7-Day Market Moves

In the NFT market, the Forkast 500 NFT index slipped by 10.46% over the past week, with total NFT transactions plunging by 25.96% to a "mere" $18.58 million. Our NFT playgrounds, Ethereum and Bitcoin, didn't fare well either - transactions on Ethereum, the leading NFT blockchain, saw a 10.50% drop to $13.2 million. Meanwhile, Bitcoin transactions took a more severe hit, plummeting by 72.91% to $1.12 million.

On the brighter side, Sotheby’s, the global auctioneer, wrapped up its second round of sales from the "Grails" collection - NFT artworks owned by the bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and its NFT-focused arm Starry Night Capital. The auction raked in  $11 million, not to be reinvested in the NFT world, but to recover some of 3AC’s losses.

Elsewhere in the NFT landscape, the ever-popular Bored Ape Yacht Club made some waves, topping the sales by collection with $1.11 million changing hands in the past 24 hours. Hot on its heels was Mythos chain's DMarket game NFTs, which racked up sales of nearly $900,000 from over 51,000 transactions.

Top Blockchain Games (7 Days)

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Top NFT Marketplaces By Sales Volume (7 Days)

Top  NFT Collections By Sales Volume

Introducing Xai - The New Playground for Web3 Game Developers

TL: DR

• Xai, a new layer-3 network built on Ethereum's infrastructure, is targeting Web3 game developers.
• The network promises advanced scalability, efficiency, and cost reduction.
• Xai aims to simplify token-powered games for non-technical users.
• The first game on Xai, Final Form, marks its entry into Web3 gaming.

As the Ethereum layer-2 scaling networks battle it out to be the go-to platform for the next generation of Web3 games, a new player, Xai, is bringing a layer-3 network to the table. Unveiled yesterday, Xai builds upon Arbitrum’s layer-2 network architecture, which is layered over the Ethereum mainnet. A collaboration between Offchain Labs and game developer Ex Populus, it aims to launch a token for the network and establish itself as a "decentralized game console."

Xai promises to offer advanced parallel processing and improved scalability, efficiency, and cost reduction, all while piggybacking on the lower cost and greater volume benefits of Arbitrum’s existing layer-2 network. Tobias Batton, CEO at Ex Populus, envisions this deeper network layer as the key to achieving even lower fees, faster transactions, and ultimately a smoother gaming experience. Xai also intends to downplay the technical crypto aspects through account abstraction, thereby making token-powered games more appealing to a broader audience.

The first game on the Xai network will be Final Form, a fully on-chain digital card auto-battler developed by Ex Populus and featuring artwork from Web3 brands and celebrities. Xai's approach - focusing on specialized instances dedicated to particular projects, is reminiscent of Avalanche's subnets or Polygon's supernets. Batton emphasizes that Xai is the first solution that met all their requirements, presenting it as a secure, stable network that's primed for the average gamer.

Salesforce Ventures Backs Mnemonic's Web3 Mission with $6M Investment

TL: DR

• AI-based NFT analytics firm, Mnemonic, secures $6 million funding led by Salesforce Ventures.
• Mnemonic's APIs provide valuable NFT data for developing Web3 products.
• Salesforce plans to integrate Mnemonic's technology into its CRM products.
• Funds will boost Mnemonic's market presence and support for Base, a Coinbase-incubated protocol.

The AI-powered NFT data and analytics provider, Mnemonic, has bagged $6 million in a seed extension round. The raise led by Salesforce Ventures with other key investors like Polygon Ventures, Orange DAO, FIN Capital, and FJ Labs happened amidst a crypto bear market with a keen eye on Web3 infrastructure. Salesforce is looking to integrate Mnemonic's prowess into its own Web3-centered customer relationship management products.

Mnemonic provides APIs, supplying NFT data and analytics that fast-track the creation of Web3 products. Real-time sales price info, marketplace activity, and NFT trait details are just some of the valuable data points on offer. Notably, it also includes a spam detection feature to shield users from dodgy NFT collections. Mnemonic's mission, according to co-founder and CEO Andrii Yasinetsky, is to equip businesses with high-quality, real-time data derived from the blockchain to fuel the development of Web3 solutions.

With its new funds, Mnemonic aims to broaden its use cases, deepen its analytics, widen its market reach, and reinforce its partner ecosystem. Mnemonic is currently supporting the testnet of Base, a layer 2 protocol cultivated by crypto exchange Coinbase. Once the Base mainnet sees daylight in the upcoming months, Mnemonic's Base NFT API will be right there supporting it.

From The Ashes of 3AC, a $6M Digital Swan Song

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TL:DR

• Sotheby's auctioned an NFT from collapsed crypto hedge fund 3AC for $6.2 million.
• The artwork, 'The Goose', was part of 3AC's 2021 portfolio.
• Other pieces sold ranged from $75K to $90K each.

The legendary Sotheby’s auction house has just swung the hammer on a piece of digital art from the remnants of Three Arrows Capital (3AC), the now-defunct crypto hedge fund. The artwork, 'The Goose' by Dmitri Cherniak, fetched a cool $5.4M before Sotheby’s premiums, taking the total to over $6.2M.

The Goose, an NFT, was a part of 3AC's digital portfolio curated back in 2021 by its co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies. They originally snagged it in August 2021, dishing out 1,800 Ether, roughly equivalent to $5.8M then. Other digital artifacts from the 3AC collection, including CryptoPunks #291, #6574, and #8950, and Larva Labs’ Autoglyph #218, were also on the auction block. Punks reportedly commanded price tags between $75K and $90K apiece.

Sotheby’s carved out its space in the NFT realm back in 2021, acting as a marketplace for digital artwork and NFTs, and hosting multi-million dollar sales including the NFT of the first-ever tweet by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and the original manuscript that coined the term 'metaverse.’ However, while Sotheby’s sails on, 3AC has sunk. The once crypto vanguard fell apart in the 2022 market crash, with its co-founders Zhu and Davies largely vanishing from the radar.

Despite their fall from grace, the duo resurfaced in April to back a new exchange, OPNX, purporting to "help the industry" amid other platform collapses like FTX and Celsius. However, their past continues to haunt them as disgruntled 3AC investors pursue them through various legal avenues across the globe. Not quite the end of the saga, it seems.

In other news,

• Following second arrest, Trump NFT Project aays 'NOW' is time to claim prizes. Read more.
• NFT artist FEWOCiOUS and Adidas team up on digital and physical NFT sneakers. Read more.

Goblintown Steals the Show in Twitch's Latest Indie Sensation 'Only Up

TL: DR

• Indie game "Only Up" is gaining popularity on Twitch, featuring artwork from NFT project Goblintown.
• Goblintown generated $101 million in secondary trading volume in 2022.
• A potential collaboration between Goblintown's creators and SCKR Games, the developers of "Only Up", is unclear.

Move over League of Legends and Valorant, a new gaming underdog is taking over Twitch’s leaderboard - "Only Up". This PC game is a funky creation of SCKR Games, an relatively unknown indie developer.

Inspired by “Jack and the Beanstalk”, Only Up is a 3D platformer with the singular goal of climbing, leading players through wacky landscapes filled with floating fruit halves and Shiba Inu dogs. The mixed bag of reviews on Steam highlights clunky controls and questionable player physics, but that's what makes it Twitch streamer gold. Their hilariously agonizing journeys upward are reeling in tens of thousands of viewers.

On Wednesday, Only Up scaled a new height with over 109,000 viewers on Twitch, featuring famous streamers Agent00 and Mizkif each pulling in around 20,000 spectators. In a surprising twist, the game's world is splashed with artwork from Goblintown, an Ethereum NFT project that made waves in 2022.

Goblintown, infamous for its embrace of toilet humor and quirky NFTs, generated over $101 million in secondary trading volume following its free launch. It's unclear if there was any formal collaboration between Truth Labs, Goblintown’s creator, and SCKR Games. Goblintown’s open-source, Creative Commons 0 license means anyone can repurpose its art, even sans NFT ownership. Yet, Goblintown’s official Twitter feed seems to cheer the appearance of their goblins in Only Up.

Backstage with Snoop Dogg's Exclusive NFT Passport

TL: DR

• Snoop Dogg introduces an NFT pass for his tour, offering exclusive content and merchandise.
• The NFT also includes a digital artwork from the "Snoop Selects" collection.
• Project developed with Transient Labs and WME.

Rapper Snoop Dogg is back in the Web3 space with his "Snoop Dogg Passport". It is a unique NFT pass offering fans exclusive access to the perks associated with his upcoming "High School Reunion Tour". For just 0.025 ETH (around $43 currently), fans can purchase these passports, minted on the Ethereum scaling network Arbitrum, and can buy up to 100 passes at once.

The Snoop Dogg Passport serves as an "evolving digital tour collectible". Holder will get exclusive access to backstage footage from the tour, featuring rap luminaries like Wiz Khalifa, Too $hort, and Warren G. In addition, these NFTs offer a gateway to merchandise, ticket sales, and music playlists, along with digital artwork from the "Snoop Selects" collection, contributed by artists such as Terrell Jones, Coldie, and Alien Queen. This exciting NFT project was birthed in collaboration with Transient Labs, orchestrated by talent agency WME.

This isn’t Snoop’s first rodeo with NFTs. This adds to his growing list of NFT endeavours, which includes collaborations with the Nyan Cat meme creator, virtual real estate in The Sandbox metaverse game, and a partnership with crypto casino Roobet.

In other news,

• Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar announce NFT rewards for their Tequila brand. Read more.