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Web3 News

Coinbase NFT Beta launches this past weekend

Something that the NFT community has long awaited for, and to some extent has become a meme, is Coinbase NFT marketplace. After months of "wen Coinbase NFT Marketplace?" tweets filled with Coinbase Support spam bots, we finally received a preview on 4/20 when Coinbase announced the beta launch of their marketplace. Specifically, a group of small beta testers on the waitlist will have first dibs in creating an NFT profile to buy and sell NFTs using any self-custody wallet.

As the marketplace is in beta, it's missing a lot of key features that competing marketplaces have such as:

1. Timed listings
2. The ability to filter an NFT collection by trait (huge)
3. A way to view the historical activity or sales for an NFT collection

Coinbase is embracing a "social network" type marketplace, where users create profiles and can follow, comment, and like NFTs, which I think is interesting. Additionally, users can customize their profiles by highlighting or hiding NFTs they own.

The concept of a marketplace as a social network seems very interesting, especially since much of the interactions between the NFT community are through Twitter and Discord. It'll be interesting how Coinbase could potentially expand this by creating something similar to Facebook Groups or Instagram Stories long term.

Yuga Labs and announce the release of their Otherside project on 4/30!

Probably the most anticipated NFT drop this half, next to Moonbirds, is the Yuga Labs x Animoca brands collaboration. This was announced earlier in the year when The Bored Ape Yacht Club tweeted that something is brewing. Well, indeed something was brewing.

This tweet eventually led to a KYC process handled by Blockpass. If you don't know, KYC is a standard to protect against fraud and required users to verify their identity. In the Web3 space where many people live anonymously, this was quite controversial.

Many have suspected the upcoming NFT release of being the LAND drop as well as Koda, the animal figure that was teased in their Otherside trailer.

Details about the drop can be found in the thread below, but to summarize, the mint will be held on April 30, 2022. The mint will be a Dutch Auction style mint where the price will decline over time and will exclusively use ApeCoin. Only those who participated in the Blockpass KYC are allowed to mint. The morning of 4/30 will allow users to pre-approve their KYCed wallet to save time and gas fees.

Both BAYC and MAYC holders will have 21 days to claim a free NFT after the auction. Additionally, Yat Siu of Animoca Brands confirmed that BAYC/MAYC holders can claim without the need for KYC, but they would still need KYC to participate in the mint.

With many people not accepting the KYC, the launch has now become more exclusive as only a small set of users will be allowed to mint (this kind of created a whitelist for this project). Additionally, with only ~160 million ApeCoin in circulation, it'll be interesting to see how that affects future staking proposals and the price of the coin, especially since all of the ApeCoin earned from this sale will be locked up for 1 year.

Official links can be found through this tweet. Do not trust any other links or DMs.

Nike and RTFKT's first digital sneakers have launched

A few months ago, Nike joined the metaverse by purchasing virtual fashion startup RTFKT. Their first ever NFT drop was a mysterious metallic cube with the iconic Nike Swoosh logo. These NFTs were airdropped for free to holders of RTFKT's profile picture NFT, CloneX.

After months of waiting, it has been revealed that each cube contains a pair of virtual sneakers called Nike Cryptokicks. Cryptokicks are digital wearable versions of the Nike Dunks, which can be altered via "Skin Vials" which can be swapped to enable different looks of the shoes. A trailer was put together to debut the shoes.

It's really cool seeing Nike take the concept of skins and tie them with NFTs. This is something that the Web3 gaming community has been asking for a long time. "How do I turn my Fortnite skin into an NFT?". The concept of skin vials is one proposal, and I'll be excited to see where this goes.

Other Web3 News

• Investment first 16z announced the launch of their crypto research department which is inspired by Deepmind and OpenAI. This team is led by faculty from Colombia and Stanford with the goal of solving real-world problems with Web3, something that many tech individuals criticize about the field.
• Leading NFT Marketplace Opensea acquires Gem
• Mad Realities raises $6 million to become the Web3 version of Netflix. Currently, its show Proof of Love is an interactive dating show where the community decides what happens.
• Meta is opening a metaverse-inspired brick and mortar store to sell AR and VR devices in Burlingame where the Reality Labs division is located.
• Uniswap Labs, the developers of the DEX Uniswap, are now blocking crypto wallet addresses that are engaging in illegal activity
• Tron founder Justin Sun announced that Tron will be launching their own decentralized stablecoin USDD. Similar to Terra, USDD will be an algorithmic stablecoin to keep the price pegged to the US dollar.

NFT Floor Update

This week's floor update is dominated once again by BAYC and MAYC who are up 28% and 38% respectively. A few factors contributed to this such as LooksRare's listing rewards, Moonbirds showing a competitive floor price, and the upcoming Otherside launch.

Moonbirds also hit an all-time high of 40 ETH earlier this week, but the floor price has been dropping since the news that COO Ryan Carson is stepping down and starting a new fund that seems to have similar interests with Proof.

Meebits, Cryptoadz, and Cool Cats have been suffering since the Otherside announcement, which basically disproves a rumor that holders of these projects would be whitelisted into the Otherside NFT launch this weekend.

NFT Project Updates

ApeCoin and Bored Ape Yacht Club

• Yuga Labs announce the Otherside launch which will be on 4/30 at 12:00 PM EST. Mint will be Dutch Auction in $APE and only those who completed the KYC earlier will be able to mint. All the ApeCoin earned from this sale will be locked up for one year. MAYC/BAYC holders are eligible to claim one free NFT after the auction and do not need to be KYC approved.
• BAYC Instagram was hacked with a fake airdrop link. People affected by this hack can reach out to the team for support through this tweet. The team said that mints will only be announced through their official Twitter accounts and through the #announcement channel of the BAYC Discord.
• BAYC 1 year anniversary passed a few days ago! So much has been accomplished in only one year. Excited for what's to come ❤️
• A Twitter Spaces with the ApeCoin Board occurred today to discuss the AIP-21/AIP-22 staking proposals. These proposals are the exact same as AIP-4/AIP-5 except they introduce a cap per NFT of the original airdrop amount. The board said proposals must answer all outstanding questions before a live vote can happen. Despite there being a lot of other staking proposals, the DAO is voting on AIP-21/AIP-22 because legal issues, costs, and estimating timelines are very similar to the earlier proposals. Board members have also shared that their goal is to find ways for the community to bring value to the coin and ecosystem.

Proof and Moonbirds

• Moonbirds nesting, or staking, officially went live last week and hosted an official Twitter Space to discuss the next steps. Rare trait birds could see additional benefits, but the team is committed to rewarding long-term holders. The first nesting reward will unlock after 30 days. These rewards include in-person events, merch, airdrops, and more. Nest rarity, determined by how long you nest, is only reset when a Moonbird is placed for sale. You can still transfer the NFT between a hot and cold wallet without resetting the nest timer.
• In a crazy turn of events, Ryan Carson, the former COO of Proof + Moonbirds, stepped down from his role and is now focused on a new fund to "invest in historical NFTs". This fund requires 25 ETH per quarter and has only 99 spots available. The timing and nature of this brought quite the disappointment in the community as this seems like a cash grab.
• Proof raises $10M from Reddit' cofounder Alexis Ohanian's VC Fund, Seven Seven Six

Other NFT Project Updates

• Cool Cats announce their Spring Egg Hunt
• Purrnelopes Country Club airdrop 8 and mintpass art reveal is coming up this week
• LooksRare marketplace announces listing rewards where users can list NFTs in top collections to earn $LOOKS
• Adidas originals physical product claiming window will be on 4/28
• Cryptoadz owners have 250 spots for Forgotten Runes Wizard Cult's upcoming mint of their Warriors Guild collection via Premint
• Grammy nominated, Multi Platinum producer Murda is creating a custom track for Bored & Dangerous NFTs by Jenkins the Valet

If you like learning about Web3, blockchain, NFTs, and tech, subscribe to our free weekly newsletter! And if you haven't yet, follow me on Twitter!