Author: John

Much-loved NFT art marketplace MakersPlace has announced its shock exit, closing down immediately after a 6-year tenure. In a statement on January 16, MakersPlace said that; “Despite our existing runway, with these market conditions, we anticipate significant challenges in securing further investment which would make it difficult, if not impossible, to pursue our mission to champion digital art, sustain operations, and deliver meaningful returns to our shareholders.” NFT minting, token imports and new account creation have now been disabled. Existing NFT art drops will continue as normal, but no new in-person or online exhibitions, events or sales will begin. All…

American musician and artist Kane Mayfield has dropped Ides of March – a series of 2,100 Bitcoin Ordinals looking to reshape music collection – on NFT marketplace Gamma. Released on January 15, each digital collectible in the Ides of March series depicts a vinyl record that can be “flipped over” to reveal a hidden audio sample from a selection of underground rap icons. 20% of the Ordinals will be of the rare Dominus type, which will include some of “the earliest inscribed music”, accord to Mayfield. Each Ordinal is priced at 0.0015 BTC – roughly $150 USD at the time…

Multimedia artist and musician Yoshi Sodeoka is auctioning ‘Serene Abyss’, a 1-of-1 video NFT from his series The Swarm: 1.618, via NFT artworks platform Verse. Serene Abyss is the latest in a series of 18 uniquely-crafted video NFT collectibles by Sodeoka that explore the behaviour and movement of flighted animals, such as birds, bats and butterflies. Bidding began at 18 UTC on January 15, and is set to close at 18 UTC on January 17. As of writing, the piece currently sits at its starting bid of $1,000 USD. Who is Yoshi Sodeoka? Yoshi Sodeoka is a Japanese-born multimedia artist…

American music and art project Young & Sick has dropped 96 Flowers – a series of 96 1-of-1 Bitcoin Ordinals of hand-drawn flowers – on Magic Eden’s Ordinals launchpad. Available as of 17 UTC on January 15, these 96 Flowers Ordinals are each inscribed on a Silk Road palindrome satoshi – apart from one. This is Flower No. 69, which is the first ever inscription on an uncommon, alpha Silk Road satoshi, and features an asymmetric design – which will be auctioned on January 16 at 17 UTC. Four distinct mint phases are available to obtain these NFT collectibles, with…

Noted AI artist Vikki Bardot has debuted Family Values – a collection of 125 1-of-1 NFTs depicting 1950s U.S. suburban families – on NFT art platform Foundation. Family Values looks to utilise AI art to comment on the idealism of the American family, with a happy facade interrupted by peculiar details and an air of “fakeness” that permeates the medium. Auctions for NFT collectibles in the Family Values series began on January 17 at 17 UTC, and are set to close on January 20. Each piece starts at a 0.05 ETH reserve, and as of writing, a healthy number of…

Popular art-focused NFT marketplace MakersPlace have announced that celebrated artist Laprisamata will soon exhibit Antiflesh, his next NFT artwork series, exclusively on the platform. The Antiflesh collection is set to consist of a selection of 1-of-1 digital collage NFTs, each of which intertwine classical art influences with modern digital art techniques to explore the topic of human identity. Buyers of Antiflesh NFT collectibles – which have yet to see their release date be revealed – will also receive a physical museum-grade print of their purchase, giving purchasers the ability to enjoy the works both physically and digitally. Who is Laprisamata?…

Popular NFT marketplace Rarible has announced that it has added support for creator-focused Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain Shape. This move makes Rarible “the largest and oldest marketplace to integrate Shape”, and is seen as a boost for artists that are minting NFTs on the rapidly-growing Layer-2 network. To celebrate the launch of Shape NFTs on Rarible, four artists are holding four Shape-based NFT art drops on Rarible – all of which are minting now. What is Shape? Shape is an Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain, built as part of Optimism’s Superchain ecosystem, using the OP Stack. Developed from the start to cater towards…

Designer and illustrator Austin Whitt has seen his ‘Class of 2024’ NFT hit 1,684 mints in just a 24-hour period, highlighting remarkable community adoration for the NFT artwork. Class of 2024 is Whitt’s fourth annual ‘Class of’ NFT. This series serves as a time capsule that highlights his favourite artists, projects and moments that shaped Web3 culture, community and creativity over the past 12 months. Minted on Base as a 24-hour time-limited open edition, priced at 0.003 ETH each, Class of 2024 saw 1,684 total mints – far surpassing the previous years’ Class of 2023 piece. As each NFT serves…

Multidisciplinary artist ileigh has a striking NFT, titled Tableau | As Lief, available to buy on art-focused NFT marketplace Foundation. Tableau | As Lief is part of ileigh’s STILL LIFE series, and portrays a selection of fruits, greenery, china and tableware set against a bold background in typical still life style. The NFT is currently available to purchase on Foundation, with a Buy Now price of 1 ETH. Who is ileigh? ileigh is a pseudonymous multidisciplinary artist, based in NYC. With a focus on collaborative AI art, ileigh merges still life, landscapes and poetry into an array of unique NFT…

The latest proposal by the Solana team looks to make a fundamental change to the network in efforts to enhance security, improve processing speed, and boost scalability. The proposal looks to eliminate the “state growth problem”, whereby the Solana network is required to verify all user accounts on a regular basis. This results in a lot of unnecessary processing, which this proposal – via new hashing methods – looks to address. The new proposal will look to roll out later in 2025. What is in the new proposal? The new Solana proposal, amongst other changes, introduces a new hash into…