Avalanche unveils new marketplaces and plans to bridge the physical-digital divide
The alpha
- Two new marketplaces are coming to the Avalanche blockchain. Today, May 19, Superchief Gallery NFT and Zeroone both announced partnerships with Avalanche and parent company Ava Labs, respectively.
- Furthermore, Avalanche shared that they have partnered with Legitimate to bring phygital experiences to their events.
Dive deeper
Things have been getting interesting at Avalanche (AVAX) lately. While NFT trading efforts have largely been tied to Ethereum, Solana, Tezos and Bitcoin over the past year, the growing Proof-of-Stake blockchain network has made strides in the NFT space with significant development.
Web3 first got a glimpse of what’s happening at AVAX with the announcement of Avaissance, a new initiative designed to incubate the next generation of digital artists. In early May, it provides the full scope of the Avaissance Artist in Residence (AIR) program was announcedand reveals a list of 75 featured artists, incl Latashá, Downs and cities, Emily Lazarand more.
Leading mentorship for the AIR participants will be prominent Web3 figures Dave Krugman, Emonee LaRussa, John LêGeorge”GEO” Constantinou, and Ryan Wen. The entire roster of 75 artists is divided into “camps” led by each mentor. But that’s not the only thing AVAX users should be excited about.
Coming soon to Avalanche
Due to the hype around Avaissance, a number of new Avalanche partnerships have been revealed in parallel. Notably, established art powerhouse Superchief Gallery is set to launch its own unique NFT marketplace on the Avalanche platform.
The Superchief NFT Marketplace will aim to meet the needs of artists, providing a platform built “by and for creators”, and will serve to connect the extensive web2 and web3 art communities that Superchief has cultivated over the past decade. About the partnership, Edward ZipcoSuperchief Gallery’s co-founder and director noted that he believes it could be a significant win for artists looking to build on Avalanche.
“We at Superchief Gallery NFT are incredibly excited to launch the Superchief NFT Marketplace and build a home for creative culture within the Avalanche ecosystem,” Zipco said. “We feel there is a significant opportunity to bring the best artists to the table and help them take root and develop at Avalanche.”
Likewise, the non-transactional limited edition NFT sharing platform Zero has entered into a relationship with Ava Labs – a company that seeks to make it easy to deploy high-performance solutions for Web3 on Avalanche – to develop software that improves blockchain culture and extends its reach.
Commenting on the partnership, Zeroone Co-founder Shivani Mitra stressed the importance of ownership in the face of advances such as AI. “At a time when artists are increasingly concerned with the need to protect their IP amid artificial intelligence and other technological advances, ownership is becoming more central to creativity and the growing attention economy,” she said via press release.
What will be next?
Rounding out its new catalog of collaborative projects, Avalanche has also formed a partnership with Legitimate, a company that specializes in merging physical and digital experiences through its “phygital” infrastructure. The collaboration aims to synchronize ownership between physical products and their corresponding digital identities on the chain through Legitimate’s “Locked NFT Protocol.”
As part of this partnership, Avalanche and Legitimate will release exclusive phygital merch at all official Avalanche events. The initiative was launched with the release of 100 exclusive phygital t-shirts and hoodies at Avalanche Summit II.
As interest in and innovation on the Avalanche blockchain continues to grow, the recent partnerships and platform for artists and NFTs only increase the potential for expansion.
