Nifty News: Collector spends $488K minting Tubby Cats, NFT vending machine

An anonymous nonfungible token (NFT) collector spent 204 Ether (ETH) worth roughly $488,800 (at the time of writing, considerably more when it occurred) on gas fees to mint 1,000 Tubby Cats NFTs.

In total, the Tubby Cats enthusiast clearly had some capital to burn as they spent more than $720,000 on minting the NFTs including gas fees, according to the Etherscan transaction history.

Following the mint of 1000 NFTs, and with Tubby Cats invading Nifty Twitter timelines, it appears that the community has turned the occurrence into a meme, as various figures have claimed to be Tubby Cat whales in jest.

found it, also not hating! congrats to all who minted. https://t.co/zjL81c0W7I

— Dallasjhawk.eth (@dallasjhawk) February 23, 2022

The project consists of 20,000 NFTs depicting unique computer-generated cat avatars. According to data from NFT marketplace OpenSea, Tubby Cats NFTs have generated 11,600 Ether ($27.7 million) worth of trading volume in just three days since listing on the platform.

We may be going to war but at least I got my tubby @tubbycatsnft pic.twitter.com/KTsPYe3b3E

— cam () (@camallen_) February 24, 2022

Blockchain-based fantasy basketball game receives major backing

Web3 gaming startup Fast Break Labs has closed a $6 million seed funding round to launch an NFT-based fantasy basketball game dubbed the “Virtual Basketball Association” (VBA)

According to a Feb. 23 announcement, the seed round was co-led by Patron and Pantera Capital and included backing from a long list of top names such as Solana Ventures, Blue Pool Capital (the family office of Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai), Riot Games co-founder Marc Merill and Sacramento Kings Co-Owner Aneel Ranadive, to name a few.

The game is slated to launch via an early alpha for 2,000 users, who will have a chance to collect fictional player NFTs and build teams for season 0. Users will be able to earn rewards from the game via player vs player simulated team battles.

"While we're primarily focused on creating a new and fun experience, it was also really important to us to give power back to gamers by allowing them to shape the direction of the game and accrue the economic benefits," said Charles Du, the CEO and co-founder of Fast Break Labs.

Solana NFT vending machine runs 24/7 in New York

Solana-based NFT marketplace Neon unveiled a 24/7 NFT vending machine in New York’s financial district on Feb. 23.

The vending machine was soft-launched back in December but is now officially rolled out and accepts credit and debit card payments. After payment, it dispenses a box containing a unique code that can be used to redeem an NFT listed on the platform.

The firm stated that the vending machine was designed to provide the “simplest, most accessible way to buy, sell and trade NFTs in the real world.”

Speaking as part of the announcement, CMO and co-founder of Neon Jordan Birnholtz emphasized the importance of providing a user-friendly buying experience as a way to remove a barrier to crypto:

“Giving people the choice to use vending machines and an easy online platform that decouples cryptocurrency from NFT participation means we can engage the widest possible audience.”

“NFT buying and selling doesn’t need to be a mystery and you shouldn’t be required to hold Ethereum, write a smart contract, pay gas costs or bridge blockchains to participate,” he added.

Another influencer NFT project crashes and burns

The floor price of NFTs from the project founded by popular influencer and pornstar Lana Rhoades has crashed an eye-watering 96.1%.

Rhoades’ CryptoSis NFT collection consists of 6,969 tokens that feature cartoon style depictions of the influencer. The cost to mint plus gas fees totaled 0.18 Ether worth roughly $421, however, the floor price has since crashed to 0.007 Ether ($16) on OpenSea.

The community appears to be unhappy with Rhoades and team behind the project, as Twitter user “Zachxbt” highlighted on Twitter earlier this month that:

“Another dead influencer project. No activity from the team in weeks, roadmap untouched, majority of the funds raised transferred to Coinbase/Gemini.”

@lanarhoades why you delete all your TikTok vids promoting NFT

— TikTok Investors (@TikTokInvestors) February 11, 2022

The project is said to have raised around $1.8 million in profit, and some have questioned why Rhoades deleted their promotional Tik Tok videos about the project since it has gone cold.

Other Nifty News

New data shows that transfers of NFTs on Ethereum have surpassed transfers of stablecoins and altcoins while the supply of wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) has remained relatively stagnant since late last year.

Puma joined the growing list of major brands to purchase a decentralized URL and reveal their NFT plans by changing their Twitter handle to Puma.eth on Feb. 22. The German sportswear brand registered the domain name with the Ethereum Name Service.