OpenSea Disables Bored Ape Trading?

Good morning readers, hope your weekend was well. We're coming at you with some more exciting stories from the NFT space, so let's get into it.

Robinhood To Release Wallet With No Network Fees?

Robinhood is one of America's largest financial services companies with over 31 million users in 2021, and now they are about to launch a Crypto/NFT wallet. Typically, Robinhood has been an easy way for people to invest and trade stocks with its no-commission stock trading structure, and now they are bringing that idea to a new standalone wallet app supporting BTC, ETH, DOGE, and LTC. The significant part is their no network fees, how is that possible? A Robinhood spokesperson said "the crypto product will rely on third-party liquidity providers ā€œcompetingā€ for customersā€™ transactions behind the scenes, in order to offset those network fees.ā€ Robinhood opened the door for many new people to invest in stocks, and steps like this bring us ever closer to crypto and NFT mass adoption from the average joe.

NFTs To Fund Legal Battle

You probably recognize artist Kristen Visbals ā€˜Fearless Girlā€™ statue that was placed in front of the Wallstreet ā€™Charging bullā€™ back in 2017. Well after utilizing the publicity, Kristen made and sold 25 editions of her work. Now the asset management firm State Street which first commissioned the sculpture is suing Kristen for selling unauthorized copies. What does this have to do with NFTs? Kristen is now releasing a digital collection of 226 NFTs to help fund her legal fees against State Street, the NFTs include micro-movies, animations, and stills where the different editions come with miniature bronze statues, trading cards, and a one of one NFT that includes the original full-size bronze statue. Court case aside, this is yet another great example of how NFTs are empowering artists with new avenues for income and new ways of producing art.

OpenSea Disables Bored Ape Trading

There is currently an ongoing court case in Singapore which has forced OpenSea to disable trading for BAYC #2162. Why? the BAYC with a current floor of 96ETH was used as collateral for a crypto loan with user 'chefpierre' on NFTfi, after the original owner Rajkumar could not pay back the loan at the due date, the loan was foreclosed and the NFT was released from the lending platform to its new owner. The court case exists because of some disagreements due to an extension clause on the payback date that was not fulfilled. Looping full circle, the court filing in Singapore has triggered Opensea to halt chefpierre selling the BAYC until the case has been sorted out because the NFT is deemed as a digital asset with rights to be protected. This landmark court case is huge for the NFT space because as Shaun Leong cited, "It is the first decision in a commercial dispute where NFTs are recognized as valuable property worth protectingā€.

GameStop NFTs

So yep, GameStop is still around. They've had a rocky few years, but you have to admire their hustle because they have just announced the GameStop NFT marketplace. This is a platform to buy and sell in-game digital assets, which are built into an Ethereum based platform called Immutable X. GameStopNFTs Twitter Account released a cryptic message and has also said a launch date for June/July. It highlights the future potential that NFTs have in the video game world with the ability to buy, sell and trade your digital game items. In the eventual Ready Player One ā€œMetaverseā€, a marketplace such as GameStopNFT seems like a given, but with existing juggernauts like OpenSea, there might be some more work that needs to be done for this persistent retail chain.

It is easy to focus on the FUD and decreasing floor prices in the current space, but there are always exciting advancements that happen every day, and we will continue to bring them to you on the next MorningNFTea. Thank you for your time today, have a great start to the week.

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Weekly Vocab

FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt, usually invoked intentionally in order to put a competitor at a disadvantage.

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.