gm and Happy Saturday. On the gm podcast today we have an extensive conversation for you with Neal Stephenson, who coined the term “metaverse” in his novel “Snow Crash” and discussed with us what people get wrong about the metaverse these days. We’re also closely tracking the fallout from the slew of crypto companies dumping Silvergate bank over the past three days. Grab your coffee and read on.
Largest NFT Collectors Joined Undeads Metaverse NFT Drop in First Public Mint
Among the noteworthy participants are n0b0dy.eth, a prominent and esteemed major collector who owns NFTs valued at $18 million, @CliveAlderman, whose NFTs are worth $2 million, and an anonymous holder of BAYC.
🥂 Cocktail party fodder
Silvergate might not be long for this world. The U.S. bank that bet big on crypto has had a really tough week: On Wednesday, it delayed its annual 10-K report filing with the SEC because it needed “additional time” to allow an independent accounting firm to complete certain audit procedures. This led Silvergate stock to drop fast and then a slew of crypto firms—including Coinbase—said they’d sever ties with the bank.
Silvergate has been struggling for a while: last month the San-Francisco-based company reported a $1 billion net loss for Q4 2022. And Silvergate’s current woes took the rest of the crypto market with it: Bitcoin and Ethereum plunged on the news.
💰 Coin of the Moment
Tezos bore the brunt of bearish price action this week, leading the market bloodbath on Thursday, when it was down over 20% in seven days at one point.
Despite recovering somewhat, its token XTZ is still down bad, according to CoinGecko: as of Saturday morning it’s trading for $1.12, a 9% weekly dip, making it one of the worst-performing digital assets right now.
Neal Stephenson coined the term “metaverse” in his seminal 1992 sci-fi hit novel “Snow Crash.” Now he’s helming a metaverse blockchain company called Lamina1 and advocating for one free and open metaverse. He spoke to Dan Roberts and Stephen Graves at length about what he got right and wrong in “Snow Crash,” goggles and flat screens, Big Tech, NFTs and digital ownership, and more.
Adidas Web3 lead Erika Wykes-Sneyd told Decrypt’s Dan Roberts the story of what prompted Adidas to get into crypto (it involves Elon Musk), what the brand has done so far with NFTs tied to physical apparel, and what it’s considering next—including token-gated sneaker drops.
