What’s happened in this week’s fast and frantic world of NFTs? There’s only one way to find out – our weekly NFT roundup.
Forbes to Launch ‘Billionaires’ NFT Collection
Forbes has released a sneak peek at the Billionaires NFT collection, its latest blockchain project. To make the industry-first collection possible, the media behemoth, which recently took a $200 million investment from Binance, has teamed up with renowned cryptocurrency exchange FTX to create a fictional group of investors with a massive property portfolio and a net worth (which can be seen on a hypothetical Forbes.com ranking system).
Each billionaire will have their odd hobbies and peculiarities and their own Forbes.com profile page with a custom illustrated headshot created by image rendering agencies Goodog and ItsACat.
The collection’s sale contains a limited edition of 100 Virtual NFT Billionaires, which can be purchased on secondary markets once they’ve sold out. Forbes subscribers were given first access to the collection on April 11th, with the sale opening to the general public on April 13th.
View the Virtual Billionaires list here.
Forbes has partnered with FTX, a leading global cryptocurrency exchange, to launch an ERC-721 token on April 13. Early access to the collection is available to Forbes subscribers on April 11. https://t.co/NdcChvntNy
— Forbes (@Forbes) April 11, 2022
Sky Mavis Secures Funding for Ronin Hack Bailout
Sky Mavis, the company behind the famous Axie Infinity play-to-earn ecosystem, has raised $150 million to reimburse the victims and overall harm to the ecosystem caused by the Ronin Bridge breach last month. Binance led the fundraising round (they get around, don’t they?), with participation from Animoca Brands, a16z, Dialectic, Paradigm, and Accel.
Sky Mavis announced that all users involved in the massive $540 million hack, which we now know was carried out by North Korean hackers Lazarus, would be reimbursed through a staged financial roll-out plan.
Meanwhile, the Ronin Network bridge, which has been offline since the exploit, will reopen in a few weeks when stringent internal security audits are completed. Better late than…well, perhaps not on this occasion.
1/ We’ve raised a 150 million USD funding round led by Binance.
The round combined with Sky Mavis balance sheet funds, will be used to ensure that all users affected by the Ronin Validator Hack will be reimbursed.https://t.co/oViPv4QrZ9
— Axie Infinity🦇🔊 (@AxieInfinity) April 6, 2022
Bored Ape-themed Bored & Restaurant Opens in California
Bored & Hungry, a Bored Ape Yacht Club-themed restaurant, opened its doors to customers on April 9. The restaurant, located in Long Beach, California, will treat Bored Ape fans to a range of fast-food delights, only this time they actually own what they’ve paid for.
Patrons can expect themed surroundings and food delivered with NFT imprinted packaging featuring the Bored Ape that Bored & Hungry founder Andy Nguyen, a Web3 entrepreneur, bought for 90 ETH last March.
Both $ETH, $APE and regular dollars will be accepted by Bored & Hungry, and customers lined up around the block to get their first taste of what a Bored Ape tastes like.
WE ARE OFFICIALLY OPEN! 🍔🦍 pic.twitter.com/2WRrJ4okuK
— JustBoredAndHungry (@BoredNHngry) April 9, 2022
Lamborghini to Auction Last Ever Aventador Alongside Exclusive NFT
The last Lamborghini Aventador to be built will be auctioned between April 19th and 21st. In addition to owning the supercar, the winner will receive a one-of-a-kind NFT made by digital artist Krista Kim and DJ Steve Aoki.
The NFT, called “Automobili Lamborghini”, will include several VIP features such as unique virtual previews of upcoming Lamborghini models, a private tour of the Museo Lamborghini, and a virtual meet and greet (so, kind of meet and don’t really greet at all) with Steve Aoki and Krista Kim. Aoki also composed a custom single for the NFT and an official soundtrack for the vehicle.
The car will be delivered to the buyer in September 2022, and if the winning bid is over €5 million, Lamborghini will hold a special delivery celebration for the buyer. You’d bloody well hope so.
We are auctioning the world’s first supercar 1:1 NFT and the Last Aventador Coupé produced for the first time ever. Auction starts April 19 2022.@Krista_Kim, @steveaoki, @INVNTGROUP and @rmsothebys.
CO2 Emission and Fuel consumption Combined: https://t.co/zr6fo0ia3H pic.twitter.com/EGb350oGwW
— Lamborghini (@Lamborghini) April 5, 2022
Check back next week for more highlights of what’s happened in the wild and wacky world of NFTs!
