✨ This post originally appeared in Metaversal on Bankless ✨

Crypto has a way of rewarding the curious.

The NFT space was reminded of that dynamic once again this week when scaling project Dymension announced DYM airdrop allocations for holders of Pudgy Penguins (Ethereum), Mad Lads (Solana), and Bad Kids (Cosmos).

That’s just one recent example, but it highlights how going wide across the NFT frontier is poised to be increasingly rewarding for the crypto curious in this new bull market.

I say explore this frontier, have fun, and collect and mint some stuff you like. The chips can fall where they may after that. Knowledge is its own reward here, always, but other rewards are likely, too.

You’ll need your starter tools, of course. Your Ethereum + L2s wallet can be your home base. For Bitcoin NFTs, consider the Xverse wallet. For Solana, Phantom. For Cosmos chains, Keplr.

In the meantime, though, let’s get you up to speed on the latest happenings here—time for your latest weekly NFT roundup!

-WMP

This week in NFTs…

📰 General news

• Bitcoin faced a potential BRC-20 indexer schism, though a split was averted.

• Casey Rodarmor, the creator of Ordinals, unveiled the latest update of the ord block explorer and indexer.

• ENS reached +2 million names registered.

• House of Nouns launched its V2 platform.

• Less Fees & Gas airdropped $LFG, a Solana token, to Ethereum users.

• Ordinals underwent its Jubilee upgrade, an optimization that “blesses” what would have otherwise been “cursed” inscriptions going forward.

• The Nouns Square published the 2023 Nouns DAO Wrap-Up.

🎨 Cryptoart & music

• Mathcastles deployed its Terraforms V2 release, featuring Antenna mode, and its latest artwork, the zk-based Angelus.

• Sound upped its curator rewards.

🏆 Digital collectibles

• Emblem Vault launched the Emblem Vault SDK.

• Jack Butcher announced giveaways of a special series of inscribed Checks, slated for Feb. 8th.

• NodeMonkes, a new Bitcoin NFT collection, has surged to a 0.28 BTC floor.

• Rektguy holders are being given equity in Rekt Brands Inc.

• Yaypegs has been offered up for sale.

📱 Onchain social

• Bountycaster streamlined support for Base payments.

• Buttrfly added support for minting Sound tracks.

• Farcaster, in collaboration with Coinbase Wallet, is temporarily offering free sign-ups.

🎮 Decentralized gaming

• Axie Infinity added the Parts Evolution system to Axie Origins.

• Cartridge proposed the creation of a custom L3 rollup for Realms World.

• Parallel kicked off Season 6 gameplay, with the title’s closed beta now having notched over 725,000 matches to date.

• Pixels launched its Play-to-Airdrop 2.0 campaign.

• Ronin reached +1 million monthly active addresses.

• Sky Strife begins its Season 0.1 gameplay next week.

• WASD published 5 Onchain Games to Try and Guide to Onchain Solana Gaming.

🪙 NFTfi

• NFTfi.com facilitated +150 loans against Rektguys last month.

• Uniswap notched a new all-time high volume record on Arbitrum.

🌐 Virtual worlds

• Decentraland unveiled a series of new build templates.

• Midjourney is angling for a holodeck, i.e. real-time “open world” visuals, by the end of the year.

• VIPE saw its VRM marketplace grow to +250,000 avatars in 2023.

Thanks for reading this week’s roundup! For more catching up:

• 📚 Collect the latest Metaversal posts on Mirror

• 🔴 Collect my free We Love the Art submission: Audacity of the Troubadour

• 🆕 See my other recent write-ups:

  • 🎇 2023 NFT Highlights

  • 📬 Bitcoin Stamps Explained