NFT Weekly 3/13/2022: Yuga Labs making moves, and the resurgence of LimeWire, and NFT vending machines?

NFT Floor Price Recap

Positive movements in the NFT market as Yuga Labs form headlines purchasing CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs. Meebist in particular have strong volume and floor price changes from speculation that Yuga Labs will incoporate the project into their upcoming play-to-earn game. BAYC/MAYC has also seen a huge increase from the acquisition, especially with rumors of Yuga Labs incorporating their own marketplace, reducing market fees and possibly adding utility of their long-expected $APE token.

On the other side, CC0 projects such as Cryptoadz and mfers have been taking off as an aftermath of the Yuga Labs purchase, with notable Twitter influencers such as DCinvestor voicing their controversial support of only using CC0 pfp projects. DCinvestor has been a well-known influencer in the Crypto Twitter space for quite some time now, and his identity/brand has been largely tied to his CryptoPunk. Since the sale of this project to Yuga Labs though, he has shifted his mentality to CC0 based projects, since the rights to these projects IP remain the same even after someone sells.

Doodles have also been trending upwards with their conference in Austin coming up, partnering with Diplo and Shopify.

NFT Project Recap

Bored Ape Yacht Club

• Yuga Labs purchases Larva Labs and gives commercial rights to all Punk and Meebit owners
• Gordon Goner posts new merch drop to happen in 2 weeks
• Yuga Labs tweets that something is brewing indicating a project partnership with Animaco brands. Project requires KYC check through Blockpass. More info from the chairman of Animaco Brands, Yat Siu, can be found through this tweet.
• Bored Ape Yacht Club matched $1 million dollars in donations to Ukraine ❤️

Cool Cats

• Town hall 3/11/2022 recording
• Team has plans/desires to launch the game by March 2022 (this month)
• Beta testing for the game in waves will start now
• Upcoming collab with Toy Boogers, DeadFellaz, and Robotos with an April 2022 mint date. 1,111 1/1 NFTs  on a 100% allow-list basis.
• Plans to make up the $MILK disparity between Cool Cats and Pets

Doodles

• Doodles SXSW this weekend in Austin, Texas with a lot of interactive events and a musical performance by Diplo
• Team scaling proposal announced to make Doodles mainstream across the entire NFT space without dilution. Some ideas include a mainstream NFT that can be purchased with a credit card/fiat and distribute revenue back to holders/licenses.

10KTF x Gucci Grail

• Allow list winners chosen and sale starts 3/14 while reserve list starts 3/15 if applicable
• Holders of projects such as Cryptoadz, WoW, BAYC, etc were allowed to enter the raffle

World of Women

• World of Women is planning on releasing its second project, World of Women Galaxy. Each WoW holder gets 1 allowlist spot (free mint + gas) for a WoWG. Other information has not yet been released
• World of Women official Twitter account holds allowlist spot raffles through active engagers which can be helpful for those who do not own a WoW (WoW holders may also enter to get 1 allowlist spot)
• Yam Karkai, the artist behind WoW, went on stage to introduce Christina Augilera in the Music Awards with their Billboard collaboration.
• $25 million foundation to promote female inclusivity in web3 with Sandbox

Other NFT projects and updates

• Forbes virtual billionaire NFT collection announcement
• Stripe announces crypto payment solution, with the potential to scale marketplaces.
• Warner Bros is creating over 6 million DC Comics-inspired physical trading cards paired with redeemable NFTs on the Ethereum sidechain, Immutable X. 155 superheroes including some limited cards with The Batman featuring Robert Pattinson.
• Bain Capital Ventures announces $560 million dollar crypto fund to focus on DeFi and Web3

NFT/Crypto News

Yuga Labs acquires Crypto Punks and Meebits

In one of the craziest weekends in NFT history, Yuga Labs, creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club, have acquired CryptoPunks and Meebits. Largely considered the top 2 pfp NFT projects, BAYC and CryptoPunk have now merged into the same family, and Yuga Labs intend on giving CryptoPunk the long-awaited commercial rights that many, such as punk4156, have asked Larva Labs for years.

How will this play out? Some have considered this move similar to Marvel comics absorbing DC comics, with mixed opinions on if this is beneficial to either project.

Learn about the Flow Blockchain through a deep dive covered by PackyM of NotBoringCo

Most people have heard of the Bitcoin or Ethereum blockchain. They're #1 and #2. They're king and queen. They're gold and silver. But what if I told you there was another blockchain being developed by one of the first multi-billion dollar Web3 companies, one with a partnership with a highly global brand such as the NBA?

Enter the Flow blockchain. Developed by Dapper Labs, the Flow blockchain is designed for easy user onboarding experience. No need to deal with setting up your own wallet, since marketplaces such as NBA Topshot are build with a custodial wallet already integrated. Flow accepts payments such as USD and even credit cards too.

What about those annoying gas fees? They don't exist. The multinode-architecture that the Flow Blockchain uses (which Dapper has published several articles about) optimizes the consensus protocol to only verify non-deterministic actions.

I could go on, but Packy explains it much better in his deep dive.

LimeWire announces their comeback as an NFT marketplace

Remember how people used to get music before smartphones or $5 per month streaming from Spotify or Apple Music was a thing? No, we didn't buy the albums from artists for $19.99. We instead crossed gray lines and got the music in a free alternative way through the platform LimeWire. Limewire. How that brings back memories.

I remember being a kid and going on LimeWire to illegally download the songs I wanted onto CDs or the latest playlist created on my iPod. Whether it was Lincoln Park's In The End or waiting for someone to upload the latest new song, I could depend on this platform. Then, as LimeWire shutdown due to copyright infringement and as Spotify, YouTube, and Apple music came about, the platform suddenly began to fade from our memories. Until now.

LimeWire is back. With an emphatic tweet on March 9, 2022, LimeWire announced their comeback. Only this time as a NFT music marketplace. Signing up for early access includes getting a shot at 1/10,000 possible exclusive airdrop NFTs created by the platform.

An ambitious roadmap showcases a token, $LMWR, at the heart of the platform. With 1 billion total supply, it seems that $LMWR will be the primary currency of this marketplace. Public and Private token sales with occur throughout 2022. Stay up to date by signing up for the waitlist here.

NFT Vending Machines make their way to NYC

Recently, a Solana-based NFT marketplace and gallery, Neon, launched their first NFT vending machine in Manhattan's Financial District. Located at 29 John Street, the contemporary-designed vending machine accepts credit/debit cards and sells a cardboard box with a QR code inside which will allow you to mint an NFT on the blockchain through Neon's website.

Onboarding users to NFTs are tough. Explaining blockchains work, public and private keys, wallets, gas fees, and NFT ownership can be quite complex for new users. Neon aims to solve this issue by giving people the choice of using a familiar platform, a vending machine and QR codes. Additionally, accepting payments in fiat and through credit cards will allow mainstream consumers to skip out the whole cryptocurrency barrier as well.

That's it for this week's newsletter. If you like reading and learning more about the Web3, Crypto, and NFT space, subscribe! Information in this space moves fast, and we aim to condense the news you need to know!