Author: Phil Stafford

Phil is a long-standing Australian journalist with specialised experience in business, finance, travel and popular culture.

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Blockchain Gaming NFTs Tokens

Blockchain Gaming Token GALA Up 360% in a Week Following NFT Drop Announcement

Gala Games (GALA) has gone ga-ga, with the gaming token’s price skyrocketing by over 360 percent in seven days. The surge comes as investors welcome exploding interest in decentralised games, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse sector.

The main driver of Gala’s price hike is its impending Miranda VOX drop, due December 6. The NFT series contains “magical creatures from the realm of Mirandus”: elves, rogue halflings, fierce orcs, stalwart dwarves, plus “surprise” creatures from the Mirandus bestiary will emerge from Gala’s mysterious VOX boxes on the due date.

Creatures from the Mirandus bestiary. Source: Gala Games

Instead of being sold through the CollectVOX website, these VOX boxes will be purchasable directly from the Gala Games store, thus avoiding the usual Ethereum gas wars.

If you’re new to Gala Games, you’ll need to create an account, and then purchase some GALA tokens and some ETH (for network fees).

‘Blockchain Games You’ll Actually Want to Play’: Gala

With its stated mission being to to make “blockchain games you’ll actually want to play”, Gala Games claims to give players control over their virtual domain. GALA is used as a means of exchange between gamers and the coins can be used to pay for items within the platform.

Created in 2019 by Eric Schiermeyer, one of the co-founders of mobile games company Zynga, which developed the likes of Mafia Wars and Farmville, Gala has 1.3 million active users. According to the company manifesto:

We are truly building the largest decentralised gaming platform in the world. Decentralisation means putting the power, the responsibility and the rewards into the players’ hands.

Gala Games

Gala players are able to own NFTs that allow them to vote on new games and thus influence how they are run. The GALA token can be used to purchase these NFTs, as well as in-game items.

What’s Behind GALA’s Surge in Price

Gala’s year-on-year performance. Source: capital.com

According to the Global Gaming Market 2021-2025 report published by ReportLinker, the gaming sector is expected to grow by US$125.6 billion from 2021 to 2025, which will favour the likes of Gala.

Many have attributed Gala’s breakout performance to its being listed on major cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance, Mandala, OKEx, Huobi Global and Bitget.

Last week, Crypto News Australia reported how another NFT and gaming token, WAX, had soared 215 percent in a month on the back of unprecedented user growth.

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Banking Bitcoin Crypto News Investing New Zealand Superannuation

$75 Billion Aussie Super Fund Hostplus: ‘Crypto is Too Big to Ignore’

One of Australia’s largest institutional investors believes that cryptocurrency as an investment is the economic elephant in the room, with the likelihood of super funds holding digital assets inevitable in time.

Hostplus has over A$2.2 billion committed to the venture capital sector, of which A$1.5 billion has already been invested. The industry super fund’s chief investment officer, Sam Sicilia, says it is no longer possible to dismiss the booming crypto market simply because of regulatory headwinds.

Sam Sicilia, chief investment officer, Hostplus. Source: ioandc.com

“Hostplus does not have crypto investments, but I do see the day where it becomes mainstream for institutional super funds,” Sicilia told The Australian newspaper. “It’s not just about a return for us. We need a governance structure, we need safekeeping of the assets, and there are regulatory requirements.”

Much Work Still to Do for Super Funds

Super funds needed to do a lot more groundwork before they were “crypto-ready”, Sicilia adds, and regulatory challenges had to be met ahead of any such move.

Last month, the Bank of America released a research paper on crypto with a similar outlook as institutional investors around the globe consider crypto’s prospects.

“With a US$2 trillion-plus market value and more than 200 million users, the digital asset universe is too large to ignore,” according to Bank of America analysts Alkesh Shah and Andrew Moss.

Both Shah and Moss predict that crypto-based digital assets could form an entirely new asset class.

It’s difficult to overstate how transformative blockchain technology, digital assets and the thousands of decentralised apps that have yet to be created could potentially be.

Alkesh Shah and Andrew Moss, crypto and digital assets strategy analysts, Bank of America

Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of Australia red-flagged the “fervour” and “speculative demand” for crypto, warning of the potential for a severe price decline.

That said, Hostplus’s Sicilia foresees that bitcoin’s volatility would open up buying opportunities well below its current US$57,500 price (at the time of writing).

“I think we can get 10 per cent or more out of equity markets each year until people have a choice to put their money somewhere else. And that could be a long time from now,” says Sicilia, who oversees A$75 billion in assets under management at Hostplus.

‘Where Else Will People Be Putting Their Money?’

“People will keep putting their money into equity markets to get dividends. That’s the driving force powering markets. And there will be volatility, of course, but so be it. Where else are they going to put their money?”

Two months ago, Australian superannuation funds were being urged to consider exposure to crypto assets or risk being left behind. In July, New Zealand-based pension fund Kiwi Saver revealed it had invested in bitcoin in October last year. While its chief investment officer said at the time that most super funds in Australia would follow suit within five years, the reality is that Aussie super funds remain too slow out of the blocks.

Categories
Crypto News DeFi NFTs Tokens

Music NFT Token OPUL Up 785% in a Month, the ‘Biggest Thing Since Streaming’?

Opulous (OPUL), a protocol focused on the tokenisation of the music industry, has set fire to the crypto charts with a 785 percent breakout in a single month on the back of a partnership with “market maker” Jump Trading.

The OPUL project aims to empower artists to the extent that music rights can be utilised as value-backed assets in decentralised finance (DeFi).

Since its low point of US$0.635 at the end of September, the OPUL token ballooned 1,095 percent to a new all-time high of US$7.60 on November 15 as its 24-hour trading volume spiked 564 percent to US$11.67 million.

Why OPUL Is On Fire

There are three underpinning reasons for OPUL’s breakout:

  • the successful completion of its first security NFT (S-NFT) sale;
  • the token’s cross-chain capabilities, which have enabled support from multiple centralised (CEXs) and decentralised exchanges (DEXs); and
  • the rising popularity of the NFT ecosystem as a whole.

The first of these factors saw a special token standard created in conjunction with Republic Music, an investment product that claims to offer “an entirely new way to create, produce and share royalties”. Opulous partnered with rap artists Lil Pump and Soulja Boy to conduct the S-NFT sale for their song Mona Lisa, which last month raised its goal of US$500,000 in less than two hours.

How Opulous Works

Once the investment process is finalised by Republic, contributors can go to the Opulous website and mint the S-NFT tokens, which will be distributed on the Algorand blockchain. As the song accumulates streams on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, or attracts other publishers such as radio or television shows, movies or video games, royalty shares are distributed quarterly in the form of USD Coin (USDC) directly to wallets holding the S-NFTs.

The second factor working in OPUL’s favour has been the level of support from several large CEXs and DEXs, which have helped increase traders’ access to the token. OPUL was also able to launch on two of the largest DEXs in the crypto ecosystem – Uniswap and PancakeSwap – thanks to its cross-chain capabilities, which currently include Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) as well as Algorand.

As for the third factor, the explosion of the NFT ecosystem in 2021 is a given. Recent keyword data on Google shows that searches for “non-fungible tokens” and “NFTs” are at all-time highs. No surprises there.

Categories
Coinbase Crypto News Investing Tokens

Crypto Exchange Token Voyager VGX Soars 44% Overnight Amid Coinbase Listing

VGX, an Ethereum token used to reward and incentivise use of the Voyager centralised exchange, has gained 44 percent in the 24 hours since listing on Coinbase Pro.

The latest surge comes on the back of an overall lift for VGX over the past seven days in excess of 50 percent, with the token’s price soaring 70 percent on November 17 after the exchange revealed the new listing. 

What is Voyager Token?

On Voyager, VGX holders can earn staking rewards, receive cashback on trades, and more. Like other exchanges such as Celsius that offer yields on cryptocurrency holdings, VGX has developed a model whereby the company earns enough fees via its lending activities to return high single-digit yields to investors, as much as 9 percent:

High Risk, High Reward, Additional Yield

In many ways, VGX is a high-risk, high-reward investment for those who believe digital tokens are only just beginning their march to glory. But VGX also provides investors with a unique benefit. By holding a given number of VGX tokens, they can take advantage of the Voyager yield program.

This program rewards loyal VGX holders with additional yield on their holdings. Accordingly, interest boosts of up to 1 percentage point on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are offered.

There are various tiers with the loyalty program, so the more VGX you hold, the higher the yield.

Earlier this month, Crypto.com’s CRO token rallied 30 percent after also listing on Coinbase. But for those investors who missed out, there’s always the Voyager Token.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Payments Perth Sports

Perth Heat Becomes World’s First Sports Team to Embrace a Bitcoin Standard

Stealing a march on its American counterparts, Australian Baseball League club the Perth Heat has become the first professional sports organisation in the world to fully embrace Bitcoin for payment acceptance and payroll for both staff and players.

Although Dutch team PSV Eindhoven and English club Southampton FC both signed deals earlier this year to allow football sponsorships to be paid in bitcoin, this is the first time any sports club anywhere has fully adopted the Bitcoin standard.

As part of this sports world exclusive, Perth Heat will:

  • pay players and staff in bitcoin;
  • accept bitcoin payments for sponsorships, merchandise and ballpark concessions; and
  • HODL bitcoin on the club’s balance sheet.

In partnership with bitcoin payments processor OpenNode, the Perth Heat is setting Bitcoin as its new standard for payments and payouts, powered by the Lightning Network.

Perth Heat CEO Steven Nelkovski. Source: abc.net.au

According to Perth Heat CEO Steven Nelkovski, the club looks forward to “setting the bar” for how much value a sports organisation can bring to a community in the bitcoin age.

We hope our adoption of a Bitcoin standard will inspire others to embrace a monetary system that demands value creation to thrive. The players and organisational staff have fully embraced the opportunities that being paid in bitcoin can provide.

Steven Nelkovski, CEO, Perth Heat

‘The Future of Money Lives on the Bitcoin Blockchain’

Patrick O’Sullivan, the club’s chief bitcoin officer, says Perth Heat is embracing the reality that the future of money and corporate treasuries will live on the Bitcoin blockchain.

We believe the world has begun to recognise the power of sound money principles and are determined to lead from the front. This is not a one-off purchase to hedge against future uncertainties or inflationary pressures.

Patrick O’Sullivan, chief bitcoin officer, Perth Heat

Possibilities for the club are limited only by imagination. In addition to treasury appreciation, Perth Heat will be ideally positioned to secure better players and deals in the future, outpacing its competitors. The game theory aspects of bitcoin adoption will also, perhaps inevitably, lead other sports clubs to follow its example.

Categories
Crypto News Fashion NFTs

Future Thought: Buying Real Clothes Will Come With Digital NFT AR Replicas

It was inevitable that the fashion industry, obsessed as it is with authenticity and exclusivity, would be a perfect fit for non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

“I believe in a future where augmented reality will be a huge part of society,” said Chris Le, co-founder of RTFKT – pronounced “artifact”, and considered NFT fashion’s frontrunner – earlier this year. “You’re going to be walking out on the street and seeing NFT clothing on people.”

Back in February, the same month that saw the inaugural Crypto Fashion Week, RTFKT sold about 600 pairs of digital sneakers for US$3.1 million in just seven minutes. As for Le’s prediction on augmented reality, consider how AR clothing try-on – 3D digital clothing “fitting” a person as they move in real time, via their phones or other digital devices – is now almost here.

For fashion brands, AR try-on could unlock digital clothing sales, increase conversions and decrease e-commerce returns. It would also accelerate the widespread adoption of AR glasses, already in development by Snapchat, Facebook, Apple and others.

How AR Try-On Works

Here’s how AR try-on works: Unlike a static image that is retroactively fitted in a digital garment, it behaves the same way as Snapchat face filters: when your body moves, the item reacts in synch, responding to the wearer’s movements, measurements and environment in a way that appears to be realistic.

RTFK tests real-time AR try-on technology. Source: RTFK

A significant catalyst in the development of AR try-on has been the sheer number of people in Covid-enforced lockdowns across the globe over the past two years, according to Vlad Vodolazov, CEO and founder of clothing try-on app Clo-Z.

People were stuck at home, and that drastically influenced the way they were shopping, so brands are becoming less conservative in terms of technology and online tools to interact with their community.

Vlad Vodolazov, CEO and founder, Clo-Z

Big Brands Not Quite Ready to Wear

The technology still needs more time before the big luxury brands dive in, says Benoit Pagotto, co-founder of RTFKT Studios, which recently partnered with streetwear label StockX to sell physical versions of what was originally a digital shoe. In May, Silicon Valley investment firm Andreessen Horowitz invested US$8 million in the company.

The tech is moving quite fast, but it’s still not great. It’s good enough for people to understand where it’s going, but not good enough for most fashion brands, who are very serious about their content and need to respect their brand guidelines.

Benoit Pagotto, co-founder, RTFKT Studios

For many it’s just a matter of time, as the motivation and momentum are there. Snapchat, for one, thinks AR try-on technology can help brands reduce returns, one of the fashion industry’s most significant cost drags.

“We’re laying the groundwork for an improved online shopping experience,” says Snap CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel. “We believe that helping people find the right size and improving the try-on experience will increase conversion rates as well as reduce the rate of returns.”

Bring it, or should we say, put it on.

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News

Bitcoin Supply on Exchanges Drops to 13% as BTC Outflows Accelerate

The bitcoin price keeps rising in tandem with the rate at which investors pull their funds off crypto exchanges, according to recent Glassnode analysis. 

Currently, 12.9 percent of the bitcoin supply in circulation, or about US$163 billion, is sitting on exchanges, the report says. The trend started in August, when the price of bitcoin began heading north after a midyear slump.

According to the Glassnode analysis, if investors were keeping more of their bitcoin on exchanges it would be because they thought it was overpriced and wanted to be ready to sell. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Source: Glassnode

Glassnode’s analysis suggests that daily net withdrawals from exchanges had reached an average of 5,000 BTC. It goes on to say that “despite hovering just below all-time-highs, on-chain activity remains only marginally above bear market levels”.

As More Investors HODL, Expect the Price to Keep Rising

In other words, record-high prices of BTC haven’t prompted many people to sell. Most investors are content to HODL their bitcoin, and Glassnode says it’s a sign that many expect the price to keep climbing.

Just over a month ago, the bitcoin balance on exchanges was at its lowest level since January 2018, while the three-month HODL supply was at an all-time high.

Categories
Australia Crypto News NFTs

Queensland Distillery ‘Top Shelf’ Set to NFT Tequila Plants

Australian agave plants pre-purchasable as NFTs are to be turned into tequila and mezcal for thirsty collectors, bringing new meaning to the expression “the early bird gets the worm”.

Victorian-based spirits distiller Top Shelf International (TSI) is raising A$35 million to construct Australia’s first integrated spirit distillery and agave farm near Airlie Beach in North Queensland.

With production slated to begin in mid-2023, TSI has distributed 100 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to allow speculators to pre-purchase agave plants that will wind up as bottled spirits.

The new distillery will have capacity to make 1.5 million bottles of Agave spirit per year, and will make Top Shelf the world’s largest distiller of agave spirit outside Mexico.

Half a Million Plants Already Growing

At full capacity, the Airlie operation will place TSI among the top 25 agave producers in the world. The company already has 500,000 agave plants in the ground or in nursery.

In the US, tequila is on track to become the third-largest spirit category by 2024. Australians are the world’s third-largest consumers of tequila per head after the US and Mexico.

TSI executive chairman Adem Karafili describes the NFT offer as “a great way to introduce people to a brand that hasn’t been released yet”, adding that owners will be able to visit TSI’s agave farm to see their plants. “We have drone footage already, so they can choose their plants and watch them grow over the next 18 months.”

Eden Lassie agave farm, near Airlie Beach, North Queensland. Source: TSI

More than 230,000 agave plants have already germinated at the 400-hectare Eden Lassie farm at Airlie Beach. Each NFT owner will end up with the rights to 10 plants, which will ultimately deliver about 50 bottles and a 10-litre magnum.

Each Bottle Individually Distilled

“Each one of those bottles will undergo its own distillation process and is very much personalised,” Karafili says. “We can age it for you or you can leave it in the black oak [barrel].”

We just found [NFTs] was a great way for people to actually own something well in advance of being able to get their hands on the bottle, to build some excitement … We thought bringing an element of technology was a great way to introduce provenance and the terroir, and really connect people with the ground in which the plants are being grown.

Adem Karafili, executive chairman, TSI

Last month, Glenfiddich became the first premium single-malt Scotch whisky brand to launch spirits products as NFTs. A week later, Barossa Valley winemaker Dave Powell launched an entire vintage as drinkable NFTs.

Categories
Blockchain Crypto Art Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

Rolling Stone Magazine Enters NFT Market in Partnership with Bored Ape Yacht Club

As the vintage song by Dr Hook said, “Gonna see my picture on the cover / wanna buy five copies for my mother / gonna see my smilin’ face / on the cover of the Rolling Stone …”

And now, almost 50 years later, it has come to pass – for the glazed-eyed primates of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, at least, and while they’re not exactly smiling, they’re surely celebrating on the inside.

Rolling Stone has added to its presence in the non-fungible token (NFT) market by auctioning two of its digital magazine covers created in partnership with the simian-themed art collection that has so far generated around US$1 billion in secondary trading volume.

The collaboration debuted in physical form last week, with the instant sale of 2,500 limited-edition Rolling Stone magazines featuring a Bored Ape on the cover.

Bids Push Toward $50,000

That same magazine cover is now on auction as an NFT, with bidding live on the SuperRare marketplace. Set to last five days from November 11, the auction initially attracted bids beyond 10 ETH, or around US$47,000 at the time of writing. Bidding for another Rolling Stone magazine cover NFT featuring a “Mutant Ape” went live on SuperRare at the same time, and will also last five days.

Five More Pieces to Come

The covers are the first of seven planned NFT releases by Rolling Stone in collaboration with Bored Ape creators Yuga Labs. The remaining five digital pieces, to feature signature Bored Ape characters, will be created by various NFT artists.

In July, Australian pop artist Tones and I featured on Rolling Stone‘s first NFT magazine cover. Four months earlier, Playboy magazine began issuing NFTs that chronicled nearly seven decades of photography and art from the magazine, including pictures of classic centrefolds.

Around the same time, TIME magazine issued three 1966 covers minted as NFTs, but when it announced a new collection offering “unlimited access” to its website throughout 2023, the resultant sale rush clogged the Ethereum blockchain, sending gas fees through the roof. And last month, Playboy magazine staged its first NFT exhibition after inviting submissions from digital artists.

Categories
Crime Crypto News Ransomware

$6 Million in Crypto Seized from REvil Ransomware Group

The US Department of Justice has announced charges against a REvil ransomware affiliate responsible for the July attack against the Kaseya MSP platform, which had ripple effects as far as Australia, and also seized more than US$6 million from another REvil partner.

The alleged ringleader is 22-year old Ukrainian national Yaroslav Vasinskyi, arrested for cybercriminal activity last month at the behest of the US when he tried to enter Poland. Vasinskyi is one of seven REvil ransomware affiliates apprehended so far in a concerted international effort to combat a growing ransomware threat.

According to the indictment, Vasinskyi is a long-time affiliate of the REvil ransomware operation, having been involved since March 2019 and deploying an estimated 2,500 attacks against businesses worldwide.

Ransom Demands Top $767 Million

An FBI investigation revealed that Vasinskyi’s ransom demands totalled US$767 million but victims paid only $2.3 million. He is believed to have deployed ransomware on the networks of at least nine US companies. The entire REvil ransomware operation has ensnared more than US$200 million since it began its activities and encrypted at least 175,000 computers.

Of all the companies attacked, Kaseya’s ransom was by far the biggest, with US$70 million demanded to decrypt all its systems.

The US has requested Vasinskyi’s extradition and has unsealed the charges against him. Law enforcement has also impounded US$6.1 million from another REvil ransomware affiliate, Russian national Yevgeniy Polyanin, who is still at large. Polyanin is believed to be responsible for about 3,000 ransomware attacks against various organisations, including multiple US government entities and private-sector companies, extorting around US$13 million in total.

The joint charges against Polyanin and Vasinskyi are:

  • conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers (one count for each defendant);
  • intentional damage to a protected computer (nine counts for Vasinskyi, 12 for Polyanin); and
  • conspiracy to commit money laundering (one count for each defendant).

Seven REvil Affiliates Apprehended in Five Months

A total of seven affiliates of the REvil ransomware operation have been apprehended over five months with assistance from various jurisdictions, including police from Romania, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Poland, and the governments of Norway and Australia.

The arrest of Yaroslav Vasinskyi, the charges against Yevgeniy Polyanin and seizure of $6.1 million of his assets, and the arrests of two other REvil actors in Romania are the culmination of close collaboration with our international and private sector partners.

Christopher Wray, FBI director

In July, several retail operations in Australia were affected by REvil’s attack on Kaseya. Consequently, last month the Australian government outlined plans to tighten the screws on ransomware attacks on local businesses and individuals.