Welcome to the OpenSea digest. Let’s look back through the biggest NFT and web3 news of the week.

Refik Anadol’s AI art reaches prime time on 60 Minutes

Turkish American media artist Refik Anadol was featured Sunday on 60 Minutes, where he discussed how he uses artificial intelligence to create large-scale digital artworks. 

The segment showed Anadol and his team compiling datasets that include hundreds of millions of images, then training AI systems, meaning software that analyzes patterns in data and generates new visuals based on those patterns.

Anadol’s installations have appeared at the Museum of Modern Art and on buildings such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Some of his works have sold for more than $1 million at auction, CBS reported.

Rekt expands into Waitrose grocery stores

The NFT-linked beverage brand Rekt Drinks said it will launch in April at Waitrose, marking an expansion into one of the United Kingdom’s largest grocery retailers.

As the post outlines, products tied to OpenSea’s Ship Rekt campaign and MoonPay’s Moon Crush activation will be available in stores and online.

Rekt positions itself as a consumer brand connected to NFT culture, linking physical products with digital collectibles. The retail rollout places an NFT-native brand inside a mainstream supermarket chain, which extends its reach beyond crypto platforms and into everyday shopping channels.

MoonPay launches AI agents

Crypto payments company MoonPay has introduced MoonPay Agents, a new product that enables artificial intelligence programs to create crypto wallets and execute transactions on behalf of users. After a user completes identity verification and funds a wallet, the AI agent can reportedly trade, swap and transfer digital tokens within the permissions granted. MoonPay said the system is non-custodial, meaning users maintain control of their funds.

Ethereum Foundation stakes portion of holdings 

The Ethereum Foundation has reportedly begun staking part of its ETH holdings, committing about 2,106 ETH, valued near $3.8 million, as part of a broader treasury plan. The foundation said it aims to stake up to 70,000 ETH over time to earn protocol rewards that will support its operations.

Token staking means locking up cryptocurrency to help run the network and confirm transactions in exchange for additional ETH. Ethereum is a blockchain, or shared online ledger, and ETH is the token used to pay for activity on that network.

The onchain activity comes as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has reportedly sold millions of dollars worth of ETH in recent days, with proceeds intended to help fund the foundation during a period of tighter spending.

Tether invests in Whop as it builds out U.S. digital dollar push

Tether, the company behind the widely used digital dollar token USDT, said Feb. 25 that it has invested in Whop, a website where people sell digital products and memberships. The company’s announcement said the partnership will allow Whop users to pay and get paid using stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies designed to stay equal in value to the U.S. dollar and move across blockchains, or public online ledgers that track transactions.

Tether said Whop will integrate its wallet technology so users can hold and transfer funds directly and keep control of their own accounts. 

In January, Tether also introduced a U.S.-focused stablecoin called USAT in partnership with Anchorage Digital Bank to expand its digital dollar operations in the American market.

Tyler Hobbs to host QQL seed portfolio reviews for mint pass holders

Digital artist Tyler Hobbs will begin offering monthly one-on-one portfolio reviews starting March 4 for collectors preparing to mint works from QQL, according to an X post from Tyler Hobbs Studio. The private sessions, described as office hours, are open to QQL mint pass holders who want feedback on their selected seeds before minting.

QQL is a generative art project created by Hobbs and collaborator Dandelion Mané in which collectors choose a “seed,” or a specific set of parameters that the algorithm uses to generate a unique artwork. To join a session, participants must provide the Ethereum wallet address that holds their QQL mint pass, which verifies ownership on the Ethereum blockchain.

Scheduled review dates include March 2, April 6 and May 4, with morning and evening time slots listed in the registration form. The QQL community also organizes discussion and curation through its Discord server, subreddit and Seedbox, a curated collection of unminted seeds selected by a rotating set of community members known as the QQL Council.

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