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Crypto News Ethereum Tokens

Ethereum Name Service Token Surges 86% as Registered ETH Domains Surpass 1 Million

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) this week announced it had surpassed a milestone of one million domain names created, with the news triggering an 86 percent value surge for the ENS token:

The Ethereum Name Service is helping to provide a smooth transition from Web2 to Web3, with its latest milestone clearly demonstrating its impact. A spike in registrations over the past 30 days has also had a knock-on effect on the ENS token:

The demand for three- and four-digit domain names is up and likely related to the NFT community’s new interests. These shorter domain names can also be used as the owner’s crypto address, instead of the random and more unwieldy alphanumeric combination.

Likely contributing to the spike is the fact that ENS’s protocol revenue rise has permitted the company to increase the funds available to its DAO. This, plus record registrations for April, contributed to the ENS token’s massive value surge.

Other Registered ETH Domains

Last August, American beer brand Budweiser dived into crypto and purchased the beer.eth domain name for 30 ETH. Adding Budweiser’s purchase of a Rocket Factory NFT for 8 ETH, the total venture was worth the equivalent of US$120,000.

More recently, Puma renamed itself puma.eth on Twitter and purchased several cat-related NFTs. These purchases can only mean there are more future crypto partnerships in the making.

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Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

Moonbirds NFT Collection Soars on Debut, Racking $200m+ in Sales

Since the highly anticipated Moonbirds NFT mint launched last weekend, the Ethereum-based collection has seen north of US$200 million in sales. However, the debut project from the PROOF collective seems to be stirring the pot:

Moonbirds has joined the ranks of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks in near-record time, becoming the top-selling collection with 10,000 pixelated birds raking in sales of approximately US$281 million just days after minting.

But what is it makes these birds so popular?

How’s This for PROOF?

The Moonbirds project is the product of tech entrepreneurs Kevin Rose and Ryan Carson, and is the first project from the PROOF collective, a private NFT community led by the pair. The community consists of 1,000 members including big industry names such as Beeple and Gary Vaynerchuk. Membership of the community grants access to a private Discord chat, collaborations and special events.

However, both the mint and success of this collection are not without controversy. Concerns of rarity snipping – the act of project leaders using insider knowledge to buy rarer NFTs – are circulating. Beyond this, there are complaints of potential raffle manipulation and frustration over the 2.5 ETH minting price:

Only 7,875 NFTs were released by PROOF via an allow list formed through the raffle process. Another 2,000 were free mints for PROOF collective NFT holders. Membership of PROOF can be purchased for just over 97 ETH (about US$300,700).

Mixed Reactions to Other NFT and DeFi Launches

Earlier this month, Star Trek fans were making news for their contempt towards the launch of a Star Trek NFT collection. The launch was considered “tone-deaf” by fans and contrary to the franchise’s spirit – if not directly opposing Star Trek’s values, illustrating that the content of an NFT collection should always suit the intended audience.

One project that has been far better received this month is Opulous. The new blockchain-based music platform has seen the value of its token – OPUL – rocket up 175 percent following the announcement of DeFi staking, S-NFT sales, and CEX listings.