Coca-Cola and Crypto.com, sponsor of Qatar World Cup 2022, have teamed up to launch an NFT collection inspired by the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup. The collection, created in collaboration with digital artist GMUNK, is based on “heat maps” that visually represent the movements and highlights of the tournament’s players. GMUNK has created 10,000 NFTs based on these heat maps, which will be available to fans on the Crypto.com NFT platform from May 1 to July 31, 2022.

To access the NFT collection, fans will need to create an account on the Crypto.com NFT platform and visit Coca-Cola’s fan zone page to mint a token. The Coca-Cola fan zone is a digital hub for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup that offers fans the opportunity to experience thrills, excitement, games, and moments to remember during the tournament.

 In addition to the NFT collection, the fan zone includes leaderboards, pledges, and predictions, allowing fans to compete with each other and interact with the tournament in real-time.

As per some news websites the registration sites for the NFTs are offered on either Coca-cola Middle East or the fan zone links officially provided for residents living in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, or the United Arab Emirates.

Just after the announcement Crypto.com’s CRO token (CRO) gained value this week. CRO climbed as much as 10% after the press release hit, and though it slipped to a 8.5% advance at press time CRO remains one of the top performing digital assets on Monday 5th of December. Despite this, CRO token remains lower by about 50% over the past month in the FTX-related crumbling in the cryptocurrency markets. CRO is down nearly 90% year over year.

This is the first World Cup that has not only features Blockchain and crypto sponsors but tokens and NFTs, growing the interest in both in the MENA region.

UAE metaverse project Eikonikos is launching an NFT collection with Lebanese fashion designer Aiisha Ramadan. Aiisha Ramadan started her couture clothing line from the UAE in 2007, her base for more than 30 years.

The new collaboration will set a milestone in the evolution of the digital fashion industry.

Eikonikos built on the Cardano blockchain platform seeks to transform the landscape of ecommerce, dating, gaming and learning.  The company raised $2 million USD in March 2022.

At that time Mohamed Vasif, founder and CEO of Eikonikos stated, “We are very determined to create a platform that directly competes and rivals metaverse giants like Decentraland and Sandbox.” 

 Vineeth, CMO and co-founder of Eikonikos added, “We will be able to interact with other Metaverse economies in the future. Building a dedicated and crypto-native audience that likes our dope Non-Fungible Token (NFT) designs, intense gameplay.”

On August 5, 2022, Eikonikos launched a premium genesis NFT passport for the global Web 3 community. Today Eikonikos is entering the digital fashion industry.

Mohamed Vasif states, “What is not possible in the physical realm is possible in the metaverse. Our digital fashion transcends physical reality. Eikonikos Digital fashion NFTs is not limited to clothing for avatars. These NFTs clothing will have special powers in the gaming world. We give 100% ownership to NFT holders and the possibility of commercializing them. For instance an aspiring designer can buy, own and even create physical products of these NFT designs. We are at the biggest evolution of the fashion industry. We are here making it.”

According to figures from investment bank Morgan Stanley, the digital fashion industry could be worth $50 billion by 2030.

The newly-announced partnership with Aiisha Ramadan to launch fashion NFTs is to leverage this emerging market. 

Chady Jriege, Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer of Eikonikos, says, “The collaboration between Eikonikos and Aiisha Ramadan is one of the long lists of brand collaboration that we are working to establish. Aiisha is a celebrated designer and owner of the famous Lebanese brand AIISHA. She fashioned beautiful women like Charlies Theron, Paris Hilton, Ariana Grande, Bollywood celebrities like Aishwarya Rai, and a list of others. The collaboration between Eikonikos and Aiisha Ramadan will bring a unique set of NFT collections. The project combines fashion, art, blockchain technology, spirituality and healing to bring an astonishing collection of digital fashion NFTs.”

Aiisha Ramadan stated, “The role of the metaverse in health and wellness will expand our ability to go to places in our minds we never thought we could reach.  A lot of people have trouble imagining what their aura is like, what their chakras are like, so the metaverse is going to help us to manifest those long-spoken ideas and healing methods into something more tangible for people to feel and see more; it takes us to different dimensions of healing.”

The NFT collection will be launched during the last week of November 2022.

F2o Designs Shop and F2o Studio founded by Kuwaiti national Fatima Fawzi Alothman launches the idea of bringing the GCC Arab cultural element of Dewaniya to the NFT (Non Fungible Token) Web3 world

Fatima, who currently resides in UAE, is a freelance illustrator specializing in character design, children’s books illustration editorial and advertisement illustrations. She also offers traditional animation services. She holds bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the American University of Sharjah and a Master’s degree in fine arts from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, USA.

For those unfamiliar with both the Arabic term and the cultural social aspect of Dewaniya here is a small explanation. A  Dewaniya is a place where friends and people from the community gather to discusses ideas and spread messages related to both local and international issues, and even circulate jokes. It’s where voices are heard, echoed, and taken to further places. It is the weight of the people in the Dewaniya that makes the difference in spreading news to the community.

The Dewaniya served an important purpose in the development of Kuwait over the last 250 years by facilitating quick communication and consensus building among other things. There are many type of Dewaniyas that have evolved from the original archetype and they differ only in terms of the groups they serve and the level of formality.

The Dewaniyas are the core of Kuwait’s social, business and political life, the places where topics of interest are discussed, associates introduced, alliances formed, and similar networking activities undertaken. 

Fatima along with Hamad AlSarraf creative Director, and Hala AlAsfour, Marketing and PR strategist have curated a collection of 3000 NFTs called The Dewaniya Dudes. These NFTs will be part of a Dewaniya platform which will mirror the model of the Real Dewaniya utilizing web 3.0.

To join the Dewaniya platform a user has to have a Dewaniya dude NFT. This will offer access to exclusive content and privileges. As per the website the Alpha mint is coming up soon, and is reserved for the whitelisted only.

Increasingly the Arab world is witnessing innovative ways of how artists and youth in the region are utilizing NFTs and Web3 to bring together the traditional social values and community beliefs with digital future. This is yet another example of how NFTs can be utilized while keeping traditions alive.

As UAE based Everdome, hyper realistic metaverse, prepared for the release of its Everdome Astro NFT collection which will be available for Genesis NFT holders, Everdome announced that GEM Digital Limited, a digital asset investment firm  invested 10 million USD in the company.

Everdome’s NFT collection will be the first metaverse wearable NFT inside Everdome.

Since June 2022, a total of 11,700 plots (97%) located throughout the Everdome metaverse were sold throughout an eight week auction experience. In total, plots were purchased for upwards of US$18.6 million, which is equivalent to 1,531,000,000 $DOME, Everdome’s own digital currency. The average price of a plot of land in Everdome was 130,000 $DOME.

Everdome will control the timing and the number of drawdowns under this facility, and has no minimum drawdown obligation. At its discretion, Everdome has the ability to sell up to 200% of their average daily volume in Tokens across multiple exchanges to GEM Digital.

According to Rob Gryn, CEO and Founder of Everdome, the commitment from GEM will be used to strengthen Everdome’s offering and ensure future sustainability in the business. “We’re thrilled to partner with and achieve this investment commitment milestone with GEM, which confirms that we’re on the right track as we seek to push new boundaries in the metaverse. This is the perfect time for us to put our foot on the gas and really grow our product, which GEM’s investment commitment will help us to do. Everdome is in a very exciting place, and together with GEM we’ve taken the next step in order to build our metaverse ecosystem to the next level.”

GEM’s investment will be focused on team growth and metaverse technological expansion, and will see the game’s virtual reality (VR) capabilities set on a fast track. Funds will also go towards boosting marketing efforts, partnership enablement, and investments that will aid Everdome’s sustainable growth.

Set to launch in three phases throughout 2022, Everdome takes users on an immersive journey from Hatta in the UAE, which is widely viewed via rocket launches, to colonize Mars in Everdome City. The metaverse platform leverages cutting-edge 3D scanning technology and Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 to deliver state-of-the-art, photo-realistic graphics that will leave players wondering about the boundaries between gameplay and reality.

UAE Etihad Airlines has officially announced the release of its first NFT collection for sale under the name “EY-ZERO1”. On the Etihad website the airline announced that its collection is now on sale.

As per the website announcement, “Aviation enthusiasts now have the chance to own digital 3D aircraft models showcasing our ten special liveries across our Dreamliner fleet. Each NFT comes with immediate Etihad Guest Silver status as well as other benefits.”

The announcement goes on to list all the reasons for purchasing Etihad’s NFT collection. First is that the NFTs are a  unique piece of art in limited numbers, purchases will also have immediate Etihad Guest Silver status benefits as well as additional prizes for first time owners.

The EY-ZERO1 sale has started with a limited number of to 2003 collectibles, each NFT is priced at US$349 (+ local sales tax). The sale will close on 18 August 2022 at 2pm UTC with all remaining unsold NFTs eliminated from the collection.

The number 2003 symbolizes the year Etihad airlines was established. The collection features ten highly detailed 3D aircraft models, each one showcasing a unique Etihad Boeing 787 Dreamliner livery, including the Greenliner and the iconic Manchester City-themed aircraft.

By purchasing EY-ZERO1 collectibles, owners will also be directly helping Etihad in its journey to increase its uptake of sustainable aviation fuel. All profits from this collection will go directly to fund the purchase of sustainable aviation fuel in 2022.

The NFT collection has been designed to be as efficient as possible. EY-ZERO1 is set to be minted on the energy-efficient Polygon blockchain. Etihad also partnered with blockchain firm Aerial.is to track the CO2 emissions of the NFTs, and offsetting the entire carbon footprint of the project through Aerial.is.

In the past few days the Saudis NFT Collection has topped the OpenSea volume charts just below cryptopunks. The Saudis Free to Mint Collection totaled 6,700 ETH (roughly $7.7 million) in sales volume since its mint on July 9th 2022.  It is now sold out!! The Saudis is a collection of 5,555 NFT, an exclusive club, max bidding to the top.

Each Saudi is unique and programmatically generated from over 80 possible traits. All collectibles are on the Ethereum blockchain. The Saudi NFT will grant its holder a Sheikh status in the Saudis Kingdom and allow owners access to upcoming venues.

The Saudis NFT also has onchain metadata as one of its features given that they store their metadata on their smart contracts unlike most NFTs which rely on external sources like AWS (Amazon Web Services) or IPFS to host metadata. Storing the metadata on chain helps to reduce the costs. Not only does this metadata include the name and traits, but it also includes data to generate the image itself

As per a tweet on Saudis NFT, the NFT collection had been flying, topping the OpenSea Charts with almost 7,000 ETH traded since the weekend.

The collection of 5,555 NFTs were free to mint on July 9th a Saturday and sold out within hours.

The project’s floor price (which is the price of the cheapest edition currently for sale on the open market) is around 0.75 ether (roughly $867), after peaking at around 1.3 ETH (roughly $1,650) on Saturday.

As per a Coindesk article, the release came with its fair share of NFT influencer drama, with fingers being pointed at popular Twitter personalities who were able to profit off early knowledge of the mint.