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 - Web3 gaming in numbers;
🗞️ Last week's news - OpenSea, Solana Pay, Impact Theory, Unstoppable Domains, Brave, MapleStory Universe;
💰Investments/Funding - Vessel Capital, DRiP;
📣 Projects news/Updates - Pudgy Penguins, Doodles x Crocs, Zeneca, VeeFriends, DeGods;
⚖️ Legal - Metaverse Attorney writes about the class action lawsuit filed by BAYC investors against Yuga Labs, Sotheby's and 28 other entities for lowering the value of the collection;
⚙️NFTility, by Mtk - Galxe Passport;
📚 Dictionary - AR, VR;
💸 Sale of the week - IX. The Monument Game;
📈 Macro
At EthCC (July 17-20), Michael Ionita, VP of Engineering at Dapp Radar, gave a very interesting presentation related to the Web3 Gaming industry. Find the recording of the presentation here and the slides here.
The topics covered were related to transactions, UAW - Unique Active Wallets and volumes. All through the lens of existing onchain data via 14,000 dApps, across all 51 chains.
According to data from DappRadar, most transactions on the blockchain come not from DeFi, as we might have thought, but from gaming:
75% of transactions on the blockchain come from gaming. 40% of these are made using bots.
The number of transactions in gaming overtook those coming from DeFi in July 2021 and has since remained in first place (they are still very close).
On average, +760k wallets play/use Web3 games daily.
Another thing we probably wouldn't expect is the blockchain that most UAWs spend their time on. It's not Ethereum, Polygon, BNB or anything else. It's WAX. At least in Q1 2023.
In 2022, Web3 gaming volumes were $19 billion, the 9th largest share of total gaming volumes at $183 billion. Perhaps not surprisingly, we see gaming companies receiving funding a lot in the investment section of the newsletter. All in just 5 years.
Robert Ferguson, from Immutable, says more than $100 billion worth of in-game items is bought annually. In traditional gaming (e.g. Candy Crush coins, skins, etc), unrelated to blockchain.
Before you listen to Michael's speech, I'll leave you with one more slide:
For the last 5 years, the volumes of skins and in-game items generated by CS:Go (Counter Strike) alone, represent almost 7 times the volumes made by the top 5 collections of NFTs combined.
Probably in the Premium version of the newsletter we will be able to detail more such reports/analysis & insights. Still cooking. News soon.
🗞️ News from last week
- Former OpenSea CEO, Nate Chastain, was sentenced to 3 months in prison with execution for insider trading (from which he earned ~16ETH) and fined $50k. Some say the punishment was too light and not enough to prevent such actions from happening in the future.
- Solana Pay is the new payment option on Shopify, allowing instant payments using the stablecoin $USDC.
- Impact Theory, the Los Angeles-based company behind Tom Bilyeu, is accused by the SEC of illegally selling securities in the form of NFTs, raising $30M from investors, including in the United States. Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, Tom Bilyeu will pay $6.1 million to the SEC. The order also establishes a fair fund to return the money that harmed investors paid when they bought the NFTs. It's a big deal for the entire industry. Will come with more details from our Metaverse Attorney next week.
- Unstoppable Domains launches an instant messaging system for Web3 address holders, facilitating communication between applications using XMTP.
- Brave adds NFT-gating access via the Solana wallet to Brave Talk. It involves NFT-based restricted access, automatic assignment of moderation rights and the ability to set NFTs as avatars.
- MapleStory Universe, has chosen Chainlink as its Web3 gaming infrastructure provider, and integrates Chainlink VRF technology to enhance the gaming experience.
💰 Investments / Financing
- Vessel Capital launches a $55M investment fund to support early-stage startups in the Web3 space. The company has already invested in several firms, such as Injective, Burnt and Omni.
- DRiP has successfully secured $3M in funding to develop collectible content and Web3 social platforms.
📣 Projects news / Updates
- Pudgy Penguins launches 'Igloo' clothing brand for the general public.
- Doodles is collaborating with Crocs to launch a limited edition phygital collection priced at $120, with exclusive access and pricing for OG holdouts.
- Zeneca launches today the PFP Denizens collection for the ZenAcademy community. It is one of the founders of projects that focused on creating an established community and then launching a PFP collection. Not the other way around. Chapeau bas!
- VeeFriends introduces "Scene Swap" for VF Series 2 owners and presents the newly created scene "The Second Voyage" by artist Terrell Jones. Holders will be able to update their NFT metadata during the Burn Island eruption, which begins on August 29 and will be available for 14 days.
- DeGods has unveiled Points Parlor v1.1 with a new Parlor Strategies Simulator that puts bigger prizes up for grabs and provides clarity on $DUST rewards.
⚖️ Legal
Investors at Bored Ape Yacht Club are suing Yuga Labs, Sotheby's and 28 other companies as NFT prices take a dive!
A group of four investors in the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection has filed a class action lawsuit against Yuga Labs and 29 other companies for allegedly misleadingly promoting NFTs as their prices continue to fall.
According to a CNN report, other defendants named in the lawsuit include art auction corporation Sotheby's Holdings, Adidas, MoonPay and celebrities such as Canadian singer Justin Bieber and American media personality Paris Hilton.
The complainants accused Sotheby's of conspiring with Yuga Labs to artificially inflate the prices of BAYC NFTs. They described Sotheby's 2021 sale of 100 collectibles to a single buyer for more than $24 million as deceptive, alleging that Yuga Labs recruited the auction house to increase investor interest in the collection.
The allegations of the holders of BAYC NFTs could be confirmed if they can demonstrate that they were misled as to the value and exclusivity of the NFTs they purchased. If there is evidence that they made false promises or provided misleading information to attract investors, then the case could have a strong basis.
With regard to the accusations made against auction houses such as Sotheby's, it could be argued that they may contribute to the price evolution of NFT collections by bringing more attention and legitimacy to the NFT space. Auctions organized by prestigious houses could attract investors by creating a presumption of confidence and influencing prices.
Auction houses could also be accused of legitimizing NFTs that may have no real value, thus giving investors a false sense of validity and exclusivity. This can contribute to overconfidence in earning potential and subsequently to a possible sharp drop in prices when the market corrects.
What I think is important to note is that financial and technology markets are cyclical. After a period of exponential growth, there can be periods of correction and rethinking of value. But this does not mean that NFTs themselves become useless. They can continue to have value as a means of representing digital ownership and authenticity.
I will follow this case with interest and, as usual, keep you informed!
⚙️ NFTility
I'm curious how many of you reading this article are looking forward to the time when you will be able to hold all your personal ID forms and credentials in digital-only form in one, impenetrable place over which you have exclusive control.
Until institutions catch up with blockchain technology, I say we enjoy what we have and experiment as much as possible. We can start with Galxe Passport, the SBT (see definition in the "📚️ Dictionary" section of last issue) that is meant to store personal data and credentials on and off chain. The information is encrypted while access and distribution are restricted to the holder. Here you can read more about the whole mechanism of operation.
Galxe Passport is issued on the NBB blockchain and requires identity verification through the KYC process. This is done through the Persona platform and details about the collection of personal data can be read here.
So far, Galxe has worked quite well as a bridge between native web3 projects and users, using the infrastructure to create interaction, adoption and loyalty strategies. However, the available technology is so versatile that it can still offer utility today in (almost) any industry.
Of course, when we talk about storing and using personal data in a sovereign, secure and efficient way in everyday interactions, we need to understand that developing such a system will take time and will not be without its challenges. But I hope this case study inspires you to the level where you will seek to implement similar solutions in what you build every day. If you want to use the infrastructure presented in the article, you can apply here.
Until next time, I'll leave you with a cool tool in case you weren't sure where an "IRL Passport" might take you.
📚 Dictionary
- AR - Augmented reality is an interactive experience based on the combination of real world and virtual world elements. Sort of a combination of IRL & Metaverse.
- VR - Virtual reality is an artificial computer-generated world that simulates reality so well that the user can feel almost physically present in both real and imaginary places.
💸 Sale of the week
A week without monkeys or CryptoPunks. Just pure art.
Paper IX. The Monument Game 1/1 by Sam Spratt sold for 420.69 ETH($696,240).
The buyer, kukulabanze.eth is the same person who acquired Beeple's HUMAN ONE for $28.985M in November 2021.
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