Metaverse News #11 - we read all the metaverse stories so you don't have to 💡

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Nike dominates a list of brands' NFT success by revenue, with sales of $185.3MM, dwarfing all other brands - Dolce & Gabbana comes second with $25.7MM
Gordon Ramsay's cooking show Hell's Kitchen is partnering with The Sandbox to create virtual experiences, which include Ramsay avatars
Procter & Gamble and French retailer Carrefour held a virtual experiment through P&G's LifeLab, where users could create an avatar to help Mr. Clean (ou M. Propre) tidy parts of his home
Sir Anthony Hopkins has launched a remarkable collection of NFTs based on some of his film roles
Web3 companies such as Solana and Doodles are increasingly using brick-and-mortar stores and real life events to reach people who aren't already NFT converts in a bid to lower the barriers to entry
GRAMMY-nominated music producer Steve Aoki announced a community-driven NFT TV series, a continuation of his 2021 stop-motion NFT project, Dominion X, which sold out in under seven seconds
Following MTV's recent introduction of the Best Metaverse Performance award at the VMAs, it has now opened a metaverse experience in Roblox to promote the event
Meta is launching Queens of the Metaverse, a mixed reality drag show that will use AR, VR and avatars to explore how tech can "unlock the possibilities of fashion design"
Bulgari is launching the world's thinnest mechanical watch, which is engraved with a QR code that accesses an NFT of digital art and also serves as authentication
Educational publisher, Pearson, plans to sell textbooks as NFTs in an effort to make money from second-hand sales
Patrón has a pop-up in Decentraland with an interactive bar and limited edition wearables
What could possibly go wrong? Vogue Business lays out the challenges brands face when doing an NFT drop, including bots, crashes and scammers

On The Merge
You've probably seen mentions of the Ethereum Merge, a long-planned upgrade, which will merge the current Ethereum blockchain with the Beacon Chain. This shift (expected mid-September) will change the Ethereum Mainnet from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake - a process that should result in a more efficient system of managing transactions, which uses much less energy.

A brief explainer of what's happening
And, a deeper dive
A concise explanation of the effect the merge will have on other crypto exchanges, such as Coinbase

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