Category: NFTs

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Crypto News Metaverse NFTs

‘Webbland’ Metaverse Sales Soar 126% Amid Flurry of Apartment Sales

Webbland, an “interoperable pixel metaverse”, has seen its NFT sales soar by 126 percent this week after two pixelated penthouses sold for six-figure sums – taking out two places in this week’s top 15 NFT sales:

Webbland Records $3.6m Profit in a Week

Over the past seven days, Webbland has recorded over US$3.6 million in profit thanks to the heavily piqued interest of users.

Penthouse #9051 edged into 14th position on the top 15 NFT sales list for the week, with the apartment selling for 50 ETH – approximately US$139,848 at the time of purchase. Penthouse #9056 took 15th place, going for 48 ETH (US$131,830).

Penthouse #9056 sold for 48 ETH. Source: Opensea

It appears unlikely that metaverse sales, both within Webbland and among the wider industry, will let up. Much of the chatter on social networks surrounding the Webbland sales was about finding humour in the situation. Currently, Webbland’s floor price is 3 ETH:

Big Names Moving into the Metaverse

The metaverse is rapidly growing in popularity with several big corporate names getting involved. Warner Brothers entered a partnership with The Sandbox at the end of January 2022, with a goal to develop the first music-themed metaverse. The project is set to host several popular artists, including Coldplay and Madonna.

It also appears that Walmart is making quiet moves to cash in on the metaverse hype. The American multinational retail corporation has been spotted placing new trademark applications that appear to indicate metaverse-related plans.

By Lauren Claxton, Crypto News Guest Author

Categories
Crypto News Hackers NFTs

OpenSea Phishing Attack Sees at Least $3 Million Worth of NFTs Stolen

At least US$3 million worth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been stolen in a phishing attack targeted to dozens of users in the decentralised marketplace OpenSea.

Attack Unrelated to OpenSea Platform, Says Co-Founder

In a tweet, OpenSea’s CEO Devin Finzer said that the attack wasn’t related in any way to the OpenSea website – it was rather a phishing attack where at least 32 users were tricked into signing a migration authorisation of their NFTs to the hacker’s wallet.

As far as we can tell, this is a phishing attack. We don’t believe it’s connected to the OpenSea website. It appears 32 users thus far have signed a malicious payload from an attacker, and some of their NFTs were stolen.

On February 19, OpenSea announced a smart-contract upgrade that requires users to migrate their NFTs from the Ethereum blockchain to the new set of smart contracts. Failing to do so leaves their old NFT listings inactive.

But four weeks ago, the hackers deployed a smart contract on Etherscan with the goal of collecting as many signatures as possible from OpenSea users. The OpenSea smart-contract update came at perfect timing for hackers, as the short deadline of the upgrade gave them a small window of opportunity to deceive users.

The hackers started sending phishing emails to trick users into signing a message to migrate their NFTs to the new OpenSea smart contract, but it was instead someone else’s wallet:

Always Double-Check What You’re Signing

After the attack, Finzer warned OpenSea users to always double-check what they’re signing. Affected users are currently dealing with OpenSea Support to investigate the attack:

OpenSea has been in hot water recently due to continuous attacks and bugs found on the platform. On January 4, the platform had to freeze 16 Bored Apes worth US$2.2 million that had been stolen in a phishing attack.

Just a few weeks later, hackers found a bug on the OpenSea platform that allowed them to purchase NFTs at well below market value.

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Airdrop DeFi Markets NFTs Tokens

New NFT Marketplace X2Y2 DeFi Token Up 225% Despite Bumpy Start   

X2Y2, a new non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, has seen its token soar 225 percent after launching a ‘vampire attack’ airdrop to attract users from OpenSea.

Following technical difficulties with the drop, the community has had some negative reactions to the way it was handled.

On February 16, X2Y2 launched its Ethereum-based NFT trading platform aiming to rival leading NFT marketplace OpenSea. In also launching a vampire attack airdrop, users from OpenSea who had spent more on their collections were eligible for more rewards and were thus lured away from the top platform.

To be eligible for the drop, users needed to have listed their NFTs on the X2Y2 marketplace:

A vampire attack is a strategic move from new marketplaces to airdrop their coins to users after they complete a set of requirements that increase attraction to their platform.

Since its launch, the X2Y2 token pumped 225 percent but is now trading at lower than its launch price:

X2Y2 price performance. Source: CoinMarketCap

Troubles with the Airdrop Cause Delay

X2Y2’s launch went through a bumpy start after some technical problems with claiming tokens stopped the airdrop for a few hours:

During this time, users criticised the platform’s decision to pause the airdrop, which could have alleviated downward pressure on the X2Y2 price. One user commented: “You have fixed the problems but you don’t resume the airdrop right away? It’s not a good look to wait around for more people to buy in to increase the price before they get dumped on prior to resuming the claiming.”

The project planned to hand out 120 million tokens, but on the day of the launch only 7 percent had been claimed before the airdrop went offline, with users who had already claimed tokens allowed to stake at a massive APY:

X2Y2 is not the only upstart NFT platform launched to challenge OpenSea. Last month, in another example of a vampire attack, LooksRare pitched its LOOKS token to reward users of the platform and hopefully attract existing users from OpenSea.

Categories
Crypto News NFTs Scams

Crypto Detective Coffeezilla Exposes $20 Million ‘Squiggles’ NFT Scam

Self-appointed “internet detective” and YouTuber Coffeezilla has posted a new video explaining how he and members of the crypto community took down an alleged scam involving US$20 million in NFTs before it actually came to pass.

As Coffeezilla relates in the video (see below), serious hype had surrounded a new crypto project called “Squiggles”, which had an NFT drop scheduled for February 10. At the time, Squiggles had more than 230,000 followers on Twitter.

Hours before the anticipated drop, an anonymous user published a detailed dossier that alleged Squiggles’ founders were paid puppets. At the same time, the real people behind the project turned out to be a group of serial NFT scam artists operating under the umbrella name “NFT Factory LA”. As Coffeezilla explains:

[This dossier] documents allegations about NFT Factory LA, consisting of ‘Gavin, Gabe and Ali’, [three young men] behind not just Squiggles but several [other] NFT scams [which] include League of Sacred Devils, League of Divine Beings, Vault of Gyms, Sinful Souls, Dirty Dogs, Lucky Buddhas, and on and on.

Coffeezilla, YouTuber and ‘internet detective’

‘Stooges’ Impersonate ‘Original’ Three Stooges

The crypto community at large soon saw through these scams and the trio was quickly outed for orchestrating the alleged rug-pulls. To cover their tracks, they hired “stooges” to carry out the work of future projects, including Squiggles. However, before the project’s US$20 million NFT drop was due to take place, video footage was posted on Instagram allegedly showing Squiggles’ founder, Arsalan, and Gavin (one of the NFT Factory LA trio) together in the same Rolls-Royce.

Later, a photo surfaced showing all three members of the trio at the same location. “Pretty quickly, people put two and two together,” says Coffeezilla. Hours after launch, OpenSea delisted the project. “They were stopped from making the $20 million they could have made, and that’s good.”

Earlier this month, Coffeezilla posted a separate YouTube video in which he interviewed Paul Denino, aka livestreamer Ice Poseidon, who admitted to scamming fans out of US$500,000 in another crypto pump-and-dump scheme.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum Gas Markets NFTs

Ethereum Gas Prices Have Significantly Decreased from January Peak

Ethereum (ETH) gas prices have decreased by a significant 72 percent since their peak in January. This decrease in demand stems from the price dropping below US$3,000 yet again.

At the beginning of January, gas prices jumped due to the surging volume for NFTs but have since decreased following a bearish price drop below US$3,000. The movement can be mainly attributed to the overall crypto market downturn, following negative macro sentiments, but most of all due to the threat of war in Ukraine. Although ETH has seen significant price drops, there is no lack of positive development surrounding the ecosystem.

Earlier this year, high ETH gas prices and rising network congestion forced developers to build on layer 2 solutions.

Gas trends. Source: Delphi Digital

The TVL (total locked value) in DeFi (decentralised finance) remains above US$200 billion, despite recent market downturns from US$250 billion in November 2021. Levels correlate with ETH’s all-time high market value of US$4,878 on November 10.

As previously mentioned, sentiments surrounding the ETH ecosystem have not dissipated. That KPMG in Canada has added ETH to its balance sheet shows there is a clear recognition of ETH as an investment asset, even for risk-averse enterprises.

Small Ether Holders Increasing

Adding to ETH’s success is the fact that Ethereum adoption is not only limited to crypto whales and big players. According to data, the number of addresses holding between 0.1 and 1 ETH is at an all-time high. In the span of a year, the number of these addresses increased by 98 percent and at the moment they hold 1.78 million ETH collectively – up 4.54 percent in one month.

At the other end of the argument, the NFT market has slowed down since reaching its peak levels in January 2022. Although this year has seen record-breaking NFT market activity, market data suggests that the number of sales is down from almost 64,000 sales per day in mid-January to 24,000 by the end of last week.

Since the price of ether dipped below US$3,000, the demand to make transactions on the ETH blockchain has remained relatively low. And as the demand for transactions declines, so too the market price of blockspace. According to data, transaction fees are officially at their lowest since July 28, 2021.

Categories
Crypto Exchange Crypto News NFTs

New York Stock Exchange Filing Hints at NFT Marketplace Launch

The world’s largest bourse, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), seems to be stepping into the world of NFTs, having filed an application on February 10 with the US Patent and Trademark Office to become a financial exchange for cryptos and NFTs.

LooksRare Looks Over Its Shoulder

It would seem the NYSE plans to do for digital assets what it does for stocks. On February 10, the exchange completed its regulatory filing in which it stated that it wants to be a financial exchange for cryptos and NFTs to compete with the likes of OpenSea and Rarible. It would also mean competition for the newest marketplace of them all – LooksRare, which only launched in January but has already generated over US$2 billion in sales.

The filing also indicates plans for an NYSE-branded cryptocurrency and marketplace, where users can buy, sell and trade NFTs. However, the NYSE has said in a statement it has no immediate plans to launch crypto or NFT trading, but “regularly considers new products and their impact on our trademarks and protects our intellectual property rights accordingly”.

The patent application includes the NYSE’s intention to provide “an online marketplace for buyers, sellers, and traders of downloadable digital goods authenticated by NFTs”. The filing also outlines the launch of “virtual stores” and “showrooms”.

Could This Be a Token Move by the NYSE?

Interestingly, a clause within the application outlines the provision of “a digital currency and digital token for use by members of an online community”, as well as the “issuance of [a] digital token” and “non-fungible token of value”.

While the language remains unclear as to whether this means the NYSE will launch a native token, it certainly seems to be taking a step in the right direction. Some are even suggesting that the NYSE could become the world’s biggest crypto and NFT marketplace:

The NYSE Not New to NFTs

The patent filing is not the exchange’s first move into the NFT space. Last year, the NYSE minted NFTs celebrating the public debuts of buzzy tech companies such as Spotify, Snowflake, Unity, DoorDash, Roblox and Coupang. The tokens minted are 10-second videos depicting a virtual bell being rung. The NYSE did not sell the NFTs but rather gifted them to the six companies, and at the time said that there would be “many more NYSE NFTs to come”:

Categories
Crypto News Metaverse NFTs

Snoop Dogg Set to Make ‘Death Row Records’ the First NFT Music Label

American rapper Snoop Dogg recently acquired Death Row Records – the most famous hip-hop record label in history – and is planning to turn it into a world-first NFT (non-fungible token) music label.

Snoop Dogg announced his decision of taking Death Row into the metaverse on an audio recording on social media channel Clubhouse, saying:

Death Row will be an NFT label, we will be putting out artists through the metaverse and a whole ‘nother chain of music. Just like we broke the industry when we was the first independent [label] to be major, I want to be the first major in the metaverse.

Snoop Dogg (Clubhouse)

The rapper acquired Death Row Records on February 10, shortly before performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, which saw the participation of his peers in the hip-hop scene including Eminem, Dr Dre and Kendrick Lamar.

Snoop Dogg Making Waves With NFTs

Dogg has been one of the most active crypto advocates on social media. On September 20, the rapper revealed he’s behind the Twitter handle Cozomo De’ Medici, who owns a US$17 million NFT collection:

Late last year, Dogg dropped his own NFT collection, Decentral Eyes Dogg, which comprises a composite portrait of the US rapper with distinct facial traits:

The purple area is a nod to his hiphop royalty. The halftone and grunge effect on his left eye speaks to his being an OG in the game, and the Doggystyle references are a nod to his epic first release. Snoop recorded new audio exclusively for this artwork to add that swagger and put the signature Snoop touch on top.

Snoop Dogg
Categories
Crypto Exchange Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

LooksRare Team Cashes Out $30M in WETH, Faces Community Backlash

LooksRare has cashed out US$30 million in wrapped Ethereum (WETH), sparking outrage from its community. The price of its native token LOOK tumbled by 15 percent after news of the cash-out was made public.

LOOKs Can Get You So Far

LooksRare, the newest NFT marketplace that only launched in January, and which touts itself to be the OpenSea killer, has become the talk of the crypto town. This is particularly so after the team behind the project cashed out million in WETH.

LooksRare has confirmed that its core team cashed out around 10,500 WETH from the unattributed staked LOOKs. According to the company, the native token was used for paying fees on the platform but was also awarded to users when they sold NFTs on the LooksRare platform. The unattributed native tokens were cashed for ETH on the popular coin mixing protocol Tornado Cash.

Twitter Backlash as Token Tumbles

Following the news going public, the team at LooksRare suffered severe backlash from the community on Twitter and the price of LOOK tumbled almost 15 percent in the aftermath.

Look token tumbles on the news. Source: Coinmarketcap

One of the team members took to Twitter to defend the withdrawal and claimed that the team earning rewards in WETH was never kept secret from the community. The platform has also previously been involved in a report that suggests the majority of LooksRare NFT transactions may be ‘wash trading’.

One of the team’s core members, Zodd, added that the LooksRare team had been working on the platform for more than six months without any monetary compensation. He also said that the team fronted the seven-figure cost before launch.

Zodd also responded to a tweet that claimed nearly US$73 million had been cashed out, by providing the correct figure. Team members dismissed speculation regarding a probable rug pull and added that the platform was going nowhere and had big plans for the future.

Although the team member did provide clarification on the matter, the LooksRare community seemed unimpressed and suggested the team buy back the LOOKs instead of cashing out in WETH.

One user wrote in response to Zodd’s tweet:

Categories
Banking CBDCs Cryptocurrencies NFTs

Mastercard to Offer Crypto and NFT Consulting Services, May Help Develop CBDCs

Mastercard has announced plans to cater to open banking, ESGs, open data, and crypto and digital currencies, by expanding its payments-focused consulting service. It is believed the move may help it develop central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which has been met with contempt from the industry.

https://www.mastercard.com/news/press/2022/february/mastercard-expands-consulting-with-practices-dedicated-to-crypto-open-banking-and-esg/
Mastercard Consulting Practices. Source: Mastercard

Mastercard Sets Eyes on the Future

In a February 15 press release, Mastercard announced new offerings, directed at banks and merchants, intended to cover crypto and NFT strategies, along with loyalty programs and crypto cards.

Mastercard is also exploring the possibility of developing CBDCs, having previously expressed interest in the potential of digital currencies by working on crypto cards for BitPay and Wirex.

Raj Seshadri, Mastercard’s president of data and services, has said that payments are only the beginning, and that the company will continue to help its clients “understand and navigate” the challenges and opportunities thrown their way.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/seshadriraj/

This evolution of consulting is in recognition of the changing world and of our changing business. It’s about helping customers navigate today’s challenges and anticipating what’s next.

Raj Seshadri, Mastercard’s president of data and services

While consulting efforts are set to cover topics from early-stage education to bank-wide crypto and NFT strategies, those within the industry are not so sold on the idea of CBDCs:

Securing its Place in the Industry

In mid-January, Mastercard solidified a partnership with crypto exchange giant Coinbase, which seeks to enable easier NFT purchases for users. And, in late 2021, the company secured a deal that enables consumers to buy, sell and hold assets through the crypto trading platform Bakkt.

By Lauren Claxton, Crypto News Guest Author

Categories
Charity Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Boy George Set to Release 9,999 NFT Collection

Boy George, arguably the first openly gay pop star of the modern era, has announced the launch of an NFT collection aptly entitled CryptoQueenz, timed to coincide with the release of seven new songs.

The writer and performer of hits such as Karma Chameleon, Church of the Poison Mind and Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? will unveil 9,999 unique non-fungible tokens on the CryptoQueenz site and OpenSea from March 1:

Three Charities to Benefit from Sale of NFTs

Part of the proceeds from the sale of each NFT will help support the LGBTQ+ community, with two per cent of profits also allotted to the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Shelter, a separate British charity for the homeless, in perpetuity.

Each NFT will include the face of the famous Boy George artwork Scarman, along with samples of his renowned hat collection:

“As a creator and artist I’ve long been interested in the different mediums which can act as a canvas for self-expression,” Boy George said. “NFTs and digital art are a great example of this and help to democratise the stuffy art world for everyone”.

“I hope this project will help to bring a little colour and joy into everyone’s lives whilst also helping to support the LGBTQ+ community, which I’m very proud to be a part of.”

Boy George Identifies as a ‘Crypto Maniac’

Boy George, who fronted the ’80s band Culture Club, first expressed his interest in NFTs last year when he signed a deal with trading site Crypto.com to produce content for its new NFT platform.

I think life turned me into art. I’ve painted myself into a corner. I love metaphors and mystery and crypto sounds like klepto, so that makes me a crypto maniac.

Boy George, musician/artist

Speaking of maniacs, Boy George was possibly gazumped last month by fellow singer Ozzy Osbourne who launched his own NFT collection called CryptoBatz, so named for an infamous moment in the former Black Sabbath frontman’s career when Osbourne bit the head off a bat during a 1982 live performance in the US.

Both, however, were beaten to the punch by Australian pop-rap star Tones and I, whose appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine last July was turned into an NFT.