Weekly Web3 Roundup

Tracking developments in NFTs, the metaverse, and brands moving into web3.

🔵 Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the Quest Pro at Connect conference. The company’s next VR headset, the Meta Quest Pro, will be the first product to offer a mixed-reality experience. The headset will be a more advanced alternative geared towards productivity and social applications in VR. It is available for pre-order in 22 countries for $1,499, and ships on October 25. Meta has also partnered with Microsoft to bring the Office 365 bundle to Meta’s VR platform.

🔵 Formula One recently filed eight crypto-related trademark applications for ‘F1’. Mike Kondoudis, trademark attorney, announced that Formula One filed trademark applications covering cryptocurrency, NFTs, crypto marketplaces, retail stores for virtual goods, cryptocurrency trading and mining, and blockchain financial transactions.

🔵 CNN accused of rug pull as it abandons NFT project. CNN drops the development of its marketplace selling collectible “Moments” tied to major news events. “The Vault” by CNN was built to allow collectors to own a piece of history, e.g. key events or artistic interpretations inspired by CNN. The move is being accused of a rug pull, where the development team yanks support and funds from a project leaving the people who bought in with nothing. They are reportedly only offering a 20% refund.

🔵 Google Cloud will let select users pay with crypto. In a partnership with Coinbase Commerce, Google Cloud is allowing a small number of customers to pay for its services using bitcoin, Ethereum & Dogecoin.

🔵 FIFA and Roblox announce partnership as FIFA World launches. FIFA and Roblox announced a ground-breaking partnership that allows the Roblox community, as well as football fans, to freely access FIFA World. FIFA World is a virtual environment that celebrates the power of football and the history of its events.

🟣 OpenSea integrates Avalanche. Avalanche is the seventh blockchain to integrate with OpenSea, which now features over 200 Avalanche-based NFT collections. Avalanche’s NFT ecosystem is small compared to other chains like Ethereum & Solana. Integrating with market leader OpenSea could help to increase NFT developments on the blockchain.

🟣 Bored Ape Yacht Club creators face SEC probe. Yuga Labs is being investigated by the SEC for the sale of BAYC NFTs, derivative collections, and ApeCoin.

🟣 Damien Hirst live streams the burning of $10M in the art for the NFT project. The artist told buyers to choose either the physical artwork or the NFT that represents it. Those who chose the NFTs were told their corresponding physical piece would be destroyed. Almost half, 4,851 buyers, chose the NFT and therefore the original artwork was burned.

🟣 DeGods become the latest collection to switch to a royalty-free scheme. The Solana-based project is giving away all commercial rights to their work. CryptoPunks also has a 0% royalty structure.

🟣 Beeple building a physical studio to bring NFTs to the real world. Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann is building a digital art studio in Charleston, South Carolina. Beeple made headlines last year with his record-breaking $69.3m sale of NFT artwork at Christie’s auction. The building will be an outlet for their artwork, and also for the digital art community experiencing NFTs IRL.

🟢 Metaverse platforms hit back at unimpressive user number data. The week before last, popular data analytics platform, DappRadar, reported low user numbers for virtual worlds like Decentraland & The Sandbox. The report stipulated that Decetraland had just 38 Daily Active Users (DAUs) on the 7th of October. These platforms have hit back, stating that DappRadar’s limited monitoring process provides an incomplete picture. Decentraland reports around 8,000-10,000 daily active users and the Sandbox reports around 38,000.

🟢 Blockchain gaming company Limitbreak buys $6.5M Superbowl ad slot. The 30-second slot will allow the company to show off its DigiDaigaku game at Super Bowl LVII in February 2023.

🙌 Thank you for reading! See you next week!