The Week Crypto Got Weird(er)

Hey there and welcome to cc’d - your insider scoop on consumer crypto and the communities shaping it.

What you once knew as the w3.catch-of-the-week, our weekly newsletter with current news and updates from the ecosystem, is now evolving into your go-to hub for tapping into the heart of crypto with insights, trends, breaking news, behind-the-scenes stories, and a splash of humor.

I want to take you along on my adventures in the crypto space and my personal environment. What's everyone talking about right now? What have I learned? Who are the people shaping the space? What cool things are happening in the w3 ecosystem? All from a Web3 female founder's perspective (aka me, vickchick030 - follow me on X, tihi).

Why cc’d?

Just like cc’ing someone in an email, I’m bringing you all into my personal newsletter loop. Plus, it randomly fits with the term Consumer Crypto, so I had to take it.

A Bit About Me

I’m deeply interested in consumer crypto, not least because parts of my team and surroundings are investing, building, or thinking ahead in this space.

As a female founder in Web3 and since our first venture - w3.fund founded in 2021 - I’ve tackled challenges and uncovered new opportunities. Together with my co-founders, our idea of investing in early-stage Web3 startups has blossomed into a whole ecosystem where each company plays a unique role:

• w3.ventures: Investing in early stage Web3 start ups building on the application layer

• w3.wave: Navigating Liquid Crypto Markets

• w3.hub: Building Berlin's Home of Web3. We offer co-working, offices and an event space

• w3.vision: Our community owned media network

• w3.labs: Adopting Digital Assets

If this all seems new, give me less than 5 minutes of your reading time to ease you into it with this issue. Feedback is always appreciated!

🥹 How crypto feels right now. In Germany we say “Fiebertraum”.
⛑️ Is Vitalik ok? Seriously.
🎉 What excites me - unsorted notes about the stuff I am working on.
🧠 w3.team Highlights
🍗 Nuggets and random stuff you should check out.

The past weeks felt like a fever dream.

The strangest part is how this incredibly bizarre feeling from completely unexpected news in the crypto space feels so normal when you've been in crypto for a while. It's like déjà vu but with a twist.

Richard, who has been on the podcast several times, sent me this meme.

coinsauce

View more on Instagram

And it really feels just like that. Yes, I finally belong to those who've been around long enough to at least say, "Yeah, in the last cycle it was like this and that... back then, everyone was still arguing over block space and fees during an NFT mint. Meme coins in this form? They didn't exist. We had Bored Apes and Ether Rocks."

A year ago, the announcement of a Bitcoin Spot ETF was a big deal – raise your hands if you were there – and now the US president, his wife, and God knows who else from his family tree are rugging us over the weekend before the inauguration with meme coins on Solana. Let that sink in. Insane.

Instead of going to a party, I went to bed early on the Friday before Trumps inauguration, making yet another dumb decision that prevented me from accumulating generational wealth overnight with meme coins.

Jokes aside. If you want to listen to a ✨real✨ opinion, just check out what our General Partner from w3.wave Philipp shared on LinkedIn:

So, I stayed up late the other night because I wanted to check on Vitalik Buterin. Like… Is he ok? For real.

For those who might be new here, he's the co-founder of Ethereum. He's a unique character, and we've all come to accept his quirks - just think of those random pictures of him floating around.

During my sleepless night, I scrolled through his timeline (wish I had done this on the Trump coin night!), and noticed something intriguing. Vitalik now has a Milady NFT as his profile picture. For context, Milady Maker is a controversial NFT collection known for its artistic flair but also its ethical scandals and legal issues. Vitalik seemed angrier than the guy we usually see in those photos.

He's got a huge following on X and a reputation that's been under scrutiny. People are saying Ethereum isn't keeping up with newer blockchains like Solana or Ripple.

Despite progress with the Merge and Layer-2 solutions, Ethereum hasn't quite met expectations.

Solana, for example, is faster and more efficient, posing real competition. Ethereum's value compared to Bitcoin is at its lowest in four years, showing a loss in market share. Plus, Ethereum ETFs didn't make the big splash everyone expected, while other cryptos have hit new highs.

Amidst all this, there were talks of replacing longtime executive director Aya Miyaguchi. Vitalik faced the crypto Twitter backlash until Charlotte Fang, founder of the controversial Milady Maker NFTs, reached out to him, urging him to embrace the Milady community's anger.

Now, people are saying Vitalik is in "wartime mode." It's all so random. If you want to dive deeper, check out the full story.

Sitting in a room with people in suits is quite a thrill

For those of you working in the Web3 space, you know the vibe - everyone is young, somewhat naive, incredibly smart, and hungry for technology. Two wees ago, we hosted an invite-only event in Zurich, bringing together TradFi and DeFi folks. Basically the other site of the community. It was the first of its kind and part of the Digital Assets Season we're currently running.

The Digital Assets Season is a 10-week campaign packed with events, content, education, and collaboration aimed at connecting bankers and investors with the on-chain economy. And it makes so much sense. Trust me. The event was a fantastic start, and I learned a lot (I've already shared my highlights on LinkedIn).

Zoom Calls are still a thing

On Tuesday, we held our first industry call with 21Shares, Deka, tradias, and NEAR x Libre.

A total of 175 people participated, not only listening to the 15-minute playbooks from our partners but also engaging in lively discussions.

The call lasted a full two hours, with most attendees staying almost until the end.
In between, there were some cool activities and opportunities to win our partners' favorite books.
The key takeaways from the presentations, as well as the audience's predictions, can be found here.

Am I still podcasting?

Absolutely! The real OGs among you who remember us as w3.fund and listened to the accompanying w3.talk from 2022/2023 know it’s been a while. Back then, NFTs and the metaverse were top of mind. While the technology hasn't lost its relevance, suddenly everyone is paying attention to the financial market again. Everyone is talking about use cases around stablecoins, asset management, and tokenization.

The hunger for innovation is truly intense. We notice this in the podcast recordings I'm now doing with Max from Blockstories as part of the Digital Assets Season. We've already released four episodes:

1. Solana's transition from a consumer-focused blockchain to one approaching institutions.

2. Fireblocks’ evolving digital asset custody landscape, highlighting innovative solutions, the impact of stablecoins and tokenization on financial markets, and its strategic expansion.

3. Kiln's tokenized validator product, which piqued my interest as it enables instant staking.

4. NEAR integrates AI with blockchain through innovations like chain abstraction and user-owned AI, enabling seamless web3 interactions and emphasizing decentralization's strategic importance.

You can listen to all episodes here.

Digital Assets Forum

As you know, we are hosting our first event in London on February 4th.

This coincides perfectly with the Digital Assets Forum, which is happening around the same time.

The Digital Assets Forum, hosted by the European Blockchain Convention, returns for its second edition in a new venue. This exclusive event gathers top institutional players in the digital assets ecosystem, including asset managers, banks, and policymakers. Attendees can enjoy panel discussions, an exhibition area, and spaces for 1-on-1 meetings, with leading media capturing key moments.

As a special offer for my community, you can enjoy a 15% discount on tickets using the code W3FUND15. Click here.

Julius (w3.wave) explains DeFAI to me

Meet DeFAI, where decentralized finance (DeFi) meets artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline complex crypto operations. With a market cap of $3.3 billion, it captures 2.66% of the DeFi market. Picture an AI-driven crypto assistant handling trades and finding the best yields for you, powered by cutting-edge interfaces and autonomous agents.

My favorite meeting of the week

The Solana folks took our intern to Catstanbul

📈 This chart showed me that you don't have to jump on every AI agent trend. Binance listed a $400 million agent, and since then, the chart has been crawling down. Ouch.

👻 Congrats to Phantom Wallet on the raise - if anyone from Phantom sees this, thanks for the smooth interface. Keep it up.

💸 Tether is moving its headquarters to El Salvador, marking its first physical location after being registered in the British Virgin Islands. This move comes after acquiring a Digital Asset Service Provider license, with plans to build a "Tether Tower" in San Salvador and relocate its leadership team. Link to Article

🤯 XRP ETF before GTA6?!

🎮 I recently read that Sony's layer 2 Soneium (how do you pronounce that?) on the "Soneium Minato" testnet saw over 14 million accounts and 47 million transactions. I'm curious: who are these 14 million (!) accounts? I just want to know. Can someone find out and share it in our community channel? Thanks.

🪄 Still searching for a working student crazy enough to join our team. Send some help.

This season, presented by w3.vision x Blockstories, takes a deep dive into the key verticals and trends shaping the digital assets industry - from tokenization and asset management to stablecoins.

🎤 Check out the most recent episode

Don't miss out on any news, updates, & vibes anymore. Discord is so yesterday. Let's meet on Telegram.

👉🏽 Join now

That’s it.

Hope you like the new format.

See you next week 💅🏽

And while we're at it:

I'm on LinkedIn

I'm on X

Just started with YouTube and thinking about how to continue it

Always here at w3.hub

Active in the w3.group. Follow on LinkedIn to keep up with our projects