NFT NEWS

2022-03-18 11:17:18 ​​Spotify Is Developing Plans to Join the NFT Digital Collectibles Craze

Job ads are fueling the hype in the crypto and music industry about the potential of NFT to increase the income of artists

Spotify is developing plans to add blockchain technology and interchangeable tokens to its streaming service, which is causing excitement in the crypto and music industry about the potential of NFT to increase artist revenue.

Two recent job ads show that Spotify is recruiting people to work on early-stage projects related to "Web3”" a technical buzzword for a blockchain-based network that some crypto enthusiasts hope will regain control of the major technology platforms that dominate the modern Internet.

Spotify is the latest tech giant to venture into NFT and prevent potential competition from crypto startups. Instagram Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg confirmed this week a FT report earlier this year that Instagram would soon start supporting NFT. Other social media companies, including Twitter and Reddit, are also working on creating new features for displaying or trading NFT.

NFTs use blockchain technology to confirm ownership of digital assets. According to market tracker, the vast majority of NFTs sold last year worth $17.7 billion were sold for visual works of art, games and collectibles Nonfungible.com .
But even though the frothy NFT market has been showing signs of slowing down in recent weeks, many in the crypto industry consider music to be a breakthrough new application for NFT this year. This could include selling digital albums or using NFT to get benefits at concerts, from merchandise to backstage passes.

Musicians such as rapper Snoop Dogg and DJ Steve Aoki have already become famous collectors of NFT, while Kings of Leon and Grimes have sold NFT of their music. Major labels Warner and Universal have established partnerships with NFT projects, including a virtual band featuring characters from the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Startups including Royal and Catalog have started selling NFTs created by musicians, often offering crypto tokens as a more lucrative alternative business model compared to streaming services like Spotify, which pay fractions of a penny for every time a song is played.
Spotify's recruitment in this sector appears to be at the research stage. He pointed to Web3 in the notification about the recruitment of an engineer to his "experimental growth" team. “This small team with a full set of functions is responsible for stimulating growth with the help of new technologies such as Web3,” the announcement says. Open / Comment

2022-03-13 10:16:01 ​​Fintech CEO on Venezuela, Ukraine and Africa Comparison

According to reports, Venezuela has tied its new monthly minimum wage, equal to about $28, 50% to the Petro, the country’s cryptocurrency, which in many ways acts like a CBDC. The crypto is built on the DASH blockchain and issued by the government, which issues pension payments via Petro.
“It has always been clear what Venezuela aimed to do with the Petro, attempting to utilize the value of its oil reserves as a way to prop up its economy against sanctions, which is much the same argument that some are making right now about Russia. Venezuela’s attempt has failed, and Putin’s won’t be much more successful. Even though the concern in Russia isn’t tied to a national crypto, the fact is that the Russian economy is far too large to be able to run payments through the existing crypto financial structure,” said Richard Gardner, CEO of Modulus, a US-based developer of ultra-high-performance trading and surveillance technology that powers global equities, derivatives, and digital asset exchanges.
“Let’s not forget that the Venezuelan government has supported acts of terror committed by FARC, and it has had a strategic alignment with Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism. In the not-so-distant past, Venezuela was a beacon of economic freedom. After taking on a democratic government, it was routinely among the wealthiest countries in South America before Perez was elected in 1973. Now, it continues to edge further to the fringe, and it thinks that the use of digital assets will save the economy. It is clear that its experiment simply isn’t working,” said Gardner.
“Cryptocurrencies were built on a foundation of economic liberty. While regulators have taken strides to make the industry safer, it is still a beacon of economic freedom. Just look at how it has been used in Africa and, lately, Ukraine. Investors in many African countries have used cryptocurrencies as a hedge against extreme inflation seen in their own national fiat currencies. Now, donors from across the globe have come together to send donations directly into Ukraine, bypassing the need to get donations through middlemen and bureaucratic red tape. Digital assets were designed to offer this kind of economic empowerment,” noted Gardner.
“It is important not to be fooled by what’s happening in Venezuela. We can’t allow tinpot despots to utilize our industry to rebrand their own failed ideologies. We must showcase the real use cases of cryptocurrencies which have improved the quality of life in many places. What’s happened in Africa and the current influx of donations into Ukraine… that illustrates the real power of decentralized finance,” said Gardner. Open / Comment

2022-03-05 22:04:35 ​​The NFT bubble is showing clear signs of bursting

NFT prices are dropping. Sales are slowing. And the market capitalization has been cut in half.

NFT skeptics have been warning that the craze, maybe even bubble, over non-fungible tokens was unsustainable. Now there’s mounting evidence they were right.
The average sale price of an NFT is now below $2,000, according to market tracker NonFungible. That’s down from over $6,800 in January. Cumulative daily sales have dropped from $160 million in January to $26 million on Thursday.
Primary sales of NFTs have also dipped noticeably, from nearly 26,000 per day at the beginning of the year to less than 3,200 on Thursday. Secondary market sales are down from a January peak of 38,000 per day to just over 7,900.

Secondary sales hit a daily record of 103,765 last September, while primary sales spiked as high as 795,000 last August.
Even some of the best-known NFTs are seeing their values slip. A Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT sale Friday morning seemed like a big-dollar transaction at $224,028.62, but that represented a $67,799.54 loss for the seller, who bought it at the end of January.
Not long ago, NFTs had a total market capitalization of $23 billion, exceeding that of CarMax and Take-Two Interactive Software. Today, it’s just over $10 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

The drop seems to be caused by a variety of factors, ranging from inflation to the war in Ukraine to increased regulatory scrutiny of NFTs by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
It’s not just skeptics who have been warning of an NFT collapse. Even enthusiastic collectors of the digital art have cautioned that a “cataclysmic market crash” could be on the way, as the field becomes oversaturated because of how versatile and accessible NFTs are.
That cataclysmic shift hasn’t happened, despite the current slowdown. Top NFT collections have fared better than Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies since the start of the year. Open / Comment

2022-03-03 06:36:51 ​​Million Dollar NFT Heist Stark Reminder of Risks

With all the hype around non-fungible tokens (NFTS), it’s easy to forget that this blockchain niche remains largely unregulated. In some circles, NFTs have inherited the Wild West reputation that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin fended off in the early days. NFT critics argue these digital collectibles can be easily copied online as jpegs. However, the charm of NFTs is true ownership rights secured on the blockchain, and users are doling out thousands and even millions of dollars for this status symbol.

Investors were sorely reminded of the developing nature of NFTs last weekend when bad actors absconded with over $1 million worth of these trendy digital collectibles. OpenSea, the most popular platform for buying, selling, and minting NFTs, found itself in the middle of the heist. Meanwhile, OpenSea executives are addressing the incident and attempting to distance themselves from it simultaneously.

Based on social media accounts, the bad actors targeted OpenSea users by email, pretending to be from the platform and urging a planned migration of smart contracts. These products are synonymous with blockchains like Ethereum. Worse, OpenSea had a smart contract  upgrade in the works, which gave the email recipients reason to believe it was legit. In reality, the criminals were behind what appears to be a phishing attack, at least in part, and what is being probed as a smart contract exploit. Open / Comment

2022-02-27 09:01:03 ​Crypto community rallies with Ukraine as local NFT artists' works sell out

It appears that crypto enthusiasts worldwide are rallying in support of Ukrainians during the difficult times.

According to reports, Bitcoin (BTC) donations to Come Back Alive, a non-governmental organization helping Ukraine's military efforts, received $3 million in BTC in a single donation on Friday. Users also took to social media to ask the country's Ministry of Defense to accept crypto donations, such as Tether (USDT). At the same time, the founder of Ukraine's Kuna exchange created a crypto fund to assist charities in the country.

Everyone! Thank you for all the support and donations! The current plan is separated into 3 parts to involve as many as possible

1) direct donations (aimed at individuals)
2) NFT Auction (via telegram & Opensea)
3) Project % pledge (aiming at collections and projects)
(1/4) https://t.co/eo4Vgyz95a

— dan//l pan (@pan_danil) February 25, 2022

On Friday, the outpouring of support gained further traction. Nonfungible token (NFT) artist "pan_danil" began organizing a campaign to direct donations, launch NFT auctions and pledge a percentage of project sales to NFT artists in Ukraine. At the time of publication, a group of volunteers had formed to curate a community list of Ukrainian NFT artists and links to their artwork on NFT platforms such as Rarible, Foundation and OpenSea.

I need a trackable list of Ukranian artists to support. Tweets/Lists not working...I spend time just wading through replies than helping.

If a few people can volunteer their time to add links for Ukranian artists to this Sheet it would be great. DM me.https://t.co/APeZEEGGjd

— Nik Kalyani (@techbubble) February 24, 2022

Related: Ukraine Bitcoin exchange volume spikes 200% as Russia war sparks currency concerns

Meanwhile, other Ukrainian artists, such as "voplividchau," have reported their NFT drops selling out due to community support. But despite the successful sale, she wrote:

It's very scary in Kiev [Kyiv] now; it was scary at night, and what will happen next is so scary. I admire how brave people are here.

SOLD OUT Friends! I am eternally grateful for your support! Now it means HUGE!@Ac3033 @Art_via_lens @muradon13 @unblockgallery @ALCrego_ @SashaBAM @pleshkova_art @hen_collector @berni_omar @BayBackner @HowdyDooNFT @PapaBeardedNFTs https://t.co/B09E9itngB

— Chernaya Rechka (@voplividchau) February 24, 2022

NFT platform Orica, which launched an NFT campaign to help build a school in Uganda last year and coordinated an NFT charity drop to help victims of human trafficking, voiced its support for Ukraine's NFT artists on Twitter. It also appears the platform is directly onboarding Ukrainian NFT artists for upcoming exhibitions.

Support Ukraine's NFT artists:@voplividchau@AnaStardust_art@Avlevytska @cadaversky @PashaYouz@spasi___sohrani

'A Girl With A Butterfly' by @voplividchau pic.twitter.com/0oIuMACqAl

— Orica (@orica_io) February 24, 2022 Open / Comment

2022-02-13 19:42:35 ​Chain CEO Deepak Thapliyal Buys CryptoPunk #5822 for $23.7M and It’s Out of This World

On Saturday, CryptoPunk #5822 was purchased by Chain CEO Deepak Thapliyal for 8,000 ETH ($23,701,160.16), smashing the previous record held by DraftKings’ largest shareholder Shalom Meckenzie who purchased CryptoPunk #7523 for $11.8 million back in June 2021.

Thanks to @CompoundFinance I am able to still HODL #ETH while buying this. Basically Long’d ETH to punk-in . #DeFi FTW

— Deepak.eth (@dt_chain) February 12, 2022
According to reports, Thapliyal purchased the NFT directly from CryptoPunks developer Larva Labs’ own online market place, leveraging the DeFi protocol Compound Finance to pay for the CryptoPunk.

“Thanks to Compound Finance, I am able to still [hold] ETH while buying this. Basically long’d ETH to punk-in,” his tweet said.

Compound Finance (COMP) is an autonomous algorithmic protocol that allows users to supply various crypto assets and start generating interest. Currently, there is close to $9 billion locked into its smart contracts, according to DeFi Pulse. The DeFi protocol allows for users to borrow against crypto positions such as ETH and borrow stablecoins, pegged to the U.S. dollar, with interest, to assist them with spending.

When funds are deposited, customers get the equivalent value of their deposit in cTokens. If they deposited ETH, cETH is received. Customers can then immediately borrow money against deposited funds without the need for credit checks. The funds deposited must exceed the amount borrowed so that there is enough collateral for the loan to be repaid.

Unlike traditional banks, Compound interest rates adjust automatically depending on supply and demand at any given time.

This CryptoPunk is out of this world
Unique to Thapliyal’s purchase is one of the nine rare “alien” avatars that are part of the 10,000 CryptoPunk collection.

Developed in 2017, CryptoPunks are highly considered to be one of the OG’s in today’s non-fungible tokens arena, with an overall supply of 10,000 24*24, 8-bit tokenized and pixelated art images. Indeed, its popularity of being used as social media profile pictures predates today’s growing popularity of using NFTs as online avatars.

pic.twitter.com/lQg6DzSttr

— Deepak.eth (@dt_chain) February 12, 2022
Fourth highest NFT purchase in history
While this serves as the largest CryptoPunks NFT purchase in history, this also marks the fourth largest NFT purchase in history.

Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” still holds the record for being the most expensive NFT, selling for $69.3M last March.

Multi-disciplinary artist Pak’s NFT “Clock,” which sold for a shade under $54M, positioning it in second place.

Beeple’s “Human One” NFT sold for $29 million, putting it in third place.

Prior to Mackenzie’s 2021 purchase of CryptoPunk #7523, Larva Labs’ most significant sale came from the $10.26 million purchase of CryptoPunk #4156.

Data from Cryptoslam suggests that the CryptoPunks collection has been subject to more than $2 billion in secondary trading volume.

Recently, there has been widespread confusion among the CryptoPunk community surrounding its failed V1 CryptoPunks and a subsequent community-wrapped project to help keep it alive, ultimately delegitimizing the V2 CryptoPunks collection. Open / Comment