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The top 10 marketplaces to buy NFTs

The top 10 NFT marketplaces to buy digital art

Which NFT marketplace should you choose? This list guides you through the top 10 platforms where you can buy non-fungible tokens!

By ‘NFT marketplace’ we mean a platform where you can buy and sell non-fungible tokens. If you have done your research and are ready to buy your first NFT, you can find a list of the top 10 marketplaces here. The marketplaces on this list are secondary resellers of NFTs, i.e. they offer tokens for sale by other users and not directly by the creators. However, in most cases these marketplaces offer tools to create and sell NFTs. 

NFT marketplaces are not all the same. Each one differs from the others, firstly according to the type of blockchain they support. For example, the Tezos blockchain has the reputation of hosting NFTs of the most indie artists on the scene, while on Flow you can find tokens for crypto video games or sports-themed ones. The marketplaces are also differentiated by their target sector (gaming, digital art, PFP…) and the ‘level’ of decentralisation based on the presence of DAOs. Here are the top 10 NFT marketplaces where you can buy digital art (and more)!

1. OpenSea

OpenSea is the first and most popular NFT marketplace in the industry. At the time of writing this article, sales on the platform had a volume of $31.74 billion. OpenSea is the Amazon of NFTs, an e-commerce giant where you can buy many different non-fungible tokens, according to type, style and topic. You can find PFP collections, play-to-earn game items, collectibles and digital art on the platform. There is also a large space on OpenSea for music NFTs and NFT domains. This NFT marketplace is the most widely used and it aims to bring this technology to the general public. Therefore, it aims to be as user-friendly as possible. OpenSea was founded in 2017 by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah, who were fascinated by the success of CryptoKitties and the movement that NFTs have sparked within crypto communities.

In the OpenSea marketplace, there are NFTs built on Arbitrum, Ethereum, Klaytn, Polygon, Optimism and Solana. As a payment method, you can use ETH, WETH and MATIC, APE and SOL. To buy NFTs on OpenSea, you will therefore need a crypto wallet, but in some cases you can also use credit cards (and fiat currencies). When choosing a crypto wallet, make sure it supports NFTs and the blockchain on which you intend to buy them. OpenSea recommends using Metamask for ETH transactions and Phantom wallets for Solana. On OpenSea, tokens can be purchased via the ‘buy now’ function or through auctions or bids. During the purchase process, you may see a higher amount than initially presented, the difference being the gas fees, i.e. the fees for processing the purchase transaction on the blockchain. 

2. X2Y2

In second place among the most used NFT marketplaces is X2Y2, with a volume of USD 849 million. As in the case of OpenSea, X2Y2 is also a platform with a broad NFT offering. You can really find everything there! Purchases on X2Y2 are made with WETH, the ERC-20 token called Wrapped Ether. A WETH is equivalent to an ETH. They are used on this NFT marketplace to “reduce the cost of gas fees and to make the entire purchase process simple, quick and secure”. The X2Y2 marketplace also has an eponymous utility token that is distributed to sellers and buyers for each purchase as well as providing benefits. For instance, by staking X2Y2, you can receive commission discounts on purchases.

3. Magic Eden

Magic Eden is an NFT marketplace on Ethereum and Solana that is also available as an app (android and iOS)! Magic Eden has reached a volume of $1.79 billion and it offers more than 8,000 collections of non-fungible tokens. These include some of the best NFT projects on Solana: y00ts, Critters Cult and DeGods. Magic Eden was founded by four friends with different work experiences in the crypto and DeFi industry: Sidney Zhang, Jack Lu, Zhuoxun Yin and Zhuojie Zhou. For the founders, the name of the NFT marketplace is reminiscent of a garden full of endless possibilities just like the garden of Eden in the bible. Although a wide variety of projects can be found on Magic Eden, one of the main focuses is play-to-earn NFTs. Magic Eden has a community-driven approach and is run by a DAO, MagicDAO, in which the owners of 30,000 NFT Magic Tickets participate.

To buy NFTs on Magic Eden you need a Solana wallet. For those new to the platform the marketplace team suggests the Phantom wallet.

4. LooksRare

LooksRare is an NFT marketplace reminiscent of play-to-earn dynamics. Those who buy, sell and participate in the platform’s activities receive rewards in the form of LOOKS tokens. LOOKS tokens can be used to stake and obtain fee discounts. LooksRare has a volume of USD 1.62 billion and it accepts ETH and WETH for payments.

5. Rarible

With a volume of $299.83 million, Rarible offers NFTs developed on Ethereum, Solana, Tezos, Immutable X, Flow and Polygon. The platform is, to all intents and purposes, a multichain marketplace ; again offering a wide and diverse range of non-fungible tokens. Rarible collaborates with Rarity Sniper, a tool that evaluates and ranks NFT PFPs based on their rarity. This functionality is particularly useful because rarity is one of the main aspects that are considered when people choose to purchase an NFT. How does Rarity Sniper work on Rarible? By taking a single piece, the tool checks “the nature and quantity of the NFT’s traits and automatically compares them to other NFTs in the same collection, calculating its ranking”. On Rarible you can also use “rarity” as a filter in the drop-down menu. This function is currently available for all Ethereum-based PFP collections. On Rarible, just like in a real social network, you can explore the profiles of collectors and all their tokens (in the ‘Users’ section).

Another interesting feature on Rarible is the Multi-Wallet Profile, which allows NFT accounts built on different blockchains to be managed in a single account. The Multi-Wallet Profile supports 20 crypto wallets linked to all blockchains available on Rarible. By purchasing NFTs on Rarible, you receive a share of RARI, the Rarible Protocol governance token that provides different blockchain infrastructures to build NFT projects. The governance of this NFT marketplace is managed by the Rarible Protocol DAO.

6. SuperRare

Continuing down the list of the top 10 NFT marketplaces, we come across SuperRare with a volume of $235, 965 million! If you are an art enthusiast and are wondering which NFT marketplace to choose, SuperRare might be the one for you. SuperRare is built like a real digital art gallery. There are thematic exhibitions and focus on artists of the moment such as FEWOCiOUS, Otherworld with the motto ‘dark art with bright colours’ or DirtyRobot (Daniel Isle) the illustrator who started RENGA NFT. From a technical point of view, SuperRare is a peer-to-peer marketplace on Ethereum and has its own token: RARE. This is called a ‘curation token’ because holders can curate the marketplace’s exhibitions and artistic choices through voting.

On SuperRare, NFTs are bought in Ether and sales commissions are fixed at 3% (for buyers).

7. Objkt

On the Tezos blockchain, we can find Objkt, the NFT marketplace that focuses on sustainability. The non-fungible tokens on Objkt are called ‘Clean NFTs’ because the blockchain on which they are built is very careful about its environmental impact. Objkt has a tight roadmap that seeks to respect the wishes of the community. It proposes initiatives to improve the platform such as ‘separating NFTs into categories between PFPs, art and hot collections’ or ‘accepting offers made only by verified accounts’.

8. KnownOrigin

KnowOrigin also offers a fine selection of digital art. The NFT marketplace is built on Ethereum and has a volume of $7.81 million. More than 1,000 artists and more than 11,000 pieces are displayed on KnowOrigin. The marketplace aims to make it easier for artists to experience the Web3: “KnowOrigin is an artist-driven platform that makes it easy for digital creators to create, display and sell the art they produce. With this in mind, the price of a first sale NFT is distributed 85% to the artist who made it and 15% to the platform (for commissions).  

9. Nifty Gateway

Nifty Gateway’s mission is clear: to make NFTs accessible to everyone, from beginners to experienced collectors. Nifty Gateway is a ‘custodial platform’. This means that NFTs are kept in a wallet secured by Gemini. In practice, if you lose your account credentials, they can easily be recovered by the platform itself. In this sense, the risks are minimal. On Nifty Gateway you can buy NFTs in crypto (ETH) as well as cash for no gas fee: “the custodial nature of Nifty Gateway allows you to operate without having to process a transaction on the blockchain, which means there are no gas fees. This saves our collectors a lot of hassle and money.” Nifty Gateway is also available for mobile devices.

10. ItalyNFT

To conclude the list of the top 10 NFT marketplaces where you can buy digital art, we dedicate some space to a platform ‘made in Italy’. ItaliaNFT is a marketplace where you can buy non-fungible tokens of Italian excellence, including local artists such as Mart Signed and iconic brands such as ‘Giro d’Italia‘. It is precisely the vocation to enhance Italian digital art that distinguishes ItaliaNFT from the arts marketplace. On the platform it is possible to buy works in ETH.

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The NFT market in September: charts, record sales and trending collections

Latest news from the NFT market: RENGA, CryptoPunks, Solana

What happened to the NFT market in September 2022? The latest news, record sales for CryptoPunks, Solana and emerging collections across the industry!

To all those in ‘wake me up when bear market ends’ mode, you should sleep for a little while longer. The market continues to be bearish and the non-fungible token sector has slowed down too, but it’s not really hibernating! In this article you will find an overview of the NFT market of September 2022. We present data on sales volumes, emerging NFT collections and projects that have exploded (small spoiler: CryptoPunks and NFTs on Solana).

NFT market: volume declines but not the number of sales

An overview of the NFT market in September shows us that the volume of total NFT sales has dropped a lot since the beginning of the year: from 235.24 billion USD on the 30th of January 2022 to 67.93 billion USD on the 30th of September 2022. In short, sales have fallen in terms of volume, especially compared to the best periods for non-fungible tokens we have seen this year (February and May). On the other hand, the NFT market’s figures show growth in the number of new collections created: from 39.25 thousand in January to 176.21 thousand in September. The number of daily NFT sales on the 30th of September was 22.89 million (data from IntoTheBlock and Dune Analytics). These days, the NFT market is reacting to the activation of non-fungible tokens on Instagram. For US users, it will finally be possible to link wallets and share NFTs in their profiles, next to the symbol of photos, reels and tagged photos. The NFT section is recognisable by the hexagon symbol that has appeared. Will the reaction be positive?

Record sales in September: CryptoPunks and Solana

What is happening to the NFT market during this bear market? Albeit with low volumes, non-fungible tokens continue to be bought without dramatic collapses. On the contrary, some NFTs have seen record sales, such as the case of CryptoPunks #2924 which sold for 3,300 ETH (around $4.5 million) on the 28th of September 2022. This sale ranked 24th in terms of the most expensive NFTs ever, and 4th highest for sales of the CryptoPunks collection. This example of CryptoPunks is one of the rarest and most valuable in the entire collection, as it is an ‘ape’ character (i.e. a CryptoPunks with the appearance of a monkey) of which only 24 examples exist. Other notable NFT (single) sales this month are:

●     CryptoPunks #5944 for $1.28 million;

●     Bored Ape Yacht Club #8585 for $1.02 million;

●     Bowie by FEWOCiOUS (from the ‘Bowie on the Blockchain‘ collection) for $127,460.

As far as collections and entire NFT projects are concerned, this is the top performance ranking for the month of September 2022:

  1. Ethereum Name Service: blockchain domain service records $34.18 million in sales;
  2. Bored Ape Yacht Club: 27.96 million (down from the previous month);
  3. CryptoPunks: $22.3 million;
  4. RENGA NFT: the emerging collection on Ethereum sold its works for $19.77 million;
  5. Mutant Ape Yacht Club: BAYC’s sister collection closed the month with sales worth $17.45 million.

Although the ranking is dominated by ‘blue chip’ NFT collections, more recent collections such as y00ts on Solana, Azuki on Ethereum, Otherside’s LAND, and the Bored Ape metaverse also achieved good positions. Special mention must be made of the growth of NFTs from play-to-earn games on the Immutable X chain and the NFT passes from Tyler Hobbs‘ QQL project, all 900 of which were sold in half an hour for $17 million. An experiment in generative art that allows one pass to mine a unique and customised NFT.

According to this data (provided by DappRadar), the top blockchains for the NFT sector in the month of September were Ethereum and Solana. Sales on Solana rose 77 per cent over the previous month. As far as the sales ranking by NFT marketplace is concerned, in first place there’s OpenSea ($350 million in monthly sales), in second place Magic Eden on Solana ($128.22 million) and finally X2Y2 on Ethereum ($67.62 million).

Which NFTs explode in September?

Among the up-and-coming NFT collections is RENGA, the project of cartoonist DirtyRobot which, as we have seen, achieved excellent sales results in September. RENGA’s most expensive NFT was No. 26, which sold for 20 ETH ($26,000). This month also saw the “birth” of RENGA’s first NFT whale, which has 80 pieces in the collection worth around $235,000 (calculated on a floor price basis).

Also noteworthy is Critters Cult, a collection of NFT pixel art on Solana influenced by 80s and 90s aesthetics. Critters Cult was launched on 25 September and has since recorded sales of nearly $3 million. The collection consists of 4,444 PFPs representing animals and protagonists from the Critters Cult universe, populated by bizarre and mysterious events and featuring atmospheres worthy of Stephen King, David Lynch and Steven Spielberg.

NFT collections coming soon: A.C. Milan and Hugo Boss

On the 6th of October 2022, through an auction on the Magic Eden marketplace, a special edition of the MonkeyLeague collection dedicated to A.C. Milan players will be sold. MonkeyLeague is a play-to-earn game on Solana that can be classified as a sports-themed strategy video game in which you build a MonkeyPlayer team. The aim of the game is to train your team and win challenges and tournaments to obtain the MSB token as a reward. At the auction on the 6th of October, 16 NFTs inspired by the AC Milan team of the 1993/94 and 1995/96 seasons will be auctioned off.

‘Embrace Your Emotion’ is the title of Hugo Boss’ new NFT collection. The brand’s first experiment in the industry dates back to 2021, when a digital clothing collection inspired by American baseball was released. On the 4th October 2022, Hugo Boss announced its rebranding plan towards digital with a ‘holistic, 360° experience in the Metaverse‘. Concretely, Hugo Boss has created digital artworks together with Imaginary Ones NFT, a project of 8,888 colourful animated characters created on Ethereum. Embrace Your Emotion will go on sale in early November and will consist of 1,001 3D NFTs in video format. Aesthetically, the non-fungible tokens will represent human emotions with different shades and more or less rare characteristics. Owners of these will also get benefits such as discounts in Hugo Boss shops, merchandise and other digital experiences.

The proceeds from the sales of Hugo Boss’ NFT collection will be donated to the Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM) association. The press release states that ‘the aim of the collection is to encourage everyone to get in touch with their emotions and share the message that all feelings, positive and negative, are valid and should be embraced, as the freedom to feel and express can significantly improve mental health and overall well-being’.

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Apecoin: a staking feature is coming for the crypto of the Bored Ape Yacht Club

Apecoin: staking for the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s crypto is arriving

From the 31st of October 2022, it will be possible to stake Apecoin, the Bored Apes Yacht Club’s crypto, thanks to a partnership with Horizen Labs!

The crypto of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Apecoin, continues to evolve and grow its use cases. In August 2022, the fashion brand Gucci began accepting the token of the Web 3’s most famous NFT monkeys, thus helping to enhance their reputation. On the 22nd of September 2022, the blockchain company Horizen Labs, which had already been involved in developing the Apecoin token, announced a (still tentative) date for the release of the APE staking platform. We will see if the Horizen Labs team will be able to accomplish the goals of their roadmap by the 31st of October. Will this be a Halloween-style prank or sweet news for the Web3 world?

Bored Ape Yacht Club and Horizen Labs

The staking platform for the Apecoin token will be called ApeStake and is entirely being developed by Horizen Labs. But let’s go in order, what is Apecoin (APE)? APE is the official crypto of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, the most popular NFT PFP collection ever! It is a governance token, i.e. it is used to give holders a say on decisions that affect the future of the BAYC ecosystem. APE is built on the Ethereum blockchain and was distributed to Yuga Labs’ NFT holders in March 2022. Besides being a governance token, Apecoin is also a utility token, and is used to purchase all products and services developed by Yuga Labs. The startup, which was founded at the same time as the first ever NFT collection, has evolved very quickly. It now deals with three different collections (BYAC, MAYC and Bored Ape Kennel Club) as well as a metaverse, Otherside, and the respective ‘lands’ of which it is composed.

On the other hand, Horizen Labs is a blockchain infrastructure focused on privacy and scalability. Their platform allows companies and developers to create decentralised applications on its network. Horizon Labs also offers the ability to use zero knowledge protocols to ensure fast, secure and cost-effective transactions with sidechains. The Horizen ecosystem and its ZEN cryptocurrency were launched in May 2017 under the name ZenCash. However, in 2018, ZenCash fell victim to a hack. This forced the team to relaunch the project under the new name Horizen. The Horizen Labs platform was chosen by the DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation) of the Bored Ape Yacht Club through a vote. The weight of the voters, as is usually the case in a DAO’s voting initiatives, was determined by the amount of Apecoin each of them possessed.

How will Apecoin and Yuga Labs’s NFTs staking work?

Thanks to some sneak peaks released by Horizen Labs, it is already possible to get a picture of how ApeStake works. Users will be able to choose between four different pools in which to deposit their APEs and block NFTs from the BAYC ecosystem in their possession.

In doing so, users can obtain rewards by staking their tokens. Each pool and each combination of amounts of Apecoin and NFTs will provide specific rewards and benefits. Let’s take a look at the four staking pools of ApeStake:

  1. Apecoin Pool – Within the first staking pool, people will be able to stake their APE tokens without necessarily owning an NFT from Yuga Labs’ collection. The total allocation of APE, to be divided among all those who will use the staking in proportionally to the blocked amount available for this pool, is 30 million APE;
  1. Bored Ape Pool – The pool dedicated to Bored Ape owners is the one with the most rewards. The Bored Ape Pool provides users with 47 million Apecoins that will be divided among those who block a maximum of 10,094 APE tokens during the first year for each BAYC owned;
  1. Mutant Pool – The Mutant Pool will allow users to block around 2,000 APE and their own MAYC to share the 19 million APE reward during the first year;
  1. Paired Pool – In the Paired Pool you can participate by pairing two NFTs created by Yuga Labs according to set combinations. For example, a BAKC (the Bored Apes’ collection of dogs) must be paired with an ape , so you will not be able to stake your APEs in the pool by blocking two dogs. The rewards in it will be about 4 million APE.

The other features of the platform developed by Horizen Labs have yet to be announced. In the video preview, you can see the Market Tools section. The way it works is still being kept a secret.

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NFTs: David Bowie’s collection coming soon on OpenSea

NFTs: David Bowie’s collection is coming to OpenSea

The icon of pop is celebrated with an NFT collection: discover nine Web3 artists’ tribute to David Bowie!

David Bowie, the timeless artist who helped define the pop genre in the 1980s, is now appearing on OpenSea with the ‘Bowie on the Blockchain‘ collection.

The project involves the launch of a series of NFTs entirely dedicated to the White Duke. NFTs, or non fungible tokens, are digital products whose uniqueness and value are guaranteed thanks to blockchain. The NFT trend, which took off in 2021, often involves traditional artists such as singers, performers and painters. It opens the door to new horizons of digital art.

Continue reading this article to discover details about NFT’s new collection dedicated to David Bowie!

Bowie on the Blockchain: details of the collection

The ‘Bowie on the Blockchain’ project was conceived by the David Bowie Estate, an association that manages the artistic heritage inherited by the White Duke. The initiative came about thanks to a collaboration with OpenSea, one of the most important marketplaces for NFT purchases, and the We Love the Arts project, founded by Andrew Keller, artist manager and founder of the We Few Group company operating in the art consultancy sector, and filmmaker Joaquin Acrich. We Love the Arts is entirely dedicated to the digital works of Web3.

The proceeds of the initiative will be donated to Bowie’s widow, Iman Abdulmajid, and her charity CARE, a humanitarian organisation that has been working against poverty and gender inequality worldwide for almost 80 years.

The NFTs were developed on the Ethereum blockchain and will be available for purchase through Opensea’s marketplace. The launch of the collection, initially scheduled for the 13th of September, was postponed until a later date due to the sudden death of Queen Elizabeth II. This decision has been criticised by many David Bowie fans: in 2003, the artist refused the title of Knight of the Order of the British Empire, offered by Buckingham Palace.

This NFT project dedicated to David Bowie involves numerous artists already established in the world of crypto art. The peculiarity of the initiative is the heterogeneity of the digital works, created by artists with very different styles. There are specifically nine NFT artists who contributed to the project. FEWOCiOUS, Defaced, Glam Beckett, JAKE, Jonathan Wolfe, Lirona, Nadya Tolokonnikova of PussyRiot, Osinachi and Young & Sick.

Some of these names represent the most important personalities linked to the NFT sector. FEWOCiOUS, at only 19 years old, has managed to earn almost 18 million dollars with his digital works. Growing up in an unfriendly family environment, he was able to express his emotions and communicate with others thanks to NFT. The artist himself has described himself as a big fan of David Bowie.

On the other hand, Osinachi is an artist who grew up in a country with a strong interest in NFTs : Nigeria. His style is distinguished by his collage-like, brightly coloured works.

On Twitter, some artists have decided to share small details about the NFTs they have developed. However, at the moment, it is not possible to view the entirety of the piece previews leaked by the artists and wait for the official launch of the collection.

One of the early pioneers of the Web? David Bowie’s interest in technology

The decision to create an NFT collection to honour David Bowie lies above all in the artist’s interest in the world of technology and the web. In the 1990s, when the Internet was beginning to make its way into everyday life, the singer not only launched his official website, but also his own Internet Service Provider. With this service, Bowie gave his fans the possibility to surf the net safely and quickly and to access exclusive content about his private life.

Bill Zysblat, the artist’s former manager, commented on the initiative in an interview with Billboard. He states David Bowie would certainly have been one of the first artists to exploit the potential of Web3.

Although the initiative is exclusively aimed at raising funds for charity, the news of the launch of the new NFT collection has turned quite a few noses within the David Bowie fanbase.

The announcement of the project was heavily criticised by some users on Twitter. Duncan Jones, David Bowie’s son, commented negatively on the initiative, criticising the use of NFTs as a fundraising tool.

More and more artists are getting involved in the NFT world

The NFT collection about David Bowie is certainly not the first crypto initiative launched by prominent figures in the music world or in honour of great personalities now deceased. The Non-Fungible-Tokens, in fact, are not exclusively drawings or graphic works, but can also be entire songs.

In May 2022, Snoop Dogg, the US based rapper and leading representative of the g-funk genre, and Steve Aoki, a US based DJ, launched an album available as NFT. The tracks can only be listened to by holders of the Snoop Stashbox or Aokiverse Passport NFT token, who were created by the artists to celebrate previous events.

Even Madonna, ‘The Queen of Pop’, decided to launch her own NFT collection in May 2022, consisting of three pieces of digital art.

The project, entitled ‘Mother of Nature’ and available for purchase on SuperRare, was created with the cooperation of Beeple, a well-known NFT artist. As with David Bowie’s collection, the proceeds from the sales of the works were donated to three charity organisations: The Voices of Children Foundation, The City of Joy and Black Mama’s Bail Out.

With ‘Space Oddity’ in our headphones, we can only await David Bowie’s arrival on the blockchain.

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The Merge as seen by NFT artists, fan art from Beeple to Vanity Blocks

The Merge: NFTs dedicated to Ethereum 2.0

Beeple and other digital artists celebrate The Merge, discover the NFTs created in honour of the Ethereum update!

The Merge has finally been activated and the Web3 world is in full celebration. Digital artwork and NFTs dedicated to Ethereum 2.0 were not late to the party either! The launch of The Merge officially took place on Thursday the 15th of September at 06:42:42 UTC, activated from block number 15537393. The update marked Ethereum’s final transition to the Proof-Of-Stake consensus algorithm. Given the importance of the event, many wondered how to celebrate The Merge on the blockchain in an immutable manner. In short, with its symbols and mascots, The Merge has become the topic of many NFTs!

Ethereum blockchain blocks become NFTs

The last block of Ethereum’s Proof-of-Work blockchain and the first block of Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake blockchain have both become NFTs. Blockchains are immutable records of information grouped into blocks, which usually contain different numbers of transactions. Bitcoin’s blocks for example contain around 2000 transactions, whereas Ethereum’s blocks usually contain fewer, around 300 to 500.

The emerging NFT brand Vanity Blocks created the NFT of Ethereum’s latest blockchain Proof of Work.

The VanityBlocks project was created to allow users to fill a block on the Ethereum blockchain with a single transaction and turn it into an NFT. The NFT block then becomes the property of the person who processed the transaction. How much did it cost to turn the last block on Ethereum’s Proof-of-Work blockchain into an NFT? 30.5 ETH, about $45,000. Now the NFT can be purchased on the OpenSea marketplace. The current offer is 20 ETH, about $27,000. Within this NFT, the Vanity Blocks team decided to write a quote by US writer Terence McKenna: ‘Make a commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not crush you, but lift you up. That is the trick’. Probably a thought to emphasise the commitment and the enormous amount of innovation that went into the creation of The Merge!

Not only did the last block on Ethereum’s Proof-of-Work blockchain become an NFT but the same thing happened to the first block on the Proof-of-Stake blockchain. One user managed to make a transaction on the first Proof-of-Stake blockchain by paying as much as 36.8 Ethereum in gas fees. The latter are the fees each user pays to process transactions on a blockchain. Gas fees are generally not that expensive, on this occasion the figure was high because the blockchain was particularly congested, in other words very active. The NFT in question depicts a black page entitled ‘The Transition’ on which there is some information such as the chain ID, the blockchain number, the timestamp, i.e. all information and data related to the transaction itself, and on the right-hand side of the page a drawing of a panda.

The panda has become the symbol animal of The Merge on social networks. Even the search engine Google, within the widget for the countdown of The Merge, has inserted two teddy bears, one white and one black, running towards each other with the aim of becoming a panda once the update has taken place. The panda became a popular animal to narrate The Merge following the custom of representing ‘fusion’ through gestures in the Japanese cartoon Dragon Ball Z. Rather than Goku and Vegeta, all the memes depicting The Merge were represented by two bears, one white and one black. They would later fuse and give birth to the panda. The peculiarity of the NFT of the first Proof-of-Stake block is definitely the block number, 15537394 the one with which The Merge was activated!

Beeple’s digital artwork in honour of The Merge

All the most influential individuals and projects within the Web3 community paid tribute to The Merge. In addition to the so-called ‘insiders’, developers and founders of major crypto projects, digital artists also spoke out to celebrate this important event. Among the various works of art produced, those by Beeple certainly stand out. He is one of the first and most influential artists in the NFT field. Beeple has been creating at least one work of art a day for more than 10 years now. In 2020, he decided to turn his artwork into NFTs. The collection containing the first 5000 works, called Everydays, was sold in February 2021 for $69.4 million. There are two digital artworks related to The Merge that Beeple created to date. One is entitled ‘THE MERGE’ and depicts a huge reproduction of the Ethereum symbol under construction. The NFT of the Ethereum logo is constructed from a diamond-like material in purple. The symbol is located inside a kind of futuristic laboratory surrounded by two mechanical arms that appear to be in the process of completing it. This artwork probably represents the completion of the ‘merging’ process and the change of consensus algorithm.

The other digital artwork is called ‘PROOF OF STAKE’ and it depicts a large cyborg panda moving menacingly inside a mine populated by stones resembling the symbol of Ethereum. The two works maintain the classic characteristics of Beeple’s NFTs, so they are both set in a dystopian, psychedelic universe and give the viewer mixed emotions.

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Puma’s NFTs and the metaverse show at the New York Fashion Week 2022

NFTs and the Puma metaverse at the New York Fashion Week

Puma: between the metaverse and NFTs at the New York Fashion Week. Discover the initiatives of the German brand in the world of Web3!

The New York Fashion Week started on Friday the 9th of September 2022, and it is almost drawing to a close. Among the fashion collections that have just taken to the catwalks of the Big Apple, one stands out from the rest. We’re talking about the German brand Puma, that has been absent from the catwalks since 2017. They were ready to return in style through such a highly anticipated event. So, why was Puma’s event on Wednesday the 14th of September 2022 so eagerly awaited? It was the first fashion show to take place in both the real world and the metaverse!

The event called Futrograde was held both on the New York catwalks and in Puma’s Metaverse called Puma Black Station. The news doesn’t end there though! In August 2022, the famous German brand launched its NFT collection on the Ethereum blockchain called Puma Nitropass. Find out how to interact with the Puma Metaverse and their NFTs!

Futrograde, the parade in the Metaverse Puma Black Station!

On the occasion of one of the most eagerly awaited fashion events of the year, Puma has developed a true Web3 ecosystem in which the industry’s leading technologies interact. One of the objectives is certainly to cross geographical boundaries and enable everyone to experience the thrill of attending a Fashion Week event.

But let’s go in order, where did the Futrograde event take place? The event took place in Puma’s metaverse called Puma Black Station, at 2am on Wednesday the 14th of September (UK time). The Black Station platform is a 3D environment designed with the Unreal 5 graphics engine. According to the brand, all of Puma’s Web3 initiatives will be made available there. As of today, users can access two portals by moving around like in a video game: one is called NFERNO and one is called FASTROID. Once you access the portal, you can move to the centre of the virtual room where two 3D models of the sneakers that Puma is about to launch are positioned, illuminated by a particular play of light.

The 3D models in question depict two Puma sneakers that NFT Nitropass owners can physically obtain. How? By burning the digital artwork currently in their possession or by destroying it forever. Puma Nitropass NFTs, built on the Ethereum blockchain, are available on the OpenSea marketplace. The collection consists of 4000 units and the minimum price at which they can be purchased is 0.23 Ether, approximately 370€.

At the back of the room of the Metaverse Puma Black Station, there is also a portal called ‘Futrograde Entry’, which was the route to the Puma show during New York Fashion Week 2022.

Puma’s Web3 and NFT journey

The fact that Puma is a brand in tune with Web3 technologies is nothing new. The German brand approached the Web3 world (and in particular the NFT space), ahead of most competitors by signing partnerships with famous digital art collections. Puma’s Web3 adventure officially started on the 21st of February 2022 with the purchase of the ENS domain puma.eth. Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a protocol for registering domains on the Ethereum blockchain. Each ENS domain can be used as a web address, a wallet, an email or a social media account. Puma has for now chosen to use its ENS domain as the handle of its Twitter page.

Between February and June 2022, Puma launched a large series of partnerships with important NFT projects. In just a few days, it formed partnerships with four collections created on the Ethereum blockchain: CoolCats NFT, Lazy Lions, CatBlox and the Gutter Cat Gang. Each project covered different initiatives. For example, the collaboration with Lazy Lions, which took place in conjunction with NFT Week 2022 in New York, allowed Lazy Lions holders to get a Puma T-shirt with their NFT Lion printed on it. Is it a coincidence that all these NFTs depict felines?

The next step in Puma’s Web3 journey? In May 2022, the brand decided to jump in and develop its first NFT collection together with English football club Manchester City. The collection celebrates the 10th anniversary of the club’s first title in the Premier League (England’s top football league). The particular name of the collection called 93:20 refers to the time elapsed from kick-off to the decisive goal scored by Sergio Aguero during the last game of the 2011-2012 season.

The collection consists of NFTs depicting Aguero’s Puma football boot in a cartoonish, decomposed version, with a series of vignettes inside representing the city of Manchester and the Citizens team. There are only three NFTs in the collection and they differed from each other in terms of the colour of the shoe’s background and the experiences they offered to buyers. The crypto artworks created by digital artist Musketon were sold on the NFT marketplace called Makersplace at three quite different prices, precisely because they offered different benefits. The one with the blue background sold for $1,100, the one with the yellow background for about $2,000, and the one with the green background, which included four tickets to watch a match from the Etihad Stadium suite, for about $6200.

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What is NBA Top Shot? Here come the basketball NFT collectibles

What is NBA Top Shot: a guide to basketball NFTs

An NFT platform dedicated to memorable moments in basketball now exists on the Flow blockchain. Find out what NBA Top Shot is and how it works!

What is NBA Top Shot? In essence, it is a platform for fans of the most famous basketball league! Created from a collaboration between the blockchain company Flow, the Dapper Labs team and the National Basketball Association, NBA Top Shot offers videos of the most memorable moments of basketball in the form of NFTs. NBA Top Shot NFTs can be collected and used as playing cards. So, how do the challenges work? Where can you buy NBA NFTs? What are the differences with Sorare? We explain all this and much more in this guide to NBA Top Shot!

What is NBA Top Shot? The origins of the project

The NBA Top Shot project was launched in 2019 to allow fans and supporters to exclusively collect highlights of American basketball. The idea for Top Shot came from the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). The technical creation of the NFTs, on the other hand, was entrusted to Dapper Labs, a Web3 influencer. They registered the NFTs’ information and metadata on the Flow blockchain via smart contracts.

The reception of the project by fans was good right from the start, and NBA Top Shot continues to be very successful. This is partly due to the popularity and reliability of the NBA brand. Confidence in the project came from the positive values associated with the NBA, and many people bought an NFT from the Top Shot collection as their first one. A good portion of Web3 novices owe a lot to the NBA! The NBA Top Shot community has also expanded to include dozens of celebrities, including well-known faces from US basketball such as Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant. In 2021, the NFTs of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) league were also integrated.

Flow, the blockchain for NFTs

Flow is a Proof-of-Stake blockchain that aims to be the benchmark in the development of Web3 projects. Flow works to be highly scalable, fast and low cost. But its real strength is its user-friendliness for developers, who can create customised projects that are instantaneous and easy for users to use. Flow aims to support everything the Web3 world has to offer: NFTs, DAOs, play-to-earn games. Flow aims to engage the public, even those outside the crypto sector  by building the most innovative blockchain experiences. This vocation towards entertainment originates from a well-known incident in the NFT world, namely the congestion of the Ethereum network in 2017 due to the launch of the CryptoKitties collection. After this episode that demonstrated Ethereum’s weaknesses, the CryptoKitties team decided to found a blockchain suitable for hosting NFTs. Thus, the Dapper Labs startup was born, which in turn gave birth to the Flow blockchain. 

How NBA Top Shot, NFTs and challenges work

The NFTs on NBA Top Shot are called “Moments” because they depict various championship moments, such as on-court actions or memorable points. This is done through videos lasting only a few seconds. Each NFT video also features player statistics and codes indicating the rarity of the ‘Moment’. These non-fungible tokens are designed first and foremost as collectible items. However, you can “participate in challenges to earn new incredible Moments” or exclusive prizes such as match tickets. There are different types of challenges. In some, you get points based on the league performances of the players you want to play with. In others, it’s a matter of guessing which players will do certain things or obtain titles. For example “the player with the most points in the playoff game” or “the player who scores the most points in the … vs … game “. To start playing on NBA Top Shot, you first have to create an account by entering your personal data, confirming that you are at least 18 years old and having your residence in one of the countries where the project is active, including the US and the UK!

Where to buy NBA Top Shots and how much do they cost?

The value of NBA NFTs, like everything on the blockchain, varies over time and according to factors such as rarity. Tokens can be found as low as $2. However, the most expensive NBA Top Shots can go up to six figures. Since the launch of the first ‘Moments’, NBA Top Shot has generated more than $1 billion in sales. You can purchase individual NFTs or “Packs” containing a number of tokens. These “Packs” are often released in special editions (members on the platform will be notified of the drop 8 hours in advance). NBA Top Shot NFTs can be found directly on the platform’s marketplace or on secondary marketplaces such as OpenSea. For purchases you can use Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, DAI, USDC, Ether and also fiat currency (US dollar). Packs’ can also be purchased with FLOW, the native token of the blockchain.

Sorare vs NBA Top Shot: basketball on the blockchain

Basketball on the blockchain goes beyond NBA Top Shot! On the 7th of September 2022, Sorare, the well-known crypto fantasy football platform, announced that the NBA will be the next league to join the list. There are essentially two main differences between the platforms:

  1. The blockchain on which they are built: while Sorare relies on Ethereum, NBA Top Shot uses Flow;
  2. The topics of the NFTs: NBA Top Shot depicts significant moments in the form of videos, while Sorare displays the figurines of American basketball league players recorded on blockchain.

In general, NBA Top Shot can be said to be less of a play-to-earn and more of a collector-oriented platform than Sorare.

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NFTs in honour of Queen Elizabeth II

Here are the NFTs created in honour of Queen Elizabeth II

The Web3 celebrates Her Majesty’s life: discover QueenE DAO and all the NFT collections created in honour of Queen Elizabeth II

The news of Queen Elizabeth II‘s passing on Thursday the 8th of September 2022 is the focus of all newspapers and social networks. A short time ago, the British monarch had spoken out on the world of digital markets. She communicated through the words of the then Prince Charles that she would take steps to strengthen the UK’s digital financial plan. After the news of the sovereign’s death, a number of series of digital artwork were created to pay a sincere tribute to the Queen, who was also loved by the people of the Web3. Discover the main NFT collections dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II!

NFT collections dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II

A few hundred NFT collections dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II were created on various blockchains including Ethereum, Polygon and the Binance Smart Chain. Beyond non-fungible tokens, meme coins such as Queen Elizabeth Inu, QueenDoge and Rip Queen Elizabeth have also popped up.

So, why are all these NFT collections about Queen Elizabeth appearing? For some it may have just been a way to exploit the media buzz of one of the biggest news stories of 2022. However, for most digital artists it was a real tribute to the most famous and beloved monarch ever. Digital artists have indulged in depicting the Queen in different styles and ways, but these celebratory tokens are not necessarily so recent. Some had chosen to depict the Queen and transpose her art onto blockchain before. These collections are of course now back in the limelight. Among the latter is QueenE DAO which is inspired by the DAO NFT Nouns.

QueenE DAO, become a member of the ‘British Parliament’

The QueenE DAO collection is an NFT project that was released in July 2022. It follows in the footsteps of the famous NFT Nouns DAO project. A DAO, or Decentralised Autonomous Organisation, is a type of organisation that is managed by smart contracts and that has a decentralised structure. Nouns is a Web3 platform built on the Ethereum blockchain, with the goal of building a project that is fully managed by all users who own the project’s native NFTs. This is made possible by periodic voting in which only those who own at least one NFT can participate. At this point, Nouns is pretty much an exclusive club, where everyone can get to know and interact directly with all the users who are part of the project. Very few people own Nouns NFTs .Few of them are minted, at the rhythm of one per day for just over a year. Let’s see how it works! On Nouns.wtf, the platform where Nouns’ digital artwork can be purchased, an NFT is generated every day consisting of a few traits that are randomly combined. Users who want to obtain the NFT can ‘challenge’ each other to bid in Ether until the auction ends exactly twenty-four hours after the digital artwork has been created. All Ether collected by the DAO is stored in a ‘common’ wallet whose contents are constantly visible to all users.

The QueenE project mirrors the features and ideas of Nouns. Instead of avatars depicting sharks or unicorns, QueenE’s NFT digital artworks are portraits of Queen Elizabeth that retain the pixelated style. QueenE’s NFTs are composed of six features including the background, face, clothing, head accessory, jewellery and portrait frame. These traits, as is often the case in NFT collections, are classified by rarity. 85% of the traits are common, 10% are rare and 5% are super rare. The rarity of NFTs will be linked to the voting power within the DAO. Voting power will be exercised within the QueenE parliament divided, as in reality, into two chambers. The House of Commons, composed of those who own at least one common QueenE NFT, and the House of Lords whose seats are reserved for owners of rare, super rare or legendary QueenE NFTs. Commons NFTs secure one vote for each NFT owned, while rare, super rare or legendary NFTs secure two votes.

QueenE’s revamped ‘treasury’ is the UnCommonwealth Treasury. Just like Nouns DAO it is also managing the project’s funds in a transparent manner. The QueenE DAO, which had been ‘dormant’ until a few days ago, saw an increase in sales volumes on the occasion of the passing of the iconic monarch. Will the love of the people of Web3 for the late Queen Elizabeth II triumph? Surely the NFT collections created to celebrate the monarch will remain as indelible memories engraved on blockchain.

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LG and Hedera design an NFT marketplace compatible with smart TVs

Buy NFTs with Smart TVs thanks to LG and HBAR

In collaboration with the Hedera blockchain, LG launches the LG Art Lab. Display your digital artwork and buy NFTs with HBAR on your smart TV !

Would you like to display your favourite NFTs and show them to your friends in your living room? Thanks to a new initiative of the tech company LG, in collaboration with the Hedera blockchain, you can now display your digital artwork and buy new ones through your LG smart TV. All from the comfort of your sofa! LG Art Lab is the name of the collaboration project with Hedera. It is a real NFT marketplace, where you can buy NFTs with the HBAR token, which will be accessible directly from your TV. Find out how to buy NFTs with the HBAR crypto, and how to turn your home into a digital art gallery!

Exhibiting NFTs? LG and the digital art gallery!

LG Art Lab is an NFT platform announced on the 5th of September 2022, which will be launched by the end of 2022 on the Hedera blockchain. This is not the first time the two companies have come into contact. In fact, LG has been part of Hedera’s board of directors since 2020. The marketplace and its application should be available by the end of the year in the United States. It will allow users to buy, sell and display digital artwork. The special feature of this marketplace is that it will be easily accessible and compatible with LG smart TVs. It is the perfect medium to display your NFT collection, thanks to the exceptional resolution quality of the images. LG Art Lab will function like a classic NFT marketplace, such as OpenSea, with the difference that purchases will be made with the HBAR token. The section dedicated to buying NFTs is called Drops, where artist profiles and previews of new works coming soon will be available with a countdown so you won’t miss anything new.

To enable users to purchase NFTs with the HBAR token directly from their smart TV, LG is also launching the Wallypto crypto wallet. By connecting to the LG Art Lab platform, the wallet will allow users to view all NFTs they own, as well as their available HBAR token balance. The platform will initially only be available for the US market. As can easily be guessed from the platform’s name, art will be the major focus of the application. The first partnership has already been unveiled, the featured artist will be Barry X Ball!

The first collection on LG Art Lab by Barry X Ball

Barry X Ball is a contemporary sculptor and artist famous for his interpretations of classical sculpture and modernist art created with cutting-edge techniques such as 3D printing and scanning.

Barry X Ball will make his debut in the digital art world with his first NFTs in a collection entitled “Metal” right on the LG Art Lab platform. Thanks to the resolution of LG smart TVs, users will be able to view all the textures, details and materials (including precious metals and stones) used in the artist’s sculptures.

LG chooses Hedera’s green blockchain

Why did LG choose Hedera for its NFT marketplace? The Hedera blockchain, which is a product of the HBAR Foundation, describes itself as an enterprise blockchain that can process transactions very cheaply and quickly. But how are Hedera and its HBAR token so efficient and cheap? The answer to this question lies in the way transactions are recorded on the network. A new structure called Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) was designed by software engineer Leamon Baird, who founded the project in 2015. Thanks to this, Hedera is able to process up to 10 thousand transactions per second.

Hedera’s blockchain works via a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm, called hashgraph. In addition to providing speed and scalability to the network, it is geared towards environmental sustainability. The latter is a value that the HBAR Foundation and its Hedera blockchain have adopted since their inception in 2017. The development team has been and is still committed to ensuring the network’s carbon neutral status by purchasing quarterly carbon credits (carbon offsets). The amount of these credits has been determined by TerraPass, an independent emissions assessment company.

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‘In-chain’ NFTs? The Moonbirds collection offers an explanation

Moonbirds NFTs: What are on-chain and in-chain NFTs?

The future of the Moonbirds NFT collection is all about being on-chain. Let’s find out what the difference is between on-chain, in-chain and off-chain NFTs

PROOF, the Web3 startup that created the Moonbirds NFT collection, has just unveiled the project’s future plans. Among the planned features is making all its non-fungible tokens ‘in-chain’. You may have already heard about the difference between on-chain and off-chain NFTs. But what exactly is meant by ‘in-chain’? 

All the records in the Moonbirds collection

The NFTs of the Moonbirds collection were released in April 2022 and within 48 hours of launch, all 10,000 NFTs were sold out. Moonbirds is a PFP collection of images designed to be used as profile photos, depicting automatically generated, pixelated avatars of owls. According to CryptoSlam, Moonbirds ranks 10th in total sales of collections, PROOF’s NFTs have generated sales of over $590 million! Thanks to these impressive numbers and the support it has received from the industry, this collection has earned blue chip status for some. Moonbirds also stands out from other collections because it introduced the staking of NFTs, called ‘nesting’.

At the end of August 2022, PROOF (coordinated by Venture Capital investor Kevin Rose) offered an explanation for the future. The creation and storage of NFT projects, including Moonbirds spin-off collections, will be managed in-chain. To understand what in-chain NFTs are, let us first look at the difference between on-chain and off-chain NFTs.

On-chain and off-chain NFTs, what is the difference?

The parameter for recognising whether a non-fungible token is on-chain and an off-chain concerns its storage. We know that the ownership and uniqueness of NFTs is guaranteed by the blockchain, but where are NFTs stored? An NFT is composed of:

●     An ID: a unique identification code that distinguishes tokens from one another and is registered via smart contracts on blockchain;

●     Metadata: as digital content. Each NFT consists of a set of metadata that configures its appearance, such as shapes, colours, names, sizes, the type of hat, the plumage or expression of the owls (in the case of Moonbirds) but also information such as maximum supply.

The non-fungible token ID is always stored on blockchain, and functions as a certificate of authenticity and uniqueness of an NFT. However, metadata is often stored elsewhere, i.e. off-chain. Storing metadata off-chain is the most popular option used by creators of NFT collections, who rely on external, centralised or decentralised hosting services and servers. In contrast, storing an NFT on-chain means that the entire token – including metadata – exists on a blockchain.

Is on-chain storage better than off-chain storage?

On-chain storage may be preferable because all aspects of the token are directly manageable and verifiable by the owners. However, it is a very expensive route due to the size of the data that has to be recorded on the blockchain. JPEG images for instance contain a lot of data, and collections often consist of hundreds or thousands of images all different from each other. Most NFT projects, including CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club, have chosen to store their content off-chain.

As anticipated, off-chain hosting and archiving services can be either centralised or decentralised. With centralised hosting providers, there is a risk (although unlikely) that they could shut down at any time, jeopardising the existence of the stored NFTs. All that would remain for the owner would be the ID on the blockchain. Decentralised storage is managed by systems such as IPFS. When a file is stored on IPFS, it receives a unique hash of the content that links it to the entire network. Although NFTs on IPFS are not technically stored on the blockchain, no one can lose or hack files on IPFS as no one can shut down the cloud. This is because it is managed in a decentralised manner by thousands of nodes.

Moonbirds: what are in-chain NFTs?

In contrast to this, PROOF has a plan to make its NFTs ‘in-chain’. By this term, PROOF implies that not only the data storage will be on-chain, but also the creation itself: ‘to make sure that it is fully decentralised and visible for generations to come’. The metadata will therefore be created by the same smart contract that attests to the existence and certifies the authenticity of the token. In other words, the code that creates the digital artwork will be on the blockchain. Harri Thomas of PROOF explained that with this procedure, the graphic representation of each Moonbirds NFT “will be built by the smart contract itself from art layers, which will also be stored on the blockchain”.

PROOF and Moonbirds’ roadmap also includes the establishment of a DAO and a governance token. The launch of a spinoff collection called ‘Moonbirds Mythics’, which will comprise 20,000 NFTs and will be launched in early 2023. The new collection will not follow the pixel art aesthetic, the images will be drawn with a technique that mimics the freehand style. These new designs will be made possible thanks to newly obtained funding. In fact, PROOF has just raised $50 million in a Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z.