Welcome to the OpenSea Digest, our recap of the biggest NFT and web3 news from the week.
Jack Butcher Debuts Opepen-Themed 'Oviators' Sunglasses
In the latest fusion of fashion and digital art, Florentine eyewear designer Salvino Armati and Checks founder Jack Butcher have teamed up to launch the Oviators eyewear collection, which pays homage to Butcher’s famous Opepen series.
The eyewear collection debuted during Art Basel Miami at an exhibition space in Miami’s iconic Wynwood neighborhood.
Each pair of Oviators — black rimless lenses designed in the shape of the now-famous Opepepen silhouette — can be redeemed by purchasing a special edition NFT.
The limited edition Oviator NFT went on sale on December 8th and will be mintable for 72 hours at a price of 0.11 ETH, with redemptions for the physical sunglasses said to begin in the first quarter of 2024.
Decrypt Media and Rug Radio Join Forces
Breaking news: Crypto-native news and entertainment company Decrypt Media and Rug Radio, the world’s first decentralized social media-catalyzed audio community, are merging.
The partnership combines Decrypt’s journalistic prowess with Rug Radio’s innovative approach, giving the former news organization access to what it describes as Rug Radio’s “proprietary suite of video broadcasting tools.”
The resulting entity will be “codenamed” [REDACTED], and the parties announced plans to launch a token and foster a community-centric media ecosystem to benefit all parties, from investors and advertisers to consumers and creators.
[REDACTED] is expected to have an audience of more than 10 million people, with the merger set to take effect in January.
Pudgy Penguins Announces Pudgy World Alpha Powered by zkSync
The innovative and adorable chubby penguins are back. On December 9, the web3 native brand announced the launch of Pudgy World, a new gaming concept, and debuted a fun animated trailer at Art Basel in Miami.
The game will launch in the first quarter of 2024 and is powered by zkSync Era, an Ethereum scaling solution that went live in March 2023 and is designed to help blockchain experiences run faster and more securely.
In the game, players will be able to customize their Humpty Dumpty Penguin character, explore the world of Humpty Dumpty, and embark on narrative adventures.
The launch of Pudgy World follows an exciting year for the brand’s intellectual property (IP), with recent physical toy and collectible launches on Amazon, Walmart, and Hot Topic — not to mention the recent Nouns DAO x Pudgy Penguin statue — the Pudgy Penguin name continues to make waves in both the web3 and traditional retail sectors.
Flipkart and Polygon partner to launch L2
India is about to experience a new wave of web3 enthusiasm, as the country’s e-commerce giant Flipkart has partnered with Polygon to launch a new Ethereum-based Layer 2 (L2), marking a major advancement for the region’s web3 ecosystem.
Described as the “Amazon of India” by web3 media company Overpriced JPEGs, Flipkart has over 350 million users and the company itself is valued at around $38 billion, with investors including Walmart and Ubisoft.
In early June this year, Flipkart and Polygon announced an upgraded version of the web3 loyalty program FireDrops 2.0, which aims to gamify brand loyalty and enhance the customer experience of Flipkart’s millions of users by rewarding users who complete tasks through NFTs.
Since it began testing in September, FireDrops has attracted over 3.5 million users, demonstrating a desire for improved customer engagement that many web3 enthusiasts agree is obvious.
Some industry professionals believe that the Flipkart x Polygon collaboration (and the L2 it spawned) has the power to attract leading fintech entrepreneurs and builders into the space who will drive mass adoption and the growth of online loyalty models.
Immutable and Merit Circle DAO join forces
Leading web3 games studio Immutable has just announced a strategic partnership with leading decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) Merit Circle DAO focused on web3 games.
The collaboration aims to use Immutable’s technology with open-source blockchain Beam and digital marketplace Sphere — both part of the Merit Circle DAO network, with Beam set to launch on Immutable’s zkEVM scaling solution, which is powered by Polygon.
The DAO will also leverage Immutable’s internal creation tools, while leveraging the DAO’s extensive network of funding and affiliated individuals to provide synergistic opportunities for both parties to promote new growth and innovation.
Notably, the focus of this partnership will be to achieve greater liquidity through the sale of in-game digital items.
PaperclipLabs announces the launch of Nounswap
Web3 native development company PaperclipLabs has launched a new tool that changes the lives of Nouns holders.
A tool called “Nounswap” allows Nouns NFT holders to exchange them for Nouns in the Nouns library.
Here’s how it works: holders simply connect their wallets, browse and select their new preferred Nouns based on available options or specific characteristics, and once a user initiates a “swap proposal” for their chosen Noun, the tool automatically makes the proposal and it is approved by the DAO.
Currently, swaps are free, and as one Nouns holder put it, “this is a pure and simple value-add for any community member looking for Nouns forever.”
Sotheby's holds first Bitcoin auction
In an unprecedented move, Sotheby’s digital division has auctioned off its first-ever Bitcoin Ordinals from the pioneering Ordinals collection, Bitcoin Mushroom.
Created by anonymous artist Shroomtoshi, the 222-piece Bitcoin Shrooms series was originally minted in October and this week’s auction, which took place from December 6 to 13, brought a whopping $450,000, according to a Tweet from Sotheby’s head of digital art Michael Bouhanna.
Sotheby’s milestone signals growing interest in Bitcoin Ordinals and continues to pave the way for digital art.
OpenSea Streams Battleplan by Pixel Vault
On December 11th, over 7,900 gaming enthusiasts watched the OpenSea team livestream a 17-minute long demo of Battleplan, alongside game creator Pixel Vault and Brycent, the internet’s most popular web3 game creator!
Watch it here:
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