Top Web3 Headlines This Week
Here are the top web3 stories from this week.
New Products
Illivium Sells $72MM in Virtual Land
🏠 A blockchain game called Illivium sold 20K parcels of virtual land this week for $72MM in proceeds. The game features “players in an alien world capturing and battling creatures, known as Illuvials.” Not my cup of tea, but still a big step forward for the NFT gaming world. This follows the $320MM sale earlier this year by the Bored Ape community for Otherside, their virtual world. I’ve written about virtual real estate before here, keep an eye on this hot space as new competitors enter each month.
Gala Games Bringing First NFT Offering with Epic Games
🕹️ Gala Games announced this week that their upcoming GRIT Wild West-themed battle royale game will feature NFTs and be launched on the Epic Games Store. Epic is the creator of the hugely popular Fortnite game, and this is the first time a game on their platform will include blockchain assets. Gala is helmed by Eric Schiermeyer, was the co-founder of Zynga and CTO of Intermix where MySpace was born. The company announced bold plans for a $100MM gaming fund and more when their $GALA token sported a $2.5Bn market cap. With the Crypto market selloff, it’ll be interesting to see where this goes. Either way, Gala Games is one to watch.
Content to Check Out
A16Z Weighs in on Web3
🎙️ The leaders of A16Z were on the Bankless podcast this week. In this wide-ranging conversation, Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon discuss their new $4.5Bn Crypto fund. They also cover the stark parallels between web1 and web3. Marc shares his experiences from building Netscape when the new internet was criticized as a security risk, too slow, too expensive, and many other things that are being said about web3 today. They say the long list of problems with web3 right now are like a punch list for the strong group of people building in the sector now.
Regulation
Crypto Bill Starts in Congress
⚖️ This week we got a first Crypto bill from a bi-partisan group of Senators — Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). You can read this summary article or check out the full bill here. Lots of encouraging stuff in here. No taxes on small Crypto purchases. Crypto as commodities and not securities. Stablecoin oversight. And more. Nothing is going to happen quickly here. There will be lots of committee talk, and it is unlikely this gets any serious chance of passing before the Midterms. Still a good first shot at this important legislation. We also saw the first insider trading case in the NFT space, more on this here.
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