NBA stars lead $12M investment in CryptoKitties makers Dapper Labs

The CryptoKitties team pulls in big cash ahead of launching NBA Top Shot and Dr Seuss blockchain collectibles.

Dapper Labs Raises $12M From VC Firms and NBA Players, Nets $1.2M in NFT Sales

CryptoKittes’ creator Dapper Labs has secured $12 million in investment from blockchain venture capital notables and pro-NBA players. Dapper Labs, the team behind CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot, has secured $12 million in the latest investment round for its Flow blockchain. New investors include Coinbase Ventures, BlockTower Capital, and NBA players Andre Iguodala of Miami Heat, Spencer Dinwiddie and Garrett Temple of the Brooklyn Nets, JaVale McGee of the Los Angeles Lakers, and Aaron Gordon of the Orlando Magic. Dapper’s chief executive and founder, Roham Gharegozlou, stated that the funding will be used to “ensure that Flow can scale to the size of projects appealing to fan bases as big as the NBA.” Dapper Labs has now raised approximately $38 million in total. NBA Top Shot sees early success Dapper Labs also revealed that it has sold more than $1.2 million worth of crypto-collectibles to hundreds of early adopters on the two-month-old beta version of its NBA Top Shot platform. The game is Dapper’s flagship title built on the Flow blockchain.

NBA Top Shot Launches P2P Marketplace for Collectible Tokens

The marketplace for Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shop game has gone live, allowing beta users to trade collectible NFTs with their peers. Dapper Labs, the team behind CryptoKitties, has launched a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace allowing beta players of its NBA Top Shot game to trade their non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles. The launch of Top Shot’s marketplace will give players the opportunity to own tokens that were limited to the game’s now sold-out first wave of collectibles — allowing players to expand and complete their crypto-collections and unlock unique rewards. The game, which has been built on Dapper Labs’ Flow blockchain, features NFTs representing significant "moments" in basketball history.

Blockchain Heroes Refuse to Accept ‘Old World’ Fiat Payments

In advance of its August 8 release, Blockchain Heroes has airdropped fans an NFT trading card featuring a crossover character from Topps. Digital collectibles trading card series Blockchain Heroes launches this week, but won’t be purchasable with old school fiat or credit card payments.

William Shatner’s NFT Collectibles Sell Out at Warp Speed

Fans bought 125,000 non-fungible token trading cards featuring Star Trek’s William Shatner on the WAX Blockchain. Digital collectibles featuring personal memorabilia from the actor best known as Captain Kirk of the USS Enterprise have sold out in just minutes. Non-fungible token (NFT) trading cards featuring images from William Shatner’s personal life and career, from the 1930s to today, sold out in nine minutes according to WAX.

Polyient Games Launches Avalanche-Based DEX for Collectibles

Polyient Games is launching a decentralized exchange for NFTs hosted on the Avalanche blockchain. Ava Labs, the development team behind the Avalanche blockchain has teamed up with non-fungible token (NFT)-focussed investment firm Polyient Games to launch a decentralized exchange (DEX) for crypto collectibles. Polyient’s NFT exchange will be powered by the Avalanche blockchain and will exist within the firm’s forthcoming Polyient Games Marketplace.

Crypto collectibles are coming to the $60M Avalanche blockchain

Polyient Games will collaborate with Ava Labs to establish an NFT DEX for games and apps on Avalanche, and help improve its bridge to Ethereum.

Spotting the Potential of NFTs in the Blockchain Gaming Industry

Polyient Games’ Craig Russo believes that the NFT market has come to represent one of the “most attractive opportunities” across digital assets. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are emerging as a very popular blockchain trend in gaming, as they're also now being used in the sports industry (ticketing), financial services, and as a way to sell and transfer property, highlighted Craig Russo, director of innovation of an investment firm and startup ecosystem, Polyient Games. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Russo explains that NFTs first captured the attention of the mainstream crypto community in 2017 with the launch of Ethereum (ETH) collectibles game, CryptoKittie. Since then, Russo believes that the NFT market has come to represent one of the “most attractive opportunities” across all digital assets, with immediate use cases already being found within the art, collectibles and even the gaming industries Polyient Games’ director of innovation explained further about the role of NFTs within the gaming space and its “steadily” popularity: “One reason gamers are gravitating towards blockchain is that - unlike traditional games - blockchain environments permit players to gain true ownership of their in-game items.

Bank of Lithuania Has Commenced the Issuance of its LBCOINS to the Public

Following the launch of its digital collectibles dubbed “LBCOINS,” the Bank of Lithuania has announced that it has commenced the issuance of the LBCOINS to the members of the public.

Lithuanian Central Bank’s Commemorative Digital Token Goes Live Thursday

Lithuania’s central bank is set to issue 24,000 digital tokens commemorating the re-establishment of Lithuanian independence in 1918.