NFTs In A Nutshell: A Weekly Review

NFTs are on fire. We’ve got another entertainment star who’s excited about NFTs, social media platforms are continuing to show investment in crypto, and a meme reposted by Elon Musk yielded a cool five figures.

We’re now 6 months deep into ‘NFTs In A Nutshell’ every single week here at Bitcoinist. As always, we take all of the news amassed over the past seven days, and condense it in a digestible, bite-sized publication. Let’s crack open the past week’s nutshell.

This Week’s Non-Fungible Token News

Keepin’ It Safe

There’s been whisperings around major NFT communities about the potential security risk from airdropped NFTs. Earlier this week, we covered some details around these reports, as well as insights from Check Point Research (CPR) that were utilized by OpenSea to combat this behavior.

With any community as nascent as NFTs are, there is bound to be bad actors here and there. If you’re an NFT holder, stay safe and stay frosty – most NFT community members recommend simply not interacting with any airdropped NFTs to your wallet.

Reddit Is Looking For More

While Twitter has gained a reputation for being arguably the most ‘crypto-friendly’ social media platform out right now, don’t sleep on Reddit. In fact, Reddit was actually the first major social media platform to test the waters with NFTs earlier this year. This came after Reddit started building crypto-compatability as part of a partnership with Ethereum, rewarding users of the platform’s r/cryptocurrency subreddit with a token called ‘moons.’

This week, our team covered the latest endeavor for Reddit: an NFT marketplace. Reddit displayed a job listing for a backend engineer that described NFTs as having “an incredible power to create a sense of participation and belonging.” Hard for us to disagree.

Reese Witherspoon Is The Latest Star To Join The World Of NFTs

Yes, that Reese Witherspoon. The long-time actress, who’s amassed nearly 3M followers on Twitter, is clearly loving NFTs. She announced that she purchased Ethereum for the first time last month, and now she’s donning a ‘World of Women’ NFT as her profile picture.

Speaking of celebrities, who else joined the ranks this week? Martha Stewart announced Halloween-inspired NFTs in partnership with newly launched FRESH Mint.

The ‘Elon Bump’

If you follow Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Twitter (or even if you don’t), you’ll probably notice his affinity for memes. The ‘meme master’ is frequently on the social media platform, posting and retweeting content that is certainly non-traditional compared to many Fortune 500 CEOs today.

One recent meme posted from Musk has garnered almost 1MM likes, and the creator is collecting their bag accordingly. Our team at Bitcoinist covered the story earlier in the day – the end result? It turns out that an Elon posted meme is showing a market value of around $20K, according to the NFT that was listed on Zora. The future is compensation for meme creators – you love to see it.

Related Reading | Why Ethereum Could Hit $12,000 Mark Before The End Of This Cycle

Ethereum continues to be the dominant power player of NFTs, despite inroads being built from the likes of Solana, Polygon, and others to cut into marketshare. | Source: ETH-USD on TradingView.com

Could NFTs Fuel A New Wave Of Research Funding? 

There has been heightened chatter in recent weeks in the more serious corners of NFTs (yes, we know those corners are more few and far between, but they do exist). We’ve seen stories of NFTs for social good, or for community development in a variety of fashions; however, one aspect we’re not typically covering in each week’s Nutshell? Scientific research.

We took a deeper dive into NFTs could revolutionize the way that laboratories can fund research projects this week. Take a look at the full report here.

Physically Fidenza

Fidenza’s have become one of the most desirable and recognizable collections on ArtBlocks, and in the broader NFT landscape. This week, Fidenza creator Tyler Hobbs sold roughly $7MM worth yet-to-be-minted “Golden Tokens.” Hobbs will host a minting event in New York City in December where buyers must be physically present to redeem their NFT. The series is titled ‘Incomplete Control.’

A Whale’s World? 

A report from Moonstream analyzing NFT movement over the past six months has reportedly found (and published on Github) that over 80% of NFTs are held by around 17% of wallets. However, it’s worth noting that some of the ‘owners’ referenced in this case are NFT marketplaces.

For the full story on the Moonstream report, check out a deep dive from our team at sister network NewsBTC.

Related Reading | A Crypto Friendly Future For Australia, Senators Propose New Regulations

Featured image from Pixabay, Charts from TradingView.com