Good morning friends! Welcome back to Week in Review! Last week, we looked into Bezos' Blue Origin lawsuit against NASA. I am writing this week about the triumphant and unlikely resurgence in the NFT market.
This article can be downloaded from TechCrunch's newsletter page. Follow my Twitter @lucasmtny for more information.
The big deal
If I had the chance, I'd probably write every week about NFTs in my newsletter. Because I want to share the important information with everyone in the consumer tech sector, and not just my niche interests, I usually put off writing about NFTs. Nevertheless, I'm allowing myself to be free this week.
The NFT market is hilariously absurd and the culture around it is so web-native that I cannot stop reading about it. The market for digital art on blockchain has completely defied logic over the last few days.
In April, I wrote a piece about CryptoPunks. They had accumulated more than $200m in sales in a single year since 2017. Since then, the little pop art pixel portraits of CryptoPunks have had a life all their own. Although it was impossible to imagine, the platform has now sold $141 million, which is a new record. According to CryptoSlam, the NFT platform has likely crossed a staggering $1.1 billion transaction volume by the time you read this. You can buy one of these digital characters for at least $450,000 of Ethereum cryptocurrency. (This number was $300k when I sent out the newsletter yesterday)
When I published this back in April, the cheapest CryptoPunks were $30k, today the cheapest one available for sale is just shy of $300k https://t.co/X4iTSl6FjC Lucas Matney (@lucasmtny) August 27, 2021
The CryptoPunks are not the only ones who have seen the NFT boom, as several billions of dollars have flowed into projects featuring drawings of dinosaurs, penguins, monkeys, penguins, and other generative art in the last week. Many people dismissed the NFT surge as an accident after the rally in NFT earlier this year that culminated in Beeples Christies sale of $69 million. This recent frenzy:
It has partly been a rebound in cryptocurrency prices to all-time highs, and a desire by crypto-rich to diversify their stratospheric wealth without converting it to fiat currencies. For those who already have a large amount of crypto wealth, it can make sense to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in an NFT project that has fewer stakeholders than their currencies. However, most of this money is FOMO dollars from investors who dump real cash into NFTs. This is bolstered with moves such as Visas buying this week's CryptoPunk.
It is fair to say that the market growth is not sustainable. However, it is unknown how far this market growth will continue before investment slows down or crashes. Investors looking to invest in something wild and exciting should not be concerned about the market slowing down.
Dylan Field, CEO of Figma, has some words of wisdom for you. He sold his alien CryptoPunk earlier in the year for 4,200 Eth (worth $13.6 Million today).
Are you just getting started with NFTs You are welcome! It's an amazing world, and this is only the beginning. There are many speculators operating in this space at the moment. Don't expect prices to rise if you buy things that you love or plan to keep forever. Dylan Field (@zoink), August 28, 2021
Other things
These are TechCrunch news stories which caught my attention this week:
OnlyFans lifts the porn ban
OnlyFans made a dramatic change of heart and announced this week that they will not ban sexually explicit content on their platform. They stated in a statement that they had received assurances to support our creator community, and that they have suspended the October 1 policy change.
Kanye enters the hardware business
Kanye West showcased a new mobile music hardware device, the Stem Player, ahead of the release of his next album. The 200-gram device is small enough to be carried in a pocket and allows users to alter or mix music. Kano, a hardware manufacturer, developed the device.
Apple settles developer lawsuit
Apple has been in some bad press recently due to complaints from both large and small developers about its App Store terms. Apple has shared a settlement proposal (which is still awaiting a judge's approval). It starts with a $100m payout and then gets more interesting with changes to App Store bylines. This includes the ability for developers to pay subscription fees directly through the app.
Twitter launches ticketed Spaces
Twitter has been a strong competitor to Spaces Clubhouse, but they have also managed to improve on the model over recent months, making Spaces copycat feature a product that is successful on its own merits. The company shared its latest attempt to allow creators of tickets to events this week.
CA Judge rejects controversial gig economy proposal
Uber and DoorDash poured tens of million of dollars into Prop 22. This law rescinded a California law that required gig economy startups to treat workers as full-time employees. A judge declared this week that the proposition was unconstitutional. Although the appeals court stayed the decision, any adjustments would have significant implications for California-based businesses.
Additional things
These are some of my favourite reads from the Extra Crunch subscription service this Week:
Future tech exits have much to live up too
While inflation may be temporary in consumer prices, startup valuations are clearly rising. This is evident from a recent PitchBook report that looked at data from a variety of funding events in the United States. This is the obvious conclusion from a PitchBook report that examined valuation data from several startup funding events in the United States.
OpenSea UX teardown
Is it worth the effort to create and sell an NFT on OpenSea? Peter Ramsey, UX analyst at OpenSea, has been creating and selling NFTs via OpenSea over the past few weeks. The short answer is that it could be better...
Are B2B SaaS marketing strategies failing?
The overused words solutions, cutting-edge and scalable, innovative, are just some of the jargon that is found in every corner of tech. SaaS marketers all over the globe seem to be singing the same song sheet. Unfortunately for them, research has shown that jargon-heavy copy combined with unclear benefits and features is deterring customers. This results in lower conversions.
Thank you for reading! You can also get the TechCrunch newsletter in your inbox by clicking the link on the newsletter page. Follow me @lucasmtny for more information.
Lucas Matney
