Category: NFTs

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Crypto News NFTs OpenSea Solana

OpenSea Launches Sol-Based NFT Product for Creators to Mint New Projects from Scratch

Three months after OpenSea enabled support for Solana, the non-fungible token marketplace is kicking off its Solana launchpad to allow users to mint new projects from scratch.

According to an official blog post, OpenSea is looking forward to a “multi-chain future” with the introduction of the Solana launchpad. The platform will reportedly guide users throughout the process of pre-mint activity, allowlist minting for early supporters, and post-mint and secondary sales:

Multi-Chain Future for OpenSea Users

Most members of the OpenSea community were excited to see the integration of Solana into the marketplace, considering NFTs on the Solana ecosystem are popular and have generated considerable sales volumes in the past few months.

We believe in a multi-chain future where people on OpenSea have access to NFTs across a vast number of blockchains. In the last year, Solana has emerged among the top blockchains for NFTs, and we share their vision of a scalable and inclusive NFT ecosystem.

OpenSea blog post

On April 29, Solana-based NFT collection Okay Bears generated over US$18 million in trading volume, flipping Any Rivals volume on its first day.

There are already a handful of Sol-based NFT projects on OpenSea’s launchpad available for minting, including Zoonies and Monkai NFTs:

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Crypto Art Crypto News Metaverse NFTs

Christie’s Art Auction House Bets Big on Web3, Launches Investment Fund

Venerable auction house Christie’s has entered the intersection of art and finance with the establishment of Christie’s Ventures, an investment fund for fintech companies looking to make breakthroughs in the art market:

Christie’s, renowned for auctioning art treasures by van Gogh and more recently NFT art by Beeple, is also famous in crypto circles for auctioning off Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales’ first blog post in the form of an NFT, along with the iMac used by Wales when Wiki launched in 2001.

First Investment in LayerZero Labs

The Christie’s venture capital fund is aimed at making investments that “enable seamless art consumption”. The new fund will initially focus on three broad categories: Web3.0 innovation, art-related financial products, and solutions and technologies that enable seamless consumption of art.

The venture fund’s first investment will be in LayerZero Labs, a cross-chain interoperability company with a strong vision and business model. LayerZero Labs reduces friction in a client’s ability to move assets between blockchains. The project’s co-founder and CEO, Bryan Pellegrino, said in a statement: “We look forward to working with their team to find new and innovative ways to create the most accessible, frictionless experience with assets indexed over multiple blockchains.”

Christie’s has said its new fund will “work alongside portfolio companies to help accelerate their progress, simultaneously advancing Christie’s activities in the presentation, education, and sales of fine art and luxury goods”. According to Devang Thakkar, global head of Christie’s Ventures, “We will focus on products and services which can solve real business challenges, improve client experiences, and expand growth opportunities, both across the art market directly and for interactions with it.”

Auction Houses Step Into the Metaverse

Christie’s is not the only auction house to dabble in the metaverse and Web3 space. In October 2021, Sotheby’s launched its own NFT marketplace, dubbed “Sotheby’s Metaverse”, becoming the first auction house to do so. The platform is powered by Mojito, an NFT studio and technology platform that provides services including brand identity, strategy, and management for NFT businesses.

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Crypto News Metaverse NFTs

‘Greatest of All-Time’ Skater Tony Hawk Launches Virtual Skate Park in Sandbox

Tony Hawk, the world’s most famous skateboarder, is building a skate park in the metaverse in partnership with The Sandbox and Autograph:

Under the Autograph collaboration, Hawk will produce NFTs that fans will be able to leverage in The Sandbox’s metaverse. This latest collection joins others of Hawk’s that feature his equipment and apparel, including the legendary skateboard Hawk used to land the 900 (a 2½-revolution aerial spin) at the X Games in 1999.

Hawk an Early Crypto Adopter

Since launching in 1999, his Tony Hawk Pro Skater franchise has generated over US$1.4 billion in sales. Hawk was also an early adopter of cryptocurrency, having bought bitcoin in 2012 after discovering it on the now-defunct Silk Road marketplace:

I’ve been a fan of new technology all of my life, from the very first video games and home computers with CGI capabilities, so I am fascinated by the metaverse and excited to bring our culture into the virtual landscape of The Sandbox.

Tony Hawk, skateboarding legend and early crypto adopter

Hawk will collaborate with The Sandbox to build “the largest virtual skatepark ever seen”.

The Sandbox has become a magnet for celebrities and brands to explore the metaverse by launching experiences and digital representations of their products, having formed partnerships with the Care Bears, Warner Music, the Walking Dead, Snoop Dogg, Deadmau5, Atari, the Smurfs and Adidas. Just last week, lifestyle brand Playboy announced it was launching its ‘MetaMansion’ in The Sandbox.

Since raising US$93 million in its series B funding round last November, the company is reportedly considering a new funding round that would bring in US$400 million at a US$4 billion valuation.

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Crypto News Ethereum Hackers NFTs

Hackers Make Off with $400K in ETH in PREMINT Hack

PREMINT, an NFT registration platform, has notified users via Twitter that an unknown party had stolen US$400,000 in ETH via a malicious wallet connection:

Hackers Secure Premint Bag

In this year’s most recent hack, 320 NFTs were stolen from the PREMINT site. CertiK, a blockchain security firm, analysed the situation and found that malicious JavaScript code had been utilised in the hack. This code created a pop-up within the site which prompted users to verify their wallet ownership. Despite many taking to Twitter to issue a warning, the hackers had already duped six PREMINT customers in mere minutes:

The stolen NFTs included Bored Apes, Moonbirds, and Goblintowns. Once they were obtained, the hacker sent the funds to Tornado Cash to wipe the digital trail left by blockchain transactions.

PREMINT has thanked those of its customers who have helped minimise the impact of the hack and are accumulating data on all NFTs stolen.

Other 2022 Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks seem to be increasing in frequency this year, with multiple sizeable thefts across the end of the first quarter. A total of 35 NFTs were stolen in early April, including a Mutant and Bored Ape. The attack was carried out via several hacked verified Twitter accounts with the total stolen value exceeding US$900,000.

A month later, 29 Moonbird tokens were stolen when a malicious link wired a scammer US$1.5 million worth of Moonbird NFTs from a Proof Collective member. At the time, the Collective was working on a full report in collaboration with the FBI.

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Ethereum NFTs OpenSea

Crypto Winter Bites as OpenSea Lays Off 20% of its Workforce

Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea has laid off approximately 20 percent of its workforce due to a confluence of factors, including the harsh crypto bear market and instability in the broader economy:

The layoffs at Open Sea follow a swathe of job losses throughout crypto in 2022 – in June, Coinbase slashed 1,100 jobs representing around 18 percent of its workforce, and BlockFi and Crypto.com have shed a combined total of more than 400 staff.

OpenSea Readies for Prolonged Downturn

OpenSea co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer took to Twitter on July 15 to share the message he sent to staff regarding the job losses in which he explained the NFT marketplace was preparing to endure a potentially “prolonged downturn”:

We need to prepare the company for the possibility of a prolonged downturn. The changes we’re making today put us in a position to maintain multiple years of runway under various crypto winter scenarios (five years at current volume), and give us high confidence that we will only have to go through this process once. 

Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO, OpenSea

Opportunities Emerge From Bear Market

According to data from CoinGecko, since its peak in November last year the total cryptocurrency market cap has fallen by around 70 percent, from just under US$3 trillion to below US$1 trillion. 

This collapse in value has imperilled projects across all sectors of the crypto economy, including exchanges, lending platforms, DeFi apps and NFT marketplaces. The fact that OpenSea, the oldest and largest NFT marketplace, is now being hit is a measure of the depth and severity of the current crypto winter.

As hard as these conditions are for many projects and investors, Finzer says they can create opportunities to innovate, stating:

We have a huge opportunity in front of us. During this winter, I expect that we’ll see an explosion in innovation and utility across NFTs. With the hard (but important) changes we made today, we’re in an even better position to capture what will soon become the largest market on the planet. When the global economy is uncertain, our mission to build the foundation for new, peer-to-peer economies feels more urgent and important than ever.

Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO, OpenSea
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Crypto News Crypto Wallets Cryptocurrency Law Hackers NFTs

UK Court Rules That Lawsuits Can Be Served Via NFTs

In what is a legal precedent for the High Court of England and Wales, a plaintiff has been granted permission to file a lawsuit against anonymous defendants by means of an NFT drop.

The move will allow Fabrizio D’Aloia, founder of Italy-based online gaming company Microgame, to serve legal documents on people who are not known by name but connected via two digital wallets:

Joanna Bailey, an associate of Giambrone & Partners LLP who are representing D’Aloia, described the precedent as “significant” in a sector where scams and hacks can often only be tied to wallet addresses and not their actual individual owners:

This is so important because it shows the court’s willingness to adapt to new technologies and embrace the blockchain and actually step in to help consumers where previous legislation and regulators simply could not …

Joanna Bailey, associate, Giambrone & Partners LLP

D’Aloia claimed to have been lured by an online brokerage into depositing about 2.1 million USDT and 230,000 USDC into two wallets that turned out to be fraudulent. The court ruling, said Bailey, allows D’Aloia to sue those responsible for the fraudulent platform by sending court documents via an NFT drop to the two wallets.

Other Legal Firsts Involving NFTs

Such specified usage of an NFT drop follows a world-first international hacking case last month where a defendant was served with a temporary restraining order by means of an NFT.

A month earlier, the UK High Court of Justice ruled to recognise NFTs as private property, hailed as a “landmark” in the ongoing battle against fraud in the crypto space.

However, the catch in that ruling was that the conferred private property status did not extend to the underlying content represented by an NFT.

Civil Procedure Rules in the UK have previously allowed for lawsuits and legal documents to be served using Instagram, Facebook, and a contact form on a website. Until now, the only other means were via personal services, “snail” mail, dropped off at a physical address, or by sending a fax or another type of “electronic communication”.

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Australia Metaverse NFTs Sports

Australian Open NFT Project ‘AO Metaverse’ Wins Big in Global Advertising Awards

The Australian Open Metaverse, in partnership with Melbourne Web3 studio ‘Run it Wild’, has won the first Cannes Lions award for an NFT metaverse project in the entertainment category for sports, in this instance the annual Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament held in Melbourne in January.

The AO Metaverse project was also awarded a Bronze Lion for “most innovative use of tech and platforms in sports” for its AO Artball, a unique feature that utilised match data from the actual tournament.

How the AO Artball Worked

To create the AO Artball feature, the match court was split into 6,776 squares, each corresponding to a tennis ball NFT. These NFTs would change based on exactly where winning points were scored during the tournament.

Since crowd numbers were affected by Covid lockdowns and many fans were unable to attend in person, the joint creative team built a replica of the Melbourne Park tennis precinct in Decentraland, where people could watch matches and interact with each other in real time.

Fans attending matches in the metaverse had the chance to buy an AO Art Ball NFT linked to a specific spot on centre court that marked the winning shot of both the men’s and women’s championships, along with all other finals matches in the tournament. The project proved such a success that the value of a single championship NFT (the men’s, won by Rafael Nadal) soared 4000 percent.

Cannes Lions Advance Industry, Not Just Business

The Cannes Lions Awards, a global advertising benchmark, is one of the world’s most respected for creative excellence. Companies from over 90 countries enter more than 30,000 pieces and are judged by members of the international creative community. The sole purpose of the awards is to recognise the best work that pushes not just one business, but an entire industry forward.

Adam De Cata, CEO of NFT Tech and founder of Run It Wild, had this to say in response to the award shared with the AO Metaverse:

There’s something truly beautiful when creative, data and technology meet. Having the faith and support of the AO, it’s been a crazy ride pushing the limits of creative and technological possibilities, elevating those we work with.

Adam De Cata, CEO, NFT Tech / founder, Run it Wild

De Cata added: “Accepting this award in the same category as major brands like Adidas, Nike, and Samsung reinforces the power of Web3 and its possibilities.”

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Crypto News CryptoPunks NFTs

Rare CryptoPunk NFT Defies Crypto Winter, Sells for 2,500 ETH

Reversing recent NFT market trends, CryptoPunk #4464 this week changed hands for a massive 2,500 ETH (approximately US$2.6 million). According to CryptoSlam, this marks the single-largest NFT sale of the past 30 days, in defiance of typical winter market lows:

CryptoPunk Does the Unexpected

Despite the malaise of the wider crypto market and commensurate NFT trading volumes, one rare CryptoPunk seems to have achieved the impossible. Punk #4464, an eye mask/durag-wearing, vaping pixelated character, has notched the fourth-ranked CryptoPunks NFT sale of all time, sharing that status with two other Apes. (It should be noted, however, that as ETH has a fluctuating price, the USD value of each sale fluctuates significantly.)

https://cryptopunks.app/cryptopunks/details/4464
Transaction history of CryptoPunk #4464.

The record CryptoPunk sale for both ETH and USD is #5822, an 8,000 ETH (US$23.7 million) alien that was sold in February.

So Why Is #4464’s Sale Impressive?

Only two months ago, there was consensus that CryptoPunks (and NFTs in general) had lost the public interest. The realisation came as CryptoPunk #273, a male punk with a cap and shades, sold on May 8 for just US$139,836. That figure was 87 percent lower than its initial purchase price of US$1.03 million, in October 2021.

With a total value loss of approximately US$890,000, an ongoing downward trend in the CryptoPunk market seemed inevitable. However, #4464 has defied the odds and is proof to the contrary.

Categories
Crypto News Gaming Metaverse NFTs

Playboy Set to Launch ‘MetaMansion’ in The Sandbox

Soon to enter its 70th year, seemingly ageless lifestyle brand Playboy is building on its Web3 presence to launch what it calls the MetaMansion in collaboration with NFT-based metaverse gaming platform The Sandbox.

This new, virtual version of the Playboy mansion will feature a host of gaming, social and programmed events, along with future NFT collectibles.

Rabbitars Lose Their Bounce

The MetaMansion is an extension of Playboy’s Rabbitars NFT project, 11,953 tokenised bunny avatars that sold for just over US$800 apiece in October 2021. In a sign of these straitened crypto times, the floor price of Rabbitar NFTs on OpenSea is down 74.25 percent since launch.

In better news for the ageing brand, The Sandbox has stated that users will be able to snap up NFT land plots neighbouring the MetaMansion later this quarter. These should be in hot demand considering someone coughed up US$450,000 to be rapper Snoop Dogg’s virtual neighbour in The Sandbox-based Snoopverse last December.

Sebastien Borget, chief operations officer and co-founder of The Sandbox, endorsed the platform’s new collaborator with the following warm words:

Playboy is emblematic for its charm, lifestyle, and entertainment content that has transcended generations and [it] has already stepped into Web3 with early success.

Sebastien Borget, chief operations officer and co-founder, The Sandbox

Sandbox Up, SAND Down

The Sandbox has formed a procession of mainstream partnerships with various other popular figures and brands, including the Care Bears, Warner Music, the Walking Dead, Snoop Dogg, Deadmau5, Atari, the Smurfs and Adidas.

That said, the price of its token (SAND) is down 86.8 percent since its all-time high of US$8.40 in late November 2021. It would appear that both The Sandbox and Playboy remain undeterred, launching the MetaMansion in the depths of the current crypto bear market.

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Crypto News Crypto Wallets Gaming NFTs

GameStop Goes Live with its Much-Anticipated NFT Marketplace

American video game retail chain GameStop has officially launched its long-awaited Ethereum-based NFT marketplace.

The marketplace is running on both the Ethereum mainnet and layer-2 scaling solution Loopring and is hosting various artwork projects, with plans to branch into video games.

Another Start for GameStop

GameStop entered a partnership with Immutable X in February to guarantee future funding (in the form of IMX tokens) for its marketplace. A potential US$150 million in IMX has been negotiated but can only be accessed by GameStop once it reaches certain milestones.

For now, artworks are the only products on the marketplace; however, GameStop is set on the NFT gaming space and plans to bring NFTs to video games. The partnership with Immutable X has created a US$100 million token ‘grant’ fund in hopes of attracting game developers to the marketplace.

GameStop Now a Fully Fledged Crypto Player

In May 2021, GameStop announced development plans for an NFT platform on Ethereum and a new token ($GME). This move accelerated its evolution from a simple retail chain into the crypto industry proper.

Almost exactly a year later, GameStop launched its crypto and NFT wallet, branching further into the digital assets sector. It came in the form of an Ethereum-based browser extension, downloadable from the Chrome Web Store. The wallet is self-custodial and designed with the most recent marketplace addition in mind: