Naming my twins

gm!

Dearest Deana is in flight as I type this. So you’ve got Miranda here infecting your inbox with today’s Malware musings. Happy for you or sorry that happened.

Before we jump in, please make sure you’ve set your alarms for 12pm EST tomorrow, when we’ll be going live right HERE from our Brooklyn recording studio (Pleasr’s office). Lots of haps to discuss, so this episode’s a true Do. Not. Miss.

Bye.

The Boys

Writer: Miranda

sToRyTeLLiNg. It would appear that a sign of our maturing times as an industry is being marked by tech’s awakening to the value of, well, good brand creative. WSJ reported that tech cos are desperate to find these magical mystical beings called storytellers. And I just have to say that, between this and the “new media” conversation that’s dominated my timeline as of late, it’s clear that some of y’all need to delve a bit deeper into the advertising and storytelling ancient texts.

it’s M&A szn. Another age-old practice has the crypto space abuzz. Mergers, acquisitions, and other creative solutions to quickly scaling up your existing capabilities, have entered the chat.

Tbh it’s been a year of big news on this front. And it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Last week saw Jackie Bona and the Valora dev team announcing their full team being scooped up by Stripe. Then on Monday, Circle grabbed Axelar’s core devs, with Common Prefix stepping in to lead protocol development in their stead.

And how do I make this about me?

Quick Hits

• Stani dropped a big update on what’s ahead for AAVE

• Dogs as dependents has entered the chat (?)

• Coinbase is streaming big announcements today and, importantly, Brian’s wearing his glasses in anticipation

• Leighton is buying an island off of the coast of Manhattan

• Solana announced Breakpoint’26 is coming to London, and the responses were nothing if not funny. I personally love LDN and, as someone who is often in event organizer mode, only have this to say to many of you.

• A bunch of our besties got together to tell the story of the one and only pplplsr. Watch the full ep here.