Welcome to our weekly NFT news roundup, where we bring you the latest updates and news in the world of NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
In this edition, we'll be covering a wide range of topics, including new NFT projects, legal news, new NFTs with utility, and more. Whether you're a seasoned NFT collector or new to the scene, you'll find something of interest here. So sit back, relax, and let's dive into the world of NFTs.
Contents
📈Macro - NFT Volumes;
🗞️Last week's news - Lens, Amazon, NFT God;
💰Investments/Financing - Candy Digital announces Series A;
📣Projects news/Updates - Tom Bilyeu, NF-Tim, Bored Ape Yacht Club, BH Agents;
⚖️Legal – Metaverse Attorney announces delivery of subpoenas via an NFT;
⚒️Tools - Evolution of email in web3;
🐈Veefriends - Content Condor;
⚙️NFTility - Pudgy Penguins;
📚Dictionary - DYOR, YOLO;
💸Sale of the week - Punk power;
📈 Macro
NFT volumes had a very good week. Royalty revenues saw a weekly increase. Of course, for NFTs no two weeks are alike. Because we're talking about an emerging market. They're maturing now. Because it's still very small, it also means it's more easily influenced than others. And when we say it's a very small market, we remind you of some comparisons:
Physical art is a $1.7 trillion asset class, with annual sales of ~$60 billion. NFTs still represent less than 1% of the physical art market.
Interesting to note:
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Every week a new trend pops up, with people FOMOing on a particular project. For about the 2nd week in a row, we're looking at Captainz and Potatoz at the top of the volume charts. These are the two collections launched by 9gag, probably the most well-known entity/community around MEMEs. They've been around for about 14 years now, delighting us with MEMEs. Launched in Hong Kong, they've raised some funding along the way (the latest being in 2018, to the tune of $2.8 million). They have an annual revenue of over $1 million and, again, we talk about credibility. Plus, in so many ways they are a web3 startup, probably even since before that term was ever used. Can't wait for the Web2 giants to join the party.
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Again 4 of the top 20 collections are under the umbrella of Yuga Labs, the most established entity in the entire NFT ecosystem. Via Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutants, Kennels and Otherside. Crypto Punks, also under Yuga Labs umbrella, are not royalty holders, but they too are in the top (almost 4000 ETH sales volume in the last 7 days). So 5 out of 20. Early movers & culture advantage!
🗞️ Last week's news
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Lens Protocol has launched the option of Token Gated Publications. What does this mean? Publications with limited access to NFT holders. Basically, creators can give their own communities access to exclusive content on a token basis. Meaning, for example, only if you own an NFT (Yes, an NFT is a token. a non-fungible one), you can read a review/article from Metaventis. Or you can access a mini-course. Kind of a writing NFT, as you can find on mirror.xyz, only cooler.
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Amazon (through its Amazon Web Services division) announces a partnership with Avalanche (Ava Labs) to scale Blockchain adoption. Executives from the two entities told TechCrunch that the goal of the collaboration is to help scale blockchain adoption across governments, institutions and companies. "Looking into the future, Web3 and blockchain are inevitable. No one can say when, the period or quarter it will happen and when it will be mainstream, but we have seen the other growth cycles. The speed of it seems to be accelerating and we're excited to be part of that process," said Howard Wright, vice president and global head of startups at AWS. What does the news have to do with NFTs? Consider Amazon Entertainment which, through Amazon Prime, is a $7/month service, offering free access to all the video games of the moment, movies or music. We're talking about 200 million subscribers. Just imagine what it would be like if...
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NFT God was hacked: He not only lost his NFTs (which were life-changing money) but was on the verge of losing the trust of his community. He recounted in a thread what happened. In short, he wanted to install his OBS, a platform often used for streaming video, on Youtube in particular. A Google search brought up the first sponsored link, he clicked on it, installed an .exe and nothing happened. Meanwhile, hackers gained access to his computer, Twitter (they also posted tweets), his newsletter subscription list (where they also sent 2 newsletters with corrupted links) and even his wallet. He had a cold wallet but had set it as a hot wallet, using the seed phrase online. It can happen to anyone and even the most experienced among us are exposed.
💰 Investments / Financing
- Digital collectibles platform Candy Digital announces a Series A fundraising round. Investors include Galaxy, ConsenSys and 10T Holdings. The amount of the investment is undisclosed, but generally when we talk about Series A, amounts jump well over $1 million.
📣 Projects news / Updates
- Tom Bilyeu comes to the board. On Thursday, from 19:00, he will participate in a Twitter Space with updates on his project: Impact Theory. Half an hour later, he'll join Discord for a call with the owners of NFT Legendary.
- NF-Tim announces their first airdrop. Other than having the NFTs in your wallet, you don't have to do anything. It won't be for everyone, but for a limited number of holders, who will be chosen randomly based on points held. How do you make points? By holding NFTs. 1 NFT - 1 point. A combo of 3 NFTs (Meta-Bot, Meta-Human, Meta-Tim) - 6 points, 1 Celebrity - 10 points, 1 Super Combo (1 Combo + 1 Celebrity) - 20 points. The prizes? Secret! No FOMO needed! Read the thread.
- The creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club are launching Dookey Dash, a skill-based game, this week (on the 18th), and, as befits any game, there will be a global leaderboard. You'll need an NFT Sewer Pass to play. This will be free for BAYC & MAYC owners, while the rest of us will have to get our $ETH or $APE ready, for the Secondary Market. Video explainer here. Basically, aside from little sneak-peeks via the Otherside, we didn't get much of a chance to interact with the BAYC ecosystem. Expectations are high!
- A new mission is about to begin for BHAgents.
- Mocaverse, Animoca Brands' forthcoming collection of NFTs, has extended its registration period until Thursday, 19 April. There will be 8888 NFTs in the collection of which only a small portion will be mintable. To find out if you have a chance, you need to log in with your wallet on their website, and there you will see if you are eligible for Realm Tickets. A draw will be made from those eligible tickets and only then the winners that can mint will be announced.
⚖️ Legal
I don't know about others, but when I think of the implications of the following news, it makes my heart leap for joy! Are you ready? On 13 January 2023 a UK court has for the first time ever allowed service of court documents exclusively through an NFT! Yes, you read that right!
The case concerns the theft of two of the plaintiff's NFTs, which are part of the Boss Beauties collection, the court holding that the plaintiff had no other available method of communicating to the defendants any of the procedural documents, other than notification by NFT sent in the relevant wallets, except by email to one of the defendants.
However, it would not be the first time that a UK court has allowed the disclosure of documents through an NFT. The first such case was D'Aloia v Persons Unknown & Others (read more here and here).
Of course, the US had taken the lead in John Doe lawsuits, and this method of communication is already being used, particularly in cases involving internet bullying, hate speech and, more recently, cryptocurrency theft.
In June 2022, in LCX AG v. John Doe No. 1-25, the pleadings were served via an NFT. The plaintiff argued that he had no verifiable information as to the location of the defendant(s) and therefore the pleadings could not be filed by the conventional methods specified in U.S. civil procedure. The New York Supreme Court granted the defendant's request for service of process via an NFT.
When do you think we will implement such a method of communicating a procedural document via an NFT airdrop? 😂
⚒️ Tools: Email. If you can't destroy it, bring it to the web3
It's been over 50 years since email was invented and it has slowly but surely entered our lives making it an indispensable tool, be it in our personal or professional lives. The adoption came with the development of new technologies but its peak was in the 1990s when the internet exploded. Email addresses have become so common that they're like phone numbers - everyone’s expected to have one! It's no longer a luxury or something only a few people have, but a normal part of life.
Being in the Web3’s early days, it was only natural that email technology would evolve and web3 email would emerge.
Web3 email, also known as decentralized email, is a new concept that aims to replace traditional email. It is built on the decentralized infrastructure of the Web3 ecosystem, which is based on the blockchain technology.
One of the main benefits of Web3 email is that it is more secure than traditional email. Instead of relying on centralized servers, Web3 email uses a decentralized network of nodes to store and transmit messages. This means there is no single point of failure, making it much harder for hackers to compromise the system.
Another advantage of Web3 email is that it gives users more control over their data and greater privacy. Traditional email providers often collect and monetise user data, but with Web3 email, users can choose to store their data on their own devices or on a decentralized storage platform (IPFS).
Web3 email has the potential to revolutionize the way we communicate online, offering a more secure and decentralized alternative to traditional email. However, it is still in the early stages of development and there are not yet many platforms offering this technology as a service.
EtherMail is one of those services that want to reimagine email for Web3. It was founded in 2021 and besides being able to send and receive messages to and from your Ethereum address, it is the first web3 tool that allows you to send relevant emails to specific token holders, based on blockchain information.
How do you use it?
Go to https://ethermail.io, log in with your Ethereum wallet and receive an email address in the form of [email protected]
As soon as you register, you have access to a fairly rudimentary interface where you can send and read emails using your new address. As a bonus for registering you will automatically receive 250 EMC (ethermail coin). You will also get a referral link where you get 250 EMC for each new friend you register. I forgot to mention that you get 1 EMC for every email you read from publications (that's cool).
For communities
What's interesting about ethermail is not necessarily that you can receive messages to your Ethereum address, but that you can create a company account and take email marketing to a whole new level.
The list of all the benefits for companies can be found here, but one cool thing I think is that you can create a mailing list with the addresses that have an NFT from you and that list is automatically updated based on the blockchain data.
🐈⬛ Veefriends
Gary was generous again these days, and had a few giveaways: a Content Condor, GOO, Series 2, an Alert Ape jacket - signed and an Iconics printed on canvas - also signed. Maybe he's happy to have signed a new deal, like working with Eric Wattenberg and Matt Higgins to launch a production studio for TV and streaming platforms: VaynerWatt.
VeeMinders, published an interesting article where we learn more about how the two founders of the movement started and what they have achieved, to which some members of our community have also contributed. Whoever manages to identify at least 2 members of the Metaventis community, in this article, and posts a creative tweet with #VeeMindersFrens and tags @metaventis and @0xFreeFly, is eligible to enter a raffle for this collectible card: Stoic Slime!
⚙️ NFTility
Pudgy Penguins is the type of collection whose usefulness is reinforced by the community's trust in the team. Born in the NFT Summer frenzy in July 2021, the 8,888 PFP collection had the potential to become a blue chip, but failed at first, with most of the blame directed at one of the co-founders, ColeThereum, who was responsible for marketing and community management.
The community has always been a strong one, and following an internal vote, it was decided that the original team should be removed to allow the project to move forward.
Revitalization began with the purchase of the project by Luca Netz in April 2022 for 750 ETH (approximately $US 2.5M at the time of sale).
Since taking over the project, the new team has continued to create products and partnerships including The Pudgy Marketplace, Pudgy Penguins Meme Creator, collaboration with Sotheby's auction house and NonFungibleFilm.
One of the most important collaborations was with PMI Ltd. Kids World whereby they turned some NFTs into a line of toys, which included characters from their sister collection Lil Pudgys.
NFT owners whose IPs were chosen for the creation of the toys received a Soul Bound Token. What benefits can this bring to the holders? I guess we will find out in the future. And I also believe that this is just the beginning of how NFTs can bring direct, "real-world" value through the use of IP rights. Imagine when the world of NFTs meets the world of children everywhere through Happy Meal toys or Kinder surprise eggs.
Until next time, I challenge you: let's debate on Discord and Telegram what other form NFTs could take that would produce traction in both mediums.
📚 Dictionary
DYOR - Do Your Own Research. It's hard enough to understand what that means. But in short, yawn in 4. Read 2-3-4-5 times before you click once. And from multiple sources. Get on the thread. It can be like when you get a boyfriend/girlfriend. Even if everything looks nice at first glance, there's definitely something hidden. If not him/her, it's definitely something with their family.
YOLO - YOLO - You only live once. This subject has not much to do with NFTs. But if you are also FOMOing at the same time you think YOLO, it might come out with sparks. Do your DYOR.
💸 Sale of the week
This week we feature Crypto Punk #4608. It was bought for 246 ETH. On January 4th it had been sold for 199 ETH. Nice flip. By the way, it already has an offer of 323 ETH. Naturally, it's not so cold that you need a winter jacket, but a hoodie is always welcome!
Final Thoughts
The world of NFTs is constantly evolving. From new projects and legal developments to investments and updates, there is always something exciting happening in the world of non-fungible tokens. As we continue to see new trends and projects emerge, it will be interesting to see how the ecosystem develops and how it will change the way we think about ownership and value.
We hope you found this edition of our NFT news roundup informative and we look forward to bringing you more updates in the future.
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