Trump’s Second NFT Drop Slumps, Sotheby’s Selling NFTs Seized From 3AC

This week, former U.S. President Donald Trump tried to outdo his first bizarre foray into Web3, this time with a non-fungible token (NFT) collection with even more ridiculous art than the original. But it appears traders have grown tired of Trump’s digital trading cards, and volumes for both collections have plummeted on the secondary market. (Sad.)

Meanwhile, auction house Sotheby’s (BID) plans to sell a collection of high-value NFTs seized by liquidators of bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, putting rare CryptoPunks and Chromie Squiggles up for auction for the first time since the asset portfolio was compiled in 2021.

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Trump NFTs, take two: In case you missed out on the first round of outlandish NFTs featuring the former president in various costumes and poses, Trump’s digital trading cards are back for a second series. Although both collections sold out within a day of launch, the first series had greater success in terms of secondary sales. At the time of writing, Trump’s second collection had a floor price on OpenSea of 0.049 ETH – or about $97, which is less than its mint price of $99. Currently, the best offer for a non-fungible token in the collection is 0.0469 ether (ETH), or about $91, highlighting its shrinking perceived value among buyers.

Bulls-eye for Three Arrows’ liquidators: Teneo, the firm tasked with liquidating bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, is teaming up with Sotheby’s to sell an impressive collection of seized NFTs worth millions of dollars. The auction house said the Grails collection includes “some of the most significant digital artworks ever assembled,” including rare pieces from Dmitri Cherniak’s “Ringers,” Snowfro’s “Chromie Squiggle,” Tyler Hobbs’ “Fidenza,” CryptoPunks and more. The first sales from the collection will take place during Sotheby’s marquee sale week this May in New York.

Developers stay hot during crypto winter: According to data from Web3 developer back-end company Alchemy, Ethereum developers have continued to build decentralized applications despite frigid crypto conditions. About nine times more Ethereum wallet software developer kits have been deployed since the first quarter of last year – an all-time high for installing wallet infrastructure.

Who: Nike (NKE) via .Swoosh

The virtual sneaker, called Our Force 1, or OF1, is a play on the brand’s iconic Air Force 1 design. Collectors will have a choice of two digital boxes – the “Classic Remix” and the “New Wave” box – with each box type corresponding to different possible designs, including a design co-created by four Nike fans in January.

Each box is priced at $19.82, a tribute to the year the Air Force 1 sneaker was first released. Holders of the OF1 boxes will be able to open them at a later date.

How: To start, Nike began airdropping “posters” to random .Swoosh users, granting them early access to the NFT sale taking place on May 8. On May 10, the entire .Swoosh community will be able to purchase the digital goods through its marketplace.

Mad for Madlads: The demand for a new NFT minting on Solana was so high it broke the internet infrastructure behind it. The mint of Madlads “xNFTs” was delayed to Friday night.

Wolf of Wagmi: To commemorate the Oscar Award-nominated film’s 10-year anniversary, Web3 business development firm Aventus is releasing a series of NFTs based on “The Wolf of Wall Street,” offering fans access to behind-the-scenes footage, never-before-seen content and an invitation to an invite-only event.

Bucharest on the blockchain: Romania’s National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics, or ICI, is releasing a state-backed NFT marketplace on layer 1 MultiversX, which was previously Elrond.

Top brands in Web3, NFTs and the Metaverse

Many Web2 companies are still investing in and announcing plans for Web3 growth. And while some initiatives have been labeled by critics as clever PR stunts, other projects have achieved widespread success and brought blockchain technology closer to mainstream adoption.

From Adidas to Budweiser to Dolce & Gabbana, several companies have pushed the boundaries of their current product offerings and found new ways to engage with their audiences.