Michael Bodley

Amazon is putting the finishing touches to its in-house NFT initiative, according to sources directly familiar with the matter. And at least one document suggests that Amazon is set to feature digital collectibles from top crypto-native creators including Beeple and Pudgy Penguins.



The Amazon NFT marketplace will run on a private and permissioned blockchain controlled by the e-commerce giant, according to a confidential terms of service agreement reviewed by Blockworks. A separate confidential Amazon deck reviewed by Blockworks confirmed the private blockchain, adding that Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been a major contributor to its formation. Neither document could be confirmed as presenting the most current version of Amazon’s plans.



Blockworks<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/amazon-nft-marketplace-web3"> exclusively reported the formation of the initiative</a> in January, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/amazon-nfts-real-world-assets-token">as well as additional developments on March 3</a>, including the buildout of a private blockchain. Sources say Amazon has shifted its launch timeline several times, and an exact unveil date could not be verified.&nbsp;



The blockchain powering Amazon’s digital collectibles is gas-less and read-only, and imposes strict restrictions on NFT creators, partners and — eventually — Amazon customers after launch, per both documents. Blockworks agreed to not directly quote from either document to protect their provenance.



Amazon has inked a number of partnerships for the launch that have been kept under tight wraps, according to multiple sources. One deck, and a separate source, specified that in addition to day-one partnerships with Beeple and the creators of Pudgy Penguins, Amazon has told product partners that Artifact Labs will be involved, as well as Proof Collective.&nbsp;



Requests for comment to Beeple and Pudgy Penguins creators were not immediately returned. Proof Collective and Artifact Labs likewise did not immediately respond to requests for comment.&nbsp;



Amazon has imposed strict non-disclosure agreements around its dealings with current and potential Web3 partners.



This story is based on interviews with seven people familiar with the platform’s formation. A number of those sources have direct knowledge of the matter, and all seven sources were granted anonymity to candidly discuss sensitive business dealings.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Amazon tapping subsidiary streamer Twitch&nbsp;</h2>



Streaming service Twitch — the Amazon.com subsidiary that <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/20/twitch-says-it-will-lay-off-400-employees/?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAC1bIc4byVLDHr0V76JrjXvjT0Ih4CfIF0Qbr_klDToxcVzslr6vOR2urgH_RBRwBMX_NEQbd_aiz9up46AfMFgqe0eZ0V13mONclGUBdCjvkdeg6H30u-mGBXqG7FqACVk6-n7cc-oDyZVehobtWyatFOsgJxPQIsv5WH_iY6o_">reportedly</a> made substantial staff cuts in March — has been tapped to promote the Amazon initiative. Several crypto gaming companies have either discussed or signed partnerships with Amazon to sell NFTs tied to their titles on the marketplace.&nbsp;



Representatives for Twitch did not immediately return a request for comment.



An example: a Web3 game developer signs up with Amazon to sell an NFT to the site’s customers, which then grants the customer access to play the game through Amazon and stream it live on Twitch.&nbsp;



On the fashion front, The Fabricant has agreed to be what two sources categorized as an anchor participant for the marketplace’s fashion vertical. The crypto company has its own partnerships in place with major fashion brands and hosts an NFT <a href="https://www.thefabricant.com/marketplace">marketplace</a> featuring digital collectibles tied to real world experiences.&nbsp;



The Fabricant has its own Discord community while Amazon, according to multiple sources, is planning to support premium Discord memberships for partners. The idea is that brands can hawk an NFT tied to membership to an exclusive Discord community. A spokesperson for The Fabricant declined to comment.



Other planned use cases on the marketplace, per multiple sources include exclusive drops of music, ebooks and movies or tv shows; physical goods shipped after an Amazon customer buys an NFT; access to a private club; or behind the scenes meet and greets with musicians or celebrities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">2023 Prime Day NFT promotion</h2>



The company is still planning to heavily promote its hosted digital collectibles on<a href="https://www.amazon.com/primeday"> Prime Day</a>, slated for July 22 and 23, according to multiple sources and one of the decks.That includes pushing messaging to Amazon Prime customers in the US, as previously reported by Blockworks.



All customers will be able to snap up available NFTs just as they would order any other product of Amazon, with supported credit and debit cards or any of the company’s assorted payment options — including using one-click checkout.&nbsp;



Three sources said Amazon has emphasized that its platform would result in Web3 adoption for its 300 million active customers, which would support the idea that the platform is designed for the 300 million or so worldwide customers that Amazon <a href="https://sell.amazon.com/blog/amazon-stats">says</a> it has.&nbsp;



Amazon’s NFT platform has been repeatedly delayed, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the matter who said it was supposed to hit the market as early as the fourth quarter of 2022.



The company has told at least two partners that there are no plans at launch to include multichain functionality that would allow Amazon NFT buyers to move or transact their digital wares off Amazon’s blockchain. Sources offered conflicting accounts of whether there may be future plans for such functionality, which would likely result in a major liquidity boon for the NFT market on different blockchains.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/nft-investing-guide">NFT Investing Explained</a>



“Everything is going to be encouraged to be transactional and transferable,” one source told Blockworks this week. “You can’t build in things like digital identity on Amazon, digital reputation on Amazon.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">“Fishing for intelligence”?</h2>



Amazon representatives previously reached out to Americana NFT, a crypto-native startup that <a href="https://www.americana.io/">says</a> it offers a curated marketplace designed to set “the new standard for collecting” premium digital collectibles, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.



The effort didn’t go anywhere for Americana, both sources said, and the startup is said to have thought that its much larger counterpart was fishing for intelligence to build out its own marketplace. Amazon representatives have on several previous occasions met with startups and then “launched competing products,” The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-tech-startup-echo-bezos-alexa-investment-fund-11595520249%5C">reported</a> in July 2020.&nbsp;



A spokesperson for Americana said that “Although we did not have direct discussions with Amazon&#8217;s team, we can verify that we had a meeting with Amazon Ventures in 2022. We look forward to launching our platform in the coming days as we exit beta-testing. We extend our best wishes to Amazon as they launch their new marketplace and become a part of the rapidly expanding Web3 community.”



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Amazon NFT Marketplace Could Feature Beeple, Pudgy Penguins

Ornella Hernandez

The crypto industry, especially the centralized finance (CeFi) sector, has been <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/genesis-halts-lending" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">spun into chaos</a> following the revelation of FTX’s major market fraud. The bankrupt crypto exchange’s former CEO <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-do-tom-brady-steph-curry-and-naomi-osaka-have-in-common-an-ftx-lawsuit" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sam Bankman-Fried is now being sued for $11 billion</a> in damages.



An NFT-related casualty is the collection of Coachella NFTs stuck on the NFT marketplace without the option to withdraw or transfer them. The lifetime passes that generated $1.5 million in sales are now stuck on the custodial platform, <a href="https://twitter.com/_Kaspar__/status/1592542238361669632?s=20&amp;t=Qi1RMApzAjDzYC7C6pdGxw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">currently disabled</a>.&nbsp;



Nevertheless, Web3 companies keep on trudging and building through this crypto winter. And a few winners of the week emerge, mainly Yuga Labs, Nike and Azuki.



Here are some notable stories that caught the eyes of the Web3 Watch.&nbsp;



Yuga Labs has been busy



The parent company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) <a href="https://news.yuga.com/yuga-labs-acquires-wenew-10ktf-figge" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> on Monday its acquisition of WENEW Labs, an NFT venture co-founded by Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann. This new addition to the Yuga Labs family included the NFT collection 10KTF — a digital fashion shop in a “New Tokyo” universe.&nbsp;



Beeple has also joined the Yuga team as an advisor on the project, and Michael Figge, former WENEW CEO, is now Yuga’s chief content officer.&nbsp;



10KTF joins BAYC, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Bored Ape Kennel Club, Otherdeed for Otherside, CryptoPunks and Meebits collections.&nbsp;



The 10KTF shop is run by artisan Wagmi-san and offers metaverse-ready accessories and digital wearables from the top Ethereum NFT collections, from BAYC to Moonbirds and Nouns. The store has also collaborated on special merch with brands such as Louis Vuitton, Playboy, Wimbledon, Gucci, Puma and others.&nbsp;



Yuga’s metaverse, Otherside, hinted at a possible collaboration with 10KTF, <a href="https://twitter.com/OthersideMeta/status/1592165612721426433?s=20&amp;t=VShuBxK3wC9xoIkYSgVTEw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeting</a> “Welcome to the Otherside, Wagmi-san.” Following the Monday announcements, four Yuga Labs NFTs still top the volume charts on OpenSea at the time of writing — BAYC, MAYC, Otherdeed for Otherside and CryptoPunks.



While BAYC has seen the most trading volume in ETH over the past seven days on OpenSea, its floor price briefly fell by more than 20% this week. After hovering around 60 ETH for the past couple of weeks, the floor price fell to 48 ETH, the lowest it has been since December 2021.&nbsp;



This allowed CryptoPunks to flip BAYC’s floor price. The current lowest priced punk available is for 66.79 ETH ($79,537), while the cheapest Bored Ape is going for 62.05 ETH ($73,559). CryptoPunks’ floor price has remained neutral to market conditions since early 2022 and seemingly unaffected in the aftermath of FTX.



Bored Ape NFTs, on the other hand, may have been affected by a rush of buyers on peer-to-peer lending platform BenDAO. It allows users to borrow up to 40% of an NFT’s floor price, and if the loan repayment fails, then the NFT will go on sale in a 48-hour auction.



Concerns over buying interest on BenDAO may have “pummeled the floor,” as punk9059 <a href="https://twitter.com/punk9059/status/1592670164453306368?s=20&amp;t=jTX6iDiBqFrzxhDby18rXA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>, and led to higher than average daily trades this week.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Nike’s new NFT world



Nike, who already owns the popular RTFKT NFT project, launched an NFT marketplace called .Swoosh — yes, with the dot — built on Polygon. The sports apparel company <a href="https://blog.swoosh.nike/what-just-happened-74f854d6c00f" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">described</a> it as “our own special place on the internet where you can collect and help shape Nike virtual creations.”



Users can trade virtual apparel, sneakers, accessories and other collectibles to dress up an avatar and also unlock access to in-real-life products and events. Benefits could range from preordering a physical item, chatting with the shoe designers or even athletes that Nike sponsors.



The first collection will drop closer to the New Year, and the idea is for the community to be involved in future drops. It will host creator challenges where users can earn a royalty from the virtual products co-created with Nike.&nbsp;



Users will be able to create their own .Swoosh IDs as free NFTs minted on Polygon, which are necessary in order to access the platform. It’s like Nike&#8217;s proprietary version of the open Ethereum Name Service (ENS).



Registrations for .Swoosh ID&#8217;s start on Nov. 18, and once a user claims their ID they will be given a BitGo wallet.



Nike’s Web3 plans include an educational aspect. The company plans to go on a tour across the US, starting in Austin, TX, hosting tutorials and workshops on how their products work.



The brand works with some of the top athletes and celebrities in the world, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lebron James, Michael Jordan and Serena Williams to name a few. This means that any potential .Swoosh drop from one of them could likely help to onboard millions of new users into the space — similar to how Reddit’s NFT market onboarded nearly 3 million non-native users in only a few months due to its easy-to-understand language.&nbsp;



Nike also hinted at the possibility of video games and immersive experiences that may be coming soon. Nike <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web3-watch-crypto-gaming-console-in-the-works-nikes-metaverse-plans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">filed a trademark application</a> for “video game integration” of NFTs in June with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.



Azuki to Race in F1



The Formula 1 season finale is coming up in Abu Dhabi this weekend, and Azuki holders and fans may be in for a big surprise.&nbsp;



Oracle Red Bull Racing, its main crypto sponsor Bybit and Azuki creator Chiru Labs have emblazoned Lei the Lightning Azuki #8494 on the side of a race car. 


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="683" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bybit-Azuki-NFT-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-39556" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bybit-Azuki-NFT-1024x683.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bybit-Azuki-NFT-1024x683.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bybit-Azuki-NFT-1024x683.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bybit-Azuki-NFT-1024x683.jpg?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bybit-Azuki-NFT-1024x683.jpg?w=2048 2048w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bybit-Azuki-NFT-1024x683.jpg?w=386 386w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bybit-Azuki-NFT-1024x683.jpg?w=392 392w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bybit-Azuki-NFT-1024x683.jpg?w=329 329w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bybit-Azuki-NFT-1024x683.jpg?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bybit-Azuki-NFT-1024x683.jpg?w=50 50w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Lei the Lightning Azuki #8494 on Red Bull Racing&#8217;s car | Source: ByBit</figcaption></figure></div>


Racers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez will get to ride in the NFT-adorned car during the Grand Prix. Red Bull Racing and Verstappen dominated the F1 season this year.



Christian Horner, CEO of Oracle Red Bull Racing, stated that being “the first to put a blue-chip NFT on a Formula One car is a tremendous feat.”



F1 fans may get a chance to own a limited-edition version of the Lei the Lightning Azuki #8494 on a first come, first served basis to be minted on Tezos for free.&nbsp;



Azuki founder Zagabond said that “Lei the Lightning Azuki reflects the passion, precision, and raw power” and that F1 is now part of Lei’s story.&nbsp;



Along with Tezos as a sponsor, the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit is a principal team partner of Oracle Red Bull Racing since February 2022. The Formula 1 industry has been a big proponent of the cryptocurrency space, however, reputation means everything.&nbsp;



Another F1 team, Mercedes-AMG Petronas, decided to terminate the sponsorship agreement it had with FTX since September 2021 following the bankruptcy saga.



Web3 gaming awards



A new Web3 gaming awards event hosted by Polkastarter Gaming is set to round out the year next month. The Gam3 Awards, as it’s called, <a href="https://polkastarter.gg/news/gam3-awards-announcement/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">intends</a> to recognize 2022’s best Web3-based games.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Awarding the best gam3s 🎮 16 categories. 30+ industry leaders. $300k prizes. 📅 15 December 2022. Save the date. Voting starts soon ⬇️<a href="https://t.co/p0niqHYzHw">https://t.co/p0niqHYzHw</a> <a href="https://t.co/8n0ArqZXS1">pic.twitter.com/8n0ArqZXS1</a>&mdash; GAM3 AWARDS | 15th Dec 🏆 (@PolkastarterGG) <a href="https://twitter.com/PolkastarterGG/status/1592160570794704899?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



A 30-person jury, along with the crypto gaming community, will judge over 100 games nominated across 16 different categories to vote on the best ones.



Some of the categories include game of the year, best graphics, best mobile game, best shooter game and best multiplayer game. There’s even a category for most anticipated game because video games take a long time to build and creating anticipation for one is important for its success.&nbsp;



The event plans to broadcast across Polkastarter Gaming’s Twitch, YouTube and Twitter channels. Winners of the first GAM3 Awards can earn a share of $300,000 worth of prizes from sponsors such as Immutable X, Blockchain Game Alliance, Machinations, Naavik and Ultra.



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Web3 Watch: Yuga Labs Adds to Portfolio, Nike Creates NFT Marketplace

<div id="highlights-block_6324c64d4d575" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>A user paid 36.8 ETH in gas fees to mint the first PoS NFT on Ethereum</li>
 <li>The first NFT collection on PoS Ethereum is bullish on Ethereum’s dominance of NFT market</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The first transaction of an NFT minted on the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus was confirmed within four seconds after the <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tag/ethereum-Merge" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ethereum Merge</a>. 



The official timestamp for the Merge was 6:42 am UTC on Thursday at block 15537393. One user quickly <a href="https://etherscan.io/tx/0x5ad934ee3bf2f8938d8518a3b978e81f178eaa21824ee52fef83338f786e7b59" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">paid</a> 36.8 ether (ETH), or $53,403.13 at the time, to purchase an NFT bearing a panda face — <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ethereum-fans-meme-the-merge-with-pandas-and-bats/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">symbolic of the Merge</a> — at block 15537394.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Someone just paid 36 ETH in gas to mint this The first minted NFT on proof of stake <a href="https://t.co/zKUKI06EjH">pic.twitter.com/zKUKI06EjH</a>&mdash; Cirrus (@CirrusNFT) <a href="https://twitter.com/CirrusNFT/status/1570308547107516418?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 15, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



That prompted another Twitter user <a href="https://twitter.com/0xArunk/status/1570308785431773184?s=20&amp;t=6Wq8uDPbMgl_QfggfCUeJA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">to ask</a>, “Is Panda the new Ape?” in reference to the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. Others called it a “historic” and “epic” move. 



Popular NFT artist <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/nft-artist-beeple-auctions-latest-work-for-28-9m-at-christies/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Beeple</a> ran with the panda imagery in his own rendition of a proof-of-stake illustration, depicting <a href="https://twitter.com/beeple/status/1570623285611892737" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a giant cyborg panda</a>.



He celebrated the Merge with a second graphic of <a href="https://twitter.com/beeple/status/1570260765877092358" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an Ethereum logo</a> under construction.



While one niche NFT project, VanityBlocks, succeeded in <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/last-ethereum-block-before-merge-minted-47k-nft/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tokenizing the final Ethereum proof-of-work block</a>, another project claims it is the first NFT collection on PoS Ethereum. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Let the PoS NFTs bloom</h3>



Developed “in the pursuit of minimizing our impact on our environment,” the Web3-native lifestyle brand named Bloom consists of 3,003 anime-style avatars. The founders have airdropped them all since the Merge.&nbsp;



In a Twitter Spaces session on Thursday, the founders mentioned that they chose Ethereum to launch Bloom because of its market dominance.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“At the end of the day, where the most volume is, where the most traffic is, and where the most economic value is — it&#8217;s all on Ethereum.” </blockquote>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">gm. (good merge) We did it. We&#39;re officially the first ever NFT Collection to mint on the PoS era of Ethereum<a href="https://t.co/im8MeuuRtN">https://t.co/im8MeuuRtN</a> <a href="https://t.co/cpynqaDxwA">pic.twitter.com/cpynqaDxwA</a>&mdash; BLOOM. (@bloomdotxyz) <a href="https://twitter.com/bloomdotxyz/status/1570306820656218112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 15, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



With a 0.5 floor price, Bloom is ranking in the top ten collections with the most trading volume in the past 24 hours on OpenSea, under Mutant Ape Yacht Club but above Otherdeed and Otherside Yuga Labs collections.&nbsp;



All week, but especially within the last 24 hours, another collection <a href="https://nftgo.io/collection/renga-black-box/overview" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">called RENGA</a> has topped OpenSea’s volume board. Launched pre-Merge on Sept. 2, the RENGA project has steadily grown as holders of RENGA Black Box NFTs burn their tokens in exchange for a RENGA profile picture. 



The Black Box collection currently has recorded a post-Merge sales volume of nearly 900 ETH in the past 24 hours and has a market capitalization of 8,874 ETH or $12.6 million, as per NFTGo data.



It is yet to be determined how much more desirable NFTs on PoS may be; now that the network is using over 99% less energy, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/nft-ecosystem-to-benefit-from-ethereum-proof-of-stake/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NFTs have also become greener</a>.



Otherwise, the Merge should have no effect on NFTs minted on Ethereum.



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NFT Artists, Projects Celebrate Ethereum Merge With Historic Mints

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_61d7a341c0a74" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Royal announced rapper Nas plans to sell his two most recent singles on its platform</li>
 <li>The crypto music startup previously secured $55 million in Series A funding in November 2021</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Justin Blau, better known by his stage name “3LAU,” remembers first hearing the words non-fungible token roughly five years ago when cryptocurrencies like Ethereum initially piqued his interest.&nbsp;



Although Blau has made headlines as a renowned EDM artist, whose songs have raked in over one billion lifetime streams, he has been a heavy investor (of both his time and capital) in NFTs and music ownership monetization. 



Blau is a Washington University St. Louis business school dropout, who had stints working at UBS and Credit Suisse.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-medium"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="222" height="300" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Royal-founders-222x300.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-13628" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Royal-founders-222x300.jpg?w=222 222w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Royal-founders-222x300.jpg?w=190 190w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Royal-founders-222x300.jpg?w=193 193w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Royal-founders-222x300.jpg?w=162 162w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Royal-founders-222x300.jpg?w=59 59w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Royal-founders-222x300.jpg?w=467 467w" sizes="(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px" /><figcaption>Justin Blau, co-founder, Royal. Source: Royal</figcaption></figure></div>



He co-founded <a href="https://royal.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Royal</a>, a music platform that aims to allow fans to buy NFTs so they can share in royalties earned by their favorite artists. The crypto startup <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/nft-music-platform-royal-secures-55m-in-series-a-funding-from-a16z/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">secured $55 million i</a>n Series A funding led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) in Nov. 2021.



This week Royal announced that rapper Nas plans to sell his two most recent singles via Blau’s platform. Fans can purchase tokens of the tracks, dubbed “limited digital assets,” which claim partial ownership and streaming royalty rights of the Grammy award-winning artist’s songs.&nbsp;



I spoke with Blau about the future of music NFTs, how increased fan engagement may offer valuation premiums relative to traditional finance and working with Nas.&nbsp;



Chittum: Can you give us, from a very high level, your elevator pitch on Royal? What is it and what should people know about it?&nbsp;



Blau: The idea behind Royal is to give everyone the ability to own their favorite music, and share in their favorite artist’s success.



The quickest way to explain it is that music royalties are an asset class that the public has never had access to. When you think about investing in music and owning music in conjunction with your favorite artists, the incentives between fans and artists become extremely aligned in how that music performs, how it’s distributed and how it’s shared by word of mouth.&nbsp;



Chittum: What is the benefit of an artist selling ownership through a platform like yours versus a traditional fund? In particular, I’m thinking of Calvin Harris’ catalog and how private equity firm Vine Alternative Investments acquired his music for around <a href="https://variety.com/2020/music/news/calvin-harris-sells-publishing-vine-investments-1234813438/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$100 million</a>. What&#8217;s the value proposition for a larger artist like him?



Blau: The only people that have had access to even pricing these assets are labels, private equity firms and publishing houses, right? So like you said, a lot of these bigger players are looking to acquire an individual celebrity artist’s catalogs the same way they did with Taylor Swift’s.



The question is, how much more would her real fans be willing to pay for the same type of ownership. What we&#8217;ve proven so far with Royal, at least with some of my assets, is that that multiplier is absolutely ginormous. There&#8217;s emotional value to a fan in owning music that&#8217;s not being captured by the market today.



Maybe a private equity firm has more liquidity to make those types of offers, but we are more focused on artists that have been disenfranchised by existing systems, who have signed bad record deals. Labels have served a lot of purpose and have a lot of value for many artists. But in most cases, artists end up giving away 80% of their equity very early on in their careers.&nbsp;



Chittum: If in the future you&#8217;d like to focus on smaller artists on Royal’s platform as well, why are you starting with a big name like Nas?&nbsp;



Blau: It makes sense for many reasons. Nas is an icon in the hip-hop world. A lot of surveys that we conducted came back with 36% of respondents saying they are interested in investing in hip-hop compared to any other music genre, which is quite significant.&nbsp;



Beyond that, Nas has a long history in crypto. He&#8217;s an early investor in Coinbase. He has a legacy of being a true innovator and entrepreneur. It made sense to make a big stand early on and show the world that both legendary artists and up-and-coming artists are going to be active participants in the Royal ecosystem.



Chittum: What do you think the biggest barrier to mainstream adoption is for music NFTs?



Blau: I think a barrier to entry is account setup. As human beings, we are used to logging into everything with our email or our phone number. In crypto, you have to go through a way longer process to do that.&nbsp;



With Royal, if you are crypto savvy, you can connect with your wallet and go about the purchase of the asset. If you don&#8217;t know anything about crypto, all you need is an email address to log in and we take care of the rest for you. We kind of guide you on the journey to becoming more <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Web3</a> native through the Royal experience, which is something that we feel is really important.&nbsp;



Chittum: Take me back to the first time you heard the words “non-fungible token.” What were you thinking?



Blau: I haven&#8217;t gotten that question before actually. It would have been 2017. I had just been reading a lot of blog posts about Ethereum and getting really excited about it. It was more of a gradual thing for me where I began to learn that the technology existed, had familiarity with fungibility from my days in finance, and just got excited about the idea of authenticating ownership on a blockchain, which is ultimately what an NFT is.&nbsp;



I started thinking about non-fungible tokens in lots of different contexts related to ticketing and proof of attendance in 2018. I thought about how [someone] could earn a limited digital asset from attending a concert. We threw the festival in October 2018, where we actually did some of the earliest live NFT experiments ever. Fast-forward and I began to see NFTs manifesting as art.&nbsp;



Fast-forward to when <a href="https://www.beeple-crap.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Beeple</a> did his first NFT sale for $2 million. At that time, I was like “holy crap,” there&#8217;s digital artists selling NFTs for millions of dollars, not just thousands of dollars. When you see numbers of that size, you pique the curiosity of everyone and then you create this giant feedback loop of people who are interested in the technology and learning what it&#8217;s about.&nbsp;



Chittum: Finally, if you could make or mint a music NFT with any artist dead or alive, who would your top choices be?



Blau: Based on my personal taste, I&#8217;m a huge Radiohead fan so helping them with something like that would be awesome. I&#8217;m a huge fan of Sigur Rós too. Those are my two favorite artists of all time.&nbsp;



This interview has been edited for length and clarity.



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Exclusive: DJ Justin ‘3LAU’ Blau on NFTs and Music Royalties as an Asset Class

<div id="highlights-block_618bf89939821" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Ryan Zurrer, a former venture partner at Polychain Capital, claimed the artwork </li>
 <li>The NFT runs on Ethereum blockchain, allowing Beeple to continuously update and change the artwork for the rest of his life, according to the artist</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The second most expensive non-fungible token (NFT) just sold for <a href="https://twitter.com/beeple/status/1457902055679483905?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$28.9 million</a> via Christie’s auction house on Tuesday.



Artist Beeple’s “Human One” depicts an astronaut-like figure walking in an almost seven-foot-high translucent box, <a href="https://www.christies.com/features/Beeple-gets-real-with-human-one-11940-7.aspx?cid=EM_SEM%7CACCT:ChristiesPWC%7CCMP:2021CNY1121LIVENov21BrandUS%7CAG:ArtistsGeneralPhrase%7CENGINE:GOOGLE%7CNT:SEARCH%7CRG:US%7CBANNER:%7CIMG:%7CKW:christies%20beeple%7CMT:p%7CSID:2021CNY1121?rnd=1&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiA-K2MBhC-ARIsAMtLKRtcXnxExxj-1PS10bfJT30orWHSJHOnBmqkFTpUOE1UKba-cqRTYjcaAgDEEALw_wcB" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">describing</a> it as “the first portrait of a human born in the metaverse.” 



Elsewhere, Beeple compared “Human One” to a “subscription service,” adding that the owner is also “buying continual access to me updating this piece.” (The artwork runs on Ethereum blockchain, allowing Beeple to update and change the work.)



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">on display at <a href="https://twitter.com/ChristiesInc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChristiesInc</a> NYC now✨ <a href="https://t.co/Jt0DIv1Cwl">pic.twitter.com/Jt0DIv1Cwl</a>&mdash; beeple (@beeple) <a href="https://twitter.com/beeple/status/1455440514459779074?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 2, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“While the piece was sold last night, [it] is not complete,” he said in a <a href="https://re.wired.com/c/re-wired-how-technology-is-challenging-our-notions-of-what-art-is" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">webinar</a> on Wednesday. “I&#8217;m going to keep changing the piece and keep updating the artwork over the course of the rest of my life. That is something that is very exciting to me, and I think is much more analogous to how people will appreciate art in the future.”



Ryan Zurrer, a former venture partner at Polychain Capital, <a href="https://twitter.com/kukulabanze/status/1458236032818819075?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claimed</a> the artwork.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“This is how people will view art in the future as a dynamic thing. You come down in the morning, and the piece looks one way. You come home from work, and the piece looks a different way,” Beeple said. “It just continues to evolve, surprise and just adds to its beauty.” </blockquote>



Mike Winkelmann, who goes by Beeple, made <a href="https://www.christies.com/features/Monumental-collage-by-Beeple-is-first-purely-digital-artwork-NFT-to-come-to-auction-11510-7.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">headlines</a> in March of last year for selling his NFT, “The First 5000 Days” for over $69 million at the same auction house. It remains the highest-selling piece of crypto art for Christie’s. 


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