Swooshes, whooshes, and other encouraging sounds (Issue #48)
Just mint it.
You know why you’re here, right? It’s to get the week’s essential NFT-related news collected, collated, distilled, and delineated by the incomparable team at Metaversal.
In this week’s issue:
Nike and Adidas both want to own metaverse fashion 👔
Earning royalties with Royals 👨🎤
Twitter’s death spiral gathers pace 😵💫
Right, let’s get straight into it!
DYOR 🔬
Swoosh v. Stripes 🥊
Sportswear company Nike is no stranger to web3. In December 2021, it bought creative studio RTFKT (the creator of Clone X) for a rumored $1 billion. It was one of the first mainstream brands to experiment with virtual wearables, starting with its “CryptoKicks” collection. Now it’s going beyond virtual kicks with .Swoosh (Dot Swoosh), a marketplace for all manner of virtual apparel and accessories and a place Nike hopes creators will want to play… because it intends to reward some of them for doing so.
Nike says the new platform — currently in beta — will “allow Nike Members to learn about, collect and eventually help co-create virtual creations … typically interactive digital objects such as virtual shoes or jerseys.”
It’s the “co-creation” part that’s particularly interesting to us. In the press release announcing .Swoosh, Nike says it plans to drop its first collection in 2023, and shortly after that, it will host a community challenge where participants can “win the opportunity to co-create virtual product with Nike,” with the winners able to “earn a royalty on the virtual product they help co-create.”
Royalties have been a hot topic in the NFT sector in recent months, with some marketplaces like SudoSwap opting not to enforce them at all. In contrast, others like OpenSea are working on ways to entrench royalties via new smart contracts. For many artists, it’s the promise of royalties that enticed them to start minting their work in the first place. The chance to reach Nike’s massive customer base and earn royalties will doubtless be attractive not only for established digital artists but for aspirant newcomers.
Moreover, in the wake of last week’s FTX implosion and the subsequent slump in cryptocurrency prices and consumer confidence, Nike’s news is a much-needed injection of optimism and a sign that it continues to recognize the massive opportunity web3 presents. It doesn’t hurt that its rival Adidas is making moves of its own into the world of metaverse fashion.
This week, Adidas announced “Virtual Gear,” a collection of 16 “digital wearable NFTs” that holders of the earlier Adidas Capsule NFT can claim by burning that NFT. Adidas is launching a tool soon that will allow holders of certain profile picture NFTs (like Bored Ape Yacht Club) to “dress up” their NFT in their virtual Adidas finery, much like 10KTF did with Gucci back in March.
All of this is a really long-winded way of saying that two of the world’s largest, richest, most influential, and most forward-looking brands are continuing to bet on the metaverse… so perhaps the rest of us should be doing the same, regardless of the current hellscape.
Further reading:
We spoke to NFT Now about how our investment team assesses opportunities and why we’re betting big on the open metaverse.
Drop alert 🚨
Minting Nov 19 | Madison Ryann Ward on Royal
Ward’s first brush with fame came from a video of her singing in a college cafeteria. She’s since toured with the likes of Hozier, Lukas Nelson, and Zac Brown Band. Starting at $59, you can buy a stake in royalties from her new single “I’ll Wait” on Royal.
Minting Nov 21 | “Touch Grass” by Andrew Mitchell
Mitchell explains that the generative pieces in the collection come from his desire to “create something that could metaphorically let the viewer ‘touch grass,’ even on rainy days or on days when the outside world seems so far away.” The collection includes a 1/1 piece and five editioned pieces, and pricing starts at $50.
🐸 It’s frogs all the way down 🐸
Looks rare 🖼
Advice from the pros ⛳️
Metaversal co-founder and CEO Yossi Hasson sat down with the host of “The Wolf of All Streets,” Scott Melker, in Las Vegas to talk about whether or not the metaverse is a good investment, where would-be investors should begin their journeys and whether it makes sense to buy land in virtual worlds with graphics from the ’90s.
Probably nothing 🤔
Yuga Labs goes shopping 🛒
Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, has acquired NFT studio WENEW. You may recognize WENEW’s name thanks to its work with Wimbledon, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci, and for the 10KTF project, which features the fictional tailor Wagmi-san who makes accessories and apparel for big-name profile picture projects like Cool Cats, Moonbirds, and (of course) Bored Apes.
But Yuga’s getting more than just an innovative studio for its undisclosed pile of cash — it’s also adding artist Beeple to its roster of advisors. Beeple (AKA Mike Winkelmann) is one of the co-founders of WENEW.
This isn’t the first time Yuga has gone shopping. Back in March, it announced it had acquired the intellectual property rights to CryptoPunks and Meebits so it could return them to holders of those NFTs. What it has planned for WENEW isn’t clear yet, but we’re expecting hot digital fits, killer artwork, and some sort of appearance for Wagmi-san in Yuga’s forthcoming Otherside metaverse.
We’ll never be royals 👑
Music NFT platform Royal has launched its “music rights marketplace” that expands on its previous initiatives that enable musicians to factionalize ownership of their music and sell it as tradeable NFTs. Holders of the NFTs then earn a percentage of the streaming revenue from the track they’ve invested in. Royal was founded by musician Justin Blau (AKA 3LAU) and the founder of OpenDoor, JD Ross.
More than a dozen new artists are joining the likes of Nas, Diplo, and The Chainsmokers, all of whom offered ownership of select tracks on Royal as part of its pilot project. The new additions to the platform include Yemi Alade, 27Delly, Bingo Players & Zookëper, Matt Cooper, Disco Fries, Madison Ryann Ward, Skye Holland & Steve Kroeger, Allem Iversom, Angelo Mota, Elle Vee, Jake Zimma, and Anderton.
Artists will get a 2.5% royalty on every secondary sale, and Royal is waiving its platform fees until the end of the year. The new marketplace makes it easier for Royal users to view metrics of and manage their portfolios, and a dashboard tool tracks streams on all major music-streaming services.
📡 This is the BBC ✅
NGMI ☄️
Last Twit out turn out the lights 💡
This week Elon Musk, the owner of every degen’s favorite hellsite, Twitter, gave employees an ultimatum. Commit to the increasingly impossible-looking task of building “Twitter 2.0,” or resign and take three months’ severance. The majority opted to take the money and run… including the entire payroll department, which could make actually honoring those severance deals tricky.
Remarkably, Twitter continues to function, for now, at least. On Sunday, the FIFA World Cup starts, and it’s traditionally been the sort of event that puts strain on Twitter, even without most of its employees having either walked out or been fired.
So, what’s a degen to do? Well, Mastodon sign-ups are skyrocketing, so that’s always an option. Mastodon relies on a decentralized collection of servers, each with its own moderation rules. It’s a little more complicated to get started with than Twitter is… but if Twitter closes, we’ll soon have the free time required to get to grips with something new.
💰 For the low, low price of “free” 💸
To the moon 🌛
Azuki has partnered with Formula 1 team Oracle Red Bull Racing in a move that will see an NFT character appear on an F1 car for the first time.
Yuga Labs has donated CryptoPunk #305 to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami and says it plans to make similar donations to other museums as part of its Punks Legacy Project.
A new platform called Gallery has launched that enables users to “view, curate, share, and discover” NFTs from the Ethereum, Tezos, and POAP ecosystems.
Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini is offering holders of its credit card 10% back on their gas or EV charging expenses — up to a maximum of $200 of spend per month — for a year. New applicants must be approved by January 15, 2023, to be eligible for the benefit.
There’s a new teaser for the FIFA World Cup, and it features none other than Indigo Herz, the Bored Ape Adidas purchased last September.
A pair of Birkenstocks owned by the late Steve Jobs sold for $218,000. They were paired with a 1/1 digital representation minted on the Polygon blockchain.
Luxury fashion house Givenchy dropped a new collection, “(b).STROY x Givenchy,” that sees its creative director, Matthew Williams, partnering with artist collective FELT Zine to “create digital NFTs twins for selected products.”
Marketplaces Blur and X2Y2 took positions in the ongoing royalties debate. Blur says it “will enforce royalties on permissioned NFTs,” and X2Y2 say it “will enforce royalties on ALL collections.”
Soccer megastar Cristiano Ronaldo dropped an NFT collection with last week’s headline-grabber, Binance, that includes seven animated statues with four rarity levels and various perks.
🪡 Thread of the week 🧵
Goats only 🐐
Whether you’re team tick or team three stripes, you should be watching or listening to Goats and the Metaverse.
In each episode, collectibles OG and entrepreneur Stan “The Goat” Meytin and Metaversal co-founder and CEO Yossi Hasson talk about digital and IRL collectibles, NFTs, and the week’s news worth knowing.
This week, they get deep into the Solana ecosystem with Nicky from the Degen Ape Academy. Check out the latest episode here:
Aside from providing invaluable insights into digital art and collectibles, Stan and Yossi have assembled a collection of NFTs dubbed “The Goat Vault.” When the show hits 5,000 subscribers on YouTube, one of those lucky subscribers will win the contents of the vault, which at last count is valued at more than 9.7 ETH (~$11,400).
Prefer listening? Check out Goats and the Metaverse on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.
IYKYK 😉
Follow for more 🐦
Congrats on making it all the way down here, fren!
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Until next time, see you in the metaverse!