NFT Innovation Digest #40

Cover: entretiempos by Marcelo Soria-Rodríguez
Most innovative (author's pick)

DeviantArt, a prominent user-generated online art gallery, is expanding their web-wide protocol to counter NFT copyright theft. The initiative has been coined ‘A neighborhood watch for NFTs’ and it aims to find and flag cases of artwork theft before the infringer can make illegal profits.
#DeviantArtProtect identifies infringements and alerts creators in real-time. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to help protect artists like Yehuda & Maya in their upcoming projects! https://t.co/4QVxYUKqSm
— DeviantArt (@DeviantArt) June 14, 2022
More:
- The DeviantArt Protect Protocol allows anyone to submit their work to be tracked around the internet. To date, it has indexed more than 400 million NFTs—and found nearly 330,000 NFT copyright infringements;
- “If we want to create this layer of trust and safety in Web3 to see adoption by creators, we really need to put in the checks and balances,” says CEO Moti Levy.
Most discussed

Ukraine announced the sale of CryptoPunk #5364, which it received as a donation in March 2022 as part of a fundraising campaign in its war against Russia.
Breaking news on crypto donations: #CryptoPunk #5364 has been sold for 90 ETH. It's over $100K. Few months ago this NFT was donated for @_AidForUkraine fund. Crypto community continues to support Ukraine.
— Alex Bornyakov (@abornyakov) June 20, 2022
More:
- The anonymous buyer paid 90 ETH, worth roughly $100,000 at the time of sale. The Punk's value was estimated at around $260,000 when it was first donated;
- In total, Ukraine has raised more than $135M in crypto donations since making its wallet public in February, including $6.75M from the sale of a Ukrainian flag NFT.

An anti-NFT protest in New York has been revealed as a marketing stunt by streetwear brand The Hundreds. The stunt, which quickly went viral, featured slogans such as God Hates NFTs and Crypto is a Sin. The Hundreds has its own NFT collection, "Adam Bomb Squad", and is hosting events to coincide with NFT.NYC throughout the week.
— bobbyhundreds.eth (@bobbyhundreds) June 20, 2022
More:
- The gathering took place in a busy SoHo street in Manhattan on Monday 20th June, with protesters carrying signs and chanting “N-F-T! Not for me!”;
- It was organised by The Hundreds' co-founder Bobby Kim, who commented “I find the line between the skeptics and the devotees to be really interesting within crypto. Nobody wants to go near this debate.”

Uniswap Labs is acquiring the NFT aggregation platform Genie. Genie enables users to purchase multiple items in one transaction and offers aggregation tools to compare listings across rival marketplaces.
1/ The Uniswap Universe is expanding 🦄
— Uniswap Labs 🦄 (@Uniswap) June 21, 2022
In pursuit of our mission to unlock universal ownership and exchange, we’re excited to share that we’ve acquired @geniexyz — the first NFT marketplace aggregator — expanding our products to include both ERC-20s and NFTs 🧞♂️ pic.twitter.com/vESlbE3kvy
More:
- Uniswap Labs is the company behind the Ethereum-based decentralized exchange Uniswap, and first entered the NFT space in 2019 with the Unisocks project;
- In celebration of this acquisition, they will be airdropping USDC to anyone who used Genie more than once before April 15 or holds a Genie Genesis NFT;
- According to Uniswap founder and CEO Hayden Adams, “We’re trying to bring everything we brought to the ERC-20 space to the NFT space."
Mainstream adoption

eBay continues its push into Web3 and digital collectibles with the acquisition of NFT marketplace Known Origin. According to Known Origin: "There will be no immediate changes, overtime we will integrate KO assets into eBay and add further NFT capabilities to both KO and eBay."
1/7 The mission was simple: could we build a new platform that would empower creators and give digital artists a chance to earn a living doing what they love. pic.twitter.com/X5zCkJHj1B
— KnownOrigin.io (@KnownOrigin_io) June 22, 2022
More:
- eBay launched its first NFT collection in May 2022 in partnership with Web3 platform OneOf;
- eBay CEO Jamie Iannone stated that “KnownOrigin has built up an impressive, passionate and loyal group of artists and collectors making them a perfect addition to our community of sellers and buyers. We look forward to welcoming these innovators as they join the eBay community.”

Elton John announced a collaboration with Web3 augmented reality gaming platform Jadu to auction a one-of-a-kind Rocket Man hoverboard. All proceeds will go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
I’ve collaborated with @JaduAVAs and @voxel__bunny this #PrideMonth on their rarest metaverse hoverboard ever, with all proceeds going to @ejaf!
— Elton John (@eltonofficial) June 20, 2022
Find out more about the auction at https://t.co/owSDdrfVwa pic.twitter.com/fVoS4RSCNA
More:
- The hoverboard will grant its holder access to future fan events through the Rocket NFT Club;
- Elton John commented that “Whilst I’m no metaverse expert (!) I wanted to make sure that my first NFT was something true to me, and collaborating with LGBTQ+ artist Voxel Bunny and Jadu on something so unique which benefits the Elton John AIDS Foundation for Pride month, was the perfect opportunity. Web3 has the potential to bring people from across the world together like never before and I’m excited for the opportunities to connect with my fans in a vibrant and growing community.”

Pharrell Williams was announced as Chief Brand Officer of Doodles NFT at an NFT NYC event, alongside news that the project has raised its first round of funding led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s VC firm.
— Pharrell Williams (@Pharrell) June 22, 2022
More:
- Demonstrating the depth of this partnership, Williams will produce an NFT-inspired album titled Doodles Records: Volume 1, which will be launched with Columbia Records;
- Doodles' CEO Julian Holguin also announced the forthcoming Doodles 2, a more accessible version of the collection that will be built on a non-Ethereum chain.
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New products and ideas

The creators of HBO’s hit series Silicon Valley have unveiled a new Web3 project: Terrible Pets. Participants will use NFTs based around 8 characters and described as "one-liner blocks of performance" that can be assembled in various ways to create comedic content.
What is Terrible Pets? 🧵
— Terrible Pets (@terriblepets) May 24, 2022
Full article can be found here:https://t.co/uE2BLvIyTV
Our ambition is to invent an entirely new format of content creation: Blocks. It starts with Terrible Pets, a first-of-its-kind NFT collection, focused on the sauciest of comedy. /1
More:
- There will be eight anthropomorphic creatures that make up the Terrible Pets’ cast, described as “human-like animals with relatable traumas, wrapped in absurdism" such as the "WAGMI Meerkat";
- The creatures will meet at Animals Anonymous, a wilderness camp that serves as an emotional support group.

Arbitrum, a layer two scaling solution designed to make Ethereum transactions faster and cheaper, launched an 8 week program called The Arbitrum Odyssey.
📣 The Arbitrum Odyssey will officially start on Tuesday June 21st, 2022 at 1pm EST.
— Arbitrum (@arbitrum) June 17, 2022
We know you arbinauts have been very excited to venture into the unknown with us, and we're very eager to have you aboard! 🚀
But before we continue, our space engineers have a small update: pic.twitter.com/RpXj2p9yb8
More:
- Throughout the 8 weeks, people will be encouraged to perform on-chain requests and engage with dApps available on Arbitrum;
- NFTs will be offered as rewards for those who take part in the testing, with more information to be released as the Odyssey unfolds.

Ledger, best known for its hardware crypto wallets, is launching an NFT marketplace and services platform for enterprises.
More:
- The first confirmed Ledger Market collaborators are RTFKT, TAG Heuer, Deadfellaz, BRICK, and Jen Stark. A growing team of celebrity ambassadors will include Mike Shinoda, Dan Held and Bobby Hundreds;
- In an interview with CoinDesk, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier emphasized the current security issues in the industry and stated that “Everyone's building NFTs like they were building websites in the 2000s."
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Recommended reading
- 10 Tips for Avoiding Scams and Staying Safe on the Decentralized Web: This guide from NFT Plazas offers practical advice on how to spot scams and key steps you can take to protect yourself;
- A Practical Guide to NFT Memberships for Creators: This article by Peter Yang breaks down the benefits and challenges of NFT memberships, including guidance on creating and managing membership schemes.
New podcasts and shows
- Inside: In this YouTube interview, Inside.com's Stephanie Zielinkski talks to Noah Davis, the head of digital sales at Christie’s who recently announced a move to CryptoPunks, about the future of the art market;
- Overpriced JPEGs: In this podcast episode, Carly Reilly interviews Michael Le, aka Just Maiko, a 22 year old Web2 mega-influencer about his entry to the Web3 gaming space as co-founder of Joystick.
Save the date
- 29 - 31 July 2022: NFT Expoverse takes place in Los Angeles
- 17 - 18 September 2022: NFT Show Europe takes place in Valencia, Spain
NFT space in numbers
The values below are from 25th June - 1st July. Source: DappRadar.
Top Marketplaces
Marketplace | Blockchain | Volume | Traders |
---|---|---|---|
X2Y2 | ETH | $140.81M 3.51% |
10,520 20.98% |
OpenSea | ETH, POL, SOL | $120.89M 10.77% |
158,764 -10.71% |
LooksRare | ETH | $53.03M 79.04% |
4,744 11.26% |
Magic Eden | SOL | $28.83M 29.18% |
99,032 1.4% |
CryptoPunks | ETH | $22.73M 177.87% |
295 110.71% |
Top Sales
NFT | Collection | Price |
---|---|---|
CryptoPunk #8531 | CryptoPunks | $873.59k 825 ETH |
CryptoPunk #2964 | CryptoPunks | $440.26k 444 ETH |
CryptoPunk #9001 | CryptoPunks | $388.99k 333.3 ETH |
CryptoPunk #6634 | CryptoPunks | $372.28k 350 ETH |
CryptoPunk #8713 | CryptoPunks | $235.88k 230 ETH |
Top Collections
Collection | Volume | Traders | Sales |
---|---|---|---|
Meebits* | $40.59M 24.22% |
258 25.85% |
523 31.08% |
CryptoPunks | $22.75M 174.03% |
295 107.75% |
268 139.29% |
Terraforms* | $20.17M 54.2% |
88 -30.71% |
110 -2.79% |
Dreadfulz | $19.16M -48.83% |
72 46.94% |
124 5.08% |
Bored Ape Yacht Club | $13.19M -36.42% |
183 -32.47% |
126 -30.39% |
CATGIRL ACADEMIA | $8.78M 188.7% |
41 46.43% |
73 58.7% |
Otherdeed for Otherside | $7.43M -29.15% |
1,564 -27.53% |
1,713 -23.6% |
Doodles | $6.38M 134.4% |
502 46.36% |
382 79.34% |
Mutant Ape Yacht Club | $6.01M -39.01% |
461 -33.47% |
296 -37.02% |
Art Blocks | $4.69M 243.87% |
1,777 104.49% |
2,078 167.44% |
*Most of the sales in the collection occurred on the LooksRare marketplace and may be the subject of wash trading.