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.
Despite the regulatory crackdown on staking and stablecoins over the past couple of weeks, the world of NFTs is still trudging away with new developments.
While for years NFTs have mostly been shunned by the traditional art world, that may be starting to change—in a big way. This week, the Los Angeles Museum of Art (LACMA) received 22 NFT pieces of art from major artists like Dmitri Cherniak, Cai Guo-Quiang, Matt DesLauriers, and Monica Rizzoli. The pieces, donated by pseudonymous NFT collector Cozomo de’ Medici, will be placed in the museum’s permanent collection.
1/ Announcing the first donation of on-chain art from a collector to a museum, and the largest digital fine art collection to enter a museum
— Cozomo de’ Medici (@CozomoMedici) February 13, 2023
22 works from The Cozomo de' Medici Collection have been added to the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) pic.twitter.com/6ePSznorrM
The LACMA NFT donation is the latest effort to bring more blockchain-based art to notable museums. Last week, the Paris-based Centre Pompidou acquired 18 NFT works by 13 international and French artists for its collection.
Elsewhere, the NFT exchange wars are heating up, with newcomer Blur overtaking established leader OpenSea in Ethereum trading volume this week for the first time, CoinDesk reported, citing data from Nansen.ai. And although Blur hasn't surpassed OpenSea in terms of weekly trading volume or number of active wallets, it's already making a name for itself and attempting to shake up the market for NFTs.
The exchange recommended that artists listing NFTs on its platform blocklist their projects from OpenSea to earn full royalties. The blog post explains that because of a discrepancy in their royalty rules, which deals with the percentage given to the original artist of an NFT when their art is resold, NFT creators cannot simultaneously earn royalties on Blur and OpenSea.
In other news:
Mardi Gras is the biggest event of the year in New Orleans, and with the help of a new NFT from The Nieux Society you can celebrate it in style this year. The New Orleans collective aimed at exploring Web3 tech has released 5,000 of the digital collectibles starting at 0.1 Ether ($166) that give buyers access to fully stocked cash bars, daily food offerings from local restaurateurs, a private lounge area, and music and DJs at Nieux Homebase, which is along the parade route on St. Charles Avenue. The NFTs can be used for access to events at the location from Jan. 6 to Mardi Gras Day every year.
Fans of The Masked Singer can now participate directly in the show via a line of free NFTs dubbed “loyalty passes.” After connecting their MetaMask wallets and claiming the pass, they can scan QR codes to level up their passes by voting on which character will make it to the next round. For around $50, fans can also buy an AI-generated NFT created by digital artist Waxbones that gives them exclusive content.
Massive interest in Starbucks’ Polygon NFTs has pushed their resale price into the thousands of dollars. One NFT, the Holiday Cheer Edition 1 Stamp, was handed out to Starbucks Odyssey members who met certain requirements, but it soon had a price floor of $2,000 on NFT exchange Nifty Gateway.
