Move aside, traditional playmakers in NFTs. The buzz this past week wasn’t with Ethereum or Solana powered NFTs, but rather with new emerging players. That’s right, we saw some ‘unusual suspects’ with blockchains like Cardano and Aptos making noise in the NFT space this past week.
We’ll review those, as well as some of the biggest headlines in the NFT space – including moves from major tech and social behemoths like Twitter and Apple – in our weekly Nutshell. Let’s dive in.
This Week’s Non-Fungible Token News
Twitter’s New ‘NFT Tweet Tiles’
Last week, it was Reddit’s time to shine as the social media platform had a $2.5M day in NFT sales, and sold out of their initial 40K NFT distribution in less than a day. However, this past week was certainly Twitter’s time to take the realm. Between an Elon Musk takeover that would take the company from public to private ownership, and rumors of a new crypto wallet in development, the social media still managed to find time to announce testing of a new NFT feature.
The new feature, titled by the dev team as ‘NFT Tweet Tiles,’ aims to allow a handful of NFT marketplaces and platforms the ability to have in-app displays of NFTs for buying and selling.
Apple Addresses NFTs… With A Lot To Be Desired
Let’s say you have an app that is listed on the Apple App Store: can you, or can’t you, sell NFTs? Well, if there was any question before, you can put it to rest after this week. However, the answer isn’t likely the most appetizing for those educated with the space.
Apple’s new NFT terms for it’s app store specify that while NFTs are approved for minting, listing, and transferring, sales of NFTs on apps would be subject to Apple’s criticized collection fees (roughly 30%). Additionally, NFT ownership within apps cannot “unlock features or functionality” within any app, meaning that you can throw in-app utility potential out of the window.
Overall, it’s simply not a model that makes sense for NFTs, making this progress in name only for Apple and blockchain technology.
New DC Comics NFTs
Iconic comic book studio DC Comics has rolled out ‘Superman’ NFTs as their latest digital engagement activation. It’s the latest powerhouse IP to see ‘digitization’ via NFTs as DC Comics, a Warner Bros subsidiary, shows a continued investment in the space. We’ve seen other IP from the studio, such as Batman, as well as other Warner Bros. owned IP, like Looney Tunes, find their way to NFTs over the course of the past year. We’ll see what comes next from the legacy studio.
Aptos (APT) has been live for less than two weeks, but has already found a home for NFT consumers. | Source: APT-USD on TradingView.com
A New Player In Town? Aptos Enters The Arena
Aptos has been all the talk of the town lately, and is seemingly making swift moves into NFTs. The blockchain is brand new after years of hype and development, but it took no time at all for Aptos-based NFTs to gain steam; as our team at Bitcoinist covered early last week, some projects with free or cheap mints quickly found their way to $1K+ floor prices, as the chain introduces itself to the latest in a growing roster of potential ‘Solana killers.’
No Bear Market Here, Cardano
Speaking of ‘Solana killers,’ should Cardano be considered a legitimate threat in the NFT sector? Surges in volume suggest perhaps so, as they’ve hit record-highs for the blockchain recently. A DappRadar report published in recent days noted that Cardano has pushed to be the third-largest NFT protocol in volume (behind top dogs Ethereum and yes, Solana).
Solana-challengers like Cardano, the aforementioned Aptos, Avalanche, Flow, and more will allow the entire ecosystem to flourish and improve (Solana included).
Azukis Go IRL, Bring In Over 1,800 ETH
Who said Azukis were dead? Well, plenty of NFT naysayers might’ve said so, but Azuki whales stepped up and made their presence known when bidding was live for eight 24K gold-plated skateboards last week. The custom skateboards brought in over 200 ETH a piece, boasting the title of the most expensive skateboards sold in documented history. The top buyer shelled out a cool 309 ETH for their board – each of which, of course, came with a paired NFT.
Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com
The writer of this content is not associated or affiliated with any of the parties mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice. This op-ed represents the views of the author, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Bitcoinist. Bitcoinist is an advocate of creative and financial freedom alike.
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