Italy spurs crypto art Renaissance

China’s first ‘digital asset’ marketplace, Trippy & Deadfellaz 101, plus more top stories

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Hey friends, this is Sophia from 🎨 Metaproof Art, the weekly newsletter where we update you on how the metaverse and web3 are changing the art industry. 

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📲 By the numbers

  • By 2026, at least 25% of the world’s population will have spent one hour a day in the metaverse, according to Gartner predictions. (Source) 

  • Switzerland’s NFT industry is predicted to grow by 46.2% annually until 2028, and considering 2022 closed on a volume of $323.1M, that would add up to $1.6B in 2028. (Source)

📫 News & trends

One of Europe’s central cultural hubs - one brimming with art, culture, and history - is poised to create the crypto art Renaissance through its NFT market, reveals Research and Market in a new report. The country is projected to grow its NFT market by 47.6% by the end of 2022, making the Italian NFT market hover around a $671M valuation. Over the next five years, its NFT industry is also forecasted to have a steady upward compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.6%, with spending value for NFTs anticipated to reach $3.6B by 2028. 

Yet what primarily fuels Italy’s success with NFTs? Here are a few:

  • Vibrant art and culture scene, where major Italian luxury fashion houses such as Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana have been leading the pack in web3 technology adoption

  • Rich cultural history incorporated in web3-related activities, such as the NFT project Monuverse (in its work preserving historical sites via digital assets) using Arco della Pace (Arc of Peace) in Milan as its first subject

  • A generally friendly crypto atmosphere, where the likes of blockchain developer Algorand supporting banks and insurance guarantee platforms in the country

The ubiquity of NFTs might as well be uncontested, despite a crypto winter, the FTX fallout, and other controversies hounding the industry. Innovative NFT projects abound, including the following:

  • QQL, an Ethereum generative art NFT project by Tyler Hobbs and Dandelion Wist. Think of the artwork, generated using a finely tuned algorithm deployed to the blockchain, turning out mesmerizing waves of colorful big and small circles.

  • Proof of Merge, dynamic Ethereum NFTs that serve as “proof of attendance” that proves the user who minted it participated in web3 before the Ethereum merge happened. The final stage of the NFTs is noteworthy: a Yin-Yang symbol paying homage to an Ethereum panda bear meme. 

  • Nouns, launched in 2021, auctioning off one pixelated Noun PFP NFT per day. The project has amassed a humongous war chest of 29,150 ETH in funds to date, or about $37.8M worth. 

In its latest sign of embracing technology that sits on legal gray area within its notoriously strict cryptocurrency regulations, China is about to launch its first state-backed NFT marketplace, with a ceremony marking the launch to be held in Beijing on the first day of the new year. The platform - whose name translates to China Digital Asset Trading Platform - will be run by three state-owned and private entities, will run on the blockchain China Cultural Protection Chain, and will be used for trading digital copyrights and property rights alongside collectibles. While also popular in the country for the last two years, NFTs in China cannot be bought with cryptocurrency based on prevailing laws, and are called digital collectibles instead of NFTs. 

Over the last few months, OpenSea has been on a delisting spree: it’s been removing artist accounts in Cuba and other countries facing sanctions from the United States, including Syria, Iran, and Venezuela. In what is believed to be part of its recent policy changes for a stricter verification process, OpenSea says it continues to “holistically evaluate” measures to serve its community and comply with applicable law. Over 30 artists and collectors have been banned or restricted from using the platform, reported Artnet. 

NFT demand is not fully there yet, according to Architectural Digest. The start of 2022 thrived with potential, with 1stDibs being one of the design marketplaces to offer blockchain art for sale and the metaverse opening up new opportunities for breakthrough digital design and online architecture. Yet with the NFT market turning bearish and the FTX fiasco emerging, the blockchain revolution might be in for a surprise or a reinvention. It’s wise now to continue investing at least some of the design efforts into “tangible and real-world” initiatives, noted the trend story. 

With NFT conferences and conventions mostly falling short, the likes of anonymous creator Trippy are doing the work making web3 events more, well, web3 through crafting experiences made by and for the NFT space. His multidisciplinary web3 creative studio Trippy Labs is curating a different vibe with Beyond Basel, poised to be the definitive, dusk-until-dawn web3 festival. The event encompasses seven acres and features two outdoor stages plus a 14,000 sq ft gallery, packed with visual art displays, gaming activities coordinated by FaZe Clan, electronic artist performances, and an interactive live voice-to-image AI booth, to name a few. 

A recently launched service called Unsellable capitalizes on the diminished appetite for NFTs during the so-called crypto winter. Dubbed a “distressed asset fire sale,” the service targets NFTs that are now “totally worthless … illiquid … unsellable,” according to its website. Unsellable buys the underlying tokens for a fraction of the original price, providing an official receipt for tax purposes. Today it has 5,000 NFTs, with founder Skyler Hallgren estimating the number to grow to 15,000 by the end of December 2022. Expecting NFTs to “continue to be worthless,” he considers them “an interesting artifact” of a time period in the market. 

The spotlight is on zombie-themed 10K PFP project Deadfellaz, which launched on the Ethereum blockchain and quickly became one of the most recognized NFT projects today. The spooky collection is made up of 9,999 zombie-themed, undead NFTs emerging from a love of horror and a mission to fill a gender gap in the PFP project space. Prior to the collection’s birth, most avatar projects represented men - a stark contrast to the Deadfellaz collection’s genderless NFTs, which bring together 300 unique traits that combine streetwear, 90s animation, and gaming elements. The project has done over 31,377 ETH in sales volume via OpenSea, generating more than $80M in revenue. 

Artists, via immersive narratives and visuals, help redefine people’s relationship to public spaces through their art. From sculptures to light displays, their handiwork spark conversations on community, climate change, and identity, and help create distinct experiences in urban spaces. At the 59th Venice Biennale, metaverse ecosystem platform Arhead displayed the AR project Pseudo-territory by lighting designers Anna Elena Torres and Ella Ponizovsky Bergelson. Visitors interacted with the artists’ sculpture in AR while they were at the set design, with the piece eventually transported to the metaverse for future viewers. The concept of a “pseudo-territory” came from kmoy-teritorye, created by Boruch Rivkin, a Yiddish literary critic and editor (1883-1945). 

NFTs have reflected and drawn inspiration from every possible facet of pop culture, including food. There are quite a few out-of-the-box (pun intended) ideas that have led to wildly interesting food NFT initiatives. Food Fighters Universe is one; Bored Ape NFT holders have made it one of the creative ways they monetize their owned IP. Food Fighters first staked its claim in the industry via Bored & Hungry, a fast food restaurant in Long Beach, California, that employs four BAYC NFTs as branding elements. Rare Pizzas, on the other hand, combines two of the most fascinating things in this world: pizza and the blockchain. In 2021, it made waves with an attempt to throw the world’s largest pizza party, with the team spending over $300,000 at over 300 pizzerias in at least 60 countries to deliver the pies to crypto and NFT enthusiasts worldwide. 

In this Artnet News roundup of its 10 favorite podcasts this year, the July 29 episode “What Is the Metaverse? And Why Should the Art World Care?” was deemed the perfect dinner party conversation starter with its meditations on the future of the internet, art, and humanity in the digital world. Art business editor Tim Schneider spoke to three experts in the field: Wagner James Au, author of Why the Metaverse Matters: From Second Life to Meta and Beyond, A Guide By Its First Embedded Journalist; Tina Rivers Ryan, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Buffalo AKG Museum in New York; and artist and composer Sara Ludy.

Song Ting, a rising star in China’s NFT scene, combines AI technology with traditional art, poetry, and drama to create conceptual artwork that reimagines traditional Chinese culture. Among her popular works is a psychedelic digital rendering of a Buddha statue from the Mogao Grottoes, a 1,000-year-old cultural site located in northwest China’s Gansu province. Ting uses software like Adobe, Blender, and Unity to make the statue dance. If there’s truly a metaverse in humans’ future, Song says, “all the core, all the soul, and important things in human and AI collaboration art are human.” This is something she wants to deliver. 

Singer, songwriter, and multimedia NFT developer Abigail Spenser Hu, who had her first fashion show experience in the metaverse in Tokyo, is set to release her own “revolutionary” multimedia NFT combining art and music. Hu is also slated to launch a lifestyle NFT hotel brand, touted as a unique and innovative concept that merges the virtual world of digital assets and the physical hospitality space. The NFT hotel brand is likely to lead guests toward a fully immersive and interactive stay, where they may be able to use NFTs to unlock certain amenities or purchase hotel collectibles during their stay. 

One insider tip to curate a collection you’re proud of: Be aware of - but not beholden to - trends. Crypto art, NFTs, web3 art … they are among the newer trends for both budding and seasoned collectors. When considering crypto art, don’t forget the desirability, resale, and demand are directly tied to the platform where the work is minted, meaning published or sold. Factors that inform the value and price of the artwork include edition number, smart contract (terms, reassignments of resale), as well as the artists and digital creators. 

The public and media discourse about NFTs is believed to be polarized: in the strongest advocate’s eyes, NFTs represent the future of the art sector, while naysayers are quick to judge them as a “vast ripoff and waste of energy.” Some NFT-world natives, for instance, are driven by the will to shake the art world through a critique of its established order. There’s also a push in the digital space to create a more egalitarian art world, although contradictions remain. For instance, during the tech art event Dreamverse in New York in 2021, the price of admission to the evening varied between US$175 and $2,500, which proved unaffordable for many amateurs. The Conversation argues: the recognition of the NFTs by the consecrated art world will perhaps come about by other avenues, such as the more experimental practices.

💸 Finance buzz

  • England-based web3 platform Looking Glass said its subsidiary House of Kibaa achieved certain milestones touted to set new standards for the metaverse, including 10,000 unique, ultra-high-resolution generative avatars and 12,000 unique, ultra-high-res generative Gutter Cat Gang avatars. In progress, according to the platform, are enhancements such as ultra-high-res art galleries to display NFTs from a user’s connected wallet. (Source)

  • In Korea, Nesten, in next-gen community-based distributed communications infrastructure, announced partnering with interactive art curation ecosystem Kastr in a bid to connect NFT and digital asset collectors and artists to an array of gallery-quality displays in real time. (Source)

🗣️ Quote of the week

“We have been conditioned, from a very young age, to think that art was not for us …We have always been against the idea of exclusivity. The metaverse is all inclusive … A metaverse in which everyone will have the same rights, powers, will be legitimate … It is particularly egalitarian.”

MetaKovan and Twobadour, crypto investors from The Times interview

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All content on this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not aim to serve as or replace expert investment advice.

If you are a startup building in the metaverse / web3 ecosystem and are raising capital, please reach out to Sfermion. Sfermion is an investment firm focused on accelerating the emergence of the metaverse.

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