In this weekly roundup, CoinMarketCap takes a look at some of the most prominent Play-to-Earn and NFT events, from Dolce & Gabbana's foray into the NFT space, to the boom in CrypToadz NFTs.
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Dolce & Gabbana Jumps on NFT Train, Sells $6 million Worth of NFT Fashion Collection
Italian luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has become one of the first fashion brands to join the non-fungible token (NFT) bandwagon. The company disclosed that it sold a nine-piece collection of NFTs on Sept. 30, raking in about $6 million from the sale.
Commenting on the D&G auction, the program director for Virtual Reality and Immersive Media at Drexel University, Nick Jushchyshyn, said:
“These prices are not surprising. You have world-renowned designers creating something absolutely unique, with attention to detail - it is beyond what you expect to see in a typical digital rendering and it is a one of one. It makes perfect sense that there would be an NFT collector in the world who would value it.”
NFT Trading Volume Smashes $10 Billion in Q3, Surges by 700%
The demand for NFTs has continued to grow, with no signs of slowing down. The trading volume of NFTs rose to $10.67 billion in the third quarter of the year, representing a 704% increase from Q2.
In general, Q3 enjoyed a number of trendsetting NFT sales from collections like the Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks.
Snoop Dogg Warns So-called Artists Spamming him With NFTs
Despite showing his massive interest in cryptocurrencies and NFTs, Snoop Dogg is not up to support just about any project or CryptoPunks wannabe. The American singer and rap star has warned his followers to stop sending unsolicited jpegs to his wallet, adding that he would “never support” such projects.
“If I see a jpg come into my wallet uninvited, and it is not fan art, you can rest assured I will never support that collection or any of its derivatives […] Mass spamming of garbage jpgs is an insult to the artists who work so hard to earn their way into collector wallets.”
For clarity, spamming involves sending unsolicited NFTs to an Ethereum wallet. For instance, Budweiser was bombarded with NFTs of cartoonish dick pics after it bought a rocket NFT.
Dogg is confident that any platform that can solve this problem of spamming will “rocket past OpenSea,” which is currently the largest NFT marketplace.
As a parting remark, Snoop Dogg made it clear that he was not interested in wannabe CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club projects.
“I do not buy on the Matic chain. I do not buy any sort of fake ape, fake pepe, or fake punk.”
OpenSea’s Daily Trading Volume Rebounds Amid Growing Demand for CrypToadz NFTs
It is an interesting “Uptober” for NFTs as daily trading volumes begin to soar. Following a seemingly quiet September, NFT sales are beginning to rise again, with CrypToadz currently leading the rally.
In retrospect, August is so far the best month for OpenSea. The NFT marketplace recorded nearly $3.5 billion worth of NFT sales in the month, an increase of more than 10x its July figures. Precisely, on August 29, the OpenSea scored a single-day record of nearly $323 million worth of sales.
Sky Mavis, Creators of Axie Infinity, Raises $152 Million in a Series B Funding Round
The said funds will be used to expand the project’s team and its blockchain gaming infrastructure, including developing a distribution platform for other blockchain-based games.
Axie Infinity has grown to become a force to reckon with in the crypto gaming space. It is also the largest NFT project by total trading volume.
Arca Debuts $30 Million NFT-focused Fund
Arca, an asset management firm and investor in the popular NFT-based game Axie Infinity, has launched a closed-venture fund aimed at investing in blockchain projects. It will focus on projects in the DeFi, NFT, gaming, sports, music and fan engagement, and financial services industries.
The Arca Endeavor Fund was oversubscribed, closing the funding round at over $30 million. David Nage, an original member of the Arca team said in a statement that:
“Digital assets have fundamentally changed the dynamic between founders and investors, and the Arca Endeavor Fund bridges the gap between the two […]The Endeavor Fund signifies the shift in new social and economic paradigms occurring, creating new ways to serve the unbanked, and alter the models of the past few decades of tech exuberance.”
The launch of the Endeavor Fund trails Arca’s Digital Assets Funds, a recently launched flagship hedge fund focused on small and mid-cap digital assets.
Meanwhile, the CIO of Arca Jeff Dorman opined that the fund will open the digital asset market to sophisticated investors. He said:
“We believe the symbiotic relationship between Endeavor and the Digital Assets Fund is great for the market, allowing multiple entry points for sophisticated investors and opening up incredible possibilities for founders.”
JPEG’d Launches CryptoPunks-based Lending Service
Proud owners of CryptoPunks will soon be able to use their NFTs as collateral to borrow loans, thanks to JPED’d.
JPEG’d is an NFT lending protocol. Following a partnership with decentralized oracle provider Chainlink, the protocol will enable borrowing using CryptoPunks as collateral. The service will utilize Chainlink’s price feeds.
Justin Aversano’s Twin Flames NFT Lands on Christie’s
CryptoPunks and digital art are not the only aspects of NFTs that are attracting big investors. On Wednesday, Justin Aversano’s Ethereum NFT collection was showcased in the traditional art world in a live auction by Christie’s.
As for the latest sale at Christie’s, the buyer will get 100 physical prints of the full Twin Flames collection.
Top 10 NFT Collections by Trading Volume for the Last 7 Days
CryptoPunks is still this week’s best-performing NFT collection after recording a 7-day volume of $80 million from 163 sales.
Meanwhile, although Art Blocks Curated lost its second position from the previous week to CrypToadz, it has still managed to remain on the top-3 spot. The project saw a weekly volume of $30 million from 506 sales. It is worth mentioning that the weekly sales of Art Blocks Curated plunged by over 50% over the past week.
Other projects on the top-10 list in terms of the weekly trading volume include Bored Ape Yacht Club, CyberKongz, Art Blocks Playground, The Humanoids, GalacticApes, Cool Cats NFTs and Winter Bears.