01/02/2023 First Exchange-Traded NFT Fund Shuts Down

The Defiance Digital Revolution ETF will cease activity by the end of February.

The Defiance Digital Revolution ETF will close. Image: Defiance ETFs
The Defiance Digital Revolution ETF will close. Image: Defiance ETFs

NFTZ, widely touted as the world’s first exchange-traded fund for NFTs, is shutting down.

Defiance ETFsannouncedthat it will “close and liquidate” NFTZ, its Defiance Digital Revolution ETF, by February 28.

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When it kicked off trading in December 2021, Defiance ETFs co-founder and Chief Investment Officer Sylvia JablonskisaidNFTs “could be bigger than the internet.”

NFTZ tracked companies involved in the NFT (non-fungible token) and cryptocurrency space—including toy collectibles company Funko, online marketplace Ebay, and digital asset exchange Coinbase. Shares of the Fund were listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The fundfell11% to US$21.66 from US$24.41 in its first two days of trading.

ETFs are popular investment vehicles offering indirect exposure to an underlying asset through shares—like gold, foreign currencies or Bitcoin. This allows investors to expand their portfolios without having to store such assets.

NFTZ is an ETF that allowed investors to have a stake in a number of companies somehow related to the NFT space. Last July, crypto exchange KuCoinlaunched its own NFT ETFallowing users to own proportionally shared ownership of native blue-chip NFTs like the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

NFTs are cryptographically unique tokens linked to digital (or physical) content. Theyexploded in 2021and many celebrities openly invested or created their own NFTs. Major companies—likeEbayandFunko—also got involved by investing in NFT marketplaces.

But since the price of Bitcoin and every other coin and token in the ecosystem has nosedived, interest in the crypto world has waned—and this includes NFTs.

Bitcoin and crypto futures ETFs have found a market in the U.S.—at least during the bull run: When the first onelaunchedin October 2021, it exploded and sold nearly $1 billion on its debut.

BitcoinspotETFs, which directly track the biggest digital currency, do not yet exist in the U.S. Many major crypto companies have applied to the SEC to launch one, but have only facedrejection.

Arts

https://decrypt.co/120295/first-exchange-traded-nft-fund-shuts-down

Interesting NFTs
#64995
By OthersideDeployer
The Scion
A young figure caught in a moment of distraction, aware only ephemerally of his unconscious being, as it engages in psychological and psychedelic layer spaces. His right arm casually cradles a moray eel; the figure is comfortable but not truly aware of the potentials for danger in such negligence. His shirt reads “Bello” in Pokemon style font, harkening back to a childhood straddling the millennial threshold. To his right side, out of the unconscious deep, shrouded alien heads propagate as a fractal totem, each new iteration a more sophisticated rendering of emotional masking over the cold mystery of the greys. As the scion of the Budgie-Sattva, the young man, in his distraction, is also simultaneously aware of higher levels of self discovery. To his left a psychological topology sets beneath the oracle side of an 8 ball ,hovering; its message a purest concept of acceptance. The “Scion” lettering is in 80’s HeMan style bold declaration. The lower right side of the painting is like a hybrid of melon, feathers, and seeds. The crystals in the background bring light; conducted, refracted, reflected, and dispersed, to balance the dark shadow of the figure’s physical body. The aura of the scion succeeds in layers to point, with a finger, and the crown chakra, toward a center of a mandala existing as nigh pure application of strokes, in essence painterly abstraction, but also revealing hints of the Aura of migraine, and the bi-hemispherical nature of the brain–noting concerns of the possibility of inherited mental disease. Yet the flourish of chakra as it sets against that center is robust, active, coherent, and reveling against all fear. Fundamentally, the piece speaks to the activation of one’s potential to begin to “Know Thyself”, and find greater awareness out of the enigmas of the mind–as an inculcated seed given to the rich soil of one’s own birthright.
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Artist notes: the halving ceremony is the most unusual part of modern bitcoin production in which the owners bet on how efficiently an alpha can inseminate the market.
Chromie Squiggle #6339
Simple and easily identifiable, each squiggle embodies the soul of the Art Blocks platform. Consider each my personal signature as an artist, developer, and tinkerer. Public minting of the Chromie Squiggle is permanently paused. They are now reserved for manual distribution to collectors and community members over a longer period of time. Please visit OpenSea to explore Squiggles available on the secondary market.
Nipper’s Last Grasp (Chandelier)
MISHA KAHN (B. 1989) Nipper’s Last Grasp (Chandelier) Printable 3D model (FBX with vertex colors) together with an MP4 (00:00:08 seconds, 2048 x 2048 pixels) Executed in 2021. This work is unique and is sold as a non-fungible token. token ID: 25589172339488513184097753251259367849292773157707017705630314471734323970049 wallet address: 0x3892f55253893325771bcebda2aaacdd5c793c4c smart contract address: 0x495f947276749Ce646f68AC8c248420045cb7b5e