In the world of NFTs, Paris recently hosted an event that attracted more than double the expected number of visitors. We attended NFT Paris and met notable figures in the NFT industry, including Greg Solano of Yuga Labs and BAYC, Coopahtroopa, Music NFTs best-known promoter, and Luca Netz of the Pudgy Penguins, among others.
The article also reports on a range of NFT-related news and developments, including the sale of the only gold key from BAYC's Dookey Dash game for $1.6 million, the launch of TwelveFold by Yuga Labs, and the upcoming sale of NFTs by Three Arrows Capital.
Read our articles to find out more news about the global NFTs ecosystem!
Contents
📈 Macro - NFT Paris;
🗞️ Last week's news - Dookey Dash, Yuga Labs, Teneo, Avalanche, Taco Bell, Blur;
💰 Investments/Financing - Kratos Studios, Here Not There Labs, Pantera Capital;
📣 Projects news/Updates - DeGods, Ryan Carson, 0N1 Force, Pudgy Penguins, Machi Big Brother;
⚖️ Legal - The attack on emoticons;
⚒️ Tools - Ninjalerts App;
🐈 Veefriends, by FreeFly - Burn Baby, Burn;
⚙️ NFTility, by Mtk - RTFKT Studios;
📚 Dictionary - Phygital & bj frens;
💸 Sale of the week - Most expensive NFT in history
📈 Macro
This week we had the chance not only to observe the NFTs ecosystem from a macro perspective but to experience it firsthand. Directly at NFT Paris.
Together with ostanescu.eth (incredible energy, focus, and proactivity in this man), we walked tens of thousands of steps a day at the base of the Eiffel Tower. We were extremely well received, the gm frens on our shirts opening wide smiles from those we met along the journey.
Organizers were expecting 8,000 people. In the end, over 18k visitors crossed the door of the Grand Palais Éphémère during the two-day event. It was the second edition and the fact that last year there were only 500 people makes us extremely confident when thinking about the future of NFT Bucharest.
There is a lot more to say, but there is no room here. In short, we met:
- Greg Solano, one of the founders of Yuga Labs & BAYC;
- gmoney.eth, the man who guided Adidas into the NFTs ecosystem;
- Farokh, Rug Radio;
- Coopahtroopa, Music NFTs best-known promoter, the man who also raised $10 million for ecosystem investment;
- Patricio Worthalter, founder of POAP or Lucas Verra, Director of POAP;
- Luca Netz of the Pudgy Penguins;
- Frank, founder of DeGods;
- Tom Sachs, Rocket Factory;
- Matt Medved and Alejandro Navia, founders of NFT Now;
- Some of the guys from the Cow Cow;
- And with many Romanians, including Ovidiu Bojor, Artist | Designer, from Barcelona; Cristian Bercea, 3D artist, from Firenze or Vlad Carp, video artist, from Iasi. We also met Meanix and other Romanian NFTs enthusiasts: Tudor and Radu, both from London.
We don't mention the above by chance. We are telling you that they have all heard the phrase NFT Bucharest! It's a planted seed. Obviously, it's still up to us to continue the interaction with them. What can you do? You can start by following NFT Bucharest on Twitter! It's the first step to seeing that we are not a few!
Ah, did I tell you that who doesn't have an ostanescu.eth around doesn't know what he's missing? Thanks for everything, fren! You rock!
🗞️ News from last week
- The only gold key from BAYC's Dookey Dash game was sold on Monday, February 27th. For 1,000 ETH. $1.6 million. The person who sold it is also the one who won it, achieving the highest score in the game. He is 18 years old and is known as Mongraal. His real name is Kyle Jackson and he was one of the world's best Fortnite players, from where he retired at 16 with a $3-$4 million fortune. He's also principled, choosing to pay full royalties. And, still, think gamers won't be attracted to Web3? No, we don't mean those who (like some of us) played Solitaire when they grew up!
- Yuga Labs has announced that it is launching TwelveFold, an original and experimental collection of 300 pieces of generative art inscribed on satoshis, on the Bitcoin blockchain. The mint process will take place this week, will be held as an auction and will be announced 24 hours before it begins.
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Teneo, the company handling the liquidation of Three Arrows Capital, has announced that it will sell the fund's NFTs within 28 days. Among the most valuable in the collection are 30 Fidenzas, 17 Ringers and 11 Crypto Punks + 1 BAYC & 2 MAYC.
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Avalanche has launched an NFT marketplace for Esports fans. Legends By Loco has been launched in collaboration with Loco, India's largest Esports streaming platform.
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Are you technical, and experienced in the gaming industry, and Unreal Engine 5? Yuga Labs is hiring a Technical Director and offering ~$20,000/month. Other web3 jobs here.
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The Taco Bells held a wedding in their own Metaverse.
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Pacman, Blur's CEO, doxes (comes out of anonymity) and announces what the plans are for the platform. His real name is Tieshun Roquerre, he is 24 years old and says he wants Blur to become a Binance of NFTs.
💰 Investments / Financing
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Kratos Studios, a new Web3 gaming startup from former CEO Nazara receives $20 million in a seed round.
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Here Not There Labs is raising $25 million to build Towns, the decentralized online cities of the future. Series A was led by a16z with support from Benchmark and Framework Ventures.
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Pantera Capital invests $10 million in Worldwide Webb game. This game launching in 2020 allows players to use their already-owned NFTs as avatars. The funding round was Series A and will allow for new hires, integrating more NFT collections into the game, and partnerships with brands and intellectualy propetry owners.
📣 Projects News / Updates
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Frank announces that DeGods and y00ts are leaving the Solana ecosystem and moving to Ethereum and Polygon respectively.
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Ryan Carson is stepping down after the failure of the Flux launch, and the Daily Dose editions will be taken over by Zeneca and introduced into the Zen Academy program.
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The NFT 0N1 Force project has been bought by a group that includes former executives from Binance and YGG (Yield Guild Games).
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Pudgy Penguins announces a partnership with Retail Monster (representing brands like Disney) 🐧. This partnership will place Pudgy's future line of toys on the shelves of retailers worldwide while leveraging intellectual property to enable licensing opportunities with reputable brands!
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Machi Big Brother (Jeffrey Huang) is the author of the biggest NFT dump in history. He sold 1000+ NFTs for a total of 11,680 ETH ($18.6 million) in 48 hours. The sale is seen as getting prepared for the next $BLUR airdrop.
Because it sold:
- 90 BAYC for 5707 ETH
- 191 MAYC for 3091 ETH
- 112 Azuki for 1644 ETH
- 308 Otherdeed for 582 ETH
But he also bought back:
- 57 BAYC for 3302 ETH
- 190 MAYC for 2996 ETH
- 11 Azuki for 1640 ETH
- 285 Otherdeed for 541 ETH
⚖️ Legal MetaVersequences
Emoticons aren't what they used to be either...
A US federal court judge has ruled that these emoticons - 🚀📈💰- objectively mean one thing: "a financial return on investment." Users of these emoticons are therefore warned of the legal consequences of using them.
The plaintiffs filed suit against Dapper Labs and CEO Roham Gharegozlou, alleging that Dapper Labs violated securities laws by offering for sale to the public NBA Top Shot Moments NFTs without filing a registration statement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the famed SEC). Moment™ NFTs are official NBA collectibles that celebrate the epic moments of greatest basketball players.
The judge reasoned that each tweet promotes a recent sale or a statistic of recent NFT sales in the market, and although the word "profit" is not included in any of the tweets, it can be said that, objectively, the emoticons "rocket", "upward graph" and "bag of money" mean one thing: a financial return on investment (p. 46 of the decision).
Beyond the comedy of the situation regarding the legal consequences of using emoticons, the case has much greater significance. Dapper Labs' offering of these NFTs could be considered securities under the Howey test, the judge ruled.
The Howey test cited by the judge was created by the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether certain transactions qualify as "investment contracts" and therefore would be considered a security and subject to disclosure and registration requirements under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Under the Howey test, an investment contract exists if there is an "investment of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profit from the efforts of others."
So be careful with emoticons...and more. LFG!👀
⚒️ Tools: Ninjalerts
Ninjalerts is an app that helps you keep up to date with the latest trends and activities related to NFTs. It sends you push notifications for any Ethereum transaction and allows you to track the activity of any contract or wallet.
One of the most significant advantages of Ninjalerts is its cross-platform functionality. It can be used as a mobile app on iOS, Android, or directly on Chrome on the web app. The app is free to use, freemium type, and upgrades are available for additional benefits such as ad-free browsing, unlimited alerts, and integration with webhooks.
How does it work? Ninjalerts sends real-time alerts when the hottest projects are minting, when the most anticipated reveals are happening, and when the whales and influencers make moves in the market. You can also track the top 1,000 most profitable traders with a single click, see NFT trends, and view real-time analytics for each portfolio and project.
The app guarantees to eliminate 100% of false mints, and if you come across a suspicious project, you can report it directly in the app for extra protection.
While Ninjalerts currently only supports the Ethereum network, the team is exploring other options such as Solana and Stacks for future updates.
If you find the app useful, you can purchase a lifetime license in the form of an NFT from Opensea. The price of an NFT, at the time of writing, is 0.247ETH.
🐈⬛ Veefriends
Burn Island's first volcano eruption is live until March 2nd. You can burn the BOOK GAMES NFT, for raffle access. The winner gets an NFT ULTRA RARE G.O.O Series 1 Dynamic Dinosaur.
Entrepreneurs in the U.S. are being offered the opportunity to collaborate with VeeFriends, whether they own a restaurant, a gas station, a toy store, or why not a logistics or construction company, those interested can fill out this form. And those selected will meet on Zoom with Gary and the VeeFriends team to learn more about the opportunity.
We have a first round of VeeCon guests that have already been announced, up-and-coming and established artists, and big names in web3, all on the same stage, namely Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis. Tickets for VeeCon are getting ready to be airdropped to V1 holders in early March, but for this VeeFriends Series1 NFTs must be in your personal wallet, and not in a loan agreement or as collateral!
Who is coming to Veecon this year?
⚙️ NFTility
We trust most readers of this newsletter have heard at least once about RTFKT Studios, a company acquired by Nike in December 2021. With this deal, Nike wanted to expand its presence in the digital space.
However, the subject of this material is not a journey into the digital world, but a materialization of it, without affecting its characteristics.
So, late last summer, RTFKT collaborated with Clone X to launch a line of digital apparel ranging from sneakers to caps and equipped with NFC (near-field communication) technology that helps, among other things, to authenticate products.
Original, and with the virtual world they want to create in mind, RTFKT called the process "forging", and NFT holders had a limited period of time in which they could turn them into physical products.
We believe that the fashion industry is one of the industries that will create the greatest adoption of blockchain technology, via NFTs, to the general public. And if Nike has enough information about their consumers that they can streamline the production of all their product lines, imagine how, based on limited collections of NFTs, (smaller) manufacturers could benefit by directly collecting information (color, size, style) from customers as they metamorphose phygitally.
Until next time, live in style.
📚 Dictionary
- Phygital - The term Phygital comes from the fusion of the words physical and digital - an integration of the physical and digital worlds.
- bj frens - It's not what you're thinking. It comes from Bonjour frens! The expression of the day in Paris was this: A BJ a day keeps the doctor away! + an apple, of course!
💸 Sale of the week
The most expensive NFT in history (in ETH terms) was sold on February 20. Which NFT? MechMindID #7689
Price in ETH? - 125.000 ETH (one hundred and twenty-five thousand)
Price in $? - $214 million.
First, there was coordination on this ETH 125k purchase. This makes it the most expensive (in ETH terms) NFT sold on-chain ever. This was done for publicity and to draw attention to wash trading. The purchase was made using a flash loan and taking advantage of the fact that, for the first time in history, a major market for NFTs has reduced its fees to 0.
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