In this issue:

• This Week in Neo Tokyo: The Mission Continues (by PhoenixxDown)

• MainNetZ: Incentivizing Building on its New Layer1 Blockchain (by ZeHI)

• January $BYTES Update (by Steven-T)

• Crypto Gaming Is Getting HOT. Stop Fading. Start Playing. (by Flower83_)

Our Community Leads and Council members are the epitome of The Citadel's values—trustworthy, big-brained, and, of course, exceptionally handsome. Do you tick these three boxes? As we gear up for the upcoming bull run, the mission continues with three open seats on the Council. Luckily for aspiring citizen leaders, quarterly applications are now being accepted to join this prestigious team.

Do you have what it takes to guide NT to the promised land? Find out and apply here.

Following on from last week's partnership with BlockGames, this week saw Gamestarter announced as the latest alliance forged! Gamestarter is a one-stop hub for everything Web3 gaming, with 3 major benefits, including preferential WL/Presale allocations for Gamestarter titles being one. Read in full here.

And the Outreach Team continue to bring massive value, as Citizens eagerly answered the call to explore Nifty Island through its open beta. Both S1s and S2s are able to play using a selection of 13 Citizens, all of which were integrated in record time by Style Protocol, according to a shout out from LeBoomington. Read on here.

On the content front, we at Neo Tokyo News celebrated our one-year anniversary with a special edition of NFT Market Monday. Special guest, Heroes of Mavia, joined our regular line-up of speakers, delivering the usual high-energy, fun get together you’ve come to expect. Shamsi's intro speech alone is worth a listen, it’ll bring a tear to your eye.

Additionally, Anchorman Dank was back at the news desk to provide a recap of 2023's top stories—a helpful reminder of the 10 years worth of events that took place in just 365 days.

Also, released earlier today was a special 2-part episode of Degen Digest, covering topics such as Ordinals, Solana and Sui, plus discussion on the Saga Mobile Chapter 2, and plenty of technical difficulties that are well covered by our roguish charm.

The AMA Team have been killing it this past week with a line-up of big name guests, including Head of Studio at Shrapnel, Don Norbury, and Co-Founder of Animoca Brands, the legendary Yat Siu. Plus don’t miss out on others from mobile game studio, Play Ember, gaming platform, Gaimin, and the creators of one of the hottest new tokens on Bitcoin ($NAT,) The BlockRunner Podcast.

As we begin to wrap up the week, a few important notes: Neo Tokyo has secured a 30% discount for Citizens attending NFT Paris in February—check out the thread for details. Additionally, clarification on the benefit/utility distinctions between NT membership tiers (Elite/S1/S2) is available here.

The PRP is gearing up for a rebrand, with a return to VC spaces as a likely focal point. Stay tuned for announcements, and get a sneak peek of what's to come via Damon’s announcement.

Lastly, the News Team provided another fire monthly recap showcasing all of the massive achievements and announcements that took place in the final month of 2023. Shout out to all involved in the making of these slick productions; a feast for the eyes and ears.

If you have some significant news you’d like us to note in our newsletter, be sure to drop us a tip in the News Chat over in the NT Discord’s News Division.

With all of the huge brands joining Neo Tokyo these past few months, it’s easy to miss some of the under-the-radar projects that have also made their way into The Citadel. Here at NT News, we like to highlight these up-and-coming teams, and this week, we are excited to introduce you to MainNetZ - a new EMV-compatible Layer 1 blockchain.

The team behind MainNetZ has been in the crypto space since the beginning. Its main dev was mining BTC at $1, and helped launch 100s of projects in the first few generations of Web3 development. 

In late 2021, the team was working on their “meme plus” project, $ZINU. While exploring the available blockchain options to host its future games, they decided their best route was to develop their own blockchain with super-fast speeds and low transaction fees. Thus began the story of MainNetZ.

The main goal of MainNetZ is to create a blockchain built by Devs, for Devs. To stand out among the crowded field of Layer 1s, MainNetZ incentivizes developers to build on the chain by offering sub-penny transaction fees and a fleet of services to support devs. They are also the first chain to give projects 40% of all transaction fees on DAPPs developed on MainNetZ.

After two years of development, MainNetZ completed its presale token launch in mid December. Those who jumped in on the presale are seeing huge gains, as the $NETZ token has already seen a 1500% pump and is now sitting at a $20M market cap. The token is already available on 5 exchanges and the team is hinting that a listing on a top-5 exchange is upcoming.

As for the blockchain itself, the team is aiming to launch their fully-functional DEX in February, with a slate of features including farming, staking, NFT Marketplace, LP Token Launcher, a multi-sig DAPP and more.

Their active community, much of which was cultivated through the $ZINU project, has been hosting regular community spaces and drawing significant attention from Devs looking for a supportive and builder-friendly environment. 

Neo Tokyo News was able to do a couple interviews with the MainNetZ team and we’ve seen, first-hand, the passion and inspiration they are bringing to this project. They have also been making their way through the Neo Tokyo ecosystem, taking advantage of the Project Resource Program and the counsel of some prominent Citizens. 

Don’t hesitate to chat with them if you see them cruising through our digital streets, and check out their linktree for more info.

We’ll be hosting the MainNetZ team on our next NFT Market Monday X Space. That will be a great opportunity to meet the team, drop some questions and learn more about the project….Stay tuned, as it may also be a chance to win some $NETZ.

In the wake of an extraordinary 2023, the Neo Tokyo community is still thriving, with data streams further intertwining our collective consciousness. Our digital city has become a hub for elite and influential projects in the crypto gaming sphere, a key factor in the BYTES token's rapid 10x growth.

Though the token has since cooled off, currently sitting 50% below its $20 high, the less dramatic price fluctuations don't overshadow the community's growing strength and unwavering commitment.

We are steadily laying the foundation for Neo Tokyo's core value proposition, which underpinned the token's rapid price increase. The ongoing development of infrastructure is crucial to accommodate the expected surge in crypto gaming enthusiasts.

As highlighted in the previous update, a tug-of-war was anticipated around the $13 central pivot point. The market dynamics have since shifted, with bears driving the price below $10, where it is currently seeking support.

January monthly Pivots in USD:

• Support 2: $5.46

• Support 1: $8.95

• Central Pivot 🧲: $14.08

• Resistance 1: $17.56

• Resistance 2: $22.70

Analyzing the chart and pivot points, we observe a value range between $5.50 and $9. This is the likely zone where yield sellers might drive the price down before buyers potentially step in.

The liquidity depth chart reveals a considerable supply wall just above $8.30, and also a support wall which has been capturing substantial liquidity pool fees, thanks to the respectable daily trading volumes. On average, about $160k worth of value is traded each day, indicating that a significant amount of BYTES are being exchanged regularly.

In the past month, there's been a 20% rise in token holders, now totalling 6,000, which demonstrates a steady rate of adoption. Special thanks to Citizen BadFuture for providing insightful visuals on our position along the BYTES inflation curve. These visuals clearly depict how token emissions are set to decrease over time, offering a promising outlook for the token's future stability and value.

Citizen Ktrap has been consistently providing valuable updates on X, highlighting that 71% of citizens are staked, and 51% of the BYTES supply is also staked. These statistics further solidify Neo Tokyo as the premier hodl and buidl community, a strategy that is likely to yield significant benefits in the upcoming gaming bull run.

Citizen Capital has been instrumental in driving demand, providing a steady stream of opportunities for Neo Tokyo citizens. However, for the meatbags outside of our digital city, the primary incentive to buy and use BYTES remains speculative. The community's commitment to innovation is key, especially as expanding BYTES' reach beyond our current user base could yield significant benefits for all involved. For now, BYTES operates within our self-contained ecosystem, which may cap its potential to some extent.

Looking at the general markets ahead, Bitcoin's sentiment appears to be in a phase of realignment, currently seeking support around $42k. My view is that weaknesses in the stock market could spill over into the crypto sphere. I'll be closely monitoring the dollar and bond markets for indications of broader financial trends and their potential impact on cryptocurrency.

These pivot charts are not meant to predict anything but they can be used to assess risks and opportunities in the market. Catalysts can affect the price of BYTES in unexpected ways.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out on Discord at Steven-T or on X @neotokyocat.

Our last NFT Market Monday show on Twitter was alpha-packed with news and actionable items about new games on the horizon. If you missed it, you can tune in here. 

A huge obstacle preventing web3 gaming to reach mainstream audiences last gaming bull was the general availability of actual, tangible, playable games, since most projects only had promises or game trailers at best. Some studios and game developers then ran out of funds, some flat out rugged, but some delivered.

So, this upcoming bull market cycle we have many games that are actually out, or releasing very soon. This time they are playable, and there are tons of them.

If you want a brief overview of all the exciting news coming out of the web3 gaming space these days, this article is for you.

Pixels

With an upcoming airdrop on the horizon, the in-game activity is skyrocketing, and so are the prices of assets in their ecosystem. People are also actively farming and trading resources you can gather in game and exchange for currency. There are now over 100,000 active wallets participating in the game, but the team said only the top 7,000 will get airdrop rewards, and so people are grinding out leaderboards and accumulating badges.

The price of their Land plot NFTs has been absolutely sending, breaking new all time highs almost every day, leading up to the token release.

WAGMI Games

Wagmi Games, a gaming studio focused on producing quality mobile games, with two of their co-founders joining NeoTokyo as S1 citizens recently, have been bringing up the heat over the past few weeks. They successfully released their first game titled Wagmi Defense and minted out Founders packs.

Both the price of their $WAGMI token as well as the NFTs floors have cooled off a bit after a period of volatility during and around their founders pack release. On the other hand, their viewership numbers are steadily growing, now averaging 40 - 50 viewers an hour on Kick. They have many events lined up, so stay tuned. Additionally, some of the high-rarity NFTs in their ecosystem have been selling for more than $3000. 

Shrapnel

Shrapnel, one of the most recognizable shooter games currently building in web3 is hosting the biggest web3 tournament to date, with $3,000,000 in prizes. They also recently partnered up with Real Agency and hosted a Twitter space with Merit Circle. For more information regarding Shrapnel check out Episode 11 of the Interlinked Podcast, brought to you by none other than our official Neo Tokyo podcast hosted by the AMA division.

Otherside Meta

Next, we also have Otherside, Yuga’s metaverse announcing another playtest that will be coming out in February. They also released another short trailer which you can watch on their Twitter. Judging by how holders of their NFT assets responded to this news, it seems they were not too stoked about the recent developments. It seems like apes might be struggling these days, but this is another topic which perhaps deserves its own article. Tune in next week.

For now just enjoy some of the juicy highlights from the comment section: 

Sidus Heroes

A project many considered forgotten is now waking up from bear market slumber, burning tokens and releasing development news. In December they burned 24.42% of the entire $SIDUS supply and 36.02% of their $SENATE supply.

AOF Verse

Army of Fortune (AoF Verse), a mobile gaming studio, received funds from Arbitrum for the development of their upcoming web3 mobile game called Army of Tactics, set to release soon. AoF started its P2A campaign recently. There will also be opportunities to get your hands on their $AFG token and participants can already join quests to qualify for the airdrop.

KuroroBeast

KuroroBeast, a gaming ecosystem where you can collect pets, have been been building for two years and are coming out in full force. They too secured some funding from Arbitrum, as well as announcing that in 2024 they will be releasing an ecosystem beta and their native token $KURO, as an airdrop.

Drunken Robots

Drunken Robots, a project with coin ticker $METAL, released a pre-alpha trailer for their upcoming game. A lot of people thought it was a bit underwhelming, which is perhaps the reason their price returned to where it was before the release.

PixelPals

Lastly, I want to highlight something that I find truly wholesome; games rewarding their loyal players, people who devoted a lot of time and effort into the game, OGs and people who supported them early. We have news of PixelPals, the second hyper-casual game from Pixelmon building on Mantle announcing that they will be allocating a prize pool of $120,000 for top 100 players in their ecosystem. 

That's it for this week. Rest assured we will be keeping track and documenting events in crypto gaming as this industry progresses and reaches its previous levels of euphoria and hype from last cycle.

Exciting times ahead! 🔥 

All content from Neo Tokyo News is for entertainment purposes only, and not financial advice.

That’s it for our 30th edition of the Neo Tokyo Newsletter. Be sure to subscribe and share with your friends so you don’t miss out on future content.

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And check out our Neo Tokyo News Website.

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