NFT Innovation Digest #24

Most innovative (author's pick)

After 6 months of development, NFT artist pplpleasr announced the beta of her new innovative project Shibuya, a web3 video platform that aims to create and finance a whole catalog of high quality animated short films, movies, and TV shows, with input and backing by the distribution of "producer pass" NFTs.

More:

• Every content on the website will be free to watch, but the NFT ownership will provide additional rights to the buyer, such as the ability to vote on alternative narratives, determine the path of the story, and hold part of the ownership to the overall content.

Most discussed

UkraineDAO, a new organization focused on helping Ukraine, raised 2258 ETH (around $6.75M) in an effort that started on February 26 and ended on March 2. The funds were used to bid on a Ukrainian flag NFT the DAO itself was auctioning.

More:

• All the auction proceeds were sent to Come Back Alive, an organization that donates supplies to Ukrainian civilians and military members;
• The winning bid on the NFT flag was placed on behalf of a pool with 3,085 donors, using a service called PartyBid;
• UkraineDAO will reportedly airdrop its $LOVE token to the wallets that contributed to the auction.

101 CryptoPunks used as collateral for the largest-ever NFT-backed loan facilitated by MetaStreet on the peer-to-peer NFT lending platform NFTfi. An anonymous borrower took out an $8M loan with an APR of 10% and a 30 days duration.

More:

• MetaStreet also helped to complete a record-breaking loan last year of $1.42M loan collateralized by an AutoGlyph;
• NFTfi has already secured almost $14M collateralized loans just for CryptoPunks, totaling more the $85M in NFT-backed loans.

After raising $70M with a 3 ETH mint price, the NFT project Pixelmon is facing backlash from the NFT community due to the low quality of its assets. Pixelmon's founder has acknowledged on Twitter the current bad quality of the artwork but maintains that the in-game characters will be improved.

More:

• It was discovered that many of the assets were generic 3D models purchased from the Unity asset store;
• The current floor price of the Generation 1 Pixelmon is now around 0.4 ETH, 87% lower than the mint price.

Mainstream Adoption

The English Premier League is auctioning off its first NFT license. Sorare, Candy Digital, Dapper Labs, and ConsenSy are running for the deal with bids reportedly ranging from $299M to $590M over four years.

More:

• The winning bidder will gain an official license to produce a range of blockchain-based products, including NFTs based on Panini stickers;
• Dapper Labs already has deals with the NBA and NFL, while Candy Digital has a partnership with the MLB.

KPMG Canada debuts into the NFT space by acquiring Woman #2681 from the World of Women collection for 25 ETH ($70,000). The move follows the firm's announcement that it had added ETH and BTC to its balance sheet.

More:

• The firm also purchased the ENS domain kpmgca.eth and assigned it to the wallet holding the World of Women NFT;
• “Women are underrepresented in the world of all things crypto, which makes us proud to make our first NFT acquisition in a collection that supports women,” said KPMG Partner and National Risk Consulting Leader Nancy Chase

New products and ideas

TimePieces Launched Artists for Peace, a collection of 1/1 NFTs from over 60 global artists in support of humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. The auction of the 60+ pieces started on Monday, February 28, at 5 pm ET, available only on OpenSea.

More:

• Each artwork has a starting bid of 0.22 ETH, with all the proceeds supporting humanitarian and relief efforts for Ukraine with TIME and the artists waiving all royalties on primary and secondary sales. OpenSea is also waiving its fees for the auction.

FriesDAO raised $5.4M with the plan to buy fast-food restaurants. The DAO distributed $FRIES tokens to those who participated. The token holders will not have ownership of the restaurants or any share of profits but will be able to vote on proposals with regards to how they operate.

More:

• The holders will also be able to stake $FRIES to receive $KCHUP tokens which can be used to purchase NFTs that provide perks like free burgers;
• The FriesDAO plan is to buy at least one fast-food restaurant in the first year. In case this doesn't happen, the funds will be returned to the community.

Recommended Readings

• These are the Top NFT Music Artists Making Waves: This article by NFT Plazas explores the most relevant NFT music artists and projects and the trends for 2022;
• How to Build a Full Stack NFT Marketplace - V2: This guide by Nader Dabit provides all the tools and information for anyone to build their own NFT marketplace;
• The current state of Web3 Music: This Twitter thread by Kaspar explores different projects and platforms on the NFT music landscape.

New podcasts and shows

• Bankless Podcast: In this episode, Ryan and David interview Ryan Wyatt, the CEO of Polygon Studios and former Head of Gaming at Youtube. Ryan presents takes on his feelings on Anti-NFT sentiment, the future of games, and the growing influence of gaming content;
• Zima Red Podcast: In this episode, Andrew talks to Bernadine Brocker Wieder, the founder of Vastari & Vastari Labs. Vastari is focused on helping the traditional art world showcase art globally. Vastari Labs is the web3 focused arm that acts as the bridge between the traditional art world and the metaverse;
• Overpriced JPEGs: In this episode, Carly talks to Nadya from Pussy Riot about Ukraine DAO - an NFT/crypto fundraising effort to provide medical care for people in Ukraine impacted by the war.

Save the date

• 20th - 23rd June: NFT NYC is the leading annual NFT event, don't miss it!

NFT space in numbers

The values below are from 25th February - 3rd March 2022. Source: DappRadar.

Top Marketplaces

Top Sales

Top Collections

*Most of the sales in the collection occurred on the LooksRare marketplace and may be a subject of wash trading.