Morning Minute: Football Dot Fun Breaks Out

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors rally hard post-Jackson Hole, then fall; BTC at $111,300
• ETH hits new ATH on Friday before retracing, now $4,600
• Tom Lee’s BMNR added another 200k ETH last week, holds 1.7M
• IRS Crypto Head resigns, moves to private sector
• Football dot Fun explodes in interest and volume over the weekend

⚽️ Football Dot Fun Breaks Out

The newest breakout crypto app is here.

And there are definitely some 2021 NBA Top Shot vibes.

📌 What Happened

Football dot Fun, a browser-based Web3 fantasy football (soccer) game built on Base, just exploded across nearly all metrics.

According to fresh Dune data:

• $25.7M trading volume (including fees) since launch
• $14.2M total deposits fueling liquidity
• 10,284 unique depositors onboarded in under two weeks
• $1.33M in fees generated already
• $3.77M in Gold balances circulating in the ecosystem

Traders who bought in on Saturday were reporting 3-4x gains on their entire portfolios—in less than a day.

All while the total value of the ecosystem rallied from ~$60M to $160M over the weekend.

Inflows soared over the weekend (data from https://dune.com/fookin_no_wan/footballdotfun)[/caption]

📝 How It Works

Football dot Fun is like fantasy football reimagined as a trading game:

• Player Shares: Instead of drafting whole squads, users collect fractionalized “shares” of real football players. Each share is a contract that depletes as the player appears in real-life matches.
• Packs & Gold: Users receive free card packs every few hours and spend in-game currency “Gold” to buy/sell shares in the live marketplace.
• Trading Market: Shares are liquid and tradable, with prices moving based on demand, more like a stock exchange than typical fantasy pricing.
• Tournaments: Twice weekly, users compete in fantasy tournaments. Rewards depend on both the player’s real-world performance and how much of that player you own.
• Scarcity & Strategy: Contracts expire, so rosters must be actively managed, keeping players engaged and making success skill-based, not passive.

So the game combines trading with player speculation and roster management—a lot of ways for newcomers to approach the game.

🧠 Why It Matters

Football dot Fun has a real shot at being the newest breakout crypto consumer app.

It has a very strong foundation:

• Simple UX: Browser-native, no app store hurdles, easy wallet/email login.
• Strategic Depth: Share contracts, Gold balances, and tournaments reward active, skilled players.
• Viral Loops: Referral codes, free packs, and contract scarcity fuel repeat engagement.

Plus, it’s built on football (soccer), the most popular sport in the world, which means it’s catering to a global audience. And the numbers back it up: There’s been tens of millions in trading, over 10K depositors, and a thriving fee pool after just days.

The easiest comps are Sorare and NBA Top Shot, but Top Shot more so because of the parabolic price action seen this weekend.

Now we wait and see if this is February 2021 Top Shot or November 2020…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors were very red after a Friday rally; BTC -3% at $111,300, ETH -3% at $4,595, XRP -2% at $2.94, SOL -3% at $197
• VET (+5%), HYPE (4%) and BTT (+3%) led top movers
• The ETH ETFs pulled in a net of $288M last week while the BTC ETFs lost $1B+
• Odds of a September rate cut ran to 90%+ on Friday following Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole (now at 83%)
• ETH briefly hit a new ATH over $4,900 on Friday evening in reaction to Powell’s speech
• A Bitcoin whale sold 24,000 BTC on Sunday causing a flash crash to just over $110,000
• Japan’s regulators are preparing to lower crypto taxes and authorize Bitcoin ETFs by 2026
• Van Eck filed for a Jitosol ETF as a way to get more SOL ETF exposure, as more and more firms are filing for downstream crypto ETFs
• The IRS Crypto Head resigned and is leaving for the private sector amidst tax policy changes

In Corporate Treasuries

In Memes

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here’s a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

🤖 AI x Crypto

Section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:

• Overall market cap down 4% to $11.8B, leaders were mostly red
• FARTCOIN (-2%), VIRTUAL (-3%), TIBBIR (-9%), FAI (+20%) & ai16z (-7%)
• ZODs (+180%), FAI (+20%) and LLM (+10%) led top movers

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• ETH NFT leaders were mostly very red; Punks +3% at 49 ETH, Pudgy -17% at 10.1, BAYC -5% at 10.35 ETH
• Quills Adventure (+87%) and The Currency (+7%) were notable top movers
• Bitcoin NFTs were mostly green, led by Adderrels
• Abstract NFTs were mostly green, led by Klara (+38%)
• The CEO of Bitwise commented that their Blue-Chip NFT Index Fund took in a “meaningful new subscription” for the first time in a while