👾 Hot Take Friday

Are you ready for Hot Take Friday?

This week, prediction markets were on everyone’s mind thanks to South Park featuring Kalshi and Polymarket. We also saw Melee come onto the scene, which will let anyone bet on just about anything.

The gambling meta continues.

— Kate Irwin

• GameBoy-like crypto hardware products are trending

  • Good for crypto? 🤷‍♀️

  • My hot take: First-generation hardware can be rough — remember the Rabbit R1? If you want some GameBoy nostalgia, though, the Solana PSG1 is Solana’s lofi answer to the SuiPlay0x1. The ethOS dGEN1 also has a GameBoy look to it, though it also resembles a brick with a screen.

    • It’s still too early to tell whether either of these handhelds will feel better than being on the computer. Fun gimmicks for crypto-natives, but unlikely to pull in a wider audience.

    • The Solana PSG1 is expected to release Oct. 6, and the ethOS dGEN1 device is slated to ship early next year. The dGEN1 is being sold for $549, while the PSG1 is selling for about $330 to $350 depending on which version you get. 

• Kraken app adds “Bundles” for super-simple crypto investing 

  • Good for crypto/bad for crypto? 👍

  • My hot take: Kraken’s now letting its app users buy “bundles” of crypto assets from one of three options that are all pretty low-risk, which is good for retail normies who just want to buy some crypto and then forget about it for a couple years. There’s some long-term free automation happening under the hood as well, so buyers don’t have to manually rebalance their portfolios.

    • The options are a basic 70:30 BTC to ETH ratio, a “Crypto Blue-Chip” bundle that consists of an equal amount of BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, DOGE, TRX, ADA, XLM, LINK, and AVAX, or a “Crypto Reserve Assets” bundle that consists of an equal amount of BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, and ADA, which Kraken tells customers mirrors “the Trump administrator’s USA digital asset stockpile.” 

    • The BTC and ETH only option is the lowest risk, while the other two options offer more exposure to comparatively smaller coins. The question is, will anyone actually go for any of these, or are Kraken app users really this new to crypto?

• Azuki team launches beta of Anime.com streaming platform

  • Good for crypto? 👍

  • My hot take: NFTs are still pretty dead, but Azuki is trying to use anime to bring fresh blood to crypto. Part of the plan is to let anime fans use their ANIME token to buy “digital collectibles” (NFTs) on the site. 

    • I like the idea in theory, and this could expose new consumer audiences to crypto. But I don’t think event-based streaming is going to work. Today’s streaming audiences are used to having everything on-demand, all the time. Smaller event-based platforms need massive content creators backing them, like Twitch livestreamers, to draw in crowds at specific times. 

    • This anime site is ultimately going to be competing with Netflix and Crunchyroll’s anime libraries long term. But there’s only one show that will be available to “watch” for now, and it’s during an upcoming limited-time event. 

    • There’s also a social media-like feed, which distracts from the point. People want access to good anime and official merch, not yet another feed to “like” some screenshot of a Naruto poster.

• Gacha opens early access

  • Good for crypto? 👎

  • My hot take: Another crypto-powered Pokémon gachapon platform is here. This one looks even more degen than the others. Its Pokémon Gacha feature emulates a casino slot machine, making the gambling that’s happening here even more overt. Feels more like a cash grab than it should. Also, visiting their website makes it look like your computer has a virus. 

    • It’s a little too early to say when the Pokémon RWA hype will cool off, but data suggests early September may have been the top. So far, unless there’s a surge this weekend, it looks like this week’s revenue is down 60% from the all-time high.

Crypto is changing TradFi derivatives and rate markets as we know them.

DAS: London will feature all the builders driving this change. 

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

📅 October 13-15 | London