This article is part of Blockworks’ Web3 Watch, a weekly recap of the highs and lows of the culture side of crypto.
Wireless carrier NETGEAR has partnered with SuperRare for its Meural Opus, $800 digital photo frames that can connect to wallets and display NFTs.
NETGEAR acquired Meural and its smart frame technology in 2018 and brought its NFT play into effect in 2022, in partnership with Metamask and member of SuperRare’s DAO.
The launch combines a growing and a shrinking market. Persistence Market Research predicts that smart frames will grow at an annual rate of 3.1% over the next decade, while the NFT market continues to decline.
And the Opus is not a smart frame with NFT functionality added. The Meural Opus page on NETGEAR’s website bills the product as a new way to “showcase your NFTs” and teases the company’s upcoming crypto culture-inspired NFT drop.
Poppy Simpson, senior product and content manager for NETGEAR’s Meural line, said the company sees a future for NFTs despite this year’s recession.
“The market adjustment we are seeing now is exactly that: an adjustment. The highs we saw for NFTs as they made their way into popular language were not sustainable,” Simpson said. “Our research suggests that there is relative stability in terms of price/volume in the ‘art’ segment of the market.”
One interesting statistic:
- Polymarket’s prediction market gives Sam Bankman-Fried a 35% chance of being sentenced to 50 years or more in prison.
Also important:
- SocialScan hopes to turn a block explorer like Etherscan into a social platform. The platform has similar functionality to other block explorers, but provides wallet labels such as ‘Whale’ or ‘Notable NFT Holder’ and allows wallet owners to follow and message each other.
- Italian football club AC Milan sold one meter by one meter of blockchain-based squares on its pitch. When something notable happens on a holder’s plot, the owner of the “block” earns rewards.
- After hitting a low in early October, NFT volumes have risen for four weeks in a row.