The enfant terrible of the NFT art world, Beeple, is coming to Solana.
Stephen Hess, CEO of Metaplex Studios—the creator of Solana’s NFT standard—broke the news today at Solana's Breakpoint conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
“In partnership with the Render Network, we’re excited to welcome Beeple to Metaplex and Solana,” Hess announced, adding that Beeple would be “debuting the future of streaming and immersive 3D NFTs.”
And the last bit of alpha: Stephen welcomes @beeple to @metaplex. 🤝#SolanaBreakpoint pic.twitter.com/zTEokL1Svy
— Solana Breakpoint | 🚋 LISBON Nov. 4-7 (@SolanaConf) November 6, 2022
Details of the collaboration were thin on the ground, with a further announcement to come on Monday. But a slide accompanying Hess’s announcement provided some clues; users will be invited to “create your own unique NFT with a Beeple Everyday,” using a “randomized set of objects and time to create with.” (EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5,000 DAYS was the title of Beeple's NFT pastiche that Beeple sold for over $69 million in 2021.)
Beeple is already closely involved with Render Network, having served as an advisor to the platform, which provides creators with a decentralized, peer-to-peer network that lets users tap into remote rendering power.
In December, Render Network raised $30 million in a funding round with participants including the Solana Foundation and Alameda Research.
Since his headline-grabbing $69 million NFT sale last year, Beeple has branched out into tokenized physical artwork with a “kinetic video sculpture” paired with an NFT, and begun work on a digital art studio to host work by himself and other creators.
Beeple revealed that he expects to see NFTs increasingly focus on “emotional connection or utility” instead of “pure rampant speculation.”
He added that in his future works, “there will be some sort of utility to having these things” and that he’s interested in exploring the possibilities afforded by dynamic NFTs.
