The Week In Web3: Chain Inks Deal with the Patriots, Apple Sets Fee For In-App NFT Sales, Airline Flybondi Launches NFT Tickets, Moonwalk's NFT Tickets & Rewards For Secret Walls.
Each week we share insights from the Web3 space + the latest from Moonwalk.
Despite the market slowdown, brands and platforms across consumer products, entertainment and sports continued to announce new deals and historic launches, hot off the heels of the recent Starbucks membership NFT announcement.
Launches
FIFA launches NFT marketplace. Under the FIFA+ umbrella, FIFA launched their NFT marketplace “FIFA+ Collect”. This is set to bring about a new medium of fan interaction for World Cup enthusiasts and allow FIFA to tap into a new form of audience. FIFA+ Collect, launched on Algorand, went live on September 22, bringing historic FIFA moments in the form of NFT to collectors. The Genesis Drop, launched with 532,980 editions, will allow collectors to own and trade these NFTs. Read more.
DC Comics' Phygital NFT Release. Warner Brothers teams up with pop culture brand Funko to launch DC Comics physical and digital comic book collectible exclusively through retail giant Walmart. The “phygital” bundle includes a comic book cover from DC’s “The Brave and the Bold,” in both printed form and as a non-fungible token (NFT) redeemable online. Funko’s aim is to “marry the two worlds” of physical and digital collecting, CEO Andrew Perlmutter said in an interview. DC fans who purchase the collectible can connect their crypto wallet and claim the NFT online, minted on the WAX blockchain. Starting Oct. 7, Funko will begin selling the 30,000-unit collection at Walmart. Read more.
Low-Cost Argentinian Airline Flybondi Launches NFT Tickets. TravelX, a marketplace for tokenized travel products, went live on Wednesday with the offering of inventory of the low-cost Argentine airline Flybondi. The platform, built on Algorand, currently offers 2.5 million tickets, which are tokenized when purchased and converted into NFTs called NFTickets. Read more.
OpenSea implements a new protocol that ranks NFT rarity. OpenSea announced the implementation of OpenRarity, a protocol that provides verifiable rarity calculations for NFTs within its platform. With this, the marketplace highlighted that buyers would be able to view a reliable “rarity ranking” when considering purchasing NFTs. The feature will not be automatically applied to all NFT collections. According to the NFT marketplace, creators will still have control if they want to choose to apply the OpenRarity feature to their collections or not. The OpenRarity project was a collaborative effort between various NFT communities. Read more.
Italy's AC Milan Launches NFT Game. AC Milan launched a new collection of NFTs in collaboration with Solana-based esports franchise MonkeyLeague. The new partnership will let fans mint Rossoneri-branded wearables and give them access to game tournaments, such as football players testing the game. It is not the first time AC Milan issued NFTs. In January 2021, the Italian soccer champion launched an NFT campaign and its Fan Token (ACM) on Socios.com. Earlier this year, the club started new partnerships to issue official NFT video highlight moments and entered an NFT-based fantasy football game, allowing users to collect, trade and play with digital cards from AC Milan. Read more.
Deals
Chain Inks Four-Year Deal With New England Patriots. Chain and Kraft Sports and Entertainment will work together to develop “state-of-the-art Web3 experiences” for Patriots and Revolution fans, according to a press release. Chain CEO Deepak Thapliyal told Decrypt that “the vision is to be the tech stack and backbone for all the possible verticals for the Kraft organization which includes Patriots, Revolutions, Gillette, etc. to ensure they become the NFL leader in this space. “We plan to offer very unique Web3 and NFT integrations for them throughout this partnership,” he said. Read more.
Tom Brady and the PGA Tour team up on new NFT platform. The Tour and Autograph (the NFT platform co-founded by Tom Brady), announced a deal through 2027 to create an NFT platform and allow fans to own a token of its history. The platform will pull from Tour competition video, data, imagery and other components. Golf fans will have the opportunity to own and collect NFTs featuring the best Tour golfers as well as some of their favorite moments from the archives and the current season. Additionally, collectors will have a chance to earn rewards, including access to exclusive digital, in-person and onsite experiences. The Tour’s exclusive NFT Digital Collectibles platform with Autograph will launch in early 2023. Read more.
Zilliqa Launching Web3 Game Console. Blockchain company, Zilliqa announced that it is launching a Web3 game console, which will become the company’s gaming hub. The console will feature first-party games by Zilliqa, a Web3 wallet, and crypto asset mining utilities. The console is being launched with the purpose of onboarding more users to Zilliqa’s platform and allowing users to mine Zilliqa tokens while playing games. Users will find games and apps in the console’s gaming hub, and can earn rewards or buy and sell in-game assets. Zilliqa will launch the console early next year along with two first-party games, followed by other third-party games. The gaming hub and console will go into early access beta testing next month and will be available for pre-order in Q1 2023. Read more.
Markets
Apple to charge a 30% fee for in-app NFT sales. Apple will allow developers to sell NFTs in their games & apps, but will enforce the same 30% commission that they charge for other in-app sales for apps on the Appstore. Meanwhile, Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney, thinks it can crush growth of Web3 technology. Read more.
Web3 games & metaverse projects have attracted $750M in investment since August 2022. According to DappRadar, Web3 gaming and metaverse projects have collected $748 million in investments since August despite the general downturn in the crypto space. According to the report, the total amount invested in blockchain gaming for the year is forecasted to come in at $10.2 billion. Last year, it was $4 billion. “The amount of investments demonstrates that despite the challenging and uncertain conditions in the digital asset markets, major investment entities remain bullish on the GameFi industry”, the report stated. Read more.
What Moonwalk Did
Moonwalk and Palm power NFT tickets and rewards for Secret Walls. Moonwalk and Palm worked with LA-based art entertainment brand Secret Walls on their North American tour, Secret Walls “Support Your Local Artist”. The multi-city tour brought Secret Walls' high-energy physical illustration and design battles to cities across North America. Moonwalk and Palm NFT powering the tour’s virtual rewards program, which provides fans with exclusive benefits including tickets to events, access to artist talent, premium content and discounts on limited-edition products. The utility and access this program unlocks will continue to evolve and reveal more surprises as the SYLA Tour progresses. Art fans can snag free NFTs and rewards by visiting this link.
Moonwalk and Virtua power Kevin Hart’s metaverse screening. Kevin Hart, Moonwalk and Virtua created an industry first for Web3 and the TV industry, providing Kevin Hart' NFT holders with NFT-gated access to an exclusive screening room for a bonus episode of Kevin’s Roku Special, hosted in the Virtua metaverse.
Thought Leadership: The Future of Digital Consumer Engagement. Moonwalk Co-Founder Greg Consiglio authored an in-depth article on “The Future of Digital Consumer Engagement: How Branded Web3 Communities using NFTs and Metaverses Can Rewrite the Rules of Marketing”. Greg argues that ownership in the brand’s community is becoming incredibly significant for marketers. Brand involvement will help NFTs move beyond early adopters and go mainstream. Read the article here.
We’re Traveling!
Its conference season. Moonwalk will be at the following events over the next quarter. We’d love to catch up!
Token 2049, Singapore - Sep 28-30
Web3 Expo, Las Vegas - Oct 10-13
LA Blockchain Summit (Shiv is speaking about Metaverse/NFTs) - Nov 1-3
NFT London - Nov 3-4
Miami Art Week/Art Basel - Dec 1-4
Moonwalk is the no-code Web3 launchpad for brands, creators and agencies. Easily launch, build and manage your entire web3 ecosystem. Launch NFTs and generative collections payable in ETH or credit card, add a web3 wallet, in-game or social tokens and ways to earn and spend tokens across content platforms. Integrate a metaverse activation, sell NFT tickets, offer content unlocks, POAPS and other types of membership benefits - all in one easy-to-use platform.