The market is flooded with functionally equivalent offerings that service more popular blockchains. This funding is timely because @NEARProtocol recently raised $350M to grow its ecosystem.

NFT activity is inherently social yet none of the leading NFT marketplaces have integrated meaningful social features. Coinbase NFT has a compelling case to lead the charge on this front and rival @context, especially if Coinbase can import our social graphs and decentralize.

From a product perspective, there are much more advanced solutions in the market such as CertiK and ConsenSys. With that being said, South Korea-based @soohoio has established a strong customer base in South Korea comprised of tech giants like Samsung and LG.

Until the infrastructure achieves steady state equilibrium (e.g. winners in L1/L2/bridges/etc. determined), @ComposableFin will face insurmountable difficulty in overcoming technical backlog. Once in steady state, the market may need a solution similar to @ComposableFin.

In web3, users' money is on the line as opposed to their data, which is why security issues are a non-starter. Leading security-as-a-service platforms like CertiK are going to win big along with security solutions servicing other areas of the tech stack (e.g. L0/1 protocols).

Memes attract speculators: the Doge NFT has an implied valuation of $65.6M and the Nyan Cat NFT sold for 300ETH. Given how fast memes cycle out of popularity, there should be an ample supply of NFTs to sustain a marketplace. In any case, @DankBankHQ is building a house of cards.

Leading competitors for @coinmetrics include AmberData, Nansen, Chainalysis, and Messari. To maximize market share, these startups have to internationalize, expand data offerings to encompass DeFi/NFTs/etc, and maintain best in-class blockchain indexing practices.

We suspect that Shopify is partnering with apps like @novel_commerce to power its NFT Beta Program. In addition to managing platform dependency risks, @novel_commerce has to work on abstracting away digital wallets from the buyer journey of mainstream consumers.

@Hivemapper can disrupt Google and Apple's map offerings by undercutting them on API pricing courtesy of cost structure efficiencies and providing mapping data that is more frequently updated. Although dashcam ownership is low among drivers, economic incentives can change that.

While many fashion NFT brands are focused on servicing digital worlds, @the_fab_ric_ant is tapping into lucrative use cases in the fashion industry (marketing/sales) and at the intersection of the physical and digital (e.g. digital dressing for social media).

@fractalwagmi is beginning to set a great example on how vertical NFT marketplaces can attract liquidity by integrating community-centric features. More specifically, @fractalwagmi allows gamers to get more out of NFT marketplaces by hosting web3 mini-games and gaming tournaments.

Crypto will achieve mainstream adoption when the underlying technology is abstracted away. @winter_NFTs is moving the needle on this front by eliminating the need for consumers to create and manage digital wallets for NFT purchases.

@Battlebound_io is taking the popular gaming-as-a-service model one step further by decentralizing governance and integrating a cryptoeconomy. In any case, the success of Evaverse ultimately rests upon the quality of its games.

Most of the activity in NFT marketplaces is arguably driven by traders yet these marketplaces do not integrate features purposed for traders. @blur_io is tapping into a substantial gap in the market and we expect it to compete for trader mindshare with NFT analytics providers.

Top P2E titles lend themselves well to esports because they have passionate communities that depend on gaming to make a living. By democratizing tournament creation and supporting cryptocurrency payouts, @CommunityGaming can further diversify income streams for crypto gamers!

@NEARProtocol is quickly losing differentiation as its core feature set, which includes monetization for open-source contributors, smart contract development with popular languages, and the abstraction of wallets, is commoditized by new tooling, blockchains, and dApps.

@Improbableio is uniquely suited to provide robust metaverse building tools because it spent years developing networking, orchestration, simulation, and rendering technology that allows 10k+ users to interact in lag-free 3D environments, at the same time and in the same place.

The core technical limitation with @gensynai is that it cannot guarantee proper completion of compute jobs. For most engineers, this risk will outweigh the cost benefits that @gensynai may offer compared to centralized alternatives like AWS.

Open source contributors are the unsung heroes of the developer community. The emphasis on 'composability' in web3 means that open source contributions will accelerate. We are happy to see @teaxyz_ and Radicle working to create win/wins for both code consumers and contributors.

These ultra-premium displays cost $9k. This price point may make sense for the crypto wealthy, enterprise customers, and exhibition organizers. For the rest, a standard smart home display may be a more reasonable purchase. In any case, this product is one-of-a-kind!

@yugalabs is the steward of IP worth billions of dollars (in current market conditions) and the most elite community in crypto comprised of tech titans, pop stars, etc. For that reason, we believe that @yugalabs is best positioned to integrate crypto IP into mainstream use cases!

Although ConsenSys is under significant competitive pressure from verticalized counterparts (like Alchemy in node infrastructure, for example), its impact on the Ethereum ecosystem cannot be understated given the depth of its product portfolio and its global mind share.

@OorbitOnline is integrating blockchain technology support in the hopes of rallying the crypto community around higher quality gaming alternatives to Discord game bots. Discord game bots are remarkably depressing so we hope @OorbitOnline and Artie (its competitor) succeed!

Leading marketplaces like OpenSea and Magic Eden provide more visibility to NFT collections as opposed to 1/1 pieces. Although @formfunction is addressing this product bias, it needs to invest in more features that enable artists to elevate the value of each NFT.

@MagicEden's execution momentum speaks for itself. At scale, @MagicEden will face the same challenges as OpenSea in providing a quality NFT discovery experience and integrating community-centric features, which may drive liquidity away to verticalized marketplaces.

Plug-and-play IP is critical to the technical implementation of the Metaverse. By establishing strategic partnerships in media and fashion and repurposing the IP for different tech platforms, @SpaceRunnersNFT can become the biggest mall in the Metaverse!

The market opportunity to disrupt Discord is significant, which is why @joinupstream is competing with many startups that offer functionally comparable products (SuperDAO, SubDAO, etc). Note however, DAO tools that complement Discord-based DAOs have been more successful so far.

@ardriveapp's UX and pricing is not competitive enough with iCloud and Google One for general purpose storage (e.g. photos, videos). As for NFT metadata storage and provenance, @ardriveapp is hoping to differentiate from competitors like Pinata by charging non-recurring fees.

Both Don Huffines and Greg Abbott (the leading candidates for Texas' 2022 gubernatorial election) are hoping to make Texas a hub for Bitcoin mining. With that being said, Texas-based Bitcoin miners will have to contend with the state's unreliable energy infrastructure.

This tooling is absolutely necessary to grow the NFT ecosystem. @RarifyTech is building meaningful product differentiation by providing 24/7 customer service and comprehensive feature coverage in head-to-head competition with Venly.

NFT discovery challenges on OpenSea or vampire attacks can fragment liquidity in which case @Immutable offers the most scalable NFT infrastructure for marketplace developers, creators, and collectors! Yes, more scalable than NFT marketplace aggregators.

Plug-and-play IP is critical to the technical implementation of the Metaverse so we admire this project. Note however, IP owners/developers cannot tap into the full commercial potential of the IP in this model, which may become a non-issue once the IP becomes popular.

Bitcoin/Stacks, Ethereum 2.0 and Polygon currently pose the strongest threats to optimistic rollups like @optimismPBC. We are so early that it is impossible for anyone to forecast if the future is multi-chain in the first place so all we can do is wish @optimismPBC good luck!

Its security solutions are simplistic compared to its primary competitors' (ConsenSys & OpenZeppelin). As for workflow automation, the tech is commoditized. But we have high hopes for @TenderlyApp because it has industry-leading solutions for smart contract debugging/analytics!

@sardineai has established itself as a market leader alongside Cognito by consistently shipping features that delight customers, such as fraud indemnification-as-a-service. Next, we hope the team explores no-code support and commercialization efforts for SSI.

@ChronicledInc is setting a great example on how to grow enterprise adoption for blockchain technology. Their playbook boils down to building utility-centric technology through high touch collaboration with industry stakeholders.

The success of IaaS/PaaS businesses rests upon a user flywheel that powers economies of scale: acquire more users = buy more compute at lower costs = provide better pricing to users. @infstones has its work cut out as it competes with Alchemy, Blockdaemon, etc. for more users!

In order for this metaverse to scale successfully, the developers need to consistent deliver quality games. This is an abnormally tall ask given gaming is a hit-or-miss business and crypto does not offer a panacea on that front; in fact, crypto makes game design more complex.

Philippines is ranked #15 in the 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index, which means that the country has a highly active crypto community. Since the Filipino gov provides regulatory guard rails for crypto exchanges to thrive under Circular 944, the competitive landscape is crowded.

Unlike traditional fantasy basketball, the Virtual Basketball Association is untethered from real life sports leagues (NBA, WNBA, etc). This design decision will make the VBA substantially less immersive and negate the allure of player ownership. We hope @vbagame proves us wrong!

Aligned is currently playing catch up with direct competitors like Blockdaemon and Alchemy that have comprehensive node infrastructure solutions and much more capital. Wishing you the best, Aligned!

In order to counter the network effects of general purpose NFT marketplaces like OpenSea, vertical platforms like @KnownOrigin_io need to integrate community-centric features that substantially raise switching costs. We hope the team makes more progress on this front!

There is a genuine demand for guild management software to drive process efficiencies (payroll, onboarding, etc.) and improve profitability among guilds. Since the software lacks technical complexity and the market opportunity is large, @SaladVentures has many direct competitors.

@MixMobOrigin is great at seamlessly onboarding new community members, leveraging community for UGC, and building creative products (merch, magazine, lore, etc). However, it is still unclear whether/how non-NFT holders can play the game.

Although @fluence_project is working on a truly unique product, we think that they:

• Will face challenges in providing compute at scale
• Overestimate how discerning node operators are with respect to application hosting preferences

If the metaverse lives up to its economic hype and continues to attract more and more retail capital, @Everyrealm is positioned to become the BlackRock of the metaverse with investments across digital real estate, assets, and platforms.

@kyro_digital is one of many startups that are hoping to become the Shopify of NFTs. The market is undoubtedly large and we expect it to consolidate over time through M&A activity by startups that have the deepest pockets.

The idea that we should all be paywalling our online data makes perfect sense. However, people are not accustomed to thinking that way and developers do not have strong incentives to deviate from the status quo, which is why standalone IAM SDKs have not had success so far.

With crypto mining banned in China, miners in the US like @computenorthllc are enjoying a surge in profits. We can only hope that they are developing a roadmap with an obsessive focus on eco-friendlier operations.

The case for Bitcoin as the permanent center of gravity in crypto is strong - it currently has the most mindshare among retail and institutional investors and can lock in its user base if Stacks and @trustmachinesco can create a thriving ecosystem of dApps.

The @aleph_im network has questionable economics and does not provide a compelling value proposition for developers and users to move away from Solana, Polygon, Filecoin, etc. If need be, we would be happy to share our concerns with the team!

There are direct competitors like ThirdWeb with a greater feature set and less technical complexity so @LitProtocol's differentiation is unclear at the moment. We would be happy to provide the team further thoughts and ideas to help!

Barring regulatory interference, crypto can expand access to financial opportunities for anyone with Internet. Its impact is especially pronounced in areas with poor tradfi infrastructure, which is why @Nestcoin's push for crypto adoption in Africa can be transformational.

The market is fragmented with functionally comparable products. With access to Tiger's bottomless capital, it is safe to say that @rarecircles may be responsible for the market consolidation down the line.

By enabling consumers to own the IP rights to superheroes and building with community, @pixelvault_ can crowdsource marketing, ideas and even products, which in turn will make @pixelvault_ more responsive to the market compared to Marvel and DC Comics.

There are direct competitors in the market. We expect the market winner to differentiate on the credentialing mechanism it designs for crypto professionals to provide proof of talent.

Aside from providing new monetization opportunities, NFTs are disrupting the art world by removing the medium constraints imposed by traditional art forms. Congratulations to @trlab_ for selling "Transient Eternity-101 Ignitions of Gunpowder Paintings" for $2.5M!

Although the preference for outsourcing digital asset production depends on factors such as in-house production capabilities and the appetite for losing creative control, studios are usually open to partnerships that let them focus on building the core elements of games!

With over 2M NFT collections on OpenSea alone, there is a strong need for high signal NFT discovery engines. Vertical NFT marketplaces, crypto native social apps, and NFT analytics providers are all hoping to address this demand from different angles.

Although there are direct competitors in the market including Linkdrop and the product is functionally comparable to age-old QR codes, @poapxyz has the most mindshare in the crypto community currently.

Influencer-powered marketplaces like @Autograph are arguably better equipped to weather crypto winters compared to general purpose alternatives like OpenSea because they are more likely to attract true fans without financial motives.

Since Vietnam ranked #1 in the 2021 global crypto adoption index and Sky Mavis has positioned Vietnam as a hub for play-to-earn gaming, this funding makes a lot of sense.

The market is littered with functionally comparable products so winning requires scaling at breakneck speeds with a product that delivers delight.

Crypto should be top of mind for every Indian consumer Internet startup given India ranked #2 in the 2021 global crypto adoption index and crypto-native business models may finally solve app monetization challenges unique to the Indian market.

Unlike Royal Markets (based in Texas), @anotherblock_io is based in Sweden so it will likely target the European market. Although the democratization of music ownership sounds great in theory, we sincerely hope that it provides meaningful returns to fans as well.

There is demand among investors for vertical NFT marketplaces that can outperform general purpose counterparts like OpenSea with community-centric features. We look forward to seeing how @LootexIO purposes its marketplace for the gaming community!

There is no shortage of decentralized gaming platforms so we are waiting for the team to share more on what makes their interpretation of the metaverse unique and compelling.

Crypto cannot achieve mainstream adoption if users are expected to juggle seed phrases to interface with the technology. We would like to thank the @Web3Auth team for building a solution to address this!

It goes without saying that NFT collectors could use finer optics to navigate in the market but only time will tell whether CryptoSlam will deliver a more compelling product than Curio, Mnemonic, and other direct competitors.

This dual operating model subscribes to the WAGMI ethos and highlights how working to build an open, interoperable metaverse turns would-be competitors into collaborators.