FTX: Enron 2.0?

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gm, what a week. We are still here.

Here's what you can expect from today's newsletter:

😭 SBF Apologizes⚔️ Bitverse beta starting Nov. 16th☁️ Google Cloud and Solana

• A friendly reminder: Monuverse mint starts right now! (HERE)

• BAYC and Yuga Labs founders are pushing for a new approach to creator royalties that are coded directly into contracts. (GG)

• FTX files for chapter 11 bankruptcy, BlockFi seems to be in hot water as well.

• Optimism developers have developed a brilliant app called Magic Mirror that allows users to mirror their NFTs to be verified on apps such as Twitter. (CT)

• Music artist Luna Aura has claimed she is owed by producer 3LAU who made millions off their collaboration. (RS)

• Decentraland updates its metaverse to show available land plots in real-time. (@decentraland)

• Lensxyz has developed the Lens Protocol, making it simple to develop Web 3 socials, their concepts being tied to on-chain identities stored in a PFP. (L)

• Cryptopunk #9789 recently sold for 100K$ despite market conditions. (OS)

• UFC fighter Ciryl Gane joins Degens as a community ambassador. (@ciryl_gane)

• The Matrica Labs hits another major milestone, the team celebrates 300k registered users. (@MatricaLabs)

A Message From Bitverse ⚔️

The Bitverse is a collection of exciting web3 games set in a nostalgic, 8-bit universe! The Bitverse is an extension of the popular RPG dungeon crawler Bit Heroes Quest.

💡 Here are the details:

• Fully funded project, powered by Kongregate. Kongregate has over 15 years in the gaming space!

• The Bitverse plans to launch 2 new games this year: Bit Heroes Arena - a fast-paced PvP battle royale and Bit Heroes Runner - a side-scrolling runner. They plan to expand into other genres and games in the next year.

• Bitverse Heroes (NFTs) are playable in all Bitverse titles. Carry your progress from one game to the other and earn special perks both in-game and out, with special discounts and Discord access for rare characters.

• November 16th is the opening beta of the Bit Heroes Arena, get ready to join with finding out more using the links below.

🚨 Important Links: Twitter, Website, Medium Article, Discord

FTX: Nothing Is Too Big To Fail

Sam Bankman Fried’s fall from grace is a drama-rich spectacle … he was a man of the people it appeared. Sam and his once monolithic crypto exchange pointed millions of dollars towards crypto lobbying, showing up to interviews with the most generous personality, and giving out loans to struggling crypto companies - in the crypto world he was royalty. However, just this morning FTX filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.

You could find FTX’s professionally toned logo on a sports stadium and see someone as well-regarded as Larry David participate in an ad for FTX during the super bowl. But none of FTX’s clean public-facing appearance reflected the magnitude of rot and mismanagement occurring within the company.

While Sam became crypto’s darling, Binance’s Chanpeng Zhao kept on doing good by Binance despite the pushback it has received on its way to amassing the credibility and volume of business that it does. Some people don’t know that Sam and Chanpeng had very different views on how crypto should interface with governments. Sam was willing to bring FTX under the fold of deep American government overwatch at the expense of fundamental web3 values like decentralization whereas Chanpeng was not willing to compromise on these values. And now Chanpeng is making Binance’s books transparent to the public just to show how secure of an institution it is.Below is SBF's apology from yesterday:

THE DROP 💧It is easy to get caught up in the spectacle of brands and personalities enough that you hand over custody of your crypto to a rug. But this is web3, and the first rule of this space is that you need to ensure custody over your own coins. FTX is a perennial reminder that nothing is too big to fail.

Google Cloud Partners with Solana ☁️

Google's Cloud computing department announced that they are running a block-producing Solana validator to participate in and validate the network. Google Cloud's blockchain node engine, which was first mentioned back in October, will feature on the Solana blockchain from 2023. This will help reduce the time required to run a Solana node and make it accessible to more users.

Along with this huge announcement, Google Cloud also noted they're now indexing Solana data and adding it to its BigQuery data warehouse which will make it easier for the Solana developer ecosystem to access historical data. “We want to make it one-click to run a Solana node cost-effectively” Nalin Mittal, Google Web3 product manager said at the Solana conference in Lisbon.

While onstage at the Solana conference, the Solana founder hailed Google cloud for adding Solana to BigQuery and also suggested building better SDKs to help speed up the development of applications and address the unsolved problem of storing seed phrases when asked how Google can assist with engineering problems.

Sponsored Content: Bitverse and Monuverse are sponsors of this newsletter.

• FTX Enron 2.0?

• FTX Collapses Overnight

• Asics Stepping Into NFTs

• OpenSea Forcing 0% Royalties?

• Thugbirdz Are Community First

• OpenSea's New Anti-Fraud System

Disclaimer: The Drop DOES NOT provide financial advice. All content is for informational purposes only. The Drop is not a registered investment, legal, or tax advisor or a broker/dealer. Trading any crypto-related asset is extremely risky and could result in significant capital losses.

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Gannon Breslin, Kayla Kilbride, CryptoVonDoom, Naveed Lalani, Alex Reed, Naman Patel, Big Tuna

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