Wealthy crypto believer and incoming UK PM Rishi Sunak once commissioned a royal NFT

The new leader of the world’s sixth-largest economy is the former chancellor of the exchequer and is said to be richer than King Charles. He is also a firm crypto supporter.

Pritish Bagdi

Rishi Sunak is set to become prime minister of the United Kingdom within days. Sunak was defeated for the top government post by Liz Truss on Sept. 5, but she resigned after 45 days in office. Indications so far are that his selection for the office is good news for the crypto industry.

Sunak was chancellor of the exchequer, or head of the treasury, from early 2020 to July 5, when he resigned during a scandal that shook Boris Johnson’s government. During that time, Sunak repeatedly voiced his support for crypto. Speaking in April about proposed regulatory reform related to stablecoins, Sunak communique, “It’s my ambition to make the U.K. a global hub for crypto-asset technology, and the measures we’ve outlined […] will help to ensure firms can invest, innovate and scale up in this country. This is part of our plan to ensure the U.K. financial services industry is always at the forefront of technology and innovation.”

Sunak has also spoken positively of central bank digital currency. In April, he commissioned the Royal Mint to issue a nonfungible token (NFT) by the end of the year “as an emblem of the forward-looking approach the UK is determined to take.”

#thecommunique #tc #tcn #NFT #crypto #rishisunak

How Black PR is helping its brand portfolio enter the metaverse

Increasing digitisation has seen many brands and retailers begin to venture into the fairly uncharted realm of the metaverse. With knowledge on this space often lacking, many are turning to platforms and digitally-advanced companies to help lead them into this cryptic market.

Swati Bhat

London-based Black PR is among those that is evolving its services for this rapidly developing space with the launch of a metaverse showroom in the retail-centric virtual world, MetaTown. A number of the brands the firm counts among its portfolio got involved in the launch, bringing them into the virtual space for the first time to allow users to discover their SS23 collections.

On entering the world, which was developed by BrandLab360, visitors are asked to personalise their own avatar that can then be controlled around the currently limited space, which bears resemblance to a real-life shopping and housing district. In the middle of rows of residential streets, digital retail stores stand within the location’s shopping area, where it is possible to browse and purchase non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and virtual fashion collections from various brands. In a bid to encourage further interaction, select areas on the map also come with an open microphone feature, allowing users to speak to others live.

Black PR’s new showroom is located in a street entitled the Queen’s Mile and, once in the space, visitors are able to walk around compact dedicated showrooms for each of the brands presenting. The spaces feature branded posters, virtual furniture placed in meeting room manners and stands on which products can be viewed. Once an item has been clicked on, information about it comes up and the option to learn more is provided.

Speaking to FashionUnited, director of the firm Rebecca Myers, noted that the launch builds on Black PR’s already established virtual showrooms, which had initially launched during 2020 during the pandemic in an attempt to continue communicating its portfolio of brands to press and buyers. “These types of showrooms really help elevate brands on a global scale and allow them to stay current with the ever changing and evolving fashion industry,” Myers added. “The metaverse is fast becoming part of the mainstream and an interesting element to a brands portfolio if they have the means to be involved.”

Combining conventional with unconventional methods

Much of this rise in digitalisation has stemmed from ever shifting consumer sentiments that have especially been impacted in the wake of the pandemic. In response, brands are making attempts to become more digitally-savvy as they look to establish common ground with consumers. This is something Basak Baykal, the owner of her eponymous fine jewellery brand, noted, in conversation with FashionUnited. “Life in the post-pandemic period is quite different from what it used to be. Fashion and, in my case, jewellery buying habits are also changing accordingly,” Baykal said. “Virtual spaces are now somehow more convenient to be able to reach out to a wider audience.”

MetaTown itself aims to attract users from across the board, from fashion-conscious youngsters, who are drawn to the idea of gamification, to busy career men and women who are short on time. The site’s creator BrandLab360 also hopes the space will appeal to those from older generations who are unable to get out easily, giving them a glimpse into a digital world where they can connect with others.

For many of the participating brands in Black PR’s showroom, however, it was building a connection with a digital-savvy younger audience that was a priority when considering this form of expansion. Fine jewellery designer Baykal emphasised this importance, stating: “New generations are now also into jewellery, it is not ‘only’ for our mothers. Younger generations are also investing in good pieces. And they are much more fluent in tech language, they do a lot more in the digital world, thus I am hoping to meet clients who would like to combine conventional with unconventional methods.”

Meanwhile, Bani Pasricha, the founder of Bani Couture noted that it was also a way to connect with a broader array of stockists. The famed Indian designer said: “We intend to connect our brand with global retailers and stores that will match with our brand identity and image, enabling us to reach new customer bases.”

MetaTown’s breadth of users translates in the missions set out by Black PR and its partnered brands, many of which are looking for an innovative way to introduce their label to the world. This was highlighted by the jeweller Bakyal, who said: “My brand is relatively new, so my first objective is to establish a certain level of awareness and appreciation for it. Given its nature, jewellery is not an impulse purchase item, people need to see consistency to develop a certain level of trust, and accordingly invest in those pieces. This is also the case for buyers. I wanted them to further explore the brand in their journey of adding the brand to their portfolios as well.”

Black PR’s Myers noted that a wide degree of clients and parties from other industries have already taken an interest in the virtual showroom, including stores and press contacts that the firm has worked with in the past. Larger retailers that are moving into offering direct-to-consumer models, as well as wholesalers, have also particularly been taking advantage of the metaverse space in order to stand out among competitors, Myers added.

“The response from both brands and clients has been great. We have found that combining our physical showroom here in London, and this metaverse showroom has allowed us to expand our international reach by connecting with buyers and press all over the world, opening up visibility and increasing sales revenue for our clients on a global scale with contacts we might not usually meet,” Myers said. She added that as it seems the metaverse was here to stay, Black PR was planning to be present at its forefront.

#thecommunique #tc #tcn #metaverse #nft

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