NFTs as Digital Artifacts 🏺
PleasrDAO nabs "Doge," TimBL auctions the Web, Hackatao heads to Christie's, & more!
Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, & collectibles
Dear Bankless Nation,
The rise of NFTs is ushering in a new era of digital artificats.
That dynamic was on full display this week as 1) the Doge meme NFT sold for 1696.9 ETH, and 2) as news broke that Sir Tim Berners-Lee would be auctioning the source code of the World Wide Web (plus extras) as an NFT via Sotheby’s.
On the one hand you have one of the most popular memes of the modern era, and on the other you have an unpredecented and epic digital memento.
Both bear the metaphorical fingerprints of their creators, which imbues these NFTs with cultural magic. And both suggest the future of digital artificats is one where we increasingly memorialize culturally significant objects on-chain as NFTs 💎
-WMP
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🏆 Digital Collectibles
PleasrDAO purchased the beloved Doge meme on Zora this week for 1696.9 ETH. Much wow! 🐾
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, is auctioning off the source code of the Web as an NFT through auction house Sotheby’s 🌐
Earlier this week the average secondary price of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs acutely flipped the average secondary price of Meebits! 🐵💥🤖
The CryptoPunks price floor is currently 14.75 ETH, down 0.25 ETH from this point last week 📉
🎨 Cryptoart
Artist duo Hackatao is auctioning off a rendition of Leonardo da Vinci’s Head of a Bear through auction house Christie’s next month 🐻
Cryptoart marketplace KnownOrigin launched an unlockable content feature for creators.
Cryptoart marketplace SuperRare rolled out a new homepage UI and a slew of new features. Speaking of SR, the average NFT resale value on the platform is now +7,000%.
Artist Miss Al Simpson is headlining the next NFTBoxes subscription drop 🎊
🕹️ NFT Games
The trade volume around Axie Infinity has been dominant in the NFT ecosystem lately 📈
Yield Guild Games just completed a $4 million Series A funding round.
Global fantasy ⚽ game Sorare added a “Trade” button to its gallery system, making it easier to trade directly with other Managers just by visiting their galleries.
Is a MoonCats Rescue NFT game coming? It appears so!
NFT RPG Neon District has big updates around the corner 🎮
🌐 Virtual Worlds
In its 2nd community update, MeebitsDAO detailed the group’s current metaversal development activities across Somnium Space, The Sandbox, Cryptovoxels, and Decentraland.
When asked about the metaverse this week, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said: “I believe we’re right on the cusp of it. [...] It has real design. It has a real economy. You have a real avatar. That avatar belongs to you and is you.”
🛒 NFT Platforms
Mirror just introduced Media DAOs, i.e. collaborative Mirror publishing.
Gamified NFT marketplace Doki Doki released its 2.0 roadmap.
NFT badge project POAP released a new POAP App for iPhone users, and an Android version is coming soon.
💎 DeFi x NFTs
Uniswap V3, which relies on NFT LP tokens, is now decisively challenging centralized crypto exchanges when it comes to trade volume 🦄
Another popular DeFi exchange, Sushi, is working on an NFT platform called Shoyu. Check out the Shoyu primer I published earlier this week in Metaversal to catch up on the project 🍣
Courtesy of one of the first NFT real estate transactions, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington sold a Kiev apartment this week for 36 ETH via seen.haus and Propy.
Action steps
📰 Read “On Zen and NFTs with ZENFT’s Creators” by Metaversal
👀 Check out the new Metaversal Telegram channel.
Subscribe to Bankless. $22 per mo. Includes archive access, Inner Circle & Badge.
🙏Thanks to our sponsor
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Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.