Murakami returns from NFTs
Acclaimed Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami says he may not release any more non-fungible tokens in the future after first appearing on the market in late 2021.
Murakami is a world-renowned artist with a career dating back to the late 1980s. He has released two NFTs collections to date, first with the Clone
Speaking to The Guardian in an interview on September 20 at the Asian Art Museum as part of his new solo art exhibition called Unknown people, Murakami simply said, “Maybe I’m done releasing NFTs.”
Murakami.Flowers NFTs. Source: OpenSea
Murakami.Flowers in particular proved to be a challenging project for the artist, as he delayed its launch to refine the project before finally rolling it out in May 2022, right as the crypto and NFT markets crashed.
With rock-bottom prices and sales stagnating after launch, Murakami eventually apologized to the people who bought his NFTs. However, the community seemed to understand at the time as broader market factors were at play.
Despite this, Murakami.Flowers has generated 26,713 Ether (ETH) or $42.52 million in secondary trading volume to date, with an NFT floor price of 0.36 ETH ($573) according to OpenSea data.
NFT artist wins multi-million dollar contract dispute
NFT artist Danny Casale, aka Coolman Coffeedan, has won a multimillion-dollar contract dispute with Web3 art curators DigiArt.
According to a September 22 report from ArtNet, Casale signed up to be represented by DigiArt in May 2021, with the company helping him gain fame in exchange for a 50-50 split of his NFT sales and the exclusive “right to market – and offer for sale all non-fungible tokens created by Casale” until the contract expires on May 2, 2022.
However, DigiArt sued Casale in March 2023 for an alleged breach of contract after the artist himself launched an NFT project on December 21, 2021, called Coolman’s universe.
Coolman’s Universe NFTs. Source: OpenSea
The project consists of 10,000 cartoon avatar NFTs and has generated 26,399 ETH ($42 million) in secondary sales to date, according to OpenSea data.
DigiArt alleged that Casale “completely disregarded its contractual obligations” by launching the project, but did not mention any specific monetary damages in the complaint. The company also admitted that it had not attempted to enforce the agreement until months after the project’s launch.
Additionally, DigiArt also failed to provide a written start date on the contract with Casale, as well as a number of other important details.
This ultimately led to Judge Wendy Berger of the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando, ruling in Casale’s favor and dismissing the case.
“The draft contained several blanks including the effective date, artist name, and net sales proceeds allocation…in the body of the email, [DigiArt’s] representative stated that the profit split would be ’50/50′ ‘on initial NFT drops,’” the court document said.
Krapopolis’ long-awaited debut
Krapopolis, the NFT-linked animated series from Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon is finally set to air this month after first being announced in June 2021.
The show will debut with its first two episodes on FOX on September 24, and will air on FOX’s Animation Domination series block starting October 1 alongside The Simpsons, Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers.
Finally the wait is over, #Krapopolis citizens!
Mark your calendars ️ and set your reminders ⏲️:
Krapopolis makes its series debut on FOX on Sunday, September 24, immediately following the FOX NFL doubleheader (5:00-6:00 PM PST). And it’s not just one episode, but TWO ✌️ Can you…
— Krapopolis (,) (@Krapopolis) July 10, 2023
Krapopolis is a comedy set in ancient Greece that follows a “flawed family of humans, gods, and monsters as they attempt to rule one of the world’s first cities without killing each other.”
The show’s NFTs are called “Krap Chickens” and feature cartoon chicken avatars in the same art style as the show. There are 10,420 NFTs in total and holders get benefits such as voting rights for certain aspects of the show and exclusive rewards, content and experiences.
Krapopolis characters and voice actors. Source: FOX.
NFTs help rural artists gain fame
While mainstream media has recently turned heads by claiming that NFTs are “finally totally worthless,” a digital artist from rural Victoria, Australia, has highlighted an important use case for the technology; increasing the awareness of regional/remote creatives.
Speaking to the ABC on September 22, Warracknabeal artist Ben Fowler emphasized that tokenising his artwork allowed him to reach a global audience and grow his career from home, without ever having to move cities like Melbourne, which is almost last four hours. away.
“I listed my Astral Travel Sickness piece… which sold within three days, and for the equivalent of 0.34 Ether, which was worth about $930 at the time,” he said, adding: “Then I added one toe and it sold, and another… people kept resonating and buying it and I started meeting new people and it just took off.”
“[It] certainly gives people from regional places who can’t go to places like Melbourne the opportunity to build a career for themselves […] Artists don’t make a lot of money unless they’re at a very high level, but it allows low-level artists and creatives to cash in on some of that and earn what they’re worth, and that’s a beautiful thing.”
Fowler’s digital art. Source: Instagram
Other useful news:
Bitcoin Ordinals creator and lead coder Casey Rodarmor recently proposed changing the protocol’s numbering system with the aim of simplifying the project’s code base.
Proof of Play, a company led by Farmville co-creator Amitt Mahajan, has raised $33 million to create Web3 games, according to a September 21 announcement. Majahan is the CEO of Proof of Play and Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear is a board member.