Currently Relevant: Edition 5

Welcome to Currently Relevant, THE RELEVANCE HOUSE’s regular roundup curating the best of news, views, and stories from the blockchain, crypto, and Web3 space.  

This week: Staking cements Ethereum’s slow-and-steady brand, Binance and Coinbase hit by SEC action, and Apple releases its first new product in years.

What’s currently relevant in THE RELEVANCE HOUSE

THE RELEVANCE HOUSE founder and Chief Relevance Officer German Ramirez has authored an op-ed for leading crypto publication Cointelegraph on why crypto marketing so often fails to live up to the hype. Since branding is our bread and butter, it’s probably not giving away too many spoilers to say that branding is the missing ingredient here. Read what German has to say.

Over on THE RELEVANCE HOUSE blog, we’ve also been pondering why money spent on branding should be considered differently from other types of marketing spend. All of your marketing budget may represent an investment, but your brand is the only element that delivers concrete, sustainable returns to your business. Read why.

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The Big Picture

It’s fair to say that 2023 has been a difficult year for DeFi. Once the darling of the digital asset sector, DeFi protocols have struggled to maintain liquidity amid the ongoing bearish market. However, even as the air of uncertainty continues to prevail across the sector, there is one corner where investors are literally lining up to throw in their crypto, and that’s ETH staking.

Somehow, while everything else – even tech stocks – appears to be deemed a distinctly risky investment, a post-Shapella Ethereum is establishing itself as something different. Sure, it can still be slow, clunky, and expensive. But those who are rushing to stake ETH don’t care about that because of what Ethereum does deliver. It’s secure and stable. It offers consistent, reliable staking returns. It has longevity, and with a committed developer community that’s pulled off several successful upgrades over recent years, it has gravitas.

In brand terms, Ethereum is the Volvo of the crypto world.

Which explains why ETH staking is enjoying such a renaissance moment. There is a clear narrative, and an alluring promise with demonstrable delivery. Whether knowingly or otherwise, Ethereum has established itself a brand, and the success of that brand speaks for itself.

In funding news, PayPal Ventures led a strategic funding round worth $52 million into wallet-as-a-service provider Magic Labs, in a week that brought a total of $126 million to the sector.

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What’s new in Web3?

• Doctor Who and Top Gear, both stalwarts of UK television, are joining decentralized metaverse The Sandbox, while speculation is rife that Grand Theft Auto 6 will incorporate cryptocurrency payments.
• Warner Bros has announced it is releasing a Web3 iteration of “Superman: The Movie” as an exclusive NFT, with access to watch the movie in 4K UHD, along with special features and image galleries.
• Nike has announced a partnership with EA Sports, in a move which will see its NFT platform, .Swoosh, will be integrated with the studio’s game titles. It will likely mean that players will be able to purchase Nike’s digital wearables as in-game attire.
• Gamestop is teaming up with Telos to link decentralized games on the platform with the retailer’s Web3 game launchpad, Playr.  
• Louis Vuitton has announced it will launch a digital collectible version of its iconic trunk featuring the LV logo.
• Apple’s much-anticipated “spatial computing” headset created much froth in the crypto press, despite the company being at pains to avoid the metaverse word, and the new device having no discernible links to blockchain or crypto.

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Focus on fintech and digital assets

• Binance became the latest crypto operator to incur the wrath of the US SEC, as the regulator filed legal proceedings against the exchange giant on Monday for the sale of unregistered securities. It followed suit with Coinbase just a day later.
• Banking behemoth JPMorgan has predicted that retail demand will support Bitcoin prices over the next year leading up to the 2024 halving event. Analysts also said they expect the halving to create a positive psychological effect, which would be consistent with previous halving events.

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Inside the infrastructure

• While US regulators continue to clamp down, others are looking more favorably on digital assets. In news from Brazil, the country’s central ank has granted a payment provider license to local crypto exchange, Mercado Bitcoin.
• CNBC reports that Microsoft has signed a deal with CoreWeave, a former Ethereum miner, to use its cloud computing architecture.

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Meme of the week

Apple’s new headset quickly created a buzz over on Crypto Twitter, where users were quick to begin identifying creative new use cases for the crypto sector. While “never take your eye off the markets” sounds like a buzzy slogan for some kind of price monitoring tool, traders may soon find the opportunity to take it more literally.

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