Aspen Launches With Tools to Help NFT Creators Reclaim Royalties

https://decrypt.co/155121/aspen-launches-tools-help-nft-creators-reclaim-royalties

Monax Labs has debuted a tool suite that helps creators reclaim unpaid NFT royalty fees by restricting access to perks and utility.

Moonbirds Mythics NFTs Begin Reveal That Will Last at Least 200 Days

https://decrypt.co/149362/moonbirds-mythics-nfts-begin-reveal-last-least-200-days

The 20,000-strong Mythics NFT collection will be revealed gradually over the span of months as Moonbirds and Oddities holders claim them.

Orgasm NFTs? NARS Cosmetics Brand Reveals Eyebrow-Raising Art Auctions

https://decrypt.co/149257/orgasm-nfts-nars-cosmetics-brand-reveals-eyebrow-raising-art-auctions

NARS has teamed up with SuperRare and digital artists to drop NFTs for National Orgasm Day, continuing a trend for the beauty brand.

Doodles Launching Real World Play Experience in Chicago With Camp

https://decrypt.co/149147/doodles-launching-real-world-play-experience-chicago-camp

The Pharrell Williams-backed NFT project Doodles is expanding further into the real world in partnership with “shop-and-play” retailer Camp.

Get Protocol Raises $4.5 Million to Take on Ticketmaster With NFT Tickets

https://decrypt.co/148254/get-protocol-raises-4-5-million-take-ticketmaster-nft-tickets

With seed funding led by Flow Ventures and the Tezos Foundation in the mix, Get Protocol emphasizes a “Web 2.5” approach to ticketing.

Sodexo Drops NFTs With a Twist: They’re for Employees, Not the Public

https://decrypt.co/146830/sodexo-drops-nfts-twist-employees-not-public

The European food services and facilities management firm’s Pluxee division launches NFTs on Internet Computer, but they’re not for everyone

Zora Launches Layer-2 NFT Network to Battle Ethereum Gas Fees

https://decrypt.co/145650/zora-launches-layer-2-nft-netowrk-battle-ethereum-gas-fees

Co-founder Jacob Horne said Ethereum gas fees are a “systemic inhibitor” to Web3 adoption. The Zora Network aims to help.

The Weeknd and Binance Enter the Metaverse

https://decrypt.co/144944/weeknd-launches-metaverse-game-amid-binance-backed-tour

The digital experience arrives amid The Weeknd’s Binance-sponsored, “crypto-powered” world tour, which is currently in Europe.

Donald Trump indictment breathes life into his NFT trading card collection

https://www.theblock.co/post/224229/donald-trump-indictment-nft-trading-card-sales

Donald Trump trading card NFT sales have spiked more than 500% in the last 24 hours, following news that the former president was indicted by a New York grand jury.

Thursday night, when the news hit, more than $50,000 worth of the Trump caricature-emblazoned digital cards changed hands, according to CryptoSlam data. About $184,000 of the cards have been sold in the last 24 hours. The floor price currently stands at 0.58 ETH, or about $1,000, according to OpenSea.

While there seems to be a buzz of market activity, trading volume has historically been a lot higher for the former president-themed collection. In December, the 45,000 item NFT collection sold out within hours, with more than $3.9 million in sales on the day. Since then, there have been days with as much as $469,000 worth of NFTs changing hands.

Buying an NFT automatically entered the purchaser into a sweepstake, with prizes including a group cocktail party at Mar-A-Lago, a dinner in Miami or a golfing trip with the former president, or a group Zoom call. Purchasing 45 or more NFTs would "guarantee" purchasers an invite to a gala dinner with Trump in South Florida, the initial announcement said.

Trump NFT gold rush

The mint may have netted Trump almost $4.5 million. Creator fees set by OpenSea also give a 10% royalty on secondary sales, meaning the project will already have accrued upward of $100,000 from trades to date. The highest sale to date was a black and white rendered image of Trump with a Santa hat on, which sold for 23.99 ETH, or $42,900.

As for the indictment, the exact charges are still unknown because it is under seal, but they relate to a hush money payment Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

Trump is expected to appear in person for his arraignment next week, which may be as early as Tuesday. That’s the first time the charges against him will be read in open court.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

UK economic crime plan looks to tighten grip on crypto kleptocrats and fraudsters

https://www.theblock.co/post/224054/uk-economic-crime-plan-crypto-regulation

The UK Treasury and Home Office plan to tighten their grip on crypto money launderers and kleptocrats, according to the latest three-year Economic Crime Plan published on Thursday.

"The government will set out ambitious plans to protect consumers and grow the economy by robustly regulating cryptoasset activities – providing confidence and clarity to consumers and businesses alike," the policy paper reads, adding that this is in order to make the UK "an attractive destination for cryptoassets and cryptoasset innovation in the world."

As part of this, the UK expects criminals will use less-regulated crypto exchanges and services in the future, requiring more coordinated law enforcement action between countries. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is already working closely with international counterparts on a "bilateral basis" to exchange information.

The plan points to goals such as cutting fraud, reducing money laundering, recovering criminal assets, combatting kleptocracy and driving down sanctions evasion.

It also outlines the agencies which will be responsible for overseeing these, including the Treasury, Home Office, trade body CryptoUK, the Crown Prosecution Service and HMRC.

UK illicit cryptoasset transactions

Based on estimates of UK transaction volumes, illicit cryptoasset transactions linked to the UK in 2021 likely equated to at least £1.24 billion ($1.5 billion), or about 1% of total transaction value, with a possibility they were significantly higher, the National Crime Agency found.

The economic crime plan follows the NCA’s creation of a "crypto cell" as it kicked off the recruitment of a group of law enforcement officers specifically focused on digital assets.

With reporting by Stephanie Murray.

Binance obscured links to China for years: Financial Times

https://www.theblock.co/post/223659/binance-hid-china-presence-for-years?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Exchange giant Binance hid its links to China, despite claims it had removed its business from the country in late 2017, according to a Financial Times report which cites internal company documents.

China banned crypto exchanges in 2017. Top executives, including CEO Changpeng Zhao, were among those who instructed employees to hide its presence in the country, the report said, adding that the company used a Chinese bank to pay some employees’ salaries as well as an office which was in use until the end of 2019.

"It is unfortunate that anonymous sources are citing ancient history (in crypto terms) and dramatically mischaracterizing events. This is not an accurate picture of Binance’s operations," a Binance spokesperson said in an emailed statement to the FT, adding that the exchange does not operate in China or have any of its servers based in the country.

"To be clear, the Chinese government, like any other government, has no access to Binance data except where we are responding to lawful and legitimate law enforcement requests," they continued. The spokesperson added that the company has a customer service call center based in China to service global Mandarin speakers.

The report comes as question marks have been raised by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission over the company’s business operations. On Monday, it was revealed that the regulator is suing the exchange for unregistered trading activity in the U.S., among other allegations.

Since the announcement, Binance has seen $2.2 billion of cryptocurrency flow out of the exchange over a period of around 45 hours, according to data collected by The Block Research. Part of this was caused by an initial flurry of small withdrawals in the first hour following the news. During the same time period, $1.3 billion of cryptocurrency was sent to the exchange — meaning a net outflow of $900 million.

Tokenized Warhol paintings are ready for their 15 minutes of fame

https://www.theblock.co/post/222632/tokenized-warhol-paintings

The pioneer of Pop Art is making his U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission-ratified debut on the blockchain through a new fine art-focused platform called Freeport.

Following the completion of its SEC Reg A review, Freeport is listing a four-piece collection of Andy Warhol prints for sale.

Partially acquired from the collection of Jane Holzer, it includes prints of blue-chip Warhol works such as “Marilyn” (1967), “Double Mickey” (1981), “Mick Jagger” (1975) and “Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean)” (1985). Each of the four Warhol prints is limited to 1,000 lots, with waitlist members gaining first access to the artwork. The sale will start May 10.

Reg A is a type of approval that allows companies to sell tokens as though they are shares. It was allowed by regulators through amendments to securities laws to accommodate the rise of crowdfunding.

Crypto Warhol art, but not an NFT

Despite art being involved in the offering, these tokens are not NFTs, but ERC tokens that represent shares. It is "almost like a mini IPO," the company’s CEO and co-founder Colin Johnson said in an interview with The Block. If you bought all of the tokens for one of the paintings you would theoretically own the entire thing.

Freeport has so far raised about $1.5 million to build the business to this proof-of-concept stage and will look to raise between $5 million-$7 million more after its first offering. Johnson says the goal is to list around five fine art pieces per month.

As for operating in a tricky regulatory environment, alongside surviving a bear market, Johnson feels confident in the business model. After all, he says, fine art has been proven to outperform the market in recessionary periods.

"It’s a weird time to be doing or launching anything, but with the storyline of the assets we’re launching, we’re very happy with the decision we made to navigate the troubled waters out there," he added.

Metaverse construction firm LandVault extends Series B with $3 million raise

https://www.theblock.co/post/223192/landvault-extends-fundraise-metaverse-construction-firm?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

LandVault, a company that bills itself as a metaverse construction firm, extended its Series B funding round, raising $3 million from the likes of The Sandbox, the Gemini Frontier Fund, HodlCo and hedge fund Kingsway Capital.

The round tops up the $37 million the company has raised so far to build out metaverse infrastructure and gaming tech, according to a company release. It first announced its $25 million Series B fundraise in November 2021.

The fundraise marks a strategic pivot away from what CEO and co-founder Sam Huber called the "red sea" of advertising, which it had originally built its business on.

The company will use the capital to continue building out its protocol Matera, which puts metaverse builds — such as virtual shops or stadiums — on-chain. It will also be used to grow commercial operations across its hubs in Dubai, Europe, the U.S. and Asia and will further invest in technology, notably AI-powered tools to accelerate the creation and monetization of metaverse content.

“Our vision has always been to accelerate the economy of the metaverse and the latest progress in AI technology is helping us fast track our roadmap," Huber said in an interview. "The metaverse needs a ‘Wordpress moment’ for anyone to build in the metaverse as easily as building a website, and we are investing heavily in R&D to build these tools.”

As for whether Huber is worried that metaverse hype is fading, with the news that mega corps such as Meta and Disney are scaling back their visions: “We are past the peak of inflated expectations," he said. "Every time I have a doubt I just look at the Generation Alpha, who were basically born playing games instead of being on social media. They use games as a way to communicate. They are citizens of the metaverse. That’s who we’re building for."

LandVault’s metaverse growth

The company decided to start raising in January following the Christmas break, Huber told The Block. The fresh funds, raised through funders and companies the organization already knew, have so far topped the Series B round up to $28 million. Huber noted that LandVault is one of the biggest builders currently working in The Sandbox.

There is also a potential further $2 million closing in the next few weeks, which would bring the funding total to $30 million. With the top up, LandVault’s valuation remains the same – somewhere in the "low nine-figures," Huber said.

Gucci and Yuga Labs team up to ‘blur boundaries between physical and digital’

https://www.theblock.co/post/222946/gucci-yuga-labs-bored-ape-yacht-club-partnership

Is your metaverse outfit or Gucci handbag lacking something Ape-themed? It might not be for much longer.

Gucci and Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT creator Yuga Labs kicked off Metaverse Fashion Week with the announcement they have teamed up on an as yet undefined project.

"Continuing to explore the Metaverse, the House comes together with @yugalabs. Stay tuned as a new narrative takes shape, blurring the boundaries between the physical and digital," the luxury fashion powerhouse wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Continuing to explore the Metaverse, the House comes together with @yugalabs. Stay tuned as a new narrative takes shape, blurring the boundaries between the physical and digital. pic.twitter.com/v60mzcgqqY
— gucci (@gucci) March 27, 2023

It’s all Gucci

The move comes as NFT brands search far and wide for new revenue streams, with a prolonged bear market stifling NFT trading and a struggle among rival NFT marketplaces cutting royalty payments to creators.

Bored Ape Yacht Club has long shipped out merch to its loyal band of token holders, but its owner has been looking elsewhere in recent months for new cashflow. After the NFT shop’s acquisition of CryptoPunks’ IP last year, it also turned to luxury — teaming up with top-end jeweler Tiffany to create NFT-inspired pendants. The so-called NFTiffs sold out at $50,000 an item.

Yuga has form for working with Gucci. In August, the fashion house started accepting payment in ApeCoin, the token associated with the ApeCoin DAO.

Korean gaming giant Nexon to work with Polygon for MapleStory Universe NFTs

https://www.theblock.co/post/221877/korea-nexon-polygon-maplestory-nft?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Nexon, one of Korea’s most prominent gaming developers and publishers, is teaming up with Polygon to power its MapleStory Universe in-game economy. This will allow players to develop and manage NFTs in the game, the project’s production director Sun-young Hwang said in a company release.

First released in Korea in 2003, MapleStory is a massively multiplayer online game with more than 180 million registered players. Since its launch, it has brought in more than $4 billion in revenue for the publisher, according to a company presentation. The MapleStory Universe is an NFT-powered spinoff of this IP.

So far, large gaming shops have been reluctant to integrate NFTs and crypto into their games — with some opting to experiment with new products rather than tinkering with their most valuable IP. Nexon’s play for NFTs via MapleStory could mark a departure from this.

What’s the MapleStory?

In the game, players create their characters and embark on quests, battle monsters and interact with other players in a virtual world. The game features 2D side-scrolling graphics.

Currently, players buy and sell items with one another using the game’s currency. In its web3 iteration, players will acquire NFTs through gameplay (i.e., hunting monsters and completing quests) to unlock multiple benefits and utilities in various games and applications in the ecosystem.

The game’s crypto elements are set to work via Polygon’s Supernets — an extension to the core blockchain which allows it to scale up and perform more complicated tasks. Supernets are known for allowing blockchain gaming with low-to-no transaction fees — a factor that has previously put larger gaming shops off from entering the space.

“We will work closely with the team at Polygon Labs to develop and market the game,” said Sun-young Hwang in the release.

Polygon has also struck deals with gaming industry heavyweights such as Square Enix, Neowiz, Midnight Society, Jam City and Tilting Point, and e-sports teams and streamers, including Cloud9 and DrDisrespect.

‘This article may or may not be notable.’ How Twitter-inspired checks became NFT zeitgeist

https://www.theblock.co/post/221547/how-twitter-blue-checks-became-nft-zeitgeist?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

If you’ve logged into Twitter in the last four months, you might have noticed a heightened preoccupation with its ubiquitous blue checks.

Scrolling through feeds of NFT collectors and digital art curators in the last two months might have revealed a similar preoccupation with this symbol, but for a different reason.

In November, newly anointed Twitter chief Elon Musk launched a bid to bring in cash following the social media company’s $44 billion buyout. In its original form, the blue tick, first put into play in 2009, was a marker to signal a true identity – a seal of authenticity that someone was indeed who they claimed to be. Late last year, Musk lowered the bar, allowing people to buy verification for $8. Accounts which were verified through the old system now bear a warning to the viewer: “This account may or may not be notable.”

By riffing on this theme, Checks VV, an NFT art project created by visual artist Jack Butcher and his design shop Visualize Value, has captured crypto Twitter and the digital art world’s imaginations.

“The acquisition of Twitter was a catalyst for this; a moment in time where people were asking what it means to be verified,” Butcher said in an interview with The Block. Butcher originally used the check mark in his work to differentiate a JPEG from an NFT.

First sold for $8 in an open mint, the 8×10 grids featuring multicolored check marks have since seen a parabolic price spike, more than $124 million in secondary sales, and a host of copycat collections.

With an inbuilt burning mechanism, the potential for a diminishing supply has led to some saying it could be one of the most valuable NFT collections of all time. But while the price has spiked, others feel Checks may be susceptible to the same hype cycles that have plagued the biggest collections on the scene, especially in a prolonged bear market.

"When things move that fast I get cautious – it’s the type of movement we’ve been conditioned to fade," said Sasha Fleyshman, portfolio manager at crypto fund Arca.

While Fleyshman believes Butler’s project is evidence of the crypto space coalescing around an idea, there is a caveat emptor for people looking to capitalize on it. "The thing to watch here is how he executes his plan," he added.

Marketing vs. art

Butcher, like many others in the digital art market, came to the world of NFTs as a marketing professional. After growing up and going to university in the UK, the artist got his first job at a small design agency in New York through sending a barrage of applications via Craigslist ads.

After years of working for other people, he founded his own company and became embedded into the NFT scene, which felt like a natural transition from corporate marketing to digital art. Through this work, he said, he wanted to ask why it is important to enable ownership in an economy which is increasingly digital; and why digital authorship is important.

This also played out on Twitter, as the popularity of the collection, and his own profile, grew.

“So much of what’s happened over the last two months is proof of that in an even more interesting way, where my account has been cloned probably 100 times, people spam every tweet with fake links underneath it,” said Butcher. “And I’m trying to get in touch with Twitter and say, ‘how do I prevent this? How do I stop this? Somebody is using my image, my username.’ The only thing that I’ve told people to check is my Ethereum address. My work was signed with this address. If it’s not signed with that address, it’s not my work.”

Checks as a cultural symbol

Through treating verification as a cultural symbol via a mark that has no copyright of its own, Checks has also inspired a host of derivative works. NFT stalwart Beeple dedicated one of his works to it, dubbed "DAWN OF CHECK." Visual artist Max Decimal also created a website called Checkable where you can create your own personalized grid. Meanwhile, big brands such as Budweiser have muscled in on the game with their own branded offerings.

DAWN OF CHECK pic.twitter.com/2h9ogj5a6S
— beeple (@beeple) February 6, 2023

“It showed me how you can tap into something that people are already interested in and care about. And put your perspective onto that thing or apply your skill set to it,” said Butcher. “Just by adding that symbol, you’re tapping into this bigger meme.”

Some copycat projects even outstripped the value of the originals. Anon NFT artist Vince Van Dough’s Notable Pepes open edition brought in more than $1.6 million in primary sales.

"What people don’t realize is that the picture on the front-end of the NFT is not the important part," explained Fleyshman. "You’re not just buying the check mark."

Why Checks VV resonates with crypto culture

The success of Checks is also down to its resonance with crypto culture, said Butcher.

“I think, with the speed at which the Internet moves and the speed at which crypto and NFT culture moves more specifically, it’s really, really difficult to detach yourself from that and make relevant things,” he said. “This just took the way that I’ve worked in everything I’ve done in the last couple of years and just applied it to this world.”

Ultimately Butcher describes verification via a blockchain such as Ethereum, as a “bottom up” way to verify your work.

“Claiming that symbol as something that represents your ability as a participant in this network, Ethereum specifically, and being able to assign your work and create a network effect around your work, that’s indisputable.”

Blur bid incentives skew market, lead to offers on NFTs above ‘buy now’ prices

https://www.theblock.co/post/217961/blur-bid-incentives-skew-market-lead-to-offers-on-nfts-above-buy-now-prices

Blur’s bidding-incentive model appears to be leading to an environment where buyers on the NFT marketplace are offering more than the asking price for items in collections.

The rise of Blur — which has eclipsed other marketplaces’ trading volume since its launch in October of last year — came on the back of its capitalizing on the activity of pro traders, which is the fastest-growing segment of the NFT market. It rolled out an incentive model where traders are rewarded in tokens for providing market liquidity. In each collection, the bids that take the highest “risk” earn most reward points.

As of the time of writing, if you wanted to buy a Doodles NFT, the top bid for more than ten items in that collection sits at 5.07 ETH (about $7,900), whereas the ‘buy now’ price is 5.03 ETH. It’s the same story for other collections, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, Azuki and Moonbird NFTs.

When a bid is made on a listed item, the seller has to accept it before the transaction goes through — whereas a buyer would trigger the transaction for the ‘buy now’ items.

The Block contacted Blur for comment but had not heard back before publication time.

Blur’s fee structure vs. the rewards

Of course, the fees tacked onto a transaction set against the rewards for listing and bidding may mean the reverse arbitrage of the current market might not be as bad as it looks. For example, you might pay $20 in transaction fees on Ethereum and a $70 royalty fee back to the artist when a sale goes through.

5.070 x 99.5% = 5.045
and there is gas
and some floor ones might be listed by the people who made those bids
— ORSONHey (@ORSONHey) March 8, 2023

"Most traders currently bidding on NFTs on Blur probably just assume that the rewards they’ll receive will outweigh the costs incurred," said Thomas Bialek, research analyst at The Block Research.

LifeForce becomes latest web3 gaming shop to lean into user-generated content

https://www.theblock.co/post/216834/lifeforce-becomes-latest-web3-gaming-shop-to-lean-into-user-generated-content?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Game development studio LifeForce Games (LFG) is the latest to join the user-generated content trend, with its new project created so players can build their own crypto games.

The new Game Generator engine will be available after trials of LFG’s forthcoming titles Spark Defense and Forge Horizon go live in March, according to a company release. Forge Horizon is a third-person shooter game and Spark Defense is a multiplayer online battle arena.

Gamers will fight it out for top spots on the leaderboard and in-game collectibles in preparation for the alpha launch of the Game Generator, where they will be able to try their hands at creating their own games.

LFG was founded by Ryan Inman, aka Boomer, and Catherine Carroll, aka Satsuma, who co-founded one of the world’s biggest metaverse developers, LandVault.

“When we first launched, our ambition was to create a seamless and accessible environment for users to create games and share experiences,” said co-CEO Caroll in a company statement. “Our Game Generator is the realization of that ambition.”

The studio’s goal is to have a variety of games, modes and play styles available for players to get involved in building via a no-code, drag-and-drop generator. Serious builders will also have the opportunity to create battle passes and utilize in-game customizations to make their own brand-specific community games, making this an ideal fit for gamers, content creators and streamers wanting a place to engage with their communities.

Make your own

LifeForce is the latest gaming shop to attempt to capitalize on user-generated content in crypto gaming. In February, gaming studio Curio Research was backed to the tune of $2.9 million as it set out to create user-generated strategy games on Ethereum.

Meanwhile, metaverse heavyweight The Sandbox is betting that its next wave of creators on the platform will be individuals making interactive experiences, rather than the big brands that have so far dominated the virtual world.

Getty Images to release first NFTs from archives with Candy Digital

https://www.theblock.co/post/217216/getty-images-to-release-first-nfts-from-archives-with-candy-digital?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Photography giant Getty Images is making rare photos available to individual collectors in NFT form for the first time.

Photographs from its 1970s music and culture collection will be part of the offering via a partnership with NFT platform Candy Digital, according to a company release. As part of the launch, Candy Digital is also set to give away a free introductory NFT between March 7 and March 15.

Works by Don Paulsen, David Redfern, Fin Costello, Richard Creamer, Steve Morley and Peter Keegan, depicting Bruce Springsteen, Elvis, David Bowie, Stevie Nicks, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC, Gladys Knight, James Brown and John Lennon will be available in open-edition mints.

The collection will be available on March 21 on Candy’s website, with prices ranging from $25 to $200. It will be released to buyers in the United States (and territories), Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Portugal, Spain and the UK.

The partnership comes as life appears to be returning to the NFT market. Marketplace volume grew for a fourth consecutive month in February, according to data from The Block Research — buoyed partly by the traction of NFT marketplace Blur’s trading incentives.

Animoca-backed Forkast Labs creates S&P 500 of NFTs

https://www.theblock.co/post/217290/animoca-backed-forkast-labs-creates-sp-500-of-nfts?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Media and web3 infrastructure player Forkast Labs created a suite of index trackers for digital assets, which measure data from different parts of the sector in real-time.

These include trackers called the Forkast 500 NFT, Forkast SOL NFT Composite and Forkast ETH NFT Composite, which are meant to be the crypto equivalent of stock market indexes such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite, which track equities.

Forkast Labs emerged in January this year following the merger of media company Forkast.News and NFT tracker CryptoSlam. The pair are portfolio companies of software investment giant Animoca Brands. At the time, Forkast Labs’ editor in chief and co-CEO Angie Lau, who is a former Bloomberg anchor, said part of the mission statement of the pairing was to regain trust in crypto.

“The world is speeding towards a digital economy, but the traditional metrics often only give a myopic view as they are largely fragmented, price-centric and incomplete," said Lau in a statement.

Randy Wasinger, founder of CryptoSlam, said the undertaking has been something of a "passion project," and is a result of work done collecting data since around 2018. "We had the same vision of what was needed in the digital economy," he said of the tie-up in an interview with The Block. "We want this to be accepted first as the source of truth," he added.

A flagship NFT index

The Forkast 500 NFT will be the flagship index, and is intended to act as a proxy for the entire NFT market. It is powered by billions of on-chain data points indexed, organized and updated in real-time, the company said. The index includes up to 500 eligible smart contracts on any given day, from blockchains including Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Cardano, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Cronos and others. The data set for the Forkast 500 NFT begins at Jan. 1 2022. The methodology can be found here.

“By deploying standard methodologies, Forkast Labs can provide a deeper and more substantive view of fundamental performance of digital assets. These tools can help every investor and participant to navigate the digital economy with greater clarity," said Lau.

The team also intends to expand the product offering in the future. That could include breaking out sector-specific data such as a measure of virtual real estate or fashion NFTs.

Yuga Labs bitcoin NFT auction concludes amid complaints about its method

https://www.theblock.co/post/217460/yuga-labs-bitcoin-nft-ordinals-auction

Yuga Labs’ experiment with Bitcoin Ordinals drew 288 winning bids, with one reaching nearly $160,000 for a single NFT.

The 24-hour auction of the collection, named TwelveFold, ended at around 3 p.m. PT. It marks Yuga Labs’ first dalliance with Bitcoin NFTs, having so far dominated the market on Ethereum with blockbuster collections Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks.

The top bid was worth 7.1159 BTC, equal to roughly $159,600. The lowest was 2.2501, or about $50,400.

"The TwelveFold auction has ended. Congratulations to the top 288 bidders – you will receive your inscription within one week," Yuga Labs tweeted. "Valid bids that did not rank in the top 288 will have their bid amount returned to their receiving address within 24 hours."

Through this minting method, Bitcoin NFTs are inscribed onto satoshis on the Bitcoin blockchain. Inscriptions, also known as digital artifacts, are created when a file, such as an art image like those created for TwelveFold, is written (or inscribed into) units of Bitcoin called satoshis, the smallest individually identifiable units of Bitcoin.

The process is made possible through the Ordinal Theory protocol, with such NFTs simply donning the name "Ordinals."

Ordinals have gained popularity, given past upgrades to the Bitcoin blockchain that made it cheaper to store data in single transactions.

Critics pile in TwelveFold

While Yuga will be celebrating another NFT sellout, some market watchers were perplexed at the format of the auction, which saw the company take custody of bidders’ bitcoin.

"Yuga is establishing REALLY bad precedence running an auction like this," wrote one Ordinal technical fellow on Twitter. "They are taking custody of bidders’ bitcoin with a promise to send back unsuccessful bids. Not doubting they’ll do that, but this model is a scammer’s dream, and credible players need to set better example."

Others called it a "dangerous precedent" for a larger company in the space to set.

Yuga responded to these criticisms, saying it is excited that Ordinals managed to crack a permissionless method for on-chain NFTs on Bitcoin.

"This space is incredibly nascent and TwelveFold was always meant to be an experiment," Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solano wrote in an emailed statement to The Block. "Many things we take for granted on Ethereum – like smart contracts, and trustless transactions – don’t exist yet on ordinals, where inscriptions trade over-the-counter on discord with bids tracked on Google spreadsheets and the existing marketplaces appear to be governed by multi-sig escrows."

The company is excited to see new tools for trustless auctions and marketplaces, Solano added, concluding that the hope is TwelveFold can attract the builders to contribute to that.

Two dramatic crypto stories to follow this week

https://www.theblock.co/post/217207/two-dramatic-crypto-stories-to-follow-this-week?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

In crypto, the drama never stops and regulators seemingly never sleep. Last week there were stock plunges, ratings downgrades and fresh warnings from the SEC, among other things.

Here are the two biggies to watch for this week:

Shorting Silvergate

Short sellers are lining up to take a chunk out of crypto bank Silvergate, with one notable, Marc Cohodes, predicting its demise within a week, The Block’s Benjamin Roberts reports.

As such it may be another messy week for crypto banking.

Silvergate has taken a beating recently over its ties to FTX and Alameda Research. The institution shuttered one of its key money transfer platforms on Friday, the Silvergate Exchange Network, shortly after Moody’s downgraded its long-term issuer rating. What’s more, shares are down about 95% over the past six months.

Crypto companies are pondering where to go next, with Swiss banks potentially looking like good options for some, according to Bloomberg.

Binance.US, Voyager and the SEC

Securities and Exchange Commission staff believe Binance.US is operating an unregistered securities exchange in the U.S., a lawyer said during a Voyager Digital bankruptcy hearing on Friday evening, as reported by our Stephanie Murray.

The comments come as the SEC ramps up its crypto enforcement activity, including settling with crypto exchange Kraken over its staking service and proposing tighter rules for crypto custodians. Representatives for Binance and Binance.US did not immediately comment.

It may be another week of narrative wrangling by heavyweight crypto businesses as they try to navigate these choppy regulatory waters.

The Voyager hearing is also set to spill into a third day, continuing on Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Yuga Labs’ Bitcoin NFT collection TwelveFold to be auctioned Sunday

https://www.theblock.co/post/217198/yuga-labs-bitcoin-nft-collection-twelvefold-to-be-auctioned-sunday?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

NFT heavyweight Yuga Labs laid out the terms of the auction for its Bitcoin NFT collection TwelveFold on Sunday, which is due to start at 3 p.m. PT.

Of the 300 NFTs on offer, which were generated by Yuga Labs using 3D modeling technology among other techniques, 288 will be available for sale. There will be 12 held back for contributors, donations and philanthropic efforts, according to a company release. The auction will close about 24 hours after it starts.

The results will be finalized based on the last completed Bitcoin block before 3 p.m. PT on March 6. If the last block occurs at 2:57pm PT that day, then any bids contained within the following block will be disregarded even if they were submitted before the deadline, since they were not confirmed. There is no set price or guideline for bids.

About ordinals

This is Yuga Labs’ first dalliance with Bitcoin NFTs, having dominated the market in Ethereum NFTs with blockbuster collections Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks.

Bitcoin NFTs are inscribed onto satoshis on the Bitcoin blockchain. Inscriptions, also known as digital artifacts, are created when a file, such as an art image like those created for TwelveFold, is written (or inscribed into) units of Bitcoin called satoshis, the smallest individually identifiable units of Bitcoin.

The process is made possible through the Ordinal Theory protocol, with such NFTs simply donning the name "ordinals."

Ordinals have gained popularity as upgrades to the Bitcoin blockchain made it cheaper to store data in single transactions.

Move2earn project Sweat charts course for web3 launch in US

https://www.theblock.co/post/216596/move2earn-project-sweat-charts-course-for-web3-launch-in-us?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Move2earn challenger Sweat Economy is set to open up its crypto services, including the Sweat Wallet application and its native token, $SWEAT, to people in the U.S. market,

Move2earn was a novel concept pioneered by companies such as Stepn. The idea is that people can earn tokens via tracking their steps or exercise. In some cases, with this model, the coin’s price rising has been dependent on new adopters, with unsustainable price spikes leading to consumers losing money.

SWEAT’s price peaked in September last year, shortly after launch, and cratered after, according to TradingView data.

The non-crypto version of Sweatcoin has been available to the U.S. market since 2016; however, users have so far not been able to access its blockchain components due to regulation, according to a company release. Sweatcoin was the most downloaded health and fitness app globally in 2022, the company said.

Sweat’s announcement comes at a time of increasingly difficult regulatory pressure on crypto in the U.S. as NFTs and stablecoins alike have come under the microscope.

“We’ve been keeping an eye on regulatory developments and speaking to our legal advisors, and feel this year is the right time to bring SWEAT to the U.S.," Sweat Economy co-founder Oleg Fomenko told The Block in a message.

U.S. finally breaks a $Sweat

The move was announced at the ETH Denver conference, and will roll out officially on Sept. 12, a year since its global launch.

Existing U.S. Sweatcoin app users will receive their allocations of the crypto token, $SWEAT, in proportion to their current Sweatcoin holdings, and can start earning more tokens for their steps.

“Since last year, we have been inundated by requests from our U.S. users, who have been desperate to … literally … walk into crypto," said Fomenko. "Although we wish we could have made this announcement last year – better late than never! It’s wonderful to announce the good news to our millions of U.S.-based users now.”

$SWEAT tokens for the U.S. launch will not come from additional token emissions but from existing token allocations, meaning, in theory, it will avoid inflation.

Magic Eden to host more than a dozen free gaming NFT mints in March

https://www.theblock.co/post/216201/magic-eden-to-host-more-than-a-dozen-free-gaming-nft-mints-in-march?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

NFT marketplace Magic Eden is set for a month of free gaming NFT mints, with 13 projects preparing to launch on the platform.

The event, called "Mint Madness," will showcase collections across Polygon, Etherum and Solana beginning on Friday, according to a company release, with Planet Mojo NFTs launching on Polygon that day. Meta Star Strikers NFTs will follow shortly after.

The platform will also track which users are trading from those collections listed on the secondary marketplace on a leaderboard. The top 10 traders by volume, applicable only to Polygon collections, will be entered into a prize pool of 20,000 MATIC, with the first place finisher receiving a prize of 4,500 MATIC.

“We’ve observed that many games entering web3 do not necessarily need to use NFTs as a monetization tool; however, NFTs are a really important user engagement tool for them to share their vision and work with a highly captive and invested audience," Magic Eden’s Chief Gaming Officer Chris Akhavan said in a statement.

Despite the fact that Magic Eden started off as a Solana-only marketplace, just one of the 13 collections will debut on the blockchain. Nine are set to launch on Polygon and three on Ethereum.

Shrapnel, a popular AAA FPS title, will be the lone project to feature a cross-chain mint through Magic Eden, launching on Polygon on March 15 and Ethereum on March 22.

The full list of games available during "Mint Madness" includes Planet Mojo, Meta Star Strikers, Alaska Gold Rush, Shrapnel, Petobots, Blast Royale, Rogue Nation, Tearing Spaces, and Freckle Trivia on Polygon, Realm Hunter, Legendary: Heroes Unchained, and Shrapnel on Ethereum, and Papu Superstars on Solana. Additional mints are under consideration.

Metaverse already needs competition scrutiny, says EU antitrust chief

https://www.theblock.co/post/216466/metaverse-already-needs-competition-scrutiny-says-eu-antitrust-chief-reuters?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

The metaverse could be next in EU competition regulators’ crosshairs, said antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager on Thursday — with concerns about Meta’s dominance at the top of the docket.

"It’s already time for us to start asking what healthy competition would look like in the metaverse," Vestager said at the Keystone Conference.

Vestager noted that there is already a political debate about the attention paid to digital markets, with all jurisdictions moving forward at different speeds. "We will not get the same legal framework," she said, adding: "And maybe that is not a bad thing. Because that will allow us to hone our toolkits in the process of mutual learning."

Meta, formerly Facebook, has made an audacious play to grab market share in this emerging tech area, putting billions on the line to develop hardware and software. It is the market’s leading producer of virtual-reality headsets. The company reported a $4.3 billion loss in the fourth quarter of last year for its metaverse division, Reality Labs. The division lost $3.3 billion in the same quarter a year ago.

The Sandbox looks to a future where corporate partnerships aren’t its bread and butter

https://www.theblock.co/post/215900/the-sandbox-sebastien-borget-future-corporate-partnerships?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Sebastien Borget, chief operating officer of The Sandbox, believes the future of the metaverse platform lies in the hands of individual creators, not the brands that have made it something of a corporate crypto darling.

Since The Sandbox was bought by Animoca Brands in 2018, the vision has been to build an "open world." However, from the outside, it seems its growth has been driven by bluechip corporate deals.

So far, the platform has worked on projects and partnerships with the likes of HSBC, Warner Music, PlayBoy, Gucci and Ubisoft. It also raised $93 million led by the SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in November 2021.

Now, through this base layer of brand recognition, more independent creators will be "onboarded," Borget argued, speaking to The Block at NFT Paris.

“You need a catalyst to start something. Our experience doing user-generated content for almost 15 years is that it doesn’t just start with a blank page and saying ‘use it,’ you always have to seed a community of creators to see what the possibility is and then from there, people will be inspired,” he said in an interview.

‘Less likely to succeed’

Last year, there were reports of dwindling users on metaverse platforms, which prompted leaders to set the record straight about how many users they actually have. In October, The Sandbox said it has 201,000 monthly active users, 4.1 million total wallets, 128 million in staked SAND tokens and more than 22,200 land owners.

Borget thinks that through this audience the virtual world will start seeing an influx of individual creators releasing content — not attached to brands — in the next 12 to 24 months. This will be orchestrated through more community-focused curated events and through the creation of a DAO, which is expected to happen by the end of the year.

“No matter how good the technology is, without fun, story telling and being relevant to the audience and creator friendly, the metaverse is less likely to succeed," he said.

So far, decentralization of the platform has come through its SAND token and the sale of virtual, blockchain-backed land via that token. Sand will dictate governance in the DAO. Centralized curation decisions and grants from the foundation will therefore be put in the hands of the community.

“The Sandbox will be at the service of the community, as just one holder of the token,” he added.

Saudi Arabia and beyond

Borget isn’t just looking at growth online — he has IRL expansion on his mind, too. He wants to understand how the platform can fit into different cultures so it can attract different kinds of users.

A recent meeting with Saudi Arabian leaders sparked a rally in the price of SAND. The company also netted a recent partnership with Dubai, which uses The Sandbox as its "metaverse headquarters."

“Five years ago, Saudi Arabia was still a country where music was forbidden. It’s progressively opening to the rest of the world and has a very young population, which is interested in gaming and mobile gaming," explained Borget.

Borget is optimistic about the phase of education that is currently in progress in the region.

“I don’t see a world in 2030 or 2050 where the Middle East isn’t playing a big part," he added.

Tokenized Texan house listed for sale on Solana

https://www.theblock.co/post/215612/tokenized-texan-house-listed-for-sale-on-solana?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

A company called Homebase listed a property-backed NFT on Solana, allowing consumers to invest in a tokenized house.

Buying a share of the three-bed house in McAllen, Texas — the first on the platform — will set you back $100. There are 2,468 tokens on offer, worth a total $246,800.

Users can invest in single family rental properties through the program. Each home is held in a limited liability company whose ownership is associated with Homebase NFTs. After investment, they will begin to receive rent monthly in the form of USDC, according to a company release.

The idea, the company says, is to give better access to wealth-building via real estate on-chain.

The NFTs that are issued via a security token offering and are registered as securities with the SEC, filed under Regulation D. “We decided to take one of the most conservative legal approaches with our home offerings and thus decided to register them as securities from day one,” said Alex Kim, co-founder of Homebase, in the release.

This isn’t the first time real estate has been touted for sale on the blockchain. This time last year, Vesta Equity set out to sell fractionalized shares of houses on Algorand. It seems this failed to take hold, though, as the platform suggests that none of the houses listed have managed to attract any investment. Roofstock onChain, a marketplace for real estate NFTs had more luck in October, when a South Carolina house was sold via an NFT for $175,000.

Fujitsu and Mitsubishi look to create Japanese ‘metaverse economic zone’

https://www.theblock.co/post/215318/fujitsu-and-mitsubishi-look-to-create-japanese-metaverse-economic-zone?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

A group of large Japanese companies — including Mitsubishi, Fujitsu and banking giant Mizuho — agreed to work together to create a "Metaverse Economic Zone" for the country, with the aim of building open metaverse infrastructure.

The group will be guided by the aim of former Square Enix executive and JP Games CEO Hajime Tabata to "update Japan through the power of games," according to a release.

Companies that signed the agreement will integrate their technologies and services, including gamification and fintech, to build the technical infrastructure. It is currently called Ryugukoku.

The new social infrastructure will be used for information dissemination, marketing and workstyle reform for domestic enterprises, the release said. Users will be able to engage in an RPG-like experience as they travel through different realms. The service could also be extended beyond Japan to other jurisdictions and governments.

Mizuho will provide infrastructure for "metaverse coins," Mitsubishi will give capacity for "web3-type metaverse financial functions" and Sompo Japan Insurance will work on insurance and risk policy development for the web3 era.

The project echoes established players’ attempts to create open metaverse infrastructure that allows for interoperability – or the ability to port assets and characters across multiple virtual worlds run by different companies. The Open Metaverse Alliance (OMA) will be governed by a DAO and has been in progress since 2021. The big tech-heavy Metaverse Standards Forum, backed by the Khronos Group, is also attempting to accelerate the adoption of blanket rules for the online space. Its founding members included the likes of Meta and Microsoft.

Blur’s stance on royalties is ‘insulting,’ Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu says

https://www.theblock.co/post/215294/blur-royalties-insulting-animoca-brands-yat-siu-says?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu has a message for marketplaces: if you care about the health of the web3 ecosystem, you should stand behind creator royalties.

The remarks, made in an interview at NFT Paris, follow a prolonged debate about the correct model for remunerating artists and creators in crypto. Last week, Blur, the NFT marketplace targeting pro traders, set its royalty fee — the levy paid back to creators on on-going sales of NFTs — at 0.5%. In response, OpenSea dropped its 2.5% fee to zero for a limited time.

Animoca Brands is one of the most prolific investors in the space, having backed more than 380 web3-focused companies, according to Siu. Many of the companies the powerhouse invests in have a particular interest in making royalties work as a revenue stream.

Siu’s feeling is that artists and NFT creators should be the ones in charge of their own destiny, with the ability to set terms without seeking permission from bigger players.

“The reality is that creating allow lists, or block lists, is the beginning of centralisation — it’s the beginning of creating permissions,” Siu told The Block. “And there’s nothing wrong with thinking about permissions if you are the creator of it.”

Not rewarding creators for their content but rather rewarding traders that create liquidity, as Blur does, is “kind of insulting” otherwise, he said. “It’s an infringement and it’s also rude.”

Ultimately, Siu believes the next bull run will be “driven by culture,” and without royalties to feed back into companies and creators making the products which define the ecosystem, it will falter.

Raising and deploying in a bear market

Asked about ongoing efforts to raise money for Animoca’s latest fund, which will look to back later-stage companies, Siu said he thinks it will close in the first quarter, with a "number of different" parties involved.

The investment shop — one of the biggest backers in crypto — had originally looked to raise up to $2 billion for a metaverse-focused fund, but scaled back ambitions by around half following the November collapse of FTX. In January, Siu told Bloomberg the fund would look to close at around $1 billion.

Siu is confident that the company’s accounts, which it was granted an extension for filing at the end of last year, will be available in March.

Meanwhile, there is already deal flow coming in with “significant investments” on the horizon, alongside the sometimes “three or four deals a week” that have been filtering through the financing powerhouse.

“We have big conviction in the space. Valuations are lower, builders are better. If you can survive FTX you can survive anything,” he said, adding “To me this is a good time to invest. The founders who are still around are believers.”