August 19 - 23: This week in NFTs, recapped in one letter

Gm friends,

The vibes are high here at Rarible HQ. This week saw a (blessed) uptick in blue-chip NFT collections. CryptoPunks led the surge with 51 sales totaling well over $3M. Overall NFT sales volume reached over $94 million this past week, up by around 24%. Hallelujah 🙌

The web3 community has been cooking, with tons of exciting announcements and teasers. Gordon Goner of Yuga Labs hinted at a secret project which he claims will be “the biggest competition in the world”. Intrigued is an understatement.

Big hype for Story this week, they raised $140M in funding to build the world’s IP blockchain — creators, watch this space. And finally, Exciting news from Rarible too: you can now mint and trade your favorite Aptos NFTs on Rarible.com — learn more here, and get moving!

• Some fun wins in the world of fashion phygitals this week. StepnGo are releasing exclusive NFT sneakers and CyberKongz are partnering with Adidas. We love when NFTs come to life!

• Shaquille O’Neal is feeling the heat, as a court ruled he will need to defend himself against allegations in the Astral NFT lawsuit.

• McDonalds were NOT loving it this week: their socials were hacked and used to shill and ultimately rug pull $GRIMACE token on Solana. 

🥹 It feels good Zeneca, it feels good. 

Vitalik gives the people what they want.

Amber Vittoria’s photography work is *chef’s kiss*.  We chatted with the artist about her latest drop on Rarible (this is our second Amber Vittoria drop this month — it’s safe to say that we’re a little obsessed!)

“I began to play with AI a few years ago, and the rhetoric around what is “real” began to pop up online surrounding these works; this inspired my idea to take photos that blend the idea of reality and artificiality.”

Sony teases the launch of an Ethereum L2 with Startale labs. A global web2 presence entering web3 brings us 1 step closer to the next 1 Billion users. 

Wake up and smell the NFTs