#216 - Project watch: Invisible Friends, Moonbirds, Pudgy Penguins

GM and welcome to Decentra Daily.

We're the newsletter that always wakes up happy – as long as there’s web3 news to discuss!

Today,

1. Project watch: Pudgy Penguins shoot for the mainstream

2. Binance is being slowly smothered by regulators

3. Twitter’s new CEO is on board with crypto plans?

Plus, all the web3 headlines, memes, and Tweets of the day.

D-Daily takeaway 🥡
Three days of positive gains for the Decentra Daily index!

What's this? 🤔
Our floor price index tracks the biggest, most influential pfp projects, art collections, and gaming assets.

Project Watch! 🔭 Moonbirds, Pudgy Penguins, and Invisible Friends push their IP with toys and tunes

May 18th, 2023 will forever be known as the day Pudgy Penguins began their pop culture invasion. 🐧🥷

Pudgy Penguins Toys

A few emails ago we spoke about the $9 million in funding secured by CEO Luca Netz and his reinvigorated NFT collection, Pudgy Penguins.

That round of funding was intended to support Pudgy Penguins’ push into mainstream culture.

– And today, a major element of that campaign kicks off, with a range of soft toys, licensed from NFT holders and based on their Penguins pfps.

Complete with interchangeable traits like sunglasses and jackets, the Penguin Figures will be available through Amazon and other major retailers.

Full details of the toys’ features are yet to be announced at the time of writing, but we do know they will have web3 functionality, with an “accompanying digital experience.”

So, you should be able to connect your wallet and use your figurine to interact with Pudgy Penguins’ “Huddle.” 👀

Luca is hoping that toys, merch, and other IP-related products will boost public awareness of his project – as well as sure up those balance sheets.

Invisible Friends collectibles

It’s a good day to launch physical NFT products! Invisible Friends are also jumping aboard the physical collectibles train with these figurines, which come in large 24-inch and small 8-inch sizes.

You can get one by buying and burning this NFT on OpenSea. Current Invisible Friends holders will get priority minting.

A Twitter thread on the announcement says that claiming for the physical collectible will happen in 6 months’ time, when a 1-month burn window will open.

Moonbirds x Spotify

Remember the news that Spotify was experimenting with how to token-gate playlists?

They’re still working on that feature – and the latest partner to test it out is Moonbirds!

“Sounds of a Digital Renaissance” can be unlocked by connecting your wallet via this Spotify page.

With NFT playlists still in Beta, there is a catch: only holders using Android in the US, UK, DE, AU, & AZ can access the content.

With Spotify now home to podcasts and audiobooks as well as music, you can see the potential for community & fanbase NFT integration.

Notable Tweets ✅

On the web3 wire

Twitter’s new CEO is a fan of DOGE and SHIB 🐕
Media specialist Linda Yaccarino follows Dogecoin and Shiba Inu on Twitter, plus “numerous” affiliated accounts.

A web3 artist clocked over 300K mints of their open edition 👀
Jasmine Monsegue AKA Spacebrat released “Gleam,” their first free NFT, on Holograph, which allows minting and bridging across multiple blockchains.

Voice synthesizing features could be coming to iPhone soon 📲
Apple has been relatively quiet on AI so far, but this new feature uses AI tech to send voice messages that sound like the user.

Binance is fighting to keep its services running in North America

If you ever wanted to feel bad for one of the richest, most successful people in crypto, now would be a good time.

The CEO of Binance, CZ, is feeling bullied by national authorities – including those in his home country, Canada. 🇨🇦

CZ migrated to Vancouver in 1989 and has cited Canada as Binanace’s symbolic home.

“Symbolic” home. Of course, Binance actually registers in the Cayman Islands and Malta. 😂

Despite the emotional ties, last week, the exchange sent an email to all Canadian users, telling them to close any open positions by September 30, because Binance is withdrawing from The Great White North.

Why? The company blames “new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits.”

And it’s true that other exchanges have found it difficult to operate under Canadian regulations.

Paxos, former issuer of Binance's stablecoin also exited Canada, as well as the DEX dYdX.

Problems below the 49th parallel, too

Down in the US, CZ is also being targeted for his large stake in Binance’s US arm.

The company’s legal team suspects that regulators will make it hard for Binance to retain and obtain licenses while CZ owns a majority stake in the company, since he was named in a CFTC lawsuit in March.

Unnamed sources say that CZ has been trying to quietly offload his equity for around a year…

Binance’s issues come at a time when the US gov is turning up the heat on all crypto exchanges

The position of centralized exchanges as onramps to crypto (and offramps from the banking system, trackable assets, and easily ID’d traders), has made them Target No.1 in many parts of Washington.

• On Monday, the SEC didn’t budge in its commitment to penalizing Coinbase without offering clear rules to abide by.

• And, in a Financial Times interview published the same day, the Director of Cryptocurrency Enforcement for the Department of Justice stated that her agency is actively targeting crypto exchanges.

All of which is making the job of “Crypto Exchange Founder” probably the most stressful in the country right now.

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Meme of the day

Til the next issue of Decentra Daily! 🦸‍♂️👋

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