Category: NFTs

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Crypto.com NFTs Security Sports Tokens

CRO Token Continues to Soar, Up Over 500% in Past 3 Months

CRO, the native token of the crypto exchange Crypto.com, has surged by more than 1000 percent in 2021 and is now worth almost US$1, with a current price of $0.89 at time of writing.

What’s Driving the CRO Price?

Data from Messari shows the token has been on the green this year, with three-month returns exceeding 533 percent gains. Its total market cap is now above US$23 billion, with 24hr trading volumes nearing US$300 million.

Crypto.com has been doing a lot for the crypto space lately in terms of partnerships, appearances, deals with high-profile companies in traditional finance, even jumping into the sports industry.

Sports Partnerships and Naming Rights

The main drivers of this rally are Crypto.com numerous sports partnerships this year and becoming the first crypto exchange to pass the SOC 2 test, which is an internationally recognised standard in traditional finance.

The Staples Center – home of the iconic NBA team Los Angeles Lakers – will be renamed Crypto.com Arena after the exchange bought the naming rights. This in itself caused the CRO token to surge over 91 percent in later hours.

Moreover, Crypto.com announced yesterday that it has become the first crypto trading firm to comply with SOC 2 standards. This, the firm says, reassures its position as a trustworthy company for its users.

The SOC (Security Organisation Control) 2 is an internal report that attests to the trustworthiness of a company’s information practices, security, procedures and integrity.

NFT Marketplace Assembles Big Names

In early 2021, Crypto.com hooked up with important names from several industries, collaborating with the likes of Lionel Richie, Snoop Dogg, the Aston Martin Formula 1 team, and more. The resulting NFT platform is now one of the top marketplaces for NFT collectors and content creators.

Launch of Free Crypto Tax Software in Australia

The crypto exchange has also been helping Aussies with their crypto tax obligations. Three months ago, Crypto.com launched a crypto tax software package in the country backed by professional tax advisers to facilitate the filing of crypto taxes at no cost.

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Crypto News DeFi NFTs

Capital Raising May Have Changed Forever as New DAO is Formed to Buy an NBA Team

Another decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), Krause House, is hot on the heels of ConstitutionDAO, though aiming to buy something a little bit more extravagant – a National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise. The leaderless internet group is aiming to raise 1,000 ether (ETH) in the hopes to pool enough money to buy an NBA team, according to its website.

Only One Goal in Mind

Krause House, a community-run internet group named after late Chicago Bulls manager Jerry Krause, launched earlier this year and has only one goal in mind, that of buying an NBA team. The DAO began its funding drive last week by selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Thus far, the DAO has successfully raised 411 ETH, or about US$1.7 million. The group hit its goal of 200 ETH in the first 15 minutes of launching the sale via Mirror:

Krause House contributor Adam Soffer said: “I’ve been following the news around ConstitutionDAO, and it occurred to me there’s a high probability a DAO will attempt a bid on a professional sports team within the next 10 years.” He added: “I tweeted this and someone responded, ‘There’s a DAO for that’, and pointed me to Krause House DAO.”

DAOs offered them a solution. The co-creators have said they have both been involved in crypto since 2017 and were “very excited” by what DAOs could offer them. To date, more than 1,300 people have joined the Krause House Discord server. The duo is quoted in saying:

We decided to create a DAO focused on achieving our lifelong passion, and it turns out a lot of folks have the same dream too.

Krause House was co-created by friends Flex Chapman and Commodore (both opted for pseudonyms) who had dreams of playing in the NBA as children but were unable to do so. They later instead readjusted their dream to owning a team. It comes, however, at a notoriously astronomical price. In December 2020, the Utah Jazz team sold for US$1.6 billion and the Brooklyn Nets for US$2.35 billion in August 2019.

NFT Craze Drives Fundraising

In order to raise the vast amounts of money needed to realise the dream, Krause House is selling NFTs in three membership tiers:

Three NFT membership tiers available for purchase. Source: krausehouse.mirror.xyz

Courtside is selling at 10 ETH apiece, Club Level at 1.0 ETH and Upper Level at 0.1 ETH apiece. Each of the three different tiers grants different levels of access to $KRAUSE tokens. Additionally, a limited-edition NFT will be awarded to the top three donors of the campaign.

DAOs Generate Astronomical Amounts of Money

DAOs are showing us exactly what a community of people can do when they choose to achieve a collective goal. Krause House is on its way to raising some serious capital, following in the footsteps of ConstitutionDAO’s US$47 million.

Earlier this year, Australian trading platform Tracer DAO managed to raise US$4.5 million in a strategic round of funding, backed by various cryptocurrency companies. Tracer is an Ethereum-based decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol that introduces a derivatives marketplace, which is owned by a DAO.

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Blockchain Gaming NFTs Tokens

Blockchain Gaming Token GALA Up 360% in a Week Following NFT Drop Announcement

Gala Games (GALA) has gone ga-ga, with the gaming token’s price skyrocketing by over 360 percent in seven days. The surge comes as investors welcome exploding interest in decentralised games, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse sector.

The main driver of Gala’s price hike is its impending Miranda VOX drop, due December 6. The NFT series contains “magical creatures from the realm of Mirandus”: elves, rogue halflings, fierce orcs, stalwart dwarves, plus “surprise” creatures from the Mirandus bestiary will emerge from Gala’s mysterious VOX boxes on the due date.

Creatures from the Mirandus bestiary. Source: Gala Games

Instead of being sold through the CollectVOX website, these VOX boxes will be purchasable directly from the Gala Games store, thus avoiding the usual Ethereum gas wars.

If you’re new to Gala Games, you’ll need to create an account, and then purchase some GALA tokens and some ETH (for network fees).

‘Blockchain Games You’ll Actually Want to Play’: Gala

With its stated mission being to to make “blockchain games you’ll actually want to play”, Gala Games claims to give players control over their virtual domain. GALA is used as a means of exchange between gamers and the coins can be used to pay for items within the platform.

Created in 2019 by Eric Schiermeyer, one of the co-founders of mobile games company Zynga, which developed the likes of Mafia Wars and Farmville, Gala has 1.3 million active users. According to the company manifesto:

We are truly building the largest decentralised gaming platform in the world. Decentralisation means putting the power, the responsibility and the rewards into the players’ hands.

Gala Games

Gala players are able to own NFTs that allow them to vote on new games and thus influence how they are run. The GALA token can be used to purchase these NFTs, as well as in-game items.

What’s Behind GALA’s Surge in Price

Gala’s year-on-year performance. Source: capital.com

According to the Global Gaming Market 2021-2025 report published by ReportLinker, the gaming sector is expected to grow by US$125.6 billion from 2021 to 2025, which will favour the likes of Gala.

Many have attributed Gala’s breakout performance to its being listed on major cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance, Mandala, OKEx, Huobi Global and Bitget.

Last week, Crypto News Australia reported how another NFT and gaming token, WAX, had soared 215 percent in a month on the back of unprecedented user growth.

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Crypto News Events NFTs Sports

NFL Launches NFT ‘Virtual Tickets’, Potential Future Trend in Sports Ticketing?

The US National Football League (NFL) is now attaching non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to its tickets, adding them as “virtual commemorative tickets” that will be automatically sent to fans’ Ticketmaster wallets moments after attending live games.

NFL Makes Plays into the Cryptosphere

The NFL has officially launched NFTs to replace ticket stubs for its fictures, at least for the remainder of matches this year. The league announced that fans who attend games through to the end of 2021 will be able to receive a “virtual commemorative ticket” (VCT) as an NFT in a Ticketmaster digital wallet. Virtual tickets will be live on the Polygon network.

The first VCT game took place on November 7 when the 49ers played the Cardinals, and the next event is scheduled for Thanksgiving for the Detroit Lions/Chicago Bears match. The announcement of NFL NFTs comes just two months after the league prohibited teams from selling NFTs and engaging in sponsorships from crypto trading firms.

Chicago Bears NFT. Source: NFL Commemorative Tickets Website

Some Users Critical of Download Format

NFT club business development senior vice-president Bobby Gallo has said:

Leveraging the emerging world of NFTs is a new and exciting way for us to create additional value and to further engage with fans who attend select games by providing a virtual commemorative ticket. There is no better time than the upcoming holiday season to kick off this fun and engaging fan experience, starting with the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day matchup.

For fans to claim their NFTs, they need to have bought their match tickets through one of the licensed NFL Ticketing Network vendors – either Ticketmaster, SrubHub, SeatGeek, or a team’s corresponding ticket office.

However, some users are not entirely happy with the download format of NFL NFTs. Sportswriter Jacob Feldman took to Twitter to express his irritation:

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Crypto News DeFi NFTs Tokens

Music NFT Token OPUL Up 785% in a Month, the ‘Biggest Thing Since Streaming’?

Opulous (OPUL), a protocol focused on the tokenisation of the music industry, has set fire to the crypto charts with a 785 percent breakout in a single month on the back of a partnership with “market maker” Jump Trading.

The OPUL project aims to empower artists to the extent that music rights can be utilised as value-backed assets in decentralised finance (DeFi).

Since its low point of US$0.635 at the end of September, the OPUL token ballooned 1,095 percent to a new all-time high of US$7.60 on November 15 as its 24-hour trading volume spiked 564 percent to US$11.67 million.

Why OPUL Is On Fire

There are three underpinning reasons for OPUL’s breakout:

  • the successful completion of its first security NFT (S-NFT) sale;
  • the token’s cross-chain capabilities, which have enabled support from multiple centralised (CEXs) and decentralised exchanges (DEXs); and
  • the rising popularity of the NFT ecosystem as a whole.

The first of these factors saw a special token standard created in conjunction with Republic Music, an investment product that claims to offer “an entirely new way to create, produce and share royalties”. Opulous partnered with rap artists Lil Pump and Soulja Boy to conduct the S-NFT sale for their song Mona Lisa, which last month raised its goal of US$500,000 in less than two hours.

How Opulous Works

Once the investment process is finalised by Republic, contributors can go to the Opulous website and mint the S-NFT tokens, which will be distributed on the Algorand blockchain. As the song accumulates streams on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, or attracts other publishers such as radio or television shows, movies or video games, royalty shares are distributed quarterly in the form of USD Coin (USDC) directly to wallets holding the S-NFTs.

The second factor working in OPUL’s favour has been the level of support from several large CEXs and DEXs, which have helped increase traders’ access to the token. OPUL was also able to launch on two of the largest DEXs in the crypto ecosystem – Uniswap and PancakeSwap – thanks to its cross-chain capabilities, which currently include Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) as well as Algorand.

As for the third factor, the explosion of the NFT ecosystem in 2021 is a given. Recent keyword data on Google shows that searches for “non-fungible tokens” and “NFTs” are at all-time highs. No surprises there.

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Crypto News DeFi Metaverse NFTs

TIME Magazine to Hold ETH on its Balance Sheet as Part of Galaxy Metaverse Deal

American media giant TIME Magazine this week revealed a partnership with Mike Novogratz’ Galaxy Digital and, as part of the deal, TIME will hold ETH on its balance sheet.

The partnership, announced by the magazine on November 18, will seek to educate its readers about the advent of the metaverse.

TIME Joins the Metaverse

The metaverse is a digital landscape where users can interact socially and economically. Many successful projects have created their own virtual reality world using blockchain technology and tokenomics. Two examples are Decentraland (MANA), which recently soared after the Caribbean island of Barbados announced it would build a digital embassy in its metaverse, and Sandbox (SAND), which also hit an all-time high this week after the announcement of a Play-2-Earn (P2E) metaverse event.

TIME will launch the TIME 100 Companies list, followed by a weekly newsletter titled ‘Into the Metaverse’. Galaxy will manage the list, which will feature the most promising projects and developers.

TIME‘s decision to jump into the metaverse was probably propelled by the fast-paced advancement of this technology. Two weeks ago, Crypto News Australia reported that Microsoft was set to follow Facebook (now called Meta) and will launch Mesh, its own version of the metaverse, focused on the corporate world.

Over the next decade, the metaverse will become an increasingly important part of the world economy; our physical and digital realities are already becoming hard to distinguish. We look forward to partnering with TIME, an iconic brand driving innovation, as we seek to bring readers, creators, and the curious into the metaverse and demystify the tremendous amount of transformation happening.

Mike Novogratz, CEO, Galaxy
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Gaming Metaverse NFTs Solana Tokens

NFT and Gaming Token WAX Soars 215% in a Month Amid Unprecedented User Growth

Performance of the WAX token has certainly waxed lately following massive NFT (non-fungible token) trading volumes on its Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX) platform.

WAX Outranks Solana in NFT Sales

This week, WAX surged 44 percent following massive demand for the currency, with over 8 million WAX accounts interacting with the token on the WAX network. The token is up a massive 215 percent in the past month.

Ethereum remains the number one platform in terms of NFT trading volume. But as NFT content creators look for alternative choices, the WAX platform has witnessed massive NFT sales lately. The protocol has become the second Layer-1 blockchain in daily and 30-day NFT sales volume, outpacing high-profile ecosystems in the industry such as Solana and Flow.

There is no big news about partnerships or network upgrades, so the recent price surge is driven only by demand, but we have to note that WAX CEO William E. Quigley has recently talked up NFTs, the metaverse, and the launch of vIRLs, a new form of NFTs issued by the WAX protocol that represent real-world items users can collect without physically shipping them.

What is WAX?

The WAX platform is considered the most eco-friendly platform for NFTs, collectibles and video games. There, users can play several decentralised games, build their DApps, and buy and sell NFTs using WAX in a fast, cost-efficient manner.

With its high proven real-world operation transaction volume capacity, unique fee structure of no minting and gifting transaction fees, and energy efficient and low carbon footprint, [WAX] is the ideal blockchain for games that are looking to incorporate elements such as play-and-earn monetisation at scale.

William E. Quigley, WAX CEO

WAX currently has a US$1.5 billion market cap, with each token priced at US$0.85. The price surge comes after a massive wave of traffic, making it the number 1 platform with daily active users.

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Gaming Metaverse NFTs Play to Earn Real Estate Tokens

Metaverse Token SAND Hits All-Time Highs as Play-to-Earn Game Nears Alpha Launch

The Sandbox (SAND), Animoca Brands’ virtual property and gaming project, has announced its highly anticipated Metaverse Alpha event starting later this month. Following the announcement, SAND prices have surged to new all-time highs.

Play-to-Earn Metaverse Event

After four years of development, the Sandbox (SAND) team’s play-to-earn (P2E) Sandbox Alpha event will allow players the opportunity to explore The Sandbox Metaverse for the first time. The virtual gaming world enables users to monetise their time spent in the metaverse via a P2E model. Players can purchase land and create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) within the game and earn Sandbox tokens (SAND) by completing various quests.

The Sandbox Alpha Hub launches on November 29 and closes on December 20. Players who want to take part in the event will need to get their hands on an Alpha Pass, the NFT ticket that will grant full access to the multi-week event to 5000 people. Golden tickets will be on sale on OpenSea’s secondary market between November 29 and December 19.

Players without an Alpha Pass will still be able to access three full experiences and the Alpha HUB, a central multiplayer experience showcasing a range of locations, quests, and the opportunity to connect with other players from the community. However, they will not be eligible to earn P2E rewards.

Prizes to be Won in the Alpha

Owners of the Alpha Pass will have the opportunity to earn 1,000 SAND for completing all objectives of the Alpha. Additionally, pass owners have special access to three exclusive The Sandbox Alpha NFTs, which will only be available during the Alpha event.

NFT prizes for owners of the Alpha Pass: The Sandbox

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu cautioned future investors that they should take the time to carefully experience The Sandbox before buying tokenised land:

Just go to the places, experience them, join the community on Discord, have a chat with them. See what it’s all about before you make the plunge to buy land because, you know, it’s like buying real estate anywhere in the world.

 Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman, Animoca Brands

Metaverse Token Explodes

According to data from CoinGecko, the price of SAND hit a new all-time high of US$3.97 on November 18. SAND has been on a meteoric surge in 2021, gaining 10,545 percent over the past 12 months. Earlier this month ,the SAND token pumped 158 per cent following the Facebook metaverse announcement.

SAND/USD price chart. Source: CoinGecko

At the start of this month, The Sandbox closed a US$93 million Series B funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The project has been in development for four years and will launch its metaverse in “phased stages” moving forward.

With the idea of the metaverse inching its way into the public sphere, more people are taking part. Barbados recently established the first-ever metaverse embassy as part of its aggressive expansion to build infrastructure and purchase digital land.

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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs Tezos

Shutdown Tezos NFT Marketplace Revived by Its Community, Begins Transition to DAO

After popular Tezos non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Hic et Nunc shut down its services last week, founder Rafael Lima stepped back and the community banded together to transition the marketplace into a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO).

Community Bands Together

Lima took to Twitter to explain that the marketplace’s services were now “discontinued” and a message sharing Hic et Nunc’s smart contract was posted to social media, fuelling speculation among users.

Only days later, the Hic et Nunc marketplace community has banded together around a clone of the original marketplace named “Hicetnunc.art”, after its founder opted to leave the project in the hands of the community. As it stands, Hic et Nunc is again fully operational and the community is transitioning the marketplace to a DAO.

The ecosystem is forging into the future in a transparent, open process, and is in a first-of-its-kind Web3 transition from platform ownership to community ownership.

When Hic et Nunc discontinued its services, it did not entirely go away. The ecosystem is built in open source by default, and metadata, sale data and image files were stored on the Tezos blockchain and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) directly, not on the marketplace’s website.

Hours after the website was discontinued, over 50 mirror sites went live where artists were able to continue browsing, minting and collecting NFTs on Hic et Nunc.

Fees Lowered to the Limits

Following the speculation surrounding the entire ordeal, Lima lowered the platform fees to one percent. Although he remains the founder and developer, Tezos infrastructure-provided TezTools has become the caretaker of the original Hic et Nunc smart contract until a DAO is set to take over the operations.

Although Hic et Nunc is still a very contentious topic of conversation, and it is now a community-driven project, many believe a name change would be appropriate if Lima were to leave the project completely.

Would you agree?

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Blockchain Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Collectibles Giant Topps Releases ‘Mars Attacks’ NFT Collection

Sports and entertainment collectibles platform Topps has announced the launch of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on the company’s vintage science fiction-themed trading card series, Mars Attacks. Hosted on the NFT platform Curio, the limited-edition collection heralds Mars Attacks’ introduction into the blockchain.

Mars Invades the Blockchain

Topps’ Mars Attacks collection recaptures all the glamour of the original set of cards launched by Topps back in 1962. The card series, created with illustrations by artists Wally Wood and Norman Saunders, follows Topps’ original science-fiction plot of a Martian invasion of Earth, depicting battle scenes between aliens and humans.

Ira Friedman, vice-president of global licensing at Topps, notes that the longevity of Mars Attacks would have been unimaginable at the time of its creation back in 1962:

It demonstrates that a classic story accompanied by extraordinary art can remain relevant while embracing advancements in technology and the new ways in which consumers experience content. Curio has been an incredible partner with its deep understanding of the entertainment industry and belief in the evolution of storytelling through NFTs.

Ira Friedman, vice-president of global licensing, Topps

Below are two examples of the NFTs available in the series:

The cards are available for purchase in different packs colour-coded as Red, Yellow and Green across a variety of rarity levels – ranging from US$49 per pack for 11 cards to US$199 for a pack of 55. Each pack will contain a random story card, with randomly assigned variants.

Exciting Developments in the World of NFTs

Meanwhile, Toys “R” Us has partnered up with NFT platform Ethernity to release the brand’s first NFT collection of beloved giraffe mascot Geoffrey. The NFTs will be available for sale on OpenSea and will feature six separate editions of “Geoffrey Through the Years”. Exciting developments are also taking place for meme avatar projects, with five new projects launching soon.