Digital Twin at NFT NYC 🗽, Brands Debut NFT collections 💎, and Crypto Payments Infrastructure continues to Grow 🚀

Welcome to Digital Twin, we help you get a little smarter about the NFT market and its impact on the future of fashion, commerce, and culture. 

In This Week's Roundup: 

• 👯 Digital Twin will be at NFT NYC co-hosting an event with MoonPay

• 💎 Bulgari debuted its first fine jewelry NFT

• 👚 Lacoste is entering the NFT space with their first project titled "Undw3" Underwater

• 💳 Mastercard partners with MoonPay

• 💟 American Express launches a crypto rewards card

• 💎 Digital Twin, founded by Natalie and Adrianna Soto-Wright, are dropping some exciting things at NFT NYC!

  • This year for NFT NYC, Digital Twin is working with MoonPay and Glow Labs to bring together female web3 innovators to demystify the space for the crypto curious

  • Digital Twin has curated a phygital release with Logan Hollowell, a prominent jewelry designer based in Los Angeles & Coco an NFT artist and founder of Stardust Society. 👀✨

  • We will be raffling off an 18k gold necklace with a diamond pavé crescent that has the words "Crypto Curious" engraved on the backside.

At Digital Twin, our mission is to help brands enter web3 by building digital counterparts to their physical products. This NFT minting solution is powered by Moonpay's latest product rollout, HyperMint. We are incredibly excited to support our brands with frictionless minting solutions via HyperMint and MoonPay products. 

Are NFTs the future for brands? We are seeing an influx of brands entering the NFT space from Prada, Bulgari, Gucci, Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, Lacoste, Printemps... the list goes on.

See below for a recap: 

• 💎Bulgari, debuted its newest high jewellery collection in Paris, featuring emeralds, rubies, and a surprising, sparkling new addition: NFTs

  • A 10-carat Magnifica Ruby Metamorphosis necklace and Emerald Glory necklace are sold with digital twin NFTs - which link the physical goods to a virtual version. They also included a 3rd NFT called “Beyond Wonder” a purely digital creation, which Bulgari describes as " the first NFT jewel, an intangible creation, transcending the boundaries of materiality”.

  • While some argued digital twins lack a suitable luxury halo and are more akin to a “bonus pack” mentality, Bulgari is diving in by directly linking its NFTs to high jewellery purchases.

  • Why does this matter? Digital Twins are set to become a popular type of NFT for fashion brands as they give physical goods wearability in the metaverse and can also drive revenue.

• 💎Prada, a prominent Italian Fashion House, pioneered its first solo NFT drop Timecapsule on June 2nd. NFTs are linked with the physical time capsule products which will be delivered to NFT buyers.

  • On June 2, the Cassius x Prada timecapsule of 100 shirts sold out as physical products

  • The NFTs will be gifted to anyone who purchased the Timecapsule shirt and holds it through the returns window. (For now the only owner on opensea is the Prada Timecapsule account).

  • Why does this matter? Rather than targeting a new market, Prada is rewarding its already loyal and more traditional clients who have supported them from the outset, integrating its NFT strategy into a pre-established physical initiative at the same time.

• 💎Lacoste, is entering the NFT space with their first project titled "Undw3".

  • The 11,212 NFT collection sold out! The artwork features variations of a crocodile emerging from the depths of the water, and had a mint price of 0.08 ETH. Holders will have the opportunity to be involved in upcoming designs and will also receive these as physical products.

  • Why does this matter? The upside of including consumers in the design process allows for direct feedback and elevated consumer experiences. Shifting to a community-owned, open-source garment production supply chain allows for transparency and control that is missing from fashion overall.

Next up lets recap payments in Web3...outside of the web3 ecosystem, mainstream adoption is well underway

Alphabet, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and many more major corporations are actively investing in web3 startups

Market entrants: 

• 💸 Mastercard partners with Moonpay to create NFT accessibility via traditional card payments.

  • Mastercard's new partners include metaverse player, The Sandbox along with Immutable X, Candy Digital, Mintable, Spring and Nifty Gateway. With these deals, Mastercard aims to help drive NFT commerce.

• 💸 American Express launches a crypto rewards card with AbraGlobal

  • This is the first crypto rewards credit card on the American Express network that will transact in U.S. dollars and offer crypto back on any purchase category and amount.

  • The news is another step towards Abra's vision to help create an open, global financial system that is easily accessible to everyone. Unlike others, Abra tightly integrates the ability to trade over 100 different cryptocurrencies, earn high yield on digital assets, and borrow against crypto holdings all in one, easy-to-use app.

Those that are here now will benefit greatly for being early as long as they have strong conviction plays. If you are a brand and want to start building click the connect button below. We are looking to support forward thinking brands at the intersection of fashion and Web3!

Thanks so much for reading! We want to continue to make this newsletter a resource as you navigate the world of NFTs and Web3. If you've made it this far, we appreciate you! If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please share it with us on instagram or twitter. And refer your friends with this link.