Category: NFTs

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Crypto News Ethereum NFTs Sports

Magnus Carlsen Awarded NFT Trophy For Chess Tournament Win

Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has been awarded the world’s first non-fungible token (NFT) chess trophy after winning the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour (MCCT).

The tournament minted a couple of NFT trophies and collectibles to preserve the game’s most defining moments. Carlsen has praised the crypto ecosystem for its support of virtual chess tournaments and cited MCCT’s recent partnership with the FTX crypto exchange, which allowed professional chess players to compete for a prize of 2.1825 bitcoin (BTC), worth approximately US$81,079.

Identical Signed Trophy Sells For 6.88 ETH

Carlsen’s trophy is one of two identical NFTs minted on the Ethereum blockchain. Both were signed by the grandmaster and auctioned off to collectors at the new Chess Champs digital marketplace.

The second NFT trophy has already sold for 6.88 Ethereum (ETH), worth US$24,750 at the time of purchase.

At the presentation, Carlsen spoke of his appreciation for NFTs and cryptos in general:


NFTs help the chess community celebrate great moments and possibly also reward those that have already invested so much time in growing the game. With Chess Champs, this is just getting started and I look forward to seeing it evolve. 

Magnus Carlsen

Before the chess trophy was unveiled, MCCT director Arne Horvei said: “For the first time in the history of chess we are going to provide a trophy that is an NFT-only trophy and, as far as I know, there is no other competition with professionals that has ever done that.”

To have NFT trophies and copies with a real trophy is one thing but to have an NFT-only trophy, as far as I know, we are the only one to have done that.

MCCT director Arne Horvei

NFTs: Bridging the Gap Between Sports and Digital Entertainment

The NFT market is still exploding and there is no sign it will stop any time soon. Current NFT use is only in buying and hoping the value increases, but a company called SynFutures is now allowing investors to short the booming industry.

Sports fans and collectors alike are loving NFTs. In Australia, and all over the globe, people are going crazy over sports NFT trading cards. The NFT market is taking full advantage of fans’ and collectors’ love of the industry, with many now offering sports trading cards that capture famous sporting moments as NFTs.

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ChainLink Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs Scams

Banned Convicted Art Forger Launches NFT Collection; Will It Succeed?

Convicted German art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi has entered the NFT world, launching his very own digital NFT museum. Beltracchi is recreating the world’s most expensive painting, da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, in the form of 4,606 NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.

Recreating “The Greats”

In a new project, aptly named “The Greats”, Beltracchi will be recreating – not forging – one of the most controversial paintings in art history.

Painted in whole or in part by Leonardo da Vinci between 1499-1510, Salvator Mundi was in 2017 sold at a Christie’s auction to a proxy for Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. It had been mistaken for a copy for the previous 500 years until the truth was finally revealed in 2011.

Salvator Mundi, believed to have been painted by da Vinci between 1499-1510.

According to The Greats’ website, the project will feature seven different takes on Salvator Mundi, based on the seven different eras of art history. Beltracchi is said to have redesigned the famous painting in 4,608 copies in his style.

The infamous forger conned the art world out of approximately 35 million euros between 1980 and 2011 before he was finally arrested by German authorities and sentenced to six years in prison, of which he served only three.

Since his incarceration, Beltracchi has been barred from exhibiting and selling his art by art museums, auction houses and galleries, hence his entry into the NFT market:

The NFT market offers artists a platform to market themselves independently and makes them independent from traditional art market mechanisms.

Wolfgang Beltracchi

Not all of the NFTs are currently exhibited on the website, with a spokesperson indicating they would only be revealed when the sale starts later this month.

In order to ensure the NFTs are not exploited, The Greats will be making a “hidden sale”. Chainlink’s Verifiable Random Function (VRF) will prevent buyers knowing which NFT they are minting.

Will Beltracchi Be Able to Pull It Off?

Confidence in NFT artists is not all that high of late, and many collectors are no doubt wondering if investing in the work of a convicted criminal is their best bet. Just last week, Crypto News Australia reported on the ‘Evolved Apes’ rug-pull in which investors lost a cool US$2.7 million.

Investors in Iconic Sol, an NFT project on the Solana blockchain, were also left in the lurch after the company failed to deliver several pieces of art and made off with US$500,000.

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Bitcoin Blockchain NFTs Tokens

Bitcoin NFTs Are Growing Fast, STX Token Up 57% in 24 Hours

The native cryptocurrency of Bitcoin-based smart contract blockchain Stacks (STX) exploded in market value this past week, following the growth in demand amid a booming NFT ecosystem. 

Giving the growing traction on the network, more from its NFTs marketplace, STX soared over 57 percent to $2.30 on October 10. At the time of writing, however, STX was down trading at $1.91 on CoinMarketCap, as Bitcoin (BTC) maintained its domination over major altcoins. Currently, the Stacks token is ranked the 58th-largest digital currency with a market capitalisation of around US$2.3 billion. 

LunarCRUSH had also confirmed STX as the top cryptocurrency with the highest social and market activity. 

Bitcoin NFTs Ecosystem is Booming 

The Bitcoin blockchain is mainly for facilitating transactions and doesn’t inherently support NFTs or smart contracts like Ethereum. While it is often criticised and downplayed for this, Stacks is looking to change the narrative. 

Based on Bitcoin, Stacks is poised to enable smart contracts on the BTC network, more like a “Layer 1.5” according to founder Muneeb Ali. More NFTs are now launching on the Bitcoin network through Stacks, which contributed to the demand in STX and overall traction on the network.

Bitcoin Birds was the latest Bitcoin NFT collection launched last week by 12-year-old Abraham Finley. The collection sold out within one hour, netting about US$8,000. Prior to the Bitcoin Birds, other NFTs have been released on the Stack marketplace, including Stacks Pops, Punks, Monks, and many others. Satoshibles NFTs are also planning on debuting on Bitcoin “where they truly belong”.

The NFT market has had a wide rally in the past few months and is starting to look lulled. SynFutures, a Singaporean decentralised derivatives exchange, is set to launch an NFT platform that will enable investors to short or bet against the price movements of NFTs. As the NFT world continues to advance, Twitter plans to integrate a verification tool for NFTs used as profile pictures.

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Crypto Art Crypto News Investing NFTs

The Future of Music? Fans Can Now Invest in Music NFTs and Share in the Royalties

Financial services company Republic has announced the launch of “Republic Music”, an investment product that claims to offer “an entirely new way to create, produce and share royalties from music”.

Not to be confused with Republic Records, a New York-based label owned by Universal, Republic Music has partnered with crypto company Opulous to give fans the chance to “invest in the music they love for as little as US$100 and share in the rights to royalties”.

The idea is based on S-NFTs, or Security NFTs. The cryptosphere likes to argue that NFTs are not securities as such, as in the US they are subject to regulation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). But Republic views S-NFTs as a kind of security that can be invested in with the expectation of future profit.

The songs are going to be placed in an LLC, and you will be a member of the LLC. You will have a share of ownership in that song, and a right to the royalty on the back end.

Pialy Aditya, chief strategy officer, Republic

S-NFTs are overseen by the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the finance industry’s self-regulatory body. Thus US-based investors will have to comply with relevant know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations to be able to get a piece of the action.

This hinges on Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF), which allows private companies to raise up to US$5 million from non-accredited investors.

Rapper Lil Pump Rides Republic’s First Wave

According to a Republic press release, “As part of the first wave of planned releases, [US rapper] Lil Pump is offering fans and investors the opportunity to be part of his forthcoming single Mona Lisa (feat. Soulja Boy), produced by Jimmy Duval.”

Rapper Lil Pump, first cat off the Republic rank. Source: vulture.com

Republic considers its music platform a “vertical” of its primary investment business, and is planning several other verticals geared toward fractional investments in different aspects of the creator economy.

In the new world order, early supporters are going to be rewarded, the artists are going to get paid and the community is going to grow stronger.

Pialy Aditya, chief strategy officer, Republic

More than six months ago, Crypto News Australia reported how some artists were considering directly offering their music in the form of tokenised products sold on DeFi marketplaces, rather than having it handled by traditional third parties such as record companies. It’s taken this long to start to become a reality.

Earlier this month, TikTok announced its series of NFT collectibles in collaboration with celebrity partners including US rapper Lil Nas X, Canadian musician/producer Grimes and NFT entrepreneur Gary ‘Vee’ Vaynerchuk.

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Crypto News Fantasy Sports NFTs Sports

Sorare Fantasy Football Partners with German Bundesliga

Sorare is back at it again, this time signing another partnership deal with the major German football league, Bundesliga, as well as Bundesliga 2. The deal will also debut the video-type Bundesliga “NFT Moments” on the platform.

Deal Follows Partnership with La Liga

Sorare, one of the major players in the non-fungible token (NFT) sports space, has added its second high-profile football league to a growing list of partners. The deal will allow fans to play and trade with new NFTs from Bundesliga (first division) and Bundesliga 2 (second division), with the collectibles poised to launch by the end of this month.

After announcing its partnership with La Liga on September 9 and with its newest German addition, Sorare now represents over 200 clubs, a major breakthrough as it approaches its goal of partnering with the top 20 leagues in the world.

The Bundesliga is one of the best leagues in the world, home to some of the most exciting clubs and footballers on Earth […] We are very proud to partner with them to launch our first NFT Moments – we are building the future of fandom together.

Nicolas Julia, Sorare CEO

Bundesliga Moments Launch in 2022

Sorare Bundesliga Moments will be launched in 2022 with the company also stating that “if there is a moment from the current Bundesliga season that you think deserves its [own] NFT, let us know on Twitter using #SorareMoments”, giving fans direct input into the minting of NFTs.

Player Pool Expands Along With the Company

Players who want to experiment with their fantasy football teams now have many to pick from with the addition of world-class football clubs such as Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Wolfsburg and Union Berlin. The platform also stated that at the moment there are no immediate plans to release Bundesliga 2 cards.

The Bundesliga holds the accolade for the highest average attendance in football stadiums. The German football league generated approximately US$4.5 billion in revenue during its 2020-21 season, reflecting fans’ commitment to their favourite clubs.

As the company expands, adding more clubs to its list of partners in Sorare’s fantasy football game also expands the pool of players users can choose from to add to their fantasy football teams. Last month, Sorare raised US$680 million in a series B funding round for the project.

We are delighted to be partners with such a dynamic and exciting company. NFTs are a digital technology of the future that should not be underestimated – especially in the sport sector. I am therefore convinced that this collaboration will give rise to further impulses.

Robert Klein, CEO, Bundesliga International
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Crypto Art Crypto News DeFi Investing NFTs

Think the NFT Market is Overheated? Now You Can Short It

Singapore-based decentralised derivatives exchange SynFutures is launching NFTures, a product that will allow users to short, or bet against, the future prices of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) such as CryptoPunks.

Holding NFTs and hoping their value increases so you can resell them for a profit is currently the only way you can make anything out of them. Many are questioning the value of NFTs, with the tokens serving no purpose besides being able to be bought or sold.

SynFutures is looking to change the way we derive profit from NFTs.

The Mania Continues

NFTs have realised immense growth in recent months, generating US$10.7 billion in trading volume during Q3, a staggering increase of 704 percent on the previous quarter. Projects like EtherRock, CryptoPunks, and Bored Ape Yacht Club have generated sales worth millions of dollars. Earlier this month, internet personality and investor Gary “Gary Vee” Vaynerchuk sold a handful of NFT doodles worth more than pieces from famous artists such as Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock.

SynFutures is getting on the NFT train with NFTures, a product targeted toward retail investors. It uses a similar user interface to dating app Tinder in an effort to streamline the trading process, while at the same time bringing game-like elements and leverage to NFT markets.

NFTures is a decentralised protocol based on SynFutures’ existing synthetic automatic market maker (sAMM) model to match its competitors.

NFTures user interface. Source: SynFutures

Allowing Users to Maximise Profits

Rachel Lin, CEO and co-founder of SynFutures, said of the new venture:

Every healthy financial market needs a way for participants to take both sides of the market, and NFTs are no exception … By providing a way for users to take long or short positions in NFTs, we’re enabling more robust trading strategies that allow users to maximise profit opportunities while hedging risk and exposure.

Rachel Lin, CEO and co-founder, SynFutures

The company explained further in a statement that: “Those who wanted to speculate on downward trends had to bet against entire markets, shorting the native tokens of NFT-centric products like Axie Infinity ($AXS) and SupeRare ($RARE).

“With NFTures, SynFutures has created an intuitive platform for traders to long or short specific NFTs at any time and take advantage of better price discovery.”

The Risk Remains as NFT Market Continues to Grow

NFTures’ contracts are based on spot price oracles from decentralised exchanges such as SushiSwap and Uniswap, along with NFT fractionalisation protocols including Fractional and Unic.ly.

As with traditional futures markets, the spot and futures prices converge on a set periodic schedule.

Risks of oracle price manipulation remain a concern for many as the budding NFT market continues to grow in size and liquidity. Product designer and Coinbase investor Bobby Goodlatte took to Twitter to provide his take on the future of NFTs:

Albeit with some concerns, NFTures highlights the renewed interest in NFT-related DeFi projects, including the tokenisation of physical assets and NFT-backed collateralised lending. As the popularity of DeFi increases, investors are looking to seize niche markets within the industry.

Earlier this year, SynFutures raised US$14 million in a Series A funding round led by Polychain Capital. Investors included Pantera Capital, Bybit, Framework Ventures, Kronos, and IOSG Ventures. SynFutures indicated that it aims to focus its entire platform on derivatives and wants to eliminate the barriers to entry to the derivatives market.

Lin has stated that SynFutures’ overall goal is to “democratise the futures market”, and added:

We’re aiming to level the playing field for the average investor by cultivating a free and open market for derivatives trading.

Lauren Stephanian of Pantera Capital also said:

NFT-specific derivatives products will add more depth to the nascent NFT market, just as options and futures contracts play an important role in established financial markets.

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Crypto News NFTs Scams

Developer Behind ‘Evolved Apes’ NFT Project Makes Off With $2.7 Million

A non-fungible token (NFT) project on the OpenSea marketplace has been hit by a rug-pull of note, with the developer running away with US$2.7 million and leaving the community to rebuild from the ruins.

Found on the OpenSea NFT marketplace, the project is described as “a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs trapped inside a lawless land […] fighting for survival, only the strongest ape will prevail”, referring to the project’s hyped fighting game, which never materialised.

A week after the launch of the Evolved Apes NFT project, the developer, aptly named Evil Ape, vanished along with the project’s funds, which were siphoned in multiple transactions.

The Great NFT Rug Pull

The funds, attained from the initial public sale of NFTs and commissions on the secondary market, which were meant for project-related expenses, were stolen by the developer. Along with the disappearance of 798 ETH (US$2.7 million), the project’s official Twitter page and website have also been taken down.

An investor in the project who chose to remain anonymous stated that there were several red flags after the public sale that took place on September 24. Some of the main leaders vanished and communication with the community became conspicuous and unprofessional.

Investors active on the project’s Discord server contacted Mike_Cryptobull, who spent 3 ETH (around US$10,200) on 20 Evolved Apes, and was appointed as their existing investigator for the situation. According to Mike_Cryptobull, winners of the social media competition never received their prizes and the artists went unpaid.

What has happened is that Evil Ape has washed his hands of the project, taking away the wallet with all the ETH from minting that was to be used for everything from paying the artist, paying out cash giveaways, paying for marketing, paying for rarity tools, developing the game and everything else in between.

Mike_Cryptobull

Community Fights Back 

Even though the money is gone, the Evolved Apes community plans to carry on. Unlike with cryptocurrencies, NFT rug pulls leave behind JPEGs and a narrative surrounding them. Mike_Cryptobull explained in the report that he and others would build a new project called Fight Back Apes out of the ashes of Evolved Apes.

The new community notified Evolved Apes holders that they would be automatically approved for a Fight Back Apes token linked with the art from the old project:

We will become the Fight Back Apes, fighting as a community against our nemesis, Evil Ape.

Mike_Cryptobull

New Community to Use Multisig Wallet

Evolved Apes used a single signature wallet, allowing Evil Ape to manage the wallet as he saw fit without consensus from the community or other leaders. In opposition to that, Fight Back Apes stated they will be using a multi-signature wallet to ensure something similar doesn’t happen.

However, that doesn’t stop leaders from colluding and pulling a fast one again. Investors in new projects should keep in mind the golden rule of doing your own research (DYOR).

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Crypto Art NFTs

Gary Vee’s Hand-Drawn Doodles Net $1.2 Million, Outselling Warhol and Pollock

It’s pretty clear that NFT season is well and truly under way, but who would have thought that a handful of childlike doodles from an internet personality and investor could outsell iconic artists including Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock?

Gary Vaynerchuk (known as Gary Vee) has done just that.

Gary Vee’s Empathetic Elephant hand-drawing sold for US$412,500. Source: Christies

Gary Vee’s “VeeFriends”

In May this year, Gary Vee launched “VeeFriends“, an NFT platform that aimed to offer token owners access to exclusive events “focused around business, marketing, ideas, creativity, entrepreneurship, innovation, competition and of course, fun”.

“VeeFriends” is a 286-piece collection of animals hand-drawn doodles by Vaynerchuk himself which he has turned into a collection of 10,255 NFTs. According to Vee, the animals represent human traits that he most admires and that lead to “happiness and success”.

To date it has been a roaring success, fuelled no doubt by the strength of Vee’s celebrity status. Total sales to date since its mid-year launch exceed US$90 million, with the floor price currently sitting at 14.65 ETH (US$49,300).

Vee Dominates Christie’s Auction

In a Christie’s auction in New York this past week, Vee sold five paper versions of his hand-drawn doodles, each for over US$100,000, bringing in a total of US$1.26 million.

Up for sale were the hard copy versions of Empathetic Elephant, Gratitude Gorilla, “Diamond Hands” Hen, “You’re Gonna Die” Fly, and Tremendous Tiger. Emphatic Elephant achieved the highest selling price of US$412,500.

Gary Vee’s Tremendous Tiger hand-drawing sold for US$237,500. Source: Christies

I grew up with collectibles, antiques and sports cards … My mom and dad were into that stuff too, and they would have been intimidated even walking into Christie’s two decades ago and now their son is selling stuff in it … It’s the American dream.

Gary Vaynerchuk

An ‘Uncomfortable’ and ‘Humbling’ Experience

Vaynerchuk described the experience as “a paradigm shift” and when asked about his doodles outselling many prominent artists, he responded it was “uncomfortable” and “humbling”.

The real question that remains to be answered is to what extent these prices are a product of mania, strong marketing and/or the celebrity status of the “artist”?

Overall, the auction provided a fascinating account of the inter-relationship between analogue (paper) and digital (NFT) art. For many, analogue is still preferable, as reported by Crypto News Australia in August when a paper-based Steve Jobs job application fetched 15 times the NFT sale price.

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Blockchain Crypto Art NFTs Scams Solana

Alleged 17-Year-Old Artist Sells Fake NFTs in $500,000 RugPull

Iconic Sol, an NFT project on the Solana blockchain, has apparently rugged its investors after failing to deliver several artwork pieces and disappearing with US$500,000.

A 17-year-old 3D artist is presumed to be behind the project. The teenager promised to deliver 8,000 NFT artworks on the project’s Discord channel and some of the tokens were supposed to be available in an October 1 presale. A total of 2,000 NFTs were up for grabs at a price of 0.5 SOL, many of them selling out quickly. 

The presale generated the anonymous artist 1,000 SOL, or US$138,000, but the estimated amount of stolen funds is over half a million dollars. The event was reported by SOL Big Brain, a popular member of the Solana NFT community:

Data from Solana Explorer shows the person(s) behind the project has already sent the money to different addresses. And just as concerning for investors, instead of receiving the NFTs the artist sent them a bunch of random emojis.

Beware of Fake and Non-Existent NFTs

This is probably the first rugpull on the Solana network. But it’s hard to say as controversy still surrounds a previous Solana project backed by American rapper Lil Uzi called Eternal Beings, whose floor price plunged after the rapper deleted his Twitter posts regarding the project.

Fake and non-existing NFTs are becoming an increasing concern in the DeFi space. As Crypto News Australia reported, last month an NFT collector paid almost US$500,000 worth of ETH for an NFT that never existed.

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Blockchain Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs Social media Tokens

‘TikTok Top Moments’ NFTs Launch Featuring Lil Nas X and Grimes

TikTok is set to release a series of NFT collectibles with celebrity partners including American rapper Lil Nas X, Canadian musician/producer Grimes and NFT entrepreneur Gary ‘Vee’ Vaynerchuk.

TikTok Passes One Billion Active Users

The hugely popular Chinese video-sharing and social media app, which now boasts more than one billion monthly active users worldwide, will issue six different NFT drops based on what it terms “culturally significant” videos shared on the service.

Rapper Lil Nas X leads the TikTok NFT rollout. Source: Billboard magazine

The TikTok Top Moments collection kicks off on October 6 with Lil Nas X as the subject of the first drop, with an NFT based on a TikTok video by Seattle-based artist Rudy Willingham. The video, a stop-motion tribute to the rapper’s Montero (Call Me By Your Name) music video, has already garnered millions of interactions via the service.

Subsequent ‘Moments’ in the collection will feature Gary Vee, social media personality Bella Poarch, and musician Grimes, who in March this year sold her crypto art NFT collection for US$6 million.

NFT ‘pioneer’ artist Grimes features in the Moments collection. Source: foxnews.com

TikTok will offer both one-off and larger “limited edition” runs of its NFT collectibles. Other artists in the pipeline include Brittany Broski (aka Kombucha Girl), rappers Curtis Roach and FNMeka, and TikTok video regular Jess Marciante.

TikTok plans to showcase all six of its one-off videos at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York, this month.

NFTs Minted on Immutable X

The NFTs will be minted on Immutable X, a layer-2 scaling solution that runs on top of Ethereum. Immutable X attracts lower transaction fees and faster completion times than Ethereum’s mainnet, plus it uses significantly less energy than Ethereum’s proof-of-work consensus model.

The first six months of 2021 have seen some US$2.5 billion worth of trading volume across the top NFT marketplaces. Since then, however, leading marketplace OpenSea has recorded more than US$3.4 billion in volume in August alone.

That same month, Audius, a music streaming platform on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains, partnered with TikTok to create TikTok Sounds. As a result, the $AUDIO token surged 200 percent.

All very ironic when you consider that just a month earlier, TikTok banned its users from promoting crypto-related financial products and services and also prohibited ads relating to crypto.