Reddit NFTs Surge as Polygon-Based Avatars Reach Millions of New Users

Trading volume for Reddit’s Collectible Avatars is up 799% so far today as traders celebrate the project’s widespread adoption.

Online message board community Reddit has proven to be a significant force for NFT adoption, as an executive revealed last week that users created over 3 million Polygon wallets for them—with nearly three million of the NFT avatars in circulation. Now sales are surging as collectors see Reddit’s NFTs as a major trading opportunity.

Secondary market sales of Reddit’s Collectible Avatars NFTs—which are minted on Polygon, an Ethereum scaling network—have topped $1.88 million so far today, a 799% increase from Sunday. That’s according to public blockchain data aggregated by Dune user polygon_analytics. Sales volume has climbed for five days straight, per the dashboard.

Over the last 24 hours in total, the Reddit avatar NFTs have generated about $1.95 million in sales across over 4,700 transacted NFTs. All told, 17 of the top 20 individual Reddit Collectible Avatar sales happened today, including the top sale—a Spooky Season avatar by pseudonymous artist poieeeyeee that sold for 18 ETH, or about $24,150.

At TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference last week, Reddit Chief Product Officer Pali Bhat revealed that more than 3 million Polygon-based Reddit Vault wallets have been created by users to collect and trade its NFT avatars. According to the Dune dashboard, more than 2.9 million of the avatars are now in circulation.

Some of those avatars were premium NFTs that were purchased from the site, with initial fixed price points ranging from $10 to $100 apiece. Based on data from Reddit Floor, about 86,000 NFTs were sold to users, and they now have a collective market cap (or value) of about $100 million.

However, many more Reddit NFTs were also given away, or airdropped for free to some of the site’s most devoted users across more than 100,000 active communities (or subreddits), introducing many people to NFTs for the first time.

Reddit NFTs from the Meme Team, The Singularity, Aww Friends, and Drip Squad collections were offered up for free to eligible users. According to OpenSea’s marketplace, there are over 2.8 million of those NFTs on the market, although they’re trading for much lower prices than the NFTs that were originally sold by Reddit.

Decrypt reached out to Reddit and Polygon representatives to clarify how many of the Polygon NFTs are currently on the market and how they were released, but did not immediately hear back.

Each avatar is based on Snoo, the Reddit alien mascot, albeit with various visual styles contributed by an array of artists. Some of the most popular and valuable collections within the Reddit project include The Senses by pseudonymous artist Rojom, Foustlings by Tyler Foust, and a Spooky Season collection by poieeeyeee.

An NFT is a blockchain token that represents ownership in a unique item, such as avatars or profile pictures (PFPs), digital artwork, and video game items. The NFT market surged to $25 billion in trading volume in 2021 and continued that torrid pace into early 2022, but has seen falling prices and sales volume in recent months amid an ongoing crypto market decline.

NFT traders were buzzing about the Reddit avatars all weekend, with some praising the collection for furthering NFT adoption, as well as the streamlined interface that Reddit used to sell them. Buying the NFTs initially from Reddit did not require the use of cryptocurrency, nor does the platform even refer to its Collectible Avatars as NFTs.

Others saw the project—with its many stylized sub-collections—as a significant trading opportunity, and prices on the secondary market have grown alongside the increasing number of sales. The cheapest listed NFT from one Spooky Season collaboration with pseudonymous artist Sys32Template, for example, is 2.7 ETH (over $3,600) at OpenSea right now.

Polygon’s MATIC token saw a notable price pop on Sunday that corresponded with rising hype around the Reddit NFTs. MATIC is now up 6% over the last 24 hours to a current price of nearly $0.90, per data from CoinGecko.

#thecommunique #tc #tcn #NFT #metatainment

Hugo Boss partners with Adobe to power 3D design methods

Adobe has announced it has been working with Hugo Boss to drive the fashion brand’s strategy around 3D and immersive design.

Hugo x Imaginary Ones NFT

Revealed during creativity conference Adobe Max, the partnership has involved the use of Adobe’s Substance 3D application, which the tech company said has enabled Hugo Boss to drive innovation and create new workflows.

The brand has been using the technology to design apparel, accessories and footwear with hyper realistic models during the ideation stages.

In a release, the company said that its application allows for creative freedom and convenience, as well as the possibility to engage suppliers and retail partners in more efficient ways.

Speaking on the topic, Sebastian Berg, vice president, business operations excellence at Hugo Boss, said that the partnership built on the label’s vision of becoming a leading premium tech-driven fashion platform.

Berg continued: “Hugo Boss was one of the early companies to explore the potential of 3D ad immersive design in fashion. Now we have over 400 employees working with these innovative tools to produce more inspiring and sustainable products, and to lead our industry in digital.”

The brand has also been using 3D to explore new customer experiences, such as the creation of digital avatars, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and virtual fitting rooms, which it launched on its website in August.

#thecommunique #tc #tcn #metatainment #NFT

Meta ordered to offload Giphy by competition watchdog

Meta has been ordered to offload its Giphy business by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). In a ruling the CMA said takeover of the gif-creation website could harm social media users and advertising competition. It is the first time an acquisition of a tech giant was blocked in the UK.

Swati Bhat

Facebook parent Meta

In 2020 Meta acquired Giphy, the largest supplier of animated gifs to social networks such as Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter. In the early days of the CMA’s investigation Meta failed to cooperate, resulting in a 50.5. million pound fine.

According to the BBC, Meta had hoped its purchase of Giphy would improve finding gifs and stickers on its social networks Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook. “While Meta maintained that Giphy would be ‘openly available’ to other social networks, the CMA's investigation found the buyout would harm competition in social media and advertising.

Meta appealed against this decision, but in July the Competition Appeal Tribunal found in the CMA's favour on all but one ground, which was related to third-party confidential information.

The CMA said Meta's ownership of Giphy would not only limit choice for those on social media but it would also reduce innovation in digital display advertising in the UK.

In a statement, Meta said it accepted the CMA’s decision: "We are grateful to the Giphy team during this uncertain time for their business, and wish them every success. "We will continue to evaluate opportunities - including through acquisition - to bring innovation and choice to more people in the UK and around the world."

Article source: BBC

#thecommunique #tc #tcn #meta #metatainment