It seems there’s just no end to pump-and-dump scams for useless meme-based tokens. This time, McDonald’s is guilty of promoting a joke coin based on its fluffy purple McDonaldland character, Grimace.
In a January 26 tweet (above) replying to Elon Musk, the fast-food company joked that if Tesla were to accept payments in Grimacecoin, then it would take Musk up on his offer to eat a Happy Meal on TV if McDonald’s would accept Dogecoin. Then the madness began.
Musk Sparks Grimace-Themed Buying Frenzy
Shortly after the tweet, several Grimacecoin-themed tokens were created across a handful of different blockchains by crypto opportunists wanting to cash in on the buying frenzy that followed.
On the Binance Smart Chain (BSC)-based DEX PancakeSwap, the Grimace token surged as much as 285,641 percent in a matter of hours. Trading started at US$0.0007 and reached U$2 before plummeting to US$0.60. It managed to reach a market capitalisation of nearly U$2 million at its peak and somewhat surprisingly hasn’t yet crashed to zero, bouncing between US$1 and US$1.40 at the time of writing. There are currently 2,005 addresses holding Grimace, according to BSCscan.
Poocoin.app Grimace/BNB. Source: TradingView
None of the Grimace tokens has anything to do with McDonald’s officially. On the BSC network alone, there were 10 different Grimacecoins. Other networks with Grimace-themed tokens included Polygon, Ethereum, Avalanche and Fantom, which all surged as apes rushed in.
Some Investors Will Literally Buy Anything
The launch of Grimacecoin shows that some crypto investors really will buy just about anything, even a token that has zero fundamental value or purpose whatsoever.
The power Elon Musk has over hyping the crypto market is quite ludicrous. Whenever Musk mentions anything about Dogecoin, for example, it causes the price to pump. Similarly, his comments around whether or not Tesla would accept payments in Bitcoin also set the charts off in one direction or another. It’s interesting, if not downright concerning.
Tokenised real estate is now a reality thanks to NFTs. The global real estate store Propy offers a faster, simpler and more secure process for buying and selling property through smart contracts.
On January 14, Coinbase announced it would list Propy (PRO) on its website’s blog. Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US and the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume globally.
Propy is a project focused on expanding the functionality of NFTs beyond the digital art world. The Ethereum-based protocol integrates blockchain technology with the real estate sector and offers an automated closing process for international real estate transactions.
The PRO token is used to pay for platform fees to process tasks such as modifying and creating title and deed contracts. Read the whitepaper here.
First Real Estate NFT in the US
Along with the recent Coinbase listing, Propy has an upcoming sale in Tampa, Florida, which will be the first real estate NFT sale in the US. These two factors appear to have boosted the price of the PRO token:
PRO was worth US$1.12 on January 12 before news of the Coinbase listing. The price moved 227 percent to hit a daily high at US$3.67 on January 14 and has since continued to climb beyond US$4.00. The token has ballooned by an impressive 5192.6 percent in just one year and is still climbing the ranks, currently sitting at #257.
The Secret Network (SCRT) has seen considerable price movement since the launch of its new bundle of upgrades, Shockwave, aiming to improve the network and get more builders on the chain.
Shockwave Ripples Through the Down-Market
After launching its new upgrade on January 12, SCRT has seen a near 65 per cent rally in the past seven days from a low of US$5.6 to $9.34 at the time of writing, fighting against the current down-market.
The announcement has sparked interest in those who want to both invest and build on the privacy-centric chain, with its US$65 million total value locked (TVL) and total market value of US$1.3 billion at the time of writing.
SCRT 7-day price movement: CoinMarketCap
Adoption and growth are SCRT’s major focus for 2022 and could have a further positive impact on the price. There is also more potential upside after the SCRT token’s listing on FTX, giving it exposure to the major US exchange’s large client base:
The endgame of Shockwave is to turn Secret Network into cryptocurrency’s privacy-preserving hub, something that’s made possible thanks to Secret’s use of Cosmos’s IBC.
CoinBureau
With Web 3 security and privacy at its heart, SCRT has its eyes on expanding the ecosystem, with the project showcasing some major actions planned in 2022. The chain wants to create funding and incubation opportunities while empowering developers with better tools and support. In so doing, the community can grow and empower itself with a vast array of functionality at its fingertips.
According to Secret’s blog, the network has set the following goals for the first half of 2022:
get 100 new projects building in the Secret ecosystem;
have hundreds of thousands of new users onboarding onto Secret Apps; and
launch multiple Secret Apps achieving 10,000+ active users.
Not wanting to miss out on the multi-trillion-dollar metaverse market, US-based retail giant Walmart is pressing on with its plans to make and sell virtual goods.
The world’s second-largest retailer (recently outranked by Amazon) is planning to launch a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and create its own cryptocurrency.
New Trademark Applications Show Metaverse Intent
On December 30, Walmart filed several new trademarks that indicate its intent to build a virtual Walmart store within the metaverse and allow users to shop for electronics, home decorations, personal care items, toys, sporting goods, and a range of other products available in Walmart stores, offering its own virtual currency as a means of payment.
Walmart trademark application.
Walmart even has plans to offer a crypto wallet, described in its trademark application as: “Downloadable software for use in managing portfolios of digital currency, virtual currency, cryptocurrency, digital and blockchain assets, digitised assets, digital tokens, crypto tokens, and utility tokens; downloadable software for electronic wallet services; downloadable e-wallets.”
Source: Gerben Intellectual Property
Shopping in Walmart in the Metaverse
Watch the video below to get a glimpse of what shopping in Walmart in the Metaverse might look like:
The buzz around the metaverse went ballistic after Facebook announced it was changing its company name to Meta last October. Since then, big businesses across different sectors have been amping up their own efforts for how they can adapt to exist in a virtual 3D world.
Nike entered the Metaverse after acquiring the virtual sneaker company RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”) and teaming up with Roblox to create an online world called Nikeland, following other big sports footwear names such as Adidas and Asics who had already launched their own NFT collections last year.
Many other big brands are also racing to stake their claim in the metaverse. Last week, Crypto News Australia reported that Samsung will open a virtual store hosted in Decentraland. The metaverse is becoming the future frontier for retailers and promises a whole new world of financial opportunities.
Introducing Flyfish Club: the world’s first private dining experience where VIP membership is purchased on the blockchain and owned by the token holder. The premier dining destination in New York City will only be accessible by owners of Flyfish NFT tokens.
NFTs are not just all about trading digital art. Longtime startup investor and NFT enthusiast Gary Vaynerchuk (above) is the first crypto entrepreneur to create a members-only restaurant through Flyfish Club NFTs.
There [are] so many variables that come along with NFT life that people don’t think about, that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about. We want to create incredible value for the people that are part of this process.
Gary Vaynerchuk
The team behind the Flyfish club is a company founded by Vaynerchuk – VCR group is a collective of operators and hospitality professionals who say they thrive on creating something innovative for the restaurant industry, something “fresh and fun” that has never been done before.
Adopting NFTs for VIP-only access turns club membership into an asset for those who join the Flyfish community. The NFT membership model creates an extra level of exclusivity for those seeking the high-end fine dining experience.
Flyfish Membership NFTs Sold Out
All Flyfish NFTs that went on sale through the Flyfish website have (unsurprisingly, given Vaynerchuk’s popularity) already sold out. There are two different levels of membership that will allow token holders access to the restaurant when it officially opens its doors in 2023.
The two Flyfish Club membership tiers
1. The Flyfish Token: All 2,650 Flyfish NFTs sold for 2.5 ETH each. Members can access the cocktail room, the restaurant with its outdoor space and skyline views of Manhattan, as well as admission to events (both physical and virtual).
2. The Flyfish Omakase Token: All 385 Flyfish Omakase NFTs sold for 4.25 ETH each. Members can access everything Flyfish Token holders can, plus the “Omakase experience” – dining in the private Omakase Room (with one guest), with meals curated by one of the best sushi masters in the country.
Read more about how it works on the Flyfish club website.
Vaynerchuk is the creator of the NFT project VeeFriends, which offers token holders access to exclusive events “focused around business, marketing, ideas, creativity, entrepreneurship, innovation, competition and of course, fun”.
The Cosmos blockchain (ATOM), one of the OGs in the space, has seen exceptional growth in the past month through the sea of red washing over the market, thanks to its cross-chain approach and new decentralised exchange (DEX).
A Cross-Chain Future for Cosmos
Cosmos is a community-owned and operated blockchain, and one could say it functions as a layer 0 on which other blockchains can be built and liquidity shared between chains. Cosmos can connect and exchange data and assets with other sovereign blockchains; this is made possible by using the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC).
This technology is now being used to connect various blockchains and is considered “the safest and most secure and decentralised way to move assets across different blockchains, unlocking interoperability across multiple chains”.
1/ We are glad to announce that we have approved a grant for @datachain_en to build a bridge between Harmony & @cosmos.
Datachain’s experience in building interoperability solutions using trustless intermediaries is peerless.
During the past month, the ATOM token has soared close to 90 percent from just over US$21 on December 14 to around $40.83 at the time of writing. With an estimated US$162 billion in digital assets under management and 262+ dApps and services, the chain is poised for further growth.
As more chains are bridged, the total trading volume will increase. Since the release of cross-chain bridges that connect the Cosmos (ATOM) ecosystem with other Ethereum (ETH) Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible networks, the trading volume has expanded considerably.
OSMO price and DEX trading volume. Source: Token Terminal
Ups and Downs for Osmosis
Osmosis (OSMO) is one of the first DEXs to service chains connected through the IBC, and has already begun benefiting from its position. One week ago it was in the top 3 DEXs, however, at the time of writing, the exchange had gone down to rank 12th.
OSMO’s massive increase in trading volume has also been one of the factors causing the price to surge 81 percent from a low of US$4.05 on December 17 to a new all-time high of US$9.57 on January 12.
Animoca Brands subsidiary Lympo has suffered a breach that cost the minter of sports non-fungible tokens (NFTs) close to US$19 million worth of its native token, LMT.
Hackers broke into Lympo’s systems on January 10 and drained 165.2 million LMT, worth US$18.7 million at the time. Since then, the value of the token has plunged 92 percent, though blockchain security company PeckShield claims it could be more than 99 percent:
According to a post from the Lympo team, 10 different project wallets were compromised in the attack. Most of the stolen tokens were sent to a single address, exchanged for Ether on Uniswap and SushiSwap, then diverted elsewhere.
Liquidity Removed to ‘Minimise Price Disruption’
In a later tweet, the team also stated that it had removed liquidity LMT from liquidity pools to “minimise disruption to token prices”:
#Lympo provides an update on the $LMT token slippage and hacking that occurred on January 10th at approximately 12:32 pm UTC. We're working on stabilizing the situation and resuming all operations back to normal.https://t.co/i07w5zoOwW@animocabrands
Removing liquidity from pools means traders will be unable to buy or sell any significant amount of the tokens without experiencing a dramatic loss of value on their trade.
Lympo advised traders that most of the LMT reserve sits in so-called cold wallets that are disconnected from the internet. These were unaffected by the attack.
We are investigating the incident and how we can make up for it for our community. At this point, we recommend not buying or selling additional LMT tokens.
Lympo post on Twitter
Second Hot Wallet Hack in a Week
Lympo is a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based game software and venture capital company. According to Animoca CEO Yat Siu, “We are working with Lympo to assist them on a recovery plan, but we don’t have any specific mechanisms.”
Through 2021 into 2022, the excitement in decentralised finance (DeFi) has shifted to the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) market. These NFTs can be created from a piece of digital or real art, an in-game asset or represent value of pretty much anything.
NFTs can even be used to wrap other assets inside a smart vault (such as crypto tokens or a collection of NFTs). The marriage between NFTs and DeFi really is a match made in heaven, and together they are changing the face of finance and revolutionising the way we invest and trade digital assets.
What is a Yield NFT Protocol?
NFTs in their basic form do not earn yield, however when they are used to mint tokens and add to liquidity pools for DeFi, they can earn passive income often at high percentage returns. As DeFi and NFTs are absolutely booming right now, it’s good to know what’s out there and how you could be earning free money.
There are several projects that offer ROI opportunities if you hold NFTs. Here is a list of the 10 best yield-earning NFT DeFiplatforms that let you make money with NFTs:
1. NFTX
NFTX: A community-owned protocol for NFT index funds on Ethereum
NFTX is an innovative platform that allows users to create liquid markets for illiquid non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It allows the creation of ERC20 tokens pegged to NFT tokens. Users can deposit their NFTs into an NFTX vault and mint a fungible ERC20 token (vToken) that represents a claim on a random asset from within the vault. vTokens can be used to redeem a specific NFT from a vault. If you deposit a Punk, you get an ERC20 Punk. You can always redeem the ERC20 Punk for a random same category Punk. The ERC20 tokens are tradeable on Balancer pool PUNK- CORE. If you provide liquidity to the pool, you earn fees. So, NFTX enables you to get instant liquidity from your NFTs without having to sell them.
Benefits include:
LP and stake minted vTokens to earn yield rewards;
better distribution and price discovery for NFT projects;
instantly sell any NFT by minting it as an ERC20 and swapping via Sushiswap; and
increased liquidity for NFT investors and speculators.
NFTX allows owners to mint their NFT collections and earn yield while also offering pieces of those NFTs for sale as fractionalised tokens – allowing multiple investors to co-own a piece of the digital art. So, for example, if you wanted to buy a CryptoPunk but can’t afford it, you could just buy a portion of one instead. By doing this you can be part of the Punk/ETH liquidity pool and earn a staking APR % without having to own a whole Punk outright. At the time of writing, the APR on staking a Punk was 284.38%.
The NFTX project is a DAO governed by the $NFTX token. For NFTX minting tutorials, visit docs.nftx.org. Watch the NFTX: Fractionalised NFT investing video below to learn more:
2. Charged Particles
Charged Particles is a blockchain agnostic interest-bearing NFT and DeFi protocol.
Charged Particles is an innovative NFT minting platform that allows users to deposit any ERC tokens into any non-fungible token (NFT). NFTs can also hold other NFTs! Users can create an NFT that acts as a container for DeFi yield earning tokens, or create multi-tier NFT game assets with several items encapsulated in one single token. The possibilities are literally endless.
If you want, you can combine multiple NFTs and create a new NFT collection set on the platform. A scarce NFT (eg, art, collectibles, virtual real estate, in-game items, etc) can now be transformed into a basket holding a number of other tokens. You can fuse an interest-bearing token like ‘aDai’ with your scarce NFT, configure principal and program interest. The platform is absolutely NFT agnostic, so you decide what will be your charged particle. Customisable time-locks and programmable yield offer infinite abilities for creativity.
Charged Particles is a DAO governed by the $IONX token. To read more on Charged Particles, go to docs.charged.fi. Watch the video below to learn more about what you can do on the Charged Particles platform:
3. DeFiFarms
DeFiFarms is the First NFT-enhanced DeFi Yield Farm!
DeFiFarms is an NFTs protocol, powerful automaticliquidity acquisition yieldfarm and AMM decentralised exchange running on Binance Smart Chain. The governance token of the platform is $DEFIY.
NFTs are the new financial technology. The potential of NFTs and the ERC-721 standard in DeFi is endless. DEFIY’s goal is to be a pioneer and one of the first to have this potential be seen by the masses. The cryptosphere moves fast, and before anyone knows it NFTs will be implemented in every new DeFi project.
DeFiFarms uses NFTs to wrap your stake, which you can burn to unstake or simply sell on the DeFiFarms marketplace. This can mitigate impermanent loss if you deem selling the NFT would earn you more than leaving it staked.
Compared to other crypto projects on the market today, here’s what makes DeFiFarms different:
Automatic Liquidity
Automatic Burning Mechanism
Harvest Lock
Anti-Whale
Redistribution of deposit costs
Affiliate Marketing Program
Incentives when Trading
Watch the What is DeFiFarms video below to learn more:
4. Meme
Farm limited edition NFTs
MEME is an experimental protocol mashing up some of the most exciting innovations in DeFi and crypto collectibles. Put your $MEME to work by farming exclusive NFT memes. Stake LP tokens for access to Meme’s batch of legendary cards.
Meme is a passionate community experimenting at the intersection of DeFi and NFTs. Users can stake meme tokens to earnrewards and claim limited-edition NFT art and collectibles. When you stake $MEME tokens, you farm pineapples. When you have farmed enough pineapples you can redeem them for NFTs. Pineapples are non-transferable, and are only redeemable for NFTs on the Meme marketplace. Users can also stake NFTs they already own on Meme, from partner projects, to farm pineapples and claim more NFTs.
$MEME is the native token for Meme.
5. SuperFarm
SuperFarm is a passionate community building at the intersection of NFTs and DeFi
SuperFarm empowers NFT creators, collectors and traders to participate in an NFT marketplace that is open and accessible to all.
Currently Super Farm only has an NFT launchpad and NFT farming available, but the roadmap for 2022 includes NFT generation, an NFT marketplace and trading.
Bonus: Sidus, The City of NFT Heroes
Sidus is a play-to-earn gaming model that brings NFT collectibles and yield farming together under one metaverse
NFT Heroes is a collection of 7,500 unique NFTavatars. Users can buy Original NFT Heroes for 0.055 ETH each. Heroes must modify their stats and equipment to create Rare Heroes and Legendary Heroes NFTs through upgrade cards that randomly appear on the project’s website and OpenSea.io once a week.
Gaming Metaverse
The game allows users to be involved in the creative process by customising their own NFT Heroes. Each avatar is its owner’s ticket into the NFT ecosystem, where they can craft, play, trade and earn. The game includes fighting battles, in the same vein as Mortal Kombat.
NFT Yield Farming
Sidus offers Galaxy staking in three tiers: Original, Rare and Legendary. By stakingNFTs, NFT Heroes can farmNFTStokens, which is the native token of the NFT marketplace NFT STARS. These tokens can be used to upgrade players avatars’ armour and buy weapons. Heroes will have real value and provide owners with the opportunity to sell multiple assets simultaneously on the marketplace.
Sidus NFT Heroes were created by NFT256 and include more than 500 artists previously involved in Disney, Sony and Marvel projects. To read more, visit the project’s medium page.
Bonus 2: Star Atlas
Star Atlas is a grand strategy game of space exploration, territorial conquest, political domination, and more
Star Atlas is a virtual gaming metaverse that combines blockchain technology, real-time graphics, and multiplayer video games to offer a unique gaming experience. Not only is Star Atlas enjoyable to play, but it gives players the opportunity to generate real-world revenue by earning in-game tokens and selling unique NFT assets.
Star Atlas is a grand strategy hybrid space game with serverless MMO gameplay. All gameplay will be real-time, and it will use the blockchain to give players ownership over in-game items, add economic-based gameplay mechanics, and implement an economic system inspired by decentralised finance. The game’s governance token is POLIS. Star Atlas is built on the Solana blockchain. To learn more, read the medium here.
What do Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather and Paul Pierce have in common? They’re all getting sued by an aggrieved investor over an alleged Ethereum Max (EMAX) pump-and-dump scheme.
Another Pump and Dump Endorsed by Celebrities?
In a lawsuit filed in the US District Court of California’s Central District, the plaintiff argues that EMAX co-founders Steve Gentile and Giovanni Perone promoted the currency with the help of celebrities such as reality star Kardashian, professional boxer Mayweather, and former NBA basketballer Pierce. As per the filing:
EthereumMax’s entire business model relies on using constant marketing and promotional activities, often from ‘trusted’ celebrities, to dupe potential investors into trusting the financial opportunities available with EMAX tokens.
On May 31, 2021, EMAX’s price peaked at peaked at a price of US$0.000000597636 following the continuous endorsement of these celebrities via Instagram, Twitter, and other social networks. But it dropped over 80 percent in just 11 days.
After the massive drop, its price experienced a few bullish rallies in June after Kim Kardashian promoted the token on her Instagram, but that didn’t stop the token from falling again. In total, the token has lost 97 percent of its value.
Kim Kardashian's EthereumMax post from June 14, 2021, which she is now being sued for. pic.twitter.com/cqJXBlbZFq
While the plaintiff and the rest of investors were buying EMAX, Kardashian and the other celebrities were already selling for considerable profits.
Price history of the EMAX token. Source: CoinGecko
Be Wary of Coins Promoted by Celebrities
Newcomers to the crypto space should be wary when watching celebrities backing up digital tokens from shady developers. These types of currencies are known as “shitcoins” – worthless tokens with no proper infrastructure behind their design, they are rather made to dupe potential investors out of a lot of money.
The developers behind these shitcoins usually promote their product on popular social media platforms such as TikTok or Instagram. In July 2021, former YouTube star Logan Paul was slammed for promoting a shitcoin called DINK DOINK to his 23 million followers on Twitter.
That same month, Crypto News Australia also reported how TikTok had banned users from promoting all things crypto-related on its video-sharing platform, also banning crypto ads.
Upstart NFT platform LooksRare launched this week in the hope of providing an alternative to OpenSea. The project is built around the LOOKS token, which is being granted to big NFT spenders.
— LooksRare 👀💎 – NFT Marketplace (@LooksRareNFT) January 10, 2022
The LooksRare platform went live on January 10 as more and more marketplaces come together to try to take on the current market leader of NFT platforms. OpenSea saw massive growth in 2021, upping its value by 880 percent from 2020 following its latest fundraising round.
Launched by two pseudonymous co-founders, Zodd and Guts, LooksRare claims to be a community-focused marketplace that aims to develop new features based on what its users want. According to a blog post by the marketplace, it indexes all NFTs that exist on the Ethereum blockchain so they can be traded right away. Offers can already be made on the NFTs. LooksRare also allows its users to buy and sell NFTs with ether or wrapped ether, or a mix of both.
Vampire Attack on OpenSea
Source: stockhead.com.au
LooksRare is built around its newly launched LOOKS token, which it is now using to reward users of the platform and attract existing users from OpenSea, in a practice known in the crypto world as a “vampire attack”. LOOKS is currently being exchanged on Uniswap and hit an all-time high of US$4.71 before dropping to its current price of US$3.49, according to data from CoinGecko.
In the past 24 hours, the price of LOOKS is up 56.5 percent.
The Marketplace That Rewards Big Spenders
With the help of its LOOKS token, the new marketplace is hoping to attract NFT big spenders who have already used OpenSea by allowing them to claim LOOKS tokens for free. According to LooksRare, anyone who traded more than three ETH (US$9,400) on OpenSea between June 16 and December 16, 2021, can claim a portion of the tokens.
The vampire attack takes a similar approach to last week’s SOS airdrop from OpenDAO. The airdrop allowed users who have spent money on OpenSea to claim the Ethereum token SOS, as determined by the amount spent on the marketplace.
When users buy and sell NFTs from eligible collections, they will also receive LOOKS tokens. LooksRare additionally charges a 2 percent fee on all trades, which is then handed on to those staking LOOKS tokens.
As it stands, the platform is offering a jaw-dropping 649 percent APR to those who stake LOOKS.
