Quick take:
- Eternal Labs will bring notable celebrities and brands into NFT and the metaverse.
- The creative studio is working on a P2E game with League of Legends producer Thomas Vu.
- It will also be launching decentralised auction marketplace, Eye Candy, this year.
Sports and entertainment authenticated NFT (aNFT) marketplace Ethernity has launched Ethernal Labs, an incubator and creative technology studio following the completion of a $20 million seed round.
Investors in the seed round include Riot Games Head of Creative and former League of Legends Lead Producer Thomas Vu, Fanatics owner Michael Rubin, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Morningstar Ventures, Ripple, Algorand, Banter Capital and Polygon Studios, among others.
The new creative studio aims to serve as a one-stop-shop for athletes, musicians, celebrities, and digital creators to launch their own NFTs. It’s hoping to achieve that by creating an entirely new ecosystem that will include verified marketplaces for digital assets, exclusive real-world and virtual experiences, augmented reality, avatar creation, metaverse integration and P2E gaming. It will also offer cross-chain interoperability across its verticals.
“We are incredibly excited to be pushing the metaverse forward with Ethernal Labs,” said Ethernity CEO and Founder Nick Rose. “The power of the ERN token, in conjunction with the variety of platforms and branches that will be available to users, offers the platform unmatched potential in terms of what we can offer to both users and creators. We hope to make Ethernal Labs a provider of gaming, art, and media – essentially, a studio system or incubator for the world of NFTs and the Web 3 creator economy.”
In Q2 of this year, Ethernal Labs plans to launch EyeCandy, a decentralized auction marketplace for both traditional and digital artists to sell their unique single-edition 1/1 artworks. It is also expected to launch Fanable, a social platform that allows token owners to interact with their favourite celebrities through fan token utility, in Q3.
Although it’s not known which celebrities will participate in Fanable, Ethernity already has deals with prominent athletes like retired NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, soccer star Lionel Messi, boxing champion Manny Pacquiao among others to sell licensed NFTs on the platform.
Besides these various offerings, the creative studio is currently working on P2E game with League of Legends producer Thomas Vu who participated in the seed round.
“Ethernal Labs is the frontrunner in connecting renowned IPs and P2E Gaming, enabling brands and artists to redefine ownership and engagement through blockchain technology,” said Thomas Vu, exec producer of Arcane and League of Legends. “The digital assets space will be bolstered by studios leveraging web 3 technologies, and Ethernal Labs will foster experiences that expands the possibilities of new metaverses.”
The launch of Ethernal Labs marks Ethernity’s latest move into the metaverse. Last October, the company created what it claims to be the first virtual reality theme park with in-world commerce where users can participate in virtual experiences and auctions.
Stay up to date:
