February Newsletter

Recent Events

Wilshire Phoenix’s Bill Herrmann refutes the statement that the current “PE and VC space is the greatest asset bubble in history” on the Alternative Strategies panel at IVYFON’s Miami Family Office Conference.

Digital Asset News

Yahoo Finance: Genesis, DCG, Gemini Reach Bankruptcy Agreement. Genesis, its parent Digital Currency Group (DCG), and crypto exchange Gemini have reached an agreement on an initial term sheet during Genesis’ bankruptcy proceedings. The various parties had appeared to be in a standstill in the weeks prior. This is a welcoming development for the space to move forward from the FTX aftermath.

The Block: The Metaverse is Already Here: Gamers Spent Nearly 50 Billion Hours on Roblox in 2022. Roblox increased its user numbers to 56 million daily, up by 23% YoY, as users spent almost 50 billion hours on the platform. The Roblox internal currency, Robux, generated $2.9bn for the firm. The functionality of the Roblox platform and its popularity among key demographics provides a model of how a metaverse platform would work, showing investors that the space can be lucrative.?

Chainalysis: Crypto Scam Revenue Dropped 46% in 2022. A report by Chainalysis found that the effectiveness of crypto scams is falling fast as crypto scam revenue declined dramatically last year. Investment related scams were more prevalent than others. While scam revenue generally correlates with overall crypto price movement, some types of scam revenue seem to increase during a down market.

Bitcoin Magazine: Bitcoin NFTs Protocol Ordinals Surpasses 100,000 Inscriptions. The Ordinals protocol allows users to embed data, such as images or audio files, directly onto the bitcoin blockchain. This enables NFTs to be written on the bitcoin blockchain. Since the late January launch, the Ordinals protocol has seen over 100,000 pieces of data be embedded to the bitcoin blockchain.

Our articles?"The Metaverse: The Reality of Virtual Reality"?and?"Metaverse Economics 101"?provide?a deeper dive into the state of the Metaverse and highlight several firms that may look to benefit from its expansion. Find these and more?at?www.wilshirephoenix.com/commentary.

What We're Reading

Stephen Wolfram:?What Is ChatGPT Doing and Why Does It Work??On a simple level, ChatGPT is an experiment in training a neural net to generate text and follow a prompt. This process is able to create text with strong similarity?to what you would find on the web, using logic derived from the training the program previously received. Despite inherent inefficiencies, ChatGPT's success implies that human language and thinking patterns are more "law like" than previously?thought and opens up new possibilities?of analyzing the science behind language.

MIT Technology Review:?Meet the New Batteries Unlocking Cheaper Electronic Vehicles.?Ford is investing in the production of lithium iron phosphate batteries for its electric vehicles (EVs). This move is expected to make EVs cheaper for American consumers with the new batteries about 20% less expensive than the current lithium-ion batteries. Experts expect additional new battery technologies to join the competition in the coming years as the EV market continues to expand.

NASA:?NASA Selects Nine Technologies for Commercial Flight Tests.?Nine technologies, including fuel cell energy storage, autonomous guidance and navigation, red blood cell rehydration therapy, and more, were selected as part of a $6.1mn investment in technology testing by NASA. These tech tests will fly on commercial suborbital vehicles and are expected to “mature technologies for agency goals.”

CoinGeek:?Latif Ladid on Integrating IPv6 with Bitcoin.?IPv6 may have the potential to greatly change online user interaction, but its viability for mass adoption remains in question. Latif Ladid, IPv6 Forum President, is seeking to do that by pairing the technology with Bitcoin SV, with the effort supported by the Spanish government.

Wilshire Phoenix?develops innovative indexes, ETFs, and other financial products that seek to respond to the various challenges that investors face in today's increasingly complex global markets. Whether providing solutions for institutional or individual investors, Wilshire Phoenix delivers access to differentiated investment products and strategies.

? 2023 Wilshire Phoenix Funds LLC.

Wilshire Phoenix? and wShares? are registered trademarks of Wilshire Phoenix Funds LLC (the “Company”). The Company has filed two patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in connection with certain characteristics of its indexes and financial products, and all rights related to the patents remain those of the Company.

2 Park Ave | New York, NY 10016 | 917-671-9097 |?[email protected]