Are you ready for some NFTs news?
We've prepared a new article that covers the latest news and updates in the world of Web3 and NFTs. Read them below!
Contents
📈Macro - Report: State of Blockchain Gaming in Q2 2023;
🗞️ Last week's news - Central Bank of Italy, British Museum, Apple, Amazon, Binance, Sotheby's;
💰Investments/Funding - Animoca Brands, Jungle, Passage;
📣 Projects news/Updates - BAYC, Pudgy Penguins, Reddit, Sky Mavis, World of Women;
⚖️ Legal - Metaverse Lawyer writes about the Singapore High Court decision classifying cryptocurrencies as personal property;
🐈 Veefriends - Adaptability;
⚙️NFTility, by Mtk - WoW;
📚 Dictionary - Private key, Interoperability;
💸 Sale of the week - Vera Molnár;
📈 Macro
The folks at Dapp Radar have published a report titled State of Blockchain Gaming in Q2 2023. What did we think was cool right away? A Romanian woman named Sara Gherghelaș is the author of the report. The second cool part? The report is done in collaboration with the Blockchain Game Alliance. Who is the BGA? The largest organization that brought together projects in Web3 gaming. Their goal is to promote blockchain technology within the gaming industry and they currently have over 500 projects brought under the organization's umbrella. Entities such as Sandbox, Animoca Brands, Ubisoft, Unstoppable Domains, Tezos, Metamask, Chainlink, NEAR & more. Need we mention that we often talk to BGA founders about NFT Bucharest? When the time is right!
Coming back, although in Q2 DeFi (re)became the sexiest narrative in Web3, the gaming industry was not to be neglected either, overall the feeling was optimistic.
Major conclusions?
- Blockchain gaming activity averaged around 700k daily unique active wallets in Q2, down 12% from Q1.
- Alien Worlds and Splinterlands were the top games in terms of user activity, with Alien Worlds dominating 61% of the total on WAX and Splinterlands claiming 91% of the total on Hive.
- Q2 showed a significant decline in the metaverse dapps landscape, with transaction volumes down 81% to $58 million and land sales down 73% to 39,000 transactions.
- Most importantly? Investment in blockchain gaming and metaverse projects increased 31% over Q1 to $973 million.
Where did the investments go in the first half of the year?
- Games/metaverse, ~44.76% of total investments, ~$755 million.
- Investment firms were the second largest recipient with 33.54% of the funds, ~$566 million.
- Infrastructure projects received significant attention, attracting about 16.73% of the investment, ~$282 million.
- In contrast, incubators and NFTs remained less favored, receiving only 3.16% and 1.81% of total investments respectively.
🗞️ News from last week
- The Central Bank of Italy has announced a partnership with Polygon and decentralized finance platform Fireblocks to integrate blockchain technology into the country's financial system.
- The British Museum is partnering with The Sandbox and La Collection to create its own interactive space and offer new experiences in the metaverse.
- Apple is under scrutiny because of its App Store policies on cryptocurrency and NFT trading. US Chamber officials are concerned about the possible effects and limitations these policies would have on the development of blockchain and NFT technology.
- Amazon is introducing new tools on its cloud platform, Amazon Web Services to make it easier for users to develop Web3 applications using the blockchain infrastructure provided.
- Binance launches Bixel, an AI-based NFT generator. If you create your own NFT by August 10, you have a chance to win 1 BNB.
- Sotheby's partners with Art Blocks to launch a generative art program on the blockchain. It will give artists access to Art Blocks' smart contracts and infrastructure to create their own generative projects.
💰 Investments / Financing
- Animoca Brands invests $30M in hi, a cryptocurrency payment app, to develop solutions and promote mass adoption of Web3.
- Jungle, an NFT marketplace gets $16M for AI-driven transactions. Jungle aims to improve the digital asset trading experience with AI.
- Passage has raised $6M to launch an AI-driven virtual world builder.
📣 Projects news / Updates
- BAYC has unveiled "Made By Apes", a blockchain licensing platform in partnership with SaaSy Labs, to verify and distinguish authentic products made by BAYC and MAYC holders.
- Pudgy Penguins and Cool Cats hint at a possible collaboration at a recent IRL event.
- Reddit has launched its latest series of collectible avatars in partnership with Cool Cats. Called "Retro Reimagined," the collection marks the social media platform's fourth generation of collectible avatars.
- Sky Mavis, the company behind P2E game Axie Infinity, has announced a collaboration with NFT CyberKongz Collection to create a broader gaming ecosystem for the Ronin blockchain and launch an NFT collection.
- World of Women is celebrating its second anniversary with the launch of the Patio platform, which allows WoW members to customize their profiles, access exclusive and networking opportunities. Since launch, WoW has forged important partnerships with brands from both Web2 and Web3, including FC Barcelona, Monopoly/Hasbro, Billboard, Christie's, Sandbox, etc.
⚖️ Legal
Singapore High Court classifies cryptocurrencies as personal property
Singapore's High Court, headed by Justice Philip Jeyaretnam, considers cryptocurrencies to be a form of property, equating them with fiat currency.
The decision was handed down on 25 July, marking an important step in the legal understanding of digital assets in Singapore. The case, brought by the Bybit exchange against former employee Ho Kai Xin, involved the alleged transfer of approximately 4.2 million Tether from Bybit to personal accounts.
Judge Philip Jeyaretnam, who oversaw the case, dismissed the differences between cryptocurrencies and physical money, saying their value stems from the collective belief in them.
Cryptocurrencies, despite their physical absence, have been referred to as "things in action", a British common law term for the set of personal rights in property that can only be claimed or enforced by legal action rather than by physical possession (e.g. a cash balance at a bank or money owed under a bond).
The court also cited Order 22 of the Singapore Court Rules 2021, which includes cryptocurrency or other digital currencies in the definition of "movable property". This definition covers a wide range of assets, from cash and debt to bonds and securities.
🐈⬛ Veefriends
Hello, today we have a special post, as season 1 of the VeeFriends project's newsletter presence comes to an end!
Just as Gary is adapting to the market, and his focus is now on developing IP and increasing the visibility of the IRL project through various partnerships, so we are adapting the content of the newsletter, and focusing on showcasing active projects in the web3 area. News about the VeeFriends project will certainly appear in the news section in the future.
I close the season by featuring Gary onboarding thousands of people to the web3 at the National Sporting Goods Collectors Convention in Chicago, where he "snuck in" with VeeFriends and through plush toys and collectible cards, convention visitors get to meet the beloved characters in the collection.
⚙️ NFTility
In the news section written by our secret reporter you noticed that World of women is celebrating a beautiful 2 year anniversary.
Wow is one of the most important projects focused on the social side of web 3. As the first collection on Ethereum to focus on diversity and inclusion, it quickly attracted the interest of many, becoming one of the "blue chip" collections.
Their mission resonated with many influential people in the industry who became ambassadors or investors in the project. One of the largest grants received was from The Sandbox and was distributed exclusively to create opportunities to help grow the female presence in the space.
One of the project's strongest actions is the World of women foundation, through which various charitable causes are supported, opportunities are created for emerging artists, or educational content for new blockchain technology enrollments.
The comfort we enjoy is due to the rapid evolution of the last decades. A development fuelled by a model of economic growth based on consumption. It's time to develop a different, more sustainable system, and Wow seems to be the NFT collection to which "social business" status best suits. It has the reputation, resources and network to grow a brand capable of becoming a benchmark.
Happy birthday, wow!
Until next time, make sure you make every woman in your life feel special.
📚 Dictionary
- Private key. Also known as a secret key, it is a kind of password and is used with an algorithm to encrypt and decrypt data. It's secret and no one can know it, unless you tell them. Do not keep it as online note, or a cloud note. In short, it's the access key to everything you hold on the blockchain. Tokens or NFTs. There's a saying: not your keys, not your money!
- Interoperability - Blockchain interoperability refers to the ability of blockchains to communicate with each other. At its core are cross-chain protocols, which allow blockchains to read data from and/or write data to other blockchains. Meaning, for example, being able to sell your BAYC monkey, which is on Ethereum, Solana, or MultiversX. Even if you initially have your phone blocked in Orange ideally you can also use it in Vodafone. We believe the future blockchain will be interoperable!
💸 Sale of the week
Although we were going to write all about a CryptoPunk, another news item is worth mentioning here.
Namely the art of Vera Molnár, a 99 year old Hungarian artist (plus she's got a thing for blockchain and NFTs) sold for $1.2M ~ 631 ETH at Sotheby's auction.
And if that wasn't interesting enough before, it turns out that Vera Molnár pioneered the use of computer-generated art in the second half of the 20th century.
Find us:
Creative Tim
Metaventis
