The second Web3 Weekly Wrap is here, detailing this week’s interesting NFTs, artists, and announcements in the Web3 space.
This week we were treated with an assortment of inspiring news, from Catalog’s monumental raise and roadmap to a raft of new NFT platforms, V2 announcements, games, and chain developments. To say the Web3 space is thriving would be an understatement.
Catalog Raises $2.2 Million and Details Roadmap
Yesterday, Catalog gave an update on the platform’s progress so far and details on where it’s heading. The piece—which you can read in full here—was structured around the news that at the end of June, Cargo closed a $2.2 million fundraising round led by 1confirmation, Inflection, Delphi Digital, WndrCo, and a range of angel investors including Cooper Turley, Trevor McFedries, and RAC.
Catalog also gave details as to its sales history, which currently sits at $213,234 five months after the platform launched. Over 100 artists have minted on the platform to date. Catalog also noted that it will be moving towards a community-owned model, following in the footsteps of Super Rare and Friends With Benefits.
RCRDSHP Launches
Earlier this week, RCRDSHP, an electronic music collectibles platform, announced its launch. The platform, which names industry partners such as Toolroom Records, Bar25, and Circus Music, among others, focuses on limited-edition packs, which, when unboxed, feature “a unique aspect of an artist, label, or festival’s musical worlds.” The platform also notes that gamification features are on the way, with collectibles unlocking certain features.
According to a follow-up press release, RCRDSHP sold out its first drop of over 5000 genesis packs in the first few hours after launch.
Degenerate Apes NFT Sale Sends Solana to All-Time High
The native token of the Solana blockchain, SOL, hit an all-time high of $63.33 after the launch of the NFT collection Degenerate Ape Academy. The collection, which features 10,000 unique cartoon apes, sold out in mere minutes after its launch with trade volume reaching just over $5.9 million despite what the team called a “s***y launch”. This surge in price has pushed Solana into the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, surpassing Uniswap’s UNI with $17.5 Billion.
Dolce & Gabbana to Debut Luxury NFT Collection on UNXD
Luxury fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana has announced that it’s entering the NFT world with its debut collection, Collezione Genesi, launching August 28, at the start of the Alta Moda couture show in Venice. The collection will be launched on UNXD via the Polygon Matic network and will feature items designed by brand co-founders Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. This is D&G’s first foray into the NFT world, but the luxury fashion market has been experimenting with the technology for a while; Earlier this month, rival clothiers Louis Vuitton and Burberry both launched NFT video games – Louis the game and Blankos Block Party respectively.
Vine Creator Working on NFT Video Game
Vine founder Dom Hoffman is working on an on-chain video game system called SupDrive, which will use NFTs as a virtual game cartridge. Hoffman announced via Discord that the games will be collectible NFTs and will run off of virtual firmware. Each copy of a game will be unique, offering different level designs, color palettes, and more to each player that collects it. If the project works out, Hoffman eventually plans to let fans and collectors develop games of their own with the technology. SupDrive will also feature a sort of social metagame, with users being placed on either red, blue, or green teams depending on their NFTs.
SuperRare Launches Version 2.0
NFT marketplace SuperRare has announced the launch of version 2 of its platform. Most notably, version 2 introduces the $RARE governance token, a platform-wide voting mechanism that will hand control of the platform over to token holders. Sovereign smart contract and an independently curated storefront are the other noteworthy features. To celebrate the launch of the upgraded platform, SuperRare is airdropping 150,000,000 RARE tokens to the community. Anyone using the platform prior to July 2, 2021, is eligible to receive free tokens.
Alibaba Launches NFT Marketplace, Allowing Content Creators to Copyright Works on the Blockchain.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has announced that it has created a brand new NFT marketplace that allows content creators to copyright works onto the blockchain. The multinational conglomerate, which has an estimated $257 Billion in assets, has been allegedly working with blockchain and cryptocurrency for years. Currently, NFTs are minted on what is being called the “New Copyright Blockchain”, which will be operated and maintained by the Sichuan Blockchain Association Copyright Committee. One of the key features of this newly implemented system is that it will allow creators to copyright material via the blockchain and then sell the rights to that content as tokens as well.
What to Join and Who to Follow:
VeeFriends Discord – An NFT project around meaningful intellectual property and an extraordinary community (put together by Gary Vaynerchuk).
Twitter – @veefriends
CleanNFTs – Discord channel championing clean NFT platforms and news.
NFTPlazas Twitter – #1 For Daily NFT News.
XNFT Artist Spotlight:
GroundBIRD
Electronic artist GroundBIRD’s first XNFT offering was a retro-inspired, 12 track album titled Into the Wave, which gives owners exclusive rights to use the content as they see fit, in perpetuity. This means that whoever owns the NFT will be able to use the music for commercial or non-commercial production use. They’re also including high-resolution track stems of all the music as a part of the purchase so that the owner can mix, remix, and edit the pieces as they see fit.
Blurring the lines of synth-wave and electro, the collection features retro-style synthesis reminiscent of the 8-bit era, punchy percussion, and squelchy basslines. The collection is complemented by album art depicting a pixelated, neon-colored dodecahedron spinning along with the music against a black background (seen above). 10 of these albums are available now for 20xDai on the xDai chain here.
GroundBIRD has since followed up Into The Wave with Awakened, a new one-of-one audio-visual piece of stunning clarity and composition. Again, the UK artist is experimenting with rights on the blockchain, offering a worldwide exclusive license to the buyer, along with full HD quality downloads of the piece, which is currently on sale for 500xDai here.
