- Where Most NFT Users Live
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, gained significant traction among certain East and Southeast Asian countries in 2021, including Thailand, China and Vietnam, according to the Statista Digital Economy Compass 2022.
As our chart shows, Thailand took the lead as the country with the highest number of NFT users in the world in 2021, with a total of 5.65 million users
Financial experts, however, warn against over relying on NFTs, as there is little basis for their valuation since they are bought and sold based on speculation and hype.
2. Johnny Depp Ethereum NFTs Surge After Actor Wins Defamation Suit Against Amber Heard
An NFT collection featuring artwork by Johnny Depp has seen its price jump after the actor won a defamation suit against ex-wife Amber Heard yesterday. The 3,850 "Never Fear Truth" NFTs have a floor price of 0.52 ETH (around $944) as of this writing. Before the televised defamation trial, the collection had not seen much traction since March 11, when its floor price peaked at 1.64 ETH
3. Mastercard has declared new partnerships for the launch of its NFT payments service.
Mastercard has partnered with Immutable X, Candy Digital, The Sandbox, Mintable, Spring, Nifty Gateway, and MoonPay to enable NFT commerce. Mastercard has already been working with Coinbase to support cash payments on its recently-launched NFT platform. MoonPay has also been offering an NFT payments service for its partners since January.
4. RNTs - a new NFT booking concept for hotels
To avoid losing money due to last-minute cancellations, hotels are planning to convert canceled bookings into NFTs. The new concept, dubbed "RNT" (room-night tokens), will mean that those who cancel their booking will have to sell their RNT on a marketplace dedicated to selling unused rooms (for example, StubHub for tickets to concerts and sporting events), rather than putting the business' cash flow at risk by requiring refunds or rebookings.
5. New York office building sold as NFT
Okada & Company has put up for sale a 7-story office building in the form of an NFT - the property is in the Chelsea neighborhood near the famous Madison Square Park. The token has been listed on OpenSea's leading marketplace and sells for 15,000 ETH. According to the organizers, the purchase of the NFT entitles you to purchase a physical building.
6. Decentraland will allow us to import NFT clothing with a new feature
The Decentraland metaverse has launched a new feature called "Linked Wearables," allowing its users to upload third-party digital clothing. The reason is that users are increasingly moving from one metaverse to another, and there was no way to save the unique features of their avatar.
7. Warner Bros. and Nifty's to launch Looney Tunes story as NFT
Warner Bros. has announced that it is partnering with the social media platform focused on NFTs, Nifty's, and the two firms will launch a story-based NFT collection called "Looney Tunes: What's Up Block?" in late June.
8. Solana NFT Trading Volume Hits $2 Billion
Solana, one of the few blockchain protocols that competes with the ever-dominant Ethereum blockchain, has surpassed $2 billion in NFT sales. Even though the numbers generated by the Ethereum leader are still quite high, Solana has firmly established itself in third place with recent collections such as the Trippin’ Ape Tribe and Okay Bears proving that blockchain remains a productive vehicle for creating successful NFT concepts.
9. Mark Zuckerberg shows vision for user-created metaverse with Crayta tools
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that user-generated content tools will help bridge 2D gaming experiences on Facebook to Meta’s long-term vision for the metaverse. The metaverse is the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One. Last October, Zuckerberg renamed Facebook as Meta and pivoted to a metaverse strategy, driven by the company’s investments in virtual reality.
10. Eurovision Winners’ NFT Auction Raises $900K for Charity
Kalush Orchestra, the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, have successfully auctioned off an NFT for charity. The auction was held on MetaHistory — the official Ukrainian charitable NFT museum – and raised $900,000 in cryptocurrency for Ukraine. The largest European crypto exchange originating from Ukraine, WhiteBIT took home the iconic crystal microphone trophy. WhiteBIT simultaneously broke two Ukrainian records. They made the most expensive (500 ETH) purchase of NFT and it’s the largest amount of donation during the live stream. The company has a goal to spread blockchain technology and expand the cryptocurrency community.
