Morning Minute | Praxis Raises $525M for The Network State
TylerD's Market Summary
🤯 The Network State Is Coming
Balaji made the concept of a Network State popular back in 2021.
The idea? A "virtual" nation of like-minded individuals using blockchain and crypto to build their own "state."
In the early stages, it wasn't clear that one central physical location would be required - but it seems that's the direction the latest pioneers are heading.
What Happened?
Praxis has raised $525M to fund the construction of a tech-forward city aimed at being the first "Network State."
The city is envisioned to support sectors like crypto, AI, biotech, and energy, though the specific physical location is TBD.
Key investors include Arch Lending, GEM Digital, and notable individuals like Farcaster CEO Dan Romero and Worldcoin co-founder Max Novendstern.
The reasons that Praxis wants to go after this lofty initiative include:
- unlocking technological and scientific possibilities
- creating more heroic and beautiful ways of life
- to show the world that it is possible to build a great city in the 21st Century
It certainly is a nice vision, and one that over 14,000 "Praxians" around the world already believe in.
What Are They Saying?
Regarding the vision:
"With this capital, Praxis can execute its vision of building the next great city.
The city will be designed to attract entrepreneurs and foster breakthroughs in AI, crypto, biotech, energy, and advanced manufacturing ... The culture of the city will promote the traditional values of Western Civilization."
Regarding the financing:
"Seeing institutions like BlackRock commit to crypto, we designed a crypto-native mechanism for financing large scale projects using tokenized real-world assets, in partnership with the largest new city development project in the Middle East, Global Emerging Markets."
Why It Matters
Is the "Network State" the next logical step for crypto maxis and those from other leading-edge tech sectors?
The new age utopia?
The idea may make some sense on paper, but I'm a bit skeptical in its execution.
It will be a major uphill battle to become recognized as its own true state, let alone attracting talent away from other global powers.
And in an increasingly politicized and volatile environment, punishments like tariffs on any output of the network state (or worse) could easily be levied.
But some very smart people are working on this, and they have a ton of financial backing at this point.
Get your popcorn ready - it will be fun to watch play out.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
- Ethereum led NFT trading volume with $6.5M on the day; Bitcoin was next with $2.2M, and then Solana with $2M
- ETH NFT leaders were mixed; Punks -4% at 26.5 ETH, Pudgy +1% at 8.98, BAYC +2% at 11.1, Azuki -1% at 4.9; most of the recent meme NFT leaders retraced 10-20%
- Mog Auras (+40%) and Beeple Spring Collection (+55%) were notable top movers
- BTC NFT leaders were mostly green; NodeMonkes +1% at 0.171 BTC, Puppets even at 0.175 BTC, OMB +10% at 0.193, Quantum Cats +6% at 0.245
- The Runes leaders were mostly green as Bitcoin rips; DOG +1% at $525M mc, PUPS -2% at $145M, RSIC -4% at $92M mc, BDC +5% to $78M; new runner KODA soars to $3.63M on 23 BTC volume
- XCOPY's "Cope Salada" minted out fully on Shape, opening up above a 3.8 ETH floor
- Bored Apes announced that BMW M is building on Apechain and that all BAYC holders are able to claim personalized BMW M driver's licenses at the Lisbon ApeFest event
- Claynosaurz officially opened their online "E-shop," offering their limited edition plushies and collector pins for sale (with a 20% holder discount)
- Sorare launched its 2024-2025 NBA Cards for sale
- Azra Games announced a $42M Series A led by Pantera Capital with participation from a16z and NfX as they look to revolutionize Mobile RPGs
- TON's Getgems NFT marketplace announced it has already registered 6M+ wallets as users
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
Here's a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:
- Trump’s World Liberty Financial officially began its WLFI token sale, raising just $11M (4%) of its $300M goal in the first day
- Jupiter teased a simplified swapping experience for memecoins integrating Jupiter Terminal directly on their websites
- Phantom announced that users can now swap newly launched tokens on Pump Fun and Moonshot directly in the Phantom Wallet, and soon users will be able to track bonding curve progress in real time
- Daos dot fun launched as a new protocol where groups can form DAOs to trade and launch memecoins
- The Arena announced a $2M pressed funding round as they continue to build on their SocialFi app
- IBX is launching $ARTIC as a memecoin designed to be the ecosystem's main token
- Magic Eden teased support for Berachain coming soon
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
- Crypto majors are green with Bitcoin leading; BTC +3% at $67,700; ETH even at $2,610, SOL even at $155; LTC was a top alt mover up 6%
- Memecoin majors were mixed with DOGE leading; DOGE +8%, SHIBA +2%, PEPE -1%, WIF -4%, BONK even, POPCAT -10%, and MOG even
- GOAT soared 150% to $300M after the AI-adjacent token goes viral across X
- The SEC brought charges against an individual for his role in launching the memecoin Saitama Inu
- Grayscale asked the SEC for permission to change its Digital Large Cap Fund which includes Avax, Solana, XRP and more into an ETF
- Tesla moved over $750M worth of Bitcoin after holding it for 2 years
- Stripe was announced as the first customer of Paxos' new Stablecoin Payments Platform
- Perplexity AI introduced a new Finance section, offering a platform for market research, featuring real-time stock quotes, historical earnings reports, industry comparisons, and in-depth financial analysis
🚀 Memecoin Movers
- $GOAT (+160% to $300M market cap, SOL)
- $DOGE (+99% to $24M market cap, ETH)
- $KLAUS (+82% to $43M market cap, ETH)
- $michi (+25% to $180M market cap, SOL)
- $MEW (+12% to $790M market cap, SOL)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
- MiladyAura (233%, 0.4 ETH Floor)
- Turbotoads (100%, 0.1 ETH)
- Beeple Spring Collection (54%, 13.9 ETH)
- Bobo Council (51%, 0.18 ETH)
- Mog Auras (40%, 0.6 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming Mints and Events
Today is a busier day of mints, mostly focused in the art sector.
0xDeafbeef kicks off the day with his drop on Shape called Moveable Type. Then Michael Kozlowski does the first phygital Art Blocks drop under their new method, followed by 0xdgb's Courses this afternoon.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
- 0xDeafbeef - Moveable Type (10:00 a.m. ET)
- Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
- Buitrago x The Function - Bold (11:00 a.m. ET)
- Michael Kozlowski x Art Blocks - Bokeh (1:00 p.m. ET)
- 0xdgb - Courses (3:00 p.m. ET)
Enjoy this write-up and/or want to sponsor the Morning Minute? Follow along with me on Twitter @tyler_did_it or reach out via email to tyler.d.warner@gmail.com.
