Category: NFTs

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CeFi Crypto News DeFi NFTs

Despite Downturn, Crypto Fundraising Outpaces All of 2021

The cryptocurrency sector has generated over US$30 billion in fundraising in the first half of the 2022 fiscal year – more than the entire year of 2021, according to a report from crypto firm Messari.

The report says US$30.3 billion was raised through 1199 funding rounds across centralised finance (CeFi), decentralised finance (DeFi), Web3 and NFTs (non-fungible tokens ). At least US$25.9 billion came from crypto funds and US$10 billion from traditional funds.

Centralised Exchanges Attract Wide Capital Influx

Moreover, centralised exchanges have attracted a wide influx of capital despite some brokers filing for bankruptcy: US$4.6 billion in the first quarter of H1 and US$5.6 billion in the second quarter of H1. This represents 108 percent more than H1 2021 and more than a third of total fundraising:

DeFi Sector Falls Behind

Web3-related startups have also attracted considerable capital. However, it seems the DeFi sector fell behind with barely US$1.8 billion raised. Astar Network was one of the stellar protocols in terms of fundraising. On April 5, the protocol announced it had secured over US$22 million in a fundraising round led by several crypto companies and angel investors.

Moreover, blockchain game GOALS netted US$15 million in seed funding led by Northzone, a venture capital firm, and the CEO of Sorare.

Bear Market Out to Two Years?

After the fall of several cryptocurrency companies following the collapse of Terraform Labs, combined with global inflation and other macro economic factors, selling pressure has been widening across the crypto market. Some crypto analysts even predict a two-year-long bear market. But institutions and big investors are still betting on blockchain technology and crypto assets, the report notes.

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Blockchain Crypto Art Crypto News Flow NFTs Social media

FLOW Pumps 50% Amid Instagram NFT Integration in 100 Countries  

A new Instagram feature that lets people post NFTs minted on the Flow blockchain saw the value of the FLOW token surge over 50 percent within 24 hours.

FLOW rose from less than US$2 on August 4 to US$2.98 the following day after social media giant Meta announced its support for digital collectibles minted on the blockchain. 

So far, the rally has been sustained, with FLOW’s price sitting at US$2.89 at the time of writing – however, it’s still down over 93 percent from its all-time high of US$42.40 in April 2021.

Expanded NFT Integrations on Instagram 

Meta began testing a feature to let Instagram users in the US upload NFTs at no cost in May, with support for crypto art minted on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. Meta said that being able to showcase NFTs would help creators build a broader audience and more monetisation opportunities.

The company’s latest announcement opens up the feature to users in 100 countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas, as well as adding support for the Flow blockchain.

Digital wallets that can be connected to Instagram now include Coinbase, Dapper, Rainbow, MetaMask and Trust Wallet. Once a user has connected their wallet, they can share NFTs on their Instagram profile and public information will also be drawn in and displayed – such as a description of the NFT and the Instagram usernames of the creator and collector (unless accounts are private).

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Crypto News NFTs

Fans Spent $2.7 Billion Minting NFTs in 2022 So Far: Report

NFT market activity remains strong according to a Nansen report which has found that US$2.7 billion was spent on NFT minting in the first half of 2022 alone. This figure is the product of activity from more than 1 million unique wallet addresses:

Shift in Users’ Priorities

Industry-leading blockchain data and analytics platform Nansen found that most of these transactions occurred through OpenSea. Its report highlights a shift in crypto users’ priorities yet again, with NFT creators now choosing to retain and reinvest funds into the ecosystem, indicating they have become more mature and conscientious.

This latest report was built off the back of the past report, utilising similar parameters: projects that had primary sales revenue exceeding 20 ETH between January 1 and June 30, 2022:

A total of 28,986 NFT collections were minted and sold on Ethereum during the first six months of 2022. Of these, Pixelmon-Generation 1, Genesis Box, World of Women Galaxy, Moonbirds and VeeFriends Series 2 accounted for 8.4 percent of overall minting.

To the best of Nansen’s knowledge, half (50.7 percent) of the funds raised by these creators stayed with NFT projects, while 45.7 percent circulated to non-entity wallets. It should be noted that Nansen does not have the capacity to track transactions to other counterparties.

Overall, in comparison to the previous report’s results, improvements in the utilisation and productivity of the NFT minting sector are clearly visible.

Nansen research analyst Louisa Chloe wrapped up the data:

https://www.nansen.ai/authors/louisa-choe

Reflecting on the on-chain results of this study, we maintain our conclusion that the minting sector of the NFT market remains healthy with the rise in average mints per unique wallet address … on-chain evidence of NFT collections reinvesting primary sales revenue into NFT demonstrates that builders and creators within this marketplace are looking at the long-term impact of their projects and making decisions that will support that growth.

Louisa Choe, Nansen

Recent NFT Developments

Last month saw two exciting new announcements for the NFT sector within just two days. Firstly, OpenSea expressed its excitement about a “multi-chain future”, thanks to the introduction of the Solana launchpad. The platform will reportedly guide users through the process of pre-mint activity, and will permit list minting and post-mint and secondary sales. This means creators will be able to mint new projects from scratch with ease.

Meanwhile, Australia has its first NFT gallery. Situated at Baringa, near Caloundra on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, the gallery aims to create a hub for digital artists and tech enthusiasts within the popular holiday region.

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Crypto News CryptoPunks NFTs

Jewellery Brand ‘Tiffany and Co’ Releases Limited Edition CryptoPunk Pendants

NFTiff – the newest collaboration transforming CryptoPunks into jewellery – marks high-end brand Tiffany and Co’s latest partnership, with the new project renewing interest in CryptoPunks and driving a 248 percent spike in sales volume:

CryptoPunk Owners Can Buy Up to Three Diamond Necklaces at $50k Apiece

The partnership will enable CryptoPunk owners to purchase up to three diamond-encrusted necklaces for 30 ETH (approximately US$50,000) each from August 5. Each Punk pendant will be set in 18-carat gold (yellow or rose) with 87 different attributes and 159 colours available for the custom designs.

The project was first promoted in April by Tiffany & Co vice president Alexandre Arnault, who revealed his own rose gold and enamel CryptoPunk to the delight of onlookers. The Punk featured sapphire and Mozambique ruby-coloured glasses, and yellow diamond earrings:

Based on the social media reaction, the community appears genuinely excited about the partnership following details of its launch, regardless of the hefty price tags.

The announcement of NFTiff appears to have rekindled interest in CryptoPunks. A 1,400 ETH (US$2.3 million) trade volume was recorded in the wake of the news, representing a 248 percent increase on the previous day, according to OpenSea data. The value of the broader CryptoPunks collection had also risen by 5 percent in the previous 24 hours at the time of writing.

CryptoPunks’ Recent Successes

CryptoPunks had been gaining a small amount of collector interest prior to the Tiffany and Co collaboration. CryptoPunk #4464 notably reversed NFT market trends in mid-July by selling for a massive 2,500 ETH (approximately US$2.6 million). CryptoSlam identified this as the single-largest NFT sale from the previous 30 days, despite typical winter market lows.

CryptoPunks also proved they make good loan collateral as MetaStreet, a liquidity routing and scaling solution for the NFT collateralisation platform, allowed a loan of US$8 million to be collateralised by 101 CryptoPunks.

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ETFs Kucoin NFTs

KuCoin Becomes First Exchange to Offer NFT ETFs

Popular crypto firm KuCoin has become the first centralised exchange to launch a non-fungible token exchange-traded fund (ETF), as per a recent announcement.

KuCoin has partnered with Fracton Protocol to launch Trading Zone ETF, and it aims to increase liquidity to the exchange’s more than 20 million users and lower the investment threshold for these assets:

KuCoin Going All Out on NFTs Despite Market Downturn

The ETF will offer investors exposure to blue-chip NFTs that can be directly purchased with Tether (USDT). As such, the ETF is made up of five popular NFT collections including BAYC (hiBAYC), CryptoPunks (hiPUNKS), Koda NFTs (hiKODA), hiSAND33 and hiENS4.

We are very excited to become the first centralised crypto exchange to support NFT ETFs that allow users to conveniently invest and trade top NFTs directly with USDT. In the future, KuCoin will keep exploring more NFT-related products for our users.

KuCoin blog post

KuCoin has been working on developing several NFT-related products and services this year. In April, it launched two NFT launchpads, Wonderland and Windvane. The firm said it would continue to roll out more NFT and Web3-related features in the future.

While KuCoin is the first crypto exchange to launch an NFT ETF, FinTech firm Defiance was already one step ahead with the world’s first NFT ETF, launched on December 2 last year.

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Crypto News NFTs Solana

Solana in Pole Position to Challenge Ethereum NFT Dominance, Report

Data from crypto platform Messari reveals that Solana (SOL) could become the biggest challenger to Ethereum’s NFT market dominance.

In a recent report by James Trautman from Messari, Solana’s network activity declined heavily in the second quarter of this year. However, daily activity has accelerated with over 7 million newly minted NFTs, a growth rate of 46.4 percent:

Solana new NFTs per month. Source: Messari

Solana Defies Market Downturn

The NFT market has been hammered by the crypto winter, with sales plunging over 90 percent since their January highs. But while Ethereum still commands over 80 percent of the market, Solana continues to gain traction in the industry, overthrowing other alternative layer-1 platforms:

Ultimately, Solana’s position in the NFT sector remains a strong component of its ecosystem despite a down market. It continues to be the second-largest protocol by secondary NFT sales volume, trailing only behind Ethereum.

Messari report

A boost for the Solana NFT ecosystem came with the announcement of OpenSea introducing its Solana launchpad to allow SOL-based NFT projects. The plan is to provide OpenSea users with a “multi-chain future” for NFTs.

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Bored Ape Yacht Club Crypto News Cryptocurrency Law NFTs

Bored Ape Creators ‘Yuga Labs’ Hit With Class-Action Lawsuit Alleging Inflated Values

Yuga Labs, creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection and ApeCoin, are facing a class-action lawsuit brought by international law firm Scott+Scott for allegedly falsely promoting Bored Ape NFTs and ApeCoin as securities with guaranteed returns, but which actually plummeted in value over the past three months.

Case Hinges on Whether NFTs Are Deemed Securities

The proposed class-action lawsuit claims that Yuga Labs used celebrity promoters and endorsements to “inflate the price” of BAYC NFTs and the ApeCoin token. The suit also alleges that Yuga Labs promoted growth prospects and potential massive returns on investments to “unsuspecting investors”. The suit claims:

After selling off millions of dollars of fraudulently promoted NFTs, Yuga Labs launched the ApeCoin to further fleece investors.

Scott+Scott class-action lawsuit

It adds: “Once it was revealed that the touted growth was entirely dependent on continued promotion (as opposed to actual utility or underlying technology), retail investors were left with tokens that had lost over 87 percent [of their value] from the inflated price [peak] on April 28, 2022.”

While no official complaint has been filed in a US federal court, Scott+Scott is currently seeking impacted investors who suffered losses on BAYC NFTs and ApeCoin between April and June this year.

The key to the success of this suit is whether or not the court decides if NFTs are securities, in which case Yuga Labs would have failed to make the necessary disclosure and registration obligations that come with offering securities. Thus far, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has refrained from labelling any NFT as a security as it would likely bring the broader art market under its purview.

BAYC Hit with Repeated Blows

The legal threat could not come at a worse time for Yuga Labs, given its recent troubles. In April, BAYC’s Instagram account was compromised to the tune of US$2.8 million in an NFT phishing scam.

In the following month, BAYC committed what could be described as a “minting fail” where over US$157 million in ETH was burned as part of the launch of its “Otherside” metaverse.

Then in June, Yuga Labs confirmed that its Discord servers had been “briefly exploited”, leading to the loss of NFTs valued at over 200 ETH (about US$357,000).

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Crypto News Gaming NFTs

Minecraft Bans NFTs and Blockchain Integrations

Minecraft has announced it will be banning the use of NFTs and blockchain technology on its servers. The highly popular sandbox game also seeks to prevent the creation of NFT projects based on its assets.

Mojang, Minecraft’s creator, has justified the decision by stating that NFTs are not inclusive of its full community. The bans are being met with mixed feelings on social media:

Mojang Goes It Alone

Mojang, the developer behind the hit video game Minecraft, seems to have little interest in allowing its property to operate in conjunction with independent NFT projects.

Blockchain technology on independent game servers (operated by fans and creators) that utilise any aspect of Minecraft imagery to create NFT projects will be prohibited. The notice issued by Minecraft claims that the decision was made based on ensuring players would “have a safe and inclusive experience”.

The speculative pricing and investment mentality around NFTs takes the focus away from playing the game and encourages profiteering, which we think is inconsistent with the long-term joy and success of our players”

Mojang statement

However, NFT Worlds, a Web3 gaming project specifically focused on third-party blockchain and NFT Minecraft integrations, has made the bold statement that it won’t be leaving. The announcement has caused prices for the project’s NFTs to plummet by 70 percent, and its native token (WRLD) to also drop by 65 percent. Regardless, it seems the developers have no intention of leaving the community:

However, Mojang has not definitively ruled out blockchain tech for its future, stating that it plans to monitor the evolution of the space.

Initial NFT and Web3 Integration

Last year saw Minecraft introduce NFTs to the game, permitting players to collect in-game digital assets which then granted them access to special quests and other benefits. The NFTs were to be powered by a project called Enjin (ENJ), which allowed digital assets to be stored on the blockchain. Players were then required to scan a QR code which transferred the NFT automatically to their Enjin. The wallet could then be linked to the cross-platform gaming network MyMetaVerse.

Then, in March 2022, the game decided to make the move into Web3. ‘NFT Worlds’ was set to be the blockchain layer added to third-party Minecraft servers, alongside a Polygon-based overlay and an Ethereum sidechain offering gas-free transactions. The announcement drew an overwhelmingly positive reaction across social media at the time.

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Australia Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Australia’s First NFT Gallery Opens on the Sunshine Coast

Australia’s first non-fungible token (NFT) gallery has opened at Baringa – a new suburb near Caloundra – on the Sunshine Coast, with the goal of making the Queensland holiday region a hub for digital artists and tech enthusiasts:

According to Kenny Lienhard, chief executive of the METACOLLECT Gallery, the global NFT community – now worth billions of dollars, although its total value has slipped amid the current bear market – is poised to extend across business, sport and the wider community once market conditions improve.

Ideal Timing for an NFT Gallery

“Crypto artists now have the ability to sell their art and make a living via a global platform on their own terms,” Lienhard says. And with Australia ranking second in the world in terms of interest in NFTs, the timing of project makes perfect sense.

“We’ve developed our own NFT marketplace and publication, both focused on undiscovered Web3 artists while also providing the opportunity for the general public to easily mint NFTs and broadcast them directly onto gallery frames,” Lienhard adds.

METACOLLECT was co-founded by Lienhard and Sean Ballent, who in 2018 also jointly launched Cryptowriter, a blockchain-agnostic, community-driven crypto publication. “We decided our publication needed a brand mascot and our first NFT product was born.”

METACOLLECT’s John Williamson, Kenny Lienhard (centre) and Jimmy McRae at the gallery.

Two sold-out NFT collections later, the pair also designed an NFT art brand that would become UNDRGRND, formulated to discover and support underappreciated NFT artists.

Artist Publication Morphs into Gallery, Token and Marketplace

The UNDRGRND publication was launched in November 2021 and the next logical step for Lienhard and Ballent was to deliver their $COLLECT token, NFT marketplace and Web3 IRL gallery, under the collective banner of METACOLLECT.

The gallery is open to the public every Saturday from 10am-4pm. The address is Unit 11/9-13 Matheson St, Baringa.

Hand in glove with the country’s inaugural NFT gallery, Australia’s first NFT-ticketed music festival, The Grass Is Greener, will also take place later this year in several east coast locations plus Canberra.

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Audius Blockchain Crypto News DeFi NFTs Tokens

Now You Can Tip Your Favourite Musician Through Blockchain Streaming Service ‘Audius’

Blockchain-based music streaming service Audius is enabling fans to tip artists using $AUDIO token, the platform’s native cryptocurrency.

More Forms of Monetisation to Come

“We’re creating new ways for our seven million active monthly users to show their favourite artists how much they appreciate their work,” Audius co-founder and CEO Roneil Rumburg said in a statement. “But this is just the first piece of monetisation – in the coming weeks and months we look forward to expanding on monetisation with more options for fans and artists alike.”

The company also plans to introduce “ways to tip that do not require tokens”. The platform already offers fans the opportunity to bankroll their favourite artists by harnessing the power of DeFi. They can also benefit from music sales as part copyright owners, thanks to NFTs.

Launched in 2018, Audius hosts over 250,000 artists who have released a combined one million tracks on the platform. “A lot of experiments have been run over the years to evolve the music industry’s business model,” said Rumburg. “But we’ve yet to see a platform that strikes the right balance, improving the music experience for the parties that matter most – artists and their fans. 

Audius is laying the groundwork for a new era where artists reclaim control over their work and their earning potential, all the while giving fans a closer relationship to the music they love. Tipping is a small first step in this direction.

Roneil Rumburg, co-founder and CEO, Audius

Artists including Katy Perry, Nas, Jason Derulo, Pusha T, the Chainsmokers and Steve Aoki have all invested in Audius. “Everyone who uploads to Audius can be an owner; you can’t say that about any other music streaming platform,” says rapper/entrepreneur Nas.