The NFT Economy is Bouncing Back🎉

Dear HackerNoon Nation,

Bitcoin needs more NFTs.

Logan Paul is flailing from NFT scam allegations.

Nouns DAO’s first-ever editioned drop pointed toward crypto-native movie studios and beyond.

Many NFT collections are experiencing big floor movements right now.

Ah, to be back in the swing of things…

Indeed, 2023 just began, yet so much has already happened in the NFT ecosystem across these first days of the new year — it’s a lot to keep up with!

Toward that end, here’s your latest Metaversal Friday recap, so let’s catch you up now on the big NFT highlights from this past week. Thanks for reading everyone, and have a great weekend ✌️

-WMP

📣 General NFT News

• Blur is launching its $BLUR token at the end of this month.

• Foundation is releasing a new creator tool, Worlds:

  
  

• ENS and Coinbase teamed up to give Coinbase app users the ability to link their cb.id names to their mobile wallets.

• LooksRare released its Edition Zero merch drop denominated in $LOOKS.

• Nouns DAO appeared in this year’s Rose Parade festivities:

  
  

• OpenSea added support for onchain metadata updates.

🏆 Digital Collectibles

• Doodles 2 will feature gasless customization.
• SBF appears to have purchased millions of dollars’ worth of Solana collectibles that now belong to FTX creditors.
• Zeneca introduced ZenChests, NFTs that are burnable for the upcoming Zen PFP on a 1:1 basis.

🎨 Cryptoart

• Feral File, an art platform, secured its users’ crypto funds amid the closure of Wyre.

• JPG launched its second NFT TCR, the Conceptual Art Canon.

• Kjetil Golid, the acclaimed generative artist, auctioned 10 works from his new EXPANSE series:

  
  

• numo.eth, a mainstay in the CC0 NFT scene, unveiled the Pixel Art Doodles (PAD) project.
• 0xTechno released Toys.

🎮 Decentralized Gaming

• Axie Infinity launched the ability to buy, sell, and equip Axie accessories.

• Illuvium opened up downloads for the Illuvium: Zero alpha.

• Treeverse, a mobile MMORPG, launched pre-alpha gameplay:

  
  

💽 Music NFTs

• Coopahtroopa introduced the Web3 Manager Launchpad for music managers and published This Week in Music NFTs - Jan. 2.

🌐 Virtual Worlds

• MetaKey held a NYE Party at the One Times Square site in Decentraland:

  
  

💎 DeFi x NFTs

• Astaria, an NFT-collateralized lending market, opened up its repos.
• Otherdeed plots are currently the most commonly liquidated NFTs in the NFTfi sector.
• Papr is another new NFT lending project to track.

Author Bio

William M. Peaster is a professional writer and creator of Metaversal—a Bankless newsletter focused on the emergence of NFTs in the cryptoeconomy. He’s also recently been contributing content to Bankless, JPG, and beyond!