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Nifty News: Porsche ends ‘low effort’ NFT mint early, Oreo dunks into the Metaverse and more

Porsche’s first foray into NFTs appears to have flopped after recording underwhelming sales and was heavily criticized by the community.

Porsche criticized for 'low effort' NFTs, ends mint early

Car manufacturer Porsche had to cut short a nonfungible token (NFT) mint of its famous white 911 model only two days after the public mint started, saying its “holders have spoken.”

The Jan. 23 launch was seen by some as a huge flop for Porsche with just 2,040 of the 7,500 NFTs available having been sold at the time of writing.

The mint was widely criticized by the crypto community for being “low effort,” “tone deaf” and overpriced. The price of the NFTs were set at 0.911 Ether (ETH) ($1,417).

Sales on secondary markets have been undercutting the live mint, with some selling for as little as 0.86 ETH.

After announcing it would cut the supply, Porsche clarified that minting would still be open until 11am UTC on Jan. 25. The collection recorded a surge of FOMO buying which temporarily drove up the floor price.

Get Stuf’d: Oreo launches a Metaverse…and a really big cookie

Cookie company Oreo launched its own Metaverse, the OREOVERSE, an interactive digital world where cookie lovers can play cookie-themed games and enter into a sweepstake.

The OREOVERSE is on desktop, mobile and in Meta’s Horizon Worlds, where users with a Meta Quest headset can enter the Metaverse and experience it in virtual reality (VR).

A screenshot from the web-based version of Oreo’s new metaverse. Source: OREOVERSE

Oreo enlisted the services of TV personality Martha Stewart along with her gardener and friend Ryan McCallister to endorse the Oreo-inspired digital world.

The grand prize for the sweepstake gives users the chance to win $50,000 amongst a range of smaller prizes.

The Metaverse announcement was paired with the unveiling of its latest limited-edition cookie called the “Most OREO OREO” which has a “Most Stuf” creme center — filled with bits of Oreo.

Nike kicks off NFT marketplace with Air Force 1’s

In its first collection of NFTs on its “.SWOOSH Studio” NFT marketplace, Nike is set to launch a NFT collection influenced by its iconic Air Force 1 sneakers following a community vote.

The Polygon (MATIC)-based NFTs will go live on Jan. 25 according to a Jan. 23 tweet by Jasmine Gao, Nike Virtual Studios’ senior product manager.

Nike announced the upcoming NFT marketplace on Nov. 14 last year, which Nike Virtual Studios general manager Ron Faris claimed would help “onboard the next million” into the “wonderful world of web3 and digital assets.”

It aims to be a community-driven platform for Web3 digital art, with members given the chance to help co-create virtual creations with the global fashion brand through community challenges.

According to the Nov. 14 press release, members who win the challenge will also be able to earn royalties on the virtual product they help create.

Nike also suggested that digital wearables would eventually be usable in games and other “immersive experiences.”

Twitch co-founder's Fractal brings its games to Polygon

The gaming company Fractal will be expanding its F Studio product suite to the Polygon blockchain and is bringing along 30 Polygon gaming partners for the ride.

The partners include games such as Phantom Galaxies, Life Beyond, League of Kingdoms, Blast Royale and Sunflower Land.

Fractal and Polygon launch partners. Source: Polygon Gaming.

Fractal is an NFT gaming marketplace founded by Twitch co-founder Justin Kan and provides a launchpad for new projects as well as facilitating tournaments.

It also boasts a software development kit allowing developers to build in-game marketplaces where players are able to buy and sell NFTs in-game, rather than needing to go through Fractal’s marketplace.

The platform originally started on the Solana (SOL) network, but according to a Jan. 23 report by VentureBeat, Fractal is expanding over to Polygon due to its speed, scalability and ability to accelerate game development with the security of the Ethereum network.

Polygon Gaming will be making a strategic investment in Fractal for an as yet undisclosed amount according to the report, in an effort to deepen the partnership between the two firms.

More Nifty News:

An up-and-coming NFT racing game called PetaRush sold out all the NFTs available through both its whitelist and public sales. The game allows users to integrate some NFT collections from outside the games' ecosystem by pursuing partnerships that allow them to use the IP of other collections.

In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, the co-founder of the blockchain role-playing game Illuvium, Kieran Warwick, suggested casual gamers are “critical” to the success of blockchain games that utilize NFTs. Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Sui echoed the sentiment, claiming that all it would take is one good game to kick-start a blockchain gaming boom.

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Nifty News: Playboy unveils 11,953 bunny avatars, Martha Stewart cooks up NFTs…

Martha Stewart has entered the NFT sector by cooking up some Halloween-themed collectibles, Coinbase announced its first four partnered NFT creators, and Playboy is dropping 11,953 unique bunny NFTs.

Playboy to release tokenized bunnies into the wild

PLBY Group, Inc, the owners of the raunchy lifestyle magazine Playboy unveiled a new NFT project consisting of 11,953 unique 3D animated bunny avatars.

According to an Oct. 20 announcement, the number of NFTs pays homage to Playboy’s founding year of 1953 and the tokens will serve as “keys to a reimagined Playboy Club,” which gives the owners access to exclusive events, content and merchandise.

Playboy Rabbitar NFT: PLBY Group, Inc,

The launch of the Ethereum-based NFTs begins on Oct. 24, with a pre-sale for whitelisted investors until Oct. 26. Two public sales launch the following day, one for USD customers, and the other for those paying with ETH.

The sales are being hosted on an official “Playboy Rabbitar” website, and the NFTs will be priced at 0.1953 ETH each or the fiat equivalent (currently $814). Jamal Dauda the Vice-president of Blockchain Innovation at PLBY Group said:

“The Rabbitars mark the beginning of true blockchain-based membership for Playboy. Just as Playboy Club keys gave millions of members a chance to step into the sophisticated lifestyle that the Playboy brand represents, NFTs today can do the same and so much more."

One CryptoPunk is not for sale

The owner of CryptoPunk #6046 recently turned down a bid of 2500 Ether (ETH) for their tokenized punk avatar.

That’s about $10.5 million which would have represented the largest CryptoPunk sale to date if accepted. According to Larva Labs, CryptoPunk 3100 holds the record, after it sold for $7.58 million in March.

The CryptoPunk #6046 NFT depicts a person wearing 3D shades and smoking a cigarette and was initially purchased for $83,209 by current owner, Twitter user “Richerd.”

Richerd recounted the bid came about after they’d publicly claimed that they would not sell their CryptoPunk, no matter what anyone offered. A startup dubbed “Poap” decided to test that theory, with Etherscan showing a bid of 2500 ETH.

“Come on Richerd. Don't you want to go down in history as the top CryptoPunk sale to date?” Poap teased.

While admitting that their “mid-tier punk” is most likely not worth 2500 ETH, Richerd promptly declined the bid and went on to claim that they wouldn’t even accept a bid of $1 billion as the NFT holds sentimental value.

“My identity along with the identity of other iconic Punks and apes have value beyond the NFT itself. We have our own brands similar to any other brand and that has value. Because I value my personal brand and identity, this was an easy rejection for me.”

If Martha Stewart launched NFTs and no one bid ...

Martha Stewart, the famous TV personality and lifestyle entrepreneur, has taken the plunge into NFTs by launching her own platform/collection dubbed “Fresh Mint.”

While Fresh Mint hosts a collection of NFTs that were minted on Ethereum, it appears the platform is essentially a gallery, as the auctions and sales are hosted on the OpenSea marketplace.

Stewart’s first NFT drop consists of two Halloween-themed collections depicting “high resolution” JPEG files such as a set of pre-carved and custom carved pumpkins, and Stewart wearing a bunch of spooky Halloween costumes.

Martha Stewart NFTs: Fresh Mint

The starting price for the tokenized pumpkins is a hefty 2 ETH ($8400) for the pre-carved ones, and 3 ETH ($12,600) for custom carved pumpkins. The highest bidder of the custom pumpkin NFTs can send in a photo and have it carved into a pumpkin and then tokenized into an additional NFT, along with having the physical pumpkin shipped to their door.

At the time of writing, not a single NFT has had a bid placed on them.

Coinbase’s first NFT collections

Coinbase has announced the first round of NFT creators it’s partnered with ahead of the launch of its upcoming NFT marketplace later this year.

The first four are Ponderware, creators of the popular MoonCats NFT project, Forgotten Runes Wizard’s Cult, the developers of Forgotten Runes, popular crypto-friendly DJ 3Lau and digital artist “GxngYxng.”

Coinbase also posted an update on Oct. 21 to address rumors of other partnered creators that are “floating around,” noting that if you don’t hear it directly from them, it's “probably not true.”

The launch of Coinbase’s NFT marketplace appears to be a highly anticipated one, with Cointelegraph reporting on Oct. 14 nearly 1.1 million people signed up for the waitlist within 48 hours of it going live. It's difficult to determine what the waitlist is now up to, as Coinbase no longer shows the number to new sign ups.

Roundup

On Oct. 20 NFT-game and virtual property developer Animoca Brands announced that it had doubled its valuation to $2.2 billion, after closing a new $65 million funding round that included participation from Ubisoft Entertainment.

Cointelegraph also reported on Oct. 21 that Chinese online retail giant JD.com is diving into the NFT sector by introducing a special NFT series for its annual JD Discovery conference. Using its proprietary blockchain platform, JD.com will be distributing commemorative NFT certificates to attendees of the JDD 2021 event in Beijing.

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