Author: Lauren Claxton

Lauren is currently a freelance writer with experience in finance writing. She has a growing interest in the metaverse and all things NFTs and expects to graduate in 2022 with bachelors degrees in creative writing and public relations.

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Crypto Art Cryptocurrencies NFTs

Interest in Crypto Tattoos Up 222% in a Year

Public interest in crypto-related tattoos has boomed with related internet searches reportedly up by 222 percent in the past year. Whether depicting a bitcoin or a play on ‘to the moon’, digital asset-related ink is the new trend:

According to a report authored by ‘Crypto Head’, crypto investors and tattoo fans are creating their own Venn diagram as the overlap of people willing to mix the two passions grows.

The data claims that the phrase “crypto tattoo” was the subject of at least 1,900 internet searches last year. On Instagram, #cryptotattoo was used on 956 posts.

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Bitcoin neck tattoo. Source: Pinterest
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Blockchain brand tattoo. Source: Pinterest
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Matching ‘to the moon’ shoulder tattoos. Source: Pinterest

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; where some want to be branded by their favourite blockchain, others may prefer to simply admire crypto ink from a distance.

NFT Interest Fluctuates

Crypto tattoos may be replacing NFTs as the hot new online trend. With sales sliding, Google Trends data from earlier this month indicated that global interest in NFTs is down by 45 percent in terms of internet searches. Actual sales were down 30 percent, with Solana the only NFT-supporting blockchain to make sales gains.

However, in September 2021, 84 percent of institutional investors believed there was a place for crypto in their portfolios. A lot of the investors surveyed also indicated they would like to be able to invest in crypto-related ETFs.

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Australia Banking Cryptocurrencies Investing

Commonwealth Bank Says It Intends to Heavily Invest in More Crypto-Related Services

A digital assets specialist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has confirmed the bank’s intentions to invest more into crypto facilities following the CBA’s highly successful launch of its in-app crypto trading service in November last year.

https://www.commbank.com.au/guidance/newsroom/Fitch-Ratings-affirms-CBA-rating-revises-outlook-201805.html
CommBank is looking to offer more crypto-related services.

Representatives from Visa, JPMorgan, Macquarie Bank and the CBA addressed this week’s Blockchain Australia Blockchain Week conference with reports of heightened consumer desire for cryptocurrency-related services. CBA’s Sophie Gilder in particular had some interesting updates to share on behalf of her bank:

According to Gilder, head of blockchain and digital assets at CommBank, her department is looking to offer additional products for both institutional and retail crypto investors. CBA’s goal is to offer enough crypto-related services to cater to the full spectrum of client needs and it is looking at ways to “double its blockchain size” in the coming months.

Aussie Banks Adapting to Crypto

In November, CBA became Australia’s first bank to support crypto purchases with its CommBank mobile app. Partnering with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis and crypto exchange Gemini, CBA sought to provide customers with exchange and custody services, allowing users to buy, sell and hold digital assets.

Following the precedent set by CBA, ANZ acknowledged that “there is a weight of money you simply can’t ignore” in stating its belief that crypto was “here to stay” in Australia.

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Australia Crime Cryptocurrency Law Facebook Scams Social media

Australian Consumer Watchdog Sues Meta Over Crypto Scam Ads

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced it will be suing Meta over the company’s failure to block crypto scam advertisements involving Australian public figures that are in breach of Australian consumer law.

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ACCC takes action against Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram. Source: ABC

False Endorsements of Crypto Investments

Dick Smith, David Koch and Andrew Forrest are some of the prominent Australian personalities unwittingly involved in a series of crypto scam ads circulating on Facebook. The ads claim that the featured celebrities have hugely benefited from cryptocurrency investments, then direct users to scam websites on the strength of these false endorsements.

The consumer watchdog believes that Meta is not doing enough to prevent the circulation of these ads on both Facebook and Instagram. The personalities in the ads have not given any permission for their names and faces to be used in the money-making schemes, and users who have engaged with this material have reportedly been the victims of intense pressure tactics, including phone calls asking for funds.

Rod Sims, the ACCC’s chair, outlined his disappointment with Meta’s lack of action and solutions in a March 18 media release:

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Meta should have been doing more to detect and then remove false or misleading ads on Facebook, to prevent consumers from falling victim to ruthless scammers.

ACCC chair Rod Sims

Sims stated that in one circumstance an individual consumer lost A$650,000 to one of these scams. The ACCC will be seeking injunctions, penalties, declarations, costs, and other orders from Meta to ensure the practice does not continue.

Australia Cracks Down on Crypto Scams

News of the ACCC’s legal action against Meta follows an investigation into how Australians lost over A$70 million in 2021 through investment scams alone.

Scamwatch reported in July last year that investment scams involving cryptocurrency and other digital assets were on the rise. Other prominent fraud-related practices have included romance scams, personal identity theft and illegal crypto mining.

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Facebook Metaverse NFTs

Zuckerberg Confirms Instagram Will Soon Feature NFTs

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, has confirmed that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will soon be coming to Instagram.  

The plan was revealed in an interview with Shark Tank’s Daymond John at an SXSW convention in Austin, Texas, US. The goal is for Instagram to become compatible with NFTs in “the near future” – over the next several months.

This appears to be another stepping stone in Meta’s path to the metaverse. It’s unclear at this point how the facility may look on the platform, though Zuckerberg did detail that Instagram users will have the option to mint their own NFTs.

NFTs on Facebook as Well

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri admitted in December 2021 that the social media giant was considering integrating NFTs, saying that at the time the company was “actively exploring” the possibility. January 2022 saw Meta begin experimentation with how an NFT marketplace might work on the platform. Meta wanted to offer users the option to create and display NFTs on their Facebook and Instagram pages, intentions that are now being acted on.

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Bored Ape Yacht Club Metaverse NFTs Tokens

Bored Ape Start-up Plans Metaverse Project Including Virtual Land NFTs and APECoin Token

Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has announced its intentions to sell a large quantity of virtual land. The goal of the sales is to broaden the community and raise approximately US$178 million toward the progress of Yuga’s gaming-focused metaverse project, MetaRPG:

Big Plans for Bored Apes

Yuga Labs is predicted to generate net revenues of US$455 million in 2022, with the profits from virtual land sales likely to form a large part of this sum. In phase one of its metaverse initiative, Yuga intends to sell 200,000 plots over two sales, to take place this month and in August.

Moving into the metaverse will help Yuga Labs diversify its revenue streams and move away from BAYC NFTs. Yet not everyone in the Twitter community is convinced:

Despite the scepticism of its plans, Yuga has supplied onlookers with a name for the metaverse initiative alongside some basic information. The project is called MetaRPG and will be gaming-focused and compatible with a range of NFTs. An in-game app store will allow players to create characters via NFTs and use them in games.

It’s also worth noting that APECoin is the proposed token for Yuga Labs’ metaverse. The currency will be usable in the in-game store and will encourage bartering and trading among players.

At this very early stage, there are little to no details of how exactly users may be able to participate in Yuga Labs’ latest venture.

Bored Apes: Rights and Partnerships

The Bored Ape Yacht Club has always been a notable presence within the NFT and crypto community. However, the creative minds behind BAYC have been busy over the past year expanding its horizons. In late 2021, the project announced a partnership with Adidas to enter the metaverse after the sports apparel brand paid US$156,000 for a single Ape.

More recently, Yuga Labs acquired the rights to two other hit NFT collections – CryptoPunks and Meebits. The company purchased both the commercial rights and intellectual property rights and has plans to award full commercial rights to NFT holders.

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Charity Cryptocurrencies FTX Ukraine

Ukraine Partners with FTX to Launch Crypto Fundraising Website

Digital asset exchange FTX and the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation have come together to develop a platform for crypto donations to the besieged country’s war defence.

‘Aid for Ukraine’ is utilising FTX’s technology to convert crypto donations into fiat money, which is then distributed to Ukraine’s National Bank’s fundraising account:

Three-Way Partnership

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, took to Twitter on March 15 to announce Aid for Ukraine, the result of a partnership between the nation, FTX and decentralised staking provider Everstake.

FTX and Everstake have been developing the necessary technology to convert incoming donations into fiat money that can be used by Ukrainians in need. The money is sent to the National Bank’s fundraising account and distributed appropriately, though some Twitter users have raised concerns about how their donations are being spent:

The donated funds are said to be sent directly to both the nation’s armed forces and civilians in need of humanitarian assistance. At the time of writing, over US$48 million had been raised via the platform.

The site currently accepts BTC, ETH, SOL, EOS, DOGE, XMR, USDT, DOT, ICON and NEO. Updates on how much has been raised by the community so far can be viewed on the Aid for Ukraine website.

Crypto Funds Ukrainian Defence Effort

Crypto donations are playing a large role in Ukraine’s defence against Russia. On March 4, an NFT of the Ukrainian flag raised US$6.75 million in crypto for the nation, proceeds of which were directed to the ‘Come Back Alive’ organisation which donates supplies to the families of soldiers and civilians.

Total crypto donations to Ukrainians have now surpassed US$108 million. Kraken exchange recently distributed over US$10 million in aid to Ukraine citizens with crypto wallets. The total donations are dispersed across relief efforts, charities, and government wallets.

Categories
Bitcoin Blockchain Stacks Tokens

STX Token Gains 70% Amid ‘Bitcoin Odyssey’ Announcement, Then Plunges

STX, the utility token of layer-1 blockchain platform Stacks, has seen a 70 percent gain following the announcement of ‘Bitcoin Odyssey’, a US$165 million grants program. Stacks and OKCoin will be putting the pooled money towards developing decentralised apps and furthering Bitcoin. However, the token price plunged soon after.

Positive Reaction to Bitcoin Odyssey Program

The Bitcoin Odyssey program will fund Stacks product development that will reach NFTs, DeFi, and Web3. The announcement will stoke the Bitcoin ecosystem and has already generated a flurry of positive media attention:

However, the positive gain was short-lived as the token dived by 30 percent soon after the announcement. Due to STX’s long wick candlestick it appears that selling opportunities were identified by traders the day after, although the selloff also seemed partly technical.

The STX Token Has Spiked Before

The Stacks Network token had several value spikes towards the back end of 2021. In October STX exploded in value, soaring 57 percent in 24 hours. This followed an increase in demand amid a thriving NFT ecosystem.

Then, in December, another spike was witnessed in reaction to the exit of Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s former CEO, with the token’s value rising by almost 65 percent in a week. Investor speculation peaked over the possibility of Dorsey migrating into the cryptocurrency industry.

Categories
Fashion NFTs Retail

Diesel Jeans’ ‘D:VERSE’ NFT Project Drops on Rarible

Italian denim brand Diesel Jeans is set to debut its NFT collection, ‘D:VERSE’, on Rarible. The project’s goal is to offer customers a digital experience without completely straying from the physical, with the NFTs purchasable via crypto or fiat money.

No Universal Love for the ‘Phygital’

D:VERSE is Diesel’s newest platform and as of March 12 is the place to find NFT versions of the brand’s runway garments. The site will also be a hub where physical pieces can be purchased; hence ‘phygital’, as physical and digital collide, wordplay that not everyone seems to appreciate:

Anyone who becomes a D:VERSE NFT holder will also have access to the D:VERSE-KEY and the discord channel. The D:VERSE-KEY grants holders exclusive rights to raffles, metaverse outfits, NFT presales, and more.

Features of the first NFT release will include pieces from February’s Diesel FW22 runway show. Among them are a puffer jacket, a pair of sneakers, and a fur jacket, purchasable on a first-come-first-served basis in either crypto or fiat money. The public sale will last for 55 hours on the Rarible marketplace from March 12.

Fashion Retailers Queue Up to Launch NFTs

Everyday fashion retailers are taking the plunge into the world of NFTs as more and more brands launch digital collectibles. Earlier this year, even Crocs – “the world’s ugliest shoe” –  jumped into the NFT space and trademarked its intellectual property.

And popular US brand ‘The Gap’ has launched its NFT collection on the Tezos blockchain. The project collaborates with Brandon Sines, the creative mind behind Frank Ape, and will also feature a digital experience called ‘Gap Threads’.

Categories
Bitcoin Mining Digital Asset Mining ETFs Investing

Investors Can Now Get Exposure to Crypto Mining With Newly Launched ETF

Global investment manager VanEck has launched a Digital Assets Mining (DAM) ETF, an exchange-traded fund customised to expose investors to firms within the DAM ecosystem. The fund will not directly invest in digital assets, rather it seeks to highlight the importance of miners.

VanEck’s DAM ETF is set to put a minimum of 80 percent of total assets into crypto mining securities, with the potential to earn at least 50 percent of their revenue from DAM activity. The ETF will be tracking the MVIS digital assets mining index closely, offering a net expense ratio of 0.5 percent.

Ed Lopez, head of product management for VanEck, has a lot of time for crypto miners:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/helopez/overlay/photo/

Blockchains introduce transparency, efficiency and lower costs compared to traditional centralised databases and processes, but without miners, blockchain transactions cannot be verified and audited, making their role absolutely essential.

Ed Lopez, head of product management, VanEck

The VanEck DAM ETF follows asset manager Valkyrie’s bitcoin miners’ ETF, WGMI, a fund focusing predominantly on crypto miners using renewable energy.

Crypto Mining in the Greater Industry

Since October 2020, Aussies have been able to get increased exposure to crypto through blockchain mining investments. With local crypto trading volume increasing during the pandemic, crypto mining has offered an alternative, lower-risk method of participating in the market without losing any savings.

The crypto mining process is linked to every transaction that takes place, and it is integral to ensure miners are properly compensated for their efforts. If you’d like to understand more about the mining procedure, check out our guide to bitcoin mining.

Categories
Blockchain Tokens

Pilot Concept: Agricultural Loans Backed by Tokenised Grains: SOYA, CORA, WHEA

Blending agriculture and innovation, Argentine startup Agrotoken and Spanish financial services firm Santander have come up with a concept that allows for loans to be backed by tokenised grains.

These agricultural commodities include wheat (WHEA), soy (SOYA), and corn (CORA). A pilot test is officially being carried out with Argentine farmers, according to a report from the Santander Post Team. The price of each commodity (based on the US dollar) will determine the value of each token.

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Agrotoken and Santander’s new joint venture. Source: Santander Post Team

Easier Loans for Agricultural Producers

Agrotoken has a multichain infrastructure built on Polygon, Ethereum and Algorand, with Agrotoken and Santander propelling their joint mission of providing the agricultural world with fluid access to this new financing system.

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Together with Santander, we are co-creating various financial products to provide agricultural producers with a service with which they can easily and smoothly access a new credit system backed by their grains.

Eduardo Novillo Astrada, CEO & co-founder of Agrotoken

The pilot project will begin its test run in Argentina, with the Santander group investing US$225 million to get the system up and running. Farmers will be able to tokenise their grains online, storing them in digital wallets. The tokens can then be exchanged for any form of agricultural equipment or machinery, alongside the option to use them for collateral loans. Every tonne of grain will be validated with a ‘proof of grain reserve’ (POGR). POGR is a secure, transparent, decentralised system.

Australian Farmers Add to the Blockchain

Aussie farmers aren’t intending to be left off the blockchain and have been making several crypto additions over recent months. In August 2021, 70 million sheep were put onto the blockchain. Australian Wool Innovation Ltd (AWI) partnered with Everledger to tell the story behind their famous Merino wool.

The dairy industry followed shortly after in September 2021 by utilising blockchain technology to improve traceability, enabling participants to track dairy products and allowing for real-time payment.