#66 | Changes Coming to Binance and Rarible NFT Marketplaces

Estimated Read Time: 8 minutes

Hey friends,

Wonderful to have you back today! In this edition, we have some pretty great Web3 infrastructure stories from our blockchain brew-up to progressive news from the Rarible and Binance NFT marketplaces. Let's jump into it!

The Blockchain Brew Up ☕

We are amidst the World Economic Forum which brings together nearly 2,500 leaders and experts from around the globe to examine and report in detail on the broad range of global issues the forum seeks to address. In the 53 years since its launch, the forum has developed a reputation as a trusted worldwide platform for informed collaboration and cooperation between all stakeholders for five days across 500 sessions, and 2023 brought a popular topic of discussion with the launch of the Universal Digital Payment Network (UDPN).

The UDPN is a blockchain-based network to provide cross-border interoperability between regulated stablecoins as well as Central Bank Digital Currency (more on that soon). The UDPN is an effort to support government-regulated digital currency (unregulated public-chain currencies like Bitcoin won't be supported) so enterprises around the world can have financial inclusion for the blockchain systems of the future. Currently collaboratively launched by three organisations of German digital consultancy GFT, Red Date Technology and DLA Piper, the CEO of GFT Marika Lulay says “The purpose of UDPN is to investigate a potential alternative to existing payments systems by enabling interoperability between fiat-backed tokens of stablecoins and regulated protocols”.

This blockchain-based UDPN to facilitate the cross-border support of government-backed digital currencies is a big deal because as of this writing, 114 countries, representing over 95% of global GDP, are exploring to some degree the feasibility of launching a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for their nation.

It's pretty clear that currencies hold the cake for the current top use of blockchain technology, with NFTs quickly gaining pace, but it's important to take a step back and think over the scope of what we have just brewed up. Not only talks of governments using the blockchain for a national digital currency, but an even bigger blockchain network to support cross-border interoperability between these countries' currencies, we truly are staring down the blockchain barrel of a technological revolution.

A few other notes:

• Cryptocurrencies have seen a recent rally, with many calling it a bull trap and others fully embracing the bull run narrative. Unlike other bullish movements we've seen in the past year, this run is mainly Bitcoin-led rather than Ethereum-led. Given that there are few catalysts for Bitcoin (since the technology does not undergo system upgrades like Ethereum), there may be forces trying to manipulate the market behind the scenes.

• One of the funniest events of the week was when the Department of Justice announced law enforcement on crypto, causing a sharp crash... then revealed it was a Russian exchange Bitzlato that nobody has even heard of. At the time of announcement, the Bitzlato wallets had a total of $11k USD worth of crypto in them.

Headlines Around the Web3 Space

Rarible Announces Free Marketplace Builder For Polygon NFTs

Rarible is one of the biggest NFT marketplaces to buy, sell and trade NFTs with it coming in 5th for all-time ETH sales volume at over $300 million, making them an essential player in Web3 and NFTs, hence the importance of their latest announcement for a free marketplace builder. Launched a couple of days ago, Rarible released a zero-code marketplace builder that will allow Polygon-based NFT collections to establish and create their own marketplace ecosystems, empowering creators to showcase their unique brand identity on their storefront, something that isn’t possible with existing traditional NFT marketplaces.

What this means is any community will now be able to create its own custom marketplace to give its community a more on-brand experience for interacting and buying/selling the NFTs in its collection, instead of going through third parties such as OpenSea.

The real kicker here is the tool is completely free to the community, with no setup charge, monthly cost, or transaction and royalty fees at all, a truely progression step in enabling access to NFT infrastructure that will progress us closer to Web3. Rarible understands that certain communities require unique features, numerous collections, and royalty fee modifications amongst other customisations, so this tool simply acts as a “white-glove” solution enabling a new type of Web3 storefront for NFTs, it will be exciting to see how projects utilise this in the future.

Binance Tightens Rules On NFT Collections

On the topic of marketplaces, the world's largest crypto-currency exchange Binance has just announced a new rule set for NFTs listed on its in-house marketplace Binance NFT in an effort to make Web3 and NFTs safer for everyone. This starts off with the delisting of all collections listed before Oct. 2, 2022 that have an average daily trading volume lower than $1,000 between Nov. 1, 2022 and Jan. 31, 2023. The motivation for this seems to be on reducing the number of “irrelevant” and potentially scammy collections, but they also double down on reducing this “NFT noise” where now NFT artists can only mint up to five collections per day. What makes an “NFT artist” you may ask? Well, that brings us to the main substance of this rule change where all sellers will now have to go through the Know Your Customer (KYC) verification and have at least two verified followers.

If you're unfamiliar with the KYC process, it's a type of identity verification required by all regulators and is a common process that banks and other financial institutions use to gather identifying data and contact information so accounts are linked to real-life people. Although some people may not agree with this collection of data due to the “de-centralised” nature of Web3, it's hard to fault these new rules that will definitely restrict people's ability to create fraudulent and scam-based NFT collections, that have recently plagued our industry.

It doesn't stop there though; Binance said it would forthwith “periodically review” NFT listings that do not “meet its standards” with quote “Users can report NFTs or collections that may be in violation of Binance NFT minting rules and terms of service. Our due diligence team will actively review reports of fraud or rule violations and take the appropriate actions”.

In retrospect, these actions may seem obvious to implement in order to create a safe NFT ecosystem, but it hasn't been the standard hence the flurry of NFT-based scams and rug pulls. The world's largest crypto marketplace implementing this standard is an important and progressive move that hopefully makes other marketplaces take similar action, contributing to an all-round safer Web3 that brings us ever closer to mainstream adoption.

What's the NFTea?

Open Editions are still all the rage.

A few days ago, I shared this Open Edition mint with my friends, from the one and only creator of Nyan Cat himself. Each wallet was available to mint 3 at 0.0077 ETH each.

Shortly after mint, it began trading into the Top 10 on OpenSea. And two days later...

Each Red Nyan Balloon cat will be able to be redeemed for a different colored balloon cat on a different day this week. At the end of the week, the 7th variation will be made available.

Early post-announcement volume saw red Nyan Balloons trading at 0.07 ETH each - a whopping 900% off its original mint price.

The fun with Open Editions is that it allows artists building blocks to gamify a system with; starting with a low-tier currency-like mint that is open for all, then gradually rarer items that are redeemable via burning the lower tier items. And the best thing is — it's accessible to all so there are no complaints about allowlists (although there are other concerns about mint windows and timezones).

What's the next artist whose Open Edition you're looking forward to? Tweet at us @MorningNFTea and let us know!

As always we thank you for your support on the newsletter, and while we curate the next round-up of stories we hope you have a great couple of days, take care!

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DISCLAIMER:

None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.