A 1 million dollar Bored Ape conquers Madonna, Solana opens a new store and Damien Hirst burns part of his NFT collection!
We present a Young Monday dedicated to NFTs for the first Monday of August! Pop star Madonna dreams of a rare 1 million Bored Ape to add to her her collection, Serie A footballers become NFT cards on Sorare and Damien Hirst is destroying part of his collection of non-fungible tokens, The Currency, forever. For those on holiday in New York, from the 28th of July you can go crypto shopping at Solana’s new store!
Will Madonna spend $1 million on a Bored Ape?
Madonna has set her sights on an exorbitantly priced Bored Ape NFT! Bored Ape Yacht Club number 3756, which is currently on sale for 800.69 ETH (about $1.27 million) on Opensea. The pop star seems intent on having it back in her collection after it was snatched away by one of her fans. Why all the attention specifically for number 3756? ‘I was told it was inspired by me and modelled on me, and it was bought by a woman who is a fan of mine. She wanted to sell it to me, but it was too expensive,’ Madonna explained. Indeed, the style of Bored Ape is very reminiscent of that of the artist: leather jacket and S&M hat. The BAYC is flattered by the interest (obsession perhaps) of Madonna, the artist who in her time helped spread the punk rock style so characteristic of the Apes: ‘the Yuga Labs team loves it when people see themselves in certain Ape’. Madonna already owns a Bored Ape, number 4988 which cost $466,000 (however it’s much less rare than her favourite Ape), two World of Women (one of which is her Twitter profile picture) and a LAND by Otherside, the Metaverse of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. In May, Madonna released a set of NFTs in collaboration with Beeple: ‘Mother of Creation’, sold for charity.
Serie A teams make an appearance on Sorare
Starting with the 2022-23 season, 17 of the 20 Serie A teams will be available on Sorare, fantasy football on Ethereum. In a multi-year agreement, Sorare has brought the champions of Serie A onto the blockchain: the players of Italian clubs will be turned into NFT cards with which to play a crypto and digital version of fantasy football. The Serie A thus becomes one of the four major football leagues available on Sorare, along with the German Bundesliga, the Spanish La Liga and US Major League Soccer. Fans around the world will be able to collect, trade and line-up NFTs of Serie A players. According to Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo, one of the goals of the partnership is to engage international audiences and bring younger fans closer to Serie A TIM football. In fact, Italy is the second largest community globally on Sorare. The Serie B, which recently elected its new board members, has also expressed its intention to rely on new blockchain technologies to improve the experience of younger fans around the world.
Damien Hirst burns his NFT collection
As of 27 July last, the British artist started to ‘burn’ some of his NFTs, permanently destroying them. A stroke of madness? No, an artistic experiment! But let’s analyse this in order. In 2021, Hirst made 10,000 NFTs associated with as many physical works painted in 2016, in a project called The Currency. The works, unique and with different titles, depict textures of polka dots. Collectors, who were awarded each piece for $2,000, were faced with a choice: keep Damien Hirst’s work in NFT format only, destroying the canvas equivalent or, conversely, give up the non-fungible token to receive the physical work. The decision had to be made by last Wednesday, when the countdown expired, 5,149 owners decided to receive the physical work and 4,851 the NFT work. A battle took place between physical and digital art, the result of which was a slight victory for the former. Damien Hirst’s NFTs were managed, from creation to burning, by the Heni marketplace on the Palm blockchain. On Twitter, the artist announced the outcome of the collectors’ choice, adding that “I still don’t know what I’m doing and have no idea what the future holds for me, whether NFTs or physical works will be more valuable or not” and that the journey has just begun.
Solana opens a store for crypto enthusiasts in New York City
Solana has opened ‘the world’s first retail and education space dedicated to Web3′ at the Hudson Yard in Manhattan. Solana Spaces is a real store where customers are invited to experience the Solana universe live. Inside Solana Spaces, you can learn how to use a wallet, discover all of Solana’s projects and dapps and buy your first NFT all with the support of the team. “Inside the shop you will learn how Solana works and what Web3 is. We will provide you with a wallet and your first NFTs, and guide you through your first on-chain transactions,” the Solana Spaces Twitter account tweeted earlier this month.
Blockchain merchandise will also be available in the store, including a limited series of Blanksoles trainers. Solana Spaces aims to be a real ‘Web3 embassy in New York’! Prior to the grand opening, the store opened to 30 preview visitors, but Solana Spaces’ showcase did not go unnoticed and was shared on social media.
