🐧 Pudgies, budgies & your gamefi cheat code

The Penguins take over Walmart as Immutable prepares to front run the Game-Fi bull run

🗞 Market commentary.

Hello? Is anyone still out there? Ohhh hey, good morning reader!

Welcome to your Friday edition of The Ape Enclosure, from today (until the next time) we are going to be releasing the newsletter once a week on a Friday to give you a recap of what went on in the past seven days, helpful updates you might have missed and of course a hot topic in our Degen Corner.

PVF: positive vibes Friday as this week in crypto has been a completely shameful comedy show. But thankfully the Pudgy Penguins came to the rescue as Web3 entered a Brave New World with the announcement of the Pudgy Toy collection being welcomed into 2,000 Walmart stores while coming to life in the Pudgy World (think Club Penguin but cooler).

As much of a surprise as this might have been to some, Luca Netz, the Pudgy Penguin CEO, was previously the co-founder and CMO of North America’s fastest-growing toy company, Gel Blasters (Nerf Gun competitor). Yes, the very same Gel Blasters that were available in over 2,000 Walmarts back in March ‘22.

Having met and interviewed Luca at Token2049 I can tell you first-hand that Penguins are his obsession and the mission that he and his team are on is changing the way we view, think and ultimately push forward into the real world. The toys are for normies (and die-hard NFT holders) and the PFPs are for the community.

From NFTs to GIFs to Toys, a Game and the most followed Instagram account, the story of the Pudgy Penguins really is just beginning.

It won’t be long before Disney come knocking for a full-length animation movie.

In other news, Gary Gensler gets rekt by Congress as congressman Davidsons calls his agenda “woke” whilst someone photo bombs the background with the Coinbase “Stand with Crypto” shield.

Coinbase might just be the metaphorical white knight that the industry needs whilst now potentially becoming one of the big players within the perpetual futures trading market as they receive regulatory approval for Coinbases International Exchange (Non-US only
 sorry!)

Brian Armstrong might just be the very catalyst to bring good fortunes to us this UPtober.

đŸ€“ In today’s email.

  • Degen corner. Immutable: The POWERhouse of Web3 Gaming

  • DeFi insights. 11, ‘Omg really?!’ insights

  • ICYMI. Exclusive Pudgy Penguin Interview with Chief Penguin Luca Netz

  • Tweet of the day. Friday wisdom from rektdiomedes

  • And finally. UPtober next week

đŸ”„ Degen corner.

Immutable: The POWERhouse of Web3 Gaming

This market is boring. Like super boring. To the point where touching grass has become a weekly norm.

When max boredom is rampant there's only one thing to do


Prepare for battle. Refill your mana potions, load up your bazookas and for you sports game fans it's time to pump your kicks up ready for the playoffs.

And that’s where Immutable, the Web3 gaming POWERhouse, comes into play.

What is Immutable?

We all saw from the first Game-Fi bull run that building a game is hard, like REALLY hard. To truly develop a AAA-grade game you’re looking at 3+ years in development. 

Simply put, Immutable is the infrastructure platform and ecosystem that simplifies the process of building Web3 games allowing devs to do what devs do best, create totally awesome, binge-worthy games.

You’ve built the game and now you need the players. Immutable has created a platform layer that optimises the onboarding processing and facilitates the exchange of assets on various marketplaces. 

Thus, creating the very cheat code developers need to build, onboard and foster a trading experience that we hope will be comparable to the OG days of World of Warcraft and RuneScape. 

APAC gamers do it best.

The APAC gaming market is huge and hosts some of the world's best competitive e-sports teams with growth potential looking like it is going to only accelerate as the work-from-home culture continues to become the norm.

And let's be honest, we’ve all bunked off a few hours in the middle of the working day to play!

There are over 3BN gamers on the planet right now and APAC hosts over 1.48BN of them with the industry valued at over $52BN. China, Japan and South Korea are leading the way holding the largest market share in the region so it makes sense for developers to target this market.

Immutable recently had the IMX token list on the Japanese Exchange Coincheck and last year hired Riot Games’ SEA General Manager Justin Hulog who has stepped up as the Chief Studio Officer giving Immutable a valuable insight into the Asian market.

With an expected CAGR of 14.1% from 2022 to 2030, APAC’s gaming bull run might just be warming up. 

Let's Talk GAMES

Enough of the numbers and onto the fun stuff.

Rubick’s recently highlighted these games as the latest to be welcomed into the Immutable-verse, proving that games built on the blockchain aren’t going anywhere as the quality continues to rise.

Infinite Victory is an over-the-top action, explosive arcade-style basketball game that brings athletes from all sports onto the court with crazy “Ultimates” aka Super Moves that create explosive gaming-changing moments that make you feel like you are in a Michael Bay movie.

Of course, we can’t forget some of the OG games that are deep into their development stage such as Illuvium, Gods Unchained and Wagmi Games

Before this becomes the number 1 Crypto Gaming Newsletter, I can conclude that Immutable has the right idea. Target the fastest growing market for gamers, Web3 acceptance and the area of the globe where teams are moving to.

Now, my question to you, as we are balls-deep in this bear market, is
 What are you rolling right now? 

Leave a comment on what you’re playing, what we should be watching for and your thoughts on Web3 gaming.

👀 DeFi insights.

The important bits.

  • Aevo (Options) - Will be launching pre-launch futures on TIA, the genesis airdrop from Celestia - read

  • Arcton (On-chain IPO market) - Releases the weekly recap including pre-seed round - read

  • Gains Network (Trading platform) - Launch 9 new forex pairs - read

  • LlamaFolio (Portfolio Tracker) - A new portfolio tracker from the DefiLlama team goes live - read

  • Lybra Finance (LSDfi) - Binances WBETH can be used to mint peUSD whilst the Lybra DAO launches Sunday, Oct 1st - read

  • Premia Blue (Options) - Permissionless pool creation has been deployed on Arbitrum - read

  • Protectorate Protocol (NFTfi) - “Welcome to Zaar” trailer reveals a telegram NFT trading bot - read

  • Radix (Layer 1) - Babylon Mainnet upgrade is complete - read

  • Star Shares (Social Fi Trading) - The Wall Street Bets chainman (WSBChairman) took #1 spot ahead of the Avax CEO Emin GĂŒn Sier - read

  • Thetanuts Finance (Options) Apply for an Arbitrum grant which includes their future plans - read

  • Unibot (Telegram bot) -Advanced bundle feature goes live - read

📰 DeFi news.

Even more important bits.

  • ETF delays
 AGAIN as the SEC pushed their decision forward on the proposed ARK 21Shares Ethereum ETF and VanEck Ethereum ETF - read

  • Paradigm launches the “Policy Lab” a gathering place for “academics, policy experts, lawyers, and technologists to study how to address the biggest policy challenges in crypto” - read

  • SEC Chair Gensler is in shambles as he struggles to answer questions about tokenised Pokemon Cards, Bitcoin and his approach to crypto regulation - read

  • Stocks on Kraken and could launch as soon as 2024, Bloomberg reported - read

đŸ«  ICYMI.

Life gets busy so here’s what you’ve missed.

GM degen podcast

Listen & Watch.

On Thursday the lads were discussing this week’s winners and the reasons why, including CANTO, FOLD and why Mike_ithappen hates Polygon Also, Gensler is back in the hot seat on Pokemon cards (?), World Coin is moving and the latest banger in the microcap world that's caught our eye.

Tune in on Spotify | YouTube | Twitter →

Luca Netz and the Pudgy Penguins are changing the game for NFTs

Exclusive Feature Interview.

The Pudgy Penguins continue to shine brightly, so much so that we believe that the Pudgy Penguins are reshaping our perspective on establishing brand uniqueness in the world of Web3. 

Thales: The architecture for parimutuel markets and derivatives

Research.

Thales uses smart contracts for different markets, and it has a unique automated market maker (AMM) to provide liquidity. They use "Positional tokens" to let people bet, and the odds depend on the pool balance, unlike traditional betting where odds are set based on statistical analysis of recent performances.

đŸ„ Tweet of the day.

To save you doom scrolling.

rektdiomedes, leaving you with some wisdom to finish the week

🩍 And finally


We will be watching the charts like hawks over the weekend to see if this is the beginning of something special or just another faded rally that ran the stops.

But for now, enjoy the weekend, touch grass and we’ll see you next week!

đŸ€ A final word.

A quick word from our super awesome sponsors who help us make this all possible...

Discover how your skills could power the next generation of web3 and blockchain technology. Your next career move could be one you never imagined. Start your search today at Web3nomads.jobs.

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