NFT ERA

2022-05-20 21:00:04 ​​Cardano NFT Sales Reached $27 Million in April, ADA Attempts to Rebound

Cardano NFT sales touched $27 million in April, as shared by a Twitter user. According to opencnft, which shares the latest data from the Cardano NFT market, 182,411 assets have been sold in the last 30 days, with the chilledkongs collection holding an 11.58% share by volume.

Recent statistics from IOHK indicate that 4.7 million native tokens have been issued on Cardano. Also, 937 projects are being built on Cardano while the total number of NFT projects is increasing to 5,549. The rise in the number of minted pieces of non-fungible art and projects is linked to the Cardano network's growth.

In April, NFT project Clay Nation launched its official collaboration with Snoop Dogg and Champ Medici, thus bringing iconic clay animations, land pitches and unlockable music content to Cardano.

Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain that uses network validators to process transactions and maintain the network. It was founded in 2015 and launched in 2017 as an alternative to Ethereum. With a market capitalization of $18.22 billion at the time of writing, it is the eighth largest cryptocurrency.

A bear market in progress?
Cardano fell to lows of $0.39 in the past week as the crypto market experienced a sell-off. Cardano recovered, reaching a high of $0.613 on May 16. Cardano is presently consolidating while attempting a rebound. Cardano was presently trading at $0.535, up 4.28% in the last 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap data. The crypto asset remains down 5.79% since the past week.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson recently stated that cryptocurrencies might have entered a bear market when asked about the underperformance of the ADA coin. The Cardano founder admitted that no announcement would have an impact. As a result, the ADA price might continue to struggle despite the protocol's expanding technical capabilities and growing community.

ADA has underperformed this year after achieving big gains in 2021 and is now down 82.62% from its all-time high set in early September ahead of the much-anticipated smart contract launch. Open / Comment

2022-05-18 20:30:00 ​​OpenSea delists Solana Okay Bears knockoff Not Okay Bears

Solana-based non-fungible token (NFT) collection Okay Bears copycat “Not Okay Bears” has been delisted from marketplace OpenSea after recording millions of dollars in sales.

Fast facts:
Not Okay Bears are mirror images of the 10,000 versions of the original, and have sold US$6.3 million worth on secondary sales in the past 24 hours, according to DappRadar.

OpenSea has de-listed the collection, sparking outrage among holders who are now unable to trade their NFTs on the world’s largest marketplace despite other derivative collections continuing to be listed.

The pseudonymous creators of the project donated 20% of the minting funds, 35.8ETH (US$75,000), to the Mental Health Impact Index through the Giving Block.

Supporters of both Solana and Ethereum have been teasing each other over the project, with Not Okay Bears creators officially describing the collection on

OpenSea as “Bears on the blockchain that actually works.”

Unauthorized copies of large projects are quite commonplace on Ethereum, leading some spectators to comment that Solana NFTs being hosted on the larger blockchain means the network has come “full circle.”

Okay Bears has been the most popular NFT collection on Solana, recording nearly US$100 million in sales since launching in late April. Open / Comment

2022-05-17 22:30:00 ​​Solana (SOL) NFT Trades Moon Amid Crypto Crash

Solana NFT marketplaces have proven to be one of the fastest growing NFT marketplaces, after their number of users skyrocketed to 250,000 traders in just the months of April and May. This is according to data from Dune Analytics.

Solana NFTs Making Rounds As A Big Game Player
A key moment in the NFT world was perpetrated by Solana and Moonbirds. April recorded a 23% increase from available data in March which saw $6.3 billion made in Solana NFT trading volume during the month.

In a monthly report from DappRadar, that was just the third time the trading volume was in excess of $6 billion.

With almost $300 million made in sales of NFT, Solana NFTs contributed about 0.0047% to the total trading volume, and struck a monthly increase of 91%.

Solana (SOL) has gained in its place as one of NFT’s key players due to its performance speed, low gas fees and security. Its big status is further confirmed by its record of a large number of NFTs and projects spread across NFTs, Defis and even more.

Coinbase NFT Vs Solana NFTs
With the growing success of NFTs, it’s not much of a surprise that Coinbase which is best known for being the second largest crypto exchange in the world has taken the initiative to launch its NFT platform too.

The company launched their NFT marketplace to the public on April 20th and according to a statistics on Dune Analytics, they’ve managed only a relatively meagre $688,688 in total earnings. Probably worse is the fact that the same data quoted the number of users to stand at just 1,287.

Despite launching on 20th April, it took until May 4th before the NFT marketplace was open to all and the same source stated a downward movement in the number of users.

OpenSea is known for being the largest NFT marketplace in the world and drawing a comparison between it and the fairly new established Coinbase marketplace, it’s made almost as much as $3.5 billion in volume of NFTs and with 350,000 users since Coinbase’s launch. That translates to over a 500,000% difference between the two.

An anonymous source with close ties to Coinbase questioned the data though. He argued the number of transactions was misunderstood for the number of users. Open / Comment

2022-05-15 22:15:00 ​​Slovenian Seaside Resort adopts NFTs to advertise itself

Slovenian Seaside Resort in Portorož, a summer resort located on the coast of Slovenia along the Adriatic Sea, has decided to advertise the location using non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

This year’s tourism campaign includes a digital representation of the project as part of the effort to draw visitors. Visitors to Portorož will have the opportunity to collect NFTs and win prizes in the resort.

The town of Portorož, in the municipality of Piran in the nation’s southwestern corner, is the first resort in the country to release its NFT. This follows the Slovenian Tourist Board (STB) release of “sLOVEnia NFT” last month.

Slovenian Seaside Resort is a modern environment
According to reports from the local media, the campaign’s primary aim is to highlight the two seaside towns as modern, digital, and sustainable places.

Alexander Valentin, president of the Portorož Tourist Society, believes the gateway to the metaverse is open. He is sure it will be a massive enterprise for upcoming generations. The leader made the statement during a presentation recognizing innovations in Portorož.

The newly implemented “destination NFTs” design is to encourage repeat business from tourists. Tourists will have the opportunity to get three tokens from three distinct collections. However, they will carry out three activities. The three activities include; taking part in a prize game. Then, sign up for a newsletter, and share a sticker on Instagram them account associated with the resort. Each collection has a total of one hundred NFTs accessible.

On April 20, Slovenia and six other countries, including Italy, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovakia, participated in launching a campaign called “We Are Here.”

This is to increase the number of markets in which the country is famous as a destination for tourists. As per the news site Primorske Novice, nine different firms providing tourism services are taking part. Yet, the government hopes that more tourism services will join.

Besides embarking on a journey into the realm of cryptos via the NFT project, Porto and Piran are ramping up their promotional efforts across social media platforms. The magazine said that the municipalities had just signed up to use the short-form video platform Tiktok.

Lately, the tiny nation of Slovenia has positioned itself as a pioneer in the adoption of virtual currencies in Southeast Europe. Slovenia is famous for its support of bitcoin.

Across the United States, thousands of cafés, restaurants, motels, hair salons, and sporting facilities accept different cryptocurrencies in place of fiat currency.

In the fall of 2017, the authorities in Ljubljana began holding public consultations on a draft law that would regulate the taxation of crypto assets. Open / Comment

2022-05-13 22:30:00 ​​Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Ministry approves charity NFT project benefiting war efforts

Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, on Thursday tweeted out support for Avatars for Ukraine, a non-fungible token (NFT) project directly benefiting humanitarian and defense tactics in Ukraine.

The project involves 70 digital artworks that emerged as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, featuring Ukrainian imagery and resistance to Russian forces. All proceeds from digital art sales fund Ukrainian war endeavors. Avatars for Ukraine is approved by the Ukrainian Ministry for Digital Transformation and will release its first NFT on May 19.

This is not the first time that Ukrainian officials adopted blockchain technology to fund efforts for the war. In April of this year, the Ukrainian government launched a website for people to buy and sell NFTs that benefit Ukraine’s war efforts in addition to raising over $100 million in crypto donations.

Avatars for Ukraine also joins a trend of NFT projects helping to donate funds to charity, usually involving some or all of the proceeds of NFT art directly benefiting a charitable organization. Open / Comment

2022-05-10 21:30:00 ​​Nyan Heroes Raises $7.5M to Develop Play-to-Earn Game

Play-to-earn game Nyan Heroes raised $7.5 million in a strategic round to fund game development, according to an emailed press release on Monday.

The Singapore-based company will use the money to hire more people and for community outreach.

The investment values the company at $100 million.

Investors included venture capital firms Kosmos Ventures, Sino Global Capital, Shima Capital and Petrock Capital.

Play-to-earn platforms have been pulling in funds. LootRush, a platform that helps new users access play-to-earn games, raised $12 million in a seed funding round last week and Rainmaker nabbed $6.5 million in a seed round in December.

“Sustainable P2E (play-to-earn) game is a buzzword of 2022,” Vladimir Velmeshev, a partner at Kosmos Ventures, said in the statement.

Nyan Heroes is built on the Solana blockchain and features cute cats in deadly robots.

The company raised $2.5 million in a seed round led by Three Arrows Capital, Mechanism Capital, and Defiance Capital in late 2021.

The game is expected to go live toward the end of 2022. Open / Comment

2022-05-06 22:30:00 ​​Ready Games New Tech Brings Web3 and NFT Closer to iOS and Android

Decentralized network Ready Games is proud to announce the launching of its new ecosystem. It is a new system that will provide democratization access to web3 games with the help of its native token — AURA.

David Bennahum, CEO of Ready, explained:
As a lifelong gamer, I’m thrilled to offer game devs the tools and tokenomics to make it possible to quickly integrate on-chain. It’s incredibly challenging to take the complexities of web3 and make them easily accessible for game publishers: from live operations to loyalty programs and new economic models. We’re excited to see what comes next as we build this collective ecosystem together!

The combination of AURA and the new developer tools that the network released will enable a smooth transition of web2 games to web3. Interestingly, these games that would be transferred to web3 would all be compatible with Apple and Google app store rules.

There are over 3+Billion mobile players worldwide, currently a huge untapped market in Web3, Ready is tapping this market” Christina Macedo, COO of Ready says “ by allowing mobile gaming to enter and have a place in Web3 gamefi this finally allows a very diverse global demographic of developers, players and creators to finally enter Web3 and collaborate as a united community of game lovers.

In terms of market funding, the innovative token of the network has successfully raised $3 million from prominent investors led by BITKRAFT and Hashed. The other top-tier investors include Tribe, IOSG, Spartan, Mapleblock Capital, Mulana Capital, Dweb3, Fundamental Labs, IBA, GSR, Polygon, SnackClub, and Warburg Serres, to name a few. Open / Comment

2022-05-03 21:00:04 ​​Kraken launches gas-free NFT marketplace

Global cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced the launch of its non-fungible token (NFT) platform, joining exchanges such as Binance and FTX to do so.

See related article:NFT Marketplace Competition Heats Up

Fast facts:
Sellers can list their NFTs in cryptocurrencies supported by Kraken, or in fiat currencies, such as USD, EUR, CAD, GBP and AUD.

Kraken said it will pay creators a portion of secondary market sales of the NFTs.

The crypto exchange said it will not charge gas fees at its NFT market and will list projects from multiple blockchains, including Ethereum and Solana.

NFT transaction fees has been a widely discussed topic this week, due to Yuga Labs’ metaverse land sale congesting the Ethereum network and spiking gas fees to exorbitant amounts.

After a sluggish performance in March, monthly NFT sales increased in April to over 760,000 unique buyers recording US$3.5 billion in sales volume, according to CryptoSlam data.

“In the future, you will be able to use NFTs to prove your ownership for anything trustlessly and that’s what we want to innovate in this space,” said Jonathon Miller, Australian managing director of Kraken, in a statement shared with Forkast. Open / Comment

2022-04-30 22:00:03 ​​Following The Recent Crypto-Twitter Saga, Vitalik Buterin Gives Two Cent

Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter has continued to draw reactions from crypto market participants. Vitalik Buterin, the founder of the Ethereum blockchain, has shared his thoughts on the consequence of the acquisition.

Twitter’s changing ownership could affect morale says Buterin
In a tweet, Buterin opined that the largest outcome of Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter may not be any specific policy change, but a change in the behavior of users.

Specifically, he predicts that the morale of Elon Musk’s supporters will receive a boost, while his detractors will likely feel alienated on the platform. He also clarified that his opinion does not mean he is not in support of Musk buying Twitter.

“The largest consequence of Elon taking over Twitter may well be not any specific policy decision he makes, but rather the morale effect of his supporters feeling emboldened and his detractors feeling like they are arguing on enemy territory,” he said in the tweet.

Buterin also added that the morale effect is already happening. His observation is not farfetched, especially from recent developments. Earlier this week, Twitter got into a bit of a patch with crypto market participants.

Stani Kulechov, the founder of DeFi platform Aave, was suspended from the platform after tweeting a joke that he had been appointed the interim CEO of Twitter. Crypto market participants rallied around the CEO, calling out the suspension as being too harsh.

Following the opinions that such actions are exactly what is wrong with Twitter and needs to be changed, Kulechov’s account has been reinstated.

Musk’s plan for Twitter raises hope among crypto faithfuls
Elon Musk has stated that his main motivation for buying Twitter is to make the platform the pinnacle of free speech. He recently explained that he is against censorship that goes beyond the law.

By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law, he said.

He also plans to address other pain points on the platform including spambots and adding an edit button. Meanwhile, the looming takeover has many crypto market participants excited about the implications for the industry.

Supporters of Dogecoin (DOGE), which Elon Musk is a firm proponent of, are anticipating the integration of the memecoin on the platform. The price of DOGE has been showing reactions to key announcements in events around the Twitter buyout. Open / Comment

2022-04-28 21:15:01 ​​NFT Subscriptions Are Better Paywalls

Subscriptions are the future of media, right? From Netflix’s all-you-can-eat streaming to the New York Times Company’s 10 million subscribers – putting up a paywall and charging people looks like the way to go.

It’s all fun and games until you have to unsubscribe from something. The August Times is an object example. The internet has painstakingly documented the difficulties of extricating oneself from a subscription agreement with the writer of history’s first draft.

This article is part of CoinDesk’s Payments Week series.

Take for example, its place of honour in a subreddit called r/assholedesign: A screenshot of its subscription cancellation page attracted nearly 3,000 upvotes and 123 comments. The Times offers subscribers two ways to get out of it: have a chat with a “customer care advocate” or dial an 800 number within, admittedly, generous operating hours (up to 10pm on weekdays!). Of course, all the customer care advocates are occupied, so a chat with them isn’t possible.

The author Cory Doctorow calls the Times’ cancellation page an example of late-stage capitalism’s inevitable creation of “paperwork tsunamis”: you can get in easily, but there’s an “infinitude of hurdles” to get out. So… do blockchains fix this? I’m glad you asked (sorry, Cory, I know you’re not a fan)!

Blockchains are good at putting power in the hands of end-users. That’s because a cryptocurrency token is a bearer asset: it can be exchanged and retain its value without the need for a third party. Examples are gold, cash or the bearer bonds in "Die Hard.”

Tokenizing subscriptions turns them into bearer assets, and that flips the relationship between publisher and reader on its head. Instead of a publisher holding a readers’ account details, it’s the other way around – readers now hold the keys to the content gates, and they can do what they like with those keys. Open / Comment