#104 | A Massive NIKE + EA NFT Gaming Team Up

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Hey friends,

Great to have you joining us, on today’s specially curated edition we have some huge stories for Web3s mainstream adoption from India expanding its CBDC, Mercedes's unique utility-focused NFTs, and a legendary partnership between Nike and EA, so let’s jump into it!

The last brew-up crypto update wasn’t the most exciting with both Bitcoin and Ethereum being uneventful, and that theme is continuing this week with the cryptos maintaining the $27k and $1.8k prices respectively. In fact, looking back at the charts, Bitcoin has remained within $26-$28k since the start of May with Ethereum sharing the same behavior between $1.8-1.9k over the same time period. With neither bears nor bulls dominating the headlines, we’re just going to have to sit back and relax (like these prices).

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) have been a common theme for the brew-up since it’s hard to look past the monumental adoption that country-backed cryptocurrencies can help foster, and this week saw India double down on their Web3 future through plans to expand their CBDC pilot.

With the publication of its annual report, the Reserve Bank of India gave an update on its digital rupee work, saying the results for the CBDC pilots were “satisfactory” and they will be expanding the locations, the number of banks involved, and the use cases. Initially, when the wholesale pilot was launched last November it focused on government bond settlement before unveiling a retail CBDC pilot that was more consumer-focused and involved 8 banks with another 5 in the process of joining. Not only was India looking at the blockchain as a better infrastructure for its government and consumer use cases, but in March the Reserve Bank of India signed a deal with the United Arab Emirates to collaborate on experiments for cross-border CBDCs that target remittances and trade.

According to 2023 data, Indias population overtook China with a huge 1.43 billion people, so one can only imagine the uptake of blockchain technologies that could occur from the country implementing a digital Ruple and supporting this emerging technology, we really are staring down the barrel of a Web3 future.

Mercedes-Benz is the world's most valuable luxury car brand and another household name that is looking to evolve its business through a transition to Web3. According to trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis, Mercedes has pretty exciting plans to offer NFTs through virtual vehicles, vehicle parts, collectibles, clothing, footwear, furniture and even home appliances all in the digital world. It’s not surprising considering we have covered the likes of Aston Martins virtual cars and Porsches community-focused NFTs, but what sets this latest story from Mercedes apart is the depth they are going to in order to foster a new age of Web3 car enthusiasts through its new “Maschine” collection.

Announced with digital art community Fingerprints DAO, the new generative Maschine art NFT collection features only 1,000 unique Ethereum-based tokens that mimic the wheel in motion with some pretty cool utility for the fans. First, Mercedes gives holders access to exclusive events and experiences that include meet-and-greets with Mercedes executives, behind-the-scenes tours of factories, and early access to new products and services. There are a couple of other things that show Mercedes's commitment to Web3 such as the expected NFT-gated discounts of products, cars, and services, but also surprisingly NFT holders will have voting rights on proceedings such as the direction of Mercedes Web3 community and the use of its Web3 earnings.

Luiz Ramalho the founder of Fingerprints DAO told CoinDesk “Regular people that are mostly unaware of the developments in the Web3 space are likely to have their attention drawn to a collaboration like this” which exemplifies the importance of these kinds of partnerships. On our literal road to mainstream adoption, it most certainly helps to have household name brands onboarding unknowing audiences into Web3, and man are we excited to see what comes from Mercedes's new plans.

When it comes to brands with pull power it's hard to look past Nike and EA let alone the potential of them teaming up together, which is exactly what the recently announced Web3 partnership is doing in an effort to bring digital collectibles to EA games.

Utilizing Nike's recent .SWOOSH virtual assets store this revolutionary collaboration will allow EA sports players to customize their in-game characters with Nike gear, including shoes, apparel, and accessories. Not only will this give EA an opportunity to tap into the growing popularity of NFTs and Web3 but for Nike it’s extending their reach into the virtual world and reaching a new audience of gamers. In the press release, Andrea Hopelain the SVP of EA said “All of us at EA Sports are focused on leading the next evolution in sports fandom, and this new collaboration with our longtime partners at Nike sits directly at the intersection of innovation, sport, and culture,” which shows the commitment that these traditionally Web2 brands have towards the next generation of the internet; Web3.

Although the partnership is in the very early stages with no specific games announced yet, EA has said it plans to release more details within the next few months. Web3 gaming has increasingly become more and more popular with NFTs opening up a new world of true digital ownership over your virtual assets. When considering stories like our coverage of SONY’s NFT Framework For Transferring And Using Digital Assets Between Games, and now EA bringing real-world brands into their platforms, it’s hard not to think we really are seeing the birth of a ‘Ready Player One’-type Metaverse, all enabled by NFTs and Web3, who knows what brands we will see embrace this new age next.

It’s been an interesting weekend in terms of NFT drama. Let’s start off with this viral tweet looking back at the Pudgy Penguins toy sales launched on Amazon about two weeks ago…

Check out the replies to see arguments both for and against these nice but not exceedingly impressive sales stats.

Only time will tell if Pudgy Penguins is successful in creating a world-famous brand, but it’s safe to say that in this space so much only stays relevant for a short period of time.

Speaking of relevance…

$PEPE had a wonderful 2-3 weeks in the limelight as well but it seems like the passion for this meme is fading.

Meanwhile, DeGods and $DUST are having a moment as the project looks to create 1 Discord server for every NFT community.

The announcement has pushed up the DeGods floor price from roughly 8.5 ETH through 10 ETH.

We’ll see how far these projects can go, but make no doubt - there are still a ton of builders in the NFT space.

We hope you enjoyed today’s edition. Catch us in a few days for the latest roundup of Web3 news, take care!

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DISCLAIMER:

None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.#104 |