In this issue:

• This Week in Neo Tokyo: You’re Still Bearish on Crypto Gaming?! Impossible. (by PhoenixxDown)

• Ethereum Is Totally Cooked. (by Flower83)

Huge news this week! Neo Tokyo has officially partnered with Ronin Network, THE blockchain forged for gamers!

Citizens get exclusive early access to Ronin projects, whitelists, presales, and potentially some airdrops. Meanwhile, Ronin gains direct access to The Citadel, its services, and our network of outrageous Web3 talent.

A mutually beneficial partnership if ever there was one.

And ICYMI, make sure you listen back to the AMA with Ronin, hosted on the day the announcement was made, to get all the the details:

This Week’s Neo Tokyo Content

Interlinked #72 - Ben flies solo this week, breaking down the current state and future of gaming. Did you know that 60% of internet users are gamers? From casual mobile players to hardcore MMO addicts, and you’re still bearish on crypto gaming?! Impossible.

Other topics include the rise of AI and robotics, and whether we’re heading toward a future where humans live purely for entertainment and pleasure over survival. That utopia would be bullish for gaming.

Market Monday #114 - After much bearish talk the past few weeks, this was the runitback.exe edition of Market Monday. Did we run it back? Yes for about 4 hours since then. Nice, wasn’t it! Are bear markets opportunities for airdrop farming? (yes) and WEN will the AI supercycle commence, are some other topics covered.

Listen back here.

NT x Unfungible Space - “How do you feel about AI in gaming?” The panel, later today at 16:00 UTC, will break down the hype, the risks, and what it means for Web3.

Set your reminders or listen back here.

VentureMindAI AMA - VentureMind AI is a platform integrating AI, robotics, and blockchain, offering over 150+ AI tools across industries like real estate, security, and content creation. Their no-code AI Tool Builder makes all of it accessible.

Learn all about it here.

Short Scoops

Welcome back, Citizen. Your hero’s journey can now move on to the next phase:

ART for $BYTES is LIVE! Check out the range of services available in this thread:

Don’t miss the Nyan Heroes NT Plays event tomorrow at 14:00 EST!

On that note, have you joined the NT RavenQuest Guild yet?

Is this Shibuya Mall alpha? 👀

Before we get to Flower’s demolition of Ethereum, Ktrap’s seen enough! Do we want to see the bull and the bear go head-to-head in this newsletter?

And, as is now tradition, we close out with a $BYTES bullpost:

Until next next week, citizens.

Don't let this recent relief rally (more like dead cat bounce) fool you into setting any leverage longs just yet.

Look, at the risk of sounding repetitive (or bragging about being right? 🤔- I forget which is which these days,) I’m just here to tell you that the prices will eventually go lower.

There’s just no way around it. 

First, as always let's make one thing absolutely clear: this is NOT MEANT AS FINANCIAL ADVICE. But for heaven's sake, stay smart out there and objectively look at the situation; if you didn’t long from the lows, why would you ape in now at these prices and top blast it?

Do you like setting money on fire? Enjoy pain? Thrive when you are in drawdown? You likely need therapy. It’s still a downtrend. You master trader, you.

If anything, now is the time to offload some of those heavy spot bags that have been wearing you down, preventing you from living life to the fullest. On an emotional level, I’m with you, I get it, you got a bit attached (can’t blame you). And now it feels like you would be betraying your past self.

But, listen. Ethereum is totally cooked.

Yes, okay, I admit, all the thirsty nerds on CT got a bit too euphoric there for a moment, but let us not lose sight of what happened with $ETH in the past few months. A $200 increase will not offset all the justifiable FUD we’ve so carefully curated around ETH lately.

Let me refresh your memories:

• First, let's not just light-heartedly dismiss how it has performed against BTC.

I mean, common, people that got excited about ETH breaking 2k remind me of that meme:

Like… did you forget that you bought every dip from 3.3k to 2.7k on the way down? You’re massively underwater and getting excited about a $7 weekly pump?

And you're NFTs? Oh, you want me to save you from embarrassment? What's that? You don't want me to remind you that you have a “hidden” folder on OpenSea? Yeah, I thought so.

Even Bybit hackers swapped all of the stolen ETH to other coins as soon as they could. That should tell you something! Moving on.

It’s a parasitic ecosystem of projects with no real use case, playing a zero-sum PvP game of liquidity grabbing from each other. 

All the different and oversaturated Layer 2’s, altcoins, all of the cross-chain DEX’s… even all the NFT communities and other projects building there are competitive and at odds with each other it seems. There are too many fragmented pieces not working together coherently, and too little users and liquidity to go around.

Additionally, a “.eth” handle next to your name on socials isn't something to be proud of anymore these days.

Next, and here is perhaps the real issue; the entire ecosystem is incredibly compartmentalized and confusing. It is too big and layered for its own good, and just generally out of touch with its original mission statement.

Nobody really knows how to “save ETH,” yet they all have their own takes on what should be done. But in this, they lack unity.

What does it mean when even devs are confused? When a random influencer does more for the price than the company behind it does? (If only they stopped tweeting stupid stuff.)

Or, why is it that each time it slightly pumps, everyone gets that eerie, uncomfortable “something is wrong” feeling? Not much more to say here.

Lastly, from a purely practical, price action standpoint: let's not forget that despite a major mainstream narrative that is objectively bullish, the price is somehow still going down.

Seemingly everyone is buying. ETF’s, wealthy individuals, banks, institutions, and even the current president (and his family) is shilling ETH hard.

By all accounts we should be way past ETH all time high by now. Imagine the President buying and politicians shilling it back in 2022? It would be 10k no problem.

So then why is it 2k today? Down 56% from ATH?

Hey, maybe it was the NFTs that saved it back in 2021, after all:

But realistically, this current price action is just criminal:

Now, just to keep a loose appearance of cosmic balance, there are apparently also some bullish counterpoints to be made?

For example, Justin Sun profit-maxing his staking position and bragging about 3 million monthly yield.

To which I say… well, let's just see how he likes it after a year or two. Time will tell.

Another interesting argument I saw from the “ETH is good” bagholders lately is the following:

…and despite my initial dismissive approach of “BAHAHAHA people actually believe this stuff is relevant” that my inner evil bear shouted… I paused, re-assessed the situation, read it again, took a deep breath and realized:

Well, actually, none of it matters, sadly. In crypto, price itself is the only thing that measures success and public perception of a project. 

A coin’s market cap is the most pure and honest reflection of our collective belief in and support for the project. 

And if all the recent updates, (however good they may be,) can't translate investor sentiment to positive price action, then what is the point?

Cya next week. 🧡

All content from Neo Tokyo News is for entertainment purposes only, is not financial advice, and does not reflect the opinions of Neo Tokyo.

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