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4 NFT trends to watch in 2023
Just a stone’s throw from the Mona Lisa, Paris Blockchain Week drew over 10,000 attendees to the Carrousel du Louvre from March 21-23. The Web3 collection served as strong evidence of the ongoing vitality of Web3, even in the wake of falling prices.
First of all, Paris Blockchain Week confirmed that France is well positioned in the Web3 ecosystem. French companies came in numbers. Ledger, SandBox and Sorare, the most famous among them, reviewed their latest initiatives. On the occasion, SoRare received the NBA PBW award for this year’s brand initiative Web3. After football and baseball, the NFT card game now benefits from the license of the prestigious American basketball league.
Ternoa is another French start-up that stands out at Caroussel du Louvre. At Paris Blockchain Week, Mickael Canu, co-founder of Ternoa blockchain, announced the release of the Time Guardian app. It enables users to create “Time Capsules” – NFTs that act as both receiver and transmitter of the data. The app offers secure storage of personal information indefinitely, allowing users to control the privacy and transfer of their data.
The promising start-up Bubblemaps launched a year ago a tool that helps visualize data on the chain, in a gamified and simple way. Anyone can visualize which wallet contains a particular NFT, and to which wallets it is linked. It is therefore possible to analyze the nature of the transactions between different wallets. “Now I can analyze and tell with some degree of certainty what this cluster of transactions is, what it corresponds to,” says Bubblemap CEO Nicolas Vaiman.
LVMH stands out at Paris Blockchain Week. In 2021, the world’s largest luxury group launched the Aura blockchain consortium, which includes Prada Group, OTB Group and Cartier. It focuses on promoting more sustainable trends in the world of fashion and helping members to upgrade their products’ traceability via blockchain technology. Furthermore, Frank Le Moal, vice president of the Aura Blockchain Consortium and LVMH’s CIO, explained on Wednesday that “digital passports supported by a blockchain are a way to offer better repair and care services to customers, and to develop a better one-to-one relationship with them. “
Some of the major luxury brands such as Group Kering (Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen…)and Givenchy were also there, as a testament to their repeated interest in Web3 applications.
Metavr.s is also an example of the way some start-ups are leveraging Web3 tools to develop new products for the luxury and fashion industries. The company helps brands create experiences. During Paris Blockchain Week, Metav.rs unveiled a collaboration with the 5-star luxury hostel Bristol. Also, the first 11 NFTs bearing the prestigious mark were auctioned during a reception in the hostel lounges. They will offer their holders very valuable aids.
Web3 companies have started investing in the entertainment and sports field a long time ago. Chiliz, the “blockchain of sports”, is one of them. A month after launching the update to their blockchain, – Chiliz Chain 2.0 – CEO Alexandre Dreyfus presented his vision at Paris Blockchain Week. With its Layer-1 blockchain, Chiliz wants to attract creators and startups to develop tools in their chain. Therefore, says Dreyfus, “Chiliz’s ultimate goal is to create an ecosystem of fans of different sports teams and disciplines”.
Also in sports, the French F1 star Pierre Gasly gave a speech about his NFT project. The star talked about being the first F1 driver to make an NFT release. “Introducing the first NFT in the F1 world makes me proud, he said. – There are many opportunities to develop, and I look forward to it. This industry has similarities to the world of F1, fast-paced, innovation-driven, and risk assessment is critical to success.”
In another category of entertainment, Groupe Partouche, a French company that operates casinos, hotels and other leisure and entertainment facilities and is one of the leading casino operators in Europe, launched an 8888 NFT collection called “Joker”. Holders will have access to various tools at the various hotels and casinos in the group, including exclusive offers and free services.
Paris Blockchain Week was dominated by crypto companies. But major players in the NFT industry also took part in the event. Yuga Labs, the giant in the NFT industry, recently appointed Michael Figge as CCO. During a conference, he explained how he reviewed the intense activity of the company. Yuga Labs orchestrated the sale of CryptoPunk’s Bitcoin Ordinals that made headlines two months ago. More recently, the company launched the TwelveFold project. On this occasion, 288 successful bidders spent $16.5 million worth of BTC to acquire a limited run of 300 generative Ordinals NFTs. In addition, Yuga’s metaverse project Otherside will be at the center of all attention in a few days. The second live test called “the second tour” will gather the whole community.
Hong Kong-based gaming software company Animoca Brands was also among the participants. Commenting on the recent debate over NFT creators’ royalties, CEO Yat Sun explained that the entire industry could not function without it.
Rarible, the NFT marketplace founded in 2020 by Alexei Falin and Alex Salnikov, takes the same view. “We decided not to follow everyone and stick to the creators’ royalties”, explained Evgeniy Medvedev, Head of Partnerships at Rarible, to NFT Evening. “We are a community-centric marketplace and going to auction sales is not in our DNA.
Ultimately, Paris Blockchain Week demonstrated that the French capital remains an important hub for the Web3 ecosystem. A number of companies present at the event are involved in NFTs in one way or another. Brands are showing a strong interest in NFTs as a CRM tool or a digital resource. Moreover, they see it as a way to offer their customers a new type of experience.
