Fox’s first ever show on the blockchain isn’t on the blockchain
Despite endlessly hyping blockchain and around $200 million invested in Web3 projects, Fox’s new “blockchain curated” cartoon still won’t live on a blockchain.
This week, Fox regurgitated its announcement for Krapopolis, the upcoming cartoon series from Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon which it says will be its “first-ever animated series curated entirely on the Blockchain.”
The US broadcasting giant first unveiled plans for the show last May, promising various forms of digital art and “tokens that provide exclusive social experiences to engage and reward super fans.” This week, Fox repeated its plans for a corresponding non-fungible token (NFT) collection but it appears viewers will still have to watch the show in the old-fashioned way.
Slated for release at some point between now and 2023, Krapopolis will feature the voices of three British comedy stars including Hannah Waddingham of Ted Lasso fame, Richard Ayoade from The IT Crowd, and Matt Berry who portrayed Stephen Toast in Toast of London.
The show follows an ancient Greecian “family of humans, gods, and monsters that tries to run one of the world’s first cities without killing each other.”
Fox has invested heavily in its Web3 offering since it first announced Krapopolis. In June last year, Fox teamed up with its animation house Bento Box to establish Blockchain Creative Labs. The project was formed to create NFTs with Fox’s intellectual property (IP).
Blockchain Creative Labs has already created:
- Audio and commemorative poster NFTs for Dolly Parton’s “Dollyverse,”
- a “MaskVerse” collection for Fox’s secret celebrity singing show The Masked Singer,
- and team tokens for the United States Football League.
Both Dollyverse and MaskVerse collections have appeared for sale on NFT marketplace Eluvio.io. In August the blockchain platform provider received $100 million in a Series A funding round led by the Disney-owned broadcaster.
According to Fox’s announcement, an image featuring Krapopolis‘ logo and cast of characters has been minted on Eluvio.io’s blockchain. However, it currently doesn’t appear for sale on the NFT marketplace. Aside from the link to the image itself, URLs that appear in the token’s metadata lead to a blank page on Eluvio.io’s website.
In November last year, Disney released a set of NFTs based on Fox’s most famous animated offering The Simpsons.
Fox enters a floundering NFT market
In the months following Fox’s declaration of its intentions to invest in digital collectables, NFT trading volume was on an upward trajectory. NFT sales climbed to around $2 billion in weekly trading volume in August last year before a considerable retraction.
The frothy market maintained sales below $1 billion for the majority of 2021 before exploding to over $6 billion between December and January this year. NFT sales have since more than halved.
Read more: Who knew Coinbase’s NFT marketplace launch would suck this bad
However, Fox Entertainment chief exec Charlie Collier told a press conference that Fox has staying power where NFTs are concerned.
“[What] we like about the volatility is that it does shake out a lot of people who are trying to just act like it was a gold rush,” Collier said (via AdAge).
“We’re in for the long haul.”
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Edit 10:15 UTC, May 20: Corrected eighth paragraph to clarify Eluvio’s offering and specify that Fox’s investment was part of a $100 million Series A funding round.