Blockchain
Steven Bartlett launches thirdweb, the new platform paving the way for the Web3 revolution, with $5M in funding from Gary Vaynerchuk and more
Steven Bartlett, the founder of Social Chain (with a market valuation of over $600m), and the youngest investor on BBC’s “Dragons’ Den” TV show, along with Furqan Rydhan, founding CTO of Bebo and AppLovin (valuation, $42B), today launch thirdweb – a groundbreaking new technology platform for building NFT and Web3 apps. With thirdweb, launching a Web3 project is as simple as an e-commerce store on Shopify. thirdweb makes it easy to build Web3 apps including blockchain games, NFT platforms, DAOs, and creator projects. It equips creators, artists, developers, game studios and entrepreneurs with an intuitive suite of tools to seamlessly add features to Web 3 projects including NFTs, social tokens & currencies, marketplaces (for buying and selling tokens), and NFT lootboxes & drops- in a matter of clicks.
With offices in London, New York and San Francisco, thirdweb has just closed a $5m round of funding from a pool of high-profile business leaders, entrepreneurs and A-List creators including: serial entrepreneur and prolific angel investor Gary Vaynerchuk, Ryan Hoover, founder of Product Hunt, Shaan Puri, investor in Deel & Bolt, Imran Khan & Qiao Wang – founders of DeFi Alliance, Soona Amhaz, founder of Volt Capital, Greg Isenberg co-founder & CEO of Late Checkout and advisor to Reddit, Packy Mccormick founder of Not Boring, and Christian Angermayer, founder of Atai Life Sciences and Apeiron Investment Group. Over 1,000 developers are using thirdweb in the early access stages, whilst major brands including Nike, Disney, Bumble and Meta have stated their intentions to build products for the metaverse, Web3 and NFT spaces.
Said Bartlett: “Web3 is not just the future, it’s also the present. We’re currently witnessing one of the greatest technological shifts of our lifetime; it’s happening before our eyes and it’s going to touch every major industry and everyone’s life. We built thirdweb to allow entrepreneurs, developers, brands and creators to unlock the potential of this 3rd iteration of the internet in the easiest way possible – without having to learn a brand new coding language and without needing to hire a completely new team. In the same way that Stripe made payments easy for builders and creators, thirdweb makes Web3 easy, unintimidating and accessible.”
thirdweb, which supports a multi-chain ecosystem of blockchains, provides smart contracts, SDKs, widgets and UI components for creating customized Web3 ecosystems. Adding a feature with thirdweb deploys an on-chain contract on the developers behalf which gives them full control and ownership of their projects.
Said Rydhan: “It’s inevitable that web3 will be the foundation for the next wave of the internet, and we’re excited to be providing the tools to build decentralized apps easily”
thirdweb’s essential Web3 features enable users to:
- Drops – Create a timed drop where their users can easily claim or purchase an NFT from a link on their site through marketplaces and auction experiences.
- Packs – Create and sell chance-based packs or lootboxes of NFTs.
- Marketplace – Deploy and manage an owned marketplace to allow their audiences to buy and sell NFTs from their projects.
- Splits – Control the distribution of income from their project by implementing royalty splits to multiple people.
- Airdrops – See who owns their NFTs and airdrop free NFTs into their wallets.
- Tokens – Launch their own digitized currency, custom social tokens and governance tokens to enable their users to interact with their NFTs and create an economy around their project.
The capital will be used to hire for both the technical and growth teams, with the aim of rapidly scaling the business. The company’s priority is ensuring its early customers are as successful as possible building projects using the platform.
The platform is free to use until royalties and fees are programmed into the sales of NFTs that are launched. thirdweb takes a small percentage (5%) of the royalties of secondary sales, which means the company’s compensation is in direct proportion to the success of its customers.
Blockchain
Blocks & Headlines: Today in Blockchain – April 25, 2025 | BitNile, Dutch Blockchain Week, Citigroup, Philippine Blockchain Week, D.O.G.E Foundation
Blockchain’s metamorphosis from niche ledger technology to the backbone of Web3 has never been more evident. Today, we cover five stories that illustrate the evolving ecosystem: a gaming platform issuing its own token on Solana; Europe’s marquee Web3 summit; a major bank forecasting a “ChatGPT moment” for blockchain; a Southeast Asian conference aimed at busting crypto myths; and a foundation rebuilding blockchain from the ground up to solve scalability. Each development—whether product launch, industry gathering, macro forecast, educational initiative, or infrastructure innovation—offers a window into the trends shaping decentralized finance, NFTs, DeFi, and beyond.
1. BitNile.com to Launch Nile Coin on Solana
News Summary
Hyperscale Data’s subsidiary BitNile.com will introduce the Nile Coin on Solana starting May 1, 2025. The U.S.–based social gaming site chose Solana for its high throughput and low fees, aiming to enhance in-game economies, reward engagement, and deliver seamless micro-transactions. Details on tokenomics and governance are forthcoming, but management touts Nile Coin as a cornerstone of future gaming experiences.
Source: CoinTrus
Analysis & Commentary
Launching a proprietary token underscores two converging trends: the gamification of finance and finance-ification of gaming. By minting Nile Coin, BitNile.com taps into DeFi mechanics—staking, liquidity pools, NFT rewards—while leveraging Solana’s scalability. Strategically, BitNile.com positions itself for partnerships with NFT marketplaces and DeFi protocols, potentially opening secondary markets for in-game assets and generating new revenue streams beyond ad sales or subscription fees.
2. Dutch Blockchain Week 2025 Gears Up in Amsterdam
News Summary
From May 19–25, Amsterdam will host the sixth annual Dutch Blockchain Week, culminating in the two-day summit (May 21–22) at De Meervaart. Tier 1 exchanges (Bitvavo, Kraken, Coinbase), Web3 pioneers (WOW.ai, Blockrise), regulators (European Commission, De Nederlandsche Bank), and industry partners (Mastercard, Deloitte) will convene. Side events range from AI-powered hackathons tackling compliance to padel networking meetups—underscoring the event’s blend of technology, policy, and community.
Source: Dutch Blockchain Week
Analysis & Commentary
Dutch Blockchain Week typifies the maturation of blockchain conferences into multidisciplinary forums. Beyond token talk and yield farming, panels on regulation, institutional adoption, and security reflect Web3’s integration into mainstream finance. Anticipate announcements on CBDC pilots, DeFi compliance frameworks, and cross-chain interoperability projects that may emerge from the Block & Order Hackathon.
3. Citigroup Predicts Blockchain’s “ChatGPT Moment”
News Summary
In an April 23 report, Citigroup analysts argue that 2025 could be blockchain’s “ChatGPT moment,” driven by regulatory clarity around stablecoins and integration with traditional financial systems. They forecast stablecoin market capitalization ballooning to $1.6 trillion (base case) or as much as $3.7 trillion (bull case) by 2030—anchored by dollar-denominated issuers and collateralized with U.S. Treasuries. Regulatory frameworks like the GENIUS Act could catalyze adoption among banks and fintechs.
Source: Cointelegraph
Analysis & Commentary
Drawing parallels to generative AI’s explosive growth, Citigroup envisions a tipping point where blockchain moves from experimental to essential infrastructure. Successful integration will hinge on robust compliance tools, auditability, and clear governance models. Enterprise blockchain vendors should prepare for surging demand in tokenized payments, on-chain settlements, and embedded DeFi rails within legacy systems.
4. Philippine Blockchain Week 2025 Debunks Crypto Myths
News Summary
Scheduled for June 10–11 at SMX Convention Center Manila, Philippine Blockchain Week (PBW) 2025 will tackle misinformation and spotlight real-world use cases. Highlights include “Crypto, Unpacked” sessions demystifying the technology; “Smart Regulation” panels uniting policymakers and innovators; and “Blockchain for Impact” showcases on remittances, disaster relief, and digital identity. Founding President Donald Lim emphasizes government support and public–private collaboration to spur inclusive growth.
Source: UseTheBitcoin
Analysis & Commentary
PBW exemplifies how emerging markets leverage education to accelerate Web3 adoption responsibly. By engaging regulators early, PBW can shape balanced frameworks that encourage innovation while protecting consumers—an instructive model for markets wrestling with both hype and skepticism.
5. D.O.G.E Foundation Launches New Blockchain, Opens Seed Round
News Summary
The D.O.G.E Foundation announced a ground-up blockchain rebuild designed to solve the scalability and reliability challenges plaguing existing networks. This modular architecture separates validation from execution to enable parallel transaction processing—targeting real-time gaming, DeFi under high load, and AI-driven applications. A seed funding round is now open to investors who share the vision of a performant, decentralized infrastructure.
Source: D.O.G.E Altcoin GlobeNewswire
Analysis & Commentary
As layer-1 congestion and high gas fees persist, new entrants must justify a “why now” with clear architectural advantages. If the D.O.G.E blockchain delivers real-world throughput and maintains decentralization, it could spur a renaissance of high-performance DeFi protocols and NFT platforms hungry for cost-effective base layers.
Conclusion & Key Takeaways
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Tokenization of Entertainment: BitNile’s Nile Coin on Solana highlights blockchain’s expansion into gaming economies and NFT reward systems.
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Convergence of Tech, Policy & Community: Dutch Blockchain Week showcases Web3’s evolution into an ecosystem engaging regulators, enterprises, and developers under one roof.
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Mainstream Inflection Point: Citigroup’s “ChatGPT moment” thesis suggests blockchain is poised for exponential adoption given regulatory support.
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Education as Catalyst: Philippine Blockchain Week’s myth-busting curriculum underscores the importance of public–private dialogue in emerging markets.
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Infrastructure Innovation: The D.O.G.E Foundation’s modular, high-throughput chain exemplifies the next wave of layer-1 networks addressing real-time, real-world use cases.
Today’s stories convey that blockchain’s next chapter will be written through strategic token launches, global convenings, regulatory clarity, educational outreach, and radical infrastructure redesign. By tracking these threads, industry participants can anticipate opportunities in DeFi, NFTs, Web3 games, and enterprise integration. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s Blocks & Headlines, where we’ll continue to decode the innovations shaping decentralized finance.
The post Blocks & Headlines: Today in Blockchain – April 25, 2025 | BitNile, Dutch Blockchain Week, Citigroup, Philippine Blockchain Week, D.O.G.E Foundation appeared first on News, Events, Advertising Options.
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