Arenas have arrived in Dimension X, bringing with them a chance for players to compete in evenly matched bouts for special prizes which could include crafting materials, power tokens, or even blockchain tokens!

Dimension X is free to play, so there is no barrier preventing you from jumping in and trying out their new arena mode. In fact, everyone has access to the same hero pool in arena competitions, so it doesn’t even matter if you are a brand new player!

Joining Arena quests is free. Just look for the quest with the arena icon with the X on it. Once you join, you recruit your team, place your heroes, and then wait for the results.

And while you’re waiting for the arena results, you might as well join in on some other quests! Quests in Dimension X are competitions with other players. Each quest has a time limit and a leaderboard. When the quest timer runs out, players are rewarded based on their placement on the leaderboard for that quest. Rewards are given based on overall placement, and percentage placement (ie, you get an extra reward for placing in the top 10% of players in regards to damage done). Some quests even give out rewards to all of the participants!

Players earn experience, faction points, and various resources when completing quests. This includes THUL tokens, used for minting new heroes, and Tech tokens, used to upgrade Hero powers.

Dimension X is free to play. And you can choose to play on either the Flow or the main Ethereum network. On the Flow network, you will need is a Dapper account, which can be easily set up with an Apple or Google login, or with an email address. The Ethereum side works with Metamask.

What is Dimension X?

Dimension X is a web-based strategy game that sees players setting up teams of heroes, to fight against fearsome creatures. Players assemble their teams, trying to generate the best damage combination possible and earn a spot on the quest leaderboard. Players can claim rewards based on their placement during these quest challenges.

New players start with a selection of free Heroes and can find more as they play. Heroes can only be active on one quest at a time. So checking in regularly and building a large stable of heroes will help you progress faster.

Players can earn resources, faction points, tokens, and hero experience from quests. That can also find and craft gear. Gear is bound to a hero once equipped. But it can be overwritten with new items. At the end of the season, all items and materials are deleted, but Heroes retain legacy bonuses from any equipped items as permanent enhancements to the character. This allows players to continue to grow their character power between seasons, even with item wipes!

And for those who want that extra edge, you can buy NFT heroes on both the Flow and Ethereum chains. NFT owners will need to stake their NFTs in order to use them in-game, though they can be unstaked at any time.

With character abilities, powers, affinities, gears, factions, linked squares, and more, Dimension X has plenty of room for strategic decision making and planning.

To learn more about Dimension X, visit their website, follow them on Twitter, and join their Discord chat.

Big news: Disney is introducing its new NFT platform in collaboration with Dapper Labs. Under the name Disney Pinnacle, this innovative NFT platform will be accessible by the end of the year. See all the details below. 

Disney embraces NFT technology with Dapper Labs

As anticipated, Disney recently announced a collaboration with Dapper Labs, a blockchain and metaverse company, to create a non-fungible token (NFT) platform. 

The announcement, dated 14 November, reveals that Disney plans to tokenize its iconic cartoon characters from the last century through the NFT platform called Disney Pinnacle. 

In addition, the platform also includes characters from Pixar and the Star Wars universe, presented in a unique style similar to collectible and exchangeable digital pins.

Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs, explains that fans around the world will be able to collect dynamic pins on their mobile devices and exchange them instantly and securely, regardless of their geographical location. 

The NFT platform is scheduled to launch later this year and will be available on Apple’s App Store for iOS, the Google Play Store for Android, and online. 

Currently, only a waiting list and a ‘landing’ site can be found on the platform’s official page.

Disney Pinnacle is based on the layer-1 Flow blockchain, developed by Dapper Labs, the same blockchain on which Ticketmaster decided to coin tickets for NFT events. 

Recall also that earlier this year, Disney shut down its metaverse division as part of a larger restructuring plan aimed at reducing operating expenses by $5.5 billion and laying off 7,000 employees in two months. 

On the other hand, Dapper Labs, founded in Vancouver in 2018, received a $15 million investment from Hong Kong-based Web3 maker Animoca Brands. 

In July 2023, Dapper Labs announced its third round of staff layoffs since the beginning of the year. The company is known for its NFT brands such as CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot.

Optimism in NFTs: a crescendo of sales and positive outlook

In the weeks leading up to November 2023, data on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) reveal a steady increase in weekly sales. Although far from the 2021 peak, industry leaders are confident that the upward momentum will continue.

Specifically, on 6 November, data from Nansen, a blockchain analytics firm, indicated an increase in NFT sales from $56 million in the week to 9 October to $129 million in the week to 6 November.

Jonathan Perkins, co-founder of NFT marketplace SuperRare, expects this trend to persist in the months ahead. He also states that the worst is over and anticipates upward movement in the near future, underscoring a change in market sentiment.

In fact, for Perkins, the previous decline in NFTs was mainly “sentimental.” He stressed that there has been nothing inherently wrong with NFTs over the past 18 months, viewing them as a key advance for the Internet.

According to Perkins, in the long run, NFTs will be an essential part of the online economy, predicting volumes that will exceed those of the previous cycle. A view shared by Sonia Shaw of CoinW digital asset exchange, who sees NFTs as a broader interest beyond art and collectibles.

Shaw believes NFTs will revolutionize sectors such as real estate, finance, identity management and supply chain logistics. However, he warns that despite the revolutionary potential, it is essential to address regulatory issues, environmental impact and security challenges.

Oscar Franklin Tan, CFO of NFT platform Enjin, also supports NFTs as a digital asset separate from cryptocurrency. 

He notes that investors, primarily interested in NFTs in 2021, could bring the renewed interest in Bitcoin and Ethereum to high-grade NFTs as well, including those related to games.

Ripple XRP Ledger (XRPL): the upgrade for NFT security and integrity

Ripple XRP Ledger (XRPL) is about to undergo a significant update thanks to the approval of the “fixNFTokenRemint” amendment. 

This amendment, which is crucial to optimize the operation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the platform, won broad support from the community with 27 out of 34 votes in favor. 

The activation is scheduled for 27 November and aims to solve a critical problem in the NFT world: preventing sequence number collisions during the creation of NFTs.

In addition, the update is notable for the introduction of two key new elements: a “AccountRoot” field and a persistent “FirstNFTSequence.” 

These additions play a key role in recalibrating the generation of NFT sequence numbers, eliminating the risk of reproducing existing NFTs with identical sequence numbers. 

The formula for computing the sequence of a newly minted NFT will now be “FirstNFTSequence + MintedNFTokens,” with an increment of “MintedNFTokens” of one. 

This new approach increases the security of the NFT ecosystem on the XRPL and promotes greater integrity in the tracking and ownership of NFTs.

Finally, the update strengthens the security of user accounts by restricting the ability to delete accounts, thus providing an additional layer of protection for XRPL users.

The CEO of Dapper Labs said today that the company had to lay off 51 brilliant employees due to the bear-market in NFTs. 

We said goodbye to 51 brilliant colleagues and friends today @dapperlabs – this is the note I sent our team.

We remain fully dedicated to our core communities and committed to building amazing products that push the world forward together.

If you’re looking to hire some of the… pic.twitter.com/xwhjZAYLN8

— roham (@roham) July 13, 2023

Dapper Labs calls itself an “NFT company,” and it is the team behind famous projects such as CryptoKitties, NBA Top Shot, NFL ALL DAY, LaLiga Golazos, and others. 

The bear-market of NFTs and the problems of Dapper Labs

Taking data from OpenSea, which is what has long been the world’s leading marketplace for NFTs, the bear-market began in June last year, and is still ongoing. 

After an all-time high of $4.8 billion in monthly trading volume in January 2022, the growth of this marketplace has stalled. It is enough to think that only a year earlier, in January 2021, monthly trading volumes had stopped just above $7 million. 

So what happened in 2021 was a real speculative bubble, in some ways very similar to that of the crypto markets, albeit with enormously lower volumes. 

Until May 2022, monthly trading volumes on OpenSea had remained above $2.5 billion, but with the implosion of the Terra/Luna ecosystem, and the collapse of the crypto markets, the bear-market of the NFT market began in June last year. 

Monthly volumes collapsed first to less than 700 million, and then fell again to 250 million in November. 

By 2023 they seemed to have recovered somewhat, as they exceeded 650 million in February, but then the slump continued. 

In June they plummeted to 160 million, and in the first twelve days of July they were even below 65 million. 

Such a slump could not help but affect the entire industry, including leading companies like Dapper Labs, which have been in business for years. 

Dapper Labs: the NFT gaming company

Probably the most famous collection of NFTs created by Dapper Labs are the CryptoKitties, which is one of the absolute most historic ones in this industry. 

Indeed, they were among the first ever NFTs to be launched, back in November 2017, when the OpenSea marketplace itself had not even been launched yet. 

The first complete monthly figures we have regarding trading volumes on OpenSea date back to August 2018, and at that time trades totaling only a little over $3,000 were recorded. 

Dapper Labs’ most successful NFTs, however, are probably the NBA Top Shots, which had a truly colossal boom in trading volumes in the first part of 2021. 

According to CryptoSlam data, they went from $99,000 in trades on 1 January 2021 to $6.7 million three weeks later. Then, after an initial downturn, they resumed their run, reaching a daily high of $45.7 million in late February. 

By April, average daily volumes had dropped to $1 million, and by the end of 2021 they even fell below half a million.

The real collapse occurred from the end of May 2022, when they fell sharply below half a million dollars in daily trading volume, and even plummeted below $30,000 on some days in early July 2023.

These figures clearly illustrate what a sales crisis the company is going through. 

Indeed, the one announced today is actually the third round of layoffs, following the massive ones of November 2022, when they were forced to cut the entire workforce by 22%, and February 2023, when the cut was 20%. 

This third round of layoffs seems much less extensive than the previous two. 

The future of the industry

As the bear-market in the NFT market seems unabated, the future for Dapper Labs seems uncertain. 

On a positive note, although they were forced to make a third staff cut, the latter was smaller in extent than the previous two. 

Thus it might seem that the bulk of the problem has already been solved in the past months, and that the current initiatives may well be merely an adjustment of the policy of reducing expenses.

Moreover, just as the speculative bubble in the NFT markets burst following the one in the crypto markets, perhaps the bottom of the bear-market might also be lagging behind the one in November. 

However, if the NFT market fails to recover soon, it is possible that the winter in this sector will last longer than expected. Should this be the case, for companies in this sector, the problems may only be just beginning. 

However, it should be noted that it is possible that if the crypto markets rebound strongly, the NFT markets may then rebound accordingly, especially if non-fungible tokens do indeed enter the gaming industry en masse.

Renowned mixed martial arts organization UFC and Dapper Labs, creators of NBA Top Shot and NFL ALL DA, announced the launch of ‘UFC Strike’: the new NFT experience and collection on Flow Blockchain for all MMA fans. 

UFC and Dapper Labs launch ‘UFC Strike’ NFT collection

UFC and Dapper Labs have announced UFC Strike: the all-new Non-Fungible Token collectible experience, available to fans starting Sunday, January 23. Here’s the announcement on the official UFC Strike channel. 

WE ARE LIVE
Jump in and grab your @UFCStrikeNFT Packs Now!
https://t.co/GbicCmIMkA pic.twitter.com/WtS1pI498A

— UFC Strike (@UFCStrikeNFT) January 23, 2022

“We’re live! Jump in and get your @UFCStrikeNFT Packs now!”

The launch includes a distribution of 200,000 total UFC Strike packs, including an initial 100,000 “Fully Loaded” packs, which consist of three NFT Moments capturing incredible finishes and incredible striking and grappling performances from UFC fighters. 

Among the many, names like Francis Ngannou, Amanda Nunes, Kamaru Usman, Rose Namajunas, Derrick Lewis, and Justin Gaethje pop up. 

With robust audio and video content, each UFC Strike Moment NFT is designed to capture, memorize and celebrate a specific moment in UFC history.

UFC in partnership with Dapper Labs and the launch of the second NFT

Apparently, UFC and Dapper Labs’ partnership is also ready to launch the second series of NFT. 

On that note, Tracey Bleczinski, Senior Vice President of Global Consumer Products at UFC, said: 

“Dapper Labs is an innovator in this field, creating an industry that didn’t exist a few years ago. Their vision for the potential of these products is the reason UFC chose Dapper Labs as its first NFT partner. We’re thrilled to finally be able to offer these amazing digital collectibles to enrich the UFC experience for our fans.”

To access the initial open drop, fans simply need to visit ufcstrike.com, where they can join the queue for a chance to purchase a pack (while supplies last) for $50.00.

 

Not only that, the second launch of UFC Strike’s “Fully Loaded” series of NFT packs priced at $50.00 will be available to fans beginning Monday, January 31, 2022. 

Flow Blockchain (FLOW) 

Dapper Labs is the Flow Blockchain (FLOW) creator, which is slowly taking over all sports. 

Not only that, last September, Dapper Labs had also partnered with Google to support Flow Blockchain and help it scale through Google Cloud. 

The search engine giant has called Dapper Labs as the leader to power the next-generation WEB 3.0, supercharged by blockchain. 

FLOW, its native token, is among the top 60 tokens by total market capitalization, with a market cap of nearly $1.5 billion. Over the past month, FLOW, like all cryptocurrencies, has followed the bearish trend, falling from a price of $9 to the current $4.69. 

 

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