The non-fungible token (NFT) industry has rapidly continued thriving in the past few weeks, attracting notable individuals, institutions, and investors in the process. Floyd Mayweather is a perfect example, making a u-turn this week entering the Metaverse with a brand new NFT collection.
Floyd Mayweather, a renowned legendary boxing champion, has returned to the crypto space from his latest bout. This time around, Mayweather has announced that he will launch new non-fungible tokens (NFT) Metaverse projects called the “Mayweverse.”
The highly anticipated NFT collections will resemble Mayweather and offer various utilities and prizes for participants, depending on the rarity of each item. The new project will also contain a boxing gym.
Although the official launching dates and prices are yet to be determined, the hype for the new project is rapidly growing. In that context, the Discord channel dedicated to the projects has already attracted over 5,000 members.
Mayweather’s return in the crypto space is notable, considering his sub-par record with different crypto projects in the past. The legendary boxing champion promoted a high-profile crypto scam Centra Tech, which defrauded investors more than $25 million in 2018.
But interestingly, Mayweather and co-promoter Dj Khaled successfully settled the case in 2019, paying $600,000 and $150,000 in fines, respectively, for their involvement in promoting the project.
Coffeeville, a popular social media personality, has repeatedly claimed that Mayweather is clean from his past NFT scam. They asserted that the legend is now in good faith for the Mayweverse launch. Mayweather is also renowned for promoting Floyd NFTs, Bored Bunny, and Bored BAD Bunny.
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef NFTs Launch
Earlier this week, Dr. Brett Kettle, an Australian marine biologist, announced his bid to conserve Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Dr. Kettle has an idea of re-mapping the world’s largest coral reef system and sells the results as NFTs, one hectare at a time.
Dr. Kettle is now closely working with a non-profit decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) focused on conserving the coral reef ReeFi DAO to digitally map the entire Great Barrier Reef off the northwest coast of Australia.
Upon success, the joint team will allow people around the globe to see it with their eyes. Dr. Kettle believes that access to such great natural wonders of the world will inspire environmental preservation efforts from the owners of the NFTs.
In a short interview with the Australian national broadcaster (ABC), Dr. Kettle explained that each NFT would resemble an actual three-dimensional photo realistic model. He believes that NFTs owners will feel a unique experience that will make them boost the health of the coral reef. According to climate researchers from climatehotmap.com, the reef is suffering from climatic change and ocean acidification:
“You might be sitting in an attic in upstate New York with no chance of seeing the Great Barrier Reef, but you can pull down your service provider and choose someone to remove [crown of thorns] starfish from your piece of the reef.”
Australia’s Qantas Airlines To Offer NFTs
Qantas, Australia’s biggest airline, announced on March 22 that it would unleash a series of NFTs as memorabilia commemorating 102-year history in aviation. Data acquired from its website confirms that the first buyer of the NFTs will earn frequent flyer royalty points called “Qantas Points.”
Moreover, the airline said that it has more exciting future benefits for Qantas NFT holders. The airline will introduce NFTs before June this year.
Krafton Taps Solana To Develop NFT Games
Krafton, a South Korean gaming company, has successfully sealed a partnership with Layer-1 blockchain project Solana (SOL) to develop and operate blockchain-based play-to-earn (P2E) games using non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
In an official statement earlier in the week, Hyungchul Park, the Web3 lead at Krafton, said that he expects the new partnership will allow Krafton to successfully acquire the insight needed to accelerate its investment in and out of blockchain-based experiences.
Notably, Krafton is the tech behind the popular Battlegrounds game. However, it is unclear whether the company will tokenize in-game assets from its popular Battle Royale game. Krafton recorded its highest profits, amassing more than $1.5 billion in revenues in 2021.
Other Nifty News
GameStop, an iconic brick-and-mortar video game retailer, has successfully partnered with Ethereum Loopring Layer 2 solution to launch an NFT Marketplace this week. The beta version of the NFT marketplace is now live. While commenting about that NFT marketplace, Adam Bowman, the head of growth at Loopring, said:
“The renewed NFT marketplace will allow collectors to mint and trade in a fast, cheap and secure way.”
Elsewhere, on March 22, hackers exploited the vulnerability in the Veve NFT marketplace stealing million of its in-app tokens, known as gems. The NFTs marketplace has now shut down all its operations to allow a thorough investigation.
