What now?
Marc Baumann
Founder & CEO of 51 Group | The Industry’s Most Actionable Insights on Web3 x AI
Hey, it’s?Marc. ??
Last week, I?published?a?case study?on Gucci’s Web3 strategy for Harvard Business School. It’s also conference time again! This week I’ll speak at NFT NYC. Reach out to me if you wanna meet.
?? Top 5 Reads
? Web3 & Brands
Starbucks is out –?and now? ??
Many reached out to me asking what the end of Starbucks' Odyssey means for the Web3 consumer landscape as a whole.
A quick recap of the most important facts:
What now?
We're entering a new phase of Web3 maturity, having seen many lackluster Web3 brand activations over the past two years.
What’s next??Brands want to:
- solve real business problems (brand affinity, engagement, loyalty, cost savings, etc.)
- generate actual ROI
This also means that Web3 isn’t just about NFTs anymore. Brands will start looking at this more holistically. Starbucks is a first inning of that.
Zooming out:?We’re seeing four big shifts, driven by a variety of fintech tools, blockchain, disintermediation and decentralization:
- From platforms —> network
- From transactional incentives —> ownership incentives
- From top-down —> bottom-up
- From social relationships —> economically beneficial relationships
Punchline:?Future brands will be hyper-personalized and make consumers to co-creators and co-owners with a stake in the value they help to create.
Food onchain in New York??
- Blackbird?sold out membership to its Blackbird Breakfast Club in less than 24 hours.?Link
- In 2022, Gary V’s?Flyfish Club?became the first restaurant to offer a token-gated member’s only private dining club. It has ,327 members and is on track to open in early 2024.?Link
- Best Dish Ever?launched first tokenized community-owned media brand for foodies that’s pushing out high-quality content and real world restaurant perks for holders.
Zooming in:?Blackbird?has raised $24 million through a16z. It aims give many independent restaurants the means to identify and reward regulars for the first time.
How it works:?Consumers?earn?rewards, restaurants earn tokens and receive valuable customer data.
Dive deeper:?Web3, the future of loyalty? Read?more.
Why it’s important:?Blackbird is building an open, interoperable loyalty systems with onchain tokens. Interoperability is a key promise of Web3 based loyalty ecosystems, but it’s complex. Will food be the first working use case?
More on Web3:
- Refik Anadol launched a Large Nature Model / Living Art with NVIDIA.?Link
- The Fabricant?partners with?Maison Margiela?to bring their iconic Tabi boot into the digital world.?Link
领英推è
?? Crypto & Macro
Tokenization takes off??
- BlackRock launched its first tokenized fund, BUIDL, on Ethereum?Link
- It enjoyed strong demand in its first week, attracting $245M in deposits.
- The volume on è°·æŒ Search trends for RWA is now surpassing Gaming.?Link
- Boson1?recently launched "Fermion," a protocol tailored for transacting high-value assets.?
Zooming in:?BlackRock's BUIDL, created with asset tokenization platform?Securitize, is investment in a fund that holds U.S. Treasury bills and repo agreements.?
What they’re saying:?BlackRock?thinks?that tokenization will be the “next generation for markets†and “monumental in shaping our ecosystem.â€
By the numbers:
- The tokenized Treasury market has mushroomed over the past year, growing?nine-fold?from $100M in early 2023.
- Boston Consulting Group (BCG)?estimated?tokenized assets could reach $16 trillion by 2030.
Why it matters:?Tokenization makes a product more liquid, more secure, programmable and interoperable. With funds, this means instant settlement and around-the-clock subscriptions and redemptions.
- J.P. Morgan started tokenising funds as a proof-of-concept?last year.
- UBS is testing a tokenized fund on Ethereum.?
Punchline: We’re seeing institutional adoption happening in real time.
More on Crypto:
??AI + Metaverse
??? Start-ups amp; Tools to Watch
- LimeChain:?A leading blockchain consulting & development agency with 120+ chain-agnostic devs.?Link*
*partner of Dematerialzd.
?? Money Moves
- 0G Labs: Blockchain developer?raised?$35M pre-seed funding to build scaling infrastructure for on-chain AI apps.
- MyShell:?Dragonfly Leads $11M Pre-Series A Round for Web3 AI Platform.?Link
- Parallel:?Secures $35M Funding for Sci-Fi NFT Card Game.?Link
- Optimism to grant $3.3B in OP tokens to top ecosystem contributors.?Link
- Top charts
- Top jobs
... and more.
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Founder, Chairman & CEO @ VoteBash, VoteBash Pay, VoteBash Group Holding | Top 100 Red Herring Alumni | Top 360 Entrepreneur Magazine | Top Tech Voice | Ex-BMW | Board Member
11 个月Great insights Marc Baumann
Serial Entrepreneur | Early-stage Investor
11 个月This Web3 news summary is packed with interesting happenings! Definitely curious about what's next after Starbucks' move and how Web3 loyalty programs could work for restaurants. BlackRock's tokenised fund and the RWA boom are major developments to watch. The ETN launch from the London Stock Exchange and Coinbase's record volume paint a picture of growing mainstream interest. Sounds like a busy and exciting week in Web3!
Web3's potential to revolutionize loyalty beyond coffee is immense! ?? As Plato once alluded - necessity, the mother of invention. This evolution mirrors the broader financial revolution. Keep sharing these gems! ??
Looking forward to staying in the loop!