NFT Review 36 - Battle of the Punks
NFT Review 36 - Battle of the Punks
Larva Labs v Cryptopunks V1, using NFTs to track car records, NFTs go to Coachella, and more.
NFT Review is a weekly newsletter covering NFTs in the Web3 ecosystem on Polkadot’s side of the woods. The newsletter is put together by Bruno Škvorc and gbaci.
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Dear NFT enthusiast,
The biggest news of the week, in our opinion, was Larva Labs’ decision to issue a DMCA against Wrapped Cryptopunks V1. More curious is the fact that they made this decision after selling some of the V1 punks themselves.
Their main argument is that V1s are not legitimate seeing as they were discontinued for the more popular (and ‘official) V2 punks. But then, if they (Larva Labs) believed their argument, why did they sell? Why didn’t they burn the V1 punks?
Their ‘counterargument’ is that the funds raised are going to be used to buy back Cryptopunks V2 & Meebits and donate to the Rainforest Foundation. But this doesn’t make sense because by selling, they validated the existence of the V1 punks in their new wrapped version. But this is just our opinion.
Apparently, the V1 punks community is considering suing Larva Labs. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. In any case, we’re glad to not be Larva Labs right now and wish them the best.
Let’s crack on with the rest the updates.
Thank you for reading and have a great week.
— NFT Review
👨🏼🎨 RMRK Artist Spotlight: ShibaTales’s Singular Collab Experience
Since launching Kanaria and Singular in 2021, one thing we've been most proud of (among other things 😏) is the strength and vibrancy of the artist community we have attracted to Singular. We feel incredibly lucky because we know we had no hand in it. If the artist community didn't live the values that currently define it--openness, kindness, collaborativeness--we wouldn't be here.
So we thought it right to create a new series focused on highlighting some of the most noteworthy collaborations. Our first artist is ShibaTales, the duo behind the successful SHIBAMOJI collection. They have been a very important part of our artist community, even taking the initiative to create Singular Artist Collab Klub (SACK), a Telegram group for Singular artists to get to know themselves better. You can read our first interview with them here.
We loved reading ShibaTale's collab experience and know you will too.
📬 NFT News from Kusama & Polkadot
RMRK has made January payments to all Kanaria Njordson gem holders.
The RMRK x hide.me VPN sale of the Blushing Guy Fawkes (a legendary Kanaria mask that gives the holder a lifetime VPN subscription) sold out in a short time.
You can now own your own shop on Moonsama’s seasonal server.
Nasdaq featured Bit Country and RMRK in a report on the present and future of metaverse, gaming, and NFTs
Metaverse-as-a-Service: CoinMarketCap coined a new term to better describe the value proposition of projects like Bit Country.
Unique Network is hosting a new eco-conscious NFT drop for the DotSama communities via a partnership with Sādu, Sovereign Nature Initiative & many more.
Zenlink hosted a Twitter space conversation with RMRK founder Bruno Škvorc in attendance. Also part of the conversation were reps from Moonriver and Bifrost Finance.
Nova Wallet now lets you track and interact with your $RMRK tokens on Statemine, Karura, and Bifrost. Please get your tokens off of Statemine!
Kryptos Chain had Bruno Škvorc on their Youtube show to talk about RMRK and the future of NFTs.
1,355 Kanaria holders have been selected for the Exosama whitelist.
🗞 NFT News from Ethereum and Beyond
New Alfa Romeo SUV uses NFT and blockchain to track car records.
US Treasury targets NFTs for potential high-value art money laundering.
NFL to offer virtual NFT tickets at Super Bowl in Los Angeles.
Nike takes seller of unlicensed NFT sneakers to court.
Bored Ape Yacht Club creator, Yuga Labs, in funding talks with A16z at $5B valuation.
Nintendo considering ways to utilize NFTs in a way that doesn't diminish 'joy'.
Gamestop partnered with Immutable X for NFT marketplace and announced a $100M grant for creators.
Grammy-winner John Legend launches new music and art NFT platform.
Coachella and FTX to sell Lifetime Festival Passes as Solana-based NFTs.
Team17, creators of the Worms video game franchise, gave up on NFTs after community pushback.
Animal-linked NFTs raise money for South African reserve.
$1B worth of ETH burned in the past 30 days due to record high OpenSea NFT transactions.
Buzzfeed found the real names of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s pseudonymous founders.
Baby Doge partners with Bundesliga Club TSG Hoffenheim for promotional NFTs.
Animoca’s nWay launches Olympic play to earn NFT game.
Sotheby’s sued over Quantum NFT auction.
International Olympic Committee partners with developer to launch game with NFT prizes.
OpenSea upgraded its minting contract in an effort to mitigate “inactive listing” NFT sales; the NFT platform also just became the #1 used product on Ethereum.
0x Protocol is adding multi-chain NFT swaps support to its V4 infrastructure.
Flastmint, which lets users mint from any NFT allowlists, arrived.
Gem experienced its first CryptoPunks sweep.
Rarible is working on an integration with Polygon.
Disney is making NFT hires.
Cool Pets claiming began.
Lost Nouns, a Nouns derivative project showcasing unused Noun traits, kicked off its first auction.
Sound.xyz has paid out +$300k to its +30 artists to date.
Tycho auctioned his song Jetty on Catalog.
Cryptovoxels is hiring for multiple positions.
Decentraland published its 2022 Manifesto.
The Sandbox completed its LAND migration.
Atlantis World is building virtual clubhouses for Nouns and SharkDAO.
Indian couple celebrates blockchain wedding with NFT vows and a digital priest.
That’s all for this week, see you in the next edition! Got some links to share with us, artists to feature, NFTs to sell, jobs to promote, or events to popularize? Get in touch with Bruno or gbaci!