Bored Apes take on the restaurant and film business
Bored Monkey Yacht Club, or BAYC, NFT holders own the intellectual property rights to their specific monkey and may use the likeness of their monkey (s) for commercial purposes. One such BAYC member, Andy Nguyen, decided to open a Bored Ape-themed restaurant aptly named Bored & Hungry in Long Beach, California.
Nguyen is a food entrepreneur who co-founded several other culinary concepts in the Orange County area. He is the owner of Bored Ape # 6184, which he bought for $ 267,000, and also has two Mutant Monkeys. The opening took place this past weekend and Bored & Hungry is the first restaurant to accept both Ether (ETH) and ApeCoin (APE) as a form of payment.
Nguyen revealed to HypeBeast that his goal is to “show people that you can make a brand / business out of this IP. Take down the stigma of ‘It’s just a jpeg’.”
De @BoredNHngry shop is open today and every day again! Who comes there for lunch? Come greetings! Maybe some freebies when I’m there! Apnes today at 11 p.m. pic.twitter.com/yh4eREC09p
– AndyTheNguyen.eth (@AndyTheNguyen) April 12, 2022
In other BAYC news, Yuga Labs has partnered with Coinbase to produce a film trilogy featuring the BAYC community. The first film in the trilogy, with the length of a short, will premiere at the NFT.NYC conference in June.
The official website referred to the upcoming franchise as “The Degen Trilogy”, but does not provide details on what it will be about, and simply says “there will be something” and “probably nothing.” Considering Yuga Labs’ announcement for BAYC’s upcoming metaverse called Otherside, prospective fans can only connect their Coinbase accounts for now.
Meanwhile, Yuga Labs invited owners of Bored Ape to audition for roles in the trilogy by submitting their Apes and an accompanying back story. If an owner’s Ape is chosen, they are subject to a received $ 10,000 license fee, paid out either in Bitcoin (BTC) or APE.
We’re glad Coinbase is making a movie series with the BAYC community. Bored Monkey NFT holders, submit your monkey for casting, details below. Mutants, do not worry – this is the first movie in a trilogy, and you’ll get your own casting call for part two. https://t.co/lhsbg4AnuZ
– Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) April 11, 2022
Related: NFT creator Yuga Labs raises $ 450M, bringing company valuation to $ 4B
iHeartMedia to bring NFT characters to life in a podcast
iHeartMedia, one of the largest radio outlets in the US, brought its own Mutant Ape and multiple NFTs from other prominent collections to announce the company’s entry into Web3. While Axios first reported the news last week, iHeartMedia on Tuesday officially announced the establishment of an NFT-based podcast network called the Non-Fun Squad, short for nonfungible. Using the IP of their own profile photo (PFP) NFT collections, the podcast will center around and use the voices of the characters in the Non-Fun Squad.
iHeart-owned NFTs include CryptoPunk # 2821, Mutant Ape # 10144, World of Women # 7147 and # 7730, as well as those of upcoming NFT projects including CrypToadz # 5947, Loot for Adventurers # 2020, and Quirkies # 307 and # 1988. This may be the first time that individual NFT characters get their own personalities and the opportunity to interact with each other within the media and audio spaces.
iHeartMedia partnered with the crypto platform Anchorage Digital, who tweeted about the announcement.
@anchorage‘s regulated institutional platform for crypto helps @iHeartMedia build # web3 media product.
Learn more about the Non-Fun Squad here, the groundbreaking iHeart #NFT-based media franchise ️: https://t.co/PgPgF6lv8B
– Anchorage Digital (@Anchorage) April 12, 2022
China’s Sichuan province launches NFT marketplace
Despite the Chinese government’s warning about cryptocurrency and NFTs, the cultural and tourism authority of Sichuan province in southern China announced that it was developing an NFT trading platform. The goal they said is to “encourage the music industry to actively adopt modern technology.” China uses the terms digital collectibles and NFTs interchangeably throughout the statement.
Apparently there was already a local music NFT platform that the government now supports, while the local blockchain company will further develop the project. Sichuan is arguably a hot spot for the production of modern Chinese music.
Another NFT project, supported by the state-run television station of Shandong province of China, revealed its own plans to develop its own blockchain and release NFTs on its market. Meanwhile, China’s popular WeChat messaging app continues to link some accounts to NFTs and suspend speculative activity.
Other Nifty News
The CryptoVoxels metaverse will be home to the Spells of Genesis trading card exhibit part of a virtual NFT historical museum. The SoG game celebrates five years of gameplay and hopes to honor its own rare SoG cards, as well as capabilities from several other popular NFT collections.
A Nansen report found that the rapid growth of the NFT market, which is greater than that of the crypto-currency market to date, may be due to Blue Chip and Metaverse NFT’s sales. The report lists collections such as Azuki, Clone X and Doodles that have increased in popularity, and even predicts that the NFT market will reach an $ 80 million market cap by 2025.