Budweiser

Nifty News: Rumors of new Yuga Labs collection quashed, Budweiser celebrates the Merge and more

Yuga Labs was said to be looking at raising around $50 million from the sale of 100,000 tokenized land plots, but the firm’s co-founder says it’s all “fake news.”

Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solana, or Garga, has shot down rumors that the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creators have plans to launch a new nonfungible token (NFT) collection dubbed Mecha Apes by the end of the year.

The rumors started swirling after Protos claimed to have obtained leaked documents detailing that Yuga Labs was looking at raising around $50 million from the sale of 100,000 tokenized land plots.

After the news was reported via various outlets online, Garga.eth noted it was all “fake news” via Twitter on Friday.

While the rumors have been quashed, given that Yuga Labs has hit the ball out of the park with each project it’s launched so far, and that it has outlined a broad vision for its metaverse, another NFT project from them in the future doesn’t seem like such a stretch.

Ultimately, Yuga Labs hopes to create an interoperable metaverse ecosystem in the Otherside that includes a virtual place for people to socialize, a host of game modes with play-to-earn aspects and a hub for users to receive key education on blockchain, NFTs and the Metaverse.

Yuga Labs is valued at around a whopping $4 billion, and to date, the BAYC NFTs have generated more than $2.4 billion worth of sales, while Otherdeed NFTs for the Otherside metaverse has fetched more than $1 billion.

Budweiser shares a toast to the Merge

Beloved beer manufacturer Budweiser has teased a limited run of beer cans featuring the firm’s Beer.eth Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain name following the Merge.

Sharing a photo of a Budweiser can featuring “Beer.eth, king of NFTs” in the center on Friday, the firm tweeted that “This Bud’s for the Merge.”

While the firm didn’t provide any further details on the cans, it initially created a select number for its NFT Beer Fest event in March.

Questioned by people how they could get their hands on the special cans, the beer maker teased that they “might just make another appearance.”

The firm initially purchased the Beer.eth domain for almost $100,000 in August 2021 and has continued to stay involved with the sector since, teaming up with NFT horse racing game Zed Run earlier this year to create Budweiser brands race tracks and horses.

NFT minted on last Ethereum PoW block

According to data from Etherscan, someone managed to mint an NFT on the final Ethereum proof-of-work (PoW) block before the network switched over to proof-of-stake (PoS).

The NFT in question was a VanityBlock token in which the user paid 30.2 Ether (ETH) and a 1.3 ETH gas fee to mint, worth roughly $46,500 at the time of writing.

The NFT has since been put up for sale on OpenSea, and currently has the highest offer of 10 Wrapped Ether (wETH), worth around $14,700.

VanityBlocks offers buyers a chance to own a full tokenized block on Ethereum, as it publishes transactional data onto an entire block. There are just 18 of these NFTs listed on OpenSea, with prices starting at around 1.1 ETH.

Despite the current bear market, the lack of bidding action seems surprising given the rarity of this specific NFT which caps off the end of Ethereum’s PoW history.

Related: Ethereum community wastes no time minting PoS NFTs right after the Merge

Funko utilizing to NFTs to make revenue pop: CEO

Andrew Perlmutter, CEO of collectible figure behemoth Funko, has outlined that the firm has gotten behind NFTs to meet demand from younger collectors who value digital goods and assets.

So far, the firm has released several Funko Pop NFT drops featuring beloved characters from franchises such as Avatar, Hey Arnold and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

While Perlmutter admitted to Investors.com on Thursday that he’s not well versed in NFTs and blockchain, he understands that the youth is fully engulfed in the digital sphere.

“My kids always want the latest Fortnite avatar skin or gun,” he said, adding that “so the way they view digital assets is different from how we dinosaurs view them.”

“We knew that it just made sense for our brand to be in the NFT business… It’s people collecting digital assets,” Perlmutter concluded.

Other Nifty News

On Tuesday, popular NFT project Doodles announced that it had raised $54 million at a $704 million valuation in a funding round led by Seven Seven Six, with participation from 10T Holdings, Acrew Capital and FTX Ventures.

Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden has fended off some community backlash following the launch of MetaShield, its new enforcement tool aimed at deterring NFT buyers who bypass creator royalties.

Beer, gambling and crypto: Budweiser races into Zed Run’s NFT games

The two will launch a Budweiser-themed race track, Budweiser NFT passes, racing prize pools starting at $45,000, and three tiers of airdropped Clydesdale NFT skins that are usable in Zed Run.

Popular beer manufacturer Budweiser has teamed up with Zed Run to deploy tokenized Clydesdale draft horses in its virtual NFT-based horse racing and wagering game.

The latest move from Budweiser adds to the $120,000 it spent on nonfungible token fan art and the beer.eth domain name it purchased via the Ethereum Name Service in August 2021.

Zed Run was founded by Sydney-based Virtually Human Studio in early 2019, and its racing horse NFTs initially went for around $30 to $80 to mint but have since gone on to be highly sought-after assets that trade for thousands of dollars on secondary markets. One user sold a single racehorse for as high as $125,000 in April 2021.

As part of the deal with Zed Run, the two companies will launch a Budweiser-themed race track, Budweiser NFT passes, prize pools for Bud-sponsored virtual horse races starting at $45,000, and three tiers of airdropped Clydesdale NFT skins that are usable in Zed Run.

Budweiser Clydesdale NFT: Zed Run

The Budweiser Clydesdales are a well-known group of horses used for company promos and commercials, with the beer makers being a major sponsor of horse racing events across the globe.

There will be 2,500 Budweiser Pass NFTs in total that will go up for sale (to users aged 21 and over) for a maximum of 24 hours starting on Friday. The NFTs will cost $225 a pop, plus gas fees.

Zed Run will host two Budweiser Racing Challenges in July and September, both of which will have prize pools of $45,000. There will also be a $95,000 tournament in December that also offers the chance to win a year’s supply of Budweiser beer.

Hodler’s of the NFTs will be airdropped Cyldesdale skin NFTs in July that can be used to spice up existing racehorse NFTs from the game, and they will also receive Budweiser t-shirt wearables that can be worn by avatars in the Decentraland metaverse, where Zed Run’s virtual headquarters are located.

The duo is rolling out three different versions of the horse racing skins NFT in varying quantities: 1,600 Classic Clydesdales, 800 Bud Bottle Clydesdales and 100 Gold Clydesdales.

After all of the tournaments have been completed, the project will also offer rewards to anyone who burns their Budweiser pass NFT; however, the specifics have not been revealed yet.

Spencer Gordon, vice president of consumer connections at AB InBev — Budweiser’s beer producer — noted that the move marks “an example of how we’re constantly innovating and leveraging new technologies, like NFTs, to create memorable experiences for fans and bolster our brand.”

Related: $72M Illuvium NFT Land Dutch auction saves buyers thousands on gas fees

Zed Run also enables users to bet on virtual races, trade NFTs and breed new tokenized racehorses via mating stallions or colts with fillies and mares.

In July 2021, the project raised $20 million worth of Series A funding in a round that was backed by Red Beard Ventures and crypto venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz.