Dear Bankless nation,

Is it a bear market already? Doesn’t feel like one for the builders.

Lots happening in the third week of May, here’s a recap.

👛 Wallet Week!

The DeFi mullet gives us that squeaky clean FinTech user experience in the front, with the DeFi plumbing in the back.

This week DeFi mullets are in style.

First, the trading brokerage firm Robinhood (which FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried bought a 7.6% stake in this week) announced at Permissionless plans to launch a non-custodial crypto wallet for its crypto customers. That entails users holding their own wallet keys, directly accessing dApps and swapping NFTs. 🤯

👉 More details on our podcast this week with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev 

The second big wallet announcement this week came from Coinbase, who is releasing a “semi-custodial” wallet where custody of wallet keys are part-owned by user and Coinbase. This means that Coinbase can retrieve keys should users lose access to their own keys.

Finally, Ledger announced a browser extension “Ledger Connect” that allows users to connect their hardware wallets to Web3 directly, putting them in direct competition with Metamask.

Here’s our illustration of the different wallets along a spectrum of decentralization.👇

☢️Terra fallout

Plans to hard fork Terra into a new chain are underway. Voting is ongoing; the hard fork looks set to pass, though it received some pushback from its community based on a preliminary poll.

Elsewhere, the dust from the Terra crash last week is still settling. Do Kwon was formally summoned by South Korean politicians for a parliamentary hearing this week. Elsewhere, the Singapore-based Terraform Labs has also received police reports from local Terra investors who was burnt by the crash.

It’s not clear what governments will do here. It seems clear that Terra ran an unsustainable financial machine that fell under pressure.

But was this a criminal act?

Another reminder to us all that crypto is risky. Investors should know full well what they’re getting into and how to evaluate the risk and quality of the assets they use.

🎵 Chainsmokers go Bankless

The culture train that NFTs are driving through crypto continues to chug on at full speed through the bear market.

Through the NFT platform Royals, The Chainsmokers is enabling 5,000 loyal fans to share the revenues from royalties of their entire upcoming album “So Far So Good”. This marks perhaps the first and biggest mainstream pop act to leverage on music NFTs, after legendary rapper Nas.

Bankless predicted earlier this year that music NFTs were the next big trend, and early signs are proving this true. Check out also William Peaster’s fantastic tutorial on music NFTs.

Big Tech continues to embrace NFTs. Last week, Instagram launched a beta test that allowed select creators to connect digital wallets and feature NFTs on the Feed, Stories or messaging. This week, Spotify rolled out a trial feature that allows artists to display NFTs.

When these features are fully rolled out, that means exposing Web3 culture to everyone on social media platforms. We’re talking the millions who don’t know what NFTs are, who don’t own any crypto and who aren’t reading Bankless.

And all it takes is the glimpse of a Cool Cat or Bored Ape to pique one’s interest and send them spiraling down the Web3 rabbithole.

It’s not an overstatement to say this is huge. 

Permissionless was awesome

It was Permissionless week.

Were you there? Here are some highlights:

David and Ryan finally met…

┻┳ Mike DemΞtriou (☢️,☢️) @mad5

Excited to catch @RyanSAdams and @TrustlessState on stage IRL (for the first time). Thanks for hosting @BanklessHQ! #Permissionless

May 17th 2022

10 Likes

The Merge in August?

Bankless 🏴 @BanklessHQ

BREAKING: Ethereum researcher @drakefjustin says Ethereum Merge may happen as early as August. “Strong desire to make this happen before difficulty bomb in August” “Stars are aligned” Live from panel at Permissionless conference. AUGUST MERGE We wanna believe Justin.

May 19th 2022

228 Retweets965 Likes

Ryan with Chris Dixon on stage:

Bankless 🏴 @BanklessHQ

.@RyanSAdams and @cdixon take the @Permissionless stage ✨

May 17th 2022

22 Retweets208 Likes

The first ever Bankless weekly roll-up - live! (Watch it here)

Bankless 🏴 @BanklessHQ

Feels like a good time to record a live podcast 😏 @vladtenev Getting ready…

Blockworks @Blockworks_

JUST IN: Robinhood is launching a web3 self-custody wallet Announced at @Permissionless

May 17th 2022

67 Likes

Here’s what Bankless has lined up next week:

1. Vitalik and friends drop alpha on Danksharding

2. Frogmonkee teaches us how to survive a bear market

3. Ben values metagovernance tokens

Have a great weekend.

Build the dip!

- Bankless

🙏 Sponsor: Polygon Studios—Fostering culture across Gaming, NFTs, and the Metaverse✨

Recap for the week of May 16th, 2022

🎙️WEEKLY PODCAST EPISODE

Listen to podcast episode | Apple | Spotify | YouTube | RSS Feed

ACTION RECAP 📚

READ 📚

1. 📘 The Bear Market Wash-Cycle

2. 📘 How to prepare for an Arbitrum airdrop

3. 📘 How crypto is regenerating the world

4. 📘 Best yields in the crypto bear market

5. 💬 Where’s the best place to live for crypto?

LISTEN 🔊

1. 📺 The Astrological Crypto Maven with Maren Altman

2. 📺 Alpha Leak | The Bull Case for Lyra

3. 📺 Instagram Bringing NFTs to 2.9B People

4. 📺 Bankless Hosts Finally Meet! | Permissionless 2022

5. 📺 Robinhood's Crypto Pivot with Vlad Tenev, Co-Founder, CEO

6. 📺 Danksharding | Vitalik, Dankrad, Protolambda, Moderated by Tim Beiko

7. 📺 Anthony Sassano & Eric Conner | Luna Demise, Bear Survival

METAVERSAL 🧙‍♂️

1. 📘OpenSea Seaport nears

2. 📘"Gonna try out NFTs"

BANKLESS DAO 🏴

1. 📘DAOs Give Fans a Sporting Chance | State of the DAOs

2. 📘Murat Pak is the Perfect Amount of Nothing | Decentralized Arts

OVERPRICED JPEGS 🖼️

1. 📺 (Not) Okay Bears, Doodles, DeadFellaz, & Much More

2. 📺 Building for Creators with PREMINT Founder, Brenden Mulligan

GREEN PILLED 🌳

1. 📺ImpactDAOs with Ale Borda | Green Pill #14

Weekly Subscriber Perks 🔥

Bankless Premium Members get access to full perks:

• Early Access: Dive into Danksharding | Vitalik, Dankrad, Protolambda, Moderated by Tim Beiko

• Full Access: The Bear Market Wash-Cycle

Launch your own raffle for Bankless Badge holders! Go ahead. We can’t stop you.

Get Bankless Badge

🗞️ Latest Weekly Rollup. Download the week in crypto to your brain in one show.

Listen to podcast episode | Apple | Spotify | YouTube | RSS Feed

Jobs opportunities 🧑‍💼

✨ See all listings on the Bankless Job Board✨

1. Business Development Lead at Goldfinch

2. Marketing Manager at Wanderverse Inc.

3. VP of Engineering at ZKX

4. Head of Growth at ZKX

5. Lead Community Manager at CryptoSkulls DAO

6. Senior Product Designer at Parcel Inc

Go Bankless. $22 / mo. Includes archive access, Inner Circle & Badge—(pay w/ crypto)

🙏Thanks to our sponsor

POLYGON STUDIOS

Polygon Studios is on a mission to help build digital culture, play-to-earn gaming, NFTs, and the Metaverse ecosystem on Polygon. Some of the key projects supported by Polygon Studios include The Sandbox, Skyweaver, Big Time, Crypto Unicorns, and Decentraland—among others. Polygon Studios also helps fundraising & onboarding. Check it out here.

Stay updated on the latest amazing gaming, NFT, and metaverse projects:

👉 Join the Polygon Studios Discord

👉 Follow Polygon Studios on Twitter

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Write for Bankless

Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.