Category: NFTs

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Crypto News Gaming NFTs Play to Earn

World’s First 8-Bit RPG Game ‘MetaGods’ Launching as Play-To-Earn MMO

MetaGods is the world’s first 8-bit play-to-earn experience, in the form of a multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) built on Binance Smart Chain (BSC). It’s come out of the gates with some fanfare, given that it is backed by some big names including YouTube celebrity Mr Beast, and top YouTube crypto channel, Boxmining.

The Gameplay

MetaGods players are in effect mythological demigods trying to gain ascension through battle in either Atlantis (casual) mode or Zion, the hardcore mode where you have only one chance to play for legendary loot. Your character, equipment and loot are stored as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and can be sold or bought on the digital marketplace, giving players the chance to monetise their time in the game.

You can play as a Tank, DPS, or Healer against hordes of enemies and earn some loot. Playing with friends is encouraged with the push to Social GameFi, where gamers are rewarded: “With the holy trinity of MMO, you have a better chance to win against the pantheon to earn those sweet, sweet APY rewards,” according to the roadmap.

MetaGods can be played in either Atlantis (casual) or Zion (hardcore) modes.

Dual Token System Applies

The game incorporates a dual token system:

  • $MGOD is used for adventure packs, to enter raids, and in the marketplace; and
  • $RELIC is used in-game to forge new weapons, armour, or anything available in the crafting section.

In short, $MGOD is used as the governance token of the project and can be used to enter special events while $RELIC is an earnable in-game currency that supports the play-to-earn structure of MetaGods.

Mint Your Own NFTs

The game allows you to mint your own NFTs so that you can “fight your way through epic dungeons and earn loot”. With each character as a generative NFT, there are many roles that you can play to support your team whether you are a healer, a DPS or a tank.

Within that realm, NFTs are not just your avatar, but are your in-game character. Each character NFT will in turn have randomly generated character stats, as well as equipment including weaponry and armour.

NFT characters will have randomly generated equipment.

Battle the Gods for APY

To keep the game interesting there will be weekly special events with boss challenges, where a high APY incentive is provided for the community to band together and fight against the gods. There will also be tournaments and airdrops on special occasions for players who stick for the long run.

The official game release is set for Q1 of 2022, according to the roadmap, and with the game currently on BSC there are plans to integrate Solana as soon as possible with the other chains to follow. The project has raised US$3 million in funding from its supporting investors to build up the game, economy, and community.

MetaGods roadmap

Many new GameFi projects rely on their community and participation to make everything work. Recent project Genopets, for example, which uses players’ fitness data for the game, raised US$8.3 million in seed funding.

How to Get Involved

MetaGods announced the NFT sale via Twitter, which at the time of publication, kicks off in 10 hours.

Users keen to get involved should visit MetaGod’s NFT raffle sale page, which provides step-by-step instructions on how to participate. For other gameplay information, be sure to check out the MetaGods pitchdeck which, among other things, also covers information about the team, the roadmap and relevant tokenomics.

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Crypto News Ethereum Gaming Investing Metaverse NFTs

Humans of the Metaverse is Launching In-Game Virtual NFT Art Auctions

Humans of the Metaverse, a new and unique collection of Meta-Human NFTs, is launching in-game virtual NFT art auctions. In Q1 of 2022, users will be able to access one-for-one artwork NFTs, all using the project’s native token, $HOTM.

Humans of the Metaverse (HOTM token) has exciting prospects amid the metaverse boom. The project comprises a collective of 6,500 unique Meta-Human NFTs, stored as ERC-721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain and hosted on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), which is essentially a distributed system for storing and accessing files, websites, applications and data.

Humans of Metaverse Character Designs on OpenSea

Residents of the Metaverse are represented by a unique composition from 200 traits collected from the most notable and influential personalities, taken from all temporal spaces. The project is on the road to creating the “MetaCity” – a fully integrated Web3 ecosystem where HOTM token holders will reside and be able to spend the project’s native token, $HOTM, in an increasing number of ways, giving long-term value and utility to holders as the city grows.

Holders of Humans NFTs will be able to perform various activities and “interact” with a range of buildings within the HOTM ecosystem via the $HOTM token.

Humans of the Metaverse Roadmap

Within the MetaCity, Humans will be able to generate tokens via ‘jobs’ – another trait conferred on the NFTs. Each job determines the specific NFT’s $HOTM generation rate, and ‘salaries’ will range between 10-30 $HOTM/day. Along with token generation, holders will be able to invest in real estate by buying land and city essentials, along with buildings, each of which is upgradeable to allow evolution and expansion.

Within the metaverse will be a museum where Human NFT holders will be able to spend $HOTM on 1/1 artworks, personalised Humans tailored to their holders’ likeness, along with NFTs from other projects. The project, however, wants to make it clear that 1 $HOTM = 1 $HOTM, which means these tokens do not have a monetary value.

Initial Humans NFTs Sold Out But More Available on Secondary Market

According to the HOTM website, the initial set of Humans NFTs sold out within 15 minutes on the OpenSea marketplace, and over 100 ether (ETH) was traded in the first hours of the sale. Do not fear, however – Humans NFTs are available for purchase on the secondary market to all those who missed out during the initial sale.

The Metaverse: The Next Big Thing

The term “metaverse” is relatively new to the world of cryptos, but that has not stopped the concept booming. Exhilarating projects are on the rise and it is fast becoming the next big investment theme, according to financial powerhouse Morgan Stanley.

Last month, the global banking giant issued a statement to its investors in which it notes the metaverse is garnering much attention, with both Meta (formerly Facebook) and Microsoft venturing into the space. Accordingly, Morgan Stanley said, “it can fundamentally change the medium through which we socialise with others”.

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Crypto Art Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

Wikipedia Co-Founder’s First Post to Be Sold as an NFT

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is auctioning off “The Birth of Wikipedia”, made up of the very first post on the reference site in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT), along with the strawberry iMac computer used by Wales when Wiki launched on January 15, 2001.

The token will be sold through London-based auction house Christie’s and will run until December 15. Part of the proceeds will be used to support WT.Social, “a decentralised, non-commercial social network free of advertising, tracking, information harvesting, and misinformation”, which Wales launched in 2019.

The NFT, which reads “Hello, World!”, written on the Ethereum blockchain, will be launched as a JPEG and will incorporate an interactive feature – allowing the buyer to edit the window, along with a timer that will reset it to its original state after five minutes. Christie’s hopes that the NFT will sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, as this novel art form has become a staple of auction houses and the art market.

The strawberry-coloured iMac used by Jimmy Wales at the time of the Wiki launch. Source: Christie’s
The NFT of the very first Wikipedia edit made by Jimmy Wales circa 2001. Source: Christie’s

When Wales sent out his initial greeting in 2001, he could not have imagined that the project would grow so massively. “I always say I’m a pathological optimist,” he admits. “I thought if we did a really good job we might be a top 100 or top 50 website, but I didn’t really know that we would have this really fundamental impact.”

Today, Wikipedia has recorded 228 million daily visitors in the past month, with each person reading nearly four minutes online from Wiki’s 6,408,480 articles.

Exciting Developments in NFT World Where ‘Cool’ Rules

Amid the current market hype, NFTs have facilitated a number of, for lack of a better word, “cool” events to take place. What could be cooler than owning a unique piece of internet history such as the first Wikipedia entry? But the question remains, why even buy the NFT if you can’t show it off?

Cyber now offers its users NFT bragging rights by making “virtual reality NFT galleries” available. By using Cyber’s platform, digital collections can be displayed in an owner’s gallery for everyone to see. Snoop Dogg is the latest celebrity to join the craze by dropping his own NFT, and naturally, the owner is likely to want to proudly display it.

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Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Defiance Launches World’s First ETF Focused on NFTs

Fintech firm Defiance has created and launched the world’s first Non-Fungible Token (NFT) exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the ticker symbol NFTZ, carrying an annual management fee of 0.65 percent. 

On December 2, Defiance launched the Defiance Digital Revolution ETF, the first NFT-related ETF in history. The fund doesn’t directly invest in NFTs, it rather keeps track of the index of companies that operate or plan to operate with NFTs.

There are notable holdings in the fund so far, including Silvergate Capital, with 6.74 percent of its net capital. Others include Coinbase, Cloudflare, Piby Group, Marathon Digital, and Hut 8 Mining.

Talking about the fund, Defiance chief investment officer Sylvia Jablonski said it was a great opportunity for investors to gain exposure to NFT marketplaces and companies operating with digital art.

The NFT revolution will fundamentally change the economic model for artists, athletes, creators, and many more industries that we can’t even conceive of today. In October, all-time NFT trading volume surpassed US$15 billion. This a great way for investors to gain access to not only the fast-growth blockchain technology aspect of the digital world, but companies involved in the renaissance of NFTs.

Sylvia Jablonski, chief investment officer, Defiance

The NFT Madness Doesn’t Stop

The NFT market is booming, with several projects coming into play in markets such as OpenSea. NFTs have gained so much attention in the media that last month Collins Dictionary named NFT its word of the year, ahead of the likes of crypto and metaverse.

In August, CryptoPunks recorded a milestone of US $1 billion in sales, shortly after Axie Infinity hit the same mark. And in September, Crypto News Australia reported the sale of a 101-strong Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection for US$25 million.

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Crypto Art Crypto News Metaverse NFTs Social media

Adidas Joins Forces With Bored Ape Yacht Club and Dives into the Metaverse

Adidas is collaborating with Bored Ape creators Yuga Labs and others in the space to enter the metaverse. And in a show of good faith that has attracted its fair share of derision, the global apparel brand has bought its own Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible token (NFT).

Adidas is also teaming up with NFT collector Gmoney and Punks Comic, a CryptoPunks-inspired unofficial Ethereum NFT derivative project.

Adidas Pays $156k for Single BAYC NFT

According to data from OpenSea, Adidas purchased Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT #8774 in September for 46 ETH, or just over US$156,000 at the time, and will rebadge it as a metaverse character called Indigo Herz. Rabid BAYC enthusiasts have paid as much as US$1.29 million for a single NFT.

Via Twitter, Adidas also recently announced a collaboration with upcoming Ethereum-based metaverse game The Sandbox.

Twittersphere ‘Welcomes’ Adidas to the Metaverse

Speaking of Twitter, reactions to Adidas’s leap into the metaverse have been mixed, to say the least. “We can’t wait to see Adidas in the metaverse,” tweeted Meta, the social media behemoth formerly known as Facebook, which has its own designs on the metaverse.

“This is the Sandbox metaverse, not Mark’s [Zuckerberg’s] metaverse. Or any clarification @Meta on where your metaverse will be?? at the @Roblox maybe? lol,” tweeted @horsesnft.

“Hopefully Adidas decides to stay in the cool parts of the metaverse, not Zuckerville,” tweeted @Lucky5Micah. Or this, from @marmish: “Cringe. So desperate to be cool.”

Summing up the negative responses was this tweet from @NFT_invest: “Good luck bitches! This is our space!”

Asics Beats Both Adidas and Nike to the NFT Punch

Like its primary competitor Nike, which has yet to bring its CryptoKicks patent to market, Adidas has been relatively slow off the blocks in the NFT race. Japanese multinational Asics stole a march on both brands back in July with the launch of its 189-piece digital footwear collection.

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Bitcoin Crime Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Silk Road Founder Drops NFT, Causing a Stir Among Bitcoiners

Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was convicted six years ago on conspiracy charges of money laundering, computer hacking, fraud and drug trafficking, is auctioning his own non-fungible token (NFT) for charity.

In May 2015, Ulbricht was handed two life sentences plus 40 years without the possibility of parole. After two unsuccessful appeals in 2017 and 2018, he remains in a US Penitentiary in Tucson, Arizona.

“Decades of incarceration stretch out in front of me,” Ulbricht writes in his prison blog, titled My NFT:

As I face that future – my eventual old age and death in this cage – I find myself looking for meaning and purpose. Why am I here? What good can I do with the time I have left and from where I am?

Ross Ulbricht, My NFT

Aged 29 when he was arrested and with time on his hands, Ulbricht reconnected with his art, producing illustrations that told the story of what he was going through. “Then someone said, ‘You should sell your art as an NFT. The community will love it’.”

Life in a Box, graphite pencil drawing, one of 10 artworks in the Genesis Collection NFT. It depicts Ulbricht’s shared cell in New York City, before he was moved to the Federal Penitentiary in Tucson, Arizona, where he remains. Ulbricht was 32 at the time he completed this drawing.

Hence the Ross Ulbricht Genesis Collection NFT, an assembly of writings and 10 artworks with an original animation by Seattle-based audiovisual artist Levitate. The singular NFT is being auctioned on the SuperRare platform, with bids closing December 8.

Proceeds Will Support Prisoners and Families and Fund Further Legal Efforts

As well as supporting other prisoners and their families, proceeds from the NFT sale will fund a trust dedicated to efforts to free Ulbricht from a life in prison. These include new legal proceedings.

At the time of Ulbricht’s arrest in 2013, Bitcoin was the only means of exchange on the Silk Road platform. While some devotees of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies recognise Ulbricht’s vision as an original catalyst for blockchain adoption, just as many have greeted news of his NFT offering with derision:

Among Ulbricht’s supporters, however, @CryptoCobain possibly pleaded his case most articulately:

Just over a year ago, Crypto News Australia reported on a police seizure of nearly US$1 billion in bitcoin from Silk Road‘s hoard.

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Binance Crypto News DeFi Gaming Metaverse NFTs

MBOX Token Explodes 138% as MOMOverse Becomes First Metaverse to Integrate with Binance

Amid a host of metaverse projects currently on the rise, one gaming altcoin is surpassing all expectations after it rallied 138 percent in a single day following the announcement of its integration with the Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

Mobox (MBOX), part of the GameFi sector, a combination of decentralised finance (DeFi) and gaming, combines non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and yield farming to create a play-to-earn ecosystem. The project aims to connect metaverses through NFTs, as well as achieve NFT interoperability across various platforms and games.  

Mobox has effectively launched its metaverse, MOMOverse, on the BSC, a cheaper alternative to the Ethereum network that is also compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). At the time of writing, MBOX was trading at US$10.04, according to data from CoinGecko, which represents a 164 percent increase over the past 30 days.

Million-Dollar Mobox(es)

According to the Mobox announcement, users will be able to create their own avatars to represent themselves in the MOMOverse. Avatars will also be able to mine MBOX, Mobox’s native token.

With the launch of the MOMOverse Phase One, the company is also giving away 5000 Mystery Boxes to the value of over US$1,000,000:

MBOX will allow its users to stake its native coin to earn rewards called Mystery Boxes. The MOMOs revealed from the Mystery Boxes will be mining the MBOX token [and will] increase the node hashpower so you can mine more MBOX tokens.

Mobox announcement

Metaverse Tokens Shoot to the Moon

As NFTs continue to boom, metaverse projects and tokens are also on the rise, with many new and exciting projects preparing to launch. For an in-depth look at four of these projects, check out this Crypto News Australia guide.

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Crypto News Ethereum Fan Tokens Gas NFTs

Matrix Resurrections NFT Site Crashes Amid Drop, Users Left Fuming

After thousands of fans lined up on November 30 to buy The Matrix Resurrections movie on Nifty, they were left disappointed when the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace crashed during the sale due to overwhelming demand ahead of the action/sci-fi movie’s release later this month.

Furious Fans Left in Limbo Overnight

Warner Bros announced last month that it would mint a set of 100,000 NFTs of Matrix-inspired avatars at US$50 each on Nifty. In anticipation of the launch, hundreds of thousands of fans were lined up on the marketplace to buy the NFTs, but within just an hour of the site opening, the company had to pause the sale as systems were overloaded.

Sale Restarted But Crashes Again

Nifty briefly restarted the sale but again had to pause it, leaving furious users in limbo overnight. By December 1, more than 330,000 fans were still waiting in the queue to buy the collectibles.

The marketplace conceded that the launch of the Matrix avatars did not go “the way we had hoped it would”, but said on Twitter “even as the queue continues to be paused, we want to assure you all of a few things – we’re very actively working on a solution, along with our partners”.

Demand More Than Nifty Could Handle

The chaos surrounding the launch proved that the initial demand for the Matrix avatars was more than Nifty could handle. However, the marketplace recommended that users still in line to buy the collectibles add their email addresses to the “please notify me when it is my turn” field on the website, “so that you’ll know specifically when you have made it to the front of the line”.

Nifty’s customer-support site added: “Due to such high traffic, there may be a delay with the Matrix Avatar NFTs appearing in your account. Please allow some additional time (up to eight hours) to determine if your NFTs have arrived successfully.”

Naturally, users were not entirely happy with Nifty’s response to the crash:

Nifty responded by saying the company plans “to make it up to fans and give all Nifty’s users who queued yesterday for a Matrix Avatar a free ‘glitch in the Matrix’ NFT”.

On the evening of December 1, Nifty issued a statement and said it had reopened the purchase queue for the Matrix NFTS after completing an audit of its platform. After about an hour, the platform said it had officially sold out.

NFT Madness Causes Pandemonium on Marketplaces

The Matrix NFT sale is not the first launch to have overloaded and crashed a system. In September, Time magazine announced a new collection of NFTs offering “unlimited access” to its website throughout 2023. Within minutes, all 4,676 tokens tied to the digital artworks had sold out. The rush clogged the Ethereum blockchain and consequently sent gas fees through the roof, causing such chaos that buyers spent almost four times as much on transaction fees as they did on the NFTs themselves.

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Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Snoop Dogg’s ‘Decentral Eyes Dogg’ NFT Drop Catches Fire, Current Bid $800k

Calvin Cordozar Broadus Junior, aka Snoop Dogg, is the latest celebrity in 2021 to get in on the crypto act. After declaring his interest in Bitcoin and a US$17 million NFT collection, he’s now dropped his own NFT, and it’s on fire.

Coldie Meets ‘The Doggfather’

The single one-of-one NFT, known as “Decentral Eyes Dogg”, is a collaboration between renowned artist Coldie and “The Doggfather”. The artwork comprises a composite portrait of the US rapper, created by collaging 10 different images of his face throughout his life.

Coldie x Snoop Dogg collaboration. Source: Superrare

According to SuperRare:

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.

SuperRare

Shortly after announcing the drop, Snoop Dogg offered some insight to prospective purchasers of what went into the piece:

This work is a journey. The tech we used allows the viewer 2 travel thru the piece and experience highlights of my career with some audio narration from me.

Snoop Dogg, Twitter

NFTs on Fire, For Now

The drop got some crypto-flush bidders excited, quickly resulting in the price skyrocketing north of half a million dollars.

After a slow start to the bidding of 4.2 ETH, things quickly escalated with ETH-based offers increasing to 85 and then 94. It settled on 169 at the time of publication, equating to approximately US$773,000. With just over two days left in the auction, it remains to be seen whether Snoop Dogg’s debut NFT is able to eclipse the elusive seven-figure mark.

Right now, the NFT markets are on fire, leaving many commentators wondering when the proverbial party will end. The consensus appears to be that the parabolic rise in NFTs over the past year is unlikely to be sustainable in the long run.

Even Gary Vee, who has his own NFT collection, believes that an NFT winter is coming and that 98 percent will go to zero. While no one can predict the future and which projects are guaranteed to succeed, brave traders who regard NFTs as worthless JPEGs now have the ability to short them.

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Crypto Art Crypto News Metaverse NFTs

NFT Collectors Can Now Showcase Them in 3D Experiences via Cyber

A new project known as Cyber has crafted digital experiences for anyone who owns non-fungible tokens (NFTs). By using Cyber’s platform, digital collections can be displayed in an owner’s gallery for anyone to see.

Virtual Reality NFT Galleries

Cyber is a new avenue for artists and collectors to showcase their NFT collections in a fully immersive 3D setting of their choice. Individuals can import their NFTs using their designated crypto wallet, and by simply clicking the ‘create’ button collectors can have their NFTs permanently displayed in their chosen space.

Example gallery: PlatyPunk on Cyber

Collectors who don’t want to use Cyber’s free default galleries can alternatively go to the OpenSea marketplace and purchase a custom 3D gallery, which they can walk through in virtual reality (VR) or on a mobile phone.

A Space to View and Buy NFTs

It’s also possible to buy artwork from someone’s gallery. On visiting a gallery you might find artworks you’d like to purchase; Cyber has enabled people to do so by visiting the OpenSea link on the artwork’s page and buying it, or placing a bid directly on the marketplace.

It’s also possible to link galleries for artists and collectors to collaborate with each other. The recent NFT boom has created multiple opportunities for artists to move into the field, with many opting to create NFT meme avatars to show that they participate in the crypto space.

Last month, Beeple’s programmable NFT was sold for US$29 million and no doubt will be displayed somewhere in the metaverse. Maybe on Cyber?