Metaverse News - we read all the metaverse stories so you don't have to 💡

Welcome! Who's got time to read the avalanche of content about the metaverse? Not you, we bet!
Let us take the strain and sort the best of what brands are doing and can do in Web3 and the metaverse for you into concise, regular roundups. It's free!
You can see previous issues here.

Yuga Labs, creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) acquired CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs
Yuga now owns collections that have delivered almost $5BN in sales
As part of this, Yuga is handing over CryptoPunks and Meebits' commercial rights to their owners
And subsequently, BAYC announced a new cryptocurrency, ApeCoin, with plans for its use to extend beyond Yuga Labs' titles
HSBC is buying virtual real estate in Sandbox, which will be developed to connect with sports, esports and gaming fans
ConsenSys, owners of popular crypto wallet Metamask, raised $450MM at a $7BN valuation - MetaMask now has more than 30 million users
Some brand safety issues to bear in mind in virtual worlds
Good Harvard Business Review article on what brands can do with NFTs
Former Disney CEO, Bob Iger, is off to the metaverse
Gucci keeps innovating - a new and mysterious virtual 'New Tokyo' world and NFT partnership is coming
Mila Kunis' studio launches an animated web series, that will allow NFT holders to vote on shaping the story
More jargon (yay): PFP - it’s your profile picture and it’s not clear why jargon use was required for that, but here we are - it stands for Picture For Proof
And, POAP - ‘proof-of-attendance protocol’, a kind of digital ticket stub, proving that you attended something, and potentially with perks attached

SXSW update
Many, many panels and talks about Web3 tech and the metaverse at SXSW, it is the nexus of hype and brain food, after all. There were lots of free, promotional NFTs and POAPs but fewer substantial projects at the time of writing, though more may follow.

Of interest, so far:

Ex-Nintendo president and COO Reggie-Fils Aime is skeptical of Meta's metaverse plans: "Facebook itself is not an innovative company"
DMC, one-third of the legendary hip-hop group RUN-DMC has collaborated with STOI (The Song That Owns Itself) to tokenize a new DMC song, enabling fans to have a stake in its future success
Check out this tokenized retail drop, which gives a glimpse of possible commercial applications
Upcoming Paramount+ TV series, Halo, did a drone promotion in the Austin sky, which included drones forming a QR code and it worked!
A handy SXSW recap

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