- Amid a resurgent NFT market, big players are dabbling in the largely uncharted territory of non-fungible tokens.
- Ripple, a leading global payments firm, has launched a $250 million creator fund.
- Dapper Labs has partnered with the National Football League to launch NFL-featured NFTs.
Amid a resurgent NFT market, big players are dabbling in the largely uncharted territory of non-fungible tokens. In the latest moves, the global payments firm Ripple, the American National Football League (NFL), and DC Comics, a leading American comic book publisher, have unveiled plans to harness the potential of NFTs and open up new opportunities.
Ripple Launches $250M NFT Creator Fund
Ripple, the firm behind the controversial digital currency XRP, has launched a $250 million fund with the aim of financing digital artists and developers to explore the booming NFT sector.
Moreover, the company claims that its XRP Ledger not only decreases transaction costs for NFTs but also enhances user experience with its design-friendly environment. XRP Ledger, which Ripple’s executive Monica Long describes as “a green alternative” to Ethereum, also comes with a built-in decentralized exchange (DEX).
Reportedly, Ripple is in discussions with a number of NFT marketplaces and digital artists who would have first access to the Creative Fund.
Dapper Labs to Launch NFL NFTs
Dapper Labs, the firm behind the popular NFT project NBA Top Shot, has partnered with the NFL to launch officially licensed digital collectibles featuring video-based “moments.” Caty Tedman, head of partnerships at Dapper Labs, emphasized that the NFL project would differ from the NBA Top Shot, adding they would try to customize it for fan bases. She said:
The NFL is certainly a holy grail in North America, and we’re super, super lucky to partner with them, as well as the NFL Players’ Association through OneTeam Partners. It came together really quick, but I think everyone has a lot of conviction that it has the potential to be huge.
NBA Top Shot, one of Dapper Lab’s four sports NFT initiatives, has garnered over $700 million worth of transactions to date. However, considering that the NFL is so different from the NBA, it remains to be seen if the project would be a success.
DC Comics to Give Away Millions of NFTs
DC Comics has partnered with Palm NFT Studio to create millions of NFTs featuring its comic books’ superheroes like Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Harley Quinn, and Green Lantern.
The company would then offer a free NFT to anyone who registers for its FanDome 2021 streaming event. The WarnerMedia-owned DC also aims to offer a second free NFT to those who share the event via social media.
Last year, DC’s FanDome streaming event reportedly attracted over 22 million viewers. Given this, DC expects that this would be “very likely one of the largest NFT drops ever.” Palm, the company pledged to deliver all the NFTs, aims to use a layer-2 scaling solution to reduce fees, avoid congestion, and minimize energy consumption for minting NFTs.
