![NFT Sales Dip by 32% in the Last Week, Ordinals Squeeze Into Top 10 Collections via Emblem Vault NFT Sales Dip by 32% in the Last Week, Ordinals Squeeze Into Top 10 Collections via Emblem Vault](https://static.news.bitcoin.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/nftsdd-768x432.jpg)
In early November the Chinese government made an ambitious plan to boost the nation’s VR industry, now it seems local tech companies are using the World Cup to test-run their products.
China-based technology companies are reportedly working on tech that would give Chinese soccer fans the ability to watch the FIFA World Cup within the Metaverse.
The efforts are part of a five-year plan released by the Chinese government in early November to boost the capabilities and development of the local Virtual Reality (VR) industry.
Video streaming platform Migu is one of six Chinese firms that has secured the rights to show the World Cup and plans to create a “Metaverse-like” space accessed through VR headsets for users to watch a live stream of the game, according to a Nov. 20 report from the state-run media outlet Global Times.
ByteDance, who owns TikTok and its Chinese version Douyin received licensing rights to air the competition, with ByteDance’s VR headset subsidiary Pico offering live broadcasts of the World Cup with the ability for users to create and hang out in “digital rooms” to watch the game together.
The World Cup is seemingly being used by China’s nascent VR industry as a testbed for the technology, as the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology along with four other agencies pushed an ambitious industry plan on Nov. 1.
The five-year plan from 2022 until 2026 outlined that China wants to bolster its VR industry and ship over 25 million units to the tune of $48.56 billion, although the plan doesn’t clarify if its unit target is annually or cumulative over the life of the plan.
The stated plans don’t mention whether the Metaverse will utilize blockchain technology, such as the one posed by the Chinese city of Wuhan which was later revised to remove reference to nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
NFT marketplace X2Y2 has backtracked on its opt-in royalties play, saying in a Nov. 18 Twitter thread that it will again enforce creator royalties on all existing and new collections.
The marketplace was one of the first to introduce optional royalties in August moving to a “Flexible Royalty” allowing buyers to set the amount they want to pay, receiving mixed reaction from the NFT community.
2/
— X2Y2 (@the_x2y2) November 18, 2022
We used to believe the best way to handle royalties is to give both parties, creators and traders, the right to choose.
It is the rationale behind our Flexible Royalty feature. And we still believe so.
X2Y2 said it decided to reinstate royalty enforcement after taking a page from its peer Opensea, which decided on Nov. 9 to enforce royalties.
X2Y2 also admitted many new collections are using OpenSea’s royalty enforcement tool that blacklists NFTs being sold on markets that don’t enforce royalties.
In response, OpenSea said it was “proud to stand” with X2Y2 adding it removed the marketplace from its blacklist.
Proud to stand with you--and the many brilliant creators in our community--on this critical measure. @the_x2y2 has been removed from our OperatorFilter and we hope other marketplaces will continue to join us. Onwards and upwards
— OpenSea (@opensea) November 18, 2022
French luxury fashion brand Givenchy has become the latest company to offer “phygital” NFTs — a physical good backed by a digital token.
On Nov. 18, the company released a collection of physically backed NFTs as part of a collaboration with streetwear label Bstroy.
The collaboration between the two brands sees a new limited “capsule collection” of six items that include a “complimentary NFT twin” of the physical piece.
As expected of a luxury brand, the items don’t come cheap with the lowest priced item being a $595 t-shirt and the most expensive, a $5,450 wool and leather bomber jacket.
Givenchy Creative Director Matthew M. Williams was quoted saying how Bstroy’s founders are “longtime friends” who “share [his] vision of fashion” and that Givenchy and Bstroy “focused on creating streetwear with unexpected treatments” that “enters the realm of contemporary art on the street and in Web3.”
Other recently offered “phygital” NFTs include the Azuki NFT project, which created a Physical Backed Token (PBT) standard that has sold skateboards and been used in streetwear collaborations. The sandals of the late Apple founder Steve Jobs were also sold as a “phygital” NFT at auction.
Scotch whisky maker Johnnie Walker has continued its Web3 push by allowing NFT holders to vote on the design of a bottle for a limited-edition drop of its top “blue label” range.
The whisky company has partnered with BlockBar, a luxury alcohol NFT marketplace, and streetwear designer Junghoon Vandy Son, known as VANDYTHEPINK, the latter of who will be creating the bottle’s design.
Johnnie Walker has left the design up to NFT holders, who will vote on the final design or artwork that Son will make for the bottle.
It’s the designers first time taking on a Web3-related project according to the brand.
Related: Helping mainstream artists into Web3: The triumphs and struggles
Once the physical bottles are made, they’ll be held by BlockBar who will only release the physical bottle to an NFT holder once they’re ready to swap, “burning” their NFT “bottle”, initially priced at $355, for a replacement of the real thing.
The brand has delved into Web3 in the past partnering with Gary Vaynerchuk's NFT project VeeFriends in May giving holders of particular NFTs spirits-related offerings. This collaboration was also spearheaded alongside Vayner3, Vaynerchuk's Web3 consultancy firm.
Metaplex is feeling the sting of the collapse of crypto exchange FTX with the NFT protocol laying off “several members” of its team on Nov. 18 citing the “indirect impact” of FTX’s fall. Its treasury wasn’t directly affected but Metaplex CEO Stephen Hess said a “more conservative approach moving forward” was needed for the company.
A partner for the Australian arm of Big Four accounting firm KPMG, James Mabbott, told Cointelegraph on Nov. 18 he believes the Metaverse “explosion” will be driven by businesses. The company created a new Head of Metaverse Futures role that looks to build its own metaverse for the company’s internal business operations and business-to-business services.
MetaShield works by enabling creators to flag an NFT or blur the image if the listed or traded NFT bypasses creator royalties.
Solana-based nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Magic Eden has fended off some community backlash following the launch of MetaShield, its new enforcement tool aimed at deterring NFT buyers who bypass creator royalties.
MetaShield, which was reportedly launched in partnership with NFT marketplace and aggregator Coral Cube saw mixed reactions from the NFT community following its launch on Sep. 12, who were split on whether NFT marketplaces should protect creator rights or cut royalty fees to make NFTs cheaper for collectors.
The NFT royalty enforcement tool is designed to allow NFT creators to flag and blur NFTs that may have been sold that managed to bypass creator royalties.
In an eight-part Twitter post on Wednesday, Magic Eden defended its new tool, noting that some of the “hardest working creators today” are getting “punished” by “custom” royalty marketplaces.
The new tool came only a few weeks after NFT marketplace X2Y2 introduced a new feature that affords buyers with the discretion to decide whether they pay a royalty fee — and, if so, how much — when buying an NFT.
Magic Eden cleared the air in its most recent thread, noting that it launched MetaShield in order to protect creators, rather than punish buyers.
“Most people recognize that zero royalty marketplaces for all creators shouldn’t become the ecosystem norm,” argued Magic Eden:
“What we do is an experiment, collaborate, and ship. MetaShield might not be perfect, but it provides an option to creators in this debate.”
The NFT marketplace also confirmed that they will not be taking control of NFTs and that the royalty enforcement tool will not serve to punish buyers.
6/ Does Magic Eden care about freedom & choice? Yes.
— Merge-ic Eden (@MagicEden) September 13, 2022
Like collectors, creators should have freedom to defend their biz. Re: decentralization most NFTs are mutable & collectors have purchased them by their choice. We're not centralizing NFTs any more than the original technology.
According to Magic Eden, MetaShield was built to allow creators “to track Solana NFTs listed with custom royalties” and “take action where they see fit” to protect their brand.
According to the Magic Eden website, NFT creators are afforded “Editor” rights to shield the NFT, which allows them to modify the royalty, add a watermark or blur the image. Once the debt has been paid, the Editor can revert the NFT back to its original state.
The launch of Magic Eden’s MetaShield was initially met with mixed reactions from the community.
One Twitter user claimed the addition of MetaShield further centralized the Magic Eden NFT marketplace, while another Twitter user said no one will mint NFTs if the creators use MetaShield.
There is no way you haven't seen the discussion regarding your own 2% fees on all volume, and then there is the blurring of the jpegs...
— Grug (@WiseGrug) September 14, 2022
You're the problem not the royalties, bunch of centralised cucks. https://t.co/PyTNrN309v
Another Twitter user said they were concerned that innocent buyers will be punished as they’ll have their newly purchased NFT shielded, stating:
“The biggest concern I have is that this punishes the buyer — someone who might not know they purchased incorrectly. After a certain period of time, the NFT will all of a sudden be ‘shielded.’ This will lead to an experience where they need to pay a lot more.
However, many have also praised Magic Eden for “protecting” NFT creators.
Honestly its heart warming to see a marketplace leading charge on protecting creators thx @MagicEden ❤️ Refer to @Zeneca_33 Letter 30 to understand current creator royalty payout practices and the challenges on enforcing them https://t.co/LU6UcHPfsb
— cathleen.eth (@spicyccnyc) September 14, 2022
Not every NFT marketplace has sided with Magic Eden. Sudoswap” decided not to adopt the royalty fee model to make its NFT platform more buyer-friendly by only subjecting them to standard platform fees.
Related: Plain talk about NFTs: What they have been and what they are becoming
In addition to that, Langston Thomas from “nft now” said that even where smart contracts are set in place to pay royalties to creators, it’s ultimately up to the NFT marketplace to honor the royalty agreement.
This is because the NFT marketplace receives the royalty first via the transaction, and is not obligated to pass that royalty on.
Over the past seven days, X2Y2 generated $144.16 million worth of NFT sales compared to OpenSea’s $117.64 million, while Crawley Town F.C. is set to launch a tokenized third kit.
Yuga Labs has finally broken its silence over the conspiracy theory that alleges the team embedded alt-right and Nazi memes/imagery into the artwork and branding behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
As Cointelegraph previously reported, the BAYC conspiracy theory was once again brought into the limelight on June 20 after YouTuber Philion published a video exploring the supposed evidence that artist Ryder Ripps initially compiled at the start of this year.
In a Medium blog post shared via Twitter on June 25, Yuga Labs co-founder Gordon Goner said that the team finally decided to clear the air after the theory had gotten so much attention that one of their favorite podcasters was talking about it.
“We’ve not responded in further detail to these allegations because frankly they are insanely far-fetched.”
“That said, we woke up this morning to a podca///ster we respect talking about this conspiracy theory, and that was pretty surreal. Made us feel like it was time to come out and put an end to all this,” he added.
In particular, Ryder Ripps alleged the BAYC NFT artwork featured racist caricatures of Black and Asian people, and the project’s logo and branding have several nods to certain Nazi symbology and language. The artist also made a BAYC derivative NFT collection called RR/BAYC as a satire and protest against Yuga Labs.
While the team didn’t address all of the points outlined against the BAYC, it flat out denied the allegations that its logo was derived from the Nazi Totenkopf (skull and crossbones) symbol. It also reiterated that using Apes in the BAYC is a nod to crypto degens and not a racist troll. However, not everyone was pleased with their response, as several points went unaddressed.
dude’s like ‘we’re minorities’ and gets some sham cover from the ADL. Well I’m a jew and descendant of holocaust survivors and this imagery offends me but keep gaslighting pic.twitter.com/kbJlJaEYE4
— jpəġ jəđ (@h0listicrypto) June 24, 2022
In an update later that day, the Yuga Labs team also stated it had taken legal action and filed a lawsuit to “stop the continuous infringement, and other illegal attempts to bring harm” to the firm and community. Although It didn’t mention Ryder Ripps by name directly by name.
(1/2) The outpouring of support from our community today has been overwhelming. We will continue to be transparent with our community as we fight these slanderous claims. In order to put a stop to the continuous infringement, and other illegal attempts to bring harm to...
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) June 25, 2022
Over the past several weeks, the sales volume on Ethereum-based NFT marketplace X2Y2 has surged past the top platform in the sector OpenSea.
According to data from DappRadar, X2Y2 generated $144.16 million worth of NFT sales from just 11,534 traders over the past week, compared to the $117.64 million generated from 155,734 traders on OpenSea.
The X2YX platform launched in February earlier this year, and while it doesn’t appear to host the sale of any top-tier NFT projects, it does provide an OpenSea Sniper feature that enables users to bundle NFT purchases on both X2YX and OpenSea into one transaction.
X2YX has seen its daily volumes surge to new highs in June, with its highest ever recorded day of volume coming on June 6 with $32.92 million. One of the reasons behind the platform's bullish growth this month appears to be its zero trading fees promo from June 1 until June 30.
Professional English football (soccer) club Crawley Town F.C. are rolling out a soccer kit (playing uniform) that can only be obtained by fans that purchase the corresponding NFT.
Crawley Town currently plies its trade in the fourth tier of the English professional league structure, and it was acquired by sports-focused crypto firm WAGMI late last year.
Pro-teams generally have three different kits each season, one for home games, one for away and a third alternate kit. In this instance, the third kit will be offered to fans via the sale of NFTs.
Speaking with U.K. news outfit the Mirror on June 25, Crowley Town co-owner Preston Johnson stressed that the club is not trying to launch NFTs for a quick profit and is instead looking for ways to integrate the tech with avenues such as shirts and ticketing:
"Our NFTs are more like virtual season tickets. They're not items we're trying to sell to local fans.”
Related: Can Metaverse technology enhance human-AI efficiency?
California-based Web3 tech firm BCware has launched a new multi-chain NFT app in the Shopify App Store that enables merchants to provide NFT buying and selling services from multiple blockchains in their stores.
The app is currently integrated with Ethereum, Polygon, Flow and Solana, and also enables customers to pay via fiat or cryptocurrency. The firm also stated that the app will support “wallet onboarding for buyers who are new to crypto.”
The move comes the same week that Shopify rolled out an NFT-gated storefronts feature that allows brands/merchants to make their online stores more exclusive.
Sell Where You Tweet
— Shopify (@Shopify) June 22, 2022
You know Twitter is where your people are, and now they can discover your products directly on your profile.
So next time you have a tweet doing numbers, you can plug your own products instead of someone else’s. Right @trixiecosmetics? pic.twitter.com/teuIkQkzbL
On June 24, Eminem tweeted that a new song called “From The D 2 The LBC” would be released. The post included the song’s art, which is in a comic book style with two cartoon monkeys representing both Snoop Dogg and Slim Shady and their connection to the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has signed an exclusive multi-year NFT partnership with crypto exchange Binance. The collaboration aims to introduce soccer fans to the Web3 ecosystem through global NFT campaigns.