RadioShack and Tai Lopez are launching a DeFi token

Plus, Bitcoin reclaims $40K

Inside.com Part of   Network February 04, 2022

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Inside's Stephanie Zielinski hosted speakers from Yield Guild Games, Metis, and Splinterlands to break down blockchain gaming and play-to-earn mechanics for our "Understanding the Metaverse" event. Shout out to Superworld for making this event happen. :) Check it out! Trevor

Bitcoin reclaimed $40,000 ... on J. Powell's birthday!

Remember RadioShack? Everyone's favorite 80s/90s era electronics retailer is launching a token on Feb. 5.  What happened to "America's Technology Store," anyway? The internet happened. RadioShack peaked in 1999 but was slow to adapt to the eCommerce shift. Competitors like Amazon and Best Buy came in and stole their share of the electronics retail market. On Feb. 2, 2015, the company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Three days later, it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Enter Tai Lopez The YouTube and Instagram influencer, most well known for his social media advertisements and courses, purchased RadioShack's intellectual property, its ~ 400 independent authorized dealers, ~80 Hobbytown USA affiliate stores, and its online sales operation in Nov. 2020 through his holding company, Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV). Lopez and REV also purchased fellow defunct retailers Pier 1 imports, Modell's Sporting Goods, Dress Barn, and Linens 'n Things. RadioShack DeFi  The RadioShack DeFi is essentially a DEX like Uniswap or Sushiswap with a difference in how liquidity is managed. Where DEXes traditionally utilize liquidity pools like ETH/USDC, wETH/DAI, etc., with the RadioShack swap, all liquidity is connected to a central node, $RADIO. So a swap from USDC > ETH would be USDC > RADIO > ETH on RadioShack Swap The project hopes that this approach to liquidity will allow for lower slippage costs, allowing it to compete with more established decentralized exchanges. Not Investment advice Generally, we would stay far away from anything Tai Lopez touches. However, with the meme of Tai Lopez + RadioShack, who knows?

Nike has filed a lawsuit against the sneaker reseller StockX for selling unauthorized images of Nike sneakers as NFTs. StockX has reportedly sold over 500 Nike-branded NFTs since launching its blockchain “Vault” project on Jan. 18, with some selling at over 3x the value of their physical counterparts. More: Nike argues that this is a copyright violation and that the NFTs create a false association between those products and the Nike brand and trademarks. StockX told buyers that they could eventually redeem the tokens for physical versions of the shoes. Nike plans to sell its own NFTs from the digital art studio RTFKT, which it acquired in December.

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AssangeDAO, a DAO trying to help free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has collected over $4M in ether thus far. The DAO plans to use the funds to buy a collaborative NFT project called Censored, produced by the artist Pak and Assange himself.  More: The auction takes place on Feb. 7. Proceeds from the NFT sale will go to cover Assange's legal fees. Similar to the ConstitutionDAO, contributors to Assange DAO will receive the DAO's JUSTICE token proportional to the ether that they contribute. JUSTICE will give holders governance over the DAO and its roadmap, plus the ability to vote on what it will do with the NFT if it wins the auction.

Bankless: The next big trend in NFTs. Bankless published a piece breaking down the bull case for music NFTs as the market's next big thing. Full article TL;DR: Music NFTs represent a new monetization model for artists. Most music NFTs are simply digital collectibles, like online vinyl, that carry no ownership rights to the underlying IP. With Spotify paying $3,700 per million streams while music NFTs sell for thousands each, it may benefit musicians to focus on growing a niche, passionate web3 community rather than playing the numbers game with Spotify.

Funding Friday Yuga Labs (seeking $5B valuation)* — Yuga Labs is the creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club. If a deal gets done, this would mark the first institutional investment Yuga Labs has accepted. *This is a rumor, no deal has closed, and negotiations may be canceled outright. Neither a16z nor Yuga Labs have confirmed the talks. Dune Analytics ($69.420M) — Dune Analytics is a web3 analytics platform. Coatue, Multicoin Capital, and Dragonfly Capital participated in the round. FTX ($400M) — FTX is one of the world's leading cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges. The deal gives FTX a valuation of $32B. SoftBank, Paradigm, Tiger Global Management, and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan all participated in the round. FTX's U.S. arm, FTX US, separately raised $400M. Phantom ($109M) — Phantom is one of the leading Solana wallets. The round was participated in by Paradigm, Andreessen Horowitz, Variant, Solana Capital, and Jump Crypto. Phantom also announced an IOS app. PRISM (terms unknown) — PRISM helps users unlock DeFi composability by enabling them to split digital assets into yield and principal components. Hashed, Jump Crypto, and Terra participated in the round. MetaDojo ($3M) — MetaDoja provides users with ready-to-use and customizable NFT buildings that can be deployed to different metaverses or embedded on a website. DFG, OKX, NGC Ventures, Altonomy, AZer Capital, Illusionist Group, ExNetwork Capital, NFT Technologies, IBC Group, LD Capital, TsingTing Capital, Vendetta Capital, OnBlock Ventures, Jsquare, Walsh Wealth Ventures, Good Games Labs, and PAKA participated. Fireblocks ($550M) — Fireblocks is a platform that helps institutions store, transfer, and issue digital assets. Sequoia Capital, Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, BNY Mellon, Paradigm, and others participated. Cointracker ($100M) — Cointracker helps users with crypto taxes. The round included participation from Accel, Coinbase Ventures, Kraken, Intuit Ventures, General Catalyst, Initialized Capital, Y Combinator Continuity, and Seven Seven Six, along with a group of individual investors.

Web3 Tweet: Chase Chapman on the need for further clarity of DAO roles.

Quick Hits For Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute, the Gartner Magic Quadrant named Adobe a Leader among 17 vendors — See why here.* Nintendo is interested in the metaverse and NFTs. Tiger Global is starting to actively trade cryptocurrencies for the first time ever. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs employees are departing to work in crypto. GameStop received $100M in IMX tokens, then preceded to dump $42M of them. 552 apps use the term "metaverse" in their title or description. Check out this TechCrunch article to find out how they are attracting customers with the buzzword. Your money matters. Let's make more of it. Stocks are great, but there are many more options now. That's why we've been reading the Alts newsletter.* *This is a sponsored post.

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Trevor Grant is an entrepreneur, investor, and writer based out of Chicago, Illinois. His primary area of interest is web3 venture capital, social tokens, and infrastructure. Other pursuits include screenwriting, yoga, and traveling. He holds a BS in biomedical engineering.   Connect with him on Twitter @trevorisonline Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford.

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