Apple’s VR/MR brings the metaverse back into focus

A portal to the metaverse has opened, and the point of origin was Apple’s official disclose of their new Vision Pro VR headset at WWDC 2023 yesterday. My thoughts? Apple’s new mixed reality headset is the most important thing to happen to non-fungible tokens (NFT) since CryptoPunks.

Digital real estate is still an unrelated concept to some. To these same people, the idea that digital objects can have economic value seems artificial at best, and harmless at worst. But when they get to experience these assets through augmented or mixed reality, a great awakening will occur and they will finally understand how tangible digital assets really are.

CryptoPunks is not noteworthy because it is the first NFT. CryptoPunks are important because their existence inspired most of what we see in the NFT space today, including the ERC-721 token standard, 10,000 collection sizes, and iconic properties. Just like CryptoPunks, Apple’s VR headset isn’t the first on the market, but it’s likely to inspire the future of NFTs and usher the masses into the metaverse.

Notable events

• The SEC has filed a lawsuit against Binance and Coin base for alleged securities linked to the sale of unregistered securities. These purported securities include tokens that power many NFT projects such as The Sandbox, Decentraland, Axie Infinity, and even blockchain’s main transaction tokens such as Polygon’s $MATIC, Solana’s $SOL, Cardano’s $ADA, and Binance’s $BNB.

• Azuki rocker and Twitter are in full swing, talking about Azuki’s rise to a 1-year high in floor price. We’ve seen massive sales for rare Azukis, including this Rank 420 that sold for over 161 ETH.

• Frank DeGods announced a new Dust Labs product called De[id] which has wallet delegation for wallet security, and Twitter connectivity that allows holders to be automatically followed/unfollowed by official DeGods and Y00ts accounts.

• To open founder Jack Butcher celebrated Apple’s new product announcement with an announcement of his own, revealing his own entry into the Openen ecosystem. Openpen holders can now choose to redeem their NFTs for the chance to win a new Openpen designed by Butcher himself.

The story continues

• A polygon collection called Weee did it Palz rocketed to the top of the Polygon Collection rankings. This feat was achieved without using official Twitter and Discord accounts, and without selling on OpenSea or Magic Eden. Instead, these sales are tearing up Element marketplace.

• NFC, or Non Fungible Conference, is the latest ‘can’t miss’ NFT conference that NFT collectors flock to. Taking place in Lisbon Portugal starting today, NFC is heavily focused on art and is sponsored by Cult Crypto Artand The sandbox

Look at the lists

• DMarket and Estates Unchained still won’t let go of the middle of the chart.

• The DeGods have had a big week landing in 8th place, possibly from speculation before De[id] disclose.

• Ben.eths FF6000 drop that has an orange square made waves upon its launch last week as the latest hyped drop in his ecosystem of meme coins. However, this can be connected to Bitcoin with the new BRC-721E bridge mechanic.

• Ethereum as a whole continues to reflect the change in trader sentiment to bullish and is up over 92% from the previous 7-day period.

• Bitcoin stabilized after coming back from the highs $OXBT rage.

• Polygon is having a big week and has been elevated to the #3 spot on the Blockchain Rankings thanks to newcomers called Weee Did It Palz, Zumba Warriorsand The Flower Powerz collections.