The Bored Apes enter the fast food and movie business
Owners of a Bored Ape Yacht Club, or BAYC, NFT own the intellectual property rights to their specific ape(s) and may use the image(s) of their ape(s) for commercial purposes. One of these BAYC members, Andy Nguyen, decided to open a collection-themed restaurant called “Bored & Hungry” in Long Beach, California.
Nguyen is a food entrepreneur who has co-founded other culinary concepts in the Orange County area. He is the owner of Bored Ape #6184, which he purchased for $267,000, and also owns two Mutant Apes. Opening this past weekend, Bored & Hungry is the first restaurant to accept both Ether (ETH) and ApeCoin (APE) as payment.
Nguyen revealed to HypeBeast that his purpose is “to show people that you can build a brand/business off of this IP. Take away the ‘it’s just a jpeg’ stigma.” Taking away the stigma of, ‘It’s just a jpeg.’”
the @BoredNHngry store is back open today and everyday! Who’s coming by for lunch? Come say hello! Maybe some freebies when I’m there! Opens at 11am today pic.twitter.com/yh4eREC09p
— AndyTheNguyen.eth (@AndyTheNguyen) April 12, 2022
In other BAYC news, Yuga Labs has partnered with Coinbase to produce a trilogy of movies starring the BAYC community. The first film in the trilogy, running as a short, will premiere at the NFT.NYC conference in June.
The official website calls the upcoming franchise “The Degen Trilogy,” but offers no plot details, saying only that “something is coming” and “probably nothing.” Much like Yuga Labs’ announcement for BAYC’s upcoming metaverse called Otherside, would-be fans can only connect their Coinbase accounts for now.
Meanwhile, Yuga Labs invited owners of Bored Apes to audition for roles in the trilogy, submitting their apes and backstory. If a user’s ape is chosen, they will receive a $10,000 license fee, paid in Bitcoin (BTC) or APE.
We’re stoked that Coinbase is making a film series featuring the BAYC community. Bored Ape NFT holders, submit your ape for casting, details below. Mutants, don’t worry – this is the first film in a trilogy, and you’ll be getting your own casting call for part two. https://t.co/lhsbg4AnuZ
— Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) April 11, 2022
iHeartMedia will bring NFT characters to life in a podcast
iHeartMedia, one of the largest radio stations in the United States, has acquired its own Mutant Ape and multiple NFTs from other leading collections to herald the company’s entry into Web 3.0. Although Axios first reported the news last week, iHeartMedia officially announced on Tuesday the creation of an NFT-based podcast network called the Non-Fun Squad, short for nonfungible. Using the intellectual property of their NFT PFP collections, the podcast will focus on the Non-Fun Squad characters and use their voices.
iHeart-owned NFTs include CryptoPunk #2821, Mutant Ape #10144, World of Women #7147 and #7730, as well as those from emerging NFT projects such as CrypToadz #5947, Loot for Adventurers #2020 and Quirkies #307 and #1988. It may be the first time that individual NFT characters have had their own personalities and the opportunity to interact with each other within the media and audio spaces.
iHeartMedia partnered with cryptocurrency platform Anchorage Digital, which tweeted about the announcement.
@Anchorage‘s regulated institutional platform for crypto is helping @iHeartMedia build #Web3 media products.
Learn more here about the Non-Fun Squad, iHeart’s groundbreaking #NFT-based media franchise â¬‡ï¸ : https://t.co/PgPgF6lv8B
— Anchorage Digital (@Anchorage) April 12, 2022
China’s Sichuan Province Launches NFT Market
Despite the Chinese government’s caution regarding cryptocurrencies and NFTs, the Department of Culture and Tourism in southern China’s Sichuan province has announced that it is developing an NFT trading platform. The purpose, they said, is “to encourage the music industry to actively embrace modern technology.” In the statement, China uses the terms digital collectibles and NFTs interchangeably.
Reportedly, a local music NFT platform already existed which the government is now backing while the local blockchain company will continue to develop the project. Sichuan is supposedly a popular province for modern music production in China.
Another state television-backed NFT project in the Chinese province of Shandong revealed its own plans to develop its own blockchain and issue NFTs on its market. Meanwhile, the popular Chinese messaging app WeChat continues to suspend some accounts linked to NFTs and alleged speculative activity.
In other news
The CryptoVoxels metaverse will be home to the Spells of Genesis (SoG) trading card exhibition, part of a virtual museum of NFT history. The SoG game celebrates five years of gaming and hopes to honor its own rare SoG cards, as well as assets from several other popular NFT collections.
A Nansen report has found that the rapid growth of the NFT market, which is higher than that of the cryptocurrency market so far this year, may be due to sales of “blue chip” and metaverse NFTs. The report cites collections like Azuki, Clone X, and Doodles that have increased in popularity, and even predicts that the NFT market will reach a market cap of $80 million by 2025.
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