If one thing’s for certain in the digital asset market it’s that 2021 has been the year of the non-fungible token (NFT), which is a way of transforming digital works of art, unique avatars or other collectibles into a one-of-a-kind asset on the blockchain that can be traded on the secondary market.
Essentially, an NFT is a secure digital item, for which people have been paying thousands, or even millions, of dollars and are non-fungible which means they can’t be replaced, duplicated or exchanged. In other words, NFTs are one-of-a-kind assets that are not interchangeable and therefore have become a reliable store of value for their collectors.
Examples of NFTs include artwork, collectibles such as sports cards, music, virtual and in-game items, videos, and other rare items. NFTs have unique digital signatures and include exclusive ownership rights, which also contributes to their one-of-a-kind nature. Additionally, the transfer of NFTs can be tracked and therefore royalties can be generated in perpetuity from the purchase and sale of NFTs in the secondary market, which protects the original artists and creators of each NFT and solves a problem digitally that has gone unsolved in the physical world for centuries.
Throughout 2021, the NFT market has exploded, particularly during the third quarter, with sales totalling nearly US$11 billion, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of over 38,000 percent.
Moving forward, the NFT market is expected to continue growing and companies like
Looking Glass Labs Ltd. (
P.NFTX,
Forum) are at the forefront of this innovative market. The Vancouver-based company “strives to be the leading digital agency specializing in NFT (and uNFT) architecture, immersive XR metaverse design and virtual asset royalty streams.”
The company intends to grow its business through collaborations, consulting opportunities, accretive M&A and partnerships. In line with this, its flagship subsidiary, House of Kibaa (HoK), is a digital studio that has already successfully ‘dropped’ multiple 3D-ready NFT collections and is working to bring a next-generation metaverse to reality. HoK continues to be a cutting-edge technology platform in the blockchain, NFT and immersive extended reality (XR) sectors.
In other words, Looking Glass Labs is a unique investment opportunity in a fast-growing market that investors won’t want to miss out on.
The House of Kibaa studio
At present, Looking Glass Labs is primarily focused on its flagship subsidiary, House of Kibaa (HoK), which is a digital studio that designs and creates 3D-ready NFT collections and is in the process of executing on a next-generation metaverse — a hypothesized iteration of the internet. These assets allow functional art and collectibles to coexist at the same time across different NFT blockchain environments.
In Q2 2021, HoK implemented a revenue model that started with the launch of its Genesis Membership NFT that allows its members to purchase one NFT and receive a lifetime of HoK-produced digital assets that are airdropped monthly.
The HoK brand deploys a tiered revenue model that first started with the commercial launch of the Genesis Membership NFT in Q2 2021, which was then followed by investment into research and development to drive revenue from five key streams:
- Asset design: creating 3D assets for existing NFT communities to be used in the HoK metaverse
- Exclusive drops: exclusive NFT drops with brands, public figures and influencers
- Minting as a service: HoK will offer a full-service NFT minting service for NFT communities and brands
- Royalties: collecting secondary sale royalties from HoK NFT assets
- Merchandise sales: sales of physical goods from the company’s most popular brands and assets
Next, HoK Kibaa created 10,000 unique 3D avatars called GenZeroes,
which were sold in an NFT sale on September 30, 2021 through Rarity.Tools, a global index of non-fungible tokens. All of the NFTs were sold and delivered to blockchain wallets of 3,000 new customers in just 37 minutes, resulting in over CA$6 million in revenue for the company.
“Rarity has earned the reputation of being the de facto NFT listing site by simplifying the process of interpreting an NFT’s scarcity and potential value in a meaningful and measurable manner,” Dorian Banks, CEO of Looking Glass, said in a press release. “We have recognized the importance of having a presence on Rarity, which is why we are pleased to have successfully added the entire GenX NFT collection to the website.”
In line with this, the company is also entitled to collect a 5 percent royalty on the proceeds of any and all GenZeroes that are re-sold in the secondary market through a smart blockchain contract embedded in all GenZeroes. Roughly CA$4.3 million of GenZeroes were resold in the secondary market as of October 13, 2021, leading to the company generating an additional CA$215,000 in royalty revenue shortly after GenZeroes were listed on the OpenSea global NFT marketplace.
Additionally, as of the end of Q3 2021 a Genesis Membership re-sold on the secondary market for $9,814, which is the equivalent of a price appreciation of over 1,850 percent in five months. When it comes to HoK’s 3D assets, they are not only backed by blockchain-based NFT technology but they are also fully compatible with HoK’s upcoming metaverse, which is expected to allow companies to unlock the value of virtual endorsements and branding opportunities.
As of
the middle of November, the company said that HoK has listed all 10,000 of its GenX NFTs on the Rarity.Tools global index, which Looking Glass Labs said is fully rigged to allow for turnkey integration into its upcoming metaverse release.
Next Generation Metaverse
Gearing up to launch the initial phase of the HoK metaverse in late 2021 or early 2022, it is being built to be ‘Unreal 5’ ready, meaning that the Unreal engine driving this metaverse is being built to be at the forefront of the gaming world. To put it simply, HoK is using Unreal’s latest engine to deliver an ‘unparalleled reality’ to its community.
The first phase of the HoK metaverse will allow HoK NFT holders to participate in the new immersive world, which will be followed by a virtual land asset sale.
In simple terms, a metaverse is a virtual place where users can interact within a computer-generated environment as well as with other users. Metaverses allow users to duplicate their experiences from the real or physical world onto a virtual platform by creating avatars.
Broadly speaking, metaverses are emerging as an immersive, open and creative online environment. Similarly, 3D-ready NFTs are relevant and gain utility as they become integrated into a metaverse. What this means is 3D-enabled NFTs are integral to the metaverse experience, making their relationship stronger as both digital assets continue to evolve and become increasingly deployed.
“Our upcoming metaverse release, built in Unreal Engine, will provide the most realistic experience of any metaverse and every NFT we produce is ‘metaverse ready’,” Banks said in a release. “Additionally, our forthcoming metaverse announcement will show a clear differentiator to other metaverses and establish our product as a category leader.”
LGL Management Team
Dorian Banks, CEO
Dorian Banks is an international serial entrepreneur who has started dozens of businesses in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North and South America. Over a 25-year period, he has worked primarily in the tech, Agri-tech and blockchain sectors.
Banks is passionate about identifying up-and-coming trends, developing a business model and turning the idea into a successful business. In addition to his work, Banks has consulted globally on the sectors he has worked in.
Banks has also served on over a dozen public Boards and taken his own start-ups to the public markets such as MetroBridge Networks which he started as a one-man operation. Banks has also worked in larger corporations in roles such as Chief Knowledge officer of Voith GmBH in Germany and continues his role as Managing Director of Design Build Research, a non-profit educating around sustainable building practices.
Jason Nguyen, Chief Creative Officer
Jason Nguyen has over 10 years of experience in the animation and technology sectors with animation studios and in positions at tech start-ups Nguyen has worked as lead previsualization and layout artist at entertainment company WildBrain and at CineSite Studios where he worked on animation for the Addams Family 2 film.
Additionally, Nguyen has acted as chief operating officer at TrueToke, a luxury cannabis accessories company, between March 2020 and April 2021. Nguyen has also held the position of project manager at Paperbox Studio since February 2021. Nguyen has been a blockchain investor and researcher since 2017.
Neil Stevenson-Moore, Chief Product Officer
Stevenson-Moore, a serial entrepreneur, was the CEO and founder of StylePiki, a retail technology company that implements artificial intelligence and advanced algorithms that disrupt the retail market.
Following the success of StylePiki, Stevenson-Moore moved to London, England where he was selected to be the head of Farfetch’s “Store of the Future.” Farfetch is a world leader in consumer retail technology and is valued over $1.5 billion.
Stevenson-Moore has since co-founded and helped build SportNinja into a fast-growing player in the $200 billion amateur sports industry.
The LGL Investment Opportunity
This soon-to-be-publicly traded company, Looking Glass Labs Ltd. will be available on the NEO Exchange under the ticker symbol “NFTX”. Non-fungible tokens aren’t going away and companies like Looking Glass Labs are continuing to prove just how disruptive this market will be.
Case in point, the NFT market was valued at only $250 million in 2020 and in 2021 NFT sales volume surged to $2.5 billion in the first half of 2021 alone.
With Looking Glass Labs already at the forefront of innovation in the market, the company is on the right track to continue generating strong results from the creation and launch of valuable NFTs, uNFTs and metaverse assets.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.