Monthly sales of OpenSea, the main platform for buying and selling NFT, reached $ 3.4 billion in August, an all-time high easily, according to Dune Analytics data. September is already the second best month in history, with sales of $ 485 million as of Friday.
The attention of celebrities has helped fuel the hype. NBA star Steph Curry reportedly just paid $ 180,000 for an NFT from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, one of the most profiled NFT projects. He changed his Twitter avatar to show off his prize: the image of a blue monkey in a brown suit.
Danny Adkins, co-founder of MomentRanks, a platform that provides analytics and tools for NFT collectors, said people like Curry help validate digital brands like Bored Ape, giving them the cache that celebrities often lend to labels like Gucci the Supreme.
“Athletes and celebrities want to show them off,” Adkins told me. This is helping the NFT industry build “influence”.
Auction houses have had a similar function. NFTs began to garner public attention after a JPEG file from digital artist Beeple sold for $ 69 million at Christie’s in March. This week, Sotheby’s will auction off a large amount of NFT from Bored Ape, which it expects to be able to raise up to $ 18 million.
Look at this space: most NFTs are purchased with ethereum. The digital currency launched a solid price recovery last month, with a 36% rise. It is now trading just below $ 4,000, almost far from the record high it reached before cryptocurrencies crashed in May.
Where does it end? Les Borsai, co-founder of Wave Financial, a Los Angeles-based digital asset investment management company, rejects the idea of a “bubble” given the technology behind the NFTs.
He points out all the ways to earn revenue from digital art and collectibles, including the fast-growing world of blockchain-based games.
“A tulip was a tulip,” Borsai told me, alluding to the Dutch tulip craze in the early 17th century, which was one of the most famous market bubbles in history. “These things have completely robust technologies connected to them.”
Why everyone is watching the trial against Elizabeth Holmes
The trial of Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO and founder of Theranos, kicks off this week.
On the calendar: Opening statements are scheduled for Wednesday, reports my CNN business partner Sara Ashley O’Brien, who is covering San Jose courtroom proceedings.
Holmes was indicted more than three years ago on a dozen federal fraud and conspiracy charges on charges of knowingly misleading investors, patients and doctors about the capabilities of his company’s own blood testing technology. She has pleaded guilty and faces up to 20 years in prison.
The trial, which has been delayed several times due to the pandemic and the birth of Holmes’ first son in July, is expected to last about 13 weeks.
Time Machine: In the heyday of the company, Holmes, 37, was the object of much fascination. Abandoned at Stanford University with a stated fear of needles, she founded Theranos in 2003 to revolutionize blood testing.
Holmes raised hundreds of millions of dollars to high-profile people, including media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, the Walton family of Walmart and former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. She was praised on magazine covers as the richest self-made woman and “the next Steve Jobs,” an image she helped cultivate by wearing the piece with her signature black collar. At its peak, its launch was valued at $ 9 billion.
This image was shattered as a result of journalist John Carreyrou’s investigation in 2015 for the Wall Street Journal. In recent years, Holmes has been portrayed as a scammer who touched on Silicon Valley’s worst impulses.
Checking the reality: however, Theranos’ precautionary history has done little to curb the hype about healthcare companies. In the first quarter of 2021, venture capital financing for healthcare and retail welfare companies set a record, with $ 4.2 billion invested in 153 bids, according to PitchBook.
Until next time
Monday: Closing of US markets
Tuesday: Bitcoin becomes legal tender in El Salvador; Political decision of the Reserve Bank of Australia