GM Seedphrasers 👋 Congrats to the Chiefs and the Eagles for an incredible game of football last night. If you missed it, congrats on not being hungover today.

📓 Today’s Agenda:

• 🏈 The Super Bowl gets Rugged

• 🔥 Hot Headlines

• ⚖️ SEC wages War

🏈 Did we Get Rugged? Super Bowl Edition.

If you watched the Super Bowl last night, you might already have opinions on the NFT commercial that aired.

For context: last year, Coinbase & FTX put crypto on the map for 99.18 million Americans watching the Super Bowl. The ads were undeniably iconic, but crypto sh*t the bed the rest of the year. So this year, the Super Bowl was not interested in allowing a single crypto ad on screen.

But, they gave the green light to Web3 gaming startup Limit Break to put their blockchain game, DigiDaigaku on the map. The ad cost them $6.5 million.

🏆️ Here’s the BEST 30 second summary of the entire event:

If you didn’t watch that, do yourself a favor and watch it. Seriously.

What went wrong? Viewers say two things:

1. Low-qual: Look at the graphics of the ad. If NFTs are the future of the internet and gaming, why does production quality seem so low?

2. Poor expectation management. Call it a rug? Maybe even call it blue balls? Every NFT enthusiast was expecting to scan this QR code in order to cop a free mint of the 10,000-piece collection. Instead, the QR code just sent you to Gabriel Leydon’s Twitter account, the CEO of Limit Break.

There could be a reason for how it all played out. Or it could be the biggest letdown for NFTs in 2023. Tell us what you think:

We’ll let you know our analysis once we see this whole thing play out.

👉️ For now, here’s a highlight real of reactions from the community: 

In the words of Thread Guy, a famous crypto personality:

“I dropped everything to watch the Super Bowl for a 30-second ad that was supposed to bring generational wealth from a free mint and all I got was the opportunity to follow a Mfer on Twitter.”

There’s gotta be more to it, right?

The floor price is sitting at a pretty penny right now.

🔥 Hot Headlines

📈 Crypto & The Markets

$5 Billion USDC converted to fiat on Coinbase - Read more.

BTC miners go on fire sales, this company is scooping them up. - Read more

Morgan Stanley stock chief says market crash signal is glaring red. - Read before panicking.

Ahead of CPI coming out tomorrow, SEC changes how they measure it (to manipulate the numbers, duh.) - Read more.

Rao Paul says ETH is the future of internet money - Watch it.

🖼️ NFTs

4 NFT drops to watch this week - See the list

Yuga Labs gives behind the scenes view of their metaverse, Otherside. - Read more

Degods 🤝 Pudgy Penguins 🤝 y00ts host event for NFT Paris - RSVP here

🤖 Ai

David Guetta previews song he made using Ai to generate Eminem’s voice - Watch it.

Mark Cuban warns of misinformation getting worse with Ai - Read more.

Google is getting beat out by BING

in the Ai arena - Read more.

⚖️ SEC Wages War. Coinbase gets ready to Fight.

The SEC won’t talk sh*t to your face. Instead, they’ll fine you $30M and force you to shut down.

Which is exactly what happened to Kraken, a crypto exchange that has been a steady force in the markets since 2011. The SEC flexed its muscles in another case of “regulation by enforcement.”

The entire controversy surrounds one of the most coveted features of crypto: staking.

👉️ What happened:

• The SEC claims Kraken did not register its crypto staking-as-a-service program.

• Gary Gensler, SEC chairman, categorized Krakens staking service as an unregistered investment contract.

• U.S. investors had $2.7 billion worth of crypto on Kraken’s platform

• This earned Kraken around $147 million in revenue, according to the SEC complaint.

• Kraken did not admit or deny SEC allegations.

• Kraken is being forced to shut down its U.S. staking operation and pay a $30 million settlement.

Of course, the crypto community is up in arms over the decision. One man has emerged to lead the opposition: Paul Grewal.

This guy is a gem. He also happens to be the Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase.

Come @ me bro: Paul tweeted directly at the SEC, letting them know they are completely confused and misinformed on staking.

And in classic attorney fashion, he wrote a complete list, going point by point on why staking services are not securities. Read it here.

Our takeaway: this is a huge blow to the future of crypto in the US. Staking is a central part of the ecosystem. When the SEC hands out $30M fines, it sets a precedent for other crypto companies and to stay FAR away from America.

The US should be a leader in the crypto industry. Instead, the SEC is driving competition to go elsewhere.

No bueno.

😂 Meme of the day: