CryptoPunk NFTs: The Trigger for Celeb NFTs, GameFi and The Metaverse Going Mainstream!
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are achieving mainstream attention from pop singers to boxing legends this year, since their inception around 2017. Non-Fungible Tokens are reshaping ownership models as the traditional art movement becomes more reliable, authentic and secure with digital assets. NFTs are digital representations of an asset (physical or natively digital) that run under a particular blockchain, guaranteeing the integrity of the creation, storing and selling processes.
The popularity of the NFT economy is leading luxury brands, artists, and entertainers to offer tokenized digital assets to their audiences. However, before all of this mainstream attention, a small team in the US gave the motto for the new digital ownership trend.
From a Niche Team to Millions in Volume
Currently, one of the most popular NFT collections is CryptoPunks. At its core, CryptoPunks is a collection of 10,000 pixelated (24x24) characters, issued under the ERC-721 standard of the Ethereum network. A team of 2 Canadian developers behind Larva Labs released CryptoPunks in June 2017, creating the trigger for the NFT boom. But, how have pixelated icons become so valuable?
CryptoPunks represent the radical and innovative nature of developers, traders, and artists involved in the crypto economy. Their odd and unique style makes the collection one of the most original and sought-after NFTs available. After their issuance, you could only trade them in secondary marketplaces, which has generated even more interest from crypto whales to art collectors.
At the moment, you need over $300K to purchase the least valuable of all CryptoPunks, while the highest-selling NFT from the collection sold for $11.7M in a Sotheby’s auction back in June. In the latest season of peak interest around NFTs, the world’s largest payment provider, Visa, purchased a CryptoPunk for 49.5 ETH ($150,000 at the time), adding it to their 60-year collection of commerce artifacts.
Over the last 30 days, sales of CryptoPunks represented more than $500M, while the volume of every CryptoPunks sale so far crossed $1B, with over 12,000 sales in the last year.
NFTs go beyond CryptoPunks to change the entire ownership economy.
NFTs are creating a sort of digital rush, bringing a new approach to the world of collectables. On top of their influence in the art world, NFTs and tokenization are expanding use-cases across industries where ownership is key. The NFT space grew from a grassroots movement to generate interest from major brands to celebrities.
For example, luxury companies are dropping digital native products with the value of a century-old brand attached, creating a secondary market for unique items that give consumers the expectation of a future value increase, along with the excitement of being a digital collector.
In other industries such as medical, sports, real estate, and gaming, digital assets are mingling with the physical world to create new items and systems that can be monetised online and converted into wealth in the physical world. Recently, Messi’s new contract with PSG revealed that part of the compensation package includes sports tokens — a new way for fans to engage with their favourite clubs and players. Other sports tokenization platforms have turned players’ trading cards and other memorabilia into NFTs, generating much interest among fans.
The music industry is also involved in NFTs, with famous artists, such as RAC, Ja Rule, Post Malone, Jay Z, and Shawn Mendes dropping special collections. Gaming is another sector booming with the rise of NFTs, with Axie Infinity, the popular ETH-based game, crossing $1B in sales. The numbers behind the NFT boom clearly signal a turning point for digital creations, with over 600,000 NFT sales and over $2 billion in sales volume over the last month..
Bringing NFTs into the Metaverse with The Sandbox
The Sandbox is another popular platform focusing more on the metaverse allowing players to play, build, own and monetise their creations. The first partner NFT drop for the NFT Raffle was recently announced in collaboration with The Sandbox. Burp has made an easy and enjoyable experience within the DeFi and NFT boom through pioneering an NFT Raffle within the staking dApp. Through staking $BURP, users can obtain raffle tickets for the monthly giveaway, where a select amount of MealDrops and Sandbox collaborated NFTs will be up for grabs. The NFTs are of variable rarity and contain “Staking Multipliers” which will enable users to dual-stake $BURP Token with the NFT to reap higher rewards through multiplying their APR. And remember the higher rarity the NFT — the higher the multiplier will be.
The Burp Ecosystem Bringing Together Players in the NFT Arena
We are sitting at the cusp of a digital ownership revolution, where creators and investors are defining the artistic standard of the future. However, the decentralized finance (DeFi) space still poses challenges for crypto newcomers and the large audience to tap into this opportunity in a fully democratised way.
The usability of DeFi protocols and NFT gateways are still focused on crypto native users, while the opportunity to reshape ownership should embrace everyone. Beyond the ease of use, security still plays a crucial role in the emergence of decentralized solutions for a wide range of consumers to leap into DeFi. Burp has already integrated Web3 functionality from popular wallets like MetaMask and partnered with leading NFT marketplaces and GameFi metaverse partners, such as OpenSea, The Sandbox, Avastars, Polychain Monsters, The Crypto Prophecies and NFT Boxes.
Since the BurpToken.com dApp launch in August, many improvements have been made following the mission to make NFTs ubiquitous and have functionality. The $BURP Token public launch saw huge success through the triple offering across Polkastarter, KuCoin and Gate.io. If you’re a proud $BURP owner, you already have the chance to gain rewards from rare NFTs to bigger staking multipliers so don’t forget to get in on the action.
Join us on our mission to make NFTs functional and interoperable within the metaverse for a fun-filled experience in the world of DeFi with staking and raffle reward opportunities.
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About $BURP
$BURP is the official token of the $BURP ecosystem of products including but not limited to non-custodial token management, staking mechanisms, NFT raffles and swap-fee rewards via $BURPback.
Important Information
Cryptocurrencies and crypto tokens are generally not regulated and investors do not have access to recourse or compensation schemes such as, for example, in the UK, the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Investing in cryptocurrencies and purchasing crypto tokens can be high risk and investors should carefully evaluate their appetite for risk and their understanding of trading cryptocurrencies prior to entering into a transaction.
