Source: pudgypenguins / Twitter

Today in NFT news: VanEck becomes an NFT Paris conference partner, Pudgy Penguins are up over 170% in a month, and the NFT-based chess strategy and spell game Anichess launches for all players.

Since yesterday, the non-fungible token (NFT) sales volume is down just over 1%, now standing at $45,453,200.

The number of sellers has gone up less than 1%, and the number of buyers is down 10%.

Transactions are also down nearly 47% to 319,740.

VanEck Joins NFT Paris

NFT Paris has announced the major asset management firm VanEck as a partner.

The company has shared the news as well.

Coming for your jpegs https://t.co/KFvSb6kWme

— VanEck (@vaneck_us) January 17, 2024

The conference’s 3rd edition will be held on February 23-24 at the Grand Palais Éphémère.

The organizers expect more than 100 exhibitors. Speakers come from the blockchain, gaming, social, fashion, art, brands, and corporate spheres.

Besides VanEck, making NFT news as major partners are names like Animoca Brands, Polygon, Art Blocks, 9dcc, and .arianee.

Sponsors include Ledger, Tezos, Narval, Pudgy Penguins, The Sandbox, and many more.

Many commenters have welcomed the news, while others posted memes about institutions “coming for your jpegs”.

 

Please don’t right click save anything ser

— Kraken NFT (@KrakenNFT) January 17, 2024

 

Meanwhile, VanEck will close and liquidate its Bitcoin futures ETF less than two years after its initial launch.

Read more: VanEck Plans To Close and Liquidate its Bitcoin Futures ETF “XBTF”

Pudgy Penguins Break the NFT News and Rule the Month

Blockchain analytics firm Nansen found that the floor price of the popular Pudgy Penguins collection went up 172% over the past 30 days — making it the best-performing NFT with a minimum volume of 1,000 ETH.

It said that the only other NFT to have their floor price increase by over 100% during the same period and minimum volume is L3E7.

Source: Nansen / Twitter

Notably, Pudgy Penguins is also the best performer among the top 5 collections by sales volume today. Per CryptoSlam, it’s up 312% at the time of writing.

LilPudgys (a collection of 22,222 NFTs originating from Pudgy Penguins) is in second place, with a rise of 173% over the past 24 hours.

In comparison, the third-placed Dokyo is up 21%.

Pudgy Penguins and LilPudgys are ranked 1st and 4th by sales volume, respectively.

Over the last 24 hours, Pudgy Penguins have seen a 279% increase in transactions, 241% in buyers, and 271% in sellers.

LidPudgys are up 15% in transactions, 114% in buyers, and 123% in sellers.

Over the past seven days, Pudgy Penguins rank sixth by sales volume. It is up 330% to  $7,985,196. In this period, it has seen a 185% increase in transactions, 192% in buyers, and 215% in sellers.

Over the past month, the collection ranks 14th, with a sales volume of $14,838,140. Its sales volume is down 18%. Transactions, buyers, and sellers are all down over 40%.

Read more: Pudgy Penguins Unveils Web3 Game ‘Pudgy World’ Powered by zkSync Era

NFT-based Chess Strategy Game Anichess Launches for All Players

Following the successful launch of Anichess Mini Game Early Access, the NFT-based chess strategy game Anichess has officially launched its first stage and opened access to all players.

Game software development company Animoca Brands has collaborated on this decentralized game with Chess.com and Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen.

It offers players a combination of traditional chess, blockchain, and spellcasting.

1/ Mates, time to cast your best spell chess moves – the Anichess Mini Game is live on https://t.co/yii2BNaz9K!
We kick-off with:
Daily Puzzles
Bonus Puzzles
Missions
Gambit
Rewards
@MocaverseNFT special #chesswithadropofmagic pic.twitter.com/MAVfS2SDzu

— Anichess (@AnichessGame) January 16, 2024

Currently, players can enjoy a single-player experience. Online player-vs-player (PVP) mode should be launched in the first quarter of this year.

Per the blog post, the experience will initially launch with Daily Puzzles and Bonus Puzzles, with additional game modes to be introduced over time.

Anichess players collect NFTs called Orbs of Power by completing daily puzzle challenges. These Orbs are tradable on Polygon.

Per the OpenSea analytics, over the past week, Orbs of Power sales have gone up 1,393% to 3,627 and volume 603% to 5.85 ETH. The floor price is down 98% to 0.095 MATIC.

The game secured $1.5 million in seed funding from a group of investors in 2023.

Read more: Cheating Rampant in Blockchain Chess, Leading to Shutdown of Immortal Game’s Play-to-Earn Features

The post VanEck, Pudgy Penguins and Anichess – Top NFT News Today – 18 January appeared first on Cryptonews.