Rising blockchain company Ripple has announced the onboarding of around 4,000 singers, musicians, content creators, game designers, and other artists into its NFT platform with a Creator Fund worth more than $250 million. Launched in Sep. 2021, the blockchain producer is aiming to support artists and creative agencies like Mintable, MintNFT, VSA Partners, NFT PRO, Ethernal Labs, and onXRP. The creator fund will be distributed on a batch basis with a varying theme for each “wave” of applications.

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Nick Rose, Ethernal Labs chief executive officer and founder said:

“This partnership allows us to bolster the Web 3 ecosystem by pioneering cross-chain interoperability and bringing NFTs and digital assets to the masses.”

Notable artists onboarded for this batch include Justin Bua, filmmaker Steven Sebring, and xPunks. They have come together to connect the convocation of diverse artists. “I am extremely excited to be one of the first visual artists working with Ripple to bring life to my artistic vision in this tokenized world and lend the support I need to grow the BUA community,” said Justin Bua.

XRP total market cap at $37.81 billion on the weekend chart | Source: 

Ripple Creator Fund

For the next application waves, independent and rookie creators can also shoot their material to join the Creator Fund. As the only creator-centered platform in the market, Ripple is firm with its goal of assisting creators to grow their careers and build their community with the help of XRP Ledger. The theme of the ongoing wave will be announced in the second quarter of the year. The rotation themes will allow the current NFTs to use cases on the Ledger, with various themes exploring Media & Entertainment, Sustainability and Real Estate.

Real Utility And Web 3.0

The launch of the NFT-Devnet, a beta development environment seeking to assist more NFT creators in the industry, signaled a new turn in the industry. Ripple is slowly venturing into the world of Web 3.0 with the use of cases for tokenized assets. One report said that it had recently invested $100,000 to Feeturre, an entertainment and music marketplace.

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The entry to Web 3.0 is due to the possible utility increase of the XRP Ledger ecosystem. With the addition of their ledger, marketplaces like Feeturre will have lower fees and quicker settlement processes. Monica Long, the general manager of the app development arm RippleX, commented on the growing pace of the NFT market and the need to maximize its potential:

“NFTs have very quickly proven to have real utility within crypto — from digital experiences and rewards to artist royalties, co-ownership of real-world assets, and more.”

From March 11 to March 20, 2022, Ripple will host the Ripple House at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

Featured image from CryptoPotato, chart from TradingView.com