Q2 closes up with NFT.NYC, another week packed of Yuga Labs and BAYC headlines (and discourse), and eBay continuing it’s active push into the space – this time with a new acquisition. Menawhile, one of your favorite candy brands is getting a sweet tooth, and there is more updates from the latest developments in Quentin Tarantino’s legal battle over his past non-fungible token release.
We’re back with our usual recap to digest all things NFT from the past week.
This Week’s Non-Fungible Token News
Bored Ape Yacht Club All Over New Eminem And Snoop Dogg Music Video
The Bored Ape Yacht Club crew brought all sorts of music artists – such as LCD Soundsystem and Lil Baby – as part of their ApeFest 2022 showing, what many in the community tout as an early display of blue chip utility; however, it was the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this week for BAYC. They rounded out ApeFest with a Bored Ape music video courtesy of Snoop Dogg and Eminem.
Meanwhile, the BAYC team is dealing with the need to respond to growing allegations around Nazi ties, including filing a lawsuit against critic Ryder Ripps, who released an amplified video criticizing the NFT project and subsequently launched his own imitation project.
NFT.NYC: Improved, But Still Room To Grow
Speaking of Snoop Dogg, NFT.NYC was host to great experiences, interesting impersonators (I’m looking at you, Doop Snogg), plenty of networking opps, and also it’s fair share of cringe. We can keep it honest. Goblins took things a little too far with IRL goblin noises, the Invisible Friends pop-up was made fun at times, and The Hundreds did an excellent exhibition of fake NFT protestors.
In all, it was seemingly a step in the right direction after last year’s experience – and a much louder and more present community this time around, too. We took some time to cover the good, the bad and the ugly from this year’s NFT.NYC.
Uniswap has seen strong token performance this week following the acquisition of NFT aggregator Genie, and potentially a broader market slowdown of bear market effects. | Source: UNI-USD on TradingView.com
M&M NFT
Mars Inc., longtime candy behemoth and maker of chocolate candies M&Ms, is the latest brand in the consistent flow of ‘filing reports’ of new trademark applications around web3. According to reports this week, Mars has filed crypto, NFT and metaverse related trademark applications for the M&Ms brand which includes “online virtual store environments” and “virtual snacks” for the metaverse.
Tarantino’s Legal Battle: Latest Update
November of last year feels like the ‘simple times’ of crypto. So little time has truly past, but things sure do feel different. Look no further than the curious case of crypto and Quentin Tarantino for a prime example: last year, we covered the emergence of Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction‘ NFTs, and by the beginning of the new year we started briefly covering the ongoing debates between Miramax and Tarantino.
Well the court system in the U.S. can be notoriously slow moving, but we’ve seen developments this week as Hollywood Reporter outlined an “early win” for the legendary director, but there’s still precedent to be set based on how things shake out. As the Reporter aptly notes, it could shake out somewhere down the middle, including NFTs around rights usage divvied up with “Miramax with regard to the movie and Tarantino with regard to the screenplay.”
New Acquisitions: eBay & KnownOrigin, Uniswap Snags Genie
In tough times there can be consolidation. Regardless of reasoning, we saw some interesting acquisitions this week, some more centralized than others. Let’s take a look a couple of the big headline names to see movement this week:
- eBay Acquires KnownOrigin: eBay has expressed a desire to be a digital marketplace hub, a forward-thinking player in a new era of collecting, and has doubled down this week with the buyout of NFT marketplace KnownOrigin. The marketplace was relatively small but has displayed tenacity as an early mover in the space.
- Uniswap Labs Acquires Genie: Meanwhile, in more DeFi structured orgs, leading dex Uniswap Labs snagged NFT marketplace aggregator Genie over the week as the platform looks to integrate NFTs into APIs and widgets.
