Yat Sui

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.

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.

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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.