Welcome to Web3 pills, the daily crypto newsletter that will take you to the moon faster than a meme coin in the midst of a bull market.
Here are your πβs for today:
Reddit NFTs reach $100M market cap!
Apple cracks down on crypto and NFTs
Trending Articles
NFT of the day
REDDIT NFTS REACH $100M MARKET CAP!
Itβs a bear market, but donβt tell that to the Reddit NFT team, whoβs seen the market cap of its NFTs reach $100M over the past few days!
Hereβs the background context π
Reddit originally launched their NFTs in June of 2021, and their rollout plan had a few unique aspects.
As Twitter user threadoor.eth points out, while the Reddit NFTs have no utility other than an image and a little badge, what makes them different than most NFTs is that they can only be used on the Reddit platform.
This means that unlike Twitter where you can set a Bored Ape or Punks as your profile picture; on Reddit, you can only use a Reddit NFT. Threadoor goes on to point out, that this adds a layer of legitimacy to the NFTs since theyβre made/supported by a trusted platform and it makes it impossible to impersonate their NFTs.
While the premise of Reddit NFTs make a lot of sense, many are asking why these NFTs are suddenly pumping in price/popularity 5 months after launch?
Hereβs my thesis π
Initially when Reddit NFTs were launched, NFTs had a very bad rep within the Reddit community. However, the Reddit team made a very smart move, which is that they rebranded away from the term NFTs to digital collectibles instead.
Then once OpenSea integrated Polygon NFTs (which is the chain Reddit Avatars live on), Reddit users began listing their avatars. Because these were considered digital collectibles, Reddit users felt like they were different then NFT traders.
These listings then led to an increase in the floor price of Reddit Avatars, which further increased the hype on Reddit. Suddenly, many Reddit users had seen their avatarβs value appreciate from $10 to $1,000+.
It turns out, that once someone does a 100X on their avatar, they are less likely to hate on Web3.
Only time will tell how Reddit collectible avatars will perform in the long term, but right now itβs looking like a massive win for Reddit, Polygon and the Web3 space writ large.
So far there are close to 3 million unique avatar holders, $6 million+ in avatar sales volume and 13 of the top 50 NFT projects on OpenSea are Reddit NFT projects.
Howβs that for mainstream adoption? π
APPLE CRACKS DOWN ON CRYPTO AND NFTS
While Reddit is embracing Web3, thereβs a different company that seems to be taking the complete opposite approach.
This week, Apple announced that it would be tightening its rules on crypto and NFTs in its App store.
Apple updated its App Store guidelines on Monday with new language explaining their policies towards crypto trading and NFTs. Specifically, any sales of NFTs must go through Appleβs in-app purchase systems, which charges a 30% Apple tax to use.
Furthermore, Apple specifically guides against app functionality that lets NFT holders βunlock features or functionality within the app,β which hinders the value of many NFT collections.
Lastly, Apple is imposing strict rules for crypto exchanges, which will require these exchanges to have the proper regional licenses to operate in each area where the app is distributed.
Overall, Appleβs strict measures seem to run counter to the ethos of Web3. This shouldnβt come as a surprise, given that Apple does not have much to gain from seeing Web3 take off. In fact, it could actually hinder their tech hegemony.
These updates also seem to align with a trend of anti-competitive measures taken by Apple in recent years. Whether it was rug pulling the online ad industry with its targeting updates, or charging a 30% tax to companies it directly competes with or even using its βdouble irish arrangementβ to avoid billions of $ in taxes.
This is an important reminder of why Web3 projects like Urbit and the Solana Saga are vital for disrupting the OS-layer of the tech stack.
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NFT OF THE DAY
Seeing as we talked about Reddit NFTs today, it only feels right that we highlight one from its collection.
The NFT above is part of Redditβs Spooky Season collection, which is currently has the 2nd highest trading volume of any collection according to OpenSea.
This NFT, or should I say, βcollectible avatarβ sold for 18 ETH yesterday.
I do have to admit, that it looks pretty badass.