What the Will Smith smack means for NFTs

Plus, World of Women releases a new collection

and

Mar 29, 2022

Zima Red gives readers the weekly pulse on the biggest news around NFTs. Join our community and take the journey with us by subscribing here:

It means absolutely nothing….but keep reading for a weekly recap of everything NFTs, virtual worlds, and blockchain gaming.

🎙Zima Red Podcast

Two awesome episodes this week:

Metastreet: The Billion Dollar NFT Credit Market Opportunity. We chat with Conor and David, the co-founders of Metastreet. In this episode we talk:

Art & real estate credit markets
How the NFT lending markets are largely untapped
How Metastreet functions
Why gamification is the future of work
How DAOs are utilities

Virtual Influencers Are The Future Of Entertainment. We dive into -

How the music industry is broken -
How web3 can empower the creators + artists -
The first metastar @angelbaby
Ramifications of open IP

📈 Market

Deutsche Bank calculated a $1T+ Total Addressable Market for NFTs

The firm released a report that predicts Instagram’s upcoming NFT integration will bring the industry and technology increased legitimacy.

They believe Instagram will lower the barrier to entry by simplifying the buying and selling process.
Deutsche estimates a broad rollout of an NFT marketplace on top of Instagram could drive upwards of $8B in annual revenue for Meta.

The report states that the NFT Market is in “hyper-growth mode” with its transaction volume skyrocketing 250x from $95M in 2020 to $25B last year.

New NFT growth phase

Although Google searches for NFTs are down close to ~33% from mid-Jan and OpenSea’s daily volume is down 65% since the start of February, new data shows that the NFT market may be shifting into a new growth phase.

The number of “dead” projects (< 10 sales in 30 days) now makes up only a fifth of the NFT market.

📰 Mainstream

Time profiled Vitalik Buterin and then released the cover as an NFT

He has a few crypto concerns:

Investors aping into crypto and investing more than they can afford to lose
Crypto’s overall public perception being damaged by public wealth flaunting
High transaction fees limit ETH’s use cases to only finance & speculation

[Read the full article]

Two rug pullers actually got charged by the DoJ

The two individuals behind the Frosties NFT project were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

They sold out the Frosties NFTs then deactivated the website and peaced out with $1.1M in crypto.

Rug pulls, unfortunately, happen all the time but this is the first one on the record that resulted in any real legal action
The individuals involved were reportedly both only 20

Professional athletes, celebrities, and influencers are absolutely shaking right now.

Luxury watchmaker Jacob & Co. is back with another NFT drop

The company is releasing 8 physical watches inspired by the metaverse
They are also dropping 30 digital-only watch NFTs
Jacob & Co. sold its first NFT timepiece back in April 2021 for $100,000 at auction

Check it all out at UNXD.com

👤 Social

World of Women drops its second collection

Word of Women’s second collection, World of Women Galaxy, sold out with 17K+ ETH in trading volume so far.

The World of Women Galaxy NFTs used a Dutch auction, which can give artists and developers more potential revenue.

A dutch auction also allows wealthier collectors to sweep floors while others are still priced out
Gas reportedly hit over 900 gwei due to the drop

Solana MBS NFTs see their sales volume and floors surge

Solana MBS is considered by many to be the “CryptoPunks of Solana”
The surge is most likely linked to a rumor that OpenSea will integrate some Solana NFTs

Solana MBS sales

VCs own ~14% of Yuga Lab’s ApeCoin

Aaron Brown, a crypto investor writing for Bloomberg, compared ApeCoin to a SPAC.

ApeCoin DAO is “a placeholder attempt to capture future potential business under the Bored Ape brand name.”

🎮 Gaming

Yuga Labs’ pitch deck was leaked to the world.

If you missed it, here are the takeaways:

Yuga believes everyone’s approach to the metaverse isn’t new, it’s boring.
They are building an interoperable gaming metaverse.
You can use your NFT as your character and Yuga’s SDK will turn it into a 3D playable character.
They will sell 200K plots of virtual land at ~1ETH each
- For the 100k genesis drop, ~30k will go to BAYC and MAYC holders leaving ~70K for the public.
- Land sales will account for ~62% of projected 2022 revenue.

Yuga also released its 2021 financials and its expected 2022 financials.

2021 revenue: $137.58M (95% profit margin)
2022 protected revenue: $532.81M (98.8% profit margin 🤯)

[Read the full deck]

Axie Infinity (AXS) is up +30% the last week for three reasons.

They are releasing a reimagined approach to Axie Battles called Axie Origins
- Origins will include new game mechanics designed to improve the overall player experience
- Free starter Axies to help attract new players to the game.
- Power-ups for Axies that require users to burn AXS
Active users and AXS staking is increasing
- The Axie Infinity userbase is at an all-time high of 207,000+ users
- The current staking reward is 73%
The Ronin Network is steadily growing
- It is consistently in the top 3 in terms of total value locked compared to other Ethereum bridges
- TVL sits at $3.4B

NFT Worlds is releasing their own NFT Avatars.

15,000 total
10,000 whitelisted for NFT Worlds holders
5,000 reserved for a public mint

NFT Worlds will also offer renting and staking

World holders can now stake their world in the smart contract to earn WRLD tokens
The team is working on a marketplace that will allow holders to monetize their worlds by renting them out

🎨 Art

XCOPY's Max Pain NFT sold $23 million worth of open editions. Image: XCOPY

Crypto Artist XCOPY sold $23M worth of open edition NFTs in minutes

XCOPY has become one of the most successful artists in the NFT market. The pseudonymous crypto artist traditionally specializes in 1/1 single editions which go for millions each.

This time around, XCOPY released a more affordable open edition NFT for just 10 minutes at 1ETH each.

In those 10 minutes:

7,394 pieces were sold
~$23M was made

“Well that was quite intense”
- XCOPY

🎶 Music

Universal Music’s Web3 label, 10:22 PM, spent $360,000 on a Bored Ape

The ape, known as “Manager Noët All” will lead its virtual band, Kingship.

According to Universal Music, Kingship will eventually produce music and perform virtual concerts.

The virtual band is made up of four NFTs - three BAYC and one MAYC

Spotify’s job posting hints at an eventual NFT integration

A job listing asks for the candidate to have:

”Expert familiarity with emerging trends, technologies, platforms, and ecosystems, especially as it relates to the content, creator, media, web3, and emerging technology industries”

A bull case for music NFTs by Delphi Digital

💸 Funding

Yuga Labs ($450M) - The NFT holding company and creator of BAYC & MAYC. The round gives Yuga a $4B valuation and was led by Andreesen Horowitz with participation from Animoca Brands, LionTree, Sound Ventures, Thrive Capital, FTX, and MoonPay.

metaENGINE ($4M) - A decentralized platform for the development and publishing of Fi / Metaverse games and apps. Participation came from Jump Crypto, Lemniscap, Polygon Studios, Blockwall, Blufolio, DCX Ventures, Efficient Frontier, Insignius Capital, Block Brands, Future Fund, and Maelstrom Interactive.

LifeForce Games ($5M) - A metaverse-as-a-service network. The round included participation from Lemniscap, CMT Digital, Sfermion, Hartmann Capital, Sterling.VC, Ready Player DAO, and NeonDao.

C2X ($25M) - C2X is a blockchain gaming platform. The round included participation from with participation from FTX, Jump Crypto, Animoca Brands, Hashed, DeFiance Capital, Terra, Transcend Fund, Galaxy Interactive, Huobi Capital, Skybound Entertainment, Blockchain Co-investors, Play Ventures, Concept Art House, Crypto.com Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Unanimous Capital, Bowei, Xsolla, Goal Ventures, Agnitio Capital, and Formless Capital.

Ultiverse ($4.5M) - Web3 combined with a VR-compatible virtual world. Participation from Binance Labs, DeFiance Capital, Three Arrows Capital, and SkyVision Capital.

LiveArtX ($4.5M) - A NFT platform that connects the art world with web3. The round included from Animoca Brands, KuCoin Labs, Everest Ventures, ArkStream Capital, APENFT, Alameda Research, Appworks, BlackPine, Gate.io, Hashkey Capital, Head & Shoulder X, OKX, SNZ Holding, Shima Capital, TPS Capital, and BNB Chain.

Crypto Unicorns ($26M) - A blockchain-based digital pet collecting and farming Game. The round included participation from TCG, Backed, Acme Capital, BITKRAFT Ventures, Delphi Digital, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Polygon Studios, CoinFund, BreederDAO, and Emfarsis.