According to data from Dune Analytics, monthly revenue on OpenSea, the top platform for buying and selling NFTs, hit $3.4 billion in August, easily an all-time high. September is already the second-best month ever with sales of $485 million (as of Friday).
Celebrity attention has helped fuel the hype. NBA star Steph Curry has reportedly just paid $180,000 for an NFT from Bored Ape Yacht Club, one of the most well-known NFT projects. He changed his Twitter avatar to show his prize: a picture 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 by giving them the stamp of approval that celebs typically give labels like Gucci or bestow Supreme.
“Athletes and celebrities want to brag about it,” Adkins told me. This helps the NFT industry to build “clout”.
Auction houses have served a similar function. NFTs really caught the public eye after a JPEG file created by digital artist Beeple sold for $69 million at Christie’s in March. This week, Sotheby’s will be auctioning off a slew of Bored Ape NFTs that are expected to fetch up to $18 million.
Look at this section: Most NFTs are bought with Ethereum. The digital currency started a robust price recovery over the past month, gaining 36%. It is now trading just below $4,000, not far from the record high it hit before the cryptocurrency crash in May.
where does it end Les Borsai, co-founder of Wave Financial, a Los Angeles-based digital asset investment management firm, dismisses the idea of a “bubble” given the technology underlying NFTs.
He points to all the ways digital art and collectibles can be monetized, including through the fast-growing world of blockchain-based gaming.
“A tulip was a tulip,” Borsai told me, alluding to the early 17th-century Dutch tulip mania, which was one of the most famous market bubbles in history. “These things are connected to absolutely robust technologies.”
Why everyone is watching the Elizabeth Holmes trial
The trial of Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO and founder of Theranos, begins in earnest this week.
On the calendar: Opening statements are scheduled for Wednesday, according to my CNN Business colleague Sara Ashley O’Brien, who is covering the trial from the San Jose courtroom.
Holmes was indicted on a dozen state fraud and conspiracy charges more than three years ago, alleging she knowingly misled investors, patients and doctors about the capabilities of the company’s blood-testing technology. She has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 20 years in prison.
The trial, which has been delayed multiple times due to the pandemic and the birth of Holmes’ first child in July, is expected to last around 13 weeks.
Time machine: In the company’s heyday, Holmes, 37, was the object of great fascination. A Stanford University dropout with a declared fear of needles, she founded Theranos in 2003 to revolutionize blood testing.
Holmes raised hundreds of millions of dollars from high-profile individuals including media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Walmart’s Walton family and former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Magazine covers have hailed her as the richest self-made woman and “the next Steve Jobs,” an image she helped cultivate by dressing the role in her signature black turtleneck. At its peak, her startup was valued at $9 billion.
This image was shattered in the wake of reporter John Carreyrou’s 2015 investigation for The Wall Street Journal. In recent years, Holmes has instead been portrayed as a con artist toying with Silicon Valley’s worst impulses.
Reality check: The cautionary tale of Theranos has done little to stem the hype surrounding healthcare startups, however. In the first quarter of 2021, retail venture capital funding for health and wellness technology companies set a record with $4.2 billion invested in 153 deals, according to PitchBook.
Next
Monday: US markets closed
Tuesday: Bitcoin becomes legal tender in El Salvador; Policy decision of the Reserve Bank of Australia
