🙀 Guess who’s baaaack

If there’s anything I’d recommend for your mental health — and life in general — it’s turning your PC off for 30 days.

I took some time to get married out in a mountainous forest in Washington state. After that my husband (whoa!) and I jetted off to Iceland to go spelunking in lava rock tunnels, which was pretty epic.

If you’ve ever watched House of the Dragon, Iceland is that. It is the land of ice and fire, quite literally. 

We also bathed in silica thermal baths and a natural hot spring, did a lot of hiking, and realized that everything in Iceland could not only be consumed by lava at any moment, but is also at least 20% more expensive across the board than New York City. 

Yes, really.

Pro Tip: For better or worse, Iceland is overrun by tourists these days (especially in the “summer”), and is not for the faint of heart. You gotta be OK with cold weather and permanent gloomy skies in peak summer — and definitely bring your warmest sweaters and best hiking shoes.

But if you’re willing to mess up your sleep schedule to get an epic lava rock waterfall or beach to yourself late at night or early in the morning, it’s totally worth it.

Now, let’s abruptly pivot to some news about magic internet cat tokens.

— Kate Irwin

Animoca Brands tries to resurrect NFT collection

Crypto gaming and investment firm Animoca Brands now has a financial stake in Cool Cats, that 2D pastel cat PFP collection from the 2021 NFT boom that most of you probably forgot about a couple of years ago.

Cool Cats, considered by some to have been at one point a “blue chip” NFT collection, will now be part of the Mocaverse. The Mocaverse is Animoca’s ambitious vision to give everyone their own crypto-powered identity and tie that into games and other experiences.

Animoca’s investment (of an undisclosed amount) means that Animoca and Coin Operated Group now own a majority interest in Cool Cats Group. Cool Cats community member Ken Cron is the chair and CEO of Coin Operated Group.

“We share a vision for a future where Web3 fuels creativity and community,” Cron said in a statement.

The NFT collection’s total volume traded has spiked roughly 400% in the past week, per NFTPriceFloor data. It also saw an expected floor price spike in the day after the announcement.

But that’s still just a blip in the grand scheme of things:

If I’m being honest, the news isn’t all that surprising, considering Animoca and the Cool Cats worked together before back in 2022.

In a statement, Animoca executive chair and cofounder Yat Siu framed the move as a way to connect the Cool Cats’ community to the Moca Network.

“Cats have always been the darlings of the Internet, and Cool Cats is one of the most recognized digital brands out there, perfectly exemplifying the global appeal of digital felines,” Siu said in a press release.

If you ask me — a self-proclaimed crazy cat lady — I’d argue the Cool Cats don’t lean into their feline inspiration nearly enough.

Yes, there was Cooltopia, a basic web game with a MILK token years ago. But otherwise the Cats could really stand to benefit from a Pudgy Penguins-esque social media brand building blitz to re-establish themselves as cute, relevant and actually about cats (their Instagram hasn’t posted a reel since February).

Back in 2022, Cool Cats’ future looked promising when it signed with top Hollywood talent agency CAA. But the collection also faced some controversy around its then-CEO, who some community members believed wasn’t very in-touch with what the NFT owners wanted.

You also have to get people who don’t already own one of the 9,999 2021-era NFTs to care about the Cool Cats, too, in order to bring the brand back. 

As Animoca builds out its “Mocaverse” plans — which pivoted away from being a “metaverse” per se in recent years — it’ll absolutely have to compete with the Pudgy Penguins and the consumer-focused Abstract ecosystem.

It’s the summer of DATs and the party is going strong. 

But when October rolls around, everyone will be looking to DAS: London to hear from these meta-defining voices on where things stand and where they’re headed.

Get your ticket today with promo code: DROP100 for £100 off

📅 October 13-15 | London

ICYMI, gaming-focused crypto infra firm Stardust’s founder and CEO Canaan Linder left his own company to work as the Sei Foundation’s Director of AI. 

“Founding a company at 22 was the adventure of a lifetime,” Linder said in a post last week. 

Stardust senior backend engineer Marcus Ferrario is Stardust’s new CEO.