Animoca Brands

‘Tens of millions’ to enter Web3 through gaming in 2024 — GameFi execs

Gaming studio founders Yat Siu and Johnson Yeh think more people are coming to Web3 next year — and blockchain games are why.

Crypto market hype and the “commercial release” of several highly anticipated blockchain games will likely onboard “tens of millions” gamers to Web3 in 2024, according to Web3 gaming execs.

“2024 is a growth year in terms of bringing people on to Web3,” said Yat Siu, co-founder of gaming and venture firm Animoca Brands, in an interview with Cointelegraph.

In the last three months, around 1 million — or more — unique active wallets have played Web3 games daily, according to DappRadar data. However, Siu believes there could be up to 100 million more next year.

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Animoca Brands to focus on creator economy, interoperability in 2024

CEO Robby Yung outlines the company’s focus on gaming and adjacent sectors to drive Web3 adoption, leveraging NFTs and interoperability.

Animoca Brands’s CEO Robby Yung has affirmed the company’s commitment to supporting the creator economy and advancing Web3 mass adoption through its 2024 initiatives.

Speaking at the 12th Global Blockchain Congress in Dubai to Cointelegraph, Yung highlighted gaming as a primary driver for Web3 adoption, while also exploring education and other sectors to empower creators with efficient infrastructure and network effects.

He emphasized the role of publisher nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in enabling content creators to monetize their work in a decentralized, equitable, and lucrative environment, and cited the example of Animoca’s ed-tech subsidiary TinyTap, which integrates co-publishing rights for educational content. This approach, Yung believes, will allow educators to distribute content directly to students, enhancing peer-to-peer relationships.

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Animoca’s Yat Siu bullish on TON partnership as Bitcoin sets strong foundation for 2024

Animoca Brands became the biggest validator of the TON blockchain in 2023, banking on the network effect of Telegram’s 800 million users to drive GameFi adoption.

Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu is confident that a number of investments and partnerships could prove fruitful in 2024 as mainstream institutional interest in Bitcoin (BTC) gathers steam.

Speaking exclusively to Cointelegraph at the Next Block Expo event in Berlin, the chairman of the gaming venture capital firm highlights some 70 investments made in 2023 that are expected to deliver results next year.

Related: Animoca eyes SportFi ecosystem, becomes Chiliz Chain validator

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Animoca denies reports of $200M cut to metaverse fund and valuation drop to $2B

Speaking with Cointelegraph, Animoca co-founder Yat Siu noted that given the source’s anonymity, it “makes it difficult to ascertain exactly who or what the source or agenda is.”

Venture capital firm and Web3 game developer Animoca Brands has refuted claims that it scaled back its metaverse fund target by $200 million, or 20% to $800 million, amid volatility in the crypto market and instability in the banking sector.

The firm also downplayed suggestions that its valuation has plummeted from $6 billion as of July 2022 to roughly $2 billion in March 2023.

Stemming from a March 24 Reuters report citing anonymous “people familiar with the matter,” it was claimed that Animoca initially halved its $2 billion metaverse fund target in January, and recently cut it another 20% to $800 million.

The fund in question was announced in November 2022 to allocate capital to mid-to-late-stage startups with a metaverse focus. At the time, Animoca co-founder and chairman Yat Siu outlined that the fund target was between $1 billion and $2 billion, depending on how much capital was raised.

In a public statement shared with Cointelegraph, Animoca stated that “the claim that the Animoca Capital fund target was ‘cut’ from $2 billion to $1 billion is not correct, because $1 billion has always been within the range declared.”

The firm did acknowledge that the banking collapses in the United States have, of course, had an impact but stressed that the final amount raised for the fund has yet to be determined.

“There’s no doubt that the FTX and banking crises have had a serious impact on available venture capital, but fundraising for the Animoca Capital fund is in progress. When the raise is concluded, we will inform the market with the appropriate details, including the final size of this fund,” the firm stated.

Commenting on the leaked information, Siu told Cointelegraph that given the information came from unnamed sources, it “makes it difficult to ascertain exactly who or what the sources and agenda are, which is unfortunate.”

Concerning the company’s valuation, Animoca asserted that the figures reported by Reuters and an additional “two other” unnamed people cited were inaccurate.

Animoca, which trades as AB1, was initially listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in the firm’s early days. However, AB1 was delisted back in March 2020 due the ASX’s assertions that Animoca had breached its listing rules by being involved in crypto-related activities, among other things.

Since then, its shares have traded on unlisted stock-focused exchanges such as the Sydney-based PrimaryMarkets.

Related ‘No shortage of passion in the Parisian people’ for PBW amid protests — Animoca Brands CEO

The data from this platform was used to calculate a total market cap of AB1 at around roughly $2 billion. However, Animoca argues that these figures don’t fully represent the company’s total valuation.

AB1 stock price. Source: PrimaryMarkets

“The claim […] that Animoca Brands ‘now trades its shares on PrimaryMarkets’ is not technically correct. We terminated our arrangement with PrimaryMarkets in the second half of 2020, but PrimaryMarkets chose to continue to trade Animoca Brands shares on its platform,” the firm stated, adding that:

“We do not consider the thin trading activity on PrimaryMarkets to accurately reflect the company’s value. Trading volume is far too low to provide the price accuracy you would find on an actual primary market.”

Nifty News: Porsche ends ‘low effort’ NFT mint early, Oreo dunks into the Metaverse and more

Porsche’s first foray into NFTs appears to have flopped after recording underwhelming sales and was heavily criticized by the community.

Porsche criticized for ‘low effort’ NFTs, ends mint early

Car manufacturer Porsche had to cut short a nonfungible token (NFT) mint of its famous white 911 model only two days after the public mint started, saying its “holders have spoken.”

The Jan. 23 launch was seen by some as a huge flop for Porsche with just 2,040 of the 7,500 NFTs available having been sold at the time of writing.

The mint was widely criticized by the crypto community for being “low effort,” “tone deaf” and overpriced. The price of the NFTs were set at 0.911 Ether (ETH) ($1,417).

Sales on secondary markets have been undercutting the live mint, with some selling for as little as 0.86 ETH.

After announcing it would cut the supply, Porsche clarified that minting would still be open until 11am UTC on Jan. 25. The collection recorded a surge of FOMO buying which temporarily drove up the floor price.

Get Stuf’d: Oreo launches a Metaverse…and a really big cookie

Cookie company Oreo launched its own Metaverse, the OREOVERSE, an interactive digital world where cookie lovers can play cookie-themed games and enter into a sweepstake.

The OREOVERSE is on desktop, mobile and in Meta’s Horizon Worlds, where users with a Meta Quest headset can enter the Metaverse and experience it in virtual reality (VR).

A screenshot from the web-based version of Oreo’s new metaverse. Source: OREOVERSE

Oreo enlisted the services of TV personality Martha Stewart along with her gardener and friend Ryan McCallister to endorse the Oreo-inspired digital world.

The grand prize for the sweepstake gives users the chance to win $50,000 amongst a range of smaller prizes.

The Metaverse announcement was paired with the unveiling of its latest limited-edition cookie called the “Most OREO OREO” which has a “Most Stuf” creme center — filled with bits of Oreo.

Nike kicks off NFT marketplace with Air Force 1’s

In its first collection of NFTs on its “.SWOOSH Studio” NFT marketplace, Nike is set to launch a NFT collection influenced by its iconic Air Force 1 sneakers following a community vote.

The Polygon (MATIC)-based NFTs will go live on Jan. 25 according to a Jan. 23 tweet by Jasmine Gao, Nike Virtual Studios’ senior product manager.

Nike announced the upcoming NFT marketplace on Nov. 14 last year, which Nike Virtual Studios general manager Ron Faris claimed would help “onboard the next million” into the “wonderful world of web3 and digital assets.”

It aims to be a community-driven platform for Web3 digital art, with members given the chance to help co-create virtual creations with the global fashion brand through community challenges.

According to the Nov. 14 press release, members who win the challenge will also be able to earn royalties on the virtual product they help create.

Nike also suggested that digital wearables would eventually be usable in games and other “immersive experiences.”

Twitch co-founder’s Fractal brings its games to Polygon

The gaming company Fractal will be expanding its F Studio product suite to the Polygon blockchain and is bringing along 30 Polygon gaming partners for the ride.

The partners include games such as Phantom Galaxies, Life Beyond, League of Kingdoms, Blast Royale and Sunflower Land.

Fractal and Polygon launch partners. Source: Polygon Gaming.

Fractal is an NFT gaming marketplace founded by Twitch co-founder Justin Kan and provides a launchpad for new projects as well as facilitating tournaments.

It also boasts a software development kit allowing developers to build in-game marketplaces where players are able to buy and sell NFTs in-game, rather than needing to go through Fractal’s marketplace.

The platform originally started on the Solana (SOL) network, but according to a Jan. 23 report by VentureBeat, Fractal is expanding over to Polygon due to its speed, scalability and ability to accelerate game development with the security of the Ethereum network.

Polygon Gaming will be making a strategic investment in Fractal for an as yet undisclosed amount according to the report, in an effort to deepen the partnership between the two firms.

More Nifty News:

An up-and-coming NFT racing game called PetaRush sold out all the NFTs available through both its whitelist and public sales. The game allows users to integrate some NFT collections from outside the games’ ecosystem by pursuing partnerships that allow them to use the IP of other collections.

In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, the co-founder of the blockchain role-playing game Illuvium, Kieran Warwick, suggested casual gamers are “critical” to the success of blockchain games that utilize NFTs. Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Sui echoed the sentiment, claiming that all it would take is one good game to kick-start a blockchain gaming boom.

Casual gamers a ‘critical’ audience for blockchain games: GameFi execs

Many casual gamers are still reluctant to play games that use blockchain tech, but gaming execs believe one good game could change that.

The casual gaming market will remain a crucial audience for blockchain games and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in gaming, according to three blockchain gaming company co-founders. 

Casual gamers, people who play games somewhat regularly but rarely invest significant time, make up the largest segment of players in the industry.

Kieran Warwick, co-founder of the blockchain role-playing game Illuvium, called casual gamers “critical” because of the sheer number of them.

There are more than 3 billion gamers worldwide as of 2023, and it’s estimated that at least 1.95 billion are casual gamers, according to Exploding Topics.

Illuvium co-founder Keiran Warwick. Source: LinkedIn

Warwick said gamers interested in earning in-game yield, who are primarily from developing countries and are especially attracted to mobile gaming, are becoming increasingly important as well.

However, Warwick admits there is a “major challenge”closing to coaxing casual gamers into the market because of the perception that blockchain games are of inferior quality.

Despite this, he was optimistic that NFTs, blockchain and Web3 will have a bright future in mainstream gaming.

“NFTs, blockchain, and Web3 have a place in mainstream games in the long term, as mainstream game developers are already working on incorporating these technologies into their games, despite some backlash from their communities,” Warwick said.

“As more fun and engaging NFT-based games are developed, it is likely that players will experience the benefits of ownership and not want to go back to traditional games,” he added.

Yat Siu, the co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands shares a similar view calling the mainstream casual audience “absolutely critical” for blockchain and NFT games, arguing: 

“Games are still games regardless of whether they’re casual or mid-core. One of the things that actually made mainstream gaming larger was casual games.”

According to Siu, the mainstream gaming industry hit a rough patch around 2010 and 2011 and “stopped growing.” The introduction of mobile games helped revitalize and attract a whole new generation of gamers, a feat blockchain games need to replicate.

Yat Siu speaking at a World Econonic Forum press conference. Source: Animoca Brands

Siu believes all it will take is one good game to kick off a blockchain gaming boom — and he predicts it could start in the next 18 to 24 months with hundreds of millions of gamers entering the space.

“I think we’re charting a pretty good chart, but you know, you’re not gonna convert everyone overnight, right? But it’s beginning and people are having fun and also the games are getting better,” he said.

“All you need is one game that’s actually going to be reasonably successful and you’ll basically get large news, and because it’s Web3 what’ll happen is that once it’s very popular, it’ll bleed into the other games.”

NFTs in games have faced backlash from mainstream gaming audiences, forcing several high-profile companies to abandon plans to incorporate them, but Siu believes this is only temporary until gamers learn more about how the technology works.

“I think they’re trying to be sensitive to their audience. I mean, so that’s the right thing to do as a company. You can’t just say, well, whatever your opinions don’t matter,” he said.

“Most gamers I speak to say they are all about having digital ownership in games but are still against NFTs, but over time, education will fix that,” Siu added.

Related: Opinion: 2023 is a ‘buidl’ year for crypto gaming

Bozena Rezab, co-founder and CEO of GAMEE, a blockchain mobile gaming platform, believes mobile games will have a part to play in attracting casual gamers.

“Casual mobile games are the easiest step into gaming, with the ability to engage a mass audience. This is what these can offer to a quest of onboarding gamers to NFT / blockchain games,” she said. 

However, the gaming exec thinks several aspects must be changed first, such as dropping paywalls, shorter sessions and easier setups for casual players.

“We are still on a path of exploring the use of blockchain tech in games, the concept of ownership of assets is very powerful and will stay. The exact game genres, game economy models and mechanics that will define the future are yet to be explored,” she said.

Samsung investment arm considering spot-Bitcoin ETF in Hong Kong

With the Hong Kong Stock Exchange being the only regulated exchange in Asia offering Bitcoin futures ETFs, some believe spot crypto ETF products will soon be allowed.

Hot on the heels of its Bitcoin (BTC) futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Hong Kong, Samsung Asset Management has indicated it’s considering the launch of a spot Bitcoin ETF on the city’s exchange if policies allow for it.

In an interview with Bloomberg published on Jan. 13, Hong Kong chief executive for Samsung Asset Management, Sam Park, said: “It really depends on how policy is going to be developed.” He added that the Hong Kong administrators are “clearly” interested in developing the city into a crypto hub.

An ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, Rebecca Sin, noted that “Hong Kong is well positioned to become Asia’s crypto gateway,” and expects spot Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) products to be allowed there by the year’s end.

A spot market refers to a market where the exchange of financial instruments is settled immediately, while a futures market refers to a market where participants buy and sell contracts to be settled at a later date.

Samsung launched its Bitcoin futures ETF on the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Market on Jan. 13, with the exchange currently the only one in Asia that supports the trading of Bitcoin futures ETFs.

As of the time of publishing, the ETF has already recorded a 4.2% increase in its price.

Cast your vote now!

Other Hong Kong futures ETFs have also seen interest, with two ETFs managed by CSOP Asset Management having raised $73.6 million in investments ahead of their Dec. 16 listing.

As noted by CSOP executive Yi Wang at the time: “The ETFs do not invest in physical Bitcoin and […] there are more regulatory safeguards for investors compared to tokens traded on unregulated platforms.”

Related: Hong Kong watchdog aims to restrict retail traders to liquid products

In a Twitter Spaces interview with Bloomberg Asia on Jan. 5, Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu indicated that Hong Kong was looking more attractive as a listing location compared to the United States, noting:

“The U.S. obviously seemed to be the market at the time that was perhaps a good one. But I would argue that, you know, places like Asia, particularly Hong Kong, are starting to look pretty attractive with their virtual asset policies, […] with their desire to basically be a leader in the space.”

A lack of regulatory clarity has often been cited as the reason why so much crypto activity is leaving the United States, and has prompted lawmakers to push for crypto regulations as soon as possible.

NFT games are ‘only scratching the surface’ of what’s possible — Animoca’s Yat Siu

Yat Siu thinks it’s only a matter of time until more advanced models of NFT gaming are created, designed around the ideas of digital ownership, interoperability and economic utility.

Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu believes nonfungible token (NFT) games are only scratching the surface of what’s possible and predicts completely new models of gaming will be developed as a result of digital ownership.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Siu likened the potential growth of NFT gaming to mobile phone gaming, which started out relatively niche and clunky in its formative stages before rocketing to become the most popular method of gaming across the globe.

“Mobile gaming brought a form factor of a type of game that we’ve never seen before, you know, one-hand play and that kind of stuff, and innovations around how you play with AI [artificial intelligence]. Because of the fact that you have this limited form factor, it became the most popular form factor in gaming,” he said.

Siu commented that while many blockchain games themselves also have a clunky experience at this stage, the whole sector is still quite new. As such, it is only a matter of time until more advanced models are created that are designed around the ideas of digital ownership, interoperability and economic utility for the user:

“With NFT games, we’ve only really scratched the surface. Everyone’s very focused on ownership. […] I think it’s going to mushroom into everything and we’re going to see new kinds of game formats emerge because of the ownership that we weren’t able to do before.”

In the interim period, Siu pointed to metaverse gaming platforms and massively multiplayer online games as models that fit well with NFTs, as you “can trade items and you have deep levels of economic design” that make sense.

The Animoca co-founder also argued that many current users are willing to accept that the blockchain gaming experience is not necessarily smooth at this stage.

He suggested that this was because they are aware of the significance of being able to own a stake in the games, as opposed to the traditional model in which people sink capital into games that they can never retrieve:

“I mean, when you think of this [blockchain games], you could say it’s a UX [user experience] nightmare. But, because of ownership, people put up with it not just because it’s valuable, but because it’s meaningful because this is my land, this is my car.”

Asked when NFT technology will get to a point of seamlessness that even a grandmother can use it without being aware of it, Siu emphasized this would likely be through the widespread tokenization of physical things, NFT integration with commonly used services and how people interact with each other.

Related: Blockchain games and metaverse projects raised $1.3B in Q3: DappRadar

He outlined that as the world continues to become more digitally focused, children will of course want digital things.

“Grandma is probably going to buy a digital item for their grandchildren as a way to not just as a gift that’s relevant to them, but also as a way to interact,” he said, adding that vice versa, a grandchild could even gift their grandmother a digital illustration that they drew:

“We’re going to have a digital world. These digital artifacts and art and creativity and games and utility that’s going to be mushrooming in the thousands and thousands and thousands of small medium enterprises that are going to be doing this.”

Nifty News: Yuga Labs launches BAYC council, Animoca backs Cool Cats and more…

Solana NFT volume surged to $130 million in September and Gary Vaynerchuck’s VeeFriends are set to be released as collectibles at Macy’s and Toys “R” Us.

Yuga Labs has announced a new Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) community council to help the project “grow and thrive.”

The team revealed seven council members in an Oct. 5 blog post, noting that they are all OGs who have been around since the early days of the BAYC.

Yuga Labs said it assembled a new community council made up of “Apes with a proven track record of proactively and positively contributing to the club since the start.”

The members include, @beijingdou, @SeraStargirl, @TheMiamiApe, @OxEthanDG, @OxWave, @negithenagi, @peterjfang.

“This council was formed with the intention of representing the club at large and providing an avenue for new perspectives,” Yuga Labs wrote.

Yuga Labs stated that they will engage with the community and gather feedback for the firm, work with Yuga on community-driven initiatives such as commercial projects, meetups and charity work.

“Every Ape in our community has directly impacted our decisions-making from day one. This council, and future councils to come, puts a more formal, efficient and consistent process in place for Yuga leadership to get community feedback and advice on an ongoing basis,” it wrote.

Yuga Labs also teased that it could soon launch community councils for its other NFT projects including CryptoPunks, Meebits and the Otherside moving forward.

Animoca Brands partners with Cool Cats

NFT venture fund giant Animoca Brands has made a strategic investment into blue chip NFT project Cool Cats to help the project expand into new avenues such as gaming.

The Oct. 5 announcement from the duo states that the “partnership will drive Cool Cats’ mission to become the largest global NFT brand and a robust media and content company, including through expansion of its gaming offerings.”

Cool Cats was launched in July 2021 and consists of 9,999 cartoon cat avatars. The project has generated $369.2 million worth of NFT sales volume to date as per CryptoSlam data. The latest announcement has also coincided with Cool Cats sales volume pumping 220% over the past 24 hours.

The move also follows a partnership with Animoca Subsidiary GAMEE from Sept. 1, a virtual platform focused on connecting creators, brands and players in the GameFi space.

Solana NFT sales volume surges past $100M in September

NFT sales volume on the Solana blockchain tagged $130.1 million in September, with that figure marking an 82.2% increase compared to the $71.4 million posted in August.

While the figure still places Solana well behind Ethereum, which hosted $354.3 million worth of NFT sales volume last month, the difference between the two’s number of unique buyers is much smaller.

According to CryptoSlam data, Solana NFTs saw 143,997 unique buyers in September (up from 95,516 in August) compared to Ethereum’s 166,168 that month (down from 202,467).

While the figures may indicate that Solana is making up some notable ground on Ethereum, the latter still hosts the majority of blue chip NFT projects.

Looking at data over the past 30 days, only one Solana NFT project makes the top 10 in terms of sales volume with tenth ranked y00ts mint t00b’s $13.3 million worth of sale volume. In comparison, eight Ethereum-based projects make the top 10 during that time frame.

Mommy, I want that NFT!

Gary Vaynerchuck’s NFT project VeeFriends has penned an exclusive deal with Macy’s and Toys “R” Us to sell physical plush and figure collectibles featuring VeeFriends NFT characters.

The collectibles will be available in stores from Oct. 17th, and will be priced from $9.99 to $29.99. The characters include Common Sense Cow, Willful Wizard, Practical Peacock, Gratitude Gorilla, Genuine Giraffe and Be The Bigger Person.

Related: Three Arrows Capital’s NFT collection to be liquidated

Hodlers who own the NFT version of the characters will receive the associated physical collectibles, with the more expensive plush and six inch figures going to season one NFT holders.

Notably, the hodler’s won’t get a kick-back from the sales of the physical toys however.

Collectible toys: VeeFriends

Other Nifty News:

Horizon Blockchain Games, the developers of popular NFT card game Skyweaver have raised $40 million in Series A funding, the company disclosed on Oct. 4. The round was led by Brevan Howard Digital and Morgan Creek Digital, with additional participation from Polygon, Take-Two Interactive, and Ubisoft to name a few.

NFT marketplace OpenSea announced in a series of tweets on Oct. 5 that the platform will officially allow its users to bulk list and bulk purchase up to 30 digital collectible items in a single flow.

Nifty News: Yuga Labs launches BAYC council, Animoca backs Cool Cats and more

Solana NFT volume surged to $130 million in September, and Gary Vaynerchuck’s VeeFriends are set to be released as collectibles at Macy’s and Toys “R” Us.

Yuga Labs has announced a new Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) community council to help the project “grow and thrive.”

The team revealed seven council members in an Oct. 5 blog post, noting that they are all OGs who have been around since the early days of BAYC.

Yuga Labs said it assembled a new community council made up of “Apes with a proven track record of proactively and positively contributing to the club since the start.”

The members include Beijingdou, SeraStargirl, TheMiamiApe, OxEthanDG, OxWave, Negithenagi and Peterjfang.

“This council was formed with the intention of representing the club at large and providing an avenue for new perspectives,” Yuga Labs wrote.

Yuga Labs stated that it will engage with the community and gather feedback for the firm, working with Yuga on community-driven initiatives such as commercial projects, meetups and charity work.

“Every Ape in our community has directly impacted our decision-making from day one. This council, and future councils to come, puts a more formal, efficient and consistent process in place for Yuga leadership to get community feedback and advice on an ongoing basis,” it wrote.

Yuga Labs also teased that it could soon launch community councils for its other NFT projects including CryptoPunks, Meebits and the Otherside, moving forward.

Animoca Brands partners with Cool Cats

NFT venture fund giant Animoca Brands has made a strategic investment into the blue-chip NFT project Cool Cats to help the project expand into new avenues such as gaming.

The Oct. 5 announcement from the duo states that the “partnership will drive Cool Cats’ mission to become the largest global NFT brand and a robust media and content company, including through expansion of its gaming offerings.”

Cool Cats was launched in July 2021 and consists of 9,999 cartoon cat avatars. The project has generated $369.2 million worth of NFT sales volume to date, according to CryptoSlam data. The latest announcement has also coincided with Cool Cats sales volume pumping 220% over the past 24 hours.

The move also follows a partnership with Animoca Subsidiary GAMEE from Sept. 1, a virtual platform focused on connecting creators, brands and players in the GameFi space.

Solana NFT sales volume surges past $100M in September

NFT sales volume on the Solana blockchain tagged $130.1 million in September, with that figure marking an 82.2% increase compared to the $71.4 million posted in August.

While the figure still places Solana well behind Ethereum, which hosted $354.3 million worth of NFT sales volume last month, the difference between the two’s number of unique buyers is much smaller.

According to CryptoSlam data, Solana NFTs saw 143,997 unique buyers in September, up from 95,516 in August, compared with Ethereum’s 166,168 that month, down from 202,467.

While the figures may indicate that Solana is making up some notable ground on Ethereum, the latter still hosts the majority of blue-chip NFT projects.

Looking at data over the past 30 days, only one Solana NFT project makes the top 10 in terms of sales volume, with 10th-ranked Y00ts Mint T00b’s $13.3 million worth of sale volume. In comparison, eight Ethereum-based projects make the top 10 during that time frame.

Mommy, I want that NFT!

Gary Vaynerchuck’s NFT project VeeFriends has penned an exclusive deal with Macy’s and Toys “R” Us to sell physical plush and figure collectibles featuring VeeFriends NFT characters.

The collectibles will be available in stores from Oct. 17 and will be priced from $9.99 to $29.99. The characters include Common Sense Cow, Willful Wizard, Practical Peacock, Gratitude Gorilla, Genuine Giraffe and Be The Bigger Person.

Related: Three Arrows Capital’s NFT collection to be liquidated

Hodlers who own the NFT version of the characters will receive the associated physical collectibles, with the more expensive plush and six-inch figures going to season one NFT holders.

The hodlers won’t get a kick-back from the sales of the physical toys, however.

Collectible toys from VeeFriends.

Other Nifty News

Horizon Blockchain Games, the developers of popular NFT card game Skyweaver, raised $40 million in Series A funding, the company disclosed on Oct. 4. The round was led by Brevan Howard Digital and Morgan Creek Digital, with additional participation from Polygon, Take-Two Interactive and Ubisoft, to name a few.

NFT marketplace OpenSea announced in a series of tweets on Oct. 5 that the platform will officially allow its users to bulk list and bulk purchase up to 30 digital collectible items in a single flow.