Bear market for NFTs aside, we still saw some hefty sales come through over the past week. Meanwhile, new feature rollouts from the likes of Metamask and Meta hit the block, and one NFT collection had a brief scare after it’s NFTs started to get delisted from OpenSea.
Each weekend, we dive into the past week of NFT news and noise, with a bite-sized report that helps you stay current on the space. Let’s review all of the activity from the past week.
This Week’s Non-Fungible Token News
Metamask Adds New Portfolio Manager DappMetamask has announced a new portfolio manager in recent days, which is anticipated to allow users to view the entirety of their NFT collection in one easy-to-view portfolio dapp. The dapp already has a clean UI and looks to address a long-time consumer desire to see one’s entire portfolio with ease. Yes, that means you can now see your NFTs that live across multiple different chains in one place – a long-awaited feature from the dominant NFT wallet. The portfolio dapp will support NFTs and crypto tokens.
Azuki’s Face Brief OpenSea Delisting ScareIn June, Bored Ape Yacht Club faced a brief period where some of it’s NFTs were being delisted from OpenSea unexpectedly. That OpenSea bug came back for more this past week, this time striking a less prominent but still highly recognizable collection in Azukis.
Many Azuki NFT owners received an email that their NFT was no longer going to be supported on the platform, and many Azukis started to get unexpectedly removed from OpenSea; however, both the NFT platform and the Azuki team moved quickly to address concerns, and within a few hours the collection was back to normal.
However, it remains as a stark reminder that there is still a lot of progress to be made in the space, and that centralized bodies – even in a decentralized atmosphere – will always have some pitfalls.
With the merge in the rear view mirror, low gas prices on Ethereum (ETH) have not caused any substantial impact to be seen yet in the NFT market. | Source: ETH-USD on TradingView.com OpenSea Adds Warner Music Group As Latest PartnerLeading NFT Exchange OpenSea sealed a new powerhouse partnership this past week with music label Warner Music Group, or WMG. WMG artists will have a featured corner on OpenSea’s platform, and WMG will look to utilize the partnership to offer artists new ways to connect with fans and help emerging artists explore new mediums of connection for their audience.
Bear Market? Some Sales Say Otherwise
Sure, we can probably call this year’s development in crypto at large as a ‘bear market.’ NFTs likely don’t escape that classification, either. Despite relatively consistent volumes throughout this year, many projects have tanked compared to highs from Q4 last year, and NFT collections that aren’t blue chip projects have been hit particularly hard. Indeed, the most speculative and ‘big gamble’ plays have seen the largest volume and price impacts.
Blue chip names, however, have held up surprisingly well. A few examples came across the wire this week of exactly that, including a $4.5M sale of a CryptoPunk and a hefty $17M payout for the latest Tyler Hobbs collection. Hobbs, who previously created Fidenzas, released a new QQL art experiment collection.
Facebook And Instagram To Add Wallet Connectivity FeatureWe’ve had our fair share of coverage regarding Meta, the conglomerate who operates Facebook and Instagram, and their desire to be engaged in the crypto sphere. There’s more traction this past week from Meta, however, as the firm has made further strides to integrate NFTs into their social media platforms.
This past week, the firm started rolling out support for U.S.-based users to be able to connect their digital wallets to both Facebook and Instagram and start sharing their NFTs with their connections on the platforms.
Mastercard’s New NFT CardYes, you read that right. This past week, Mastercard partnered with crypto financial firm Hi to launch the world’s first non-fungible token (NFT) debit card. The two will utilize a subscription service to allow cardholders to assign a custom NFT in their wallet as avatars tied to their card.
To date, most discussion around cards and crypto has been rooted around DeFi and optimizing consumer spending with crypto; we’ll see how NFTs can get involved in this space soon, too.
Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com The writer of this content is not associated or affiliated with any of the parties mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice. This op-ed represents the views of the author, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Bitcoinist. Bitcoinist is an advocate of creative and financial freedom alike.
