NFTs in M’sia this week: Local artist captures the Oscars slap in token form

Last week, we talked about Malaysia’s Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Ministry proposing the legalisation of NFTs and crypto mining.

Although the idea was shot down by the Deputy Finance Minister, others in politics still seem to be into the idea.

MCA Youth speaks up on NFTs

In a press statement on Thursday, Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) National Youth spokesperson Jacob Lee Yee Yuan urged the government to focus on NFTs. He argued because NFTs cannot be traded or exchanged on parity, it’s more secure than cryptocurrencies.

“This proves that esports in Malaysia has great potential, not only in terms of players but also in terms of digital game development,” he wrote.

Jacob also believes that NFTs can be used to grow the esports industry in Malaysia. Citing “recent reports,” he stated that Malaysia’s digital game industry achieved significant progress with the launch of Soulbond: Rebels Arise.

Designed by Metabond, Soulbond: Rebels Arise is a Play-to-Earn (P2E) MMORPG where playable characters come in the form of NFTs.

According to Jacob, MCA Youth is “ready to play a role in helping the government reach out to youth to obtain their views and feedback”.

Buy NFTs, get topokki on the house

After teasing it last year, MyeongDong Topokki (MDT) finally shared its NFT restaurant in Genting Highlands on Facebook.

According to its NFT website, the brand claims MDT Sky Avenue, Genting is the first NFT concept restaurant in Malaysia. No, you’re not eating virtual food. The main kicker is that customers can get exclusive perks by buying MDT NFTs.

MDT has created five categories of NFTs, namely The Elite, The Trendsetter, The Unusual, and Base Born.

The lowest tier seems to be the Base Born NFTs, which provide holders with a free MDT Special Value Set once a month for dine-in. Base Born NFT holders are also entitled to one “MDT NFT Exclusive Premium Menu” per promo period, and they get to invite one guest to enjoy the menu at guest rate.

The Unusual holders get the same perks, except they are allowed to invite two guests. And you may have guessed it, but The Trendsetter gets three guests.

Holders of The Elite get all the perks The Trendsetter has, but they will also get a free Metaverse Topokki monthly.

We don’t really know what a Metaverse Topokki is, but it’s probably something interesting?

Currently, MDT NFTs are only available in the Genting outlet, so to make the most out of their NFTs, holders would have to visit the Highlands often.

Capitalising on the Will Smith and Chris Rock fiasco

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you would have heard about the moment Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars.

If you missed the moment, no worries. You can now catch it in NFT form. A verified creator on Pentas.io, Pelempunk minted a 13-second-long video on Tuesday entitled Pelempunk 217: Will Smith VS Chris Rock.

I can only imagine the moment Pelempunk realised they could make something out of this. How serendipitous that the name Pelempunk originates from Malay word “pelempang” meaning slap or smack, and that their NFTs are based around characters being pelempang-ed.

On Wednesday, another verified account and well-known artist, Bad Ape, bought the NFT for 0.5 BNB, which is roughly RM939.38 at the time of writing.

According to the artist’s website, Pelempunk’s goal is to spread positivity and laughter through their NFTs while narrating society’s behaviours and events. In that sense, the Will Smith vs Chris Rock NFT definitely fit the agenda.

Featured Image Credit: Pelumpunk / SoulBond / MyeongDong Topokki