In this weekly roundup, CoinMarketCap takes a look at some of the most prominent Play-to-Earn and NFT events that took place in the just concluded week, from La Liga jumping on the NFT train, to the historic $24M auction of 101 Bored Apes.
![Weekly Roundup: What Happened in Play2Earn Games and NFTs This Week? [Sept. 10, 2021]](https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/598adaf54c844586af5427b61182dbde.jpg)
The NFT and Play-to-Earn scenes are currently heating up as investors rush to get in early. From top football leagues minting NFTs to multi-million dollar investments in Play-to-Earn games, this could be the next big thing. Here’s a roundup of the most exciting news that graced the NFT scenes.
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NFT Market Loses Steam in September
The non-fungible token (NFT) market has been unable to sustain the momentum it gathered in August. According to data from Dune Analytics, NFT sales have plummeted by 75% since they reached an all-time high on August 29.
The drop in numbers has been linked to Bitcoin’s recent flash crash, which saw several top cryptocurrencies fall by as much as 20%. The daily trading volume of the leading NFT marketplace, OpenSea, fell from $323 million on August 29 to less than $85 million by September 8. Additionally, several top NFT projects were affected by the negative market action. Nine out of ten top projects on OpenSea recorded a decline of between 55% and 90% over the past week.
Sorare Partners With Spain’s Top Football League
The NFT space has continued to welcome new participants, especially from the sporting world. LaLiga, one of the 5 biggest football leagues in the world, is the latest to jump on the NFT train following a partnership with the French startup Sorare.
Sorare, a blockchain fantasy game platform, has been tasked with the responsibility of creating NFTs for players. Consequently, all the players from 42 Spanish clubs will be available as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.
Given the number of big clubs like Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, and Atlético de Madrid that are under the La Liga umbrella, the move could potentially expose NFTs to a much wider audience. Sorare believes the move will allow fans, fantasy gamers, and collectors to freely trade NFTs of La Liga’s top stars.
Meanwhile, the blockchain firm has set its eyes on even more partnerships. Sorare has set its target on all 20 of the world’s top football leagues by the end of 2022.
Commenting on the partnership, the president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, said:
“This partnership with Sorare, the most exciting NFT sports project to date, allows us to reach new audiences around the world and gives existing fans additional ways to engage with the players and clubs they have. they like.”
National Football League Says No to Crypto
The National Football League (NFL) has asked all teams under its umbrella to desist from creating their own NFT collections or entering into sponsorship deals with cryptocurrency companies.
The sales of sports-based crypto collectibles have witnessed phenomenal growth since the beginning of the year. However, it appears the NFL is not moved by the revenue-generating potential as it mulls over strategies to enter the highly volatile market.
An official of the NFL reportedly told The Athletic sports website that “clubs are prohibited from selling, or otherwise allowing within club controlled media, advertisements for specific cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, other cryptocurrency sales or any other media category as it relates to blockchain, digital asset or as blockchain company, except as outlined in this policy.”
Polygon Invests in Decentral Games
Popular blockchain platform Polygon has invested an undisclosed amount of money in Decentral Games. The purpose of the investment is to boost the “play-to-earn” games market.
As the name suggests, players can earn real money and other rewards by participating in play-to-earn games. Players on Axie Infinity, for instance, have been earning NFTs that they can exchange for cash or other cryptocurrencies. As for the Decentral Games, the project has created a gaming decentralized organization (DAO) ran by its users.
Apart from its investment in the project, Polygon is also staking $DG tokens, the native asset of Decentral Games.
Polygon’s latest move does not come as a surprise. Back in July, the blockchain project unveiled a $100 million fund to support blockchain-based gaming. It also created Polygon Studios to help developers merge their Web 2.0 games with the Web 3.0 decentralized technology.
Investors Splash Millions on Play-to-Earn Projects
Polygon is not the only one trying to explore the potential of play-to-earn games. Several investors are confident that the sector could be the next big thing.
Two game-focused startups, Crypto Gaming United and Zebedee, raised $5 million and $11.5 million, respectively, from investors in a funding round over the past week.
Crypto Gaming United raised $5 million in an oversubscribed funding round lead by prominent Australian venture capitalists Mark Carnegie and Chrono.tech CEO Sergei Sergienko. Australian investment managers Shaw and Partners and Blockchain Assets also took part in the funding round.
Hollywood Signs Deal with Top NFTs CryptoPunks and More
Imagine seeing an alien CryptoPunk in an episode of the American sitcom The Simpsons. This may happen sooner than expected following a partnership between major Hollywood agency United Talent Agency (UTA) and a few NFT projects – CryptoPunks, Meebits, and Autoglyphs.
The UTA has been charged with representing NFT projects from Larva Labs (creators of CryptoPunks, Meebits, and Autoglyphs) for films, video games, TV series, publishing, and licensing.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Lesley Silverman, head of UTA Digital Assets, said:
“I would say that it is one of the first opportunities for an IP that fully originated in crypto-world to enter a broader entertainment space, and they earned it […] They really have hit the zeitgeist in a tremendous way.”
Bored Apes NFTs Sold for Over $24 Million at Sotheby's
On September 10, Yuga Labs auctioned off several NFTs from its Bored Ape Yacht Club and Bored Ape Kennel Club collection. The auction for its 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection generated a whopping $24.39 million, far above earlier estimates of between $12-18 million.
Each Bored Ape in the collection was sold at an average price of approximately $241,000 or 69.4 Ether, excluding the price of serum NFTs.
The platform’s trading volume has been on an upward trend since April 2021.
FTX Launches NFT Marketplace, Gets Spammed with Fishes
Who wouldn’t want to sell crypto art for $1 million? A lot of people are turning to NFTs for quick bucks, even if it means duplicating the image of a fish.
Crypto exchange FTX opened its NFT marketplace on Monday. The US platform will allow users to create, display, and sell their NFTs.
"Make your own NFTs," Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of FTX, tweeted.
However, they got more than they bargained for as users spammed them with fake copies of items including countless pictures of fish. In response, the exchange was forced to impose a $500 fee for people who wish to mint their tokens on its NFT marketplace.
"Due to the massive number of submissions, too many of which were just a picture of a fish, we are now charging a one-time $500 fee to submit NFTs," Bankman-Fried wrote.
A few hours later, he rewound the decision by reducing the minting fee to a flat $10 per NFT.
"Now, it costs a flat $10 per NFT to mint them, no up-front cost. We're refunding all the $500's paid. Hopefully, this reduces (fish-related) spam while also making it affordable," he said.
Top 10 NFT Collections by Trading Volume for the Last 7 Days
Speaking of the biggest NFT gainers over the past week, Axie Infinity is currently holding the top spot, having recorded a weekly volume of approximately $154 million and sales of 441,570.
Loot and CryptoPunks are occupying the second and third positions, respectively. While Loot saw a 7-day trade volume of $98 million and 1,862 sales, CryptoPunk has a more conservative figure of $47 million in transaction volume from just 95 sales. It is worth mentioning that CryptoPunk has the highest floor price of 87.98 ETH (equivalent to $298,000 at current market prices).
Other projects that made the top-10 list (in descending order) include Art Blocks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Bloot, PUNKS Comic, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, MetaHero Universe, and VeeFriends.
On the basis of weekly sales, Axie Infinity is also leading the pack. 11,644 Bloots NFTs were sold, while Art Blocks had 5,050 sales.
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