Metaplex to grow NFT marketplaces ecosystem on Solana

Metaplex Studios revealed it has appointed Adam Jeffries as the Chief Executive Officer of a new organization formed to help onboard the next million artists onto the platform.

Metaplex is the Solana-powered on-chain protocol for minting and auctioning NFTs and Jeffries will lead the charge for advancing the functionality of tools that will enable creators to easily manage their NFT businesses.

Its protocol’s on-chain programming offers support for multiple sale types, automatic payouts to creators and removes the need to pay additional fees to centralised authorities.

The design of the Metaplex protocol also allows perpetual royalties to be hard-coded into NFTs, ensuring creators always get their cut of secondary sales.

Adam Jeffries, CEO of Metaplex Studios said: “NFTs presents a very unique opportunity for the millions of artists, makers and creators around the world.”

“For the first time, they will be empowered to take ownership of their content, how it’s distributed and how they’re compensated for it.

This value proposition has already attracted 500+ makers who want to launch an NFT marketplace on Metaplex and we are extremely excited to be the bridge that brings original, never-before-seen content to the metaverse,” he asserted.

Since June 2021, the Metaplex protocol has powered $385 million + 2.2 million SOL transactions from NFT sales.

Top projects like Degen Ape Academy and Aurory will be leveraging it for record-breaking generative NFT drops.

With more than 1,800 developer teams building on the Metaplex protocol since its launch, the growth of the decentralised marketplace builder became the top trending project out of 200+ million repositories on Github.

Restructuring social networks and digital content

Rolf Hoefer, Co-Founder of Cultur3 Capital noted: “The ability for Metaplex Studios to serve creators across the spectrum has been made evident by the success of the first few marketplace launches that’s already taken place.”

“I believe that Web3 will restructure social networks and digital content based on actual value flows, and Metaplex is delivering the tools for managing, measuring and identifying that,” Hoefer added.

Joining Jeffries is a new board of strategic advisors that include Audius, Meltem Demirors – Chief Strategy Officer at Coinshares, Alex Yamashita, Mark Streeter and Rolf Hoefer, Chris Kalani – Chief Product Officer of Phantom, Dylan Macalinao – Co-Founder of Saber Labs and Steve “Sweatpants” Irby – Co-Founder at Street Dreams Magazine.

Steve “Sweatpants” Irby said his team has seen first-hand how quickly the interest around NFTs have grown among the photography and culture communities.

“Working alongside the team, we have been able to identify new opportunities for bringing the world’s best photographers, designers and digital creators into the Metaplex metaverse.” Irby concluded.

Delivering NFTs directly to communities

“Much of that focuses on pairing Solana’s high-speed, low-cost blockchain with an experience that’s scalable and easy to use,” he explained.

Independent creators such as CryptoKickers, ONO and Street Dreams Cafe are using Metaplex to deliver NFTs directly to their communities.

Earlier this summer, ONO partnered with Blondish for the first NFT drop on Metaplex, which featured 8 original designs, 4 auction tiers, and 66 NFTs that culminated in 7.5 gigabytes of HD data stored 100% on-chain via Arweave.

Similarly, CryptoKickers saw more than 150+ NFT sneakers being added to their virtual marketplace on Crypto Voxel in just 24 hours following the launch of its Metaplex-powered sneaker customisation platform.