Crypto 2024 from a VC Perspective

🎣 w3.catch-of-the-week 42

Author

Vicktoria Klich
October 18, 2024

GMGM and welcome to the 🎣 w3.catch-of-the-week, the newsletter that tells you the truth about Web3 from human intelligence - not artificial.

This week everyone was talking about the Truth Terminal and the $GOAT coin associated with it. I’ll quickly summarize it for your:

  1. An AI agent named Truth Terminal, created by Andy Ayrey, independently developed an obsession with an internet meme (Goatseus Maximus).

The same AI agent received a donation of $50,000 in Bitcoin from Marc Andreessen, a prominent software developer, entrepreneur, and co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), 3 months ago to “help it escape into the wild.”

  1. Without human guidance, the AI aggressively spread the Goatseus Maximus meme in various networks (Reddit, Twitter etc.), which led to the creation of a pump.fun token ($GOAT).

🤯 Long story short: It reached a market cap of 340 million dollars. The AI itself bought it and now owns crypto tokens worth over 600,000 dollars, demonstrating its ability to create value autonomously.

Read the full story.

📝 Events you can’t miss
💡 Fact of the week
🎃 Crypto Halloween
💰 State of VC Investments
🗺️ Web3 built in Berlin
💃 Jägermeister invites you
🕹️ Web3 Breakthrough Game?
🫵 We need your support
👀 Insights from w3.vision x DMEXCO

Before we get into the most exciting news of the week, a little challenge for you: pick your favorite event and sign up (pro tip: you can choose more than one 😉)

🎃 Bitpanda x w3.pizza (31.10.24)

👁️ Worldcoin x w3 (23.10.24)

Polymarket is No. 1 on US Appstore

This is also reflected in the volume traded on Polymarket, which was highlighted by a16z:

What is good token design?

We are excited to invite you to Bitpanda Spotlight’s first event at w3.hub, where we’ll dive into token launches, tokenomics, and token investments.

Get insights from industry leaders, including experts in project development, investment, and token listings. Network with VCs, startups, and Web3 enthusiast.

We have already asked our community this question, here is a little teaser:

State of VC Crypto Investments

Galaxy Research has published a new report on the state of VC investments in Crypto 2024. I have taken a close look at it and summarized the most important takeaways for you 🕵🏽‍♀️.

Venture Capital Investment

  • In Q3 2024, $2.4 billion was invested in crypto startups across 478 deals, which is a decrease from the previous quarter.

  • 2024 is on track to match or slightly exceed the investment levels of 2023.

  • Early-stage deals got most of the money (85%), while later-stage deals only got 15%.

Valuations and Deal Sizes

  • The average value of crypto companies getting investment has gone up in 2024, with the median valuation reaching $23.8 million in Q3.

Investment Categories

  • Layer 1 projects, cryptocurrency exchanges, and infrastructure companies received the most money.

  • The most deals were in infrastructure, gaming, and DeFi projects.

Geographic Distribution

  • The United States led in both the amount of money invested (56%) and the number of deals (44%).

  • Following the U.S., other significant countries for crypto venture capital investment were: United Kingdom: 11% of total capital invested; Singapore: 7% of total capital invested; Hong Kong: 4% of total capital invested

Fundraising for Venture Funds

  • Interest from investors in crypto venture funds remains low, with only 8 new funds raising $140 million in Q3 2024.

  • The average size of new crypto venture funds in 2024 is the smallest since 2017

Berlin Web3 Ecosystem

We have often said we are putting Web3 on the map - we have done that (again, but new).

I would like to introduce you to the Berlin Web3 Ecosystem Map, a comprehensive overview of all players from the German crypto capital.

🤓 But beware, we're sure we didn't manage to find them all, so we ask for your help!

If you know of any missing initiatives or are part of one yourself, please let us know and let's make the map grow!

Here you can download the map in best quality.

Future of Nightlife with Jägermeister

Are you curious about how technology is shaping our nights out? Join us for Web3 By Night at w3.hub, where we’ll explore the intersection of nightlife and tech innovation 🔮.

Expect some fun activations throughout the night, and special surprises, more to be revealed! Let’s make some unforgettable memories together! 🥂

State of Crypto 2024

a16z also realeased its ever-popular State of Crypto 2024 report this week. As always, here is my summary of the top insights 💅.

  1. Crypto is growing faster than the Internet.

  1. Crypto has become an important political issue in the U.S. election, especially in swing states.

  1. Stablecoins have become very popular, with $8.5 trillion in transactions in Q2 2024, more than double Visa's volume.

  1. Decentralized finance (DeFi) remains popular and is growing, with $169 billion locked in DeFi protocols.

  1. Crypto could help solve some AI challenges:

🤓 Interesting to note: The entire report did not even mention memes or memecoins.

What is “Off the Grid”?

It was predicted by many, the killer use case of Web3 technologies:

Whether it is the Web3 breakout game, whether it can become one or whether it is just some hot smoke, we will now try to find out together.

  1. let's start googling the game - see the first page only shows the game itself or reviews of the game from gaming platforms.

    🕵🏽‍♀️ Only on the 9th Google page, I found an article from Decrypt, the first one where you recognize that it has something to do with blockchain.

    👉🏽 This shows me that outside of the Web3 echo chamber, the game is definitely being talked about by “normal” gamers.

  2. The game is currently on spot 1 of the Epic Games Free to play games

  1. Several streamers also play the game live on the streaming platform Twitch (it cannot be ruled out that they have been paid to do so)

VanEck highlights in its September reporting that gaming realized tokens are more volatile than Bitcoin and are up 20% year to date.

They also say that they think it is likely that gaming tokens will outperform Bitcoin again if Bitcoin starts to upswing.

❗️Interestingly, Off the Grid does not yet have a token, but this has already been announced. Issuing in-game items as NFTs is also planned, but has not yet been implemented.

It will therefore be interesting to see whether the hype surrounding Off the Grid can continue and, in particular, what impact it will have if they integrate blockchain elements.

We are looking for you

You know that there are several events every week that we either organize ourselves or host ourselves. In order to meet the numerous requests, we need you 🫵.

If you have at least 2 years of experience in event management and are as keen on Web3 as we are - then apply now!

w3.vision x DMEXCO

Together with our w3.vision partners, we went to DMEXCO, Europe's leading digital marketing & tech event, last month.

There we talked about the current status of Web3, the upcoming opportunities and challenges.

If you weren't there, you can now watch the speeches on our Youtube channel.

PS: You can already look forward to the new w3.vision Digital Assets Season, where we will be organizing activations in the largest financial hubs in Europe.

​Proof of humanness and privacy in the age of AI

Join us for a talk with Friederike Lumbroso-Baumgartner, the DACH GM of Tools for Humanity, the company behind the World.

🗓️ October 23, 2024 6:30 PM

Ledger 10 Year Anniversary Tour

We are organizing a special live event in Berlin. Raise a glass with us to 10 years of Ledger, make valuable contacts and enjoy good food, music and spend an unforgettable evening with us! 🥂🥳

🗓️ November 7, 2024 7:00 PM

Bitcoin Dominance

Looking for collaborations or an entry into the Web3 Community?

Vicky & Marvin are Web3-obsessed. That's why they host a weekly podcast featuring updates and cool stuff.

Don't miss out on any news, updates, & vibes anymore. Discord is so yesterday. Let's meet on Telegram.