Are you ready for some NFTs news?
We've prepared a new article that covers the latest news and updates in the world of Web3 and NFTs. Read them below!
Contents
📈 Macro – State of Metaverse, in terms of volumes & investments;
🗞️ Last week's news – Mastercard, Arcade.xyz, Tesla, Hong Kong;
💰 Investments/Financing – Mythical Games, Pixion Games, PWN, Hook;
📣 Projects news/Updates – Frank DeGods, Pudgy Penguins, Moonbirds, Azuki, CyberKongz;
⚖️ Legal – Metaverse Lawyer writes about the deepfake bill recently passed by the Senate;
🐈 Veefriends – PTaSB & VeeFriends cards;
⚙️NFTility, by Mtk – Lacoste UNDW3 Card;
📚 Dictionary – GMAEN, STEALTH MINT;
💸 Sale of the week – CryptoPunk #9314;
📈 Macro
Investment in Metaverse-related projects dominates relative to Web3 at $707 million in the first half of 2023 alone. The amount represents 44% of the total investment in the entire ecosystem so far this year.
According to a report from Dapp Radar the virtual worlds market started the year at full speed. In the first quarter, digital real estate trading volume grew 277% to an impressive $311 million. Q1 of 2023 marked the best quarter for virtual worlds since the Terra Luna crash in May 2022. The number of land transactions reached an all-time high of 146,690, an 83.56% increase over the previous quarter. However, Q2 took a turn for the worse. Bad.
Q2 saw a substantial 81% decrease in trading volume to $56 million. Land sales followed, falling 75% to 35,522.
While both The Sandbox and Decentraland had some exciting events and partnerships in Q2, in the picture below we can take a trip back to 2022, when land prices in the top Metaverses peaked, and then come back to reality.
Also from the report we learn that at the forefront of the Metaverse's evolution are Asian nations, who have pioneered innovative platforms such as Roblox, Decentraland, Fortnite, Sandbox and Zepeto. The Metaverse is expected to have a significant impact on Asia's GDP, estimated to reach between $800 billion and $1.4 trillion per year by 2035.
Startups in the Metaverse space saw a significant drop in funding, down 66% from 2022. Do you think this is also due to investment in artificial intelligence (AI) startups? We're convinced.
However, even under these conditions, funding for projects in the Metaverse ecosystem is not entirely dark. The industry has attracted $707 million since the beginning of 2023, standing out at 43.68% of investments across the web3.
🗞️ News from last week
- Mastercard will launch a beta version of a blockchain app store this summer, built on the Ethereum network.
- Another NFT loan for a real asset was recorded after Arcade.xyz brokered a $35k loan secured by a Patek Philippe watch.
- Vienna has 100 Tesla tokens on its streets as a result of Eloop's collaboration with Peaq Network to decentralize ridesharing.
- The Hong Kong authorities have announced the creation of a task force dedicated to promoting Web3 development. It will be led by Hong Kong's Financial Secretary, Paul Chan, along with other government officials and industry experts.
- Mastercard is embracing blockchain in the banking sector with its Multi-Token Network (MTN) by testing tokenized bank deposits using stablecoins and CBDCs.
💰 Investments / Financing
- Studio Mythical Games has secured $37M for Web3 game development. The company has created popular games such as NFT Rivals and Blankos Block Party.
- Avalanche-backed web3 game studio Pixion Games has completed a $5.5M funding round for the development of Fableborne.
- PWN has raised $2M to create a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending marketplace backed by digital assets (tokens, NFTs and more).
- Hook raised $3M in a funding round led by Collab+Currency and Lattice to build the NFT-native options protocol.
📣 Projects news / Updates
- Frank DeGods has unveiled a new roadmap format, similar to an old Facebook profile (missed it?), which will contain clues about future developments of the project. Take a look if you're nostalgic 👀
- Pudgy Penguins announces it will have a booth at San Diego Comic Con 2023.
- The Moonbirds ecosystem will soon be expanded, and 50 Mythic Eggs and Oddities will be minted every day.
- Azuki floor price down following collectors' criticism of 'identical' art. A potential Azuki DAO lawsuit looms over Elementals mint worth $39M.
- CyberKongz introduces a new security standard, ERC721x, with asset locking functionality during staking and protection.
⚖️ Legal
The Romanian Senate adopted the bill on the responsible use of technology in the context of the deepfake phenomenon
Last week, the Senate passed legislation to ban the malicious use of technology and deepfake.
Jokes made using deepfake technology can be fined up to 200,000 lei if not reported as tricks.
Under the proposal, deepfake or severe fake means any image, audio or video content created using Artificial Intelligence (AI) or reality augmentation (VR) technology so as to create the appearance that a person said or did things that were not actually said or done by that person.
Also, distribution on the internet and/or broadcasting in the media of deepfake content is prohibited unless accompanied by a **warning displayed on at least 10% of the display area and for the duration of the broadcast of the visual content **or an audio message at the beginning and end of the audio content: "This material contains imaginary images".
Violation of these provisions, if they have not been committed in such a way that, according to the criminal law, they are considered offences, constitutes a contravention and is punishable by a fine from 10,000 to 100,000 RON, and if the act is repeated in at least two separate actions, it is punishable by a fine from 20,000 to 200,000 RON. The competent authority to establish infringements is the CNA.
The legislative proposal is due to be debated by the Chamber of Deputies in September, as soon as elected representatives return from their parliamentary holiday.
The law was initiated by MP Eugen Bejinariu and Senator Robert Cazanciuc, both from the Social Democratic Party.
For more details, you can read the explanatory memorandum, and here is the form adopted by the Senate.
🐈⬛ Veefriends
The latest phase of "PTaSB" is live on BurnIsland, currently only 3 recordings, a unique opportunity for creative fans to meet Gary and Snoop Dogg in Atlanta (more details in previous issue of NL).
For collectors of VeeFriends cards, an interesting guide has appeared, on how to buy, sell and exchange VeeFriends trading cards, what strategies to apply and how to check on ebay the progress of a sale. Including the actual sale price if an offer is accepted, information that is not directly visible on the site, but can be obtained using an additional tool 130Point.
⚙️ NFTility
Regardless of how great the present or potential value of a project is, the reality is that in the highly volatile economy of NFTs it weighs quite a bit what, how, where and over what time frame you build.
When market volumes drop to critical levels, the teams behind the projects need a few factors to continue, among the most important being capital flow and community activation.
Lacoste, which entered the web 3 space in June 2022 with the Lacoste UNDW3 collection is among the projects that can allocate funds to continue their digital adventure. And because they understand how vulnerable they are without an engaged community, they've come up with a plan to activate it: the UNDW3 Card secondary collection.
Cards are dynamic NFTs, the rarity of which is influenced by the diligence and commitment of cardholders. They can accumulate points in "The Mission", an experience that orbits around the ideas of active engagement, gamification and co-creation in the "UNDW3 Factory". The campaign will be divided into monthly themes that, looking back, will define Lacoste's mission in the virtual realm.
The accumulated points will have two uses: they will be associated with the NFT, influencing its rarity, and they will be recorded in a ranking that can be tracked on the dedicated "mission" platform, where the rewards of the winners are also listed.
The efforts of those on the podium are rewarded with a VIP experience for 2 persons at Roland-Garros, a creative workshop with the Lacoste team, or the opportunity to become the face of the brand for a social media campaign. Places 4 to 200 earn valuable vouchers that can be used for physical and virtual shopping experiences.
From the beginning, Lacoste – UNDW3 wasn't the kind of project that made waves or made it to the top, but that didn't stop them from building steadily. Maybe this will be the real pace for long-running projects.
Until next time, I wish you to work on building resilience.
📚 Dictionary
- GMAEN – It comes from…all of them. When you don't know what to say, you don't just say gm frens. You also say good morning and afternoon, evening and good night frens. It's usually more common on Discord.
- STEALTH MINT – In general, a stealth mint approach is when the the mint smart contract and/or the website are launched before or just when the NFT mint goes "live". Usually, no marketing is done beforehand.
💸 Sale of the week
This week we have a CrypoPunk worth 178 ETH, who is also a Romanian patriot. He's just wearing our flag on his head [RO]
Find us:
Creative Tim
- Official Website
- NF-Tim – Our official NFTs Collection
Metaventis
- Official Website
