Last month, Fox Entertainment’s animation studio Bento Box Entertainment revealed plans to launch the first animated comedy series curated entirely on blockchain. Today, the company announced it is investing $100 million in a ‘creator fund’ for the non-fungible token (NFT) space through a new business unit called Blockchain Creative Labs.
The animated show, Krapopolis, was created by “Rick and Morty” writer Dan Harmon. Blockchain Creative Labs will operate a digital marketplace dedicated to commercializing characters, background art, and GIF non-fungible tokens (NFTs) related to the series and other projects that join the platform.
There has been a significant decline in activity in the NFT space. According to NonFungible.com, overall NFT sales went from a seven day peak on May 9 of $176 million to $9.3 million on June 15. However, early May witnessed an unusual spike in NFT interest, but current sales levels are less than a third of a typical April week. Before yesterday, the last time weekly sales were under $10 million was in January, prior to the boom. However, unit sales have declined significantly less than the dollar sales amounts.
Considering the recent decline, Fox’s $100 million investment in the NFT space is risky. Nevertheless, the initiative brings new opportunities for content creators and involves Fox in the broader NFT industry. The project will operate under Bento Box CEO Scott Greenberg.
“The emergence of blockchain technology has given birth to a new marketplace that is a natural extension of Bento Box’s talents; one that allows the team to support, elevate and reward innovators and artists in new and creatively exciting ways,” said Charlie Collier, CEO of Fox Entertainment. “Our new company, Blockchain Creative Labs, also under Scott and Bento Box, will help shape and grow the fast-evolving world of creatively led digital goods and tokens.”
Meanwhile, despite the decline in NFT activity, the NFT industry is seeing new initiatives almost daily. Porsche subsidiary Forward31 will launch a sports NFT platform, Burberry partnered with video game developer Mythical Games to launch in-game NFTs, and Animoca has licensed Olympic pins as NFTs.
