Valued at $4.3B, NFT platform Sorare to invest in women’s sports

October 4, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Valued at .3B, NFT platform Sorare to invest in women’s sports

“We believe that NFTs can significantly accelerate the development of women’s sports,” Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia told Cointelegraph.

Following a $680 million funding round, nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Sorare is looking to be an active player in bridging the gap between sports and digital entertainment.

Now valued at $4.3 billion, Sorare told Cointelegraph that the company plans to use the fresh capital to expand its business with new hires and partnerships, as well as support community-led programs.

Besides working with community-led football programs aimed at helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and backing underprivileged entrepreneurs in sports and gaming, Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia explained via email that the NFT unicorn would also support female representation in sports. He said:

“We believe that NFTs can significantly accelerate the development of women’s sports. We will actively invest in this by beginning with women’s football.”

Sorare, a Paris-based NFT marketplace focused on sports, made headlines in September following a SoftBank-led $680 million Series B funding.

Julia further detailed how Sorare would use the raised capital for business purposes, starting with the new hires to expand the team. “We’re looking to fill many new roles,” he said, both in Europe and the United States.

He added that new partnerships would introduce new football leagues and national teams to the NFT marketplace. Such partnerships require an upfront payment, and Sorare is loaded enough to sign the deal with the top 20 leagues and top 50 national teams, thanks to the hefty funding.

Sorare also plans to reserve some part of the funds for mobile and marketing efforts. “Our fantasy game will be a mobile-first experience,” Julia explained, adding that the company’s growth was organic till now.

The last topic on Sorare’s agenda is to bring new sports to the platform. “We’ve received interest from leagues and fans across the globe to replicate our model in other sports,” Julia said.

Pundits say crashing floor prices and sell volume signal that ‘the NFT market has died’

September 21, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

High-profile NFT sales have dominated the headlines, but the deeper analysis shows that most NFTs are worthless and that the market is highly illiquid.

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) dominated crypto and mainstream media headlines all throughout 2021 as investors who held CryptoPunks and other projects minted prior to 2018 were finally rewarded for their patience. Meanwhile, newer projects like the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Art Blocks Curated saw some of their rarer pieces sell for millions of dollars.

Despite the million-dollar sales for select one-of-a-kind NFTs and the record-breaking sell volumes on marketplaces like OpenSea, data shows that a majority of the lower-priced NFTs and lesser-known projects in the market do not accrue value and this means that the sector is rather illiquid. Using data from OpenSea, a recent report from Bloomberg found that 73.1% of NFT assets had only one transaction in the past 90 days.

*The number of transactions for assets on OpenSea. Source: Bloomberg*

The data is concerning, given that investors looking to buy NFTs on average pay well above $100 to mint a new NFT and cover the gas needed to transfer the asset.

Chromie Squiggle #7583 has been sold for 922.5 ETH ($2.8M USD), after being bought for 0.25 ETH ($750) 8 months ago. pic.twitter.com/E3BfGZjlOJ
— Farokh.eth (@farokh) September 21, 2021

In comments to Bloomberg, Gauthier Zuppinger, the COO of Nonfungible, said that “maybe 90% of collections minted today are totally useless and meaningless.”

Regarding 'successful' NFT investing, Zuppinger:

“Ninety-nine percent is about being in the right circle, having the right information at the right time. In the NFT space, you live with this constant frustration that you have missed a chance to make $1 billion.”

'The NFT market has died'

Further evidence that the NFT sector has cooled off significantly from its August highs can be found in the number of sales being transacted on marketplaces.

*Number of NFT sales. Source: Nonfungible*

According to data from Nonfungible, the number of daily sales across all NFT marketplaces has declined from a high of 138,109 on Aug. 30 to 42,372 on Sept. 21.

A similar chart pattern is seen across multiple NFT marketplace metrics including the dollar value of sales completed, active market wallets, primary market sales, secondary market sales, unique buyers and unique sellers.

These market developments caught the attention of podcast host and Twitter user Dennis Porter, who thinks the latest data coming out of the NFT space suggests that “the NFT market has died.”

As I’ve been predicting (despite getting intense backlash from everyone including bitcoiners) the NFT market has died.

Average price of NFTs have dropped over 99%. Liquid death has come. Sorry not sorry for calling this market a scam.

Pump and dump completed. pic.twitter.com/VbqnJbclh9
— Dennis Porter (@Dennis_Porter_) September 20, 2021

For the activity that is still occurring in the market, “the most actively traded 3% of collections accounted for 97% of all dollar volume,” according to Bloomberg, suggesting that the NFT market is behaving a lot like the wider altcoin market where a small percentage of the tokens receive a majority of the trading volume.

Overall, these developments suggest that the most recent bull cycle for the NFT sector could be coming to an end and that it could take some time before the liquidity in the NFT market sees a meaningful increase, especially with the recent downturn in the wider market.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Sorare scores $680M funding led by SoftBank to grow its NFT sport portfolio

September 21, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Sorare scores 0M funding led by SoftBank to grow its NFT sport portfolio

Coin Telegraph

Sorare attained a $4.3 billion valuation with a Series B funding round led by the Tokyo-based holding company.

Sorare, a marketplace for nonfungible token (NFT) trading cards, has raised $680 million in a Series B funding round led by Japanese fintech giant SoftBank, resulting in a revised valuation of $4.3 billion for the platform. According to the company, the latest funding will help expand Sorare’s portfolio of football player NFTs by partnering with more football leagues and associations.

In early September, the French NFT-based trading platform secured its first soccer league partnership with La Liga in addition to having NFT collaborations with PSG, Liverpool and other top-tier soccer teams. Sorare also plans to diversify its NFT-based portfolio offerings to other fantasy sports.

Existing investors and high-profile business angels participated in the funding, including Benchmark, Accel and Headline. New investors include Atomico, Bessemer Venture Partners, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP and LionTree.

In July, SoftBank had led a $532 million funding round for Sorare. However, Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia denied the funding claims, which was initially fueled by insider information.

Although the football community has readily accepted the NFT marketplace, the United States National Football League (NFL) has recently barred teams and members from participating in NFTs or any other form of crypto-related partnerships.

An anonymous NFL member said that the new guidelines prohibit clubs from selling, promoting and advertising blockchain and digital assets in any form until further notice.

In addition, mainstream fintechs such as Visa have described NFTs as a promising medium for fan engagement as the market registered $2.5 billion in sales during the first half of 2021.

OpenSea exec used the platform’s influence to pump his own NFTs

September 15, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Allegations of NFT insider trading have been confirmed by OpenSea, which issued a statement about its head of product lead.

An OpenSea executive has been outed for hyping nonfungible tokens he purchased and then featuring them on the homepage of the popular NFT marketplace — a move that presumably allowed him to sell the art pieces for a quick profit.

Nate Chastain, who serves as OpenSea’s head of product, allegedly used burner wallets to purchase NFTs, which were then featured on the front page of OpenSea — where they’d receive the most attention — before unloading them. A Reddit user documented the whole ordeal by publishing the transaction details.

One of the NFTs in question belongs to the Dailydust Collection on OpenSea. The “Spectrum Of A Ramenfication Theory” was purchased by Chastain on Tuesday for 0.25 Ether (ETH) before it was sold for 1.5 ETH a few hours later. Notably, the sale was executed after the NFT was featured on the front page.

A Twitter thread that appeared on Tuesday also alleged that Chastain has been flipping front-page NFTs for a while.

Found a place to upload the files that has a 30day or 250 download limit! These 2 files were sent to me anonymously with sketchy wallet activity from people looking into it before me.https://t.co/fQQqt7sjdb
— Zuwu (@ZuwuTV) September 15, 2021

Chinese crypto outlet 8BTC News claims that the OpenSea executive earned 18.875 ETH through insider trading of 11 NFTs.

How much #opensea product lead earned through insider trading. Data collected by our friend @BlockBeatsChina https://t.co/lJYOdQ8t0I pic.twitter.com/UQpRfj1LjR
— 8BTCnews (@btcinchina) September 15, 2021

OpenSea confirmed the allegations in a blog post that appeared on Wednesday. “Yesterday we learned that one of our employees purchased items that they knew were set to display on our front page before they appeared there publicly,” the post read, adding:

“This is incredibly disappointing. We want to be clear that this behavior does not represent our values as a team. We are taking this very seriously and are conducting an immediate and thorough review of this incident so that we have a full understanding of the facts and additional steps we need to take.”

OpenSea, which processed $4 billion in sales in August alone, said employees are barred from buying and selling collections that are being featured on the platform. They are also prohibited from using confidential information about NFTs to profit from their sale.

At the time of writing, OpenSea didn’t disclose the status of Chastain’s employment with the company.

NFT sales and floor prices plummet as demand wanes and gas prices soar

September 9, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

This week’s market-wide correction lead to a sharp decline in NFT sales as decreased demand for digital collectibles led to a drop in the floor price of most major projects.

The nonfungible token (NFT) sector has seen an explosion of interest all throughout 2021 and the month of August witnessed record-breaking trading volumes as one-of-a-kind digital collectibles sold for prices in excess of $1 million dollars on a regular basis.

As is usually the case in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, hot sectors can cool down in the span of mere hours or days and this appears to be the case for the NFT sector.

*NFT sales volume by platform. Source* *Dune Analytics*

According to data from Dune Analytics, the total volume of NFTs traded on the top NFT marketplaces has seen a significant decline since Sept. 2 and the sector was especially hard hit by this week's Bitcoin-led market correction.

This decline in volume is reflected in the data for the top 5 NFT projects traded on OpenSea, where all have all seen a significant decrease. Loot is the one exception, but the project is a relative newcomer and was also involved in a $70,000 airdrop for holders last week.

*Top 5 NFT projects by volume. Source:* *OpenSea*

The floor price for NFTs has also seen a large drop and data from Dune Analytics showing that at their peak, the price floor was 1.02 Ether but has since declined to 0.37 Ether amid the wider market pullback and the temporary declining interest in NFTs.

*NFT floor price tracker. Source:* *Dune Analytics*

It is worth noting that this metric can be somewhat misleading as the price floor can be impacted by newer projects being listed on the market and selling for lower prices.

For many of the top projects such as CryptoPunks and EtherRocks, high-priced sales are still occurring and this indicates that the demand for premium projects remains high.

EtherRock 73 purchased for Ξ790 Ether ($2,607,584.60)

10 hrs 50 mins ago (Sep-07-2021 08:03:49 PM +UTC)

Txn: https://t.co/wo403bWFPC #EtherRock #EtherRocks pic.twitter.com/01lhQOoye0
— EtherRock Price (@etherrockprice) September 8, 2021

The NFT sector is still in its infancy

It is also important to remember that the NFT sector as a whole is still in its infancy and is just now beginning to work itself into mainstream conversations.

A good example of this momentum can be found in the ongoing auction for 101 Bored Ape NFTs at Sotheby’s, which has already seen one of the rare collectibles sell for a record 600 Ether (ETH) worth $2.25 million at the time of sale. This suggests that demand for premium projects remains high and that NFT prices could recover as the wider crypto market bounces back.

Christie’s is also supporting the continued growth of the NFT sector by hosting an upcoming Art Blocks Curated auction that is scheduled to take place on October 1.

We're proud to announce the sale of Art Blocks Curated: Sets 1-3, as part of the Post-War to Present auction in New York on 1 October. Bidding for this lot will be conducted live in ETH—a first for any leading auction house. #NFTs #digitalart #onlineauction @artblocks_io pic.twitter.com/jDNK6VviYi
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) September 7, 2021

With well-known and established institutions throwing their backing behind the nascent NFT sector, it’s likely that the pace of mainstream adoption could continue and the current pullback is simply part of the usual crypto market cycles.

FTX Launches Cross-Platform NFT Marketplace

September 7, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Crypto exchange OKEx launches DeFi hub and NFT marketplace

September 2, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

OKEx is expanding its decentralized finance footprint with a DeFi Hub and a marketplace for creating and selling NFTs.

Global crypto exchange OKEx is ramping up its decentralized finance (DeFi) efforts with the introduction of the DeFi Hub, a decentralized digital asset ecosystem that includes a marketplace for nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

According to a Sep. 2 announcement, the crypto spot and derivatives exchange launched its DeFi Hub with two initial tools, NFT Marketplace and DeFi Dashboard. The NFT Marketplace enables users to mint their own NFTs to sell with a royalty fee that is set by the creator.

Users would be able to import NFTs from other supported platforms like OKExChain to the OKEx NFT Marketplace, where they can buy, sell or trade nonfungible tokens “with zero fees paid out to OKEx.”

The new DeFi Hub requires a connection with the OKEx Wallet, a multi-chain decentralized wallet offered by the exchange as a browser extension. It offers a holistic view of users’ decentralized assets across major blockchain networks and protocols with a DeFi Dashboard feature.

Underscoring the need for a comprehensive system for the fast-growing NFT market, OKEx director Lennix Lai said that the DeFi Hub aims to accelerate the adoption of nonfungible tokens with the NFT Marketplace. “We’re also thrilled to launch DeFi Dashboard to bring much-needed improvements to users’ visualizations of their cryptocurrency portfolios," he added.

Widely used as a new way to create digital arts, NFTs are verifiably unique representations of digital and physical goods. Since they are nonfungible like a regular currency, their value is set by the buyers’ appetite and a seven-figure pricetag for digital art is not uncommon in the NFT world.

With the growing demand for this new form of digital ownership, NFT marketplaces are becoming the new frontier not only within the crypto ecosystem but in the broad technology world as well. Last month, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba launched an NFT marketplace to allow trademark holders to sell tokenized licenses to their intellectual property.

marketplace