OpenSea and Doodle token teasers are a potential vibes booster for crypto

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Outside of L1s, this was also a big week for token announcements. 

OpenSea teased SEA and a new platform, and Doodle’s plans to launch its own token. 

Does it mean that NFTs are back? Eh. But for The Drop’s Kate Irwin, it’s a vibes booster for people, one that’s perhaps necessary right now.

(ICYMI: The Drop is our newest newsletter, and I’ve been following Irwin’s reporting in Web3 and gaming for a few years now.)

She and I chatted about the tokens and OpenSea’s OS2 and she explained that there’s another part to this: XP, which is not a token but is earnable and is “core” to the OS2 rewards program. 

“There’s a lot of other moving pieces as well, besides just the token, which is exciting, because then it’s not a memecoin. It’s actually a utility token that has a place in the OpenSea ecosystem,” she added. 

Phew. Nice to have an announcement not focused on memecoins.

My big thing is whether or not this comes a little too late. When Irwin and I chatted this through, she made the sage point that this could be simply because OpenSea was worried about the potential regulatory issues that could arise (they were served with a Wells notice after all) and now, well, that’s no longer a problem.

But, unfortunately for OpenSea, they are following in Magic Eden’s footsteps after it launched a token first. It, notably, hasn’t dulled the excitement around OS2 or SEA though. 

This could also be the beginning of a new wave of tokens, Irwin noted — especially because there is an appetite for tokens that have actual utility and not just speculation.

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