Love them, hate them or plain not understand them, one of the hottest trends at the moment is NFTs (non-fungible tokens). There are plenty of global brands getting into this scene with HTC Vive announcing plans to launch its own marketplace called Vive Bytes next month.
Vive Bytes will be part of Viveport, the hardware-agnostic store for virtual reality (VR) videogames and apps. The NFT platform will focus on anime, cartoon, and game-themed NFTs to begin with, with the first wave of NFTs coming from the Step Into Cat Art exhibition by Shu Yamamoto.
Viveport held an online exhibition for Yamamoto’s Step Into Cat Art in September 2021, where guests could view 124 virtual versions of his work. Soon, you’ll be able to own some of these as NFTs. To begin with, the entire The Hisstine Chaple ceiling painting will be available via a series of “Collect-to-Unlock” NFT Mystery Box special events. Anyone who purchases Cat Art NFTs will also get the opportunity to buy limited-edition 3D Cat Art model NFTs, like the one above.
As for Vive Bytes itself, the platform will support both fiat and cryptocurrency payments at launch as well as the ability to link MetaMask wallets to users accounts. In the future, the marketplace plans to add auction features.
“NFTs are changing how we think about identity and ownership, and Vive Bytes is at the forefront of unlocking the potential of creative works and making digital works more accessible for consumers and creators,” said Joseph Lin, general manager at Viveport in a statement. “Following the launch of the world’s first Cat Art online exhibition with our partners last year, we’re delivering new formats of CAT ART NFTs – enabling visitors to grow and diversify their collection of digital works.”
However, this isn’t HTC Vive’s first foray into NFTs. Back in December as part of its Viverse strategy, the company sold NFTs of Art Nouveau masterpieces by Czech artist Alphonse Mucha via its Vive Arts Marketplace.
Vive Bytes is scheduled to launch in mid-February featuring exclusive NFTs during its inaugural sales event. For further updates on the new marketplace, keep reading gmw3.
