Plus: Apple entering a new era of gaming?

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Here are key highlights of this week:

• Louis Vuitton is selling $39,000 NFT 🤑

• SEC’s stance on gaming tokens 🚩

• Apple’s future plans for gaming 🎮

Let’s get it!

Louis Vuitton is Selling $41,000 NFT 🤑

You read that right! The world famous fashion brand Louis Vuitton is now selling digital Treasure Trunk NFTs for $41,000.

And this is not the first time Louis Vuitton is dabbling in the Web3 space. Before Treasure Trunks, LV partnered with WENEW labs to launch a video game and NFT posters.

So what’s special about Treasure Trunks?

The Treasure Trunk NFT is going to be a soulbound token that will give holders exclusive access to unseen collectibles and physical products. So holders can redeem physical versions of the collectibles they receive.

Soulbound tokens (SBTs) are non-transferable tokens representing a person's identity using blockchain technology.This could include medical records, work history, and any type of information that makes up a person or entity.

And these trunks will be limited to only a few hundred, making them extremely scarce (which is why the cost is so high). Also LV is known for selling luxury goods, so the price point isn’t a big surprise.

What can we expect moving forward?

One of the biggest brands in the world launching an NFT of this magnitude is not something we should be taking lightly.

Similar to how Nike is tying NFTs to shoes and gaming experiences, we can see LV creating something special with NFT collectibles and luxury goods.

SEC’s Stance on Gaming Tokens 🚩

The SEC is suing crypto firms left, right, and center. But this time it's different!

SEC has sued Binance and Coinbase. While the reasons behind both lawsuits are very different, the SEC claims several tokens including but not limited to SOL, MANA, SAND, and AXS as securities.

So are these tokens really securities?

Some of them? For sure

All of them? Nah!

You see, determining whether something is a security or not is a tricky business. What the SEC is doing is arbitrarily picking instances where the token might seem like an investment contract and not looking at the complete picture.

For example, the SEC claims SOL is a security because it has deflationary mechanics (supply decreases). If we are following this framework, then ETH should also be a security which the SEC hasn’t mentioned. Also any project that does buybacks can be considered a security.

So we are still operating in a gray area when it comes to regulations.

So what now? Believe it or not, the state of crypto regulations will be better from here on.

The reason is that the SEC has charged these exchanges. And they have to prove it in court. In this process, we will understand how exchanges should register and what can be classified as securities.

Due to these lawsuits, the sentiment has turned negative and markets are bleeding with more than 25% decrease in prices across the board.

Apple’s Future Plans for Gaming 🎮

Apple and gaming never belonged in the same sentence. Yes, I said it.

But that might soon change.

At the WWDC 2023 event, Apple made a ton of announcements regarding its future plans for gaming.

First up, let's talk about Game Mode. This new feature aims to elevate your gaming experience by giving games priority when it comes to CPU and GPU usage.

Say goodbye to inconsistent frame rates and hello to smoother gameplay. Plus, Game Mode also tackles audio lag and input latency for Airpods and Bluetooth controllers, respectively.

Apple has also introduced a game porting kit that allows developers to bring your beloved games to Apple devices. They've even streamlined the process, cutting down the development time to convert shaders and graphic codes for Mac.

But wait, there's more! The legendary game developer Hideo Kojima himself made a special appearance.

He revealed that Death Stranding Director's Cut is heading to MacOS later this year. Kojima expressed his admiration for Apple and claimed we're entering a "new era of gaming" on Mac.

He even praised Apple's latest technologies like Apple Silicon and Metal3, hinting at future titles coming to Apple's gaming ecosystem.

Apple is also teaming up with Unity to support VR experiences. While they didn't announce any original games for their Vision Pro headset, they'll feature over 100 Apple Arcade games.

So get ready for a new level of immersion as developers create virtual reality experiences around their games and apps.

More Game Updates 🔥

• Trikon announced a strategic partnership with Nordek to create enhanced Web3 solutions.

• NEAR partners with MARBLEX to expand Korea's Web3 gaming industry. MARBLEX will be building on NEAR's Ethereum compatible-layer, Aurora.

• Bushi announced they are moving both the game launch and mint to June 14th.

• Ascenders Simulation is live on Arbitrum testnet for land owners to start playing.

• Skyweaver Season 21 is live with a new rewards and quest system.

• Crypto Unicorns revealed Unicorn Party, a collection of casual mobile games, starting with Bumpercorns.

• Argus Labs raised a $10 million seed round led by Haun Ventures to build infrastructure for fully on-chain games.

• Hyper Play raised a $12 million funding round to build the first truly web3-native game store and launcher.

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Want to try it out? Register on our website and you’ll be among the first to get early access.

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