NFT Roundup #2: Art galleries use NFTs; curated NFT collections; a new wallet for NFTs; Origin & Polygon partner on an NFT platform; most-traded NFTs from the past week
Buy the rumor, sell the news
Quick programming note: this newsletter has been converted from a general theme to one which covers NFTs (non-fungible tokens) exclusively. For more on this change, please refer to this introductory note here.
Pace Gallery hires general counsel as it explores digital assets
Pace Gallery is a company that manages contemporary and modern art galleries around the world. Aside from this article’s headline reference to Pace having hired a general counsel, of more relevance to those interested in NFTs is this tidbit:
[The hiring of its general counsel] comes amid Pace’s plans to expand into the realm of digital art and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, with several projects in that space underway.
Marc Glimcher, a veteran art dealer who serves as CEO of Pace, told Bloomberg News in July that digital art NFTs can be a “transformative change” for the art business. Pace accepts cryptocurrencies for all digital and physical artworks.
This story is interesting primarily because it reinforces a trend that we have been seeing as of late, which is that the virtual world of NFTs being connected to the physical world we inhabit. Art galleries are starting to show and sell NFTs, or more precisely, the art to which the NFT is linked. As much as something like CryptoPunks are criticized for being as ephemeral as they are for being highly pixelated, here we have evidence of NFT-linked art being instantiated in the physical world.
Introducing the World’s First Curated Launchpad
A company called Mintology is launching a curated NFT marketplace:
The challenge for artists and creators is that there’s no way for them to easily access a community upon minting their NFTs. Mintology is the next step for these creators.
In short, Mintology is the IEO of NFTs: Users can list directly on an NFT exchange, immediately providing access to potential buyers who are looking for a curated selection of digital assets.
Aside from the curation angle, this sound exactly like OpenSea. There are a lot of similar competitors in the space right now, and though curation is in general a good idea given an abundance of information (hence this newsletter!) it is not clear to me that curation by itself is sufficient to stand out in the sea of OpenSea competitors.
Guarda Wallet has Revealed its New NFTs
Guarda is a crypto-wallet that allows people to store various cryptocurrencies. They’ve made a move into NFTs, offering a curated collection:
Guarda Wallet has published its unique NFT collection, which is called Hidden Gems of Guarda. The collection is set to celebrate the wallet’s 4th anniversay, as the project was founded on Aug 29, 2017. Apart from the NFT marketplaces listing, the company has also launched a random user lottery with another exclusive NFT as a prize.
Every user with at least one buy or swap operation within Guarda Wallet as of recently is eligible to take part in the lottery.
If nothing else, this is an interesting test case: using NFTs as an inducement to encourage more frequent use of a company’s product. If successful, it may well be adopted by other companies.
Origin Partners with Polygon to Offer Mainstream Layer 2 NFTs
Origin, a platform for NFTs and DeFi (decentralized finance), has partnered with Polygon to bring Layer 2 functionality to the world of NFTs.
Origin is committed to bringing NFTs to the mainstream. They believe NFTs can be used to create compelling new use cases for creators to engage and interact with their fans. Art, collectibles, access tokens, social tokens, and tokens that represent physical merchandise and other items will flourish in the next few years.
Today, NFTs are rapidly trading on Origin and other platforms, generating over $3B of sales last month alone. However, the number of NFT creators and buyers still numbers in the hundreds of thousands. As an industry, there’s a long way to go before NFTs penetrate mainstream audiences. To get there, NFTs need to be cheaper and more accessible to the average user that may be relatively new to crypto.
Polygon is a sidechain of Ethereum, which means it serves as a bridge to the more-crowded and -popular Ethereum network. An advantage of Polygon for creators is that, unlike Ethereum, there are no gas fees charged to use the network. On the other hand, this has led to complaints about an increase in spam and/or low quality NFTs:
This week’s top 10 highest volume NFTs
A quick way to gauge the size of the NFT market is to review the volume of trading in the most popular NFTs. Though the numbers look large by themselves, they are rather small in terms of the overall size of the crypto market:
Axie Infinity led all NFTs and traded with a volume of $144.18 million last week.
Bored Ape Yacht Club traded with a volume of $34.81 million last week.
Crypto Punks traded with a volume of $33.49 million last week.
Loot traded with a volume of $31.47 million last week.
The Sevens traded with a volume of $31.23 million last week.
Inertial Moment traded with a volume of $29.67 million last week.
PUNKS Comic traded with a volume of $21.39 million last week.
Art Blocks traded with a volume of $21.33 million last week.
The n Project traded with a volume of $21.26 million last week.
CrypToadz by GREMPLI traded with a volume of $20.7 million last week.