Doge meme hits $220M valuation, as Sotheby’s Bored Apes auction is tipped to fetch $18M

September 3, 2021 Coin Telegraph

<div>Doge meme hits 0M valuation, as Sotheby's Bored Apes auction is tipped to fetch M</div>

After a successful fractionalization into $DOG Tokens, the total implied value of the Original Doge meme NFT has gone through the roof.

The original Doge meme NFT has soared to a valuation of around $220 million following its successful fractionalized token sale this week.

Ludicrously high prices for in demand NFTs are the flavor of the week, with Sotheby’s new Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT auction predicted to fetch up to $18 million.

Earlier this week Doge meme owners PleasrDAO fractionalized the NFT into 17 billion ERC-20 tokens named $DOG, and auctioned off 20% of them on SushiSwap-owned Miso on Sept. 1.

The $DOG tokens snapped up in the auction can now be traded via decentralized exchanges such as SushiSwap and Uniswap. The auction generated 11,942 Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) worth around $44.6 million from a total of 1,769 buyers.

GET YO STICKS READY! $DOG trading is now live on @SushiSwap.

Ape, hooman, cat, all is welcome on the chef's table. Trade here: https://t.co/fvbHzFPhMQ
— ✨ PleasrDAOGE (@PleasrDAO) September 2, 2021

Given the total supply of $DOG tokens — which are priced at 0.0000035186 WETH ($0.013 USD) at the time of publication — the nominal value of the Doge NFT is now around $220 million.

But some say that's an underestimate. According fractionalized token platform Fractional, the implied value of the $DOG NFTs is a whopping $398 million. The firm hasn’t specified how that figure was calculated.

Whether $220 million or $398 million, it’s a stunning return for a picture of a dog bought for just 1696.9 Ether, worth $4 million, back in June.

PleasrDAO has said 55% of the remaining tokens will be maintained by the DAO and the other 25% will go into a fund that will support projects in the $DOG community.

☝️☝️ And even more importantly... $2.25m raised for charity!! $DOG holders - please head over to the $DOG Park Discord (do-good-always channel) so we can choose the charities we should donate to: https://t.co/9Dv9FhtmyI
— ✨ PleasrDAOGE (@PleasrDAO) September 2, 2021

Apes are not a bore for Sotheby’s

Meanwhile Sotheby’s is currently hosting an auction of 107 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs that is expected to fetch between $12 million to $18 million.

The 107 NFTs have been bundled into one collection and put up for sale by the project’s creators Yuga Labs, who are also auctioning off a bundle of 101 Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs that is expected to pull in between $1.5 million to $2 million.

Bidding for the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection had reached $4.5 million at the time of publication, and the auction is set to close on Sept. 10. Bidding for the Kennel Club NFTs hit $480,000.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs have become widely popular of late, and Cointelegraph reported on Sept. 2 that NBA star Stephen Curry joined in on the action by snapping up one of the NFTs for 55 ETH, worth roughly $207,000 at the time of writing.

According to data from CryptoSlam, the Bored Ape NFTs generated a record $295 million worth of sales on secondary markets in August. Despite it only being the beginning of September, the NFTs have already reached $10 million worth of secondary sales so far.

Sotheby’s Bored Ape NFT Bundle Could Fetch $18 Million

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Nifty News: Embarrassing mistake in $5.4M NFT of web source code, Animoca raises $50M …

July 2, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Nifty News: Embarrassing mistake in .4M NFT of web source code, Animoca raises M ...

Animoca Brands

Sotheby’s has made an embarrassing mistake in its $5.4 million NFT auction, Animoca brands has raised $138.88 in funding, and data shows limited collector numbers on SuperRare.

Eagle eyed denizens of Crypto Twitter have spotted a mistake in the NFT of the web’s source code famously auctioned at Sotheby’s this week.

The auction of “This Changed Everything” on June 30 with a $5.4 million sale and was offered by its inventor, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

The NFT dubbed consists of four elements: the original source code, an animated visualization of the code, a letter written by Sir Tim reflecting on his creation, and a digital poster of the full code.

Despite the sale having a direct connection to Sir Tim, whoever it was that converted the original text file to HTML coding language made a mistake, with DeFi and NFT focused venture investor “Beanie” noting on Twitter that:

The “internet source code” NFT that sold for $5.5M yesterday at Sotheby’s doesn’t even have the correct source code as the conversion of the original text file to html was done sloppy so “<“ and “>” wrongly display as “<&gt,” in the video.‍♀️

Kinda embarrassing for Sotheby’s pic.twitter.com/lqdvZ9CmI1
— Beanie (@beaniemaxi) July 1, 2021

Mark O'Neil, a website creator, discussed the mistake with the BBC, and noted in his view it looked like "whoever made the video for the website ran the original text file through something that converted it into HTML."

Some have argued it may actually add value to the NFT, similar to a misprint error on collectibles such as sports cards and stamps.

Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) “Pleasr” who intended to purchase the piece but decided to pull out from the auction, noted that “we don’t feel this diminishes the piece in anyway, in fact, it might be a bullish smudge.”

Pleasr also highlighted that the mistake could be fixed as the metadata appears to still be updatable, and said Sotheby’s indicated that they would work with buyers to remedy the mistake.

An NFT depicting the mistake is currently up for auction at Art Haus, with a current bid just over $1100.

Animoca Brands is not playing games

NFT game and property developer Animoca Brands has closed the second trance of its $139 million capital raise, based on a “pre-money valuation of US$1 billion.”

Animoca secured $89 million back in May during the first tranche, and has now pulled in a further $50 million in the second tranche.

The second tranche included backing from a long list of investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Blue Pool Capital, Gobi Partners, Korea Investment Partners, Liberty City Ventures, Samsung Venture Investment.

The firm made the announcement yesterday, and noted the funds would be put towards “strategic investments and acquisitions, product development, and licenses for popular intellectual properties.”

Animoca has released notable titles in the past such as The Sandbox, F1 Delta Time, and MotoGP Ignition, while also backing top firms in the NFT space such as Dapper Labs, Open Sea, and Axie Infinity.

In May, the firm also partnered with DLT network Hedera Hashgraph to develop two DLT-based gaming projects, including a gaming platform dubbed “Helix Warp” and an NFT-based soccer game.

“To commemorate the achievement of its unicorn valuation, Animoca Brands will issue NFTs to its investors and key partners,” the announcement stated.

Limited active NFT collectors on SuperRare

According to data from Dune Analytics, active monthly collectors, or people who purchased multiple NFTs on the SuperRare platform number only in the hundreds.

At the peak of the NFT bull run in March, there were just 929 active monthly collectors on SuperRare, a month in which total primary revenue hit more than $3.3 million on the platform.

The number has also declined steadily as hype and prices surrounding NFTs have started to fall over the past few months. In April there were 503 active collectors, 264 in May, and a mere 196 in June. However, given the interest and potential in the space, some see this as very bullish news:

At the peak of the early 2021 NFT boom, there were still fewer than 1,000 monthly collectors on SuperRare.

Trivial to imagine we'll see something 10-100x bigger before long. pic.twitter.com/ofWBctewjB
— BΞN (@__DeFi__) July 1, 2021

NFT event in Tokyo

CrypTokyo is currently underway in Japan, curated by the Blockchain Art Exchange (BAE) NFT marketplace, with support from the world's largest NFT investment fund Metapurse, and the GrowYourBase NFT community.

The event dubbed “Japan’s first physical blockchain art exhibition” will run for three weeks and visitors to the event can view and purchase NFTs, watch talks from prominent Japanese artists, and learn about how to build their own NFT portfolios.

The event also includes an NFT gallery showcasing artwork from Beeple, +DA.YO.NE., Yasumasa Yonehara, Tetsuzo Okubo, Ichi Hatano, Maxim (Peodigy), Robness Cyberpop, Botchy-Botchy.

CrypTokyo is being hosted in UltraSuperNew Gallery in Shibuya and is set to finish on July 22.

Roundup

The Mintable nonfungible token (NFT) minting platform has closed a Series A funding round which included backing from big-name players such as Ripple, Animoca Brands, and Metapurse.

Ripple also made an announcement revealing that Mintable plans to integrate the firm’s own blockchain, XRP Ledger (XRPL), which it claims to be carbon neutral.

Cointelegraph also reported that the Republic of San Marino has approved Vechain’s eNFT based vaccination passports.

San Marino Digital Covid Certificate contains a record of past infections, negative test results, and also provides a digital vaccination certificate, utilizing Vechain’s public blockchain.

Bargain? World Wide Web’s source code NFT sells for $5.4M at Sotheby’s

July 1, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bargain? World Wide Web’s source code NFT sells for .4M at Sotheby’s

Christie's

The source code for the World Wide Web has been sold by the inventor for $5.4 million.

The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has sold an NFT of the web's source code for $5.4 million at fine art auction house Sotheby’s.

The piece titled ‘This Changed Everything’ includes a time-stamped file of the source code's 9,555 lines, a high-fidelity image, a 30-minute animation of the code being written, along with a letter written by Berners-Lee.

While $5.4M is a significant sum, it’s a far cry from the $69 million record set in March for Beeple’s Everydays and less than some observers had predicted. Delphi Digital’s Piers Kicks said he’d been expecting a sale around $10M, noting:

Huh, it only fetched $5M.

Of course internet memes go for more than this...https://t.co/WHPhNFY1LY
— Piers Kicks ️ (@pierskicks) June 30, 2021

According to Berners-Lee, he and his wife will donate the proceeds of the auction to causes supported by the family.

In a statement to the press released by Sotheby’s, Berners-Lee discussed the future of the internet and expressed his hope that it would remain open to allow it to be a continual source of creativity, technical innovation, and social transformation. These ideals were the inspiration behind Berners-Lee move into the NFT space, he said:

“NFTs, be they artworks or digital artifacts like this, are the latest playful creations in this realm, and the most appropriate means of ownership that exists. They are the ideal way to package the origins behind the web.”

The high-profile auction of the web's source code isn’t the only multi-million dollar sale of a digital artwork hosted by a premier auction house this week. On June 30th, Christie’s Auction house closed a $2.1 million auction for the works of transgender digital art FEWOCiOUS.

The NFT “Hello, i’m Victor (FEWOCiOUS) and This Is My Life,” includes five individual pieces each depicting a year in the artist's formative years from ages 14 to 18 as he transitioned to male. The works illustrate the artist’s struggles with loneliness and identity as he strove to become an artist.

at a loss for words right now thank you so much to everyone for making me feel so loved, believing in my art and believing in me, it means the world ❤️ i’ll never forget this feeling or these last few weeks #FEWOCiOUSxCHRISTIES FOREVER pic.twitter.com/1BYNXX2SPN
— FEWOCiOUS (@fewocious) June 30, 2021

The trajectory of the young artist’s career is indicative of the upward mobility the digital market offers to digital artists. FEWOCiOUS made his first tokenized sale on the marketplace SuperRare for $6,000 in September of last year and was soon selling artworks valued at over $1 million on Nifty Gateway.

Data provided by Cryptoart.io shows that combined sales from the digital art markets have shrunk to $18.3 million in June from their peak of $205 million in March. Winklevoss-owned marketplace Nifty Gateway saw a 94% decline in sales from a peak of $145 million to $7.6 million.

Some digital asset platforms have prospered. Relative newcomer to the digital art space, hic et nunc, has seen sales grow 276% from $717,000 in March to $2.7 million in June, capturing capturing 14.7% of the market.

Sotheby’s