NFT marketplace

FTX and Avalanche co-led $5M round for Joepegs NFT marketplace • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 14, 2022Posted in Avalanche, blockchain, Crypto, crypto ecosystem, FTX, NFT, NFT market, NFT marketplace, NFTsNo Comments

Although FTX collapsed last week, raises their ventures team contributed to are still being announced. Joepegs, an NFT marketplace on the Avalanche blockchain, raised $5 million in a seed round led by now-defunct FTX Ventures and the Avalanche Foundation, its co-founders who go by the pseudonyms Cryptofish and 0xMurloc, exclusively told ZebethMedia. “The funding from FTX Ventures was completed in June, and have since been transferred out of FTX prior to recent bankruptcy events,” the team said in a statement. The marketplace launched in May and has grown rapidly to the largest NFT marketplace on Avalanche with over $3.4 million in secondary NFT sales and 12,000 users. It also has an in-house production unit, Joe Studios, as well as an NFT Launchpad, which has on boarded over 50 projects to the Avalanche ecosystem, the company said. The co-founders also founded and remain involved in the operations of Trader Joe, a decentralized exchange on Avalanche (not to be confused with the American supermarket chain), which launched in early July 2021 and has a total trading volume over $88 billion. “As we started building this, we realized very quickly that in order to deliver a platform that really helps users discover great NFTs we have to invest in a lot more platform capabilities so that’s what the fundraise will go toward,” 0xMurloc said. “On top of that, we also create a lot of content on our end. We did this at the start to fill a need. Marketplaces are only as good as the content in the ecosystem.” Joepegs also invests in the operational side, beyond Avalanche, to partner with different traders, projects and artists “across the ecosystem,” 0xMurloc said. “That is something we do ferociously.” Earlier this year, Avalanche dove further into the NFT space after partnering with the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, which now operates on the blockchain alongside other platforms like Joepegs and Kalao. With about $408.2 million in total sales, Avalanche is the seventh-largest blockchain by NFT sales volume, CryptoSlam data shows. “People are focused on what is happening to the greater market,” 0xMurloc said. “Yes, there are less people playing with crypto and the NFT market as a whole right now, but, we do see that the interest from creators, brands and projects to dive deeper into web3 and NFTs – that appetite is not softening.” There are a lot of companies, creators and artists who are “eager to explore this form of commerce and community building,” 0xMurloc added. “We’re very bullish on the future of NFTs and what it could bring,” Cryptofish said. “The idea that you can have clothing backed by NFTs is very bullish. You see that with Azuki with their skateboards and Nike sneakers and we want to be on the forefront of NFT innovation with digital stuff and clothing.” As more alternative NFT products come out, NFT markets will have to adapt to accommodate, Cryptofish added. “Our vision on NFT marketplaces will have to be like Amazon over time. Initially it was a bookstore and now they’ve branched out to sell everything. That’s how I see things going.” In the short term, the team plans to continue driving in-house content and has new collections coming up in the near future, 0xMurloc said. “Longer term, we want to branch into different flavors of NFTs and explore what Fish mentioned, whether it’s fashion, physical merchandise or gaming. We’re excited about what’s to come.”

Line launches NFT marketplace on its platform DOSI • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 8, 2022Posted in Crypto, LineNext, NFT marketplace, NFTsNo Comments

Japanese messaging app Line’s non-fungible token (NFT) unit LineNext said Tuesday that it has launched a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplace on the NFT platform DOSI. The C2C trading service allows users to buy and sell NFTs globally. The announcement comes nearly a year after Line said it plans to launch an NFT service in 2022 to provide a marketplace for companies and individuals to trade NFTs. The company says anyone can easily trade NFT on its DOSI platform, which offers a simplified transaction process. Once users connect the DOSI wallet to MetaMask, an Ethereum crypto wallet, they can buy or sell NFTs with just a few clicks. Users can pay with Ethereum, credit cards, Naver Pay and more to trade NFTs. LineNext plans to add more crypto assets and mobile payment services in each country. The company claims that DOSI has amassed scores of users from 149 countries and issued more than 100,000 DOSI Wallets with 170,000 membership NFTs since its beta service launch in September. DOSI’s citizen membership service helps users acquire membership points, called DON, by participating in the NFT community activities or purchasing their NFTs. LineNext has released a string of NFT projects partnering with companies, including Korean media mogul CJ ENM and its parent company Naver. The company plans to launch diverse additional NFT projects to help make NFTs more familiar to users in the future. “We are determined to create a new kind of NFT experience for users,” said the chief executive officer of LineNext, Youngsu Ko, in a statement. “It’s not just an investment or a new kind of technology. For us, DOSI is about making NFTs fund and easy to use, creating benefits for our users and building communities.” LineNext, which has offices in the U.S. and South Korea, told ZebethMedia last year its transaction brokerage fees will be the primary source of revenue. DOSI is available in various languages, including English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Bahasa, Spanish and Thai. The company could not be reached for comments when asked in which countries it operates the C2C platform service and the number of DOSI users.

OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer discusses staying on top of a turbulent NFT market at TC Sessions: Crypto • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 31, 2022Posted in Crypto, NFT marketplace, NFTs, OpenSea, TC Sessions: Crypto 2022No Comments

The NFT market is worth tens of billions of dollars and saw rapid growth throughout the crypto bull run. NFT exchange OpenSea, led by CEO and co-founder Devin Finzer, emerged as a clear market leader, earning a $13.3B valuation in January and controlling an estimated 90% of the overall NFT market. Since then, it’s been a bumpy ride for NFTs. Trading volumes have fallen over 90% from their January peak, forcing exchanges, including OpenSea, to conduct steep layoffs. And for OpenSea specifically, competition is mounting, as newer entrants such as Magic Eden threaten its dominance and rumors of an OpenSea IPO have fizzled out. Big tech could stifle long-term growth in the space, too, as Apple’s and Google’s high marketplace fees challenge the idea that NFT trading can ever reach mobile adoption. There are plenty of challenges on the horizon, but there’s also tremendous potential for OpenSea to capture long-term growth in the NFT market if it does indeed occur. There are undeniable pockets of excitement in the space, so the question is whether that excitement will be realized and whether OpenSea is well-positioned to capture it. These are some of the topics we’ll discuss with Finzer onstage at ZebethMedia Sessions: Crypto. We’ll ask him about what use cases for NFTs he sees the most potential in and will hear about how the company plans to sustain its first-mover advantage and seize new growth opportunities through a bear market. The event takes place on November 17 in Miami. Save $150 with early bird pricing and buy your pass today, and then join the web3, DeFi and NFT communities to keep up with the ever-evolving and always exciting crypto world.

Yuga Labs’ Nicole Muniz to talk about NFTs and Bored Apes at TC Sessions: Crypto • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in Crypto, NFT, NFT marketplace, TC Sessions: Crypto 2022, Yuga LabsNo Comments

As the NFT ecosystem continues to waver, superfans and blue-chip holders are still holding on strong. But how can the digital asset sector reignite growth and appeal to new audiences? The number of NFT sales is down almost 90% from the year-ago date, according to data on NonFungible market tracker. But still, the hype is growing across platforms like Reddit, which saw that millions of crypto wallets were created to mint NFTs or on layer-1 blockchains like Cardano, which hit new all-time highs for NFT volume. NFTs are one of the most talked about topics in crypto, which is why we’re excited to have Nicole Muniz, CEO of Yuga Labs, onstage at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17 in Miami. Earlier this year, Yuga Labs raised $450 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz, hitting a $4 billion valuation. The Miami-based NFT startup is the firm behind Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club and that has acquired other popular NFT projects like CryptoPunks and Meebits. It also launched ApeCoin, a token that gathered a multibillion-dollar market cap on its first day of trading that is now around $1.4 billion to date. The company wants to build something that “expands the universe” of Bored Ape Yacht Club but “invites the larger NFT community” in at the same time, ZebethMedia previously reported. With all that said, there will be plenty to talk about with Muniz, ranging from the fine-tuned details of Yuga Labs to where her thoughts are for the broader NFT ecosystem and where things stand. We’d like to hear her thoughts on the challenges and opportunities in the NFT marketplace and what areas she sees as most promising when it comes to scaling the ecosystem. Prior to Yuga Labs, Muniz founded an agency called Something New, which has worked with mega-brands like Nike, Google, EA and Square, to name a few. TC Sessions: Crypto takes place on November 17 in Miami. Save $150 with early bird pricing and buy your pass today, and then join the web3, DeFi and NFT communities to keep up with the ever-evolving and always exciting crypto world.