The NFT Frontier Is Blooming

$APE buyouts rejected, Fractional launches, Art Blocks tries a Dutch Auction, & more!

Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, & collectibles

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Dear Bankless Nation,

It was another wild week in NFT Land, to say the least!

Indeed, things have revved up around the ecosystem to the point that lately you feel like you miss 100 things every time you blink.

That’s quite alright. It just means the frontier we’re all building up here is seriously blooming. Yet with this blossoming comes both great opportunities and great challenges, so it’s important keep your wits about you and strive not to stretch yourself too thin.

Remember: you don’t have to keep up with everything that’s happening or with everyone else. Just do you at your own pace, focus on what you like and what’s in front of you. That’s truly the best way forward! Thanks kindly for reading and have a great weekend ✌️

-WMP

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🙏 Sponsor: Immutable X — Scaling Ethereum and NFTs!

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🏆 Digital Collectibles

• $APE holders on NIFTEX just rejected a buyout offer of 1,200 ETH and later 1,255 ETH for fractionalized ape CryptoPunk #2386 🦍

  Monopoly @dollar_monopoly

  Someone attempting to buyout the fractionalized APE over at ⁦@NIFTEX⁩ for 1200 ETH 👀🤯 #NFTs $2.8 million

  

• “Perfect Spectrum” Squiggle #1862 sold for 90 ETH, a new all-time high sale for a Squiggle 🎉

🎨 Cryptoart

• Collector project OSF acquired artist Robbie Barrat’s “AI Generated Nude Portrait #7 Frame #170” for 72.5 ETH on SuperRare’s secondary marketplace.

• Collector group FingerprintsDAO launched public minting for Avid Lines, an art project whose genesis pieces were generated via Autoglyphs. 

Avid Lines @AvidLines

Avid Lines has minted its genesis piece, generated from Autoglyph #433 Autoglyph owners may now whitelist their pieces (signature only, no transfer required) Learn more: avidlines.art Public mint begins: July 28, 2021 @ 11AM CT/4PM UTC

• To facilitate the latest Art Blocks Curated drop for artist Rafaël Rozendaal’s generative series Endless Nameless, a Dutch Auction format was held. The starting mint price of 3 ETH decreased by 0.25 ETH every 10 minutes until finally settling at 0.25 ETH, at which point the remainder of the works quickly sold out! 

🕹️ NFT Games

• New Aavegotchis are coming, as AavegotchiDAO members just approved Haunt 2 👻 

• Mystic Axie Starbugs was claimed via NFT fractionalization platform NIFTEX at a 175 ETH valuation 🦋 

ak @vesakaxie

Welcome home, lost friend. $BUGS has been claimed from @NIFTEX and has a new home... in my wallet! I've always wanted a rare-class @AxieInfinity mystic, and I am thrilled I was able to complete this buyout!

• Axie Infinity fansite AxieZone released its V2 breeding simulator.

• Global fantasy ⚽ game Sorare has already facilitated +35k trades since deploying to StarkWare’s L2 scalability engine, StarkEx. 

🌐 Virtual Worlds

• Ethereum’s metagalaxy of VR projects is taking shape right in front of our eyes!

Cryptovoxels @cryptovoxels

Currently you can only use portals to go to other places in the Cryptovoxels world. I want to change portals to support teleporting to: - cryptovoxel spaces - decentraland - somnium space

• Looking to learn more about the metaverse? Bookmark this amazing repository of metaversal resources built by Webaverse creator Jin. 

🛒 NFT News & Platforms

• NFT fractionalization platform Fractional went live!

Fractional @fractional_art

gm, we're live! Check out fractional.art to claim a piece of iconic NFTs and if you're a curator looking for help getting started, check us out on medium

medium.comFractional Art – MediumA NFT fractionalization platform.

• Proof of MEV: this week’s Vogu Collective NFT drop saw at least one user bribe a miner with a 1-gwei transaction to have their transactions included ahead of others 😱 

Guy Stewart @wholisticguy

MEV has finally arrived for NFTs. When gas cost is up to 12,000 Gwei, you can bribe a miner direct and then be sure to get your tx included in a block for 1 gwei - when multi by an in demand mint your cost basis can be 10x lower than other mint buyers. etherscan.io/tx/0xef76f5ccc…

💎 DeFi x NFTs

• Genie, a new protocol for trading across all NFT and token markets, started beta tests this week. We also learned Genie will support royalties across all marketplaces for NFTs that are compliant with EIP-2981. 

• DeFi dashboard Zerion released its first NFTs, dubbed the Zerion Genesis Collection.

• NFT gift baskets? It’s possible today courtesy of Charged Particles!

Charged Particles @DefiNft

🎁Have you ever thought of gifting an NFT gift basket to your loved ones? With Charged Particles, it is possible to create an NFT gift basket holding a variety of digital assets which can be time-locked for varying periods of time. #NFTs #tokens

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Action steps

• 📺 Watch “Fractional | AMA with Andy8052” in Bankless

• 📰 Read “Curating NFTs with JPG” in Metaversal

• 📰 Read “Connecting Metagalaxies with Ethereum” in Metaversal

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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.

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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.