Posted in: Comics, Image | Tagged: nft, oddkey, spawn, Steve Aoki, todd mcfaralne

Todd McFarlane Launches Own NFT Marketplace, OddKey, With Steve Aoki

Todd McFarlane has announced the launch of OddKey.com today—an NFT marketplace powered by Metaplex, alongside Steve Aoki's NFT Agency, Aoki Industries. The latest entrant into the world of non-fungible tokens is, according to them "founded out of a desire to help provide creators (from comics, sci-fi, fantasy, music, and more) with a safe platform to showcase and sell their authentic digital art. OddKey empowers artists with the ability to control the destinies of their own digital properties.

The launch of OddKey is intended to provide NFT comic and music collectors with the opportunity to own original and authenticated digital works including original digital Spawn art for the first time ever, and the first time that Todd McFarlane has sold original artwork in any capacity this century.

With over 2.8 billion music streams, Steve Aoki, and his agency Aoki Industries, will provide guidance and strategic assistance, while Aoki himself plans to use his musical skills and visual collaborations to deliver new NFT offerings in the near future.

"Steve and I wanted to help build a place where creators are in complete control of their work while retaining the vast majority of the finances. This same model made Image Comics, which I helped co-found in 1992, the third-largest publisher in North America (behind Marvel and DC Comics). Steve and I want to give that same freedom to creators in the NFT space… and let them know it's a place formed by two leading artists instead of people in suits," said McFarlane.

"Music has always been what my life is rooted in, but I've been a passionate collector of collectibles and various forms of art for as long as I can remember," Aoki states. "NFTs gave me an opportunity to finally merge art, collectible culture, and music in a way I've never been able to realize before. Working with a visionary like Todd to build OddKey.com can help raise independent artists to a whole other level."

In advance of the full site launch, a raffle will be held for a lucky 6,666 registrants that register their crypto wallets on OddKey.com. They will receive the inaugural OddKey NFT, an authentic Todd McFarlane x Steve Aoki digital collectible with an array of "easter egg" surprise utilities.

For people who understand these things, the site will be a permissionless on-chain protocol for buying, selling, and auctioning collectibles natively on the Solana blockchain, utilizing Metaplex's decentralized protocol marketplace. Any NFTs minted through Metaplex will be stored on Arweave, which backs data with perpetual payments, enabling creators to receive automatic payouts.

"We're beyond thrilled to be working with OddKey.com as they develop an online marketplace for some of the most prolific creators in the comic book world," said Jonathan Choi, CIO & Head of Partnerships of Metaplex Studios. "We believe that Metaplex will provide the tools for creators to have more ownership over how they monetize and distribute their art, and this is an excellent example of that.

"Building on the foundation of Solana and Arweave, Metaplex is able to dramatically reduce minting and trading fees," said Raj Gokal, COO of Solana Labs and strategic advisor to Metaplex. "The launch of a Solana-based NFT platform will help accelerate the pace of innovation we see in the space by providing an easy to use and more economically viable platform that can better serve both the creators and their communities."

OddKey.com will also feature a NFT secondary marketplace that allows creators and buyers to participate in the long-term life of each NFT. Artwork created utilizing intellectual property owned by a third party will no be considered or featured on the platform.

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