NFTs in a nutshell: A weekly review

Aside from the bear market for NFTs, we still saw some hefty selling coming through this past week. Meanwhile, the rollout of new features from the likes of Metamask and Meta was blocked, and an NFT collection got a bit of a scare after the NFTs started being removed from OpenSea.

Every weekend we dive into the past week of NFT news and noise, with a little report to help you stay up to date on the space. Let’s review all the activity from the past week.

This week’s non-fungible token news

Metamask adds new Portfolio Manager Dapp

Metamask has announced a new portfolio manager in recent days, which is expected to allow users to view their entire NFT collection in an easy-to-view portfolio dapp. Dapp already has a clean user interface and seems to be meeting a long-standing consumer desire to view its entire portfolio with ease. Yes, that means you can now see your NFTs living across multiple different chains in one place – a long-awaited feature from the dominant NFT wallet. The portfolio dapp will support NFTs and crypto tokens.

Azuki’s Face Brief OpenSea Delisting Scare

In June, Bored Ape Yacht Club faced a brief period where some of the NFTs were unexpectedly removed from OpenSea. This OpenSea bug returned for more this past week, this time on a less prominent but still very recognizable gathering in Azukis.

Many Azuki NFT owners received an email that their NFT was no longer going to be supported on the platform, and many Azukis began to be unexpectedly removed from OpenSea; However, both the NFT platform and the Azuki team moved quickly to address concerns, and within a few hours the collection was back to normal.

However, it remains a stark reminder that there is still much progress to be made in the space, and that centralized bodies – even in a decentralized atmosphere – will always have some pitfalls.

With the merge in the rear view mirror, low gas prices on Ethereum (ETH) have not caused any substantial impact to be seen yet in the NFT market. | Source: ETH-USD on TradingView.com

OpenSea adds Warner Music Group as latest partner

Leading NFT Exchange OpenSea sealed a new powerhouse partnership this past week with music company Warner Music Group, or WMG. WMG artists will have a featured corner on OpenSea’s platform, and WMG will look to use the partnership to offer artists new ways to connect with fans and help emerging artists explore new mediums of connection for their audiences.

Bear market? Some sales say otherwise

Sure, we can probably call this year’s development in crypto in general a “bear market”. NFTs probably don’t escape that classification either. Despite relatively flat volumes throughout this year, many projects have declined compared to peaks from Q4 last year, and NFT collections that is not it Blue chip projects have been particularly hard hit. In fact, the most speculative and “big gamble” plays have seen the biggest volume and price impacts.

However, blue chip names have held up surprisingly well. A few examples came across the thread this week of just that, including a $4.5 million sale of a CryptoPunk and a hefty $17 million payout for the latest Tyler Hobbs collection. Hobbs, who previously created Fidenzas, released a new QQL art experiment collection.

Facebook and Instagram to add Wallet Connectivity feature

We’ve had a fair amount of coverage regarding Meta, the conglomerate that runs Facebook and Instagram, and their desire to be involved in the cryptosphere. However, there is more traction this past week from Meta, as the firm has made further progress in integrating NFTs into their social media platforms.

This past week, the firm began rolling out support for US-based users to connect their digital wallets to both Facebook and Instagram and start sharing their NFTs with their connections on the platforms.

Mastercard’s new NFT card

Yes, you read that right. This past week Mastercard partnered with crypto finance firm Hi to launch the world’s first non-fungible token (NFT) debit card. The two will use a subscription service to allow cardholders to assign a custom NFT in their wallet as avatars associated with their card.

To date, most of the discussion surrounding cards and crypto has been centered around DeFi and optimizing consumer spending with crypto; we will see how NFTs can get involved in this area soon as well.

Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com

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