Stephen Hess, Head of Product at Solana Labs, to Become CEO of Metaplex Studios, Doubling Down on Infrastructure for NFTs

Metaplex Studios, a U.S.-based organization dedicated to advancing the Solana NFT protocol Metaplex (https://www.metaplex.com/), announced today the appointment of Stephen Hess as Chief Executive Officer.


Hess will be leaving his role as Head of Product at Solana Labs where he supported the development of the Solana ecosystem and played a key role in the explosion of NFT projects on Solana last year.

Metaplex is the core NFT standard and protocol of the Solana ecosystem. Since June of 2021, Metaplex has been used to create over 7.4 million NFTs for 94,000 projects with over 650,000 active collectors. Metaplex is also the protocol behind the recently announced Coachella Keys Collection and its foundation will be sponsoring the Solana Hacker House in Seattle this week.

“The Metaplex Protocol has been an incredible launchpad for independent creators into the metaverse,” said Stephen Hess, newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of Metaplex Studios. “We’re doubling down on these independent artists, creators and game studios and focused on making NFT tools available to everyone.”

The Metaplex community has created several new on-chain programs and tools for developers, such as Candy Machine, Auction House, Packs and Gumdrop that give creators more control over how their NFTs are structured, minted, and experienced.

“When launching NFTs for Coachella’s community, we wanted to build on a platform that was accessible, affordable, and environmentally friendly,” said Sam Schoonover, Innovation Lead at Coachella. “Working with Metaplex on Solana is going to give us the ability to try new things and provide new and interesting utility for our fans.”

Late last month, the Foundation supporting the Metaplex protocol announced the completion of a $46 million token sale co-led by Multicoin Capital and Jump Crypto, with participation from over 90 diverse individuals from industries including but not limited to music, sports, fashion and film. With this raise, the Metaplex Foundation will provide grants to many organizations, including Metaplex Studios, to support ecosystem development and empower creators from underrepresented communities.

In January of 2022, five months after the first Solana NFT to break $1 million occurred, the Solana blockchain crossed $1 billion in NFT total sales, all of which were minted with Metaplex. The blockchains highest weekly trade volume reached $160.39 million in August of 2021. Since that trade value peak, JP Morgan reported that the Solana blockchain has been capturing the most NFT volume share compared to alternatives.

About Metaplex
Metaplex is a permissionless on-chain protocol for buying, selling, and using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) natively on the Solana blockchain. Metaplex dramatically lowers minting and transaction fees and is a platform for independent NFT marketplaces. Along with the on-chain protocol, an open-source application framework can be fully customized, self-hosted, and extended without passing through a centralized authority.
To begin creating on Metaplex please visit: https://www.metaplex.com

About Metaplex Studios
Metaplex Studios aims to grow the ecosystem of developers and makers that are building on the Metaplex protocol by providing the tools and resources needed to create the internet of Web3

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Disclaimer: The text above is a press release that was not written by Finyear.com.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Avertissement : Le texte ci-dessus est un communiqué de presse qui n'a pas été rédigé par Finyear.com.
L'émetteur est seul responsable du contenu de cette annonce.

Vendredi 11 Février 2022


Articles similaires