In this issue:

• This Week in Neo Tokyo: The Great Migration (by ZeHI)

• Bitcoin Halving and The Future of Ordinals: A New Dawn for NFTs (by CryptoTots)

• Gaming as the Gateway to Layer 2 Dominance (by Koko of NGMI Lab)

• Weekly Market Analysis (by Shamsi)

• NT Builds: Updates from Citizen Project Founders 

After a year of anticipating, it appears that the longest two weeks in the history of the metaverse is finally coming to a close, and a tidal wave of energy is about to propel Neo Tokyo into the forefront of the NFT space.

Final Testing of the Neo Tokyo Collection Upgrade/ Migration is in progress by the Byt dev team, and the migration is now expected to begin as early as June 1.

This migration will allow for the roll out of Bytes2.0 and the associated staking mechanisms. It will also allow the collection to be more flexible for future updates.

For more information on the migration and Bytes2.0 rollout, check out the article by PhoenixxDown, or go directly to the Discord Public Announcements.

May’s NT Town Hall is set for Tuesday, 4pm ET. Firestorm will give all the details and answer any questions regarding the collection migration, and the Community Leads will give updates on the various Divisions and initiatives underway in The Citadel.

The NT Dev Team continues to add stellar talent, as two new citizen devs were onboarded this week: ashsinger & Pixel Lush. Block_Editor also continued her series of feature articles on the Dev Team this week, with spotlights on legends: Artprgrmr & JustTheSyme.

There was another banger Founders Roundtable this past Thursday with The Citadel’s angelic overlord, Ellio, joined by Hilal (Valeria Studios), Ben Humbert (Fukushima Fish, SwapStreet), Franck (NGMI Lab), MHL (MHL Solutions), & Jay (Naffles). The hour flew by as the panel dug into the challenges and opportunities that projects are facing to bring the masses into crypto gaming, and the strategies they are employing to make it happen. Citizens can check out the full recording here.

Citizen Capital has announced its next investment opportunity for NT citizens that have staked the required $BYTES to participate. The opportunity includes both NFT land and token investment opportunities in a high-profile social metaverse project. The investment is expected to go live on Monday, May 29 at 2pm ET. Read the full announcement here.

This investment will also showcase early beta testing of Version 3 of CitCap’s proprietary investment platform. They’ll be kicking it off with $BYTES rewards for feedback and a bug bounty.

Don’t miss this week’s Neo Tokyo News Twitter Space - NFT Market Monday - on 29 May, 5pm ET. This week, the crew will be joined by Hustlepedia as they dive deep into the crypto gaming sector, explore the latest news and developments of the BTC Ordinal scene and discuss other spicy rubbish and broken clock alpha.

With all of this activity and excitement going on in The Citadel, NT Founder, and Dark Lord, zssbecker is off partying in Monaco to celebrate his 35th Bday. Hopefully, someday soon he will overcome his gluttonous ways, develop some discipline, get free from the abuse of his girlfriend’s boyfriend, and start to fulfill his potential to become a successful man. 😜 

But really - Congrats to Mr Becker. Now let’s see what we can do in this exciting new phase of Neo Tokyo.

We're less than a year away from a significant event in the crypto world - the Bitcoin halving. This much-anticipated event is due in early April 2024.

Why does this matter?

Historically, these halvings have set the stage for bull runs, not just for Bitcoin but across the entire crypto market.

During the last bull run, we saw a phenomenal growth in NFTs — The first NFT bull run that was primarily led by ETH NFTs.

But now, there's a new player on the field, and it's set to change the game — Ordinals, a pioneering tech that enables NFTs on Bitcoin.

Could Ordinals be set to ride the tide and lead the next NFT bull run?

Let's unpack this.

Halvings, built into Bitcoin’s DNA, occur roughly every four years. They cut the reward for mining a block in half, gradually slowing the creation of new Bitcoin.

The next halving will slash rewards from 6.25 to 3.125 bitcoins.

So, what's the impact?

In the past, halvings have proven to be positive for the crypto market. Here's a snapshot:

• BTC leads the crypto market, and ETH price movements have also been highly correlated with BTC.

• The first NFT bull run in 2021 saw a strong positive correlation with Ethereum's price. As the NFT market diversified, this correlation weakened, reflecting a maturing market dynamic.

Why does this matter?

A saturated NFT market and a cooling crypto market are leading to declining demand.

Enter, Ordinals. These Bitcoin-based NFTs could offer a fresh dynamic. Bitcoin, with its larger market cap and more widespread recognition, could potentially outperform Ethereum in the NFT space.

Could the Bitcoin NFTs recreate the ETH-NFT price correlation seen in the early days?

As the BTC halving looms closer, the stage could be set for Ordinals. The potential is there for a strong correlation between BTC and Ordinals, possibly sparking the next NFT bull run.

In the cryptosphere, Bitcoin continues to wear the crown, and despite facing criticism from major BTC maximalists, NFTs have held their ground. Now, we're witnessing Ordinals making record trading volumes, attracting major NFT players like Yuga Labs and DeGods, and piquing the interest of the NFT community.

The chart shared above hints at a pre-halving surge potentially happening towards the end of 2023, dovetailing with macro factors and the BTC Ordinals. In short, this is undoubtedly a narrative to follow and a moment to be vigilant.

The intense competition among major layer 2 players to dominate the gaming sector provides substantial support to the belief that gaming will drive mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Several key players are competing for dominance in the gaming sector, each employing various strategies to attract developers and users.

Immutable X distinguishes itself with features such as Gaming Passport, a zero-fee environment, and instant transaction confirmations. It has formed gaming partnerships with well-established web3 gaming projects like Gods Unchained, Illuvium, Guild of Guardians, Highrise, and Embersword.

Polygon has made a name for itself by forging partnerships with high-profile companies such as Mercedes Benz, Disney, Nike, Meta, Starbucks, and Reddit. It has attracted over 300 gaming projects, though none quite as high profile as those on IMX.

It is by no means a small player in this arena, and by positioning itself as the preferred choice for web2 companies transitioning to web3, Polygon's association with renowned brands makes it an appealing option for web2 enterprises - including the gaming industry- venturing into the web3 space.

ZkSync, initially focused on user experience and high security, has recently shown interest in gaming. The hiring of Michael Lee, formerly the head of growth at Activision Blizzard, indicates ZkSync's intent to become a preferred network for games.

Arbitrum stands somewhat apart from the rest. While it initially attracted early adopters from the Treasure DAO ecosystem, its recent explosive growth can be attributed to the surge in popular DeFi dApps like GMX and Vela Exchange.

Arbitrum currently leads the L2 space in Total Value Locked (TVL) with $2.33 billion, significantly ahead of its closest competitor, Polygon, which sits at $981 million.

Myria, with a team sourced from companies like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, offers a custom Ethereum Layer 2 solution specifically designed to support games and gamers.

There are also entire layer 1 ecosystems dedicated to supporting gaming projects. Early entrants like Ultra, Gala, and Phantasma began developing their blockchain gaming networks before the boom of 2021. It remains to be seen if they can keep up with the rapid pace of innovation.

As competition intensifies, each project brings unique strengths to the table. The platform that best serves the needs of gamers will likely emerge as the winner. Staying informed and closely monitoring developments in this space will be crucial for those interested in catching the next blockchain gaming wave.

NGMI Lab members can get detailed reports on a wide range of Eth Layer 2 and crypto gaming projects at: https://ngmilab.com/

Bitcoin has seen a 16.5% decrease from it’s highs of $31000 in the last few weeks and seems to be heading for another major range break to the downside towards a region of polarity.

This weekly point of polarity at $25200 is also a breakout point on the daily and 4H time frames since this is where bitcoin broke to the top of the range towards $31K.

Upon inspection, of a more medium-term timeframe (4H), Bitcoin has broken below the current range and seems to be backtesting a 4H level which is holding the price down below the range.

This can also be seen as a potential rejection. If the 4H level is not hard closed and gained above into the bottom side of the range in the next day or two, pressure remains to the downside and the bears will be favored.

For the bulls to have a run up to the 28K area - where a lot of liquidity lies - they either need to tap the above mentioned $25200 polarized area, or ladder upward off this final 1-hourly level at $26528. This could potentially push us up higher if the price does not hard close above it.

The same logic of ranges and laddering up or down can be applied to assets that have been working in tandem with Bitcoin, but with greater volatility, such as $LTC, $SOL, $AVAX and $YFI.

Happy Trading!

NOTE: This market account is not financial advice. Trading is dangerous. Please trade at your own risk.

Fukushima Fish - Hailed as "The most beautiful art in the NFT space," Fukushima Fish is a collection of 3,888 unique, high-resolution NFTs that represent the Japanese myth of the koi. Holders have full commercial IP rights. The collection - founded by Ben Humbert with a team of OG NT citizens - is now minting for 0.0777 ETH at https://fukushimafish.io/ 

Naffles - the NFT raffle project - creeps closer to obtaining its gambling license issue as official Curacao entity is established as Decentralised Gaming N.V. The team’s internal testing of NFT raffles is expected to commence next week, while its Free-to-mint Elevation Pass NFT collection is scheduled for mint 9th June. NT Citizens will be eligible for VIP Allowlist spots.

Naffles team members @BrianDEvans and @SamMeyer hit the whales and influencers at NFT Miami, gearing up for the project’s token sale.

World Of Midgard 3D NFT MMORPG P2P - Demo is almost ready with all new characters and three zones. Game should be finished and ready mid-2024.

BirthMark Tattoo - is moving on with its early-round investment application process through CitCap. For this endeavor, the platform has improved and expanded its tokenomics model, introduced new assets and utility to the ecosystem and strengthened its position in two-sided marketplace strategy. BirthMarks V2.0 MVP has finished development and the platform is under alpha testing.

BirthMark Tattoo is proud to present its Genesis Artist #1: Tiki Tatau. Besides being a NT citizen, Tiki is a multi award-winning, traditional hand-poked tattoo artist from Thailand. BirthMark calls all tattoo artists around the globe to join the platform and sell their art online.

If you’re an NT citizen & Project Founder, and you’d like to get an update about your project in our Newsletter, just drop a message in the NT News Division and tag @ZeHI.

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

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