Tag: nft

Japanese Watch Giant Casio Forays into NFT Space: Details

Japan-based watch making brand Casio has decided to engage with a younger generation of clientele. Casio has launched an NFT series with eight digital art pieces that have been created in partnership with Astar zkEVM. Banking on Japan’s gaming culture, Casio’s NFTs will be made available on Astar’s Yogi Origin game. In recent years, Japan has come forward to show its support to the Web3 sector, especially under the leadership of its tech-friendly Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida.

A layer-2 blockchain for Ethereum, Astar zkEVM uses zero-knowledge proofs to increase scalability and reduce transaction costs. Announcing its partnership with Casio on X, Astar zkEVM informed the community members that these NFTs will be available within the ‘YoPort’ tab of the Yoki Origins game. Essentially, Casio has not rolled out its NFT series on traditional NFT marketplaces like OpenSea and Magic Eden.

“In celebration of Casio Watch’s 50-year legacy, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of exclusive commemorative NFTs inspired by iconic Casio timepieces. Minting Method: Unlock the thrill with Gacha & Reveal mechanics,” the blockchain platform said in its announcement.

These NFTs are tied to some benefits for holders. Ten holders of the NFTs will get a chance a limited-edition original G-Shock watches. In addition, owners of these NFTs can also receive ASTR tokens equivalent to JPY 10,000. At the time of writing, one ASTR token was trading at JPY 16.40, as per Kraken crypto exchange.

“Please note, the number of winners and contents are subject to change. Stay tuned for winner announcements,” Astar Network added.

This is not the first time that Casio has forayed into the Web3 arena. Back in 2023, the watch brand partnered with Polygon to launch a collection of 15,000 free-to-mint G-Shock Creator Pass NFTs. At the time, Casio had also launched its G-Shock NFTs into the metaverse.

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Adidas and Stepn Grant Limited Genesis NFT Sneakers to Web3 Customers via Mooar Marketplace

Adidas has entered into a partnership with Stepn, a Solana-based move-to-earn application, to offer generative NFTs to users. As a product of this partnership, a new NFT collection featuring Adidas sneakers was launched on Wednesday. For Adidas, creating digital avatars of their popular sneakers as NFTs is a way of connecting with the newer and emerging generation of consumers.

Called the Stepn x Adidas Genesis Sneakers series, this NFT collection has been made available on Mooar — a marketplace associated with Stepn. The collection offers 1,000 NFTs inspired by the brand’s designs.

Commenting on the development, Stepn CEO Shiti Manghani said the brand wishes to promote the concept of ‘move-to-earn’ in both, physical and digital worlds. Sneaker-inspired NFTs from Adidas could bring brand loyalists to play ‘move-to-earn’ games, making their digital avatars also wear Adidas shoes. She also noted that customer rewards are now entering a new era.

“Physical and digital – or ‘phygital’ – partnership between the most widely used lifestyle app and a global brand like Adidas underscores how powerful it is when you can move-and-earn in both the virtual and real world simultaneously. It also indicates the direction lifestyle rewards are going towards,” Manghani said in a press statement.

The collection is dropping in a two-stage raffle on Mooar, starting Wednesday. In the first stage, 200 NFTs will be reserved for Stepn’s userbase of five million customers. They can try to bag an NFT by depositing 10,000 tokens of Stepn’s native token, GMT. Those who fail to grab one of these NFTs will get full refunds, according to the company.

Stepn is attempting to gain some awareness and engagement for its GMT tokens, thanks to the partnership. Presently, the GMT token is trading at $0.2312 (roughly Rs. 19.34) as per CoinMarketCap.

In the second stage, Mooar will open a public raffle sale for the other 790 NFT pieces. Winners will be announced every 24 hours between April 18 and April 21. Stepn could also use this as an opportunity to drive customers to Mooar for a week.

Adidas previously partnered with a Web3 artist known as ‘Fewocious’ to be part of its new sneaker collection last year. The shoes from this collection were tied to an NFT redemption pass each of which brought benefits for the holders.

The brand had also announced the launch of its ALTS Dynamic NFT collection in April 2023, as part of expanding its ‘Into The Metaverse’ initiative that it kickstarted in 2021.

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Samsung Partners With Wilder World Metaverse Game, Will Offer NFT Rewards as Part of Web3 TV Bundle

Samsung, the South Korean tech giant, has been taking small steps to engage with Web3 without directly exposing its massive user base to volatile digital assets. In a fresh development, Samsung has announced a partnership with metaverse game Wilder World. Through this partnership, Wilder World will provide NFT rewards to fifteen customers of Samsung’s exclusive Web3 TV bundle. This deal, for Wilder World, will offer the game inroads into millions of houses through Samsung’s smart televisions.

A free-to-roam metaverse ecosystem, Wilder World is primarily a competitive racing game that launched for alpha testing in December 2023 and will begin a wider rollout this year. The team behind the game announced its partnership with Samsung via an official post on X on Wednesday.

In Samsung’s next sale of exclusive Web3 TV bundles, fifteen select buyers will get Wilder World NFTs as rewards. Through this partnership, the metaverse game expects to add new players to its ecosystem.

Samsung, catching up with the advancements in emerging technologies, is essentially looking to connect with a newer generation of customers. The Seoul-based company is hence integrating Web3 elements like the metaverse and NFTs with its newer range of products.

Samsung has long maintained its lead in the television market. In 2023, the company reportedly occupied a 30.1 percent market share of televisions sold globally, which was slightly higher than the previous year’s 29.7 percent. With its new initiatives, Samsung could directly bring Web3 technologies to its vast user base.

This is not the first time that the tech mammoth has taken a Web3-friendly approach. In April 2023, for instance, Samsung teamed up with Crypto.com to bring asset trading services on devices from the Galaxy Z fold series.

In 2022, Samsung tied up with partners Theta Labs and Nifty Gateway to get NFTs to its smart TV and smartphone ecosystems.

In fact, the same year Samsung introduced the world’s first TV-based NFT explorer. Later that year, the company started rolling out smart TV models that came with features like NFT buying and management.

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IRCTC Unveils NFT Tickets for Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Trains as Holi-Themed Digital Souvenirs

The digital assets industry in India marked a landmark day on March 13 after the NFT sector got a straightforward acknowledgement from the Indian railways. In a bid to celebrate the spirit of Holi, the IRCTC has unveiled colourful NFT tickets for two Tejas trains running between the cities of Delhi and Lucknow. The IRCTC or the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation is a central public sector enterprise governed by the Ministry of Railways in the country.

IRCTC unveiled the first look of these NFTs through its very active X handle. From the looks of it, these NFTs will show sketches of the historic landmarks of Delhi and Lucknow against colourfully shaded backdrops. Starting March 20, ticket buyers of Tejas trains numbered 82501 and 82502 will be eligible to get access to these NFTs. This initiative will conclude on April 2.

The NFTs also come with some benefits the IRCTC explained in its X post. It said, “These tickets are not merely digital souvenirs. They symbolise our dedication to enriching your journey experiences, allowing you to personalise your travel memories with your own photographs and enjoy exclusive offers from handpicked brands,”.

For now, the IRCTC has not officially confirmed if all ticket buyers will get these NFT tickets as a complimentary part of their purchases, or if they’d have to pay extra to avail these digital collectibles. NFTs are digital collectibles that are built on blockchain networks.

The Indian Railways has already been exploring the blockchain tech for enough time now that it is circulating NFTs as digital memorabilia. In March last year, for instance, the National Academy of Indian Railways launched a workshop to spread awareness around the benefits of blockchain in railway industries in partnership with Polygon.

Earlier this year, IRCTC was offering tickets to Ayodhya in the form of NFTs.

“More than just a ticket to Ayodhya Dham- a souvenir of the divine Shree Ramotsav. Treasure the pious memories of Lord Shree Rama’s arrival forever, with Blockchain NFT,” IRCTC had said on a specially dedicated website at the time.

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Coachella Re-Tries Bringing Benefits-Loaded NFTs Despite Terrifying First Try, Partners With OpenSea

Coachella, touted among world’s most famous annual music festivals held in the US, is trying a second stab at launching NFTs with VIP benefits for holders. To do so, the music and arts festival conglomerate has teamed up with OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace that operates only digitally. Coachella has decided to release a total of three NFT lineups. All three will offer different bundles of advantage for the buyers of these digital collectibles through OpenSea.

On an average, around 125,000 attendees reach the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California each year around April. Coachella’s decision to push out NFT collections could directly drive engagement to the NFT sector on a massive level.

The first collection has already been dropped on OpenSea by the name of — the VIP Pass + Oasis Lounge Keepsake by Coachella. A total of 1,024 NFTs are part of this collection. Holders of these NFTs will get exclusive bar benefits with limited complimentary drinks, and shaded lounge among other benefits. NFTs from this collection are up for being minted for $1,499 (roughly Rs. 1.24 lakh) on the AVAX (Avalanche) blockchain.

As far as the other two collections are concerned, Coachella reportedly plans to lift the curtains off them around March and mid-April.

“NFT-based music and ticketing collections are one of the best ways for the crypto subsector to gain mainstream adoption. Tickets can have special memories around them for fans, and there’s potential for them to not to just be memorabilia, or a collectible, but also bring in utility,” a tweet threat from Avalanche quoted Devin Finzer, CEO and co-founder of OpenSea as saying.

This, however, is not the first time that Coachella is trying its hand at offering benefits laden NFTs as festival passes and digital souvenirs.

In February 2022, Coachella decided to give away ten lifetime passes to the buyers of its NFTs. The music festival, at the time, had launched an NFT marketplace built by the now bankrupt company FTX US. Soon after, when FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s fortune collapse, these passes and their promises fell flat leaving holders high and dry.

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Bitcoin NFTs Cross $100 Million in Monthly Trading Volume on Magic Eden: Report

The NFT sector is seemingly making a mark in the Web3 arena again after it underwent a bit of a downturn last year. The Bitcoin NFTs on the Magic Eden marketplace have reportedly managed to reel in $100 million (roughly Rs. 829 crore) in monthly trading volume in February. Findings from fresh analysis have disclosed that NFTs based on the Bitcoin blockchain have been the reviving factor for digital collectibles. Bitcoin-based NFTs gained popularity last year with the rollout of Ordinals.

The exact monthly trading volume figure for Bitcoin NFTs on Magic Eden stood at $107,373,917 (roughly Rs. 889 crore), data by Dune Analytics shows. Bitcoin NFTs formed the biggest chunk of the total monthly trading volume on Magic Eden this month, which stood at over $175 million (roughly Rs. 1,450 crore). Bitcoin was followed by Solana, Ethereum and Polygon on the marketplace. Additionally, Magic Eden saw over 45,000 Bitcoin NFT buyers this month and over 97,000 sellers listed their Bitcoin NFTs on the platform. Statistics show that the sales of Bitcoin-based NFTs picked pace when the price point of BTC reached and exceeded $25,000 (roughly Rs. 20.7 lakh).

As far as Ordinals are concerned, these NFTs had managed to garner around $173.28 million (roughly Rs. 1,433 crore) in revenue collectively via all NFT platforms in the month of May 2023 alone, data at the time had showed. Ordinal NFTs are inscribed on one Satoshi unit of the Bitcoin blockchain, which is the smallest denomination of Bitcoin named after its anonymous founder’s pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Nine out of the highest valued NFTs sold in around May last year were supported on the Bitcoin blockchain. Ordinals NFT collections like Space Pepes, Bitcoin Frogs, and $NALS NFTs emerged on top of the heap.

Realising that the craze around Ordinals NFTs was heating up, Magic Eden had rolled out Magic Eden Bitcoin as a dedicated marketplace for digital collectibles based on Bitcoin.

Now that NFT sales are escalating again, Magic Eden plans to reap benefits. This week, Magic Eden also launched a new NFT marketplace for collections built atop the Ethereum blockchain. This marketplace is being launched in partnership with NFT creating platform Yuga Labs.

Ethereum blockchain remains the largest in terms of NFT sales volume, reportedly amounting to $202.5 million (roughly Rs. 1,678 crore).

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Magic Eden Launches Crypto Wallet with Cross-Chain Workability: Details

Magic Eden, which is an online marketplace for NFT sales, is adding more functionalities and capabilities to its platform to attempt to revive people’s interest in digital collectibles after a visible sector slowdown. The platform has now decided to launch a crypto wallet browser extension, that will be compatible with multiple blockchains. The aim of creating this multi-chain wallet is to provide a single storage solution for people to store their cryptocurrencies as well as purchased NFTs.

Presently in its closed beta state, Magic Eden’s wallet will support storage of NFTs based on Bitcoin, Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon.

As per Jack Lu, the CEO and Co-Founder of Magic Eden, people had to make four different wallets compatible with four different blockchain to be able to save their NFTs. This eventually led to people walking away from engaging with NFT and reportedly led to Magic Eden’s decision to launch a wallet service that would be compatible with multiple blockchains.

The wallet will facilitate instant transfer of cryptocurrencies between blockchains and easily collect any NFT on Solana, Ethereum, Polygon, or Bitcoin Ordinals. The service will also provide a direct integration with Magic Eden’s NFT platform for better management of digital collectibles, said an explanation blog about the service.

Magic Eden published an official update about this upcoming service on X as well.

Presently, the self-custodial wallet service is only available to a few numbers of testers. The development comes at a time when the sales of NFTs dropped significantly in these last few years.

NFTs peaked in September 2021 when sales of these digital collectibles managed to amass around $881 million (roughly Rs. 7,344 crore). However, ass of November this year, NFT sales only managed to bring-in $10.85 million (roughly Rs. 90 crore).

Earlier in September, a report had claimed that among the top 8,850 NFT collections by market cap, 18 percent were worthless, and 41 percent saw their prices drop to around $5 (roughly Rs. 415) to $10 (roughly Rs. 835).

In fact, Magic Eden itself has faced the brunt of the slowdown of the NFT market. In February this year, the platform had announced layoffs from its team.

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Creator of Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT Knock-Offs Pleads Guilty of Rug Pull, Theft

Adding to a list of Web3 criminals, French national Aurelien Michel has admitted to having rug-pulled innocent members of the NFT community while also having stolen $3 million (roughly Rs. 24 crore) from a scam NFT project. Michel is the developer behind NFT collection named the ‘Mutant Ape Planet’ series. Inspired by the popular Mutant Apes NFT collection owned by Yuga Labs, Michel’s creation was a knock-off of the original NFT series. The accused was arrested in New York City earlier this year.

The Attorney’s Office from the Eastern District of New York posted an official update about the case on November 14.

“With today’s guilty plea, Michel has admitted that he conspired with others to defraud consumers eager to participate in a new digital asset market,” said United States Attorney Breon Peace as commenting on the development.

The US officials have also noted, as part of this case, that they are aware about scammers misusing the digital asset space to commit large-scale frauds like scamming and money laundering among others.

In Michel’s case, he was luring-in investors to purchase his fake Mutant Apes-inspired NFT pieces. NFTs are digital collectibles that are secured on blockchain networks, have an underlaying financial value, and are often part of online gaming and metaverse experiences.

After the 25-year-old managed to garner around $3 million (roughly Rs. 24 crore), Michel abandoned the project in a typical ‘rug pull’ style.

“Michel and his co-conspirators marketed the NFTs to purchasers by falsely promising them numerous rewards and benefits designed to increase demand for, and the value of, their newly acquired NFTs. But Michel and his co-conspirators intentionally failed to deliver on these promises, diverting millions of dollars’ worth of proceeds for their personal benefit while continuing to represent that the benefits would be forthcoming,” the US Department of Justice said.

Michel launched the Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection in 2022 supported on Ethereum. At the time of its launch, each of the 9,999 images of mutant apes were priced $468 (roughly Rs. 38.880).

For now, the number of people defrauded by Michel via this NFT scam remains unknown. As part of his punishment, Michel faces up to five years in prison while agreeing to paying a fine of $1.4 million (roughly Rs. 11 crore).

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Disney, Dapper Labs Team Up to Launch Digital Collectibles App, but Avoid the Term ‘NFT’

Disney has teamed up with Web3 gaming studio Dapper Labs to launch an app for fans to gather digital collectibles. The ‘Disney Pinnacle’ app is aimed at letting Disney fans digitise pin collections. Small and portable, Disney pins come in a variety of designs and represent popular Disney characters, movies, and theme park attractions. The initiative, however, has tried to keep away from the term ‘NFT’ — digital tokens infamous for their volatile nature in terms of value.

Disney Pinnacle will let fans purchase pins that are digital versions of those physical pins that remain popular at Disney amusement parks, AdAge said in a report on Tuesday.

The Disney-Dapper duo have opened a waitlist programme for interested people to register for an early access to the Disney Pinnacle mobile app.

“As the technology gets better we can sort of abstract it out more, so the word ‘NFT’ doesn’t show up anywhere in the product. The open nature of Web3 platforms is why we can have the full authenticity, and guaranteed tradability, and full ownership, and all of these features, that set these products apart from stickers in WhatsApp or whatever it might be,” Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs, was quoted as commenting on the development.

Instead of NFTs, these digital Disney pins will be referred to as ‘digital collectibles.’ The duo’s decision to maintain a distance from the NFT tag could likely be an attempt to stay away from the uncertainty and suspicion surrounding NFTs. A recent dappGambl report claimed that most NFTs had lost their values in the backdrop of a shaky Web3 market.

All the digital pins that will be made available through this programme, meanwhile, will be based on Disney’s original intellectual property and will be minted on the Flow blockchain. Collectors will be given a platform, via the app, to buy and trade pins with others. They will be required to register themselves onto the Dapper wallet ecosystem that will be accessible from within the app.

Disney has been trying to test the Web3 waters for a while now. In February last year, the entertainment conglomerate had hired new executives to chalk out profitable metaverse strategies. The company was also looking to onboard corporate lawyers to tackle legal work around emerging technologies like NFTs and the metaverse.

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‘Discover India Through Digital Art’: Club Mahindra on its First Ever NFT Series

Club Mahindra, a travel and hospitality firm in India, has announced the launch of its first ever NFT series called ‘Discover India’. Built on the Polygon blockchain, this series of digital collectibles will be generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI), fusing paintings by international artists with must-visit destinations that the country has to offer. The collection will have a total of 25 artworks, priced between Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 12,000. The holders of these NFTs will automatically become eligible to churn additional benefits related to their travel and vacation plans.

Club Mahindra has handpicked some resorts, landscapes of which AI will merge with the artworks of maestros like Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, and Leonardo Da Vinci among others.

Holders of these NFTs will get a complimentary two-nights/three-days holiday voucher for Club Mahindra resorts.

“NFTs are an enabler for us to offer an immersive experience to our consumers as digital collectibles and blockchain technology is evolving in India. We are thrilled to present these artistic interpretations of our resort images,” Pratik Mazumder, Chief Marketing Officer, Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India said in an official statement.

Images of these NFTs have emerged on social media.

The company has partnered with Treasurepack to host these NFTs. TreasurePack is a Web3 solutions company that tokenises items as per the requirements of brands, platforms, and publishers.

Only a handful of established brands in India have forayed into the NFT sector as India awaits a final framework for crypto rules.

Founded in 1945, the parent company of Mahindra Club that is the Mahindra Group is one of the most valued companies of India, that has also established itself abroad. Its owner, Anand Mahindra, has often expressed interest in exploring the Web3 sector. Back in April this year, Anand Mahindra had hinted that he may soon let people purchase Mahindra cars via Bitcoin payments.

In March 2022, Mahindra and Mahindra marked its first entry into the NFT space with the release of its first set of digital collectables, joining the likes of MG Motor India in the automotive space.

Other brands that have launched NFTs in India include automobile company Skoda, real estate major Hiranandani, and Cadbury.

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