Here’s this week’s top news about NFTs and the metaverse
About 22 pieces of NFT art will be added to the permanent collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, thanks to a donation from the pseudonymous collector Cozomo de’ Medici. George Rose—Getty Images
Welcome to This week in the Metaverse, where Fortune rounding up the most interesting news in the NFT world, culture and metaverse. Email [email protected] with tips.
Despite the regulatory onslaught on staking and stablecoins over the past couple of weeks, the world of NFTs is still chugging along with new developments.
While for many years NFTs have been largely shunned by the traditional art world, that may be about to change – in a big way. This week, the Los Angeles Museum of Art (LACMA) received 22 NFT artworks from major artists such as Dmitri Cherniak, Cai Guo-Quiang, Matt DesLauriers and Monica Rizzoli. The pieces, donated by the pseudonymous NFT collector Cozomo de’ Medici, will be placed in the museum’s permanent collection.
1/ Announcing the first in-chain donation of art from a collector to a museum, and the largest digital art collection to enter a museum
22 works from The Cozomo de’ Medici Collection have been added to the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) pic.twitter.com/6ePSznorrM
— Cozomo de’ Medici (@CozomoMedici) 13 February 2023
The LACMA NFT donation is the latest effort to bring more blockchain-based art to notable museums. Last week, the Paris-based Center Pompidou acquired 18 NFT works by 13 international and French artists for its collection.
Elsewhere, the NFT exchange wars are heating up, with newcomer Blur overtaking established leader OpenSea in Ethereum trading volume this week for the first time, CoinDesk reported, citing data from Nansen.ai. And while Blur has not surpassed OpenSea in terms of weekly trading volume or number of active wallets, it has already made a name for itself and is trying to shake up the market for NFTs.
The exchange recommended that artists who listed NFTs on their platform blocklist their projects from OpenSea to earn full royalties. The blog post explains that due to inconsistencies in their royalty rules, which deal with the percentage given to the original artist of an NFT when their art is resold, NFT creators cannot simultaneously earn royalties on Blur and OpenSea.
In other news:
Mardi Gras is the biggest event of the year in New Orleans, and with the help of a new NFT from The Nieux Society, you can celebrate it in style this year. The New Orleans collective aiming to explore Web3 technology has released 5,000 of the digital collectibles starting at 0.1 Ether ($166) that give buyers access to fully stocked cash bars, daily food specials from local restaurateurs, a private lounge area and music and DJs at the Nieux Homebase, located along the parade route on St. Charles Avenue. The NFTs can be used for access to on-site events from January 6th through Mardi Gras Day each year.
Michael DeMocker—Getty Images
Fans of The masked singer can now participate directly in the show via a number of free NFTs called “loyalty cards”. After connecting their MetaMask wallets and claim the pass, they can scan QR codes to increase their passes by voting on which character makes it to the next round. For around $50, fans can also purchase an AI-generated NFT created by digital artist Waxbones that gives them exclusive content.
Rolf Vennenbernd—image alliance/Getty Images
Massive interest in Starbucks‘ Polygon NFTs has pushed their resale price into the thousands of dollars. An NFT, the Holiday Cheer Edition 1 stamp, was distributed to Starbucks Odyssey members who met certain requirements, but it soon had a price floor of $2,000 on NFT exchanges Nice gateway.
