It may be winter in the crypto side of the world, but in the NFT market, it is spring! The industry is blooming with a new surge of interest. Let’s catch up on the latest news and sales from this week.
- Melanie Trump joins the latest internet craze with an NFT venture. The first NFT collection called “Melania’s Vision” features a watercolor painting of the former first lady’s ‘cobalt blue eyes’. It also comes with a 10-second audio message. The NFT will be live till December 31. A portion of the proceeds from the NFT will go towards helping children aging out for foster care. As per a news release from Ms. Trump, the platform will use the Solana blockchain protocol.
- The tokenized version of the unreleased Whitney Houston track was sold for a whopping $1M at Oneof auction. The NFT features a demo song that Houston recorded at the age of 17. It also comprises images and videos of Houston. The artworks were curated by the 17-year-old artist Diana Sinclair. This essentially means that the collector will also receive a digital video made by Sinclair. The proceeds from the collection will go to Whitney E. Houston Foundation, a non-profit that promotes various opportunities for the youth.
- Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales sells an NFT of the first-ever edit made on its homepage for $750,000 at an auction at Christie’s. The NFT reads “Hello World” and is a part of a design based on the original 2001 website layout and source code. Along with that, he sold a strawberry iMac that was used during that time for $187,500. Wales will use the proceeds to fund his ad-free social media project, WT.Social.
- Coinbase takes its NFT game a notch up by launching support for NFTs in the browser extension. It will enable users to bring their collections to the Coinbase Wallet extension, get a quick view of their attributes, and access popular marketplaces like OpenSea in a few clicks. The new features are expected to go live in a few days on the latest version of the browser extension, available for download on the Chrome Web Store.
- Pop singer Katy Perry partners with Theta to drop her NFT collection titled “The Roar Package: Looking Back While Moving Forward”. ThetaDrop, built on the Theta network, is an NFT marketplace dedicated to media and entertainment. The debut NFT collection by Katy Perry will feature her 2015 Super Bowl halftime performance, which boasts one of the highest ratings of any halftime show in network history.
- Global sportswear manufacturer Nike confirms the purchase of RTFKT. The acquisition of the virtual sneakers and collectibles goes on to show that Nike is taking its metaverse dive quite seriously. According to Nike, acquiring RTFKT will help the company “deliver next-generation collectibles that merge culture and gaming.” However, the internet welcomed the news with backlashes.
- The latest to extend support to Women Rise is Belarusian-American entrepreneur, author, speaker Gary Vee. He minted the maximum amount of NFTs per wallet, that is 10, from Women Rise. It is a collection of 10,000 randomly generated and unique NFT art pieces that represent women from around the world that go beyond the diversity of just skin colors. The collection was created by the internationally acclaimed visual artist Maliha Abidi.
- Cozomo de’ Medici, aka Snoop Dogg, takes to Twitter to share a few interesting insights about NFTs. He comments that NFTs could become revolutionary in the future. Similar to how social media took power away from studios, a shift is beginning to happen in the art world. Kings, queens, and noble folk decided which art was relevant for hundreds of years. It was then taken over by galleries, museums, and collectors. By 2018, NFTs set the ball rolling for a new age of art.
The internet killed the yellow pages. Netflix killed Blockbuster.
Will NFTs kill traditional art?
Greetings, my name is @CozomoMedici. What I'm about to share with you may make you angry. You may disagree. But it's crucial you here it.
So buckle up, and let's begin👇
— Artnet (@artnet) December 15, 2021
Top NFT sales of this week
Collection: CryptoPunks
Selling price: $1.5M
What’s special about this punk? It just has a beanie. Yes. And there are only 333 punks out there with just one attribute. It was offered over two million just two days back and three million in November. It remains a mystery why the seller opted for 1.5 million instead.
2. Bored Ape Yacht Club #9452 – 347 WETH
Collection: Bored Ape Yacht Club
Selling price: $1.42M
Interestingly, this bored ape rocks a beanie too. But that’s not just it. He pairs it with laser eyes and robot attire. The unshaven beard perfectly rounds off the look.
Selling price: $1.08M
CloneX is a collection of 20,000 next-gen Avatars. All the traits and attributes of the avatars are generated randomly and revealed after the public sale. The price point of the NFTs was at 0.05Ξ for the RTFKT pre-sale. The NFT in question features a blue-purple palette and has all-seeing eyes.
Selling price: $750.8k
This human CloneX has a Murakami drip.
5. Bored Ape Yacht Club #9854 – 159.69 ETH
Collection: Bored Ape Yacht Club
Selling price: $620.29k
Bored Ape Yacht Club is in huge demand, thanks to the influx of celebrity interest and mass media exposure. This BAYC features a bone tee and laser eyes.
Collection: CryptoPunks
Selling price: $608.51k
This female punk has 4 attributes; A pink with hat, purple lipstick, earring, and blue clown eyes.
Selling price: $606.15k
CloneX has taken the market by storm. Is it the new Punk in making? The key feature of this human CloneX is deity arms.
Selling price: $580.41k
An alien CloneX that flaunts samurai hair with a cigar.
Selling price: $576.24k
Another alien CloneX that seems to be in demand.
Selling price: $567.49k
If you couldn’t tell from the image, this is a human CloneX. It just has a quirky taste.
