Here’s your metaverse and NFT news for the week

The shy but brilliant founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, came out of his shell this week to release a new line of NFTs, fueling a surge in sales over the past week. The NFTs, endorsed by Buterin, were launched on March 1st, but most of the crypto world didn’t seem to notice until this week, when the secondary sale took off – and the collection secured the top spot on OpenSea.

Each of the NFTs includes a digital version of a 2018 white paper in the form of an album cover signed by the co-authors, which include Buterin, a Harvard economist, and a Microsoft economist and researcher. Buterin hand-signed 12 physical copies of the white paper that accompanied a signature edition of the NFTs.

As of Friday, the project had recorded about $13.7 million in trade volume, according to OpenSea.

Buterin wasn’t the only one to add excitement to the NFT market this week Starbucks also created a buzz by selling out its collection of 2,000 NFT “Stamps” in less than 20 minutes, according to CoinDesk.

The coffee giant first launched a Web3 program in December, and customers were eager to get in on its first launch this week. Each $100 NFT in the collection features the iconic Siren from the Starbucks logo.

The NFT frenzy is fueled by Starbucks’ release of its first NFT release, the “Holiday Cheer Edition 1 Stamp” in December. The NFTs were given away for free to Starbucks customers who completed certain tasks, but were resold as of Friday for nearly $2,000.

The price floor for the latest Starbucks Siren collection had jumped to just under $400 as of Friday.

In other news:

Apparel brand Aéropostale is entering the metaverse with a line of 30,000 NFTs called AeroPax set to release on March 23rd. The collection, announced this week, will build community and provide members with exclusive benefits, including access to limited-edition apparel and VIP promotions. In addition, 10 people will be rewarded with a Tesla for either buying one of the first 29,700 NFTs or by sending a mail to the company. Aéropostale’s NFT launch is the first of four phases it is implementing to increase its metaverse presence with the help of partner MetaversePlus. In phase two, the public will get a sneak peek at the upcoming metaverse platform AeroWorld.

Courtesy of Aéropostale

Arianee, a Web3 consumer platform that helps authenticate products, and Sourcemap, a supply chain transparency and traceability software company, have teamed up to make Breitling’s Super Chronomat Automatic 38 Origins watch end-to-end traceable using NFTs. Arianee’s NFTs provide consumers with a digital passport for their product, which they can use to prove ownership and access services such as repairs or to authenticate it before resale. Customers are also informed of the origin of the watch’s precious materials, with a provenance record on the blockchain.

Courtesy of Arianee and Sourcemap

To celebrate Women’s History Month, NFT exchange SuperRare has teamed up with the notable collection World of Women to highlight emerging female digital artists through a curated showcase called Mind the Gap: An Artistic Exploration of the Gender Gap Across Industries. The showcase will highlight the work of five women who “address the complexities of gender within the art market and beyond,” according to a statement. SuperRare and World of Women will promote the artists’ work online and display their work at IRL exhibitions in London and New York.

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