In this week’s newsletter, read about Line Next’s $140 million fundraise while preparing to launch its nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace globally, and find out how NFT Trader recovered $3 million in NFTs that were stolen from its platform. Check out how an executive imagines renting out in-game assets through NFTs, and read about the OKX NFT platform surpassing competitors in daily trading volume. In other news, Coinbase’s Base blockchain gets its very own song. 

Line messenger’s NFT arm raises $140 million for Web3 services

Line Next, which is the popular messaging platform’s NFT-focused venture, raised $140 million as it prepares to launch a global marketplace. Crescendo Equity Partners, a firm backed by former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, led the funding round. 

The company also announced that DOSI, Line Next’s global NFT marketplace, is scheduled to launch early in 2024 after integrating with the firm’s existing NFT platform based in Japan. 

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NFT Trader’s stolen Apes returned after bounty payment

The hacker who stole nearly $3 million worth of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFTs returned the assets after receiving a bounty payment of 120 Ether ( ETH ), which is worth around $260,000. 

In total, the 36 BAYC and 18 MAYC NFTs that were stolen were returned after a community initiative led by the ApeCoin-funded security project Boring Security. The assets were recovered less than 24 hours after paying the bounty, which was 10% of the floor price of the NFTs. 

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Web3 firm sees a future where gamers rent out their in-game assets for crypto

In a Cointelegraph interview, Polemos co-founder Richard McLaren expressed hopes for a future where players can rent in-game items through the blockchain. This could be borrowing NFTs that allow trying new games on their wishlist or NFTs linked to tools that could help gamers pass a difficult level inside games. 

McLaren said this feature would allow newbies to dip their toes into games without fully committing to buying the entire thing. “We think that not only will it increase sales, but it’s only increasing your ability to attract players because they can check things out.”

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OKX NFT Marketplace tops Blur and OpenSea in daily trading volume

OKX’s NFT marketplace surpassed the 24-hour trading volume of its competitors like Blur, OpenSea and Magic Eden on Dec. 18. Around 10:00 am UTC, decentralized application tracker DappRadar showed that the OKX NFT marketplace recorded a daily trading volume of around $50 million. 

The marketplace’s success is attributed to the platform offering trading of Bitcoin Ordinals, which gained a weekly sales volume of $367 million at the time. 

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Base blockchain gets its own song and mints first single as NFT

Layer-2 blockchain Base partnered with music platform Sound.xyz to allow artists to mint music within its ecosystem. To commemorate the partnership, a new song called “Based” was minted on the blockchain by artists Reo Cragun and Heno. 

The song’s lyrics included references to the crypto ecosystem, including a description of user behavior during the bear market. “Some people leave whenever there are tough times, but shout out to the real ones that stuck by.”

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NFT Trader recovers stolen Apes, Line’s NFT arm raises $140M: Nifty Newsletter image 0

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Thanks for reading this digest of the week’s most notable developments in the NFT space. Come again next Wednesday for more reports and insights into this actively evolving space.