NFT art may be the current Next Big Thing in the cryptocurrency world, but as art, it’s actually somewhat limited to one broad genre: Digital art. This leaves out a fairly large chunk of the art world — paintings, drawings, sculpture, fabrics, pottery — the physical arts that live in three dimensions. That’s where AvatarArt by ByteNext comes in. The Singapore-based NFT artwork company is turning the biggest of those physical arts — painting — into 3D reproductions that are backed by the actual artwork. For each NFT, there isn’t just the blockchain-verified original image. There’s an actual painting in …

British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, who developed the original source code for the World Wide Web, is making the data part of a nonfungible token (NFT) through luxury auction house Sotheby’s. According to a Tuesday announcement from Sotheby’s, the auction house will be putting up the World Wide Web NFT for bids starting on June 23. Bidding for the NFT, named “This Changed Everything” and containing time-stamped documentation of the code, will start at $1,000. First created in 1989 before there were web browsers, Amazon, or even shareable memes, the roughly 10,000 lines of code — written using Python — …

Polkadot's Kusama council passed Motion 310 on Tuesday, confirming the start of the first slot auction on the Kusama network. According to details shared on the Polkadot governance platform Polkassembly, 13 out of the 19 “seats” on the Kusama council voted in favor of commencing the slot auction process. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Polkadot and Kusama co-founder Gavin Wood had published a tentative schedule for the Kusama slot auctions back on June 8. These slot auctions will decide the parachains that will be added to the Kusama relay chain. Kusama functions as a canary network for Polkadot, which according …

Porsche unveils NFT subsidiary German sports car giant Porsche has drifted into the nonfungible token (NFT) market, with a June 14 announcement revealing the launch of an NFT collectible startup dubbed Fanzone. However, the car manufacturer will not be looking to tokenize its luxury vehicles at this stage, instead opting to focus on soccer-themed NFT collectibles. Fanzone, which was built from Porsche’s digital subsidiary Forward 31, has already inked partnerships with the German national men’s, women’s, and under 21 football teams. Fanzone also has a deal with the third tier of Germany's local professional league and intends to expand support …

Luxury auction house Sotheby’s made waves on social media on Thursday following the sale of one rare CryptoPunk. In a tweet from Sotheby’s, the auction said CryptoPunk #7523 — also known as “COVID Alien” — sold in its London salesroom for roughly $11.8 million. According to the auction house, this sale represents a new world record for a single CryptoPunk artwork. CryptoPunks, which predate the bulk of the nonfungible token (NFT) craze in 2021, are often small, pixelated depictions of people, apes, zombies and aliens. Sotheby’s announced the sale of the COVID Alien in late May as a “special, standalone” …

Polkadot and Kusama creator Gavin Wood has published a tentative schedule for the much-anticipated Kusama parachain slot auctions. According to a blog post posted on Tuesday, the first parachain auction slot will open on June 15 at 12:00 pm Central European Summer Time. The tentative schedule, subject to the approval of the Kusama Council and other KSM stakeholders, will see the maiden parachain auction concluded by June 17, with the bidding period continuing until June 22. If the Kusama Council approves the schedule, then the first-ever parachain slot auction winner could emerge by 11:00 am on June 22. The second …

Playboy, the lifestyle and entertainment brand famous for its distinctive logo — among other things, has launched its first collection of five animated NFTs, on a new NFT market placed dubbed “Raretoshi” which is backed by Blockstream’s Liquid sidechain. The NFTs were unveiled during the lead up to the 2021 Bitcoin Miami conference on June 3: Announcing Reimagining the Rabbit: Miami, Playboy’s first collection of animated NFTs, featuring @aylaelmoussa @mbsjq @rek0de @JonNoorlander- Debuting 6.3.21 at Bitcoin 2021 on the Raretoshi marketplace. Video credit: Ayla El-Moussa. Learn more at https://t.co/2JkHnyq3J9 pic.twitter.com/fUSCHuvYuS — Playboy (@Playboy) June 2, 2021 All of the NFTs …

One ultra-rare CryptoPunk is set for some extra stage time at a hotly anticipated upcoming auction. In a Tweet today, luxury auction house Sotheby’s announced that the sale of CryptoPunk #7530 — also known as “Covid Alien” — will be offered during a “special, standalone” auction. The Punk was previously announced as part of the “Natively Digital” event, which highlights the history of NFTs and cryptoart, with a selection of pieces that include what many consider to be the first-ever NFT: Kevin McCoy’s “Quantum,” an animation minted in 2014 on the Namecoin blockchain. We're excited to announce that the Alien …

It appears that “r/wallstreetbets” favorite meme stock company GameStop is in the process of developing its own NFT marketplace. Oh wow, @GameStop is launching an NFT platform https://t.co/3lkqgJTiwS pic.twitter.com/3BT1Szo9qJ — Brad Michelson (@BradMichelson) May 25, 2021 While an official announcement hasn’t been made, the gaming giant appears to have launched a website named “nft.gamestop” — and is currently on the lookout for recruits: “We welcome exceptional engineers (solidity, react, python), designers, gamers, marketers, and community leaders. If you want to join our team, send your profile or something you've built to: [email protected].” Information on the bare bones website is sparse. …

Digital artist Sean Williams claims that Mark Zuckerberg’s Instagram is working to create its own NFT marketplace. STORY TIME: INSTAGRAM IS BUILDING AN NFT PLATFORM RIGHT NOW AND THEY’RE REACHING OUT TO UPCOMING ARTISTS IN THE NFT SPACE TO HELP THEM BUILD IT. THE CATCH? They’re reaching out to artists IN OUR COMMUNITY to give them insight on what the NFT community needs, and disguising — Sean Williams (@iArtSometimes) May 18, 2021 Williams tweeted to his 12,000 followers on May 18 that Instagram had invited him and other artists to speak on an NFT focused panel, and to provide feedback …

A new peer-to-peer marketplace for NFT artwork is creating a digital art bazaar intended to make it easier for independent and amateur artists to showcase and sell their art while offering galleries and collectors an inexpensive venue. The market for nonfungible tokens exploded in the first few months of 2021, with NFTs going from a niche in the crypto industry to a mainstream medium for works that have been sold at the world’s premier auction houses, garnered prices in the millions and even tens of millions of dollars, and attracted creators ranging from celebrities like recording artist Grimes and NFL …

Major protocol upgrades are one of the most potent sources of price movement for cryptocurrency projects as community members and investors get excited about new features and traders rush in to “buy the rumor and sell the news.” One protocol that has seen its price rise to new heights this week, despite the overall bearish conditions affecting the market, is Kusama (KSM), an experimental blockchain platform and a sister chain to Polkadot’s platform. Kusama is designed to provide an interoperable and scalable framework for developers. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after dropping to a low of …