Author: Jody McDonald

Jody is a Brisbane-based freelance writer who specialises in writing about business, technology, and the future of work.

Categories
Bored Ape Yacht Club GameFi Markets Metaverse

ApeCoin Pumps Almost 50% on Release of ‘Otherside’ Metaverse Demo

A thrilling “first trip” into the gamified metaverse associated with the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has boosted the price of ApeCoin (APE) by around 50 percent.

Data from CoinGecko shows APE rallied in the days following a demo of the Otherside metaverse, and it is up more than 43 percent over the past week. 

APE has been on an upward trend since reaching its all-time low of US$3.10 in June this year – but it’s still down more than 77 percent from its all-time high of US$26.70 in April. 

First Voyage into ‘Otherside’ Metaverse Stirs Excitement

The Otherside metaverse was co-created by metaverse tech company Improbable and Yuga Labs. Yuga Labs flagged its metaverse project and the sale of virtual land in March as a means to expand its Bored Ape ecosystem – one of the most expensive and successful NFT collections launched – guaranteeing strong interest.

Around 4,500 people explored the immersive virtual world via a demo held on July 17, which sparked genuine excitement and helped hike the value of $APE:

The demo was exclusively open to owners (known as Voyagers) of an Otherdeed non-fungible token (NFT). Otherdeed NFTs went on sale earlier in 2022 and essentially represent a plot of land and associated resources in the Otherside world. 

Gameplay Central to Otherside Experience

ApeDAO launched $APE in March to a mixed market reaction, while stating its purpose was to “drive culture forward into the metaverse”. That now seems to be being realised given that $APE is required to access Otherside and purchase game-related assets. 

According to the Otherside project’s litepaper, initially users (aka Voyagers) will engage with the virtual world through a narrative-based gameplay.

All Voyagers are invited to take part in Voyager’s Journey, an 11-part storyline surrounding a mysterious Obelisk that has appeared in the Otherside universe. Team up with other Voyagers, develop your own experiences on your slice of the Otherside, and discover and shape what can be harvested, crafted, traded, bought and sold.

Otherside litepaper

Tech demos like the one that triggered the price increase for $APE are the first stage of the Voyager’s Journey. Future “trips” inside Otherside are planned to accomodate more Voyagers, with dates to be announced via Otherside’s social media.

Categories
Ethereum Investing Markets

ETH Surges Close to 50% in a Week Amid Bullish Merge Announcement

The price of Ethereum (ETH) has surged almost 50 percent in the past week on the back of an announcement that the long-awaited Merge is tentatively scheduled to take place in September.

According to data from CoinGecko, at the time of writing ETH was trading at US$1,535.71, up 49.5 percent from its recent low of US$1,027.42 on July 13.

Merge Hype Primary Driver of ETH Price Growth

On July 14, Ethereum Foundation member Tim Beiko tweeted a soft timeline for the much-anticipated Ethereum Merge, suggesting it could take place on September 19: 

Despite Beiko’s caveats that this timeline was tentative and subject to change, the market reacted very enthusiastically to the news, with the price of ETH jumping almost 25 percent in the two days following the tweet.

What is the Merge?

The Merge refers to Ethereum’s transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. This transition will mean the end of mining on the Ethereum network, with miners replaced by validators. Validators will need to stake a minimum of 32 ETH on the network and will then have the chance to be randomly selected to add the next block to the chain, in the process earning ETH.

The primary benefit of switching to PoS is enormously improved energy efficiency. Some estimates put the reduction in energy use at around 99.95 percent. However, the Merge in itself is not expected to result in lower gas fees or increased transaction speeds.

Bullish Indicators for ETH

Beyond the spike in its price, several other indicators also suggest sentiment towards ETH is turning positive. The number of whales – accounts holding between 1000 and 100,000 ETH – has grown by 131 since early May, while the number of accounts holding over 100 ETH hit a 15-month high of 45,081 on July 13:

Additionally, the total value locked in the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract hit a one-month high of US$17,957,275,144.37 on July 18, just days after the announcement of the Merge timeline:

Categories
Ethereum NFTs OpenSea

Crypto Winter Bites as OpenSea Lays Off 20% of its Workforce

Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea has laid off approximately 20 percent of its workforce due to a confluence of factors, including the harsh crypto bear market and instability in the broader economy:

The layoffs at Open Sea follow a swathe of job losses throughout crypto in 2022 – in June, Coinbase slashed 1,100 jobs representing around 18 percent of its workforce, and BlockFi and Crypto.com have shed a combined total of more than 400 staff.

OpenSea Readies for Prolonged Downturn

OpenSea co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer took to Twitter on July 15 to share the message he sent to staff regarding the job losses in which he explained the NFT marketplace was preparing to endure a potentially “prolonged downturn”:

We need to prepare the company for the possibility of a prolonged downturn. The changes we’re making today put us in a position to maintain multiple years of runway under various crypto winter scenarios (five years at current volume), and give us high confidence that we will only have to go through this process once. 

Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO, OpenSea

Opportunities Emerge From Bear Market

According to data from CoinGecko, since its peak in November last year the total cryptocurrency market cap has fallen by around 70 percent, from just under US$3 trillion to below US$1 trillion. 

This collapse in value has imperilled projects across all sectors of the crypto economy, including exchanges, lending platforms, DeFi apps and NFT marketplaces. The fact that OpenSea, the oldest and largest NFT marketplace, is now being hit is a measure of the depth and severity of the current crypto winter.

As hard as these conditions are for many projects and investors, Finzer says they can create opportunities to innovate, stating:

We have a huge opportunity in front of us. During this winter, I expect that we’ll see an explosion in innovation and utility across NFTs. With the hard (but important) changes we made today, we’re in an even better position to capture what will soon become the largest market on the planet. When the global economy is uncertain, our mission to build the foundation for new, peer-to-peer economies feels more urgent and important than ever.

Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO, OpenSea
Categories
Bitcoin Economics Investing Markets

Bitcoin Dips Below $19,000 Amid Highest US Inflation Print in 40 Years

Bitcoin briefly dipped below US$19,000 on July 13 following the announcement of a higher than expected Consumer Price Index figure in the US. 

Economists were tipping a June year-on-year inflation number of 8.8 percent, but the announced rate came in at 9.1 percent – the highest figure in over 40 years – leading to an immediate and sudden dip in BTC’s price.

Recovery Follows 4.5% Dip

According to data from CoinMarketCap, in the hour following the CPI announcement BTC’s price dropped more than 4.5 percent, from US$19,989 to US$18,999. The price has since recovered and at the time of writing BTC was changing hands at US$20,234.

Prior to the current crypto bear market and skyrocketing inflation in the broader economy, BTC had been widely considered an inflation hedge. In January, despite rising inflation, BTC appeared to find support at around US$43,000, but as inflation has continued to surge and the crypto market has hit significant turbulence, its price has tumbled.

Since January, BTC’s price has dropped by almost 60 percent leaving many questioning whether Bitcoin truly is an effective hedge against inflation:

Where To From Here?

The record high inflation numbers will likely see central banks around the world, including in the US, continue to hike rates in an attempt to restore price stability at the expense of short-term economic growth.

Speaking at a recent European Central Bank forum, US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell affirmed the importance of getting on top of rising inflation:

Is there a risk we would go too far? Certainly there’s a risk … The bigger mistake to make – let’s put it that way – would be to fail to restore price stability.

Jerome Powell, chair, US Federal Reserve

Generally speaking, higher interest rates mean less money circulating in the economy resulting in downward pressure on consumer spending and inflation, which may also translate into less money in the pockets of crypto investors and further falls for crypto prices.

This picture is further complicated by the unique factors causing the current wave of inflation – the war in Ukraine and ongoing complications from the Covid pandemic – which aren’t easily addressed with interest rate rises, resulting in significant economic uncertainty in the medium term.

Categories
Australia GMT Token Markets Solana

Adelaide-Based STEPN Announces $122 Million in Q2 Profits, Plans Buyback and Burn

On July 12, Adelaide-based move-to-earn platform STEPN announced a Q2 profit of US$122.5 million, which it says was generated through its platform fees.

In keeping with the economic plan outlined in the project’s whitepaper, STEPN plans to allocate 5 percent of this profit to its Q2 buyback-and-burn program. The Solana-based move-to-earn leader also revealed that a portion of the profit would be spent addressing security and cheating issues that have plagued the platform recently.

Details of Token Burn

According to STEPN, its buyback-and-burn program is designed to ensure its users are “best supported”. Generally, token burning is seen as a way to increase the scarcity of a token and therefore increase its price – STEPN uses this mechanism to increase its token’s value over time and make its platform more attractive to users. 

Based on the 5 percent figure cited in the announcement, the Q2 buyback-and-burn program should see just over US$6 million worth of tokens burnt. STEPN explained that the program may “take a few weeks to complete in order to avoid causing sudden price volatility”.

Security, Integrity Top Spending Priorities

After a string of DDoS attacks targeting the platform in the first half of 2022, the STEPN team says it has decided to spend more resources increasing server capacity and enhancing the security of the platform.

We are committed to delivering the best possible service to our users and have been working to amplify the platform’s security and server capacity to prevent future DDoS attacks. With the profits realised during Q2, we will be able to double down in our commitment to this and devote more resources to our efforts.

STEPN team

While the platform has always had an anti-cheat system, the team said part of the Q2 profit would be used to enhance this system:

We have heavily invested in this mechanism since day one and we will continue to do so [to] ensure the fairness of the STEPN game landscape. We are set to improve upon our AI’s ability to detect anomalies, prevent accounts from using bots for mining, accounts faking movement to gain additional rewards, and more.

STEPN team

Other areas of the business that will receive spending boosts heading into Q3 include team expansion, partnerships, and marketing.

STEPN Leads Emerging Move-To-Earn Sector

STEPN is one of the leaders in the emerging sector of move-to-earn platform: crypto-based apps that allow users to earn rewards by exercising. The platform has seen significant growth since launching in December 2021. By April of 2022, STEPN had soared in value 217x. 

Like most crypto projects, though, it has recently seen its value drop dramatically, partly due to factors affecting the whole market and partly due to a spate of DDoS attacks and cheating scandals that have rocked confidence in the project.

Currently, STEPN’s governance token GMT is changing hands at US$0.85, down around 78 percent from its all-time high of US$3.83, which it hit in April.

Categories
Blockchain NFTs Polygon Terra

Terra-Based Projects Begin Mass Exodus to Polygon After Terra Implosion

More than 48 projects originally built on the Terra blockchain have begun to migrate to Polygon in the wake of Terra’s sudden collapse in May:

According to Polygon Studios CEO Ryan Wyatt, some of the projects migrating to Polygon include the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OnePlanet, the multiverse platform Lunaverse, and the play-to-earn-game Derby Stars.

OnePlanet’s Ark*One Initiative Spurs Migration

Following Terra’s collapse, OnePlanet launched an initiative known as Ark*One, whose purpose was to save innovative NFT projects built on the failed blockchain. Ark*One has been a driving force behind the migration from Terra to Polygon, with 48 NFT projects comprising 90 NFT collections having applied for financial and technical support through the initiative.

Applications to Ark*One closed on June 15. This date also marked the end of Polygon Studios’ financial support to the initiative. However, Ark*One will continue providing technical support to projects wanting to migrate from Terra to Polygon.

Why Polygon?

One of the main reasons so many Terra projects have chosen to migrate to Polygon is that it offered substantial financial support to entice projects. In the weeks after Terra’s collapse, Polygon Studios launched a multimillion-dollar fund specifically to attract projects from Terra onto the Polygon blockchain.

OnePlanet has also cited several reasons Polygon was an attractive destination, beyond simple financial support, writing in a blog post:

Taking into consideration the key factors such as mass adoption, market opportunities, stability and foundation-level support, we found that Polygon is currently the most prominent chain with so many big projects and entities onboarding … Moreover, Polygon has the low gas fee of $0.0025 on average and high throughput of being able to process up to 7,000 transactions per second, which shows huge potentiality to bring a larger audience to the chain. 

OnePlanet blog
Categories
Blockchain NFTs Polygon Reddit Social media

Reddit Launches NFT Avatars, But Won’t Call Them NFTs

Popular social media platform Reddit will launch a new NFT avatar collection in the coming weeks leveraging the Polygon blockchain – however, it has avoided any reference to non-fungible tokens, instead exclusively using the term “collectible avatars”:

As well as being blockchain-based, the new collectible avatars’ primary difference from Reddit’s existing avatars is that they’ll be available for individual sale – all other Reddit avatars are either free or are made available when a user subscribes to Reddit Premium.

And despite their being blockchain-based, Reddit users will not need to have any cryptocurrencies or a crypto wallet to buy and store the new avatars.

There has been speculation as far back as October 2021 that Reddit may be planning to launch its own NFT platform when it posted a job ad for a senior backend engineer with NFT expertise. Since then, Reddit has added other NFT-based features, such as the ability for users to change their profile picture to an NFT, which launched in January of this year.

Reddit’s ‘Collectible Avatars’ Created by Artists

Reddit’s new avatars will be created by some of the platform’s most passionate independent artists. Participating artists will receive payment each time one of their avatars is purchased and will also be entitled to royalties from secondary sales of their avatars on external NFT marketplaces.

Purchasers of the new NFT-based avatars will acquire usage rights to the artwork both on Reddit and outside of the platform. 

Reddit also says users who purchase one of the new collectible avatars will receive unique benefits on the platform, however the only specific benefit mentioned in the announcement was owners’ profile pictures having a “glow-like effect” when they appear in the comments section of posts.

Potential Benefits in Blockchain Tech

Reddit says it chose to use the Polygon blockchain for its new NFT-based avatars because of the network’s relatively low transaction costs and stated commitment to sustainability measures.

Reddit users will be able to use their local fiat currency to purchase the new NFT-based avatars and they’ll be able to store them in Reddit’s built-in crypto wallet, which is known as the Vault. 

Using blockchain technology to power its new avatars provides several benefits, Reddit says, writing in its announcement:

Right now, blockchain technology provides purchasers with ownership and portability of their collectible avatar, and provides artists with a way to have their work live beyond the virtual walls of Reddit (and be compensated for future sales of their art).

Reddit team

It also sees blockchain as a technology with potential to further empower communities built on its platform:

We see blockchain as one way to bring more empowerment and independence to communities on Reddit. Reddit has always been a model for what decentralisation could look like online; our communities are self-built and run, and as part of our mission to better empower our communities, we are exploring tools to help them be even more self-sustaining and self-governed.

Reddit team
Categories
DeFi Hackers Markets Solana

‘Crema Finance’ Hacker Returns Funds, Receives $1.7 Million in SOL as Bounty

Solana-based liquidity protocol Crema Finance claims it has recovered most of the roughly US$9 million worth of assets stolen by a hacker on July 3:

Crema Finance negotiated an agreement with the hacker, whose identity remains unknown, which allowed the hacker to keep a portion of the stolen assets as a bug bounty in exchange for returning the remaining assets.

No Criminal Charges Likely

The hack on Crema Finance resulted in the theft of 69,422.9 SOL and 6,497,738 USDC – a combined total value of just over US$8.78 million.

Following what Crema Finance described as a “long negotiation”, the hacker agreed to return most funds but retained 45,455 SOL, currently valued at approximately US$1.7 million. The hacker was also referred to as “white-hat” and “ethical” in tweets by Crema Finance, suggesting the DeFi platform won’t be pursuing criminal charges.

Following the hack, the total value locked on Crema Finance fell dramatically, dropping as low as US$3 million on July 4, having sat at over US$12 million on the Saturday prior to the hack.

Crema Finance shared the transaction details proving the hacker had indeed returned 6,064 ETH and 23,967 SOL to its accounts:

Smart Contract Suspended Pending Audit

Since the hack, Crema Finance’s smart contract has been suspended while its new smart contract code is being audited by blockchain security firm SlowMist. Crema Finance says the protocol will go live again once that audit is complete and its security can be assured:

It’s becoming increasingly common for hackers in the crypto space to agree to return most of the stolen assets in return for a bounty. In June, a high-profile case saw the the Ethereum rollup-solution Optimism hacked to the tune of US$17 million, with the hacker agreeing to return US$15 million worth of the stolen assets in return for a US$2 million bug bounty.

Categories
Australia Axie Infinity Crypto News NFTs Surveys

Australia Ranks 8th in ‘Most Interested in NFTs’, Report

Whether they love ’em or hate ’em, it’s clear Australians are highly curious about non-fungible tokens after ranking eighth globally for NFT interest according to an analysis conducted by online lender CashNetUSA.

Based on Google search volume and Twitter sentiment collected in March 2022, the analysis identified that Singaporeans were most likely to search for information about NFTs. The US, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand also made the top 10 on monthly search volume figures:

Top 10 countries by interest in NFTs. Source: CashNetUSA

A similar exploration of NFT search queries in 50 countries by the NFT Club website in May placed Australia second in terms of interest in NFTs, with Taiwan taking out the top spot.

Australians Positive Towards NFTs, Favouring Axie Infinity

In terms of positive and negative sentiment towards NFTs, CashNetUSA found Eastern European countries were the most passionate on both counts. People in Montenegro were most likely to post pro-NFT tweets, while Twitter users in Poland were most likely to be anti-NFTs. 

A higher number of Australians expressed positive views of NFTs, according to the analysis: for every 1,000 tweets, 539 were found to show “love” for NFTs compared to just 79 expressing “hate”.

Among Australian NFT enthusiasts, the most popular NFT collectible community is Axie Infinity. The Vietnam-origin gaming platform dominates globally when it comes to most-Googled collectibles, ranking first in 112 countries. Decentraland, Sorare, and Bored Ape Yacht Club also featured on the list of popular NFT communities. 

Of course, Australian investors are more likely to feel the love for NFTs when they make gains, like the Aussie owner of a Bored Ape who was being offered up to US$5 million for the NFT he purchased for just US$300.

Categories
Australia Investing Regulation Scams

Australians Lost Almost $100 Million in 2021 to Crypto Investment Scams

Aussies lost more than A$2 billion to scams in 2021, including losses of A$84 million due to scammers seeking payment with cryptocurrency, according to an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) report.

The ACCC’s annual report on scams published on July 4 found that investment scams increased by 135 percent in 2021 and caused the most financial harm, resulting in A$701 million lost by Australians. 

This spike was driven specifically by crypto investment scams, which led to Aussie investors reporting losses of A$99 million – 270 percent higher than the previous year. 

The report tallies losses based on consumer reports shared with Scamwatch, ReportCyber, and 12 financial institutions and government agencies.

Common Types of Crypto Scams Aussies Fall For

Some of the most common ways scammers exploited Aussies’ interest in crypto to steal their hard-earned money include:

  • fake investment and crypto trading platforms, which sometimes mimic legitimate, well-known websites;
  • sales of fake crypto wallets;
  • tricking people into revealing their seed phrase for an existing wallet; and
  • offers to “help” people get set up on a crypto platform by remotely accessing their computer. 

Scammers typically contacted victims by phone, or through social media and websites. Crypto investment scams affected all age groups but people aged 65 years and over lost the most money (A$26.5 million). 

Combating Crypto Scams Requires ‘Urgent Work’

In her foreword to the report, ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard suggests urgent work is needed to combat crypto investment scams:

The popularity and hype of cryptocurrency has led to a surge in losses to investment scams with combined losses of $701 million. At the same time, it is also becoming the preferred method of payment across all types of scams.

Delia Rickard, deputy chair, ACCC

While bank transfers remained the most common way scammers requested payment from victims in 2021, requests for cryptocurrency increased dramatically – up 216 percent. Earlier this year, the ACCC revealed crypto had surpassed bank transfers as scammers’ preferred payment method. 

Rickard also expressed her hope that government efforts towards licensing digital currency exchanges and custody requirements for crypto assets would slow the growth of crypto scams. Consumer groups have also called for Australia’s new Labor government to protect crypto investors through more stringent regulation.