The latest news from the NFT sector include the new Non-Fungible Token collections launched by OneOf on Polygon’s blockchain, the statements of the famous NFL champion Tom Brady from Autograph, Caochella’s new market with FTX and OpenSea‘s monthly sales records.
Summary
NFT News: OneOf and the collection of sports star covers
The popular NFT marketplace dedicated to music, OneOf, announced its new expansion into sports by launching a new marketplace in partnership with Sports Illustrated or “SI” to create new NFT collections highlighting superstar athletes, inspired by their most famous covers.
Excited to announce @OneOfNFT is going beyond Music & entering the world of #SportsNFTs 🏈 First major partnership is w @SInow #SportsIllustrated to bring legendary athletes @MuhammadAli @JerryRice @EmmittSmith22 @BillieJeanKing & more into the metaverse. https://t.co/mNFYna5Y7j
— Lin Dai (@ThePointsDai) February 1, 2022
“Excited to announce OneOfNFT is going beyond Music & entering the world of #SportsNFTs Pallone da football First major partnership is with @SInow #SportsIllustrated to bring legendary athletes MuhammadAli, JerryRice, Emmitt Smith, BillieJean King & more into the metaverse”.
The first batch of this collection features three of the most dominant and prolific players in NFL history – Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith and Dick Butkus, along with 3D animated versions of their historic Sports Illustrated covers.
SI’s remaining collection of covers will feature other influential and important sports figures such as Billie Jean King, who was the first woman to be named SI’s Sportsperson of the Year, Muhammad Ali, Shaquille O’Neal, Mia Hamm, Wayne Gretzky and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
OneOf has announced that it will be Polygon’s blockchain that will host the drops for these mega-star athlete collections. On that note, Josh James, co-founder and COO of OneOf, said:
“The expansion into sports and lifestyle is a natural evolution to further our mission to bring the next 100 million non-crypto-native fans into web3 through cultural passion points. This collaboration with Sports Illustrated to mint legendary athletes’ NFTs on the energy-efficient Polygon blockchain is the perfect way to launch our Sports and Lifestyle marketplace, and we are excited for the opportunity to engage millions of sports fans worldwide”.
The partnership between Coachella and FTX
The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival today announced a long-term partnership with FTX US (“FTX”), the leading regulated cryptocurrency exchange in the United States to officially enter the world of Non-Fungible Tokens.
And indeed, it’s a new Coachella NFT marketplace, built by FTX on Solana’s blockchain, and the release of its first NFT series: the Coachella Collectibles.
Debuting with three collections, the Coachella Collectibles opportunity gives fans the chance to own lifetime festival passes, unique on-site experiences, physical products and digital collectibles, all verifiable through blockchain technology.
Coachella’s inaugural NFT sale and auction will be live from Friday, 4 February at 10 AM PST to Friday, 11 February at 5 PM PST.
OpenSea’s monthly sales record of $5 billion.
According to data from Dune Analytics, the leading NFT marketplace, OpenSea, appears to have generated more than $5 billion in total trading volume in January across Ethereum and Polygon sales, breaking the previous record set in August 2021.
Specifically, in January 2022, OpenSea had over $4.95 billion in Ethereum exchange volume and over $79 million on Polygon.
Just last month, OpenSea had announced the closing of a $300 million Series C funding round, led by Paradigm and Coatue, which took the company to be worth $13.3 billion.
Announcing Series C! We’re building the friendliest & most trusted NFT marketplace with the best selection across many chains. The funding helps us accelerate product development, improve trust & safety, and invest deeply in the web3 community & ecosystem. https://t.co/OmRPleMCOX
— OpenSea (@opensea) January 5, 2022
“Announcing Series C! We’re building the friendliest & most trusted NFT marketplace with the best selection across many chains. The funding helps us accelerate product development, improve trust & safety, and invest deeply in the web3 community & ecosystem”.
Tom Brady retires and devotes himself to Autograph while Justin Bieber purchases his Bored Ape
Celebrated NFL champion, Tom Brady, winner of 7 Super Bowls, has announced that he is retiring from his 22-year career as an American footballer and devoting himself fully to his businesses like his Autograph NFT marketplace.
In his roundup of career-closing tweets, the latest one is all about his future, described as follows:
“the future is exciting. I’m fortunate to have cofounded incredible companies like autograph.io, bradybrands e tb12sports that I’m excited to continue to help build and grow, but exactly what my days will look like will be a work-in-progress. As I said earlier, I am going to take it day by day. I know for sure I want to spend a lot of time giving to others and trying to enrich other people’s lives, just as so many have done for me. With much love, appreciation and gratitude, Tom”.
Recently, Autograph closed a Series B financing totaling $170 million co-led by a16z and Kleiner Perkins.
At the same time, another music industry star, Canadian singer Justin Bieber, bought a Bored Ape NFT for 500 ETH, the equivalent of $1.29 million, paying more than 300% of the on-floor price.
Bieber has his own account on OpenSea in which his entire collection of BAYC-rich NFTs is shown. The latest purchase was Bored Ape Yacht Club #3001 and, what makes the situation anomalous, is that the base price of the BAYC was 104 ETH or $270,908, at the time of the sale.
