NFT Weekly Report: CryptoPunks Total Value Nearly $2 Billion, Animoca Brands Completes Financing of Over $88.88 Million

Each weekly report will analyze the current status of the NFT market from five perspectives: NFT market data, art news, game news, virtual world, and other dynamics. To understand NFT, just read the NFT Insider weekly report.

NFT Market News

CryptoPunks Total Value Approaches $2 Billion

A research report released by the Institute for the Future (IFF) at the University of Nicosia shows that the total value of all 10,000 CryptoPunk NFTs has exceeded $1.95 billion. Researchers pointed out that by 2030, the market size of NFTs will reach trillions of dollars.

Nifty Gateway co-founder: The end of the craze will be conducive to the sustainable growth of the NFT market

Duncan Cock Foster, co-founder of the digital art platform Nifty Gateway, said at the Ethereum Global Summit that the NFT craze is gradually fading, but this is good for NFTs, which means that the market will usher in more sustainable growth. If you have a hype attitude, you will not be able to achieve long-term success in the NFT field.

NFT sales exceeded US$2 billion in the first quarter, a 20-fold increase from the previous quarter

Data shows that in the first three months of 2021, the NFT market value increased by 1,785%, with sales exceeding US$2 billion in the first quarter, a 20-fold increase from the previous month. Growth slowed in April, but was still significantly higher than before 2021. Information shows that institutions and individuals are still entering the market.

Art News

The well-known UP host "National Architect" of Station B will launch NFT works in mid-May

The team of the B-station UP host "National Architect" will launch a long scroll NFT about "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" in mid-May. It is reported that "National Architect" has more than 700,000 fans on B-station.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary adds NFT definition and will auction animation NFT on OpenSea

Merriam-Webster, an authoritative dictionary publisher in the United States, has added the definition of NFT to its dictionary and will auction an animated NFT of the definition this week. The definition of NFT in the dictionary is "a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, replaced, or subdivided on a blockchain to prove authenticity and ownership (a specific digital asset and specific rights associated with it)." The auction will be held on the NFT market OpenSea, and bidding will start at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time on May 11 and end at 23:59 on May 14. The proceeds from the auction will be donated to Teach For All, a network of organizations in 60 countries that aims to address educational inequality around the world.

WHALE opens NFT mining and digital art galleries to artists around the world

With the rapid development of NFT, more and more celebrities and collectors are participating in the investment, and the market has gradually derived various diversified tracks. WHALE, the world's first social token supported by high-quality NFT assets, founded by WhaleShark, one of the largest individual NFT buyers in the crypto asset market, now opens NFT mining and digital art galleries to artists around the world. (Read more)

Phillips, the world's top auction house, will auction Banksy's physical artworks and accept BTC and ETH payments

Phillips, the world's top auction house, announced that it will jointly hold an evening auction of "20th Century and Contemporary Art" with Poly Auction next month. The works auctioned include the physical artwork "Laughing at the Present Shelf A" by the famous street artist Banksy, and buyers will be accepted to pay in virtual currency.

It is understood that this season's joint auction will be held from June 7 to June 8, and buyers of the work will be accepted to pay the hammer price and buyer's commission in BTC or ETH through the company's wallet on the cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase.

Adidas and this year's NFL No. 1 draft pick collaborated to issue NFTs, with total sales exceeding $170,000

The NFT jointly launched by top sports brand Adidas and 2021 NFL (National Football League) No. 1 draft pick Trevor Lawrence has been sold on the Bitski platform, with a total sales of three types of NFT works of $174,100. The NFT is named "Day One" to celebrate Trevor Lawrence's selection by the Jaguars on April 29 and becoming this year's NFL No. 1 pick.

NFT social aggregation platform Mynft is expected to be launched in late May

NFT social aggregation platform Mynft announced that it is expected to launch a public beta in late May. The platform is based on the FLOW public chain.

Mynft platform will continue to help users build open, customizable, and immersive NFT personal portals based on personal homepages, meet users' needs for cross-platform integrated display and management of NFTs, and establish social networks and cultural communities based on NFTs. It aims to establish a user-centric one-stop NFT management platform.

Jenny Metaverse DAO, which focuses on NFT collection, will be launched on Unicly soon

On May 10, Jenny Metaverse DAO announced that it will be launched on the Unicly platform on May 13.

The members of Jenny Metaverse DAO are composed of outstanding NFT collectors, artists, creators, projects, funds, influential and talented people. DAO will subsequently pool funds into the DAO's treasury to purchase NFT collections for the uJENNY NFT collection.

The famous Korean Go player Lee Sedol turned the game in which he defeated AlphaGo into an NFT

The famous Korean Go player Lee Sedol cast the game process of his victory over AlphaGo on March 13, 2016 into NFT and auctioned it on OpenSea.

On March 13, 2016, Lee Sedol defeated AlphaGo in a game, marking the first time that humans defeated artificial intelligence in a game of Go.

9 CryptoPunk NFTs sold at Christie’s for nearly $17 million

According to Christie's official Twitter account, 9 CryptoPunk NFTs designed and issued by Larva Labs have been auctioned for a total of US$16,962,500.

11 NFT works from the CryptoArt.Ai platform will participate in Yongle 2021 Spring Auction

11 NFT works from the CryptoArt.Ai platform will be on display at Yongle's 2021 Spring Auction. Among them, three NFT works, including artist Song Ting's NFT work "Discovering Matisse's Peaches and Paper Cuts in the Cyberworld" and Russian artist Andreas' NFT work "Kiss" series VINCENT Van Gogh, will be auctioned at the Digital Blockchain Art Special (17:00 on May 22, Hall A of the Four Seasons Hotel Beijing), and the remaining eight NFT works will participate in the blockchain digital art online night auction.

It is reported that CryptoArt.Ai is currently the largest decentralized NFT encrypted digital art trading platform in Asia. It is based on the Ethereum ERC-721 protocol and integrates NFT generation, sales, auctions, collection and transfer.

Gaming News

NFT game developer Animoca Brands completes financing of over US$88.88 million, with a valuation of US$1 billion

Animoca Brands, a game developer focused on NFTs, announced today that it has completed a financing of US$88,888,888, with a valuation of US$1 billion. Investors include Kingsway Capital, Axia8 Ventures, Hashkey Fintech Investment Fun, RIT Capital Partners and Huobi. Animoca's partner Simon Doherty of Collison Taylor and Everest Ventures Group are advisors for this round of financing

The newly issued 93.4 million Animoca Brands shares will be allocated to investors at a subscription price of $0.85 per share. The company said the funds will be used for product development, acquisitions and securing licensing rights for its games. In addition, to commemorate the financing, Animoca Brands will issue a special NFT to its investors and key partners.

Blockchain game company Big Time Studios completes $10.3 million Series A financing, with Alameda and others participating

Blockchain gaming company Big Time Studios announced today that it has completed a $10.3 million Series A financing round. Investors include North Island Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Blockdream Ventures, Alameda Research, Circle and Sound Ventures.

Blockchain gaming company Gamee launches liquidity mining campaign

Blockchain gaming company Gamee will launch a six-week liquidity mining campaign from May 18 to June 29. Users can provide liquidity for GMEE-ETH on Uniswap V2 and stake the corresponding LP tokens on the GAMEE website to win GMEE tokens.

GAMEE has prepared 100,000 GMEE for this event, and all GMEE/ETH LP token holders can stake them. The longer the LP token is staked, the higher the reward will be.

Sky Mavis, the developer of blockchain game Axie Infinity, completes $7.5 million Series A financing, with billionaire Mark Cuban participating

Sky Mavis, the developer of the blockchain game Axie Infinity, announced the completion of a $7.5 million Series A financing round led by Libertus Capital, with participation from Collab+Currency, Block Tower Capital, and billionaire Mark Cuban. Sky Mavis said it will use the funds to incubate more high-quality NFT blockchain games.

According to Sky Mavis data, its incubated NFT chain game Axie Infinity has more than 41,000 daily active users and more than 45,000 Axie holders, with monthly NFT transaction volume exceeding US$15 million.

Aavegotchi will issue NFT rewards to uGOTCHI/ETH liquidity providers who participated in the UNIC pre-mine on Unicly

Aavegotchi will issue NFT rewards to uGOTCHI/ETH liquidity providers who participated in the UNIC pre-mine on Unicly. A random on-chain snapshot will be taken of all uGOTCHI/ETH liquidity providers sometime between now and next Monday (May 17). Exclusive and non-transferable badges will be distributed based on participation in this snapshot, with no minimum amount, specific deadline, or other requirements.

Virtual World News

The Sandbox Partners with Zepeto to Launch NFT Collectibles

The Sandbox has partnered with Zepeto to launch NFT collectibles and auction them on OpenSea.

RTFKT launches CryptoPunks series of sneakers

RTFKT Studios launched the CryptoPunks series of sneakers. CryptoPunks holders can receive physical sneakers, NFT virtual sneakers and 3D version of CryptoPunk for free.

Other News

NFT asset aggregation auction platform Element completes $11.5 million angel round of financing, led by SIG and Dragonfly Capital

NFT asset aggregation and auction platform Element completed an angel round of financing of US$11.5 million, with a valuation of US$50 million. It was led by SIG and Dragonfly Capital. Institutional investors participating in this round of financing also included Dragon Roark, a digital asset fund initiated by Deding Innovation under Tim Draper, a well-known Silicon Valley investor, and INCE Capital.

It is understood that Element is registered in the Cayman Islands and was jointly initiated by serial entrepreneur Wang Feng and long-time technical partner Zhang Hongliang. The official Twitter and Weibo simultaneously announced the product release time, and it is expected to enter commercial testing in late May or June.

Fragmented NFT trading platform Unicly adds four new tokens, including uBEEPLE and uJORDAN, to its whitelist

Fragmented NFT trading platform Unicly announced that it will add uBEEPLE, uMOON, uJORDAN and uGONE to the platform’s UNIC mining whitelist.

Unicly is a platform that helps artists and NFT collectors obtain liquidity for crypto artworks NFT. Collectors can package their NFT works into uToken projects, and trade uTokens through the built-in swap mechanism and provide project liquidity.

NFT fragmentation platform Nftfy receives strategic investment from Three M Capital

NFT fragmentation platform Nftfy announced that it has received strategic investment from Three M Capital. It is understood that Nftfy is an NFT fragmentation platform, through which anyone can fragment NFTs such as assets, artworks, land and collectibles into ERC-20 tokens.

NFT application platform REALY completes strategic round of financing, led by Three Arrows Capital

NFT application platform REALY announced that it has completed a strategic round of financing led by Three Arrows Capital and participated by District 0x and other institutions.

REALY is a platform for trading trendy clothing and other real-world collectibles. They will focus on trendy brands and celebrities, and build an ecosystem by incentivizing creators based on a large fan base.

REALY has a series of mobile applications for designer brands and celebrity peripherals, including REALY, Mars Station, Micron Station, Revenge and SHINE. REALY provides an online shopping market for designer brands and trendy toys, while Mars Station offers collectibles exclusively released by Hua Chenyu. Although each application is tailored to its respective community, they are all powered by the REALY platform.

It is reported that REALY will also provide application scenarios for NFT through metaverse products. By bringing well-known brands, IPs, and celebrities into the virtual world to issue virtual goods NFTs, it aims to build the world's largest virtual fashion city and ultimately achieve its mission of "seamlessly linking the physical and virtual worlds."

NFT social portal MetaFramed announces partnership with Unicly

NFT social portal platform MetaFramed announced a partnership with fragmented NFT trading platform Unicly. Through the cooperation, users will be able to search for "Unicly" on MetaFramed, which will enable users to search for fragmented NFT holdings.

NFT20, the NFT trading platform, is now available on Polygon

On May 10, according to the official Twitter account of Polygon, NFT20, a decentralized protocol specifically for trading NFTs, has been launched on the mainnet of the Polygon (formerly Matic) platform. The NFT20 platform allows users to trade and sell their NFT assets directly on the platform.

NFT fragmentation trading protocol Unicly is now available on Polygon

Unicly, a fragmented NFT trading protocol, has been launched on Polygon (formerly Matic). The Unicly platform aims to transform users’ NFT collections into liquid assets that can be merged, split, and traded.

Music NFT Platform Mozik to Launch ID0 on Ignition Platform

The music NFT platform announced plans to launch ID0 on the Ignition platform on May 20, and the whitelist will be open for applications from May 8 to 12.

Mozik is a global online music platform based on a blockchain system that aims to use blockchain technology to improve the efficiency of the online music industry, increase the transparency of copyright revenue, and reduce transaction costs.

Decentralized NFT trading platform Wilder World announced the completion of US$3 million in financing, led by Spartan Group

Decentralized NFT market Wilder World announced that it has completed US$3 million in financing, led by Spartan Group, with participation from DCG, Animoca Brands, Republic Realm and Signum Capital.

Wilder World will use this round of financing to create the NFT game "Wilder World Metaverse". The production will cooperate with Zero.Space and use Epic Games' Unreal Engine to create a highly realistic NFT chain game managed by a decentralized autonomous organization.

Wilder World is a decentralized NFT trading platform initiated by 3D artist Frank Wilder and governed by a decentralized autonomous organization DAO. Artists and collectors on the platform can mint, collect and sell rare NFT works. In the past three months, Wilder World has issued WILD tokens, recruited more than 250 crypto artists and collectors to join the platform, and has more than 15,000 users.

E-commerce giant eBay will allow the sale of NFTs on the platform

E-commerce giant eBay will allow the sale of NFTs on the platform. The company said that in the short term, NFT inventory will be provided to sellers that meet eBay standards, and users will see plans, policies and tools related to buying and selling NFTs in the future, which will cover a wider range of categories.

NFTb will hold a public token sale on May 21, and users need to post Tiktok videos to obtain whitelist qualifications

NFTb, powered by Bounce Certifitied, will soon be open for whitelisting for public sale. Users need to post a Tiktok video with relevant tags, fill out the relevant form, and follow NFTb on Tiktok to obtain whitelist qualifications.

NFTb is expected to go on sale on the Bounce Certified platform on May 21.

Avalanche launches $20 million venture fund AVATAR to invest in DeFi, NFT and other fields

Avalanche announced the official launch of the venture fund AVATAR. The first phase of the fund of US$20 million will be used to build the Avalanche ecosystem, including DeFi, NFT and industry infrastructure projects. The first batch of strategic joint investment funds include blockchain funds A&T Capital, Blockdream, Blockwater, Kernel Ventures, SNZ, SevenX Ventures, Tripara and NGC Ventures.

50% of the first phase of US$20 million will be used for Avalanche ecosystem project construction, 20% for infrastructure and tool construction, 20% for migrating assets and applications from the Ethereum network, and 10% for supporting NFT and game projects.