Author: Jana Serfontein

Jana has keen interest in what cryptocurrencies have to offer in regards to NGO’s, governments and the financial system. And is also intrigued with the psychological effect that cryptocurrencies have on society.

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Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Mercedes Launches NFT Collection to Celebrate G-Class Series

In celebration of its signature car, Mercedes-Benz has teamed up with Art2People to create an exclusive NFT collection based on its G-Class vehicle line, according to a tweet from the German prestige car maker.

Mercedes commissioned five NFT artists to create various G-Class-inspired designs, each using different digital mediums to render unique pieces. The artists involved in the project come from diverse areas such as music, graphic design, fashion, creative marketing, real estate, architecture, and luxury design. They include Anthony Authie, Roger Kilimanjaro, Charlotte Taylor, Baugasm, and Antoni Tudisco.

The launch is set to take place on Sunday, January 23, jointly by Mercedes and Nifty Gateway. The drop will only last for one hour and will include pieces in various price categories, ranging from an affordable US$222 all the way up to US$1,554.

To add to the drop, when it hits US$1 million in collective sales, there will be a physical G-Class raffle available for all NFT holders. Another raffle will be held when the drop reaches US$2 million, and each NFT can be bought without having to hold cryptocurrency by using a credit card.

Mercedes Joins Lamborghini and Audi in the NFT Space

Mercedes is not the first luxury vehicle brand to move into the NFT space. In August last year, compatriot German prestige car maker Audi released an NFT collection in collaboration with XNFT Protocol, a decentralised creation and aggregator platform for NFTs. In the same month, Lamborghini launched an NFT collection to celebrate its founder.

Also last year, Australian auction house Lloyds auctioned off 50 NFTs of classic 1970s Aussie muscle car the Holden Torana A9X.

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Crypto Exchange Crypto News Regulation Security

Crypto Advertising Crackdowns Kicking in Around the World Again

As quickly as cryptocurrency is increasing its pace of adoption, so too is regulation pertaining to its promotion. Spain, Singapore, and the UK are the latest jurisdictions to have made changes to their advertising regulations.

Spain Releases New Rules for Crypto Influencer Posts

Spanish regulators are advocating to control the way crypto is marketed, focusing specifically on restrictions on influencers’ promotions. The Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), the governmental organisation responsible for the financial regulation of Spanish securities markets, issued a release on January 17 outlining its new rules.

The CNMV now stipulates that promoting crypto assets must include the following disclaimer: “Investments in crypto assets are not regulated. They may not be appropriate for retail investors and the full amount invested may be lost.”

Influencers or outlets with more than 100,000 followers must also now notify the CNMV on the content of promotions related to crypto with a minimum of 10 days’ notice. Spain’s new rules come into effect next month, and non-compliance may result in fines.

Crypto.com billboard in Singapore’s Orchard Plaza. Source: bloomberg.com

Although this is the first strict regulation for the EU, several other countries have also moved to control how crypto firms and agencies advertise their services. The UK recently banned two ads from Crypto.com because they were deemed to be misleading by the UK’s advertising regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ASA determined that the Singapore-based exchange’s ads took advantage of consumers’ “inexperience” and failed to make it clear that crypto investments aren’t regulated in the UK.

Singapore Curbs Crypto Marketing

Singapore has also cracked down on crypto marketing to curtail a recent surge in retail trading of digital assets. According to guidelines issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, “the public should not be encouraged to engage in the trading of [digital payment tokens (DPT)].” The regulatory body advised service providers to only market their goods on their own websites, social media and apps, and that they should take care not to trivialise the risk of investing digital assets.

Singapore has also made the decision to ban all ATMs that deal in digital currencies, citing that their convenience and accessibility may mislead the public to trade crypto assets on impulse.

Common Themes? 

The recent cryptocurrency ad crackdown has mainly been fuelled by companies and influencers taking advantage of unwitting and inexperienced crypto customers. Regulation thus far had served to protect consumers against the risks still associated with the unregulated market.

Last year, Google reviewed its policy on advertising after lifting its ban in August, adding specific requirements to which advertisers had to adhere.

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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs

Indonesian Student’s NFT Selfie Collection Goes Viral, Nets $1 Million in OpenSea Sales

An Indonesian student who thought it was “funny” to sell his expressionless selfies as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has made an astonishing US$1 million in sales.

Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali, 22, spent five years taking blank-looking selfies in front of his computer, which he later converted into NFTs and uploaded to popular marketplace OpenSea in December 2021. According to Ghozali, he has made over US$1 million in sales after selling almost 1,000 of his selfies online.

Ghozali’s OpenSea profile. Source: OpenSea

What the NFT Market Will Bear

From 2017 to 2021, the computer science major snapped photos of his expressionless face while standing in front of his computer, all with the intention of compiling the photos to create a video time-lapse for his graduation day. Ghozali decided to upload his selfies in December to OpenSea under the title “Ghozali Everyday” and priced each NFT at US$3, without expecting interest from serious buyers. While monetising his expressionless images, Ghozali said in a tweet:

You can do anything like flipping or whatever but please don’t abuse my photos or my parents will very disappointed in me. I believe in you guys, so please take care of my photos.

Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali

A Story Behind Every NFT

After exceeding his wildest expectations, the student’s NFT offerings blew up further. On the back of their rising popularity, one of the NFTs sold for 0.247 ether on January 14, worth around US$806 at the time of purchase. Some of Ghozali’s selfie NFTs also sold for 0.9 ether, roughly US$3,000. According to his OpenSea profile, the collection subsequently reached a total trade volume of 317 ether, the equivalent of more than US$1 million.

To add rarity to his collection, the young entrepreneur also added a personal touch by providing a bit of background information along with his selfies. Ghozali has also since shared that he would not be listing any more selfies in the next few years.

Should you own a truly rare one of Ghozali’s NFTs, or any NFT for that matter, you can now display them in one of Netgear’s Meural digital frames, which have recently expanded their capabilities to include the display of NFTs.  

Although most users on Twitter see the allure behind Ghozali’s initiative, some remain unconvinced of the endeavour:

Rare and Exclusive Keeps the NFT Business Afloat

Ghozali has managed to preserve the exclusivity and rarity in his collection by announcing he would not be releasing any more NFTs for a couple of years, and it appears to have only added to their popularity.

In another recent example of innovative NFT entrepreneurship, Gary Vaynerchuk, known to the NFT world as Gary Vee, has opened the world’s first “NFT Holders Members Only” restaurant – Flyfish Club. The new premier dining destination will only be accessible by owners of Flyfish NFT tokens, which have unsurprisingly already sold out.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Payments Surveys

Survey: 24% of Small Businesses Plan to Accept Crypto This Year

According to a survey conducted by Visa, almost a quarter of small businesses across nine countries around the world plan to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment in 2022, as crypto holders increasingly want to use their assets to shop.

One in Four SMBs Plans to Accept Crypto as Payment

Almost one in four small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) that participated in the sixth edition of Visa’s global Back to Business study indicated its intention to accept payments in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The survey consisted of 2,250 small businesses owners in countries including the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Canada, Brazil, Singapore and the US.

In the same survey, 73 percent of respondents indicated that accepting new forms of digital payment options will be a key factor affecting business growth in 2022. Of all respondents in the study, 82 percent said they planned to implement a form of digital payment option this year.

Visa found that more than 30 percent of SMBs in the UAE, Hong Kong, Singapore and Brazil planned to offer cryptos as a payment option in the coming months. By contrast, 19 percent of SMBs in the US and a mere eight percent in Canada expected to do so.

The survey also included a consumer section where 1,500 adults across nine markets participated. More than half of respondents in this section expected to go completely cashless within the next 10 years, while 41 percent indicated that customers had abandoned a physical purchase where digital payment options were not available.

Accepting Crypto Not for Everyone

Although accepting crypto payments has become more widespread and not limited to SMBs, not all businesses are convinced that the option is for them. In an exciting reveal last week, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky confirmed that the home-stay site is working to accept crypto in 2022, in response to huge demand from its customer base.

Last week, Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit organisation behind open-source web browser Firefox, announced it would be accepting crypto donations to “keep the Web open and free”. Only days later the foundation reversed its decision, citing concerns regarding “cryptocurrency’s environmental impact”.

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Blockchain Crypto News E-commerce Fashion NFTs Tezos

Clothing Retailer The Gap Launches Tezos-Based Gamified NFT Collection

Gap Inc is collaborating with Brandon Sines, the artist behind Frank Ape, to launch a non-fungible token (NFT) collection on the Tezos blockchain with a gamified digital experience called Gap Threads.

This week’s release will offer a gamified digital experience in which customers can unlock the opportunity to buy digital art by Sines and a physical, limited-edition Gap hoodie. The digital collectibles for Gap Threads feature four levels: Common, Rare, Epic, and One of a Kind. The first level, Common, went on sale at 9am PT on January 13 for a reasonable price of 2 Tez (XTZ) each until 8:59 PT on January 15.

Additional drops will be available over the next two weeks: Rare on January 15 for six XTZ, Epic on January 19 for 100 XTZ, and One of a Kind will go to auction on January 24. At the time of writing, two Tez were worth US$8.30, but exact conversion rates may vary based on market price fluctuations.

Why Tezos?

As part of Gap’s commitment to do the right thing for the planet, it has chosen to leverage Tezos, an open-source blockchain, to create the customer experience. Tezos requires less energy and cost to operate than proof-of-work algorithms, thus making it an ideal platform for sustainable uses. The platform has recently been involved in collections from other consumer-facing brands, including Red Bull.

Gap intends to learn more about how customers want to engage in a digitally focused environment and has flagged additional digital experiences in the future, developed in partnership with cultural influences.

According to Gap’s chief digital and technology officer John Strain, “As part of our mission to create enduring customer relationships, our teams are constantly innovating. We are excited about the possibilities that a more planet-friendly blockchain technology can unlock for us and all the new ways it will enable us to connect with our customers.” 

The Future of Clothing is Here

NFTs are the perfect fit for the fashion industry, which is obsessed with authenticity and exclusivity. Chris Le, co-founder of RTFKT, has said that augmented reality will be a huge part of society in the future and that “you’re going to be walking out on the street and seeing NFT clothing on people”. RTFKT sold about 600 pairs of digital sneakers for US$3.1 million in just seven minutes last February at the inaugural Crypto Fashion Week.

Not everyone shares this view and many believe technology still needs more time before the big luxury brands dive in, according to RTFKT Studios co-founder Benoit Pagotto. If you also believe that the fashion industry is not quite there yet, and think the NFT market is overheated, you can short it.

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Blockchain Crypto News DeFi Gaming Metaverse NFTs

5 Interesting NFT Projects for 2022

Last year saw explosive growth in the non-fungible token (NFT) market, with interesting and innovative projects popping up left, right, and centre. The new year already looks promising with exhilarating projects up for launch in 2022.

We’ve compiled a guide to five of the more interesting projects set for 2022, as we did for projects launching in December and for five Christmas-themed NFT projects.

Expantum: The Game

Expantum balances tokenomics and gameplay.

Expantum is a next-generation play-and-earn strategy game that uniquely balances cutting-edge tokenomics and fun gameplay and is built on the Ethereum blockchain. In the Expantum metaverse, players can prove themselves as outstanding leaders at all stages of the game, and can build provinces and capitals while organising continuous production and supply of resources. Players can choose an optimal composition of an army and customise their set, creating alliances with other players for the sake of victory.

GANime

GANime: anime characters based on AI-generated NFT videos.

GANime is on-chain machine learning-generated anime characters built on the Ethereum blockchain, based on AI-generated anime NFT videos. Its creators call it fun and accessible for all.

Solice Metaverse

Solice: an interconnected metaverse of virtual worlds, NFTs and communities.

The Solice Metaverse is the first cross-platform virtual reality metaverse on the Solana blockchain where users can play, build, own, socialise and monetise their virtual experiences. Solice is an interconnected metaverse of virtual worlds, NFTs and communities with the aim of improving overall user experience.

Illuvium

Illuvium: join the quest to hunt and capture deity-like creatures.

An open-world RPG adventure game built atop the Ethereum blockchain, Illuvium is a journey across a vast landscape on a quest to hunt and capture deity-like creatures called Illuvials. More than 100 Illuvials populate this alien world, each possessing different affinities, classes and abilities. Creatures can be captured, fused and upgraded to more powerful forms.

Opulous

Opulous brings DeFi to the music industry and a fairer payment method for artists.

Opulous, built for creators and inventors, brings DeFi to the music industry, changing how artists access funding as well as providing a launchpad for the first music copyright-backed NFTs. Opulous offers DeFi loans backed by future royalties that will replace the unfair deals traditionally forced on promising new artists. The project is powered by cryptos, using future-proof blockchain and smart contract technology to connect investors and artists like never before.

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Crypto News Crypto Staking Ethereum NFTs Tokens

New NFT Marketplace LooksRare Launches as OpenSea Competitor

Upstart NFT platform LooksRare launched this week in the hope of providing an alternative to OpenSea. The project is built around the LOOKS token, which is being granted to big NFT spenders.

The LooksRare platform went live on January 10 as more and more marketplaces come together to try to take on the current market leader of NFT platforms. OpenSea saw massive growth in 2021, upping its value by 880 percent from 2020 following its latest fundraising round.  

Launched by two pseudonymous co-founders, Zodd and Guts, LooksRare claims to be a community-focused marketplace that aims to develop new features based on what its users want. According to a blog post by the marketplace, it indexes all NFTs that exist on the Ethereum blockchain so they can be traded right away. Offers can already be made on the NFTs. LooksRare also allows its users to buy and sell NFTs with ether or wrapped ether, or a mix of both.

Vampire Attack on OpenSea

Source: stockhead.com.au

LooksRare is built around its newly launched LOOKS token, which it is now using to reward users of the platform and attract existing users from OpenSea, in a practice known in the crypto world as a “vampire attack”. LOOKS is currently being exchanged on Uniswap and hit an all-time high of US$4.71 before dropping to its current price of US$3.49, according to data from CoinGecko.

In the past 24 hours, the price of LOOKS is up 56.5 percent.

The Marketplace That Rewards Big Spenders

With the help of its LOOKS token, the new marketplace is hoping to attract NFT big spenders who have already used OpenSea by allowing them to claim LOOKS tokens for free. According to LooksRare, anyone who traded more than three ETH (US$9,400) on OpenSea between June 16 and December 16, 2021, can claim a portion of the tokens.

The vampire attack takes a similar approach to last week’s SOS airdrop from OpenDAO. The airdrop allowed users who have spent money on OpenSea to claim the Ethereum token SOS, as determined by the amount spent on the marketplace.

When users buy and sell NFTs from eligible collections, they will also receive LOOKS tokens. LooksRare additionally charges a 2 percent fee on all trades, which is then handed on to those staking LOOKS tokens.

As it stands, the platform is offering a jaw-dropping 649 percent APR to those who stake LOOKS.

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Blockchain Crime Crypto News DeFi Illegal Scams

Report: Crypto Crime Reached New Highs in 2021

In its annual Crypto Crime report, New York-based blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has reported that although the percentage of illicit crypto transactions fell drastically in 2021, their dollar value surged significantly.

As per the Chainalysis report, the value of crimes involving cryptos surged to a new high of US$14 billion in 2021. This represents an increase of 79 percent from US$7.8 billion reported in 2020, which is mainly due to the upward spiral in crypto prices experienced in 2021.

The cryptocurrency market has expanded to such an extent that Chainalysis has even opened a new office in the Australian capital due to increased mainstream adoption in the Pacific region.

Year-to-year comparison of illicit share of all cryptocurrency transaction volume. Source: Chainalysis

Although the dollar value appears to be astronomical, the activity represents a mere 0.15 percent of the total of US$15.8 trillion in crypto transaction volumes over the year – the lowest percentage ever recorded. To put this in perspective, the illicit share of crypto transaction volume in 2019 was 3.37 percent, and 0.62 percent in 2020.

DeFi Scams and Rug Pulls Main Drivers of Crypto Crime

The Chainalysis report attributes the growth in the volume of scams and legitimate crypto transactions to the boom in decentralised finance (DeFi). While scams accounted for the largest share in 2021, rising 82 percent to US$7.8 billion, nearly US$3 million of the total crime value came from rug pulls.

Last year, Crypto News Australia reported that crypto scams, particularly rug pulls, have become the main trust issue in the crypto space, especially for newcomers.

DeFi protocols have become the primary target for cryptocurrency crimes. Source: Chainalysis

Aside from rug pulls, DeFi platforms were also widely used for money laundering and were targeted by hackers for large-scale theft.

As Chainalysis head of research Kim Grauer noted: “DeFi services were hacked at rates that we’ve never seen before. Not only are people using DeFi to carry out crime, they’re also targeting DeFi for crime.”

Grauer added that DeFi platform protocols were often hacked because it’s a new industry and a lot of the code is open-source, exposing vulnerabilities.

In 2021, US$2.2 billion worth of cryptos was stolen from DeFi protocols, which accounts for two-thirds of all cryptos stolen in 2021 – this figure represents a 516 percent increase on the numbers reported in 2020.

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Crypto News Events Metaverse NFTs

Samsung Opens Flagship Metaverse Store in Decentraland

The American arm of South Korean electronics giant Samsung has announced the opening of 837X, a virtual replica of its flagship 873 store, in the metaverse platform Decentraland.

Samsung Steps into the Metaverse

Samsung Electronics America has undertaken a partnership with Decentraland to open a virtual Samsung store in the metaverse. The virtual version of the store is a replica of the company’s flagship store at 873 Washington St in New York City’s Meatpacking District. The virtual store, dubbed Samsung 873X, will be open in Decentraland for a limited time only, according to a press release from the company:

Samsung joins a host of enterprises that have entered the Decentraland metaverse, including the island nation of Barbados, which has established the world’s first embassy in Decentraland.

How Users Can Get Involved

Users will be invited to explore an “experiential playground” and earn non-fungible token (NFT) rewards by completing quests. The store will offer digital adventures through three areas:

  • the Connectivity Theatre, which showcases news from Samsung’s stage at the CES 2022 tech event in Las Vegas;
  • the Sustainability Forest, which comprises a “journey through millions of trees” to mark the company’s initiatives toward sustainability; and
  • the Customisation Stage, where guests will get to experience a mixed reality live dance party hosted by DJ Gamma Vives from Samsung’s physical 873 store.

Michelle Crossan-Matos, senior vice-president of corporate marketing and communications at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement:

The metaverse empowers us to transcend physical and spatial limits to create unique virtual experiences that could not happen otherwise.

Samsung Gets Ahead of the Crypto Curve

Samsung has become one of the first electronics giants to offer an immersive experience into cryptos. Earlier this week, the company also announced it would be releasing three smart TV models with NFT trading capabilities.

According to Samsung, “In 2022, Samsung is introducing the world’s first TV screen-based NFT explorer and marketplace aggregator, a groundbreaking platform that lets you browse, purchase and display your favourite art – all in one place.”

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Crypto News E-commerce Payments

Airbnb CEO Confirms Site is Working to Accept Crypto in 2022

After asking his Twitter followers to share their ideas for a new service it can offer in 2022, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky was met with 4,000 suggestions – of which integrating cryptocurrency payments ranked as number one.

After crypto integration, other top suggestions included clear pricing displays and guest loyalty programs:

According to Chesky’s tweet, the peer-to-peer lodging service is “already working on some” of the proposed ideas, and “will look into others”. Elaborating on the possibility of integrating crypto support into the platform, he said that this suggestion included “a variety of token ideas”, which would most likely not be confined to one or two digital assets.

As it stands, Airbnb accepts Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal as payment methods, and since 2013 the company has processed US$336 billion in transactions.  

Crypto ‘Revolution’ All About ‘Trust’

This is not the first time Chesky has opened up regarding the company’s potential acceptance of cryptos. Two months ago, he stated that Airbnb was “looking into it”.

He added:

Like the revolution in travel, there is clearly a revolution happening in crypto; Airbnb and crypto both have interesting relationships with trust.

Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO, Airbnb

More and More Industries Accept Crypto Payments

The news from Airbnb comes after many e-commerce companies have expressed their openness to crypto integration. Last year, eBay said it was considering accepting crypto as a payment option. In December, Croatia’s top food retailer introduced crypto payments. After partnering with local fintech Electrocoin, Konzum modified its PayCek system to introduce crypto payments.

There is a wealth of evidence to suggest it won’t be the last.