The non-fungible token (NFT) market keeps growing in popularity and adoption with every proceeding day. So many digital creations are being listed and traded on different NFT marketplaces as more people join the frenzy.
In preparation for more traders to come, one of the leading NFT marketplaces, OpenSea, has raised US$23 million in a Series A funding round. The objective is to expand its operation, according to the co-founder and CEO, Devin Finzer.
OpenSea Prepares for NFT Boom
Following the announcement, the funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, a crypto-friendly venture capital company based in the United States. Naval Ravikant, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Belinda Johnson, Ben Silbermann, and some other big-name angel investors also participated in the investment round.
OpenSea is looking to scale up its marketplace, as it believes that billions of people will be introduced to digital ownership in the coming years.
Launched in late 2017, the NFT marketplace already sees an increase in trading and new digital art listing. In the report, Finzer revealed that more than 20 million non-fungible tokens have been listed for trading on OpenSea. The NFT transaction on the marketplace increased by 100x over the last six months.
“We’ve had the fortune to work with hundreds of projects and creators: from game companies to digital artists to musicians to professional athletes. The world is waking up to the power of this technology, and it’s happening quite suddenly,” Finzer wrote.
Recently, Crypto News Australia reported that the term “NFT” reached a peak of popularity, following the search interest on Google. The non-fungible tokens had the most search interest, compared to other crypto-related terms like Blockchain, DeFi, and Cryptocurrency.
We’re giving away an NFT each week for a few weeks to reward our readers, and help them participate in the crypto space and learn about non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
This weeks giveaway is this cute little smiling smurf! You can view the item on the NFT marketplace OpenSea.
The smurf item is a Sandbox NFT which means it can be used in The Sandbox Game as an avatar. You could buy some virtual land and put your new smurf to work!
The Sandbox Game
What are NFTs?
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are virtual tokens minted on the blockchain for digital scarcity, security, and authenticity. They are unique, indivisible, and non-interchangeable – allowing true digital ownership of in-game assets.
About The Sandbox Metaverse Game
The Sandbox metaverse is split into 166,464 LANDS, creative sandbox areas owned by you, the players. You can create and monetize online games on your land or rent it to someone else to publish their own creation. Each piece of LAND has a pre-defined default terrain, but you can modify this as you build your own content.
Update 26/03/2021: Giveaway was won!
Congrats to Tom Moore @tommyaus for winning our NFT Smurf Giveaway! Stay tuned today for a new giveaway!
Interesting stories of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) selling for millions of dollars have been making rounds across multiple crypto publications. It’s no doubt that interest in the NFT markets has gone up significantly since the beginning of 2021.
Although the rate of Google searches for other popular cryptocurrency terms has also increased this year – which indicates a growing level of interest in the cryptocurrency industry in general – NFTs have the most searches amongst them.
Google Searches for NFTs Spikes
According to data from Google trends, the search interest for NFTs has surpassed that of Blockchain, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and Cryptocurrency.
There was almost no search interest for non-fungible tokens throughout the past year. However, a massive number of people have begun showing interest in the market since the beginning of the year. Interest over time for non-fungible tokens has also reached 100 this week, which represents another peak of popularity for the crypto term, as per Google trends.
As seen in the chart above, there isn’t any noticeable growth in Google searches for DeFi, an industry with more than US$42 billion in assets. Interest in the market has remained relatively since 2021, and the year before.
Elon Musk Joins the NFTs Market
The founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, is also interested in the NFT market. On Monday, he posted a techno track about non-fungible tokens on Twitter, which he intends to sell as an NFT. This attracted the likes of Justin Sun, the CEO of Tron blockchain, and Beeple, a popular digital artist, who were offering to buy the techno track NFT for about US$69 million.
In response to Beeple, however, the billionaire said he wanted about 420 million DOGE (about US$25 million) in exchange for his NFT.
Chiliz’s native token CHZ saw over 7,000 percent increase over the past 3 months, going from just US $0.012 to $0.87 between 13th December to 13th March 2021. It’s currently sitting at around $0.66.
The Chiliz token exchange platform powers the Sports Fan Tokens, which are digital assets that allow users to participate and vote in club polls, as well as provide access to VIP rewards, exclusive club and sponsor promotions.
This new sports token ecosystem could be a win-win for fans and clubs alike. With fans disconnected physically from their fandom, and this helps bridge that gap and engage more with their favourite sports. And for the clubs it’s essentially a new revenue stream.
Chiliz Token Exchange
Some facts:
Chiliz runs its own exchange. You can see the live token transactions on its blockchain explorer.
The Chiliz token ($CHZ) is both an ERC-20 utility token on the Ethereum blockchain and a BEP-2 token on Binance Chain.
There are 8,888,888,888 $CHZ (8.8 Billion) tokens in total supply, with 5.5 Billion in circulation.
Binance has invested directly into the Chiliz project. This might explain why the sports club tokens such as PSG/BAR got listed on Binance so quickly.
The Chiliz blockchain relies on a Proof-of-Authority (PoA) side chain consensus mechanism for security (as opposed to PoW or PoS).
Socios App
Promoted as “the worlds first fan influence platform”, the Socios App is where you can buy the Official tokens of sports clubs that have partnered with them.
Socios Soccer Partnerships
The Socios app has some big names as Partners including the following Football (Soccer) teams.
It looks like a pretty amazing advertising opportunity for them, leveraging their brand, banners and TV coverage at sports events to promote their token.
Formula 1 – no official announcements yet, but they have started to pre-sell tokens via Locker Rooms. motorsport.com interview
Fan Token Offering Pre-Sale Partner Tokens via “Locker Rooms”
You can pre-buy your fan tokens through the Fan Token Offerings, although the term “locker rooms” might be a bit misleading to fans thinking they are actually getting to be in the locker room of their favourite sports people. That’s not the case. Instead, it’s basically a token pre-sale, opened before they have even sealed the deal with the sports clubs.
How the pre-sale works:
You buy the CHZ token and they lock it up for 120 days (giving you a 10% yield).
Should the potential partner club decide to launch on Socios.com, Locker One Tokens are transformed into official Fan Tokens at a 1:1 ratio.
Should the potential partner decide against launching a Fan Token, users who have purchased Locker One Tokens will receive a full refund of the $CHZ pledged to their Socios.com account once the 120 day window has elapsed or the Locker closes.
This provides the platform an indication of the demand for a sport/club while reserving the CHZ token (which in turn helps price support levels). It might also incentivise the company getting the deal over the line if they can demonstrate enough demand on the pre-sale of the potential Partner token.
$50 Million Investment to Expand Into the USA
“We head to the U.S. with a proven track record in generating millions of dollars of revenue for some of Europe’s biggest sporting organisations. In 2020, we shared more than $30 million with our partners, but this year we’re targeting a minimum of $60 million,” said Chiliz CEO Alexandre Dreyfus to Reuters.
There are rumours that the purpose of this investment is to venture into USA to form a partnership with the NFL. But that is yet to be seen.
Socios VISA Card
There are plans for Socios to launch a VISA card. You can apply for the waiting list. Perks include cashback in CHZ token and extra rewards when shopping at various sport shops.
Conclusions
The CHZ token has seen incredible gains over the past few months, but buying when FOMO peaks and price is at an all-time high usually doesn’t look like the best idea.
Personally, I think the token economy is coming, and this is just the start of it. At this pace, it seems pretty much everything will be tokenised soon.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are becoming the next-big trend in the cryptocurrency space. In recent days, many digital art collections were issued in the NFT marketplaces, netting fortunes for the owners and artists. Today, a popular digital artist, Beeple, bagged over US$60 million from the sales of his 5,000-day digital art collection – a figure that is way greater than what Anthony Pompliano predicted some weeks ago.
A few weeks ago I told @beeple that his NFT was going to go for over $50 million at the Christie's auction.
He laughed at me.
Beeple's NFT just sold for $60.25 million.
Now I'm laughing because I'm so happy for my friend.
Beeple’s art sales marked the first time non-fungible token (NFT) collections were sold at an auction house, and also one of the highest art collections ever sold via auction. As reported, the 5,000-day collection went for a total value of US$69,346,250. However, the collections were sold for $60.25 million, with about $9 million premium, i.e., a percentage of the final price. The art was sold at Christie’s, a British auction house, with 353 bids in total.
Beeple (b. 1981) EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS
The digital artist began making the art collection daily in May 2007, which lasted for 5,000 days straight, and of course, led to the title, “EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS.” The collection is thought to be the most unique bodies of work to emerge in the history of digital art. It initially consisted of basic drawings, but took on abstract themes, color, and form, as Beeple began working in 3D. He wrote:
“I almost look at it now like I’m a political cartoonist. Except instead of doing sketches, I’m using the most advanced 3D tools to make comments on current events, almost in real-time.”
WarNymph Sold for US$5.8 Million
On Wednesday, Crypto News Australia reported another digital art collection from Grimes dubbed “WarNymph,” which was sold as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain for about US$5.8 million.
The Grimes Digital Art Collection titled “WarNymph” sold out for US $5.8 Million. The collection items were minted as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain and all copies were sold out in just 20 minutes.
The artwork depicted various things including travel to Mars with Elon Musk (her boyfriend) and her new born baby X Æ A-Xii. The NFT shown below has an asking price of US $2.5 Million.
NFT Newborn 2 By Grimes x Mac
One proud buyer posted on Twitter the NFT they bought from Grimes for 258 ETH (approximately AU $615,776).
Just bought Death Of The Old by @Grimezsz for 258ETH. Anhedonia is a pure banger💥. This garage beat with high pitched vocals is the soundtrack of the art renaissance we witness before our eyes 🥚_🥚. pic.twitter.com/zODs65ehTy
Grimes became popular for her unique style and alternative rock music, hitting mainstream stardom when she became Elon Musk’s girlfriend and mother of his son last year.
Elon Musk and Grimes attend the Met Gala in 2018. Jason Kempin/Getty Images
NFT mania is in full swing, and you can now buy your favourite tweets with crypto. A project called Valuables by Cent has recently launched, allowing Twitter users to sell their tweets minted on the Matic blockchain as an NFT.
Some of the tweets have sold for thousands of dollars. Currently the most expensive tweet sold is this one by CZ of Binance.
How it Works
Anyone can make an offer on any tweet. Then it’s up to the author of the tweet to login and accept the offer. You can use a web browser crypto wallet such as metamask extension to interact with the website and claim your ETH payment, with 95% going to the tweet author and 5% going to the project as sale commission. Read more on the project FAQs.
Owning any digital content can be a financial investment, hold sentimental value, and create a relationship between collector and creator. Like an autograph on a baseball card, the NFT itself is the creator’s autograph on the content, making it scarce, unique, and valuable.
Plain colours are being are auctioned as NFTs on Tezo’s blockchain in a project called tzcolors. Yes, you read that right: colours such as red, blue and purple are being sold for money as crypto tokens.
Some colours such as Platinum have sold for as much as 675 tez, which currently is around $3,700 AUD! And Twitter blue is on a starting price of 100,000 tez which will set you back around half a million Aussie dollars at the time of this writing.
There are 1690 unique colours called “tzcolors” divided in three categories: Standard, Epic and Legendary. The project is basically quoted as “an experiment to showcase the tooling of the Tezos ecosystem like Beacon, Taquito, SmartPy”.
How it works
Each colour artwork is sold in a 7 day auction. On completion, the highest bidder wins the colour and can claim it. An owner of a colour artwork can create a new auction and specify the minimum bid amount and the auction duration. Each bid additionally extends the auction end time by 5 minutes.
The colours are priced in Tezo’s coin called XTZ (referred as “tez”) with the exchange being roughly $5 AUD = 1 XTZ at the moment.
Another example: if we take a look at the “lemon iced tea” colour, it’s being sold for 10.1 tez – currently worth around $50 AUD. That’s some pretty expensive tea!
A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a special type of cryptographic token which represents something unique; non-fungible tokens are thus not mutually interchangeable. This means each colour artwork is represented by one unique token that only exists once.
Microsoft introduces NFTs to Minecraft, allowing players to collect in-game digital assets granting them access to special quests and other benefits across multiple platforms.
The tech giant acquired the popular block-building adventure game Minecraft for $2.5 Billion in late 2014 and has been trying to improve the game ever since.
The engine behind the NFTs is a project called Enjin (ENJ) which provides the blockchain where the digital assets are stored.
Players scan a QR code which then drops the NFT automatically to their Enjin wallet and they can link their wallet to cross-platform gaming network MyMetaVerse. If you’re a Minecraft user, you can follow the video instructions on how to use your blockchain assets with the game.
MyMetaverse Hub linking to Enjin Wallet
With two new scaling solutions, Enjin aims to remove gas fees, while also supporting fungible and non-fungible token (NFTs) from any blockchain.
The first technology used is called JumpNet which is a Proof of Authority (PoA) consensus protocol built on a private Ethereum blockchain which the CTO of Enjin stated was created in order to bring “forever-free scaling” to Ethereum and is planned to launch 6 April.
NFTs Are Hot At the Moment
In late February Logan Paul raised $3.54 million by moving 1772NFTs in one day, from there many more NFT(Non-Fungible Tokens) projects have jumped up. From Nyan Cat being sold for almost $600,000, to Kings of Leon releasing a NFT album, to the Banksy piece “morons” that has now been burned and is going to be auctioned on SuperFarm.
When looking at interest over time from Google searches, NFTs have had a sharp rise in popularity from the 11th of February onward and has become quite the hot topic of debate.
The ability that NFTs give to artists to directly monetise their own work, be it art/music/manga/animations might be a game-changer for their respective industries. On the other hand, lesser-known artists also need platforms for exposure. If curators can fill the gap there might be a major shift from traditional platforms to newer ones that run on blockchain technology.
The American rock band Kings of Leon has announced their next album “When You See Yourself” will be NFT-based, with tokenized tickets. This makes them the first rock band to release an NFTs album with underlying blockchain technology.
The album, besides launching on traditional music platforms like Spotify, will be released on YellowHeart, a blockchain-based ticketing platform.
The group is also offering fans unique products by launching “NFT Yourself”, a series of special items integrated into the album, including:
Tokenized tickets, which the band calls “Golden Tickets” for the chance to win a front-row seat for life, during all of the band’s tours.
Exclusive audiovisual materials.
Live show perks.
NFTs Being Sold for Thousands of Dollars
The band isn’t the only one rushing in to become part of the massive sales of the NFTs industry —a few days ago, the musician 3LAU recently sold his NFT album for US$11 million using the Ethereum blockchain.
It might not be a surprise that more artists are jumping in on the digital art NFTs trend, as they become a valuable representation of unique items, such as crypto-collectible, or crypto gems, which are computer-made representations of gems being sold in online DeFi marketplaces.
NFTs Industry Booming with Big Profits
These representations are currently being sold for thousands of dollars on several markets. Even a Canadian investor paid $20,000 for CryptoPunks, computer-made avatars.
The NFTs industry made over US$100 Million alone last month, and it is growing at a fast speed as collectors are paying large sums of money for crypto-collectibles and other kinds of unique items.
