publicly traded, it essentially turned into a “Bitcoin index”. Investing in MicroStrategy offers these central banks indirect exposure to Bitcoin without directly holding the cryptocurrency. And it continues to attract investment from global financial institutions: 🎰 South Korea’s National Pension Service invested $32.5M in MicroStrategy. Devil’s advocate: “This is simply part of a physical index replication strategy which basically all very large institutional investors have and do.“ – Patrick Saner, CFA Head of Macro Strategy at Swiss Re Really? or is Bitcoin the new gold? Comment 👇 – Marc _ 🔺Join 10k+ industry professionals already benefiting (it’s free) : www.dematerialzd.xyz 🎁Bonus: you’ll get 3 of our top resources that save you 50h+ hours of research