Category: NFTs

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Australia Crypto News NFTs Sports

AFL Set to Launch NFT Collection with 20% of Revenue Going to the Players

In a goal kicked firmly between the posts for the code’s ongoing NFT adoption, the Australian Football League (AFL) has struck a unique revenue-distribution deal that could see players get 20 percent of the spoils from the sale of non-fungible tokens associated with the sport.

It’s a Goal for NFTs, the AFL and Animoca Brands

CEO Gillon McLachlan has revealed that the AFL has plans in place to team up with Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands, one of the world’s leading blockchain gaming and NFT studios, collectively worth more than US$5 billion.

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan. Source: Fox Sports

McLachlan has also confirmed that a deal with the AFL Players Association will ensure that players receive a 20 percent cut of the revenue derived from the sales of official AFL NFTs.

And for all the fans out there still talking about the 1,000-goal milestone achieved by Sydney Swan Lance “Buddy” Franklin (pictured, below), there will be an NFT for that, and multiple other NFTs based around the March 25 event.

Buddy Franklin moment. Source: AFL

“There’ll be a Buddy 1,000 NFT,” confirmed McLachlan, adding: “The team is working on that at the moment. There’ll be lots of NFTs that come out of that because it was a pretty unique event. That was one that will have a lot of value.”

It looks like the Sydney star’s 1,000th-goal NFT will entail a range of different takes on his achievement, which could include animation or perhaps video footage.

“There’ll be one official NFT of him kicking that [1,000th] goal. Whether it’s animated [or not], there’ll be different versions of it,” McLachlan said. He also hinted that there will be plenty of other AFL NFTs to be sold at reasonable prices, and “some unique stuff that will be among some of the most expensive [NFTs] we do”.

AFL Approaches Mainstream Crypto Adoption

As Ben Simpson, CEO of Melbourne-based crypto research and education platform Collective Shift, has said, “I think we’re really starting to hit mainstream adoption in crypto and NFTs.” He pointed out that cryptocurrency companies now account for a significant percentage of the AFL’s major sponsors.

Two months ago, the AFL signed an A$25 million five-year sponsorship deal with Crypto.com, and the Australian digital assets exchange Swyftx also announced a major two-year partnership with the Brisbane Lions. Other AFL clubs, including premier Melbourne, the West Coast Eagles, Adelaide Crows, Sydney Swans and the Western Bulldogs, also have crypto sponsors.

“What is most exciting in my opinion about NFTs in sport is that the players can take a share of the revenue of all sales of those NFTs forever. Lance [Franklin] will earn a direct percentage cut from that 1,000th-goal NFT,” Simpson said. He added that in the past, only the sporting organisations or governing bodies took revenue and profits, but NFTs and smart contracts can enable a percentage of the revenues to be distributed to players.

Matt Willemsen, head of research at Collective Shift, spoke in a YouTube video about the revenue-distribution aspect of the deal:

Categories
Crypto Hardware Wallets Crypto News DeFi Ledger NFTs

Ledger Launches NFT-Focused Hardware Wallet ‘Nano S Plus’

A new hardware wallet released by Ledger this week promises to let people securely explore more of Web3 by offering management tools for NFT collections and space to install up to 100 apps.  

The Nano S Plus improves on the popular Nano S – released five years ago – by adding a larger screen that makes it easier to make transactions as well as more memory, enabling the installation of up to 100 apps to manage over 5,500 digital assets:

Ledger flagged its intention to become a gateway for the broader digital asset ecosystem in June last year when it announced a US$380 million fundraising round. 

A Secure Wallet Designed to be DeFi and NFT-Friendly

Ledger said the new wallet provides offline security for investors’ crypto as well as the convenience to securely manage a range of other digital assets. 

By pairing the wallet with Ledger’s digital asset management app, Ledger Live, users can display and manage their NFTs with their private keys, including securely sending and signing NFT transactions. 

The Ledger Nano S Plus is a Nano S on steroids. It provides you with more space to freely enjoy the ever-expanding world of DeFi and NFTs. We keep improving our world-leading hardware devices to allow you to securely explore the Web3 ecosystem.

Pascal Gauthier, Ledger chairman and CEO

Nano S Plus is compatible with Desktop and Android Mobile with a USB cable, has a 128 x 64 pixel screen, a storage size of 1.5MB, and costs A$129. 

Ledger has sold more than 3 million Nano S devices around the world. All signs point to Nano S Plus being in strong demand too – a limited-edition release of the wallet in March sold out 10,000 units in one day.

This is despite issues that call into question Ledger’s security, such as data breaches in June last year that resulted in sophisticated fake hardware wallets being sent to exposed customers’ addresses.

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Blockchain Fantasy Sports Gaming NFTs Sports

Blockchain Soccer Game GOALS Nets $15 Million Seed Funding for Multiplayer Venture

Young Swedish start-up GOALS has announced that its seed funding round netted a profit of US$15 million. The round was led by venture capital firm Northzone alongside the CEO of Sorare and its strategic adviser, a very well-known football player.

The e-sports game features a play-to-own mechanism with players, clubs and skins available in the form of digital assets. This means that once you own one of these NFTs, it’s yours for as long as you wish to keep it – unlike soccer game giant FIFA, which only lets a player hold a skin for a limited time.

Barcelona Defender Gerard Pique Among the Donors

Despite being barely a year old – GOALS was founded in May 2021 – the venture is receiving a lot of support. Northzone, Cherry and Moonfire venture capital firms were just some of the notable names contributing to the seed funding round.

Nicolas Julia, CEO of Sorare (another prominent blockchain football game), and strategic adviser Gerard Pique, the famous Barcelona FC defender, were also among the donors.

Barcelona FC star defender Gerard Pique, who is also Sorare’s strategic adviser. Source: everythingbarca.com

GOALS is free to play, with the game taking a small cut of each marketplace transaction. You can check out the GOALS project trailer below:

Football Follows in Sorare’s Bootsteps

Sorare Crypto Fantasy Football paved the way for GOALS in the field of blockchain-based football games. The game enables fans to collect and trade player cards to compete for prizes. Since Sorare’s development in 2018, the game has gone from strength to strength, notably raising US$680 million in its September 2021 fundraising round.

If you’re interested in learning more about Sorare and how it works, Crypto News Australia has put together an independent review of the game. You can find it here.

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Crypto News NFTs Sports

Liverpool FC’s NFT Launch Flops as Only 6% Have Sold

Top-two English Premier League team Liverpool Football Club’s much-maligned foray into the world of NFTs has been heralded a spectacular flop, with less than 6 percent of the collection’s 171,072 NFTs sold in the first week:

LFC Heroes Club Launched Despite Pushback

Last week’s release of ‘LFC Heroes Club‘ was intended to be a “fun and innovative way to celebrate being an LFC fan”, featuring 171,072 NFTs starting at US$75, including 24 “Legendary” one-of-one editions.

LFC Heroes Club. Source: Liverpool FC

The LFC collectibles were available for purchase across a three-day sale window from March 30 until April 1, with half the proceeds going to the superclub’s charitable foundation. At the time, fans complained that the release was exploitative and merely an attempt to increase revenues:

The Market Has Spoken

After paying out the promised donations to the LFC Foundation, the club is set to bring in around US$590,000 through the NFT launch, despite sales projections exceeding US$11.2 million.

At the time writing, only 9,721 out of a possible 171,072 NFTs have sold, making LFC Heroes one of the biggest NFT flops in recent memory.

Over the past 12 months, we’ve become accustomed to brands leveraging NFTs to increase revenues and consumer engagement. In the process, countless organisations have faced backlash from fans for their efforts, including SEGA, Salesforce and Uber.

Sadio Mané. Source: Liverpool Football Club

While environmental concerns are often cited, consumer exploitation is the most common cause for complaint, as was the case with the LFC Heroes Club:

It remains unclear why this particular collection of JPEGs failed relative to others that have sold for millions. Either way, the market has spoken.

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Crypto News DeFi NFTs Tokens

NFT Music Token OPUL Surges 175% Amid DeFi Staking Announcement

Opulous, a relatively new blockchain-based music platform built for creators and investors, has seen the price of its token, OPUL, rally 175 percent after the project announced DeFi staking, CEX listings and S-NFT sales.

The biggest driver of interest in OPUL over recent weeks was the 45-minute sellout performance of its latest S-NFT (a non-fungible token sold as a security) for the song Patek Myself, by British rapper Ard Adz:

Opulous has foreshadowed a “major announcement” in the coming week that entails an S-NFT sale for an entire music album:

New Staking Pools with AlgoFi

In other Opulous-related news, Algorand-based automated market maker Pact has established two liquidity pools for OPUL to be paired with ALGO and USD Coin (USDC). It has announced a joint campaign with the Algorand Foundation set to distribute 1 million ALGO tokens to supported pools between April 8 and June 2. Opulous has also revealed that new staking pools will join the Algorand DeFi hub, AlgoFi, from April 5:

The ‘Biggest Thing Since Streaming’

Pretty good going, in all, for a platform that is little more than a year old. Launched in February 2021, Opulous provides a unique model for music artists to calculate future earnings and accept loans based on that forecast, while retaining 100 percent of their music’s copyright.

With its NFTs, Opulous makes it possible for artists to break down ownership of their music into tokenised shares and offer them directly to fans. This means fans can invest in the artists they love and financially benefit themselves through earnings made from sales.

The Opulous model provides a monetary incentive for fans to promote the artists they have invested in. The more successful the artist, the more money the fan makes, through royalties paid out monthly. It has rightly been described as “the biggest thing since streaming”.

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Crypto News NFTs Stablecoins

Crypto Twitter Baffled by UK Government’s Move to Mint an NFT 

The British Treasury is to create an NFT. Minted by the Royal Mint, the digital asset will stand as a sign of the UK government’s “forward-looking approach” to cryptocurrency businesses and technology.

Notwithstanding this positive move toward crypto, the proposed NFT has garnered some confusion. As revealed in a keynote speech at this week’s Innovate Finance Global Summit, UK Secretary to Treasury John Glen stated that the government will issue an NFT by the northern summer.

Finally, I am announcing today that the Chancellor [Rishi Sunak] has asked the Royal Mint to create a non-fungible token – an NFT … to be issued by the summer, an emblem of the forward-looking approach we are determined to take … and there will be more details available very soon.

John Glen, Economic Secretary to the UK Treasury

The announcement also included the government’s vision for stablecoins and distributed ledger technologies as part of its pro-crypto strategy for the UK’s financial services industry. This bold move is supposed to help position Britain as a “global crypto-asset technology hub”.

The UK is also playing a role in the new OECD crypto-assets tax reporting framework, which aims to enhance tax transparency and hopefully restore consumer confidence in the sector by enabling a level playing field in global tax reporting.

UK Stablecoin Regulation Under Way

The government says it intends to bring new legislation to stablecoins within its regulatory regime. This means that issuers and service providers offering such products in the UK would need to follow standards set by UK authorities. According to Treasury Secretary Glen, “I can confirm that we will be legislating to bring certain stablecoins into our payments framework … creating the conditions for stablecoin issuers and service providers to operate and grow in the UK.”

Sunak says it is his ambition to make the UK a global hub for crypto and blockchain technology through close oversight of the emerging sector. “We want to see the businesses of tomorrow – and the jobs they create – here in the UK, and by regulating effectively we can give them the confidence they need to think and invest long-term.”

This move by the treasury comes on the heels of Cambridge University launching its institutional crypto research group at the beginning of March.

Crypto Twitter in a Tizz

With levels of inflation in Britain hitting a three-decade high, according to The Guardian, many seem to be wondering what exactly is the purpose of the proposed NFT:

The UK government hasn’t yet provided any additional details – such as what the funds will be used for or how many NFTs will be minted – apart from the suitably vague release date:

UK authorities recently seized US$1.9 million worth of NFTs as part of an elaborate tax vision scheme. This new offering may come at a strange time but the broader move into blockchain tech could be positive for the space.

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Crypto News NFTs OpenSea

Leak Shows Users Will Soon be Able to Trade NFTs on OpenSea Using Credit Cards

Popular NFT marketplace OpenSea has launched direct payments on its platform via MoonPay, thereby simplifying the process of acquiring NFTs for those who don’t own cryptocurrencies.

According to OpenSea, collectors will be able to pay directly via Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Apple Pay and Google Pay, among others:

Sail the OpenSea on a Credit Card

This move, which will undoubtedly bring newcomers to the NFT space, is the result of a partnership with MoonPay, a fintech player that builds payment infrastructure in the crypto space. As it stands, OpenSea users are required to leverage crypto assets such as ether to purchase NFTs on the marketplace:

The MoonPay integration will change this going forward, and OpenSea visitors will have the ability to choose from an assortment of payment options. MoonPay is also the company that has worked with many celebrities to facilitate Bored Ape NFT purchases for the likes of rapper Wiz Khalifa and ageing pop star Madonna.

Many are excited by OpenSea’s new venture, but some are not altogether convinced it will succeed:

OpenSea Expands its Reach into the NFT Space

Just recently, OpenSea announced it would be supporting the blockchain network Solana (SOL), after a myriad of rumours, speculation and leaked images had hinted the platform would soon add SOL and Phantom Wallet support. OpenSea is the leading NFT project in terms of sales volume, accruing US$23.5 billion since its inception. It is followed by fellow NFT marketplace LooksRare, which has recorded US$18.16 billion in total sales volume.

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Bored Ape Yacht Club Hackers Illegal NFTs Scams Tokens

$APE Drops 20% Following Bored Ape Yacht Club Discord Hack

ApeCoin has dropped 8 percent after the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Discord servers suffered a phishing scam. The governance token behind the world’s largest NFT collection has plunged after news of the phishing attack was confirmed.

APE Witnesses Massive Fluctuations

APE fell from roughly US$14 on March 31 and at some point reached US$12.8, according to CoinMarketCap. The tokens were airdropped to Bored Ape and Mutant Ape NFT holders on March 16 and will serve as the governance token for the project’s newly launched decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO). APE will allow its holders to vote on the project’s roadmap and upcoming proposals.

Since the token launched, the price action has been rather volatile with APE going as high as US$39.4, before settling at a range between US$14 and $16.  

An unknown hacker gained access to the official Discord meant to host members of BAYC, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and Mutant Ape Kennel Club, three NFTs from Yuga Labs. The attackers posted a phishing link in the Mutant Ape Kennel channel disguised as a “stealth NFT mint”, which was used to steal Mutant Ape Yacht Club #8662 from one user:

No ‘April Fools Stealth Mints’

The team at BAYC indicated in a tweet that it had “caught” the issue immediately but cautioned users not to mint any NFT using a link posted on its Discord, and indicated to users that it had no April Fools stealth mints. According to several reports, clicking on the link would result in losing the respective holders’ NFTs. It has been reported that the hacker may have carried out the attacker via Ticket Tool, a popular Discord bot that automatically generates support tickets:

Twitter users have also warned of a similar exploit on the Discord server of Doodles, another NFT collection, but at the time of writing this had not yet been confirmed:

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Airdrop Metaverse NFTs Tokens

Controversial Pudgy Penguins NFT Collection Sold for 750 ETH

The Pudgy Penguins NFT collection has sold for 750 ETH (US$2.6 million), separating its inherent cuteness from its controversial roots. LA-based entrepreneur Luca Netz, of Netz Capital, is now leading the project and plans to use it to “spread love across the Meta”:  

Pudgy Penguins Eye the Future

Netz has purchased full control of the collection – totalling 8,888 Pudgy Penguins – from the four original co-founders, alongside future royalties. Full ownership of the project means that Pudgy Penguins can now release its own token, $PENGU, and investigate the option of potential airdrops to existing penguin holders:

This follows the ousting of the founders via a January Discord vote over their failure to meet project goals. Co-founder ColeThereum had promised a game, an educational book, and a token, all of which the project failed to deliver. With turmoil behind the scenes and threats issued regarding the project, controversy had been rife within the community.

The sale of Pudgy Penguins will offer a fresh start for the collection. While the originators will no longer be a part of the project, they acknowledge that Netz has the connections and experience to level up the collection in the future.

NFT Controversies and Acquisitions

Pudgy Penguins isn’t the only collection with a controversial history. In February, YouTube ‘Internet Detective’ CoffeeZilla helped to expose a US$20 million crypto scam. Thanks to the joint efforts of CoffeeZilla and the NFT community, the ‘Squiggles’ project was foiled before it came to pass.

In other big acquisition news, last month the creators behind Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) purchased CryptoPunks – another highly successful NFT collection. Yuga Labs now owns the IP and commercial rights to BAYC, and the company’s first move after doing so was to give full commercial rights to NFT holders.

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Binance Crypto News Institutions NFTs Sport and Leisure

Binance Becomes Official Crypto Partner of 64th Annual Grammy Awards

Binance has entered a partnership with the Recording Academy to become the first-ever crypto exchange partner for the 64th annual Grammy Awards, to be held on April 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, US.

As per a statement from Yi He, co-founder of Binance, partnering with the Recording Academy will bring “fresh new experiences powered by blockchain and all the great things Web3 technology can bring to entertainment”:

There are no further details about the partnership as yet. However, it appears Binance is already rolling out plans to make it more than just a branding opportunity. As per the statement:

Binance will continue to work with the Recording Academy throughout the year to bring various Web3 technology solutions and experiences to the organisation’s members, events and initiatives.

Binance statement

Crypto Permeates Entertainment Industry

The increasing popularity of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) is making it harder for leading organisations in the entertainment industry to ignore the potential opportunities to work with this emerging sector, which is taking over the mainstream at a fast pace.

This is the second time the Recording Academy hass collaborated with crypto companies. As Crypto News Australia reported last November, the organisation announced that NFT collectibles would be awarded as prizes at the Grammys thanks to a collaboration with Tezos-based NFT platform OneOf:

Crypto Also Increases its Sports Presence

Binance is not the only exchange making waves in the entertainment world. Just a week ago, Crypto.com became the official crypto sponsor for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with the objective to bring awareness of the brand to billions of users who tune in to watch the tournament.

In January, Crypto.com also announced a five-year A$25 million sponsorship deal with the Australian Football League for both its men’s and women’s competitions.