350,000 NFTs Airdropped For Free, UK Crypto Hub & More

Welcome back!

This is J264G and this week there’s no point in sugar-coating it: We’re down.

We might be down, but we’re not out 😤

Let’s get into it!

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Spotlight

The Gary Effect

A couple of decades ago, the United States — and specifically Silicon Valley — emerged as a dominant force in the development and growth of internet-related technologies.

Today, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Facebook, and other big tech companies are an integral part of the US economy.

Big tech invests heavily in research and development, driving innovation and technological advancements which often have ripple effects across multiple industries.

Mainly, the products and services from big tech enable other companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises, to digitise their operations, leverage data-driven insights, and access new markets.

Additionally, big tech companies are major employers, creating numerous direct and indirect jobs in fields such as engineering, software development, artificial intelligence, data science, and more.

Put simply, big tech is pivotal for the US economy — boosting its efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness.

However, this success was based on a culture of entrepreneurship and a favourable regulatory setting that provided a conducive environment for platform businesses to thrive.

This might change.

That's because US regulators are still approaching AI warily, and have now made clear that web3/crypto doesn't have a bright future in these Estados Unidos.

The global crypto market cap is ~ $1.05T. This, however, is only a proxy for the entire web3 industry — as it doesn't include protocols/dApps without tokens, infrastructure providers, or NFTs.

Regardless, should the majority of the web3 industry leave the US due to the unfavourable regulatory environment, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Southeast Asia will happily absorb a $1.05T+ value transfer.

Even Europe — yes, remember the continent everyone laughed at for 3 decades straight because they couldn't come up with even one single dominating online platform or app? — has a more forward-looking approach to both AI and web3 than the US.

Not often have we seen a country that is so far in the lead fumble the ball in the end zone this carelessly.

Capital will move abroad, jobs will be lost, community vibrancy will decrease, and tax income will be sorely missed.

AI is here to stay.

So are web3 and crypto (cue: censorship resistance).

We're boarding the Mayflower and heading back East, greeting a whole new world: Bonjour Le Monde! Hallo Welt! مرحبا بالعالم! नमस्ते दुनिया! 你好世界！

Chart Of The Week

News Bites

Parabolic Growth: DRiP airdropped 350,000 NFTs from The Faceless to its community — making this the largest generative PFP collection ever. The free airdrop leveraged Solana's state compression and cost less than $300 to execute.

Lovely, Bruv! Seems that the UK is going from one win to the next, as Superteam is expanding its operations to the land of the rose as well. Time for all of us to **posh up** our English 👇

@mrliamstapleton

Let’s av it large.

Growth Phase: Blockworks highlighted several innovations on Solana — e.g. local fee markets, xNFTs, Saga incl. Solana Mobile Stack (SMS), and Token 22 — that make the network more dynamic and resilient, ringing in a new growth phase.

Loyalty Programme: Mad Lads have launched staking to power a loyalty programme that will allow Backpack and other brands to target and engage Mad Lads holders.

If you need any help crafting more engaging content to onboard new users, send me a DM — now's the time to build 🫡

Caught In 4K

Weekly Take

We Got This

And that's a wrap!

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Talk soon!

J264G