Nifty News: OpenSea adds Avalanche, Meta has legs, DeGods takes 0% and more

Solana NFT project DeGods has removed royalty fees, and Zuckerberg says Meta is looking at an open Metaverse as a new VR headset rolls out.

OpenSea has officially opened up support for the Avalanche blockchain, with the move providing broader access for the network’s native nonfungible token (NFT) projects and faster transactions for OpenSea users.

The Avalanche team noted in an Oct. 12 blog post that around 10 of the network’s native NFT projects have been initially listed on OpenSea, with more to come.

“On Avalanche, OpenSea users will benefit from the fastest time to finality for NFT trades — regularly settling transactions in under a second — and consistently low transaction fees as a result of Avalanche’s success in horizontally scaling with Subnets,” the post reads.

According to data from CryptoSlam, Avalanche is currently ranked as the ninth biggest blockchain in terms of 24-hour NFT sales volume at just $75,690 and seventh in terms of all-time sales at $404 million.

The 24-hour figure, in particular, is quite low compared to Ethereum, Solana and ImmutableX, which posted $6.8 million, $1.5 million and $662,335 worth of sales during that time frame, respectively, although Avalanche has seen the biggest volume surge over the past 24 hours at 151%.

The team also outlined that Avalanches’ NFT market activity is growing significantly this year, with NFT sales volume increasing 180% since Q2.

The integration with OpenSea may also give Avalanche NFT projects some much-needed exposure, as not a single project from the network has ranked in the top 100 NFT sales volume over the past 24 hours, seven days, 30 days or on the all-time sales metric.

Alongside Avalanche, OpenSea also supports Ethereum, Klaytn, Polygon and Solana.

Meta sees legs on the horizon

In what can only be seen as groundbreaking news, Mark Zuckerberg’s virtual reality firm Meta has announced that the avatars in its Meta Horizon World’s metaverse platform will soon have legs.

Legs are coming soon! Are you excited? pic.twitter.com/SB6qSepKm4

— Meta Horizon (@MetaHorizon) October 11, 2022

As it stands, Meta’s avatars have had to suffer without a bottom half, instead floating around Zuck’s virtual sphere.

The news has been overshadowed by a new product reveal from Meta, however, with the Meta Quest VR headset set to be rolled out on Oct. 25.

The sleek-looking headset will cost $1,499 and touts “next generation optics” and “premium comfort.” While it is unclear if the firm will include NFT integrations in its metaverse platform at this stage, Zuckerberg suggested this week during Meta’s Connect conference that it is actually looking to build an open and interoperable platform. Meta’s Instagram has notably already rolled out support for NFTs.

“I strongly believe that an open, interoperable Metaverse built by many different developers and companies is going to be better for everyone,” he said.

The VR revolution is underway. We've designed an all-new headset packed with advanced tech and geared for productivity, creative work and collaboration. This is Meta Quest Pro, available 10.25. Pre-order today. https://t.co/YaFHvwYHlG pic.twitter.com/cBagf0TSGp

— Meta Quest (@MetaQuestVR) October 11, 2022

DeGods “next experiment”

Solana-based NFT project DeGods has revealed its “next experiment” by introducing a 0% royalty fee policy for trading its tOObs, yOOts and DeGods NFTs.

As of Oct. 9, the project has reduced its collection resale royalties from 9.99% to 0%, with the team suggesting via Twitter that it was looking at new ways to run its NFT projects in the future:

“We still believe that royalties are an incredible use case of NFTs. We will continue to support creators that want to find solutions to enforce royalties. We believe this is the best decision for our business at this time. It’s about time we take a new approach.”

To date, its yOOts mint tOOb project has been the most successful, generating $753,115 worth of sales since its launch in September. Members of the community have questioned why the project has cut off an important revenue stream for itself with the removal of royalties, with the reasons behind the move not entirely clear.

This decision is not good for the space. In the short term teams have mint funds, but long term royalties are the main incentive for teams to keep active, motivated, be able to to grow and employ people in the space.

DeGods are where they are because of royalties.

— hⓨxtt (@hyxttcrypto) October 9, 2022

IHOP’s crafty new NFT promotion

United States diner chain IHOP has cheekily dropped a new item on the menu by utilizing “NFT” in the headline of its announcement to attract eyeballs online.

On Oct. 10, IHOP revealed that it had “dropped its first NFT,” called New French Toast, before promptly clarifying that “the NFT is not a non-fungible token, you can taste and try the new Thick ‘N Fluffy French Toast for yourself when dining in or to-go at participating IHOP locations.”

Related: NFTs transform how fans bet on upcoming sports stars

IHOP’s NFT involves “two slices of thick and fluffy bread dipped in a vanilla, cinnamon batter” and comes in strawberry banana or lemon ricotta berry flavors.

More Nifty News:

U.S. multimedia outlet CNN announced in a tweet on Oct. 10 that it will soon shut down its NFT project less than four months after it launched. Dubbed “Vault by CNN: Moments That Changed Us,” the collection included a series of tokenized iconic news moments from CNN’s 41-year history, along with a vault to purchase, store and display the NFTs.

According to an Oct. 11 report from Bloomberg citing a source “familiar with the matter,” the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Yuga Labs over whether certain NFTs are “more akin to stocks” and whether the sales of certain digital assets violate federal laws.