Welcome to the OpenSea digest. Let’s look back through the biggest NFT and web3 news of the week.

Robinhood launches its own blockchain network with tokenized stocks

Robinhood launched Robinhood Chain on Wednesday, launched Robinhood Chain on Wednesday, a new blockchain network that supports tokenized stocks and other DeFi products, according to a company press announcement. 

The company announced the launch at an event in London. It will be building the new network on Arbitrum, with day-one partners including Uniswap and Pleiades and integrations from Alchemy, BitGo and Chainlink. 

As part of the announcement, Robinhood introduced Stock Tokens, tokens that track the price of underlying stocks without conferring ownership, which will reportedly let eligible individuals in more than 120 countries trade around the clock directly on Robinhood Chain through decentralized exchanges. The tokens are not available in the US or to US persons.

The announcement also included plans to roll out agentic trading for crypto, a feature letting eligible U.S. users connect an AI program to their account so it can watch the market and place trades on their behalf under parameters that the customer sets.

Major companies team up to launch new digital dollar called OpenUSD

More than 140 businesses, including Visa, Mastercard, and Google, announced Tuesday they're joining forces to launch a new stablecoin called OpenUSD, a digital currency designed to hold a steady value tied to the U.S. dollar.

The new coin reportedly lets businesses convert money in and out at no cost, and companies that join keep the earnings generated from the reserves backing it, minus a small fee. 

OpenUSD will be run by an independent company called Open Standard, with a board made up of the businesses using it rather than one company calling the shots. 

The stablecoin is expected to go live later this year.

New report finds crypto founders are increasingly building for TradFi

Crypto founders are shifting away from building consumer-facing crypto projects and toward infrastructure that serves traditional financial institutions, according to a new report from industry conference organizer Proof of Talk. 

The report is drawn from more than 200 startup applications submitted between January and May. It found tokenizing real-world assets like stocks and bonds ranked as founders' top priority at 29%, edging out decentralized finance at 23%. 

Jack Butcher auctions hand-drawn cards as part of new ‘Economy of Words’ project

Jack Butcher launched his new project, “Economy of Words,” on Tuesday. It is an auction of 2,048 hand-drawn cards, each bearing a single word pulled from a fixed list of terms used to secure digital wallets, according to Butcher's newsletter. 

Butcher wrote that he ranked each word's rarity using math rather than personal taste and weighed factors like length and letter value. For instance, the word "ZOO" came out as the rarest in the entire set. 

Every card started bidding at $1. Butcher hand-finished each one himself before mailing it to the winning bidder. Butcher said the project reflects his broader idea that words carry no inherent value on their own, but the meaning a person attaches to a specific word can make it significant to them.

Amber Vittoria announces new digital collection launching July 9

Artist Amber Vittoria announced her new collection, "Mostly Sunny," will become available July 9 at 9 a.m. ET. 

The collection includes 300 abstract digital artworks that Vittoria created with inspiration drawn from the different phases of stars in the night sky, meant to represent the light within each collector who acquires one. 

None of the pieces carry rarity rankings, a detail Vittoria's team says keeps every piece equally valued within the set. 

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial or trading advice. References to specific projects, products, services, or tokens do not constitute an endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation by OpenSea. OpenSea does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information presented, and readers should independently verify any claims made herein before acting on them. Readers are solely responsible for conducting their own due diligence before making any decisions.‍