NFTs In A Nutshell: A Weekly Review
It was a long week for NFTs. There was an abundant amount of chatter around potential hackers, Dapper Labs raised another round of capital, and a Bored Ape signed an agency deal.
As always, we’re taking a look back at the last seven days of activity around NFTs. Let’s dig in.
This Week’s Non-Fungible Token News
Snoop Dogg: A Mysterious Collector Of NFTs?
It was quite a week for the Snoop D-O-G-G. It all started with suspicion that Snoop was a increasingly well-known NFT Twitter personality, Cozomo de’ Medici. He has engaged with NFTs previously, so it is certainly within reason. Cozomo’s OpenSea account is reported to have an account value north of $17M.
By the end of the week, Snoop had partnered with ‘The Sandbox,’ an Ethereum-based metaverse platform. The announcement came with the news of Snoop’s latest NFT collection, a “private party pass” that includes VIP access to events, NFTs, and player avatars. It’s a new generation of fan engagement.
Dapper Labs Latest
Dapper Labs, creators of Top Shot, CryptoKitties, and the broader FLOW blockchain, have raised another $250M this week. The funding round was led by Coatue, with new investors in the round including BOND and GIC. The funding values the firm at over $7.5B.
Meanwhile, the formal press release around Dapper’s partnership with soccer league LaLiga hit the streets as well. We first covered Dapper’s partnership with LaLiga a month ago when reports first emerged.
TIME Magazine NFTs
TIME Magazine was the latest traditional media publication to dig in deeper with NFTs this week with their newest NFT project, ‘TIMEPiece.’ The project received substantial scrutiny, as just under 5K NFTs came and went within sixty seconds, leaving many in the broader NFT community believing that bots were at play.
Gas prices reached insane highs, hitting around 9,000 gwei at one point. The end result was roughly 700 holders in total of the released pieces.
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Bored Ape Jenkins New Deal
Alright, so NFTs signing Hollywood deals isn’t anything completely out of left field at this point. Let’s add another to the list.
Bored Ape NFT ‘Jenkins The Valet’ signed a deal with powerhouse talent agency CAA this past week. In August, Jenkins released “The Writers Room,” an NFT series that leads holders down a “choose your own adventure” storyline.
The news comes less than 30 days after CryptoPunks creators Larva Labs signed a deal with competing agency UTA.
Ethereum has been the main driver for NFTs to date, however as TIME’s latest release showed, high-volume demand can lead to sky-high gas prices, which is less than desirable for casual consumers. | Source: ETH-USD on TradingView.com
NFTs Experiencing Hackers, Or More To The Story?
There was an uptick of chatter this week around prominent NFT players about potential hacking behavior on OpenSea accounts. One OpenSea and MetaMask user claimed that a hefty-sized account of NFTs was hacked, including a piece from Damien Hirst, an ArtBlocks piece, and more.
The news spread to a degree that others had suggested that airdropped NFTs were the potential root of the behavior. However, others have noted that this is simply not possible, and that the initial users reports were simply a result of user incompetence.
The Latest Charitable NFT Project, Helping Afghan Women Access Education
It seems like each week we hear about a new project with a charitable focus that is at it’s core. This past week, our sister network NewsBTC covered the latest NFTs that are donating 100% of income to education access for women in Afghanistan.
About a month ago, we also covered an NFT project that delivered humanitarian aid in Afghanistan with each sale. Big respect to those creating NFTs with great intentions.
Sorare Joins The Fundraising Party
Dapper Labs isn’t the only fundraising NFT firm over this past week. French startup Sorare raised $680M in it’s Series B round – a number that puts the company’s valuation around $4.3B.
Sorare has been building a fantasy soccer platform with roughly 180 club partners to date. The platform also recently secured a deal with the aforementioned LaLiga, leaving some potential questions around where NFT rights will be drawn between Dapper Labs and Sorare.
Twitter’s Authenticating NFTs?
Could the next ‘blue check’ be a legit-check on user NFTs? If you pay attention to crypto, you probably heard about Twitter’s integration of Bitcoin and Lightning Network in the platform’s latest Tips update.
Why stop there? With this move came quite a bit of buzz that NFT authentication was potentially in the cards for Twitter. Yes, that means that the constant “saving your NFT on my hard drive” jokes might be at risk.
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Featured image from Pixabay, Charts from TradingView.com
Crypto Corner: The Sports Slice
Crypto.com made a splash into esports when we covered last weekend’s Sports Slice. This week, the growing exchange made another sports sponsorship splash – this time with an NBA team.
Each week, we take a fresh perspective on the last seven days of sports and cryptocurrency.
The Sports Slice
Crypto.com Heads To Philly
Just days after inking a jersey deal with esports org Fnatic, Crypto.com is back in traditional stick and ball sponsorship. The exchange secured a deal with the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, one that sent Crypto.com over $400M in sponsorship spend on the year, according to Bloomberg. The move is a refreshing change of pace for Sixers fans, who have been swimming in headlines around Ben Simmons departure rumors. The new partnership will be the second crypto jersey patch in the NBA, with the first being StormX and the Portland Trail Blazers.
Meanwhile, in a move that was certainly less “on the radar,” Crypto.com also inked a deal with ‘DeFi The Game,’ a fandom startup, in a partnership that will look to bring NFT collections tailored around global cricket athletes.
While many exchanges have aggressively pursued sports sponsorship deals this year, Crypto.com and FTX have undoubtedly been the leaders in both visibility and spend.
John Wall’s Less-Than-Ideal NFT Release
Last week’s Slice covered some NBA athletes who were showing some excitement around crypto and NFTs. Foot on the gas for NBA guard John Wall, who has gone on to release his own ‘Baby Baller’ NFT series.
However, the project came with substantial criticism from NFT collectors, who quickly claimed that ‘Baby Baller’ backdrops were copied from video game title Fortnite, and that the design wasn’t up to snuff – imitating a bit too closely characters from the “Boss Baby” film.
The official ‘Baby Ballers’ are set to release this coming week, but this is a rocky start for Wall and his team.
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Another Collegiate Sports Athlete Releasing Their Own Token
Oregon defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux has been battling an ankle injury early in the college football season. While the lineman looks towards his anticipated return to the field in the games to come, he’s been looking to take advantage of the changing name, image, and likeness landscape.
In a story first broken by ESPN, Thibodeaux is launching his own crypto token, $JREAM, on the Rally platform. The token’s name comes from the athlete’s Jream Foundation, which he founded to provide disadvantaged youth with more opportunities.
Thibodeaux has already signed a six-figure memorabilia deal and a partnership with United Airlines, among other brands. It’s a new era for collegiate sports stars, and crypto is here for it. In a Sports Slice earlier this month, we covered UCLA basketball athlete Jaylen Clark, who was the first D1 collegiate athlete to create their own crypto token.
Crypto.com has been an absolute powerhouse in the world of crypto and sports sponsorships this year, surpassing over $400M in sponsorship spend this year alone. The platform has delved in to nearly everything - from cricket, to basketball, to esports - and everything in between. | Source: CRO-USD on TradingView.com
More Soccer Clubs Find Crypto Deals
Soccer clubs across the globe have been pretty receptive to crypto deals thus far, and fan tokens with clubs like Juventus, PSG, and AC Milan dominate broader fan token volume.
This past week, more crypto deals came to life. Southampton, who had already partnered with crypto sports betting platform Sportsbet.io, found a new partner in learncrypto.com. The crypto education platform will sponsor the club’s training kit and will look to “spread the word about the positive impact crypto can have.”
Demarcus Cousins With A 1/1 Sports NFT
Demarcus Cousins was widely considered one of the best big guys in the NBA for many, many years. While injuries have sidelined his career, Cousins is still respected for his skillset.
This past week, Cousins released a 1/1 NFT in partnership with animator DeeKay. The NFT initially sold for 3.5ETH.
FTX Puts Rubber On The Road
That’s right, Crypto.com wasn’t the only exchange to hit the sports sponsorship headlines this week. After Crypto.com’s previous partnership with F1, FTX has sealed a deal with Mercedes F1. The multi-year deal will see FTX branding on car and on driver uniforms. Branding will be unveiled immediately, with this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix being the first event with FTX brand assets. NFTs and joint corporate social responsibility events will be in the cards later down the road as well.
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Featured image from Pixabay, Charts from TradingView.com
Southampton secure crypto training kit sponsorship
Learncrypto.com to appear on Saints’ training kit for first time ahead of Wolves game on Sunday
Crypto education platform is part-funded by club’s main sponsor, Sportsbet.io
Elsewhere, Norwich City announce Bidstacks as first esports partner
Top-flight English soccer side Southampton have named cryptocurrency education platform learncrypto.com as their new training kit sponsor.
Starting with Sunday’s Premier League game against Wolverhampton Wanderers, learncrypto.com branding will feature on the training kit for both the Saints’ first team and B team throughout the 2021/22 season.
The financial terms of the arrangement have not been made public.
A non-profit website, learncrypto.com is part-funded by Southampton’s main sponsor Sportsbet.io and allows users to access courses offering information about blockchain and crypto.
Roman German, chief product officer at Yolo Group, which also funds the website, said the company would be working with Southampton to “spread the word about the positive impact crypto can have”.
Sarah Batters, Southampton’s director of marketing and partnerships, added: “Keeping pace with new technologies is increasingly tough, so we support learncrypto.com’s mission to give confidence and foundational knowledge to those wanting to interact with cryptocurrencies or blockchain in the future.”
The partnership comes at a time when an increasing number of cryptocurrency firms are investing in sports sponsorship, which has led to some scrutiny about leagues and teams promoting nascent financial products to their fans.
In other Premier League sponsorship news, Norwich City have unveiled Bidstack as their first ever official esports partner, in a deal that will see the Canaries leverage the brand’s technology across their owned and operated competitive gaming content.