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

mmERCH launches ‘I Heart LA’ fundraiser for wildfire recovery

Generative apparel company mmERCH led a three-day charity art sale, raising over 17 ETH (approx. $56,000 USD at mint time) for families affected by wildfires in Los Angeles.

The mint ran from Jan. 17 to 19 and featured seven distinctive artworks from Larva Labs founders Matt Hall and John Watkinson, along with digital artists Grant Yun, CrypToadz creator Gremplin, Niceaunties, Chikai, ClownVamp, and Goyong. 

mmERCH announced that 100% of the proceeds will go to the nonprofit organization Baby2Baby, which is distributing emergency supplies to children and families through its 470 local partners in Los Angeles County. Learn more about Baby2Baby donations here.

Parallel expands its prize pool and announces new patch

Echelon, the blockchain ecosystem behind the popular trading card game (TCG) Parallel, has news ahead of its March esports competition. 

According to an announcement, the league's initial $500,000 prize pool drove intense competition, and the partners now plan to commit to $3 million in prizes over the next two seasons.

Players can also expect a bigger prize pool and a fresh game patch in February that enhances gameplay, fixes bugs, and adjusts the way ranked players earn rewards. 

The upcoming live esports championship will be held from Feb. 28 to March 2 at the HyperX Arena in Las Vegas.

GOAT Gaming will soon launch new ‘AlphaGOATs’ AI agents

On Feb. 6, gaming community GOAT Gaming will roll out AI-driven characters called “AlphaGOATs” that players can manage across multiple player-versus-player (PvP) games.

According to the initial description, the autonomous agents, which reportedly cost between $325 and $775, will come with a fixed allocation of $GG tokens and be able to compete in games, grow a fanbase, and earn rewards on behalf of their holders. 

As of now, a full list of games in which AlphaGOATs will be compatible has not been released. However, developers expect they’ll be able to incorporate AlphaGOAT agents into third-party games using GOAT Gaming’s open-source tools. From the existing roadmap, it looks like a self-serve tool suite will be available in 2026.

Interested players can sign up for the allowlist and read updates on the AlphaGOATs website.

Igloo, Inc.-backed Abstract chain announces incentives program

Ahead of its forthcoming mainnet launch, Ethereum layer-two (L2) chain Abstract announced a new points program for users, developers, and creators who build within the ecosystem using Abstract Global Wallets.

In addition, Abstract confirmed its first builder-in-residence cohort on Jan. 20, and the group includes five projects spanning games, memecoins, and a project described as “something new and exciting.”

Abstract is owned by Pudgy Penguins' parent company Igloo, Inc. and is designed to simplify the process of creating and scaling on-chain intellectual property (IP).

Rumble Kong League will migrate to Ronin sidechain

Mobile basketball game Rumble Kong League announced on Jan. 16 that it will migrate from the layer-one (L1) Avalanche blockchain to Ronin, an Ethereum-linked sidechain made originally for the pet battle game Axie Infinity.

According to the analytics platform Token Terminal, Ronin has at least one million weekly active users at the time of this publishing. Rumble Kong pointed to a higher figure, citing 17.2 million all-time wallet downloads among Ronin users as part of its reasoning for the switch. One day before Rumble Kong’s announcement, Ronin introduced $10 million in grants to expand builders’ efforts within the ecosystem.

Nifty Island players test out new AI agents

Free-to-play social game Nifty Island is also catching the AI-agent wave. On Dec. 19, the team invited players to create AI agents for gameplay, and this week people began tweeting about their first earnings from the agents in the game’s native token, $ISLAND.

This development comes on the heels of Nifty Island’s new patch upgrading its gameplay features.

Xociety runs a limited-time playtest

Xociety, a third-person shooter RPG built on the Sui blockchain, opened its doors for players to compete in missions and challenges during a free playtest that ran from Jan. 18 to 21.

Over six total hours of gameplay, participants engaged in various activities to test out fresh features like map changes and user experience (UX) updates, while tapping into prize pools and evaluating game quality on Sui.

Note: The mention of a token is for informational purposes only nor is it intended as financial or investment advice.