American entrepreneur Kevin Rose has shown his business savvy, selling an Art Blocks Curated NFT overnight for 777 Ethereum (US$2.5 million), after buying it two months ago for 1 Ether (US$3,200).

The NFT is part of the Fidenza collection of 999 images created from an algorithm programmed by Austin, Texas-based artist Tyler Hobbs, that have been setting eye-popping prices.

The images are based on data from the Ethereum blockchain, and Hobbs doesn’t get to see them until the NFTs are created.

Rose founded Digg, an early Reddit-like site, in 2004. He’s also a co-founder of failed microblogging site Pownce, and worked for a time as a venture partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures).

A look at his wallet reveals Rose owns 220 other NFTs, including Art Blocks, Meebits, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Cool Cats.

Rose’s NFT sale isn’t even the most profitable Fidenza flip.

On Tuesday, a user who bought Fidenza #313 two months ago for 0.58 Ether sold it for 1,000 Eth (US$3.2 million).

 

Animoca partners with Star Atlas

Former ASX company Animoca Brands has joined forces with Star Atlas, a highly anticipated sci-fi “metaverse” game backed by crypto luminary Sam Bankman-Fried that is holding its token sale tonight.

The two companies have agreed to collaborate, cross-licence their intellectual property, and make their in-game items permanent assets in both ecosystem’s economic systems.

“Animoca Brands is one of — if not the biggest — names in the blockchain gaming community,” Star Atlas co-founder and chief revenue officer Pablo Quiroga said in the announcement.

“The insight and opportunities that will come out of our relationship with the Animoca Brands team will expand Star Atlas worldwide and beyond. We’re honored to join the reputable ecosystem of Animoca Brands-backed games, and look forward to revolutionizing the interoperable relationship between Ethereum and Solana gamers.”

Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu said that Star Atlas was “leading the charge in the economic and creative development of the metaverse and the future of virtual worlds” and Animoca looked forward to working with them.

Star Atlas is being built on the Solana high-performance blockchain, using Epic Games’ Unreal graphics engine. The designers behind the game are promising it’ll be a “AAA” game – the industry term for the highest budget games from major publishers like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft.

It looks a bit similar to Eve Online, a popular spaceship massive multiplayer game. This slick-looking teaser trailer dropped for Star Atlas overnight.

The token sale for Star Atlas’ ATLAS and POLIS tokens is being held tonight on Bankman-Fried’s FTX, the Solana exchange Raydium and the launchpad Apollo X.

Spaceships and other in-game items will be NFTs, meaning they are fully owned by players.

Sollamas selling briskly

Meanwhile, the Sollamas project, founded by a team in Melbourne, has rebounded from a rocky launch.

As Stockhead reported last week, the team made about US$2.5 million, less costs, by selling 9,900 llama NFT avatars to users in the space of just a few minutes on August 17.

But some users who paid for llamas didn’t receive them, while others received more than they paid for.

The team ended up offering refunds and “killing” all the first generation of llamas, with new ones being minted and airdropped to buyers.

The llamas were sold for 4 Solana tokens (about US$290) and the floor (lowest) price for llamas on Solanart this morning was 9.6 SOL (US$700).