NFT Sales Rise 7.28% to $179.64 Million in 7 Days, Nakamigos Takes the Top Collection Spot

April 8, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Undeads Announces the Prize Pool of MAYC, BAKC and Otherdeed NFTs for It’s Holders

March 22, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Whale sells 1,010 NFTs in 48 hours in ‘largest NFT dump ever’

February 25, 2023 Coin Telegraph

BAYC

With the Blur marketplace set for a second airdrop soon, Nansen’s Andrew Thurman theorized that this major NFT dump could be a play to reap extra BLUR token rewards while also booking some profits.

According to data from Nansen, nonfungible token (NFT) whale Jeffrey Hwang — known colloquially as Machi Big Brother — dumped 1,010 tokens for a total of 11,680 Ether (ETH) or $18.6 million in the space of 48 hours.

In a Feb. 25 Twitter thread, Nansen’s Simian Psychometric Enhancement Technician Andrew Thurman highlighted the trading activity over the previous two days, and noted that it's “likely the largest NFT dump ever.”

The major selling event included 90 Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs, 191 Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFTs and 308 Otherdeed NFTs to name a few.

In what's likely the largest NFT dump ever, in the past 48 hours Machi has sold 1,010 NFTs, including:
- 90 BAYC for 5707 ETH
- 191 MAYC for 3091 ETH
- 112 Azuki for 1644 ETH
- 308 Otherdeed for 582 ETH

But he's not registering much profit for these collections. Why? pic.twitter.com/4NyMF3gzuy
— Andrew T (@Blockanalia) February 24, 2023

Notably, however, Machi Big Brother (Machi) promptly bought back 991 NFTs following the dump, with Thurman theorizing that could be a play to either book some profits while also conducting “one big wash trade to generate huge Blur airdrop profits,” or a “pretty naked market manipulation. ”

Machi is reportedly one of the biggest receivers of the BLUR token airdrop from upstart NFT marketplace Blur, which recently ousted OpenSea from being the top-ranked NFT platform in terms of trading volume.

On Feb. 14, the project started dishing out its first round of airdrops to the community, with the amount of airdropped tokens depending on the user’s level of platform engagement and Ethereum-based NFT trading activity.

On Feb. 17, blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intel indicated that Machi had received 1.8 million BLUR tokens, and cashed it all out for $1.3 million.

Machi is currently not holding any $BLUR - like others, he sold it all.

In total, he received $1.3M for his 1.8M Blur tokens, selling at an average price of $0.707.

It took 38 separate transactions for him to completely sell his $BLUR! pic.twitter.com/nhJpGK1uFf
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) February 16, 2023

As such, Machi could be looking to score some fresh BLUR tokens in the next round by ramping up NFT trading activity, while other whales may be looking to do the same also.

Looking at the floor prices of top collections that Machi initially dumped, BAYC, MAYC and Otherdeed NFTs have seen their prices drop 7.77%, 9.2% and 8.16% in the past 24 hours, according to data from NFT Price Floor.

“One man's quest for an airdrop is wrecking some markets,” Thurman noted in a subsequent post.

FWIW my "partial cashout" theory doesn't seem to be panning out -- he hasn't sent anything to Binance in a while pic.twitter.com/FbqBsRzjHd
— Andrew T (@Blockanalia) February 25, 2023

At the time of writing, BLUR sits at $0.79 with the price declining by 17.7% over the past seven days, according to CoinGecko.

On Feb. 22, the Blur team tweeted that the project will soon airdrop $300 million worth of tokens in its second round, or “season two.”

NFT Sales Rise 18.43% This Week, Led by Ethereum’s $233.85 Million in NFT Settlements

February 11, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Nearly $13 Billion in Sales: Breaking Down 5 NFT Collections by Sales Volume

January 29, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Nifty News: Trump NFTs surge 800%, Yuga Labs blacklists NFT exchanges, and more

January 20, 2023 Coin Telegraph

BAYC

Donald Trump’s NFT collection started out strong but then started looking lifeless up until a few days ago.

Trump NFTs daily sales surge by 800%

Former United States President Donald Trump’s nonfungible token (NFT) trading card collection has witnessed a massive resurgence in daily sales volume in recent days.

Compared to Jan. 17 sales volumes, Jan 18. and Jan. 19 saw spikes of 800% and 600% respectively, according to market metrics aggregator Cryptoslam.

Some pundits believe the renewed interest could be due to his imminent return to social media networks, following reports that the former president was seeking to rejoin Facebook and Twitter ahead of the 2024 presidential election campaign.

NFT Watch: Trump Digital Trading Cards see 88% increase in floor price in the past 24 hours following news of his plans to return to Twitter.

: https://t.co/P6W2uHx0Sr pic.twitter.com/IJogZR6yR4
— CoinGecko (@coingecko) January 19, 2023

The collection of 45,000 self-themed trading cards was launched on Dec. 15 and initially priced at $99 each.

Buyers of the collection were automatically entered into a sweepstake which included “1000s of prizes,” including one-on-one dinners, zoom calls and rounds of golf with the former President.

They quickly sold out and recorded daily sales volumes of over $3.5 million, but then plummeted to a baseline of around $26,000 by the end of 2022.

Yuga Labs blacklists NFT marketplaces

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creator Yuga Labs has blocked secondary trading of its “Sewer Pass” NFTs on marketplaces that do not fully support creator royalties.

Wow not only is Yuga Labs blacklisting Blur they have also blacklisted LooksRare, SudoSwap, and NFTX. Royalty war is heating up. https://t.co/afAnovk9ND pic.twitter.com/UEd3dtw0w4
— Simon Cousaert (@Merkle3_) January 18, 2023

The NFT project was first announced on Jan. 12 and became available for minting on Jan. 17.

Only Bored Ape Yacht Club or Mutant Ape Yacht Club holders are able to mint the Sewer Pass, which acts as an entry pass to its new skill-based NFT game, called Dookey Dash.

The sewer is open. Sewer Pass holders, go to https://t.co/ItKXBwrs9t to Dookey Dash as many times as you want until February 8th. pic.twitter.com/3h0qaKggKJ
— Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) January 19, 2023

A royalty is a fee which is taken from the price of a sale and sent to the content creator, and Yuga Labs has been vocal about its opposition to broader shifts within the market to royalty-free marketplaces.

The Sewer Pass has seen a high volume of trades on secondary marketplaces, with a floor price of 1.81 ETH ($2,809) and sales volumes of 15,627 ETH ($24,267,411) according to data from NFT Price Floor.

Based on Yuga Labs’ 5% creator royalty fee, secondary sales for the collection have already netted them revenues of over $1.2 million.

Neopets raise $4 million to build metaverse

Virtual pet website Neopets — which was popular throughout the 2000s — has raised $4 million from the gaming and blockchain investors with plans to create its own metaverse.

Some of the companies providing the funding are venture capital firm Polygon Ventures, investment firms HaskKet Capital and IDG Capital, gaming company NetDragon Websoft and Avalanche's development fund Blizzard Avalanche Ecosystem Fund.

According to the announcement, ‘Neopets Metaverse’ will be a play-and-earn virtual pet game based on the original, and would allow players to “raise, care for, customize, and battle with their Neopets” on the blockchain.

In the announcement, HashKey Capital’s investment director Xao Xiao notes: “We believe that GameFi plays a crucial role in the larger metaverse narrative, serving as the interactive layer in the value chain and a key driver of traffic across web 2 and web 3.”

Neopets was founded in 1999, and the company is hopeful that Neopets Metaverse will bring “the magic of Neopets in a positively fresh light to old-time players, as well as attracting and nurturing a new generation of Neopians.”

The community has had an underwhelming response to the announcement, with some suggesting its previous effort at creating a Neopets metaverse had been a flop.

actually hilarious news on the migration considering being based on solana was one of their main selling points to avoid the environmental controversy. desperate rats trying to squeeze something out of a big fail
— no (@RED0KT0BERFEST) January 16, 2023

The company had initially launched an NFT collection using the Solana network on Nov. 12, 2012, which allegedly went so poorly it resulted in the hashtag #NoNeoNFT trending on Twitter.

Touch the metaverse, researchers say

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have created a pair of haptic gloves which it believes can bring the sensation of touch to the metaverse.

The invention, called the HaptGlove, is an untethered and lightweight glove that will allow metaverse users to interact with virtual objects in a much more realistic fashion by conveying touch and grip.

*A professor who is working on the HaptGlove wearing it. Source: NUSnews.*

When users put on the HaptGlove, they are able to sense when their virtual avatar’s hand touches something, as well as tell how hard and what shape the object is as a result of the HaptGlove restricting the user’s finger positions.

NUS claims that the HaptGlove will also be useful in other areas, such as education and medicine, by allowing surgeons to prepare for surgeries in a “hyper-realistic environment” or giving students a hand-on learning experience.

While the concept of haptic gloves is not new, for example Meta is working on their own version of them, NUS claim that theirs is able to provide users with a much more realistic sense of touch compared to others that exist today.

Those working on metaverse games have suggested that as virtual reality is such an immature technology, it is difficult to incorporate it into metaverse products, so existing games like The Sandbox and Decentraland are yet to fully incorporate virtual reality clients.

More Nifty News:

On Jan. 18 NFT marketplace Rarible announced that it would be expanding its marketplace builder to include Polygon-based NFT collections. The builder will allow artists and projects to customize their own marketplace, with its CEO Alexei Falin believing that community marketplaces would become the future of NFT buying and selling.

Crypto exchange Binance announced on Jan. 19 that it would be tightening its rules for NFT listings, requiring sellers to complete Know Your Customer (KYC) verification and have at least two followers before listing on the platform. The firm plans to “periodically review” NFT listings that do not “meet its standards” and recommend them for delisting.

Google Ads-delivered malware drains NFT influencer’s entire crypto wallet

January 16, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

A sponsored advertising link on Google hid malware that siphoned thousands of dollars worth of crypto and NFTs from an influencer’s wallet.

An NFT influencer claims to have lost “a life-changing amount” of their net worth in nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and crypto after accidentally downloading malicious software found via a Google Ad search result.

The pseudo-anonymous influencer known on Twitter as “NFT God” posted a series of tweets on Jan. 14 describing how his “entire digital livelihood” came under attack including a compromise of his crypto wallet and multiple online accounts.

Last night my entire digital livelihood was violated.

Every account connected to me both personally and professionally was hacked and used to hurt others.

Less importantly, I lost a life changing amount of my net worth
— NFT God (@NFT_GOD) January 15, 2023

NFT God, known also as “Alex,” said he used Google's search engine to download OBS, an open-source video streaming software. But instead of clicking on the official website, he clicked the sponsored advertisement for what he thought was the same thing.

It wasn’t until hours later — after a series of phishing tweets posted by attackers on two Twitter accounts that Alex operates — that he realized malware was downloaded from the sponsored advertisement alongside the software he wanted.

Following a message from an acquaintance, Alex noticed his crypto wallet was also compromised. The next day, attackers breached his Substack account and sent phishing emails to his 16,000 subscribers.

Then I get the DM I've been dreading. "Dude you WETH'd your ape?"

I pop open the Opensea bookmark of my ape and there it is. A completely different wallet listed as the owner.

I knew at that moment it was all gone. Everything. All my crypto and NFTs ripped from me
— NFT God (@NFT_GOD) January 15, 2023

Blockchain data shows that at least 19 Ether (ETH) worth nearly $27,000 at the time, a Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFT with a current floor price of 16 ETH ($25,000), and multiple other NFTs were siphoned from Alex’s wallet.

The attacker moved most of the ETH through multiple wallets before sending it to the decentralized exchange (DEX) FixedFloat, where it was swapped for unknown cryptocurrencies.

Alex believes the “critical mistake” that allowed the wallet hack was setting up his hardware wallet as a hot wallet by entering its seed phrase “in a way that no longer kept it cold,” or offline, which allowed the hackers to gain control of his crypto and NFTs.

Unfortunately, NFT God’s experience isn’t the first time the crypto community has dealt with crypto-stealing malware in Google Ads.

A Jan. 12 report from cybersecurity firm Cyble warned of an information-stealing malware called “Rhadamanthys Stealer” spreading through Google Ads on “highly convincing phishing webpage[s].”

In October, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao warned that Google search results were promoting crypto phishing and scamming websites.

Cointelegraph contacted Google for comment but did not receive a response. In its help center, however, Google said it “actively works with trusted advertisers and partners to help prevent malware in ads.”

It also describes its use of “proprietary technology and malware detection tools” to regularly scan Google Ads.

Cointelegraph was unable to replicate the results of Alex’s search nor verify if the malicious website was still active.

NFT Sales Drop 59% in Second Week of 2023; Ethereum Dominates Top 20 Blockchains with 75% of Sales

January 15, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Mutant Ape Planet creator arrested in NY for alleged $2.9M NFT ‘fraud’

January 6, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Mutant Ape Planet creator arrested in NY for alleged .9M NFT ‘fraud’

Ape

The developer of a Mutant Ape Yacht Club knock-off collection has allegedly defrauded investors of $2.9 million and admitted to a rug pull.

The developer of a Mutant Ape Yacht Club knock-off collection — Mutant Ape Planet — has been arrested in New York and charged with defrauding investors of $2.9 million in a “rug pull scheme.”

The arrest took place on Jan. 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, with homeland security agent Ivan J. Arvelo alleging that French national “Aurelien Michel perpetrated a rug pull scheme” and stole “nearly $3 million from investors for his own personal use." He added:

“Purchasers of Mutant Ape Planet NFTs thought they were investing in a trendy new collectible, but they were deceived and received none of the promised benefits.”

Internal Revenue Service agent Thomas Fattorusso was quoted in a press release from the Department of Justice as saying that “Michel defrauded investors by making false representations of, amongst other things, giveaways, tokens with staking features, and merchandise collections.” But Michel withdrew the funds once the nonfungible tokens (NFTs) were sold out, the release says.

According to the statement, Michel admitted to the community via a social media chat that he had perpetrated a rug pull, saying “we never intended to rug but the community went way too toxic.”

The collection — a knock-off of the popular Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT collection — consists of 6,797 NFTs stored on the Ethereum blockchain. The collection has had a total of 567 Ether (ETH) in sales but has seen its average price and sales volume crater since it launched in January 2022.

*Sales of the Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection. Source: Opensea*

Following the arrest, holders of the collection have been sharing their side of the story via Twitter, noting that James had attempted to blame his departure on the community who were becoming skeptical due to the lack of activity.

When I’m reality what was happening was the founders were actually not holding to their promised utility leading in to people losing trust and then one day the founders completely disappeared with no notes, nothing. Things went sideways here as lots of people left the community-
— PerfectElectro (@electro_perfect) January 5, 2023

The project has since been taken over by the community who is attempting to breathe some life back into it, spearheaded by a user with the pseudonym HTMadge.

*A screenshot of discussions between community members. Source: Discord.*

According to a Dec. 21 DappRadar report, rug pulls — a type of exit scam where the creators of a project suddenly abandon or withdraw liquidity from the platform — were the most common type of attack last year, accounting for 119 incidents and $200 million in stolen funds.

Popular influencer and former adult film star Lana Rhoades was accused of being behind one of the bigger rug pulls of 2022, after reportedly walking away with $1.5 million from the minting of an NFT project that has seen less than 1 ETH worth of secondary market sales since its launch last February.

Nifty News: Celebs lose big on BAYC, Meghan and Harry building a metaverse, and more.

November 18, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Adidas

Celebrities are facing huge losses on their Bored Apes bought during the NFT peak, but big names like Sony and Adidas are pushing further into the industry.

Celebrities facing huge losses from BAYC NFTs

The hype behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) over the last year resulted in many celebrities investing in the Ethereum-based nonfungible token (NFT) collection with many, such as singer Justin Bieber, paying top dollar.

Bieber paid 500 Ether (ETH) for BAYC #3001 on Jan. 29, which at the time was valued at around $1.28 million, while the current top offer on the NFT cracks just over $69,500.

According to data from NFT Price Floor, the floor price for the collection has fallen considerably since it peaked at 144.9 ETH on May. 1 this year, which at the time was worth around $396,760, to a current low of 48 ETH, valued at $58,589 at the time of writing.

Many other celebs also rode the wave of hype that saw the Yuga Labs made NFTs become a “blue chip” collection, such as entrepreneur Gary Vee who still has a number of Bored Apes in his 2,400-strong NFT collection, and television host Jimmy Fallon, who bought BAYC #599 for $224,191 on Nov. 8 which has a current top offer of $70,264.

It's not all bad news for Bored Apes though, with BAYC #8633 having been bought from digital art collector Pransky for nearly $747,500 on Nov. 17 showing that there is still a huge demand for Bored Apes with some rare attributes.

The Sussexes in talks for a ‘virtual world’

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are “in advanced talks” with pax.world — a platform allowing users to create their own metaverse, according to a Nov. 15 Mirror article.

Sources allege that Markle is the driving force behind the plan, as a result, the Metaverse has cleverly been dubbed the “Meg-averse.”

The former working royals are thought to be looking for new ways to connect with their fans and see their purported Metaverse as a way “to take their brand fully global.”.

According to pax.world founder Frank Fitzgerald, the Metaverse is perfect for the “progressive, tech-savvy” audience the pair are looking to connect with as they build upon their brand, saying the platform is offering the couple “a plot of prime pax.world land.”

Adidas Originals unveil ‘virtual gear’ collection

Adidas released an Ethereum based NFT collection called the “Genesis collection,” on Nov. 16 featuring a set of wearables designed to be worn by virtual avatars.

INTRODUCING ADIDAS VIRTUAL GEAR
Unveiling the genesis collection of adidas Virtual Gear 1/6 pic.twitter.com/FUt9Qhj8VO
— adidas Originals (@adidasoriginals) November 16, 2022

Calling the new product “Virtual Gear,” the sportswear giant has labeled the collection as a “new, interoperable product category,” adding:

“[It] accelerates our collective drive towards strengthening web3, and the adidas community-based, member-first, open metaverse pledge”

Building on Adidas’ partnership with BAYC, Mutant Ape Yacht Club and Inhabitants, the 16-piece collection will also allow users who own a wearable Adidas NFT and a participating partner's NFT to “dress up” that NFT with their Adidas virtual wearable.

Owners of the Adidas Originals: Capsule NFT Collection, which launched in May will be able to burn their capsule NFT and have it replaced with a random NFT from the new collection.

Commenting on the collection, the Senior VP of Creative Direction for Adidas Originals Nic Galway said Web3 offers new opportunities for its designers and collaborators and adds a “level of utility that can be explored and even discovered as worlds and avatars take new forms.”

Sony’s NFT gaming patent

In a patent applied for in May 2021 and made public on Nov. 10, technology conglomerate Sony has revealed its intent to incorporate blockchain technology into its games.

The patent shows the company aims to track in-game assets using blockchain technology and NFTs, including a series of diagrams showing how it would do this.

*One of the diagrams showing how Sony envisages its tracking system to work. Image: WIPO*

While the filing is just a patent at this time, it may indicate the entertainment behemoth is interested in joining the growing NFT gaming market.

Sony has already dipped its foot into NFTs, after partnering with Theta Labs in May to launch a collection of 3D NFTs viewable on its Spatial Reality Display, that allows visualization of 3D models.

More Nifty News:

Crypto has been front and center at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with Red Bull Racing featuring NFTs on both the cars of the Red Bull Racing’s driving team following a deal struck with crypto exchange Bybit.

The creator of the BAYC, Yuga Labs, acquired Beeple’s browser-based NFT game on Nov. 15. The game allows players to outfit heroes with crafted loadouts and items to complete missions, and Yuga Labs have hinted that it could be merged into their Otherside metaverse ecosystem.

MAYC

Trump NFTs daily sales surge by 800%

Yuga Labs blacklists NFT marketplaces

Neopets raise $4 million to build metaverse

Touch the metaverse, researchers say

More Nifty News:

Celebrities facing huge losses from BAYC NFTs

The Sussexes in talks for a ‘virtual world’

Adidas Originals unveil ‘virtual gear’ collection

Sony’s NFT gaming patent

More Nifty News:

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