2021 was a year to remember for us at MakersPlace and the NFT community as a whole . Together, we took NFTs to heights achieving in the past year what few thought would be possible. The number of collectors using our platform grew over 10x, while we facilitated over $100M in transactions. We’ve also continued to empower thousands of the world’s most talented digital artists, offering the most trusted platform to protect and sell their digital art.
As we enter into the New Year, we’d like to take a moment to thank you all for making 2021 so fantastic and look back on some particularly special moments for MakersPlace.
EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS by Beeple Sells for $69.3 Million
In March, we teamed up with historic auction house Christie’s to present Beeple’s EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS. The NFT that spurred mass adoption across the globe, this artwork sold at auction for $69.3 million – making it the highest NFT ever sold at the time and third highest artwork sold by any living artist. The artwork was minted on MakersPlace and marked our first ever partnership with a major auction house.
Learn more about Beeple’s NFT journey here
Learn more about the legendary sale in the New York Times
Beeple $1 Raffle Hysteria
Shortly after his historic EVERYDAYS sale, Beeple thanked the community by releasing a number of artworks on MakersPlace for only $1. With Beeple-mania in full flight, users from around the world flocking to the site to try and get lucky. The excitement brought in so much traffic that MakersPlace faced a bit of a problem with servers temporarily shutting down.
This was quickly followed by a Beeple takeover on the MakersPlace Discord… Anyone remember “drop an f in the chat” ? You had to have been there…
The Creation with Pak
A controversial collectible project ahead of it’s time, The Creation with Pak stirred things up in the cryptoart community by begging the question what is means to create a work of art, blurring the boundaries between the creator and collector.
For a refresher of how The Creation, check out our blog post or view artworks and recent trading here
Music on MakersPlace
Partnerships with Sony, Shakira, TPAIN, Tom Morello, Korn, Baby Shark and many others kick started a new focus on music-backed NFTs for our marketplace!
Learn more here
30 Million Series A Fund Raise
MakersPlace is also proud to have raised $30 million of Series A funding to further our mission of enabling a vibrant future for digital creativity. This funding was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Pantera Captial, with participation from Uncork Capital, Draper Dragon Digital Assets, 9Yards Capital, Coinbase Ventures and Sony Music Entertainment. The funding also includes the following strategic investors: Acquavella Galleries, Sabrina Hahn and Bill Ruprecht in the arts; Eminem, Paul Rosenberg, 3LAU in music, Larry Fitzgerald and Shari Glazer in sports; Eric Baker, Julia and Kevin Hartz, Vinny Lingham and Tobias Lütke in tech, and many more. Every investor brings forward a strong conviction for our mission as well as their expertise and perspective across technology, blockchain, art and media.
Learn more here
Community Growth & Exhibitions
The MakersPlace community has been absolutely incredible. ✨ Starting the year with less than 10k Twitter followers and a small Discord, we now have hundreds of thousands of artists, collectors, and fans with us to enjoy the journey.
Together we’ve introduced exhibitions like Tomorrow: A MakersPlace Group Exhibition, Venus of the Metaverse, a multi platform exhibition celebrating woman-identifying crypto-artists, The Thank You Exhibition, Transcendence: Trans and Non-binary Artists in the Metaverse and Colours of The Rainbow, spotlighting Nigeria based crypto-artists.
New Smart Contract + Lower Gas Fees
Later this year we also introduced our brand new V2 smart contract! Incredible gas savings, contract innovations, dynamic tokens, and other perks hit for the community.
Learn more here
MakersPlace Curator Program
This year we announced the launch of MakersPlace Curators – a group of artists, collectors, and community members who are helping to bring new creative voices to our marketplace!
We have empowered our Curators with the ability to fast-track the verification of new artists on MakersPlace, whose work they believe will speak to our growing audience and bring fresh artistic perspectives to the platform. Our Curators play an important role in decentralizing the onboarding process on MakersPlace and expanding the voices and talents represented in our community.
Learn more here
Buy & Sell Verified Third Party Creations
We recently introduced Verified 3rd Party Creations to our Marketplace. This allows us to expand our NFT offerings while maintaining our promise of high-quality, authentic projects on MakersPlace.
Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Artblocks_io, LOSTPOETS, and other verified projects can now be listed on MakersPlace. A curated selection of projects & collections all with a low 0.5% sellers fee.
Learn more here.
Get in Touch
If you’re a digital creator, you can learn more about MakersPlace here.
Ready to start your rare digital art collection? Join here.
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