NFTs had a stellar January, plus news from Apple and Hermès

Apple may have fallen short of analyst expectations with its earnings on Thursday, but its metaverse ambitions are still flying high. According to a recent report by the Information, the company is working on a way for users to create augmented reality apps for the App Store with the help of Siri. 

The company is also developing a way for users to create 3D models from real-life objects, which will be helpful for realistic AR applications. Apple also is rumored to be working on glasses that will have both AR and VR capabilities, but the company is more interested in AR.

Crypto-enabled metaverses like The Sandbox and Decentraland also had some good news this week. The cryptocurrencies associated with both platforms were up 94% and 156%, respectively for January and outpaced both Bitcoin and Ether, which saw double-digit gains this month.

The boost in the two bigger cryptocurrencies may have contributed to increased optimism for the metaverse tokens, but both platforms also have some exciting developments in the works. Decentraland will be hosting its Metaverse Fashion Week in March. Last year, it attracted big-name brands like Dolce & Gabbana, so it could be a good opportunity to attract institutional interest to the platform.

As for the Sandbox, a spokesperson told Fortune that they have several announcements and partnerships in the works.

“Our main priority is solely to build,” the spokesperson said. 

Elsewhere in the world of Web3, NFTs are experiencing a resurgence. Sales jumped 38% in January, Decrypt reported, based on data from DappRadar, with sales totaling $946.7 million during the month, compared with $683.9 million in December. The renewed investor optimism made January the strongest NFT market in terms of the number of sales since…