This week’s edition of Web3 Weekly has come with some NFT fashion news, the first real Web3 smartphone probably coming soon and the first European Web3 conference happening in Berlin. Although the crypto market has been quite bearish for a long time, it hasn’t stopped the Web3 movement at all. Come and read more on this week’s digest of everything NFT, crypto and Web3 around the Web2! 

Market Updates and Conditions

Bitcoin price was 16,593.20 USD in the morning of November 26, so compared to 16,923.76 USD on November 18, it has been more or less the same. A year ago, it was more than 56,000 USD worth. 

Ethereum price was 1,218.48 in the morning of November 26, staying about the same as it has been for a couple of weeks (1,224.45 USD on November 18 and 1,275.71 USD on November 11). 

The Arweave price on 26th of November was 9.28 USD, which is about a dollar less than the previous Friday (10.28 USD).

Source of the graphs: https://coinmarketcap.com/ 

What’s Happening in Web3? 

BIZI LABS Introduces a Web3 Smartphone Platform 

BIZI LABS, the Swiss based mobile platform that allows people to easily access Web3, announced that it will integrate the Polygon network into its flagship Web3 partner smartphone brand, ZMBIZI. It is the world’s first smartphone that combines built-in Web3 features, user rewards, and multi chain functionality. 

Ukrainian Web3 Startups Goes Over Big For Years 

More than 80 Ukrainian Web3 startups have raised $1bn over the past four years, informs an article on Intellinews. It says that Ukraine ranks third worldwide in the 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index and more than 80 Ukrainian or Ukrainian-founded Web3 startups were launched over the past four years. These startups altogether have raised nearly $1bn in investments during this time period. You can read more interesting facts and numbers on Ukrainian Web3 success here. 

Sensorium Partners With Polygon

To accelerate its Web3 developments, Sensorium has announced partnership with Polygon. Sensorium is an entertainment metaverse development company that builds virtual venues where fans can watch their favorite DJs perform. To summarise the main points of partnership: 

• Polygon will support token and NFT-related features within the Sensorium Galaxy metaverse.
• The first Sensorium product built on Polygon is SENSO dApp, a play-to-earn game.
• Players of the game will be tasked with scouting NFT artists, organizing metaverse music events and selling tickets in return for SENSO token rewards.

Nike Launches Its Own Web3 Platform – .Swoosh 

Apparel giant Nike has launched a new Web3 platform called .Swoosh that will offer Polygon-based NFT products, Decrypt informs. It also explains that Nike has been one of the biggest fashion-world players in Web3 through RTFKT, the NFT and digital apparel startup it acquired in late 2021, and the apparel giant gradually brings its own brand into the space as well with the .Swoosh platform being the epicenter for Nike’s digital efforts around Web3. As Vogue Business even claims:

Nike has become a leader in fashion NFTs, largely through its purchase of digital design studio Rtfkt last year.

Nike will sell NFTs of shoes, starting with 50 USD. Read more on Nike’s new NFT collection here. 

Adidas also entered the Metaverse almost a year ago with Bored Ape Yacht Club Ethereum NFT. The apparel brand has aped into the Yacht Club in partnership with Yuga Labs, collector Gmoney, and NFT project Punks Comic. 

UX Challenges For Web3 To Overcome 

In an opinion editorial on Bitcoin.com its head of product experience Alex Knight has analysed the prospects of Web3 becoming available for mass adoption from the point of view of improving its UX or user experience. In this conversation piece, Knight talks about security, education and ease of use, all concerning web wallets and UX challenges about it. Very interesting article with screenshots and real examples of how we can improve the usability of Web3 experience for its expansion in a near future.

Investors Continue Betting Big On Web3 Startups

Despite several regulatory uncertainties, investors are still pouring money on the evolving Web3 sector and Web3 startups have raised $865.5 million between January and October this year in a total of 32 funding rounds, says Business Standard article (behind the paywall). 

Binance Launches a Web3 Recovery Fund

Anyway, despite the optimism in the previous segment, crypto exchange platform Binance has just launched the Industry Recovery Initiative (IRI), which is aimed at “recovering the Web3 industry.” It has contributed $1 billion on its behalf and has announced it intends to increase this amount to $2 billion. Read more here.

Binance Labs Invests $4 million In Ultimate Champions Web3 Development

Speaking of Binance, its VC arm and accelerator, Binance Labs, which identifies and invests in Web3 startups and communities, has invested 4 million USD in iParis-based fantasy gaming startup Ultimate Champions. They are also known as Unagi, and their ambition is “to bring Web3 sports gaming to a wider audience with a fun, accessible, and free-to-play experience.”

Next Block Expo – the First Edition Of Biggest European Web3 Conference

November 23-25 in Berlin was held the first Next Block Expo Web3 conference and it was sponsored by The Aleph Zero blockchain. Next Block Expo is one of the biggest industry events in Europe that brought together 100+ speakers, 50+ VCs, founders, investors, blockchain experts and enthusiasts, and communities together to redefine and discover the future of Web3. Read about the program here. 

NFT News

A New NFT Sale Record Broken Within NFT sales On XRP Ledger

U.Today informs that, as reported by onXRP, an XRPL-based modular ecosystem, one of the “XRPL Punks” collection’s items sold for 108,900 XRP, the equivalent of $44,000. The XRPL Punks collection, or Xpunks, homage to the already legendary non-fungible CryptoPunks collectibles, is one of the hottest on XRPL.

The #XRPL has a new record! An @XRPLPUNKS NFT just got sold for 108900 $XRP (44000 USD).
This is just the beginning for #NFTonXRP.

— onXRP.com (@onXRPdotcom) November 25, 2022

GTA Online Bans NFTs And Crypto From Its Servers

Grand Theft Auto Online’s role-playing servers have clearly become hubs for the sale of all kinds of stuff the Rockstar games would prefer not be sold within their game, from licensed music to sponsorship deals to loot boxes, Kotaku wrote on Monday, November 21. Well, not anymore with the new legal enforcement policy for GTA Online that was made late last week, which is specifically cracking down on the sales of NFTs within the game. The update acknowledges that the changes aren’t going to affect the existence of role-playing servers themselves. But it does directly address virtual currencies, loot boxes, sponsorships, crypto and NFTs, bringing existing singleplayer PC mod rules into play across the entire game and all platforms. 

ApeCoin DAO Launches Its Own NFT Marketplace 

ApeCoin DAO, a community-led governing body made up of ApeCoin holders, has launched its own white-label non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, as reported on CoinDesk. ApeCoin is an Ethereum-based governance and utility token which is used within the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)-linked APE ecosystem.  The new community marketplace lists for-sale NFTs from Yuga Labs-owned NFT collections like BAYC, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) and Otherdeed for Otherside.

You been waiting for this!!

Today @snag_solutions is launching the official @ApeCoin DAO marketplace 👇 pic.twitter.com/AFFignsokA

— CryptoZach.eth (@ZHeerwagen) November 23, 2022

A Bored Ape NFT Sells for Nearly $1 Million Despite The Bear Market 

Speaking of Bored Apes… Spurred by FTX’s collapse and the resulting contagion spreading to other companies, the icy crypto bear market is only getting colder—and the NFT market has lost considerable steam since earlier this year, as said on Decrypt. Well, it hasn’t stopped the real NFT collectors from their passion for some “blue chip” Ethereum NFTs, as the golden-fur Ethereum NFT was sold for 800 ETH, or about $927,000 on November 23. The reports of the death of NFTs are greatly exaggerated, aren’t they? 

A Guide to NFTs on Facebook and Instagram – How To Do Web3 in Web2 

NFTnow has published an interesting read on recent Meta updates to new NFT functionalities on Instagram and Facebook. It allowed several high-profile NFT creators to sell their works as NFTs on Instagram, but this won’t be an exclusive feature forever as you will be able to share NFTs as posts for free and many other options. 

Although Facebook users received these NFT sharing features at the same time Instagram’s denizens did, we don’t know when exactly NFT trading will become available on the social media platform. What else is in store for us in Meta NFT-friendly offerings? Read here. 

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