In a recent tweet, the one-time crypto investment club operator explained that drugs he was taking to treat a back injury were the root cause of a mental health spiral that led to a number of bad decisions:
Saunders’s statement has prompted mixed reactions on social media, with some sympathisers saying he should get a second chance:
Give the guy a second chance, he has apologized, started paying his debts and he is regretful. Don’t cause anymore damage to his bad situation. Everybody makes mistakes but those who come back acknowledging their mistakes should be gives a second chance in life
Others say he should never again be allowed to advise the public on investment schemes:
Back on the Airwaves
Saunders recently followed up his statement with a YouTube video confirming his heavy use of opiate drugs as the root cause of his errant behaviour, and that he plans to advise the Australian public once again on crypto projects, investment opportunities and “all of that good stuff”.
Crypto NewsAustralia has tried to make contact with Saunders to obtain further comments and will update this story once we have more information.
Australia-founded crypto NFT project Sportemon Go has ceased trading on its native token SGOX, leaving investors disgruntled, to say the least.
The news has spread across all major UK news media as Sportemon Go was sponsoring Scottish football clubs Rangers and Hibs. The brand removed all presence from social media on Monday night and locked up its website before resurfacing with a notice:
The SGOX Token has ceased trading. The community voted unanimously to redeem SGOX for L1TF token. This was [a] great result for Token holders, with 1 x SGOX Token being redeemable for 1 x Liberty One Treasury Fund Token. This was overwhelmingly voted in favour by over 90% of holders, with more than 95% of tokens. Also note the Team, Athletes and other IP are currently being removed or deleted, as we finalise amicable termination agreements. These will all be removed once finalised. For further partner and token information or information on how to redeem tokens, please email: [email protected]
Rangers signed a two-year deal with Sportemon Go in October 2021 and the club has since featured the Sportemon Go logo on its player strip and TV ads for the brand.
The Edinburgh Evening News reported that Hibernian FC, aka Hibs, began to distance itself from Sportemon Go after it showed signs of financial difficulty some months ago, with commercial director Greg McEwan telling the paper: “Knowing Sportemon Go’s difficulties, we had been planning for a mutual termination of the partnership and have a new partner in place for the upcoming season, which will be announced soon.”
What Now For Sportemon Go?
Sportemon Go co-founder Ricky Jackson has taken to Twitter and Telegram to try to calm the FUD caused by the SGOX token collapse:
Before spreading malicious lies and FUD, which is a poor reflection on crypto communities. DYOR, read notices first. Real world businesses with IP rights must remove all IP, upon contracts terminations. This 100% standard practise with every IP CONTRACT. As per notices. #NOFUDpic.twitter.com/BABELTPsKe
At the time of writing, there was no information about the new “Liberty One Treasury Fund Token” referred to in Sportemon Go’s website notice and there are reports that SGOX token holders were not adequately notified about any voting poll. With the brand’s Telegram channel history deleted, there is nothing in the discussions.
Investors took to Twitter to voice their frustrations, with some writing off their DeFi investment in the project:
The fact that the Jackson’s didn’t take any responsibility for the failure of a broken business model and blamed it all on FUD is unbelievable. They never built income streams for SGO that’s why it failed. No app, no vr, nothing…
The “FANTASTIC OFFER” of swapping SGOX for whatever the hell L1TF is/will be seems dependant upon bagholders keeping their mouths shut & not complaining. pic.twitter.com/O9ANofZrXf
There are a few folk saying that the new one will be a stablecoin but guess we’ll have to wait & see whether that really turns out to be the case. Five years is rather a long time though, and an eternity in crypto. pic.twitter.com/0ue4lnHIus
Crypto NewsAustralia reported last August that Sportemon Go was to create NFTs for Australian cricket legend Adam Gilchrist. Since then we have followed the project, and it has promised more and more platforms, features and tokens, including (but not limited to):
an SGO NFT marketplace
Australian ‘Home Town Heroes’ sports NFTs
SGO Bot NFTs
NFTs for NRL team the South Sydney Rabbitohs
NFTs for Scottish football team Rangers
Metarace virtual dog racing NFTs
Virtual Metaverses Play-to-Earn
eSports Integration for Personalisation
Rewards for gaming
Physical and Virtual Fan Experiences
SGO token launch on ETH
SGOX token launch on BSC
SGO/SGOX Staking Pool
Stablecoin Liberty Project
Delivering on all of these features would be quite a task, and it may simply be that Sportemon Go has bitten off more than it could chew.
Crypto News has contacted Sportemon Go for comment and will update this story once a response or further information is received.
Global fantasy football platform Sorare just landed its biggest ever NFT sale, with the Norwegian football superstar Erling Haaland NFT selling for just over A$1 million (265 ETH).
Fanatic YouTubers followed the auction live on-stream and were both excited and shocked when the auction price just kept going up and up. The eventual winner was Zima Blue, who outbid two rivals willing to bid half a million dollars for the Haaland Unique NFT.
The record was previously held by the Kylian Mbappe NFT, which sold for 116 ETH in late 2021. The Haaland card smashed through the French footballer’s price to more than double the record.
Most expensive footballer NFT auctions. Source: SorareData.com
Sorare User Growth Soaring
The number of users owning at least one NFT on the Sorare platform has grown more than 2,700 percent from 3,055 users in January 2021 to 88,143 users in February 2022.
Sorare is a blockchain-based NFT fantasy football game where fans can own their players and enter them into competitions to win prizes.
The France-based company recently completed a US$680 million fundraising round to scale operations and onboard major football leagues around the world.
If you want to find out more, check out our Sorare Review.
Ethereum, the world’s most in-demand blockchain, achieved some major milestones in 2021, including a massive US$10 billion in transaction fees captured from the network.
ETH transaction fees in USD for 2021.
To put this in perspective, compare it to other global payment networks such as VISA, which processed around US$24 billion in transaction fees. In 2021, Ethereum surpassed Stripe into second position in the global transactions by dollar value.
Global payment networks transaction fees comparison.
And if we compare the other crypto networks, which include both Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks, we can see both Ethereum and Uniswap taking higher fees than Bitcoin in 2021. However, this represents a combination of usage and decentralised platforms having much higher fees than their centralised alternatives.
Crypto networks transaction fees comparison.
Could We See a ‘Deflationary’ Supply of ETH in 2022?
In August 2021, the Ethereum protocol underwent an upgrade called “London EIP-1559”, which changed the way ETH fees worked. Essentially, the miners were no longer incentivised to keep fees high, with the base fee being burned from supply (moved to a wallet), along with improved blockchain security.
We have already seen some days show a negative net issuance of ETH on the network, which is shown live on watchtheburn.com. When the merge happens, it will interesting to see if that negative issuance becomes more frequent.
Ethereum plans to upgrade to version 2.0 during 2022, switching from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. “The merge” will happen around Q2 this year when the version 1.0 blockchain simply gets turned off and version 2.0, “The Beacon Chain“, replaces it.
This upgrade will see a more eco-friendly Ethereum, maintaining high levels of decentralisation and security.
It is anticipated that the merge updates will not reduce gas fees significantly; we will have to wait until 2023 when Ethereum introduces sharding technology to reap the benefits of the high throughput and low fees. This technology will become available to Layer 2s so we may then finally be able to solve a lot of the scaling problems, something Ethereum will have to do if it wants to become the settlement platform of Web 3.0.
Find Out More
You can read the full Ethereum 2021 report written by Josh Stark and Evan Van Ness at the decentralised blogging platform called Mirror.
Crypto News Australia also recently published a guide on the best Ethereum Layer 2 projects worth keeping an eye on this year.
A new game being developed on Solana called ‘MonkeyBall’ has caused mayhem as angry investors take to Twitter to voice their concerns about the project.
The project was aiming to drop 5,000 Monkey NFTs on its website on January 7 at 12am AEST. But the launch countdown timer on the website didn’t even finish before a message popped up saying “drop ended”, leaving many users disappointed and angry.
MonkeyBall NFT drop closed before the countdown finished. Source: Twitter
Some users were persistently refreshing the web page, even hundreds of times, and a few were able to create a 2 SOL transaction to mint an NFT. However, the SOL was sent to MonkeyBall but no NFT was returned appearing in the wallet, leaving investors out of pocket.
same! I *only* lost 2 sol but still it's really upsetting. I thought it saying mint said over before it began had to have been an error… so angry right now pic.twitter.com/NzWC6VFqJc
The subdomain used for the drop (monkeydrop2022.monkeyball.com) did appear in the DNS a few minutes before the official countdown ended, which hackers could have used to exploit the drop and execute mint transactions to chew up the supply.
Failed Token Launch, Failed NFT Drop and Broken Promises
The MonkeyBall team also muted the Discord and Telegram communities throughout the drop, leaving users in the dark as to what was actually going on.
Some YouTubers did some investigative work to try to find out what happened. They revealed several flaws in the drop, including coding errors, bot prevention flaws and whitelist logic ambiguities.
Token Launch IDO Mayhem
This failed NFT drop comes after the project had previously promised the $MBS token launch on Starlaunch IDO, which after investors had put their money in was suddenly delayed without notice, leaving unanswered questions about the project’s integrity.
Starlaunch used Fractal to process the KYC for the MonkeyBall IDO, which experienced some problems, allowing investors to put money into the launchpad – even though they were not eligible to participate from their location – leaving a lot of investors angry and out of pocket.
Was Solana to Blame for the Failed Drop?
The MonkeyBall team has blamed Solana for the failed drop but investors are not buying it, as it appears the Solana blockchain was working fine at the time of mint:
That said, there have been some problems with the network lately after Solana suffered DDOS attacks on January 4, and it did have some downtime.
SOL users have expressed their outrage on Twitter and Reddit. One Redditor, angry for the constant delay, claimed that Solana Status was lying to its users, insisting the network had been working “completely fine” and that the delay problems might be related to slow internet connections.
Is MonkeyBall a Rug Pull?
Crypto News Australia has reported on a lot of scams in 2021 including countless rug pulls from NFT projects, to mention but a few recent Solana-related examples:
While it cannot be proved that MonkeyBall is a rug pull, we encourage investors to be cautious and take note of the red flags that have appeared. We’ve reached out to the MonkeyBall team to get some comments on this.
If you want to find out more, check out these resources:
Australian digital currency exchange Binance Australia has announced its intention to target a net zero carbon footprint within Australia.
This would make it the first crypto exchange worldwide to openly report on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics, a universal framework developed by the World Economic Forum.
This first step by a digital currency exchange follows similar moves globally by the industry to increase the transparency of the ESG footprint of organisations in the digital asset industry. Becoming an ESG entity aligns with our company’s vision to increase the freedom of money globally.
Leigh Travers, Binance Australia CEO
The disclosure of the ESG metrics, including governance, anti-corruption practices, ethical behaviour, human rights, carbon emissions, diversity and inclusion, pay equality and tax payments will be reported quarterly through the Socialsuite ‘ESG Go’ technology platform.
This eco-friendly push by Binance Australia also includes a partnership with the Koala Clancy Foundation with an initiative to plant trees for koalas on farms and private land, and create new habitats and advocate for better protection of wild koalas.
Crypto Industry Carbon Footprint
Recently, we have seen negative commentary around the carbon footprint of Bitcoin as published by Bloomberg News and also high profile companies such as Tesla no longer accepting Bitcoin as payment, citing environmental concerns, as reported by CNBC News.
One of the biggest headwinds the digital asset industry has faced is negative commentary and misinformation based on carbon emissions from the sector. The industry is led by people and organisations determined to have a positive impact on society and the negative headlines have triggered a lack of education and awareness of ESG conscious crypto businesses.
Leigh Travers, Binance Australia CEO
Binance Australia and Binance Charity are creating a positive impact as they raise money through cryptocurrencies and use the power of blockchain technology to track and distribute it to those who need it the most.
Australia’s ESG Boom
It has been reported that Australian super funds supporting ESG have boomed through 2021, outperforming those funds that haven’t yet committed to a “rigorous environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework”.
Further research by KPMG has revealed that investors are being swayed by the ESG ratings of companies, with those of higher ratings being preferred.
It is anticipated that ESG will be a big driver in business and society as we come together to create a brighter eco-friendly future for Australia and worldwide.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) officially announced today, November 3, 2021, that it will be adding cryptocurrency services to its CommBank mobile app, which include the ability to buy, sell and hold crypto.
The CBA has partnered with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis to provide the infrastructure support needed to provide the exchange and custody services.
We’re becoming the first Australian bank to offer the ability to buy, sell and hold crypto assets directly in the CommBank app. pic.twitter.com/OzX1qtvu9B
Over the past couple of years, Australian banks have been trialling blockchain technology to ensure bank guarantees and cross-border payments, but as one of the ‘Big Four’ banks in Australia, the big move by the CBA to support cryptocurrencies is surprising.
CBA CEO Matt Comyn explains the dual reason for the move is growing demand from customers and the emergence of new competition:
The emergence and growing demand for digital currencies from customers creates both challenges and opportunities for the financial services sector, which has seen a significant number of new players and business models innovating in this area.
CBA CEO Matt Comyn
Comyn is also hosting a couple of events on November 9 and 10 where CBA customers can ask questions to get more information on the new services.
Up to 10 Cryptos Supported
As stated by the CBA: “The pilot will start in the coming weeks and CBA intends to progressively roll out more features to more customers in 2022.” The bank will provide customers with access to up to 10 selected crypto assets including:
Whilst this announcement from Commonwealth Bank is certainly a promising sign that Bitcoin is further establishing itself within the mainstream spotlight, there needs to be further education for users that taking control and ownership of your digital assets is still an incredibly important element of this technology. No longer do we need to hand over the keys to our wealth to banks or third-party organisations
Chris Pavlesic, CEO and founder, Coinstop
Today’s news raises more questions than answers. Will we now see a change in attitude from banks towards cryptocurrencies? Will the banks now control our private keys? What other banks might jump on the bandwagon? And what other services and coins will be introduced in the future?
Former influential cryptocurrency influencer Alex Saunders has been ordered by the Supreme Court of Victoria to pay upwards of A$500,000 to one of his followers after he failed to respond to a lawsuit as reported by Crypto News on August 11.
This is the first time in Australia that a follower has successfully sued a cryptocurrency influencer for losses incurred on an investment.
Alex Saunders. Source: twitter.com/NuggetsNewsAU
The Supreme Court of Victoria ruled on October 14 that Saunders has to pay back the funds, plus interest and legal fees, as a default ruling because the defence did not file a response within the 42-day deadline.
The default settlements of A$487,805 (including A$8,534 for interest) and A$4,156 for legal fees are to be paid to New Zealand investor Ziv Himmelfarb for the “crypto loans” he made to Saunders earlier this year.
The court statement of claim included a “long/short crypto fund” sent by Saunders via Facebook on February 17, 2021, leading to Himmelfarb sending over A$250,000 worth of bitcoin to subscribe for an interest in the crypto fund.
The court order also includes a section where Himmelfarb also sent Saunders around A$65,000 worth of USDC for a “DCB project”, for which Saunders was allegedly raising capital from his community.
Along with the crypto fund investment and the DCB project, Himmelfarb sent Saunders A$144,305 worth of ETH (Ethereum) coins in an “ETH coins loan”.
Unregistered Crypto Funds
The crypto fund and DCB projects in question were pursued in the lawsuit as being unregistered under section 601EB of the Act. As mentioned, this allows the investor to lay claim to a contract breach whereas the investment scheme has not been registered in Australia as required under the Corporations Act.
Bankruptcy Notice Issued
Following the application, the Australian Financial Security Authority has issued a bankruptcy notice, giving Saunders 21 days to pay, failing which Himmelfarb can file a creditor’s bankruptcy petition. Crypto News asked Himmelfarb if he had any comments and he said:
My only comment is that I hope I don’t have to go all the way through to bankruptcy, but I won’t hesitate to do that if Alex doesn’t pay.
Ziv Himmelfarb
Related News
Controversy on Twitter followed a story published and since removed by news.com.au regarding a former colleague of Saunders, Ben Simpson, who has been contacted by Crypto News with a list of questions regarding his business relationship with Saunders and involvement with any other projects.
Crypto News has also contacted Saunders to add comments for this story, but he has maintained his silence through all channels.
The recent crypto boom in Australia has led to a shortage of crypto hardware wallets throughout the country as suppliers struggle to keep up with the demand.
Popular wallet suppliers in Australia such as Coinstop have been selling out of popular devices such as Trezor and Ledger as soon as they hit the shelves. They have seen a big uptick in the number of orders throughout 2021 with approximately 3.3 million Aussies now owning crypto.
Every bull cycle brings in a new wave of crypto investors of which many are worried about their security. That puts a lot of pressure on hardware manufacturers to keep up with demand and we’ve seen time and time again that they are unable to match the demand. Throw on top Covid and the chip shortages, and we now have a perfect recipe for supply outstripping demand.
Chris Pavlesic, Coinstop
With the growing number of crypto hacks and scams in Australia, there is an apparent need for people to protect their investments in cold storage. It’s not just retail crypto investors who need protection; institutions and SMSF accounts should also consider secure forms of storage for their crypto holdings.
Supplies have also been impacted by Covid delivery logistics, with new devices such as Ledger Nano X taking up to two weeks to be delivered from the official manufacturer in France.
Crypto Hardware Wallet Options in Australia
If you would like to protect your crypto with a hardware wallet, these are your current options:
Ledger Nano X (direct from manufacturer, order now, approximately 2 weeks delivery)
Trezor Model T (sold out, ETA 2022)
Ledger Nano S (in stock, order now, 2-3 day delivery)
Trezor (sold out, but you can pre-order now; ETA October 2021, but not promised)
Coolwallet Pro (in stock, order now, 2-3 day delivery)
Bitbox02 (in stock, order now, supply going fast)
Important: Please only buy your hardware wallets from trusted suppliers and never buy from eBay or other online marketplaces, or run the risk of losing all your holdings. Crypto News has partnered with Coinstop as our trusted supplier in Australia. Use the code CRYPTONEWS at checkout for an A$5 discount on your order.
Remember that you can also order directly from the manufacturers, however the benefits of ordering through a local distributor are cheaper pricing, faster express shipping, and ongoing local support.
The Sorare game economy is based on the Ethereum (ETH) cryptocurrency. To play the game to its full potential, you’ll need to buy some ETH or deposit some from your external crypto wallet. See options and video tutorials below to see how to do it.
You have two options:
Buy ETH directly through the website using the Ramp service with your credit/debit card or bank deposit.
Transfer your ETH from your exchange (ie Binance or Coinbase) to a wallet below and then deposit from that wallet into Sorare.
Popular wallet options:
MetaMask (my preferred option; you’ll need the Brave web browser because MetaMask is a browser extension which can connect directly with the Sorare website).
Coinbase wallet (best option for Apple mobile phones or if you already have a Coinbase account).
Trust Wallet (best option for Android mobile phones – deposit using Wallet Connect option).
Important to note:
You cannot sent ETH directly to your Sorare account; you’ll need to use either MetaMask or Trust Wallet to connect and deposit.
All the wallet options above do not allow you to buy crypto directly. If you are looking to do this, then check out The Best Exchanges For Australia guide.
If you’re not interested in taking crypto out of your account, you probably won’t need an external wallet as you can buy directly with Ramp.
You cannot use MetaMask on mobile phones or iPads.
Using MetaMask
Using Coinbase wallet
Using Trust wallet
Account Security
Absolute must:
Set up your 2-Auth login using Google Authenticator
This will add extra security to your account as you must enter a four-digit code every time you log in, preventing unauthorised access. To set this up, click your profile picture > settings > 2 factor authentication. Then download Google Authenticator App on your mobile phone and scan the QR code and enter the code. That’s it; next time you log in, open the app on your phone and enter the code.
Optional:
Write down your Sorare private key and keep it safe on a piece of paper (this is your access to your digital wallet). To access your private key, click on your wallet top right a> clog symbol > private key.
Set up a Ramp account and deposit a small amount (they will use your card to verify your account should you lose your phone and are unable to access your 2-Auth code – read more about account recovery).
Before You Buy Cards
Before buying cards on Sorare, here are a few things to consider and some screenshots below which show where to find it.
Check the price history – the Sorare data website shows the previous recent sales so you can gauge if you’re getting a good deal.
Check the season on the card – the newer season cards score +5% more points.
Check the player’s XP – a player with a higher level scores more bonus points.
Check the news – is your player injured?
Check the player’s recent scores – how well has he performed? Does he play for an international team? Does he play in Euro comps?
Check the league coverage – are the player’s scores covered by Sorare? If not, they won’t score you any points!
Sorare data card information
Sorare player card sale
Checking news to see there is an injury
Scouting Cards
As mentioned before, the website soraredata.com is the place to go to do your scouting and check player card statistics.
Soraredata player performance history
The Card Finder tool is particularly useful to find best performing cards for the S05 competitions. You can create a watchlist by clicking the heart icon and then using this filter to keep track of when the players you want are on sale.
You can also use the Lineup builder tool to see if you have enough players for a gameweek for all your competitions (to find it:go to soraredata.com > login with your Sorare account > click on your profile name > My lineup builder).
Soraredata lineup builder
Training Players XP
The game has a training competition where you can add your unused players to gain XP, improving their scoring potential. Don’t forget that you can enter multiple teams into training to make use of your non-playing cards to increase their XP and potential sale value. Also if you want to enter multiple teams you’ll need a lot of super cheap goalkeepers that probably don’t play but can be used to create full training teams.
Sorare special training competition
There are 3 types of XP
Captain – 20%
Season Bonus – 5% if the card is from the current season
Level bonus, which depends on the XP your card has gained and its scarcity, eg, rare, super rare, unique.
The fantasy points scoring system Sorare uses is different to other common fantasy football games. The score is calculated from Opta stats, the same stats used by a wide range of applications from news sites to betting websites.
Many users on Sorare have openly stated that they think this scoring system is better than FPL, as it give those defensive players more opportunity to get points other than for just scoring or assisting a goal.
For a full breakdown on player scoring, see the article Sorare Scoring System Explained by Draft Gym, or watch the video below:
Winning Cards in Competitions
Along with multiple competitions you can enter on the Sorare main website, there are some partner websites where you can also win cards.
SorareMega has a few free competitions where you can enter your cards. It’s pretty easy; you just log in with your Sorare account and then choose your cards to enter. If your players perform well, you could win a free card!
Bidding Fraudsters
If you receive a bid, double-check the ETH value and don’t misclick low ETH offers for your players. Some idiots are placing low bids to try to get people to accept them by a drunk misclick. It has happened.
The same guy is now named Panati / GER, he just stole an other card, Tielmans Rare for 0.032, we must react. A thought for the manager who has just been victim of this scam. 💪@SorareHQ@dansorare@ni2lashttps://t.co/lE59o4fkb9
Sorare has an official Discord channel where over 16,000 managers are discussing the game and engaging as part of a community. There are a lot of useful channels in the discord, such as announcements, feedback, support, player news and more.
If you go to the #for-sale channel you can find managers posting their cards for sale. If you see something you like, you can then send them a direct message on discord and start the negotiations. I find this a useful way to get good bundle deals from managers looking to get some quick ETH.
Sorare on discord #for-sale channel
Personal Tax Reporting
Tax, everyone’s favourite subject – but it’s worth mentioning that in most countries cryptocurrencies are now being targeted by the tax department.
Technically, every blockchain transaction is a taxable event, so you are liable to pay a capital gains tax on your profit (depending on your country and personal circumstances). See the Australian tax laws guide for more info.
Personally, I keep a record of deposits and withdrawals in/out of my Sorare account for my tax reporting to send to my accountant come tax time.
What to record:
Date (of transaction)
From account (ie MetaMask wallet, Binance or Bank account)
To account (ie Sorare account)
Crypto coin symbol and amount (ie 0.2 ETH)
Amount AUD (equivalent value in your local currency)
Fees AUD (you might be able to claim these back!)
Transaction link (blockchain explorer link as proof)
Having these records will definitely save time and headaches in the long run, and is also a handy reference to see how you’re performing financially.
Hope this has guide helped you; be sure to check out the Full Sorare Review if you want to find out more, including an FAQ section. If I missed something you think might be useful for beginners, please contact me on Twitter using the link below.
