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Non-Fungible Tokens

NFT: Coinbase CEO Is Set To Launch Collection Of Electronic Music Non-fungible Tokens

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The NFT realm is blessed with the embrace of institutions and high-profile celebrities alike which has helped the sector to steal the spotlight this bull season. In the latest development. Brian Armstrong, the CEO of the soon-to-be public crypto exchange Coinbase, is all set to release a collection of electronic music non-fungible tokens or NFTs that he created with DJ David Khanjian over the next few days.

According to his latest Twitter thread, Armstrong revealed that creating the songs as a “fun way” to learn digital audio workstation, Ableton Live. He went on to add,

“I listened to a lot of electronic music with no vocals as I was coding up the early versions of Coinbase, and always enjoyed David’s music. (no vocals because I couldn’t concentrate with other words in my head). Last year during COVID I decided I wanted to learn a little bit of electronic music composition as a hobby, and David was kind enough to take me under his wing and give me some free music lessons.”

The Coinbase exec also noted that all proceeds from the sale of the NFTs will be directed to David Khanjian. The three songs created by the CEO and the DJ will be released over the coming days as NFTs on Zora, the platform behind an Ethereum-based marketplace for tokenized product drops.

NFTs are surely having the moment

The latest development comes a little less than a week after two employees of the crypto exchange reportedly exchanged vows on the Ethereum blockchain. Peter Kacherginsky and Rebecca Rose, exchanged NFT rings with their wedding vows.

More Recently, American lifestyle brand Playboy announced teaming up with Winklevoss-owned NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway, to launch digital collectibles in the form of non-fungible tokens.

The space of non-fungible tokens have seek massive inflow of capital over the past few months. According to Dapp Radar’s February 2021 Industry Report, the sector has reached all-time high sales with the top three NFT marketplaces registering a combined trading volume of $342 million in February alone.

Justin Sun Wins Bid For TIME’s NFT at 117 ETH

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NFT has taken the world by storm. In yet another development, Tron Founder, Justin Sun announced that he is the winner of TIME Magazine’s iconic “The Computer in Society” cover as a non-fungible token. According to the website, Sun made an offer of 117 ETH around $210 on the Ethereum-powered NFT marketplace called ‘SuperRare’ by artist Boris Artzybasheff, which was accepted by TIME.

Sun is all set to deploy the token in his recently unveiled JUST non-fungible token Fund and issue the cover as a TRC-721 token on the Tron blockchain. His tweet regarding the same read,

“I’m thrilled to announce I’ve won the bid on TIME’s The Computer in Society – April 2nd, 1965 NFT!! This is the first time the computer was mentioned on the cover of TIME! I’ll put the NFT in JUST NFT Fund & issue this on TRC-721 on TRON network.”

For the uninitiated, “The Computer in Society” was the first-ever TIME cover that was dedicated to the computerization of the workplace. It was first published nearly fifty-six years back on the 2nd of April, 1965.

Justin Sun’s Tryst With NFTs

Non-fungible tokens, which are essentially representations of a physical or digital object on the Ethereum [ETH] blockchain, have become one of the hottest trends in the blockchain and crypto markets. This is not the first time Justin Sun has shown his continued interest in non-fungible tokens.

Recently, Sun had launched a fund for top-notch non-fungible token art that will only accept art pieces with a price tag of a minimum of $1 million.

A couple of weeks back, the Tron Founder almost won a record-breaking bidding war for a digital artwork by Beeple in Christie’s Auction. before narrowly missing out. Sun’s $60 million bid was trumped at the last minute when another came in to bet at $60.3 million. Following this stint, Tron Foundation exec won another $6 million Beeple in ‘Green’ NFT Auction.

Burnt Banksy NFT Makes Headlines After Selling For ~$400K

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The world of NFT or non-fungible tokens continues to take the center stage. This time, a piece of burnt Banksy artwork has made headlines. According to reports, a tokenized version of this destroyed painting was sold for nearly $382,000 on OpenSea, which happens to be a non-fungible token marketplace.

Binance-backed Injective Protocol reportedly bought the Banksy work and converted it into an NFT before burning it on a live stream video.

The said artwork by the pseudonymous England-based street artist is called “Morons” [White] [2006]. As seen in the above video, it depicted a crowded auction room with a framed piece right beside the auctioneer inscribed with the words “I can’t believe you morons actually buy this shit.”

This NFT was sold to an OpenSea user called ‘Galaxy,’ who also has four non-fungible tokens on display.

The latest OpenSea sale comes just a few days after the group had burned yet another artwork in a Brooklyn park. Sources close to the matter say that the artists purchased the piece of artwork for nearly $100,000.

The reason for burning Banksy’s physical artwork might come off as bizarre to many, especially the ones that are yet to familiarize with the concept of tokenization of art, here’s the explanation provided by the BurntBanksy collective:

“If you were to have the NFT and the physical piece, the value would be primarily in the physical piece. By removing the physical piece from existence and only having the NFT, we can ensure that the NFT, due to the smart contract ability of the blockchain, will ensure that no one can alter the piece and it is the true piece that exists in the world. By doing this, the value of the physical piece will then be moved onto the NFT.”

The rise of blockchain art can be attributed to the fact that blockchains are impossible to tamper with. Besides, the money secured for Banksy’s burnt piece will be left for a good cause.

According to Injectove Protocol, the team was still deciding as to which charity will receive the proceeds from the NFT sale.

Did Justin Sun Just Bid $2M On Jack Dorsey’s First Tweet NFT?

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Yes, he did!

The concept of non-fungible tokens or NFTs might seem daunting, but they are the rage all over the cryptocurrency realm. The fandom is all agog at how rapidly NFTs are slowly going mainstream.

Owing to this, several well-known players were FOMOing as the craze showed no signs of slowing down. Today, we are talking about none other than Tron Foundation’s Justin Sun! He has updated his bet on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet, not once, not twice, not even thrice, but four times!

Dorsey’s NFT

For the uninitiated, Dorsey had listed the tweet for sale on the Ethereum based Valuables NFT marketplace on the 6th of March. While many hopped onto the train, the latest being the Silicon Valley billionaire who made a grand entry to the scene, it was actually Justin Sun whose highest bid stole the show.

The young crypto mogul first placed a bid of half a million dollars. Hours after which he updated it to $700k, then $1 million on the same day, then finally rising his bets all the way to a whopping $2 million for the piece.

The back-to-back tweets was enough to let the cryptocurrency community know that he really really wanted Dorsey’s NFT which reads “just setting up my twttr”.

Joining in the weekend buzz was Mike Novogratz, the CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners who went on to tweet that,

“Say what you want about Justin Sun, but the kid has gumption. And a lot of balls.”

The tech entrepreneur and Tron founder is now the highest bidder after this extravagant splurge of $2 million on the NFT. But this is not his first wild investment. Sun had previously placed a record-breaking $4.5 million bid to Warren Buffett’s Glide Foundation.

He had also donated $50k in Bitcoin to Anthony Pompliano’s Barstool Fund, and being the “big-mouthed” that he is, Sun wasted no time to tweet about it.

NFTs take the center stage

Digital art, collectibles, and virtual real estate have taken over the cryptocurrency industry by storm.

Celebrities, especially from the music industry, has been the early adopter of the space. Be it, Mike Shinoda, Snoop Dogg, Lil Yachty, Carl Cox, or Soulja Boy, the NFT market has emerged as a strong contender.

Not Everyone Is A Fan Of The Burgeoning NFT Market

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We are on the brink of the NFT revolution. Like any other space, the non-fungible asset class also attracted a fair share of critics. The Co-founder and CTO of Casa Jameson Lopp said that he sees no value in these non-fungible tokens.

Lopp’s original tweet read,

“I didn’t see the value of NFT art 5 years ago and I still don’t today. But I’m just one person.”

However, he did go on to clarify that ownership of scarce items that can be used in a variety of virtual worlds makes sense to him.

A similar sentiment was shared by Bitcoin proponent and podcast host John Carvalho, who commented,

“Part of the reason for high interest in art NFTs is the market of people wanting to sell worthless things at scale is huge, and pairs very nicely with the shitcoiner environment of VCs priming their projects with liquidity”

He went on to claim that “it’s a trap where issuers of NFT can use their own money to buy their own listings.” Carvalho also added,

“This creates an appearance of real hype and demand. It’s a trap.

What exactly is NFT?

A quick primer for the uninitiated. A non-fungible token is essentially a special type of cryptographic token which represents something unique and is non-fungible in nature. It can be used to create verifiable digital scarcity.

This marketplace which includes artworks and other digital collectibles are the game-changing applications that will one day lead to digital assets overtaking the physical collectibles market.

Anything can be sold using NFT, anything our imagination can come up with.

Several investors has signaled their growing interest in this corner of the crypto economy. The entry of big names such as Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, Lil Yachty, Carl Cox, and Soulja Boy, which has only added fuel to an already red-hot rally.

Despite the massive success of this space, not everyone is optimistic about what the NFT market has to offer.

For instance, Litecoin [LTC] creator Charlie Lee, believes that non-fungible tokens are unsustainable unlike “real art”.

He argued that NFTs are non-finite tokens and there is zero cost to create an unlimited number of tokens.

Contrastingly, real-world art needs effort and time to create much like the fact that great artist can only create thousands of pieces of art in his/her lifetime. Is this limitation that creates scarcity, which helps keep the value high.

Linkin Park’s Shinoda Raises $30K From NFT Just Hours After Unveiling

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With NFT becoming the new disruptor in the art market, Linkin Park rapper Mike Shinoda has become the latest one to have taken on this concept of blockchain art.

The American Musician has shared his first-ever digital collectible piece called the ‘One-Hundredth Stream’ which was dropped on Zora, which is a site for buying limited edition art and other goods.

Reportedly, the auction for the digital art piece has received an offer of $30,000. Shinoda confirmed on Twitter that the entire sum will be donated to a scholarship that he funded at ArtCenter College of Design to benefit students based on artistic merit and financial need.

In a follow up tweet, Shinoda revealed that there was more to come and also went on to explain that the non-fungible token [NFT] contains the music created by the rap-rock icon.

“And if the contained song becomes more popular, then arguably the NFT becomes more valuable.”

He added that listing an item this way would likely be more profitable than releasing a song across the globe through traditional methods. He wrote,

“Here’s the crazy thing. Even if I upload the full version of the contained song to DSPs worldwide (which I can still do), I would never get even close to $10k, after fees by DSPs, label, marketing, etc,”

NFT Hype

Shinoda is not the first one to dip his toes into the flourishing space of NFT technology. He joined other popular artists such as Lil Yachty who secured a whopping $16,050 for his first collectible, Carl Cox who also released music as a token, and Soulja Boy who minted his first piece.

It is without a doubt that NFT has emerged as a strong contender to steal the spotlight in the 2021 crypto world.

A quick primer: NFT is a special cryptographically-generated token that leverages the blockchain technology to link with a unique digital asset that cannot be replicated. They are tokenized versions of a non-fungible asset such as artwork, real estate, or collectibles and possess properties and individual characteristics that make them unique and valuable.

NFT are not similar to the traditional cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are fungible.

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With respect to market capitalization, the non-fungible token industry saw a massive growth of 17% in the year 2019 and was forecasted to proliferate 50% by the end of 2020. According to NFT data resource NonFungible.com, the sales activity has risen dramatically especially since last September.

After a minor phase of cool off in late last December, the volumes have picked up yet again.

Winklevoss Duo Opens Marketplace for Blockchain Digital Art 

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Despite the market turmoil, Bitcoin billionaires Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss announced the launch of a marketplace for Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

As per the report, Gemini’s Winklevoss twins acquired ‘Nifty Gateway’, a platform for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) back in November 2019. However, the platform, Nifty Gateway was established by ‘Twin brothers Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster’ and the latest announcement notes that they have launched the Nifty marketplace with Gemini infrastructure to enable the dollar exchange feature when people buy Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

The latest report also notes that the website, ‘niftygateway.com is available from Tuesday, allowing consumers to buy and sell digital collectibles from famous artists. With a website in place, renowned artists including Michael Kagan and Lyle Owerko, Singer Pharrell Williams and others will be able to sell the collection of their digital arts. Concerning this idea, Lyle Owerko who is famous for photography and filmmaking said;

“I haven’t done anything like this before, which is all the more reason to do this now,”

Owerko further added that he knew twin brothers for a few years now, noting;

We met socially in New York, through friends…It’s fun to be an early adopter. … It’s like being a painter in the 1880s and seeing a camera for the first time.”

It was also stated that the deal between him and the twin brothers is mutually beneficial as he would be offering a series of six images via Nifty’s website. The cost mentioned for each image ranges between $200 to $2500. While the idea looks super cool, the platform is yet to ascertain the consumer demand for such digital arts. If you’re active in the crypto market, you might have heard of ‘CryptoKitties’ which was on the hype with its ‘digital breeding cats’ concept.

However, as per Winklevoss duo, the digital collectible market will likely be as big as the ones for art.

What do you think readers, let us know.