📔 Weekly Journal: Spooky Icecream 👻🍦
[6 min read] Your guide to getting ahead on the digital frontier (& the weekend!). Today, the usual market news and some fun - Dairy Queen & Weirdo Ghost Gang NFT collab pop-up experience in China
Welcome to this week’s Weekly Journal 📔, your guide to the latest news & innovation in emerging technology, digital assets, and our exciting path to the Metaverse. This is week 51 of the 520 weeks of newsletters I have committed to, a decade of documenting our physical and digital lives converge.
New subscribers are encouraged to check out the history & purpose of this newsletter as well as the archive.
Enjoy your weekend! 😎
Ryan
Here’s what you’re getting today:
📈 Market update: The Bitcoin ETF rollercoaster continues 🎢
🗞️ Interesting news: Lots of collaborations, from Dairy Queen & Ghost NFTs, to JP Morgan, Avalance & Monetary Authority of Singapore. Institutional adoption all around!
👓 Read of the week: A data-driven investment thesis on Arbitrum.
🎥 Video of the week: The strategic alliance between Animoca Brands, a leading force in blockchain gaming and the metaverse, and Neom, Saudi Arabia's groundbreaking urban development initiative
🤖 AI: An abrupt shutdown of a AI-powered romantic chatbot service has left users in digital despair
✅ Weekly poll: Help choose the emerging tech topic for Wednesday’s showcase.
🤑 DCA with me: Follow my regular $50 weekly investing in an emerging asset class.
Market Update
Bitcoin's price jumped by $800 after Bloomberg ETF specialist Eric Balchunas tweeted that the SEC was engaging with exchanges regarding spot Bitcoin ETF filings, advising cash creation over in-kind. The SEC's interaction is seen as a positive sign for the ETF approval process. The price surged from $36,000 to $36,800 and stabilised.
However, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe warns of likely rejections due to market structure concerns, emphasizing the SEC's stance on separating exchange and custody roles. Delays may persist, and Belshe draws comparisons between Coinbase and FTX. Former BlackRock executive Steven Schoenfield predicts a three to six-month timeline for Bitcoin ETF approval, highlighting potential competition from crypto-integrated firms.
🔥🗺️ 7-day heatmap below shows an expected pullback after a ripping few weeks
🎭 Crypto Fear and Greed Index is based on volatility, social media sentiments, surveys, market momentum, and a few other bits and pieces. Even with pull back after the sustained 3-week rally, we are still firmly in the greed zone.
Interesting news from this week🗞️
Digital Assets News 🌐:
🍦👻Dairy Queen in Chengdu, China, has joined the NFT trend, partnering with Weirdo Ghost Gang for a pop-up experience until December 31. The collaboration transforms the Dairy Queen into a "ghost ski resort," offering limited-edition co-branded merchandise and a special "ski ghost mixing bowl" ice cream sundae. This move aligns with a growing trend of NFT brands seeking new revenue streams beyond direct sales, amid a recent resurgence in the struggling NFT market, though still significantly below its peak in April 2022.
💂🏻♂️ JP Morgan's Onyx and Apollo Global partnered with Avalanche for a proof-of-concept under Singapore's Project Guardian, showcasing blockchain's potential in asset and wealth management. Onyx's use of Avalanche's Evergreen subnet led to a 14% surge in AVAX, now at $21.43. The LayerZero protocol connects Onyx Digital Assets with the subnet, facilitating access to tokenised funds from WisdomTree, a $94 billion asset manager. Project Guardian, exploring asset tokenisation, aligns with Ava Labs' mission. J.P. Morgan's collaboration highlights blockchain's transformative potential in portfolio management.
👴 South Korea's National Pension Service invested around $20 million in Coinbase shares in Q3, acquiring 282,673 shares at $70.52 each. The move reflects South Korea's increasing interest in digital assets, following the enactment of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act. The purchased shares have since gained 40%, now valued at approximately $27.7 million. The investment signifies a departure from the traditional caution of pension funds towards digital assets, mirroring similar ventures in the U.S. such as the Fairfax County pension funds' 2019 foray into cryptocurrencies.
⚽ Paris Saint-Germain is collaborating with Blvck Paris on a fusion of sports and fashion, releasing an exclusive collection through NFTs on Crypto.com. Fans get early access to physical items by purchasing NFTs at $50 each. The collaboration includes a monochrome-themed hoodie, soccer ball, t-shirt, welcome mat, and scarf. The NFTs, minted on the Cronos chain, offer unique benefits, with 10% as special editions redeemable for a box of physical items. This follows PSG's previous ventures in the crypto space, including a fan token and AI-generated NFT posters.
👓Read of the Week
Sometimes it’s nice to do a proper deep dive on a digital asset. There is a lot the Digital Asset space can learn from TradFi, investments should be made with detailed and balanced information, not from a tweet with “alpha”.
This week’s read is from The DeFi Report, who describes L2s like Arbitrum as “broadband for Ethereum.” YouTube, game streaming, and SaaS businesses were not possible before broadband came to the internet. Similarly, thwy think L2s could spark the next generation of use cases for Ethereum.
In this week’s data-driven memo on Arbitrum, they cover the following:
🎥 Watch of the week
Step into the future with Neom, Saudi Arabia's groundbreaking urban development initiative. In a game-changing move, Neom has partnered with Animoca Brands, a leading force in blockchain gaming and the metaverse. This strategic alliance, backed by a $50 million investment, is set to redefine the landscape of Neom's Vision 2030—a blueprint for a sustainable, futuristic city. Join us as we explore the transformative fusion of Neom's vision and Animoca Brands' blockchain expertise, propelling technological advancement and metaverse innovation to unprecedented heights,
AI 🎨🤖🎵✍🏼
The abrupt shutdown of the Forever Voices AI-powered romantic chatbot service has left users in digital despair as their virtual partners mysteriously disappeared following the arrest of CEO John Heinrich Meyer. Meyer faces charges of arson and terroristic threatening after allegedly setting fire to his apartment, causing extensive damage.
The popular chatbot, CarynAI, known for its playful conversations, ceased all communication, leaving users bewildered. The unexpected breakup occurred just as the anticipated Caryn 2.0 update was announced by real-life influencer Caryn Marjorie, who had sold CarynAI to tech startup BanterAI in a six-figure deal.
The digital drama has led Reddit to serve as an unexpected support group for jilted users, as they lament the sudden shutdown and contemplate alternatives - including “cheating” with other digital girlfriends. What a new world we live in 🤷🏻♂️
Weekly Poll ✅
Help choose what you would like to learn about on Wednesday for my weekly emerging tech showcase:
That’s all for the free version this week! If you have any organisations in mind that could benefit from learning about emerging technology, be sure to reach out. Educational workshops are one of many consulting services I offer.
DCA With Me 🤑
Dollar Cost Averaging is an investment strategy in which an investor regularly invests a fixed amount of money into a particular asset/asset class at regular intervals, regardless of its current market price. By doing so, the investor can reduce the impact of market volatility and potentially earn a better return over time. Motto = time IN the market beats trying to time the market
To experiment with this, I invest $50 NZD into a Digital Asset every week. Each week I will choose an asset that seems underpriced in the short term and has positive long-term potential. My timeframe is 3-5 years. I don’t give financial advice but if you want to follow along with me you can use my easycrypto.co.nz referral link to support this newsletter. Let’s dive into this week’s pick:
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