Currently Relevant: Edition 7

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: The good, bad, and ugly of Bitcoin ETFs; OKX splashes $70m on sponsorship; ape investors get rekt.

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WHAT'S CURRENTLY RELEVANT IN THE RELEVANCE HOUSE

At THE RELEVANCE HOUSE, we believe there is a massive opportunity for crypto firms to leverage the science of branding – an opportunity that’s currently being missed. These are bold words, so we’ve been putting in the hours with some extensive research to back them up.

In the coming week, we’ll be publishing the first tranche of an in-depth quantitative brand analysis of cryptocurrency operators. The initial release will focus on branding for centralized exchanges, covering all the leading players, including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, KuCoin, Crypto.com, and others.

This is the first research of its kind. THE RELEVANCE HOUSE has developed a proprietary methodology that quantifies brand consistency and highlights specific instances and impacts of conflicting brand messaging.

So watch this space for some intriguing, quantified insights into the current state of digital asset branding and learn more about how you can leverage these lessons in your own business.

Meanwhile, on the blog, we’ve published an article that considers the journey into Web3 for established brands seeking to leverage the technology. By now, there are several case studies that provide insights into what works and what doesn’t; we round up the key principles to take away when developing your own Web3 marketing strategy.

Read “Your Web3 needs a game plan”

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THE BIG PICTURE

The prospect of a spot Bitcoin ETF approval for the heavily scrutinized US markets, following many previous rejections by the Securities and Exchange Commission, has dominated crypto news headlines over recent weeks. But is it all as unambiguously positive as it seems?

At first glance, there are plenty of good reasons to get excited. Increased demand for spot Bitcoin, speculative excitement, and the reputational boost of endorsement from banking giants all seem to bode well for the future of the industry.

However, just because Wall Street seems ready to clothe Bitcoin in the Jacket of Respectability, doesn’t necessarily mean that crypto’s flagship asset will sit neatly in the world of institutional investing. Particularly given the SEC’s determination to clamp down on the sector.

What’s more, a Wall Street takeover could damage Bitcoin’s core credentials of being decentralized, censorship-resistant, permissionless, and borderless.

Jacket of Respectability, or Emperor’s New Clothes? In the latest thought piece from our founder, German Ramirez, published yesterday on LinkedIn, he shares his views on the good, the bad, and the ugly of Bitcoin ETFs through a branding lens.

Read “ETFs – the good, the bad, and the ugly”

In funding news, crypto firms attracted over $90 million last week, with a Series C raise for Web3 gaming firm Mythical Games accounting for an impressive $37 million of that. Investors include Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, Animoca Brands, a16z, and others.

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WHAT'S NEW IN WEB3?

• OKX signed a $70 million deal with top-flight club Manchester City that will see the exchange featured on player’s shirtsleeves for the next three years.

• Metaverse match made in heaven, or a repeat of the FTX Miami Heat debacle? Our founder German Ramirez tackles this and other questions in his latest bi-weekly newsletter, out now on LinkedIn.

• A  Harry Styles concert at Slade Castle in Ireland was recently given the Web3 treatment by the EVNTZ app, allowing fans to book transport and buy merch via a wallet that can also be used to collect rewards. Five thousand fans downloaded the app, demonstrating that utility is always the biggest draw.
• Credit Suisse has teamed up with the Swiss Football Association to release a set of NFTs featuring portraits of the Swiss women’s team, with all proceeds dedicated to further women’s football in Switzerland.
• Clothing giant Lacoste has launched its own foray into Web3 with the announcement of its “UNDW3” ecosystem, open to holders of “dynamic NFTs” which place the holder on a leaderboard according to their engagement with the ecosystem. A novel concept for proportional rewards – will it catch on?
• Prices in blue-chip NFTs have taken a hit, resulting in a flurry of activity on Crypto Twitter involving mentions of “liquidated apes.” For the benefit of the uninitiated, this refers to the recall of loans issued against the value of NFTs (or “getting rekt” in crypto parlance), and we’re sure that no actual primates were harmed in this very niche financial crisis.

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FOCUS ON FINTECH AND DIGITAL ASSETS

• The so-called ETF effect caused trading volumes to rise in June, despite the SEC lawsuit causing some jitters earlier in the month.
• Bitcoin’s correlation with the tech-centric NASDAQ index reached a three-year low this week, which analysts attribute to the heavy influx of crypto-centric events this year (such as regulatory incidents) and, yep, that ETF effect (again).

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INSIDE THE INFRASTRUCTURE

• We may still be waiting for news of the hotly anticipated fistfight between tech’s two best-known founders, but the battle between Zuck and Elon ramped up this week when the former launched Threads, an Instagram-adjacent rival to Twitter. Can it convince the fiercely loyal crypto community to jump ship?
• DeFi decentralization rivalries were heating up between Lido Finance and Rocket Pool, which both offer liquid staking services, allowing users to delegate their crypto to validators for a share of rewards. The row broke out over which protocol offered more control to its members, underscoring the ongoing challenges in achieving decentralized governance at scale – particularly for fast-growing projects where the expectation to hand over to a DAO is often higher than a roadmap can accommodate.
• TON, an open blockchain forked from code originally developed by the team behind the Telegram messaging app, has launched an encrypted on-chain messaging service that the developers believe could be used as a failsafe if centralized encrypted messaging services become unavailable.

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TWEET OF THE WEEK

Meme of the Week is awarded to the excellent Jacket of Respectability illustration crafted by THE RELEVANCE HOUSE's in-house graphics gurus (see above).

So this week we’re asking for your thoughts and prayers for those affected by the (purely financial, remember) carnage resulting from the mass ape liquidation in Tweet of the week:

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