Web3 Watch: Someone at Adidas likes crypto culture

As NFTs boomed and Meta went all-in on the metaverse in 2021, a bevy of legacy firms started working on Web3-adjacent or metaverse projects. As interest in NFTs and the metaverse stagnated, many of these brands quietly shuttered their Web3 initiatives, with project leads either leaving or pivoting roles. Starbucks Odyssey was the latest such casualty.

Adidas, however, appears to be keeping one foot in the metaverse.

Move to earn app STEPN announced a “long-term collaboration” with the global sports brand this week. The partnership so far comprises the launch of 1000 generative Solana-based NFTs of Adidas sneakers.

STEPN users must have a sneaker NFT to use the movement app, which pays out rewards in GMT and GST tokens for users’ movement.

The Adidas NFTs went on sale this week for 10,000 GMT apiece, worth roughly $2400 at current prices.

“We are ready to step into the future with @Stepnofficial,” ALTS by Adidas wrote on X.

Also this month, the Web3 online survival game show Crypto The Game let users bid on Adidas-branded tracksuits in an immunity challenge.

Adidas’ global head of Web3 strategy is Evgeniy Medvedev, who previously worked in business development at NFT company Rarible.

Justin Sun drops a Hans Zimmer track amid SEC chase

The prodigious film score composer Hans Zimmer’s catalog includes The Lion King, Dune, Interstellar and now the layer-1 blockchain TRON.

The three-minute “song for the Web3 generation” is “a groundbreaking collaboration between legendary composer Hans Zimmer and blockchain visionary [Justin Sun],” according to a YouTube video uploaded by TRON.

Sun founded TRON in 2017 but stepped down from the CEO role in 2021. He has since fallen into legal trouble. This week, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed documents claiming jurisdiction over Sun as it pursues “fraud and other securities law violations” charges against him.

The TRON anthem was “sparked by a deep conversation between Sun and Zimmer in early 2022,” the project said in a press release.

One interesting stat:

The day before the halving, Bitcoin digital art saw roughly $24 million in sales volume, around triple that of Ethereum, per CryptoSlam.

Also of note:

NFTs will be excluded from PayPal’s Purchase Protection Program, which partly serves to protect buyers from scams, after a policy change goes into effect May 20.
The popular NFT platform Magic Eden has a partnership coming with the layer-2 Base on April 25.
Crypto The Game concluded with one lone survivor taking home 80 ether, though not without controversy.

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.