Avalanche Unveils New Marketplaces and Plans to Bridge the Physical-Digital Gap

The Alpha

• Two new marketplaces are coming to the Avalanche blockchain. Today, May 19, Superchief Gallery NFT and Zeroone both announced partnerships with Avalanche and parent company Ava Labs respectively.
• Further, Avalanche shared that it has entered a partnership with Legitimate to bring phygital experiences to its events.

Dive deeper

Things have been getting interesting on Avalanche (AVAX) as of late. While NFT trading efforts have largely been corralled to Ethereum, Solana, Tezos, and Bitcoin over the past year, the burgeoning Proof-of-Stake blockchain network has made strides in the NFT space with significant developments.

Web3 first got a glimpse into what was transpiring on AVAX with the announcement of Avaissance, a new initiative created to incubate the next generation of digital artists. At the beginning of May, the full scope of the Avaissance Artist in Residence (AIR) program grants was announced, revealing a roster of 75 prominent rising artists, including Latashá, Downs and Towns, Emily Lazar, and more.

Leading mentorship for the AIR participants will be prominent Web3 figures Dave Krugman, Emonee LaRussa, John Lê, Georgio “GEO” Constantinou, and Ryan Wen. The full slate of 75 artists has been broken up into “camps” directed by each mentor. But that isn’t the only thing AVAX users should be excited about.

Coming soon to Avalanche

Piggybacking off of the hype surrounding Avaissance, a variety of new Avalanche partnerships have been revealed in parallel. Notably, the established art powerhouse Superchief Gallery is gearing up to launch its own unique NFT marketplace on the Avalanche platform.

The Superchief NFT marketplace will aim to cater to artists’ needs, providing a platform built “by and for creators,” and will serve to connect the extensive web2 and Web3 art communities that Superchief has cultivated over the past decade. About the partnership, Edward Zipco, Superchief Gallery’s co-founder and director, noted that he thinks it could be a significant win for artists looking to build on Avalanche.

“We at Superchief Gallery NFT are incredibly excited to launch our Superchief NFT Marketplace and build a home for creative culture within the Avalanche ecosystem,” said Zipco. “We feel that there is a significant opportunity to bring the best artists to the table and help them take root and develop on Avalanche.”

In a similar vein, the non-transactional limited edition NFT sharing platform Zeroone has entered into a relationship with Ava Labs — a company that seeks to make it simple to deploy high-performance solutions for Web3 on Avalanche — to develop software that enhances culture within the blockchain and extends its reach.

Commenting on the partnership, Zeroone Co-founder Shivani Mitra emphasized the importance of ownership in the face of advancements like AI. “At a time when artists are becoming increasingly concerned with the need to protect their IP amidst AI and other technological advances, ownership is becoming more central to creativity and the growing attention economy,” she stated via press release.

What’s next?

Rounding out its new catalog of collaborative endeavors, Avalanche has also formed a partnership with Legitimate, a company specializing in merging physical and digital experiences through its “phygital” infrastructure. The collaboration aims to synchronize ownership between physical products and their corresponding digital identities on-chain through Legitimate’s “Locked NFT Protocol.”

As part of this partnership, Avalanche and Legitimate will release exclusive phygital merch at all official Avalanche events. The initiative was kicked off with the release of 100 exclusive phygital t-shirts and hoodies at Avalanche Summit II.

As interest in and innovation on the Avalanche blockchain continues to grow, its recent partnerships and platform for artists and NFTs only add to its potential for expansion.

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