Welcome to “This week in the metaverse,” where Fortune rounds up the most interesting news in the world of NFTs, culture, and the metaverse. Email marco.quiroz-gutierrez@fortune.com with tips.
One of the most notable companies in NFTs, Yuga Labs, released their first big project of 2022 this week, a collection of NFTs called Sewer Passes. The NFTs, which were gifted to existing Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club owners, and have yielded more than $27 million (around 18,000 ETH), in secondary sales after it launched on Jan. 18.
The NFTs give buyers access to a new game from Yuga called Dookey Dash, which is open until Feb. 8. A player’s score on Dookey Dash will apparently be incorporated later on in a hazy but potentially exciting narrative experience called “Chapter 1.”
Although some were confused as to why people would pay money for a Yuga NFT to play Dookey Dash, others said the game was addictive.
1/X My kid and I played about 30 rounds of #dookeydash last night.
— ian c 🏇#solmvp (@iancummingsnft) January 20, 2023
If this was a mobile game without the promise of the 1 key, IMO it’d be DOA. That being said, it makes me bullllllllish… some thoughts:
🧵 pic.twitter.com/eqfsH2y5Ja
The price floor for the Sewer Passes on OpenSea was 2 Ether, or about $3100 as of Friday. The NFTs come in four tiers that were originally doled out based on the existing Yuga NFTs in your wallet. The higher the tier, the higher the bonus percentage added to your score in Dookey Dash.
Heads up, Apes: Our video explainer for the latest update on the Sewer Pass and Dookey Dash can be found below and on our official Yuga Labs YouTube channel! Take some time to watch it through once… Or twice. pic.twitter.com/QIeGMw7Oqa
— Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) January 14, 2023
Meanwhile, the NFT project launched by former President Donald Trump is seeing a revival, with prices skyrocketing 800% this week despite no update in the collection.
The widely ridiculed digital collectibles that feature Trump’s face superimposed onto the bodies of an astronaut and superhero, among others, sold out during their initial launch and raised $4.5 million. After excitement waned, trading volume slumped 99%, although the price of the cheapest NFT on the secondary market was still double its initial price.
From Tuesday to Wednesday total daily sales volume for the collection jumped to $306,000 from $34,000 over 24 hours, Decrypt reported. The boost in activity pushed its average sales price in January to $374, according to CryptoSlam, up from last month and a 277% increase from their initial $99 price tag.
In other news:
L’oreal-owned brand NYX Professional Makeup will release an NFT access pass to GORJS, a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) dedicated to beauty. The NFTs will unlock perks for the DAO’s founding members. The goal of the DAO is to empower “a community of digital beauty artists, allowing them to create and share their ideas, while retaining full ownership of their work and earning royalties,” according to a statement.
South Korea has finally brought us the long-awaited metaverse version of its capital city Seoul this week. The goal of the project is to improve public services, but it won’t be fully finished until 2026. As part of its initial launch, citizens will be able to get their tax questions answered, get small business support, and read e-books. The project is part of South Korea’s “Digital New Deal” initiative.
Another metaverse city opens in Seoul Korea!!
— Sandy.NFT 11-11 (@sandy_carter) January 17, 2023
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced the launch of the city's official municipal metaverse.
It offers residents important resources and offers virtual recreations of local attractions. #Metaverse #Seoul #quote @unstoppableweb pic.twitter.com/DToJZeBscW
Blockchain analytics firm DappRadar released its Blockchain and Dapp Adoption Report 2022 this week and found that more than 101 million NFTs sold in 2022 across all blockchains. More than 21.2 million NFTs were sold on the Ethereum blockchain, followed by Wax (14.5 million) and Flow (11.9 million). It concluded that the once high-flying DeFi sector is waning in terms of new decentralized application activity, while there has been a boost in NFT and gaming dapps.
