Web3 Watch: NETGEAR continues its NFT push

This article is part of Blockworks’ Web3 Watch, a weekly roundup of the highlights and lowlights from the culture side of crypto.

The wireless provider NETGEAR is teaming up with SuperRare for its Meural Opus, $800 digital picture frames that can connect to wallets and display NFTs. 

NETGEAR acquired Meural and its smart frame technology in 2018 and made its NFT play in force in 2022, partnering with Metamask and joining SuperRare’s DAO. 

The launch combines a growing market and a shrinking one. Persistence Market Research predicts smart frames to grow by 3.1% annually over the next decade while the NFT market continues its slide.

And the Opus isn’t a smart frame with NFT functionality tacked on. The Meural Opus page on NETGEAR’s website brands the product as a new way to “showcase your NFTs” and teases the company’s forthcoming crypto culture-inspired NFT drop.

Poppy Simpson, senior product and content manager for NETGEAR’s Meural line, said the company sees a future for NFTs despite this year’s downturn.

“The market adjustment we’re seeing now is just that, an adjustment. The highs we saw for NFTs as they made their way into the popular vernacular were not sustainable,” Simpson said. “Our research suggests that there has been relative stability in terms of price/volume in the ‘art’ segment of the market.”

One interesting stat:

• Polymarket’s prediction market gives Sam Bankman-Fried a 35% chance of being sentenced to 50 or more years in prison.

Also of note:

• SocialScan is hoping to turn a block explorer like Etherscan into a social platform. The platform has similar functionality to other block explorers but gives wallets labels like “Whale” or “Notable NFT Holder” and allows wallet owners to follow and message each other.
• The Italian soccer club AC Milan sold one yard by one yard blockchain-based squares on its field. If something notable happens on a holder’s plot of field, the owner of the “block” earns rewards.
• After reaching a low in early October, NFT volumes have risen for four consecutive weeks.

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