October NFTs news summarised in 5 items: Lord of the Rings, Art Gobblers, Reddit, blue chip collections and the royalties debate!
So, what happened in the NFT market this October? Among the new collections is the eagerly awaited Lord of the Rings collection, as well as Art Gobblers, a sui generis crypto art project. Record NFT sales involve blue chip collections, but all that glitters is not gold… Reddit’s NFTs continue their conquest of the industry, which in the meantime is busy deciding: should NFT royalties be paid to artists?
New: Lord of the Rings NFTs
Among the most interesting collections of the past month is certainly the one involving Lord of the Rings NFTs. On the 21st of October, Warner Bros. released 10,999 NFTs based on the first chapter of the saga inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s universe, The Fellowship of the Ring. The NFT collection is part of the broader ‘Warner Bros Movieverse‘ project unveiled by the film studio to create Web3 experiences and digital collectibles for fans (examples include exclusive behind-the-scenes content or augmented reality set exploration). The collection was built on the Eluvio blockchain, which describes itself as a ‘crypto content chain’. The Lord of the Rings NFTs were released in two different purchase options:
- “Mystery Edition”: at a cost of $30 (payable in fiat or crypto coins), an NFT representing the landscape of the Shire (common), with Rivendell (uncommon) or the Mines of Moria (rare) is minted and randomly awarded. By purchasing one of these tokens, you receive access to the extended 4K version of the film, eight hours of special content and commentary, images and themed collectibles. These NFTs were minted in 10,000 copies (at the time of writing, 5,230 are still available);
- “Epic edition”: at a cost of $100, it was possible to purchase an NFT depicting one of the landscapes from the “Mystery Edition” or to surprise others with additional special content. The 999 Lord of the Rings ‘Epic Edition’ NFTs are sold out.
In addition to the rights to Lord of the Rings, Warner Bros. owns those to the Harry Potter saga, DC heroes, Scooby Doo and the Hanna-Barbera classics. But it would seem that the next literary universe to enter the Warner Bros Movieverse will be that of the Iron Throne, as Game of Thrones NFTs were announced a few hours ago in collaboration with marketplace Nifty’s. The collection dubbed ‘Game of Thrones: Build Your Kingdom’ will be released in December 2022.
The top collection of the month is from the creator of Rick and Morty
Although Lord of the Rings NFTs were a real hit with fans, the token collection that really exploded in October was Art Gobblers. It was imagined by Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland, in partnership with Paradigm, a well-known crypto-themed venture capital fund. Art Gobblers NFT was launched on the 31st of October on Ethereum. In just four days, it raised over $45 million ($13 million in the first two hours after launch alone). What is the special feature of this collection?
The Art Gobblers project is a ‘decentralised art factory’ owned by aliens, but that is another story. Using a drawing tool available directly on the site, anyone can create illustrations or patterns that are then randomly combined to generate unique NFTs. The Art Gobblers are called this way because they incorporate and display artists’ works directly in their stomachs. The NFTs are created without human intervention, meaning that Art Gobblers is a generative art project. The collection will consist of 10,000 pieces, and the first 2,000 non-fungible tokens were minted on the 31st of October. The remaining 8,000 can be created directly by the artists by paying a commission in the GOO token, owner of the project. One of the rarest Art Gobblers, number #9949 was purchased for 21.5 ETH (about 33,000 USD).
Reddit’s NFTs bring 3 million people into the crypto world
Reddit’s first NFTs were launched in July as avatars for use on the platform. On the 21st of October, the ‘second generation’ of avatars came out. Around 40,000 copies all sold in a single day for between $10 and $100 (although the most expensive was bought for $40,000). The tweet by Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder of Polygon, the blockchain on which Reddit’s NFTs were developed, shows the economic impact of the collection. But it’s not just for the sales figures that these tokens have attracted attention. Apparently, Reddit’s NFTs have brought 3 million users into the crypto world without ever having used the words ‘NFT’ or ‘cryptocurrency’ (and ‘blockchain’ only once). Millions of users were unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies but intrigued by a useful and curious initiative for Reddit users. The campaign to communicate and promote these NFTs took place under the terms ‘digital collectibles’. In fact, according to Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, the term “crypto” would have confused people.
Blue chip collections still in the rankings but their value is no longer the same
The collections with the highest sales in October are obviously the blue chips we know very well, such as CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The most substantial sales were:
- CryptoPunks #924 for $737,160;
- CryptoPunks #9476 for $487,830;
- Fidenza #783 for $471,150.
However, the biggest winners in the NFT space are also the biggest ‘losers’. On DappRadar you can see that although these collections are the most valuable, their value has dropped dramatically within a year. For example, the CryptoPunks #5822 previously bought for $23.58 million is now worth ‘only’ $2.64 million. Or the Bored Ape #8817 sold for $3.4 million by Sotheby’s auction house and now has a market value of $805,043.
Marketplaces and NFT artists fight over royalties
The NFT world in October was also marked by the debate on royalties for non-fungible tokens. A ‘royalty’ means the percentage of a sale that goes to the artist or author of a work. Earlier this month, Magic Eden, the NFT marketplace on Solana decided not to make it compulsory for buyers to pay royalties, with the aim of attracting more collectors. Recently, this strategy was also adopted by the LooksRare marketplace. For some, royalties are indispensable to support artists’ work and are the basis of the creator economy. For others, royalties have become just a way to enrich the owners of large collections.
Confirming the latter thesis is Galaxi Digital’s report showing that the creators of collections on Ethereum have so far earned $1.8 billion from royalties from secondary sales on marketplaces such as Opensea. Of this figure, 20 percent is in the hands of only ten collections, the remaining 80 per cent is split between 482 projects. Topping the list in terms of royalty earnings is Yuga Labs with a take of $147 million, keep in mind that only royalties are being considered, this therefore excludes the cost of the NFTs themselves.
Magic Eden, despite the controversy over its decision and the dissatisfaction of crypto artists, registered 300,000 trader sign-ups in October.
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