Nifty News: The Lennon Collection, Gucci and Lamborghini NFTs, Atari’s 50th anniversary
Let’s start off the week with the latest nonfungible token (NFT)-related news in today’s Nifty News. The following collections are either ongoing or launching the first week of February.
The Beatles memorabilia up for auction
Julian Lennon, the son of The Beatles' musician John Lennon’s, put up NFTs for auction of items from his personal collection of memorabilia on the YellowHeart marketplace, including the coat John Lennon wore in the Magical Mystery Tour film and three Gibson guitars.
Lennon, however, has no intention of selling the physical items because he “would like to be able to pass these items on for generations to come,” he said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. Each NFT contains an audio component, narrated by the son, recounting his connection with the item.
The item of the “Lennon Connection” auction with the highest offer at the moment is Paul McCartney’s hand-written notes for the song “Hey Jude.” McCartney originally wrote the song to comfort a 5-year-old Julian when his parents divorced, according to the auction site.
“Hey Jude” Notes 1:1 for Lennon Connection : The NFT Collectionhttps://t.co/6l5nzO1CHJ pic.twitter.com/9RSXpyKwId — Julian Lennon (@JulianLennon) January 25, 2022
Gucci becomes super
Fashion house Gucci and SUPERPLASTIC, the creator of animated celebrities and digital vinyl toys, have partnered up for a three-part NFT collaboration dubbed SUPERGUCCI. All SUPERGUCCI purchases will be in ETH.
The first SUPERGUCCI drop will include ten exclusive NFTs and accompanying ceramic sculptures. The main character of the collection is called CryptoJanky, inspired by SUPERPLASTIC’s artists Janky & Guggimon. Both the CryptoJanky NFT and the handmade sculpture were co-designed and built in Italy.
Additionally, Gucci’s Creative Director Alessandro Michele created an online concept store, the Gucci Vault. Prospective customers can browse the microsite for pre-owned vintage Gucci pieces hand-picked by Michele, and restored and reconditioned for sale.
Lamborghini goes to space
The Italian car maker announced its first NFT project called “Space Time Memory:” a series of five photographs of a Lamborghini Ultimae going into space.
Swiss artist Fabian Oefner created the images from real physical car parts and photographs taken from a weather balloon. According to the company, the NFTs are accessible via a QR code engraved in five units of a physical “Space Key,” whose carbon fiber elements were sent to the International Space Station as a part of a joint research project with Lamborghini.
An Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae rises above the Earth as a symbol of human space exploration: it’s called Space Time Memory, and it’s our first NFT set ever. The digital artworks, created by Fabian Oefner in collaboration with NFT PRO, will be soon auctioned.#Lamborghini pic.twitter.com/NPomZsKdE8 — Lamborghini (@Lamborghini) January 27, 2022
Atari celebrates 50 years with NFT GFTs
Atari decided to commemorate its 50th anniversary of video game making by creating NFTs and gifting them to fans. Giftable NFTs, or GFTs, are surprise limited edition NFTs that will automatically unwrap on a specific date. According to the company, this collection honors the Atari 2600 console and games such as Combat, Swordquest, Asteroids, Centipede, and more.
Atari partnered with Republic Realm, a metaverse real estate investment fun, to develop the GFTs, which can be compared to loot boxes, a video game feature that represents virtual treasure chests containing in-game items.
Sign-up for the limited-edition Atari 50th Anniversary NFT Collection drop at https://t.co/0JS1xiL5Dn
Secure your spot and get a 10% discount #GFTshoppe #nft #atari pic.twitter.com/iZQ8NkRK5Z — Atari (@atari) January 27, 2022
Other Nifty News
LooksRare, OpenSea’s up-and-coming rival, has sparked some concerns over the increased wash trading activity on the NFT marketplace. Despite the speculation, LooksRare was the chosen platform for the highest recorded sale of a Bored Ape Yacht Club, or BAYC, NFT in terms of ETH paid, and not dollar value due to the current price of ETH. On Sunday night, Bored Ape #283 sold for 1080.69 ETH, or $2.85 million on LooksRare. BAYC recently welcomed Justin Bieber to the club with his 500 ETH, or $1.29 million purchase of Bored Ape #3001.
OpenSea, however, also faced heavy user critique last week after setting a minting limit of five NFT collections with 50 items per collection, when previously it was unlimited. Additionally, when the platform called on its users to cancel any inactive listings, many ended up losing their NFTs and their money due to confusing email instructions.
The Vogue Business NFT Tracker
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, give digital items a unique digital identity, assigned via blockchain. This means digital items take on properties once relegated to physical goods, such as scarcity and unique ownership. The first recorded sale of a fashion NFT was the iridescent dress created by The Fabricant and sold for the equivalent of $9,500 in May 2019. The first luxury brand entrant was Gucci’s Aria film, auctioned for $25,000 in May 2021.
Non-fungible token / nän ˈfənjəbəl ˈtōkən / noun CRYPTOGRAPHIC ASSETS ON BLOCKCHAIN WITH UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION CODES AND METADATA THAT DISTINGUISH THEM FROM EACH OTHER
Since then, a growing number of brands have introduced a wide variety of NFT projects, including Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Nars, Levi’s, Clinqiue, Dolce & Gabbana, Gap and Adidas. Balmain has released at least four NFT projects and counting. Data collected for the Vogue Business Index shows that 17 per cent of brands in the Index had worked with NFTs as of Winter 2021. Already, strategies have matured from art projects and digital collectibles to tokens that grant special perks through elaborate partnerships and structures. “It’s going to take time to find the right utility for NFTs, but brands need to start now,” Cathy Hackl, CEO of the Futures Intelligence Group, recently told Vogue Business.
How Luxury Brands Are Manufacturing Scarcity in the Digital Economy
Traditional luxury goods companies have treated digital as a channel. But they’re now starting to treat it as a marketplace in its own right, thanks largely to Blockchain technology, which has delivered the Non-Fungible Token. Today, the key ingredients of luxury – rarity, exclusivity, and cost — can also apply to virtual products, as companies like Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci have realized.
Can digital be luxury? Until very recently, most consumers and luxury companies would have said no. Luxury is about exclusivity, whereas digital about making products, data, and knowledge accessible — the two would seem to be mutually exclusive. According to this logic digital is only ever going to be a channel or, at best, an add-on supplementing and amplifying a physical product or experience.
To be sure, the add-on can offer considerable value or access whole new customer groups. Tiffany’s engagement ring finder app is a case in point: it allows users to try on engagement rings using augmented reality in the app before entering the boutique. Louis Vuitton has collections of accessories that League of Legends players can buy online and then collect in stores. Gucci last year offered Pokémon GO players the ability to purchase fashion items from Gucci’s partnership collection with The North Face at one of the Gucci-Poke stops. Game company Epic Games has partnered with brands from Balenciaga to Louis Vuitton and committed $100 million for game creation in 3D space.
But it’s turning out that the digital world can also provide the basic ingredients of luxury goods and services quite independent of any physical artifact or experience.
Ingredient 1: Rarity
Even in the physical world, telling the difference between original and copy can be difficult. Distinguishing “real” digital products from equally digital copies has long been seen as well-nigh impossible. But technology, as ever, is coming up with a solution: non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Leveraging blockchain technology, NFTs can be attached to digital products, such as a digital painting, making it possible to establish authenticity and proof of ownership. As a result, sales of products with NFTs have spiked, reaching $10.7 billion in Q3 2021. An NFT tacked on the digital artwork by the artist Beeple sold for nearly $70 million in March 2021 at Christie’s. Investment Bank Morgan Stanley estimates that NFTs could make up 10% of the luxury market by 2030 — a $50 billion opportunity.
NFTs also allow brands can create completely personalized fashion items: The first virtual hoodie NFT by the brand Overpriced sold on the platform BlockParty for $26,000. Companies such as RTFKT or PlattformE offer options for NFT holders to get a physical version of their digitally owned product with the help of flexible production processes such as 3D printing. This flexibility also offers the possibility to produce the products on-demand only when the NFT holder has tested them virtually and decided to own the physical version, avoiding the long-standing problem of overstock, which is particularly prevalent in the fashion industry.
But rarity and personalization are not enough. Luxury goods must go beyond rarity and find ways to tap into the dreams, fantasies, and ambitions that fuel our desire. Well, digital can do that too.
Ingredient 2: Exclusivity
In the digital world, we can present ourselves pretty much how we like — and change those identities very quickly. Some luxury brands have already spotted the opportunity this presents: Balenciaga, for example, has developed a virtual fashion collection in Fortnite — players can showcase their affiliation to the brand community by buying branded virtual clothes or “skins” for their avatars. Burberry is experimenting with in-game NFTs to offer skins to virtual avatars such as their limited edition, limited quantity character named Sharky B in the multiplayer game Blankos Block Party.
Trading Platform DMarket estimates the market for digital skins and in-game purchases to be around $40 billion per year. Establishing a global intra-operability across ecosystems that allows items to be worn and exchanged on different platforms will only enhance consumers’ ability to project their identities and status, increasing the value of the digital products that enable this.
It’s not just gaming. Online communities such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club or Pudgy Penguins are becoming popular among digital collectors. Membership of the community is obtained through purchase of an NFT linked to an image (for example, a picture of a bored ape or a pudgy penguin), and the tokens serve as an entry ticket for access to collectible digital goods and services. According to the Chainalysis 2021 NFT Market Report, membership tokens for these communities have been the most popular NFTs in 2021. In August, for example, Mutant Ape Yacht Club developer Yuga Labs sold 10,000 membership NFTs in just one hour, generating a transaction value of $96 million.
What’s more, the virtual goods and services sold in games and communities are often individually very expensive — bringing us to another key luxury ingredient.
Ingredient 3: Price
In December 2021, one of four exclusive NFT items was just sold on Mutant Ape Yacht Club for $3.6 million. Brands have already taken notice. Dolce & Gabbana’s recent sale of nine NFTs for $5.7 million is just one example that highlights the potential. Karl Lagerfeld’s limited edition with 77 digital pieces for €177 sold out on the platform The Dematerialized after just 33 seconds. In 2020, the digital fashion company RTFKT, now owned by Nike, has partnered with artist Fewocious to launch three sneaker designs priced between $3,000 and $10,000. More than 600 pairs were sold in seven minutes.
In fact, some consumers are willing to pay even more for digital products than their physical counterparts. Recently, the limited-edition digital version of a Gucci Dionysus handbag, sold for just $4.75 in Roblox, fetched $4,000 in the secondary market — more than the price for the physical version of the bag. The sneakers by RTFKT traded at double their prices weeks after their launch. This opportunity is attractive. Unlike in the physical world, the digital traceability of transactions makes it possible for brands to get a share of each future resale, opening a new route to ongoing profits. Balenciaga has even created its own business division dedicated to virtual goods in the metaverse. The margins for virtual products are also high, as the cost is much lower for digital than for physical products. In addition, there is no cost to the unsold inventory.
The companies described here are expanding what it means for a product to be rare, exclusive, and expensive — and the opportunities for creating consumer and business value are only likely to increase, for what these luxury trailblazers are learning will inevitably create new kinds of products and services inside and outside the sector.
The most popular NFT marketplaces you should know about
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are hogging the spotlight while altering how we look at assets, investments, artwork and rare collectibles. People can shop for these unique digital creations at dedicated NFT marketplaces.
Built on digital blockchain technology, NFTs are irreplaceable and unchangeable digital tokens in the form of images, audios, GIFs, 3D models, videos and much more. Additionally, NFTs can also be etched in a Metaverse, which is a self-sustaining digital universe that can house many characters and worlds.
NFT transactions are generally done in cryptocurrencies and have even got several A-list celebrities hooked. While Eminem, Amitabh Bachchan and Justin Bieber have launched their NFTs recently, luxury fashion houses like Gucci, Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton have joined the hype around their digital art projects. Even auction houses like London-based Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York have sold NFT artworks by digital creators and artists like Beeple, who made a fortune out of it.
Having said that, numerous NFTs are being sold at virtual marketplaces. These are websites that allow trading as well as NFT minting and are mostly based on the Ethereum blockchain.
Explaining the concept of NFT marketplaces, DappRadar says, “These websites facilitate a location where trade takes place and often take a percentage from the transaction for their services. Every blockchain has its NFT marketplace. Some specialise in a certain niche, others embrace every type of NFT on the market. Interacting with an NFT marketplace requires a Web3 wallet while buying (and sometimes listing) an NFT requires the base currency of the blockchain you’re working on.”
Read on to know about some of the best NFT marketplaces out there
OpenSea
OpenSea is one of the leading NFT marketplaces that provides a platform for creators to list their NFTs for sale and buyers or collectors to choose from its unfathomable collection.
Based on the Ethereum blockchain, OpenSea is an NFT platform that offers a simple and secured trading experience. So much so that its success made its co-founders, Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah, the first NFT billionaires in early January 2022. To date, the marketplace boasts over 80 million NFTs.
Anyone who wants to mint their own NFTs can do so as the marketplace offers a huge support by accepting over 150 different payment tokens, though Ethereum (ETH) remains the main one. Wiping out most of its competitors, OpenSea has a massive market advantage for its sheer trading volume and collection. It alone recorded mammoth trading of USD 10 billion since its launch in 2017. With huge fundings, celebrity clientele and numerous NFTs to choose from, a collector might feel like a child lost in a candy store.
The official OpenSea website reads, “A core part of our vision is that open protocols like Ethereum and interoperable standards like ERC-721 and ERC-1155 will enable vibrant new economies. We’re building tools that allow consumers to trade their items freely, creators to launch new digital works, and developers to build rich, integrated marketplaces for their digital items.”
Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is another most sought-after NFT marketplace in the gaming arena. A dedicated space for gamers of the video game by the same name, it allows players to create, buy and sell axies — game characters and other digital collectibles.
The marketplace has created a base for the gaming world through its creative and user-friendly domain. One of the top and most expensive NFT markets, its market cap goes into billions. Axie Infinity has attracted gaming and crypto-enthusiasts for its futuristic assets.
Such is its wide fanbase and dealings that the Axie marketplace also has a platform where players can interact, develop NFTs and compete with others to earn points and other collectibles, which can also be sold as NFTs.
Rarible
Rarible is one of the oldest among NFT marketplaces and continues to influence the crypto space. Giving users easy minting and trading opportunities, it has an array of NFTs to buy and sell. Rarible is also known for its user-friendly interface, which is used to create NFT art.
Like OpenSea, it is also based on the Ethereum blockchain technology, but the major difference between the two is that to carry out transactions here, one has to use its own token called the RARI token.
While focusing on creating a smooth and secured crypto investment and transaction experience, Rarible has also partnered with a number of leading brands that have launched their NFTs in this marketplace. These include Taco Bell and Cloud software giant Adobe, who teamed up with Rarible to protect the works of NFT artists and creators.
Recently, the marketplace closed funding of over USD 14 million.
Nifty Gateway
A marketplace for the elites, most of the NFT transactions grab instant spotlight as they begin to trend in the crypto market. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Nifty Gateway is an art curation platform that has been instrumental in selling NFT artworks of world-famous artists like Beeple and Grimes.
Nifty Gateway is managed by the parent company and crypto exchange, Gemini, and is controlled by the Winklevoss Twins.
As per their official website, their mission is “to make NFTs accessible to everyone.” One can buy and sell NFTs on the platform as well as list and curate NFT collections. Other than this, the NFTs purchased via this marketplace are also hosted here, which means they are stored in the user’s Nifty account instead of their digital wallet.
Nifty Gateway partners with global names like artist Michael Kagan and is one platform that allows transactions in fiat currency USD.
Decentraland
What was initially criticised for being quite far-fetched and based on metaverse can now safely be called the game changer in the crypto world. The official website says, “Decentraland is a decentralised virtual reality platform.”
In Decentraland, a 3D traversable measurable universe called LAND, the space and all its contents are divided into parcels that are “identified by cartesian coordinates (x,y).” These parcels are permanently owned by community members and transactions can take place using MANA, Decentraland’s crypto token.
The official website of Decentraland further says, “This gives users full control over the environments and applications that they create, which can range from anything like static 3D scenes to more interactive applications or games.”
Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Decentraland’s marketplace gives a completely new experience as compared to other NFT trading platforms, as it bridges the gap between real and virtual worlds. Users can buy lands, houses and pretty much all other digital assets that one purchases in real life.
With USD 114,695,018 market cap according to CoinMarketCap as on 25 January 2022, the Decentraland marketplace is graduating to become a big name in the metaverse and revolutionising digital assets.
SuperRare
SuperRare owes its popularity because of its simplistic approach and extremely user-friendly interface. The marketplace is a seamless platform — like an Instagram in the NFT world — where digital artists and consumers can directly interact.
Built on the Ethereum blockchain, all transactions are done through ETH, and the marketplace charges a base fee of 3 percent of the transaction.
The official website assures the digital art exhibited on SuperRare is “authentically created by an artist in the network, and tokenized as a crypto-collectible digital item that you can own and trade.”
According to CoinMarketCap, SuperRare has a market capital of USD 45,320,906, at the time of writing this article.
BakerySwap
BakerySwap is a prominent NFT marketplace, which is also the first automated market maker (AMM) +NFT Exchange on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Transactions are done with its own crypto coin called Bakery token or BAKE which was launched in September 2020.
The BAKE token is a native BEP-20 governance token on the platform. According to a CoinMarketCap report, “Users have the ability to earn BAKE tokens by providing liquidity on BakerySwap, and BAKE holders can use their tokens for governance voting and to receive transaction fee dividends. The BAKE rewards are offered in several liquidity pools, initially including BTC, ETH, DOT, LINK, BUSD and BAKE versus BNB.”
BakerySwap boasts a high market cap of USD 114,169,466 according to CoinMarketCap, as of 25 January 2022.
Foundation
Foundation’s official website says it is a “platform that aims to build a new creative economy—a world where creators can use the Ethereum blockchain to value their work in entirely new ways and build stronger connections with their supporters.”
It allows creators to list their artworks and auction them to collectors who can bid on them in ETH. This enables the platform to enlist all kinds of NFTs that are supported by Ethereum.
A simple, open and hassle-free NFT marketplace, Foundation has already sold NFTs worth 50,239 ETH, which translates to over USD 121, 897, 125.27 since its inception in February 2021, as of 25 January 2022.
(Main and feature image credit: OpenSea/ @opensea/ Twitter)
Create & Sell NFT Fashion For AR & The Metaverse
With up to 45,000 different combinations, you can create multiple lines of NFT fashion.
AR is changing the fashion industry in ways we could have never imagined thanks to tools like Len Studio that allow creators to combine cloth physics, refraction math, full-body tracking, and collision data to bring clothing to life in a digital form.
The Fabricant is looking to push the fashion world even further with the launch of Season One of The Fabricant Studio, a revolutionary platform that will let you co-create with a curated group of invite-only creators, designers, and brands to design and sell your own unique line of digital fashion NFT clothing that anyone can wear as they world hop throughout the metaverse.
Credit: The Fabricant
The program gives you access to hundreds of virtual garments to choose from, each created by professional fashion designers. As a creator, you have up to 45,000 different design combinations that can be used to create multiple lines of virtual NFT clothing that would hopefully catch on with fashion-conscious metaverse users all around the world.
You could be the next Gucci, Nike, Prada, or even the next Marc Jacobs! Anything is possible.
Through the co-creation process, you can earn FBRC (fabric) tokens with all token holders being invited as co-creators to future Fabricant Studio sessions. This will earn you voting rights and decision-making powers as the platform develops and grows over time.
Credit: The Fabricant
Not only will The Fabricant’s approach empower you to be a fashion designer and let you sell your creations, but by bringing the world of fashion into the metaverse through limited edition NFT garments and digital fabrics, you as well as other creators, designers, and brands are taking a pledge to be more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive in the fashion industry; something the fashion world takes very seriously.
Season One of The Fabricant Studio has already been chosen and includes some incredibly well-known names and brands in the digital fashion world space. This is the first season of The Fabrication Studio with more seasons to follow.
Credit: The Fabricant
Darewise – “Darewise is a team of experienced game developers who believe in the positive power of online video games to create meaningful, interactive, and social experiences. Based in Paris and distributed across Europe, we are a multicultural team reaching a global audience.“
“Darewise is a team of experienced game developers who believe in the positive power of online video games to create meaningful, interactive, and social experiences. Based in Paris and distributed across Europe, we are a multicultural team reaching a global audience.“ No More Mondays – “NMM creates bespoke concepts and artworks rooted in storytelling and purpose-driven design for prints, embroidery, as well as digital and physical spaces.”
– “NMM creates bespoke concepts and artworks rooted in storytelling and purpose-driven design for prints, embroidery, as well as digital and physical spaces.” Krista Kim – “Kim is a contemporary artist, creator of the Mars House and founder of the Techism Movement. She seeks to communicate a transcendent, meditative experience for the viewer in digital visual language.“
“Kim is a contemporary artist, creator of the Mars House and founder of the Techism Movement. She seeks to communicate a transcendent, meditative experience for the viewer in digital visual language.“ Scarlett Yang – “Based in London, multidisciplinary designer Scarlett Yang focuses on the synthesis of tactile fashion art and novel digital innovations. She is a recipient of the LVMH Maison/0 Green Trail Award.”
Credit: The Fabricant
Viktoria Modesta – “Viktoria Modesta is a bionic pop artist and creative director. Brought up in the subculture of London, now living in Los Angeles, Viktoria is known for her multi-disciplinary approach to future pop and performance art with a post-human edge.“
– “Viktoria Modesta is a bionic pop artist and creative director. Brought up in the subculture of London, now living in Los Angeles, Viktoria is known for her multi-disciplinary approach to future pop and performance art with a post-human edge.“ Andy Rolfe – “Andy Rolfe explores the dichotomy of identity and idealized fantasy.”
“Andy Rolfe explores the dichotomy of identity and idealized fantasy.” Electric Dreama – “(Samantha Nutt) is driven by challenging traditional paradigms into a unique aesthetic realm.”
“(Samantha Nutt) is driven by challenging traditional paradigms into a unique aesthetic realm.” Mutani.io – “Mutani.io designs feature voluminous swathes of color and texture, creating vibrant fantasies that bridge avant-garde fashion and game environments.”
“Mutani.io designs feature voluminous swathes of color and texture, creating vibrant fantasies that bridge avant-garde fashion and game environments.” Miranda Marquez – “Miranda Marquez explores nature and the interaction between levels of existence by combining new visual languages.”
Season One of The Fabricant Studio is available now through the website. Simply connect your crypto wallet to start creating your own NFT clothing line.
A fashion-forward Sandbox avatar. / Credit: The Fabricant
This type of work is not new for The Fabricant, a decentralized digital fashion house focused on positioning itself at the intersection of fashion, gaming, and blockchain technology. The company has worked with brands such as Under Armor, Off-White, Napapijri, Puma, Peak Performance, and Adidas, amongst others, to demonstrate the vast creative possibilities within the digital fashion realm through NFT collectibles and digital clothing in a 3D digital fashion space.
NFT fashion built using The Fabricant Studio is compatible with the popular metaverse platform The Sandbox as well as Darewise’s game Life Beyond. You can also wear digital garmets in AR using your smartphone.
Ready Player Me x New Balance. / Credit: Ready Player Me
When asked about future platforms, a company spokesperson said, “The garments will be available in both Sandbox and Darewise’s game Life Beyond. Darewise is also one of our creators in Season 1 dropping garments from Life Beyond to be customized by users of the Studio. Ready Player Me utility is something we are planning to be included in our upcoming seasons.”
For more information, you can join The Fabrication Studio Community on Discord.
Feature Image Credit: The Fabricant