Author: Phil Stafford

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

Categories
Crypto News DeFi Stablecoins Terra

Luna to Inject $1 Billion to Save UST Stablecoin, But is it Too Late?

The Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), stewards of Terra’s UST, are looking to raise over US$1 billion to shore up the algorithmic stablecoin after it lost parity with the US dollar earlier this week.

Just last month, LFG announced it had successfully raised US$1 billion to acquire bitcoin to underpin UST. Yet the stablecoin fell as low as US$0.60 on May 9, amid wider crypto market turmoil, recovering to $0.90 the following day.

Do Kwon Moves to Smooth Ruffled Feathers

Algorithmic stablecoins such as UST are meant to stay pegged one-to-one to the price of an underlying fiat currency such as the dollar, and to this end Terra co-founder Do Kwon quickly took to Twitter in an attempt to calm the market:

The group is now looking to raise fresh capital from some of the industry’s largest investment firms and market makers. The proposed deal offers investors the opportunity to purchase LUNA tokens at a 50 percent discount, with those tokens subject to a two-year vesting schedule.

Up to Four Investors in the Bailout Queue

Jump, Celsius, Jane Street and possibly Alameda are reportedly in talks regarding the deal, though none of the four has confirmed as much. The funding effort is LFG’s latest attempt to regenerate confidence in the market: 

Critics say the success of any deal depends on the strength of LUNA’s price and on its key DeFi platform, Anchor, continuing to produce an up to 20 percent yield to incentivise liquidity. However, Anchor has seen its total deposits plunge from a peak of US$14 billion to below $10 billion.

Reddit users are speculating on the background story:

Categories
Crypto News Metaverse NFTs Virtual Reality

Sony Partners with Theta Labs to Launch Interactive 3D NFTs

NFTs are set to go 3D as the result of a partnership between Sony and Theta Labs that has revolutionary ramifications for how future viewers engage with the metaverse.

The Theta Project will take the form of a decentralised video streaming and/or delivery network with its own native crypto asset, THETA. Associated NFTs will be crafted for the Sony Spatial Reality Display (SRD) and are designed for three-dimensional viewing. They will also be available in 2D versions:

Sony’s SRD is a tablet-like device that leverages technologies such as augmented reality and 3D enhancements. The Japanese multinational’s official YouTube channel has issued a video that showcases the device:

Nick Colsey, Sony’s VP of business development, believes NFTs will only enhance the SRD experience:

Immersive, three-dimensional NFTs are a great way to showcase the potential of Sony’s SRD for metaverse enthusiasts and collectors. Theta’s NFTs are the latest way we can show our rapid adoption of metaverse-friendly technology.

Nick Colsey, VP of business development, Sony Corporation

No Need For Designated 3D Eyewear

The revolutionary aspect of the SRD monitor is that it allows the viewer to partake in 3D experiences without the need for traditional 3D accessories such as glasses or goggles. Instead, the device tracks eye movement and automatically adjusts the 3D display as the viewer moves.

As Theta Labs’ co-founder and CEO Mitch Liu notes, “the metaverse is already 3D”, which opens up the need for users to be able to “visualise and showcase their NFTs in a way that has a physical presence”.

Release Date TBA

Sony and Theta will jointly release an NFT called ‘The Tiki Guy’, which takes the form of a 3D tiki mask. Only 10 of these NFTs will be minted. All NFTs (including the 2D versions) will be released on ThetaDrop, Theta Labs’ NFT marketplace. When? “Later this year” is as accurate as the forecast gets.

In February, Samsung’s South Korean customers who ordered the new Galaxy S22 smartphone or S8 tablet were able to collect Theta-based NFTs with their purchases. And almost a year ago, Sony Interactive Entertainment published a patent application for an eSports betting platform that would support Bitcoin payments.

It’s clear on the evidence of their latest partnership announcement that both Sony and Theta are marching deeper into crypto-based leisure territory. With Sony’s net profit down 12 percent year-on-year according to fiscal Q1 figures, perhaps Theta’s NFTs will prove just the tonic.

Categories
Blockchain Cosmos Crypto News Tokens

Typo Sees $36 Million in Seized Whale JUNO Tokens Sent to Wrong Wallet

Typographical errors or a misplaced cut-and-paste are the stuff of nightmares in the journalistic profession, so imagine the horror for the Juno community when US$36 million worth of its tokens were sent to the wrong wallet address thanks to a programming mishap.

The community last week voted to seize the tokens from the wallet of a whale investor accused of gaming an airdrop. But instead of sending the funds to an address controlled by the Juno community, as originally intended, they were misdirected to another wallet because of a faulty software upgrade:

Juno Proposal 20, passed almost unanimously by the Juno community, was supposed to automatically run code to move funds “gamed” by Japanese whale Takumi Asano from his wallet into a “Unity” address controlled by the community.

Funds Wind Up in Blockchain Limbo

When the code was executed on May 4, a programming error moved three million revoked JUNO tokens to an erroneous address on the Cosmos-based blockchain to which neither Asano nor the Juno community had access.

Andrea Di Michele, a member of Juno’s developer team, attributed the glitch to a copy-paste error. “When I gave the [Proposal 20] developers the address of the [Unity] smart contract, I pasted the address of the smart contract and just underneath it put the transaction hash,” Di Michele said.

Developers then accidentally copied the transaction hash – which looked similar to the wallet address – rather than the address itself. As a result, the seized funds were moved to an unreachable sector of the Juno/Cosmos blockchain.

Of Juno’s more than 120 validators, none appeared to notice that the Unity address had been pasted incorrectly. One of them stated the obvious on behalf of the many: “We f..ked up big time.”

Asano Foreshadows Possible Legal Action

Asano has since indicated he may pursue legal action against the validators unless the confiscated funds are returned to his investors.

As mistakes go, this one is not quite in the league of the DeFi protocol bug that accidentally rewarded Compound users with US$80 million worth of COMP tokens last October. But it’s way bigger than the Mutant Ape NFT that sold for 17 USDC rather than 17 ETH in August 2021, the result of another unfortunate if equally amusing typo that in this case cost a mere US$54,000.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Fashion NFTs

Australian Fashion Week to ‘Take Crypto to the Catwalk’

Cryptocurrency exchange BTC Markets has been announced as an official partner of 2022 Afterpay Australian Fashion Week (AFW), and will take to the runway across various venues in Sydney next week with a haute couture dress that doubles as an NFT.

Dress Buyable as an NFT or Actual Garment

The dress, designed by eponymous Australian label CCO (chief creative officer) and founder Daniel Avakian, will be displayed virtually in animated avatar form and buyable as an NFT. It will also be displayed physically during AFW, from May 9-13, and available for sale as a real garment.

Caroline Bowler, CEO of crypto exchange BTC Markets. Source: news.com.au

BTC Markets CEO Caroline Bowler will speak at AFW on May 10 as part of a series of panel discussions involving “notable” industry leaders. In a statement on its website, AFW organisers announced how one of those sessions would focus on crypto’s role in fashion:

Fashion has entered the metaverse, with NFTs and augmented reality gaining popularity among consumers who want more ways to shop and engage with brands. The session will break down the fashion-tech trends.

Australian Fashion Week website

Female Crypto Investors Outstrip Men: BTC Survey

Bowler says BTC Markets’ association with AFW will help the company connect with the crypto-savvy women of Australia, a smart move considering the number of females signing up for crypto trading accounts has risen by 128 percent compared to last year. (The corresponding figure for men is 83 percent, according to the company’s own research.)

Fashion houses including Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Victoria’s Secret are no strangers to NFTs and the metaverse. In March this year, Decentraland hosted the world’s first Metaverse Fashion Week, with the participation of Paco Rabanne, Dolce & Gabbana, Tommy Hilfiger and other elite brands.

And last year, Australian venture capital firm Morgans Financial staked US$9 million on a local NFT fashion app for virtual showrooms.

Categories
Crypto News Fantasy Sports NFTs Sports

PGA Golf Tour Close to Deal With ‘Sorare’ Giving Players NFT-Based Income

Following the lead of major league baseball, basketball and various football codes, the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour is on the verge of launching NFT programs in concert with digital platforms Sorare and Autograph.

In a deal yet to be finalised, players stand to earn revenue based on the sales performance of NFTs using their name, image and likeness (NIL).

Autograph was co-founded last year by American football player Tom Brady as a platform for athletes and celebrities to market branded NFT collections, with former golf superstar Tiger Woods – among other sports celebrities – an equity holder and board adviser.

PGA Shoots for Fantasy Sports Par

Until now, Sorare has focused on soccer and acquired NFT video partnerships with major associations in Europe and the US. However, its main product is a digital fantasy sports game based on NFTs.

A deal with the PGA Tour for fantasy trading cards could lead to Sorare expanding into other sports. One of those is tennis, and to that end the company has signed multiple grand slam winner Serena Williams as an adviser.

Golf Perceived as ‘Crypto-Friendly’

With its appeal to a wealthy audience, golf is one of the more crypto-friendly sports. Market research shows that 37 percent of PGA Tour fans own crypto, compared to 32 and 27 percent of NBA and NFL followers, respectively. Another indicator is that golf startup LinksDAO raised US$11 million earlier this year to build a course.

Unlike team sports, the PGA needs only athletes’ individual approval to use their NIL. Golfers will have to “sign up” for Sorare to mint their trading cards or for Autograph to sell NFTs featuring their highlights packages.

NFT Royalties Tied to Performance

PGA Tour golfers who opt in will earn a lump sum based on their performance at the previous year’s FedEx Cup, the sport’s season-long points competition. Additionally, they will earn pro-rata royalty payments based on the market performance of their respective NFTs and trading cards. Golfers can still launch their own NFT collections, but they will not be allowed to use Tour-licensed images.

Categories
Crypto News DeFi Hackers

Hacker Steals $80 Million From DeFi Lender ‘Rari Capital’ via Fei Protocol Exploit

DeFi platform Rari Capital has been hacked for more than US$80 million in assets held within its Fuse lending pools.

Rari Capital’s Fuse platform enables DeFi developers to create their own lending markets. Security firm BlockSec identified the exploit as having occurred because of a reentrancy vulnerability in the protocol’s smart contract.

Development team Fei Protocol, which runs a decentralised US dollar-pegged stablecoin called Fei USD, was the biggest loser in the hack. The team manages lending markets on Fuse, where users can deposit funds for an annual yield and also take out loans in FEI stablecoin.

$10 Million Bounty Offered, ‘No Questions Asked’

Fei Protocol has acknowledged the massive exploit and asked the hacker(s) to return the funds to claim a US$10 million bounty:

The Rari Capital exploit is the third significant reentrancy hack in six months. In December, the unfortunately named Grim Finance, a compounding yield optimiser on the Fantom blockchain, was drained of an estimated US$30 million in Fantom (FTM) tokens.

And early last month, DeFi protocol Ola Finance suffered a US$3.6 million hack, also blamed on a reentrancy bug. A fortnight earlier, DeFi lending protocols Agave and Hundred Finance were exploited for approximately US$11 million. DeFi continues to provide far too much fertile ground for hackers.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum NFTs Solana

Solana NFT Project ‘Okay Bears’ Sets Record Day 1 Sales

As Solana continues to challenge Ethereum’s dominance of the NFT ecosystem, the former’s new profile picture project Okay Bears generated more trading volume on its first day than any rival’s.

With 10,000 unique avatars, Okay Bears launched this week on Solana NFT marketplace Magic Eden at a mint price of 1.5 SOL (about US$145) per NFT. Secondary market sales quickly surged, sending the price of the collection soaring and generating US$18.4 million in trading volume.

First For Solana in Terms of a Single Day’s Trading Volume

The stunning Okay Bears performance represents the first time a Solana NFT project has beaten individual Ethereum projects in terms of 24-hour trading volume.

“Solana projects have just as bright a future as projects on other chains,” said Tiffany Huang, Magic Eden’s head of content and marketing, with some understatement.

With a more than passing physical resemblance to Ethereum’s Bored Ape Yacht Club avatars, Okay Bears sport a random array of mix-and-match traits. And like BAYC, the creators of Okay Bears plan to reward holders with future NFT drops, additional perks and benefits.

According to Huang, the platform generated over 380,000 SOL (about US$37.4 million) of secondary trading volume in 24 hours, a record for Solana. Yet Ethereum retains the ascendancy with its recent MoonBirds NFT launch generating more than US$200 million on debut. Earlier this week, a single Moonbirds NFT changed hands for more than US$1 million.

Categories
Binance Binance USD Crypto News Payments Ukraine

Binance Launches Refugee Crypto Card with 75 BUSD for Displaced Ukrainians

Binance has launched a crypto card for Ukrainians forced to flee across borders to other European countries due to the ongoing war with Russia.

The Binance Refugee Crypto Card. Source: Binance

The Binance Refugee Crypto Card allows current and new Binance customers from Ukraine to send or receive crypto payments and make purchases at retailers in the European Economic Area (EEA) who accept card transactions.

Binance has already donated US$10 million to aid the humanitarian crisis in the region. The contribution was split among organisations including UNICEF, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR and more.

The Binance refugee card has been launched in partnership with Contis, a UK-based banking platform, and is available in both virtual and physical formats.

More Than 4 Million Potential Beneficiaries

According to Kirill Khomyakov, general manager of Binance in Ukraine, more than 4 million people have already fled the country:

It is our responsibility to help those who were forced to leave their homes because of the war.

Kirill Khomyakov, general manager of Binance, Ukraine

Khomyakov added that Binance Charity was collaborating with non-profit organisations such as Rotary and Palianytsia to offer crypto-based cash assistance through the Binance refugee card.

Refugees will each receive 75 Binance USD (BUSD), worth around $US75, per month for up to three months. BUSD crypto will automatically convert to local currency according to which country refugees find themselves in, and relatives or acquaintances of displaced Ukrainians are also able to send crypto to the refugee crypto card.

The card itself is free but requires full KYC (know your customer) verification.

Limits Placed on Capital Outflows

Though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a crypto bill into law last month, this week Ukrainian citizens were banned from buying more than US$3,400 worth of crypto in a 30-day period. The country’s national bank said the measures had put in place under martial law to prevent “unproductive capital outflows” from Ukraine.

The National Bank of Ukraine said the measures were “temporary” and that it planned to allow citizens fleeing the country to make cross-border peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers within the above limit from accounts in its national currency.

Categories
Crypto News NFTs

Moonbirds NFT Sells for $1 Million Within a Week of Launch

A single Moonbirds NFT has changed hands for just over US$1 million less than a week after the collection racked up more than US$200 million in sales in its first three days.

Moonbird #2642, one of the rarest NFTs in the collection of avian avatars, sold for a record 350 ETH (US$1.05 million) on NFT marketplace OpenSea on April 23.

Moonbird #2642. Source: OpenSea

The buyer was listed as The Sandbox, a blockchain-based gaming firm and subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands. The seller, who goes by “oscuranft” on OpenSea, pocketed a profit of about US$600,000 after buying the NFT a week ago for 100 ETH.

New ‘Nesting’ Feature for Moonbirds

Moonbirds was launched on April 16 by PROOF, a media startup founded by venture capitalist Kevin Rose. In a recent video, Rose explained how Moonbirds is building on its rapid success by launching a new feature called “nesting”, where holders can stake their NFTs in a non-custodial way and earn additional benefits:

In a separate Twitter Spaces post this week, Rose addressed the controversial exit of Ryan Carson, the project’s chief operating officer, who has left to start his own NFT venture fund.

Allegations of Insider Trading

News of Carson’s departure drew immediate fire from the broader NFT community, with many questioning how Carson was able to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Moonbirds before his exit, possibly using insider knowledge to poach undervalued editions:

Carson’s cache of Moonbirds is worth US$1.2 million based on floor prices alone, as most were bought before prices ballooned following the initial mint.

Azukies Still Holds Record Price

With a 34 ETH (roughly US$100,000) current floor price, Moonbirds have racked up over US$330 million in sales since the April 16 mint. But there’s an even hotter collection out there in the NFT ecosystem. Azukies, an Ethereum-based set of hand-drawn, anime-style profile picture NFTs, reached a milestone earlier this month with the sale of a single Azuki for a record US$1.4 million.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum Metaverse NFTs

Nike Launches ‘CryptoKicks’ NFT Virtual Sneaker Collection

After flagging its move into the metaverse in December with the acquisition of digital art house RTFKT Studios, sports apparel giant Nike has debuted its Ethereum NFT sneakers, CryptoKicks.

In its teaser video released on Twitter (see above), RTFKT demonstrated how its Nike digital sneakers can be modified via collectible “Skin Vials”, which can be mixed and matched to enable a range of styles.

Nike/RTFKT CryptoKicks (physical version). Source: brainstation.io

CryptoKicks can be opened through RTFKT’s MNLTH Ethereum NFTs, which were airdropped for free to holders of RTFKT’s CloneX profile picture NFTs and other earlier RTFKT NFTs in February.

That same month, Nike sued online sneaker reseller StockX for selling unlicensed images of its NFT sneakers, claiming the US$3.8 billion company had sold around 500 Nike-branded NFTs at “inflated prices and [under] murky terms of purchase and ownership”.

Social Media Goes Mad For CryptoKicks

The launch of CryptoKicks follows a series of quests, or puzzles, collectors had to solve before RTFKT launched the website that allows holders to open the mysterious NFT vaults. As some holders have shared via social media, the MNLTH vaults contain a pair of CryptoKicks, a single Skin Vial, and a second MNLTH vault.

RTFKT will launch a quest series to unlock the MNLTH 2 vaults later this year. Each pair of CryptoKicks will also feature an “evolution path” enabling them to be progressed in various ways.