Nifty News: Sega exec calls P2E games ‘boring,’ Tom Brady’s NFT firm switches it up and more

July 7, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Autograph

Sega is still reportedly licensing its lesser-known properties out for NFTs and blockchain games, but its best ones are being kept close.

Sega co-COO yawns at P2E games

The co-chief operating officer of Sega has called play-to-earn games “boring” amid the firm’s retreat from franchising some of its hottest properties to the blockchain gaming space.

Bloomberg reported on July 6 that Shuji Utsumi, the co-COO of the gaming company behind Sonic The Hedgehog, said Sega would shelve plans to develop blockchain games for now.

Third-party blockchain gaming projects would also not get access to Sega’s biggest franchises, with Utsumi adding:

“The action in play-to-earn games is boring, what’s the point if games are no fun?”

However, some of the less-known Sega titles will still get licensed for runs in nonfungible token (NFT) collections, its lesser franchises are getting blockchain games slated for announcements later this year and Sega is still pumping millions into related projects.

Breaking: Via @bloomberg, SEGA Co-COO Shuji Utsumi has confirmed that SEGA’s biggest IPs, Sonic will not use blockchain, to avoid devaluing them. #SonicNews

They were non-committal on using Web3 for their fabled “super game.”

Source: https://t.co/fgeVTRYHdB
— Sonic Stadium ✪ Sonic the Hedgehog Community (@sonicstadium) July 7, 2023

It's up in the air if the “super game” touted by Sega for the last year — set for launch in 2026 — will still involve Web3 tech.

Utsumi believed the tech is useful for such cases as moving in-game items between gaming titles but Sega may hang back until the tech sees wider use.

“We’re looking into whether this technology is really going to take off in this industry, after all,” Utsumi said.

Tom Brady’s NFT co. breaks up with NFTs

Professional American football star Tom Brady is reportedly switching up the strategy for his NFT-focused startup Autograph — which is now moving away from NFTs.

On July 6 The New York Times reported Autograph’s marketing has quietly removed crypto language, downplays terms such as NFT and has shifted focus away from marketing them with a new focus on helping stars generally spin up loyalty with their fans, according to people with knowledge of the firm.

Brady co-founded the company in 2021 with the aim of helping celebrities sell NFTs, scoring a $170 million Series B in January 2022 and lining up NFT deals with ESPN, the pro golfing organization the PGA Tour and others.

Autograph’s revenue supposedly tanked in 2022 in line with the wider crypto market, according to a person familiar with the firm's finances.

Brady’s reputation in crypto has suffered due to his ties with the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. He’s also named in a class action lawsuit aimed at alleged celebrity promotors of the exchange.

No need for Euro Metaverse regulations…yet: EU competition chief

Metaverses and those who create them won’t need to worry about specific regulations — at least not yet in the European Union (EU).

Reuters reported on June 6 that EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said there haven’t been any concerns triggered over the space even though Tech Giants Microsoft, Meta and now Apple have together poured billions into trying to corner the nascent sector.

The big spending by a small concentration of companies in a new market raises no competition concerns for Vestager:

"Actually we see that there is a lot of innovation when it comes to virtual worlds. I don't think that any company can claim that they will own it, so to speak, but that is what we hope to find out."

Existing EU laws around market monopolies, privacy and the incoming rules on artificial intelligence can also be applied to the Metaverse according to Vestager.

#Alphabet #Amazon #Apple #ByteDance #Meta #Microsoft #Samsung

⬆️the #platforms that notified us under the #DMA
If confirmed as gatekeepers, they will need to comply with #DMA keep markets fair & open, for us to have wide and affordable choices online

https://t.co/0tqmE02r1u pic.twitter.com/h4wn3mUGKc
— Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) July 4, 2023

"In Europe, now we have a body of digital legislation, she added. “I think we do have time to explore, to know that we should not jump to regulation as the first sort of safety pad."

She said next week she will present a metaverse-related initiative aimed at helping antitrust regulators understand the space.

Major League Baseball gets new virtual ballpark

U.S. professional baseball is getting a stadium in the Metaverse, apparently, the first professional league to own a virtual world for fans to gather in.

On July 5, metaverse tech firm Improbable announced the new virtual space, giving it the inventive title of “MLB virtual ballpark.”

The virtual stadium was developed within Improbable’s “MSquared” network of interoperable Web3 metaverses. Improbable also helped NFT conglomerate Yuga Labs build its Otherside metaverse.

⚾️ Announcing the launch of the all-new @MLB virtual ballpark. ( 1/7)

The #MLB virtual ballpark will allow fans to gather and interact simultaneously in a single place, making it the 1st service to host such large interactive sports experiences. pic.twitter.com/dA9v0iXiAI
— Improbable (@Improbableio) July 5, 2023

MLB’s executive VP of media and business development, Kenny Gersh, said “not everyone has the opportunity to attend Major League games” but now that’s been opened “to anyone with an internet connection.”

Improbable founder and CEO, Herman Narula, believed the tech could help with “creating and selling [...] Digital assets.” The League has an existing partnership with the NFT platform Candy Digital.

Other Nifty News

NFT royalties on Ethereum are at a two-year low according to data shared with Cointelegraph by analytics firm Nansen. The royalty drop comes as the floor price of Yuga’s flagship Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs are also hitting a dip.

Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu told Cointelegraph the firm is optimistic about the blockchain gaming sector and said it’s looking for a license before putting its $800 million metaverse fund to work.

NFT Collector: Snoop’s NFT nostalgia, The Goose draws Gen Y to Sotheby’s

Ethereum NFT royalties hit two-year low as Bored Ape floor price falls below 30 ETH

July 6, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain

NFT royalties act as an important gauge of incoming revenues to fund ongoing development of various projects in the ecosystem.

Royalties earned by nonfungible token (NFT) projects have reached their lowest point in two years, according to a report from blockchain analytics firm Nansen.

Data shared with Cointelegraph highlights the low point for NFT royalties before the impact of a recent drop in the floor price of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs as well as controversy surrounding the launch of the Azuki Elementals collection.

April 2022 saw the peak of NFT royalties, with NFT creators bagging an estimated $75.7 million in royalties in a single week. According to Nansen’s data, BAYC creators Yuga Labs has earned a total of $165.5 million in royalties across its portfolio of NFT collections.

RTFKT has earned a total of $79.9 million in royalties from its collections, which includes the likes of CloneX. Azuki has scored $58.2 million from its zuki, Beanz, Elemental Beansa and Elementals collections.

Proof, the studio behind Moonbirds, netted $35 million in revenues while Doodles has made $27.4 million from its Doodles, Space Doodles, Genesis Box and Dooplicato collections. Pudgy Penguins’s revenue amounts to $8.3 million across its Pudgy Penguins, Lil Pudgys and Pudgy Rods drops.

Nansen highlights the importance of NFT royalties as an indicator of a studio’s financial foundation for ongoing development, given their role in generating revenue.

NFT marketplace OpenSea had been primarily responsible for distributing royalty payments to NFT projects up until 2023. The report notes that this trend changed once rival marketplace Blur implemented a policy which required a minimum of 0.5% royalties unless projects opted out or enforced full percentages.

OpenSea gave buyers the choice to pay royalties unless projects had opted out or imposed their specific percentage:

“Currently, OpenSea and Blur are on par with each other when it comes to the royalties paid through their respective marketplaces, with more royalties paid on Blur when the trading volume surges.”

**Total royalties paid to NFT projects. (Source: Nansen’s NFT Trends dashboard)**

Nansen’s data also reveals that the top 10 NFT collections have earned more than $345 million in royalties. Yuga Labs’ $150 million in royalties makes up 44% of the top 10. Interestingly, just 20 NFT projects have earned more than $10 million in royalties to date.

Magazine: Ordinals turned Bitcoin into a worse version of Ethereum: Can we fix it?

Nifty News: Blue chip NFT prices wobble, Credit Suisse tries tokens and more

July 4, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Azuki

The floor prices for some of the largest NFT collections sunk to nearly two-year lows, but have started to edge up in the past 24 hours.

‘Blue chip’ floor prices near two-year lows

The largest nonfungible token (NFT) collections by market capitalization are in a sea of red as the cheapest NFTs in their collections took dives over the past week with some hitting near two-year lows.

Yuga Labs’ flagship Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection — the second largest by market cap according to CoinGecko — hit a floor price of 27.7 Ether (ETH), or $54,200 on July 3, a level not seen since September 2021.

*The largest 12 NFT collections floor prices are in the red over the past week. Azuki Elemental Beans is down but is incorrectly shown as having gained. Source: CoinGecko*

Other top collections including the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Azuki, CryptoPunks and DeGods also saw their floor prices sink over the week.

However, the last 24 hours have given the NFT holders a small respite, with floor prices recovering across most of the top collections. The largest gainer was Azuki Elementals with a nearly 32% floor price increase.

Credit Suisse takes a shot at NFTs

Swiss-based bank Credit Suisse said on July 3 that it’s teaming up with the Swiss Football Association to fire off 756 Ethereum NFTs with 100% of the proceeds going to support women's soccer in the country.

It’s the first time the bank has waded into NFTs, which will be made available through the bank's CSX app that’s adding a new functionality for digital assets — no crypto or crypto wallet required.

Instead, Swiss francs will be used to purchase the NFT which will appear in the app. The bank said this “first step” was meant to be “simple and client-friendly” so a “broad client base” could access digital assets.

As for the NFTs, each one portrays a player from the Swiss Women's National Team and come with varying levels of perks and benefits depending on their rarity.

*A collage of some of the rarest NFTs of which some are priced over $11,000. Source: Credit Suisse*

There are three rarity levels with 690 of the least rare starting at around $170 while the 11 most rare are priced at over $11,000 (150 to 10,000 Swiss francs).

Slow sales for Melania Trump’s NFTs

Former First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, is seeing sluggish sales for her all-American Solana NFT collection, which was released ahead of the country’s Independence Day celebrations.

Of the 3,000 NFTs released June 29, only 586 have sold — which doesn’t include an additional 500 that are not yet revealed and held back from sale until July 4.

Of those revealed, the “1776 Collection” has six different designs emblazoned with patriotic symbols. Each design has 500 apiece and are being hawked off for $50 a pop.

"The 1776 Collection of artwork draws inspiration from several iconic landmarks of our Nation, which I had the privilege of visiting during the time I served as First Lady" #MelaniaTrump #The1776Collection exclusively at https://t.co/d2es7j6pwb #FoxNews: https://t.co/HSBeQj8QPc pic.twitter.com/Cu5ruzP4VH
— USAmemorabilia (@USAmemorabilia) June 29, 2023

A June 29 Fox News article reported the collection was to celebrate the "foundations of American ideals" according to Trump’s office.

A different audio track is embedded in each NFT design that blares patriotic tunes. One depicting the Statue of Liberty sounds off The Star-Spangled Banner, the U.S. national anthem.

It was reported a portion of proceeds from the collection will go to Trump’s “Fostering the Future” non-profit initiative aiming to grant scholarships in computer science to children leaving foster care.

Dior’s NFTs go quiet about the ‘NFT’ part

A new product from French luxury brand Dior will come with an NFT, but the brand is seemingly being coy about the term "NFT" in its launch announcement.

On June 30, Dior announced it would be shipping a new line of shoes — with one style offering a “digital twin.”

Dior describes the twin e-shoes as “a unique and secure digital creation on the Ethereum blockchain” — wordplay which seems to deliberately obscure that the “digital twin” is simply an Ethereum-based NFT.

Sneakers Alert.
Introducing 'B33' sneakers by Kim Jones, from the #DiorMenFall 2023 collection. Each pair is equipped with an encrypted key granting access to a secure platform and exclusive services. Sign up to be the first to shop them online from July 6.
— Dior (@Dior) June 29, 2023

The shoes are called the “B33 sneaker” and come in seven different styles. Only the most expensive, priced at $2,150, come with the NFT twin.

The others, starting at the bargain price of $1,600, come with an NFC chip in the sole of the right shoe granting access to a “platform” showing its “Digital Certificate of Authenticity.” It’s unclear if this certificate is also an NFT.

Other Nifty News

NFT thieves are often quick to offload phished tokens, with blockchain security firm PeckShield finding that half of stolen NFTs are sold within three hours on OpenSea and Blur.

Hermès, another French luxury brand, racked up another win in its infringement case against the “MetaBirkin” NFT artist Mason Rothschild with a U.S. judge ordering a permanent injunction on all sales of the NFT.

NFT Collector: Snoop’s NFT nostalgia, The Goose draws Gen Y to Sotheby’s

Ethereum price won’t see $2K anytime soon, market data suggests

June 28, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Ethereum price won’t see K anytime soon, market data suggests

Analysis

Weak derivatives metrics, and declining TVL and DApps use, put Ethereum bears in a better position to keep ETH price below $2,000.

The price of Ether (ETH) faced strong resistance at $1,920 after a 17.5% rally between June 15 and June 22. Several factors contributed to the limited upside, including worsening macroeconomic conditions, the regulatory cryptocurrency environment and weaker demand for decentralized applications (DApps) on the Ethereum network.

ETH price faces macroeconomic headwinds

On June 26, a federal judge denied a motion from Binance that could have stopped the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from issuing public statements related to the case.

In addition, in its mid-year outlook, HSBC Asset Management’s report warned of an economic downturn in the U.S. in the fourth quarter, followed by a “year of contraction and a European recession in 2024”. The report also noted that “corporate defaults have started to creep up.”

Finally, International Monetary Fund chief economist Gita Gopinath told CNBC on June 27 that central bankers should “continue tightening” by keeping interest rates high for longer than expected.

Ethereum network demand, gas fees drop

Usage of DApps on the Ethereum network failed to gain momentum as gas fees dropped 60%. Notably, the seven-day average transaction cost dropped to $3.7 on June 26, down from $9 four weeks prior.

DApp active addresses also declined by 27% in the same period.

*30-day Ethereum DApp activity. Source: DappRadar*

A large chunk of the decline was concentrated on Uniswap and MetaMask Swap, while most nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces saw a surge in their unique active wallets (UAW).

Despite UNiswap NFT Aggregator's lackluster performance, the sector faced a decent influx of users on OpenSea, Blur, Manifold, LooksRare and Unick.

More concerningly, however, is that the total value locked (TVL), measuring the deposits locked in Ethereum's smart contracts, reached its lowest level since August 2020. The indicator declined by 6.9% between April 28 and June 28 to 13.9 million ETH, according to DefiLlama.

ETH price rally not supported by derivatives markets

So how are professional traders positioned for the next ETH price move? Let's take a lot at Ether futures to gauge the odds of ETH/USD breaking above the $1,920 resistance.

ETH quarterly futures are the preferred instruments of whales and arbitrage desks. However, these fixed-month contracts usually trade at a slight premium to spot markets as they demand an additional fee to postpone settlement.

As a result, in healthy markets, ETH futures contracts should trade at a 5 to 10% annualized premium, a situation known as contango.

*Ether 2-month futures annualized premium. Source: Laevitas*

According to the futures premium, known as the basis indicator, professional traders have been avoiding leveraged longs (bullish bets). Despite the modest improvement to 3%, the metric remains far from the neutral 5% threshold.

To exclude externalities that might have solely impacted the Ether futures, one should analyze the ETH options markets. The 25% delta skew indicator compares similar call (buy) and put (sell) options and will turn positive when fear is prevalent because the protective put option premium is higher than the call options.

*Ether 30-day 25% skew. Source: Laevitas*

The skew indicator will move above 8% if traders fear an Ether price crash. On the other hand, generalized excitement reflects a negative 8% skew.

As displayed above, the delta skew has been flirting with moderate optimism since June 22 but has been unable to sustain it for long. Presently, the negative 2% metric displays a balanced demand for options.

Resistance below $2,000 remains formidable

Judging by the ETH derivatives metrics, declining TVL and Dapps use, bears are in a better position to defend the $1,920 resistance. Moreover, the worsening macroeconomic conditions and the cryptocurrency regulatory news flow confirm the moderate pessimism for risk-on assets, including Ether.

That does not necessarily mean that Ether is bound to retest $1,750, but it certainly presents an enormous hurdle for ETH bulls after failing to break the $1,920 level on three occasions between June 21 and June 25.

Consequently, at least for the short term, Ethereum bears have better odds of successfully defending this important price level.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Otherdeed Expanded, Pixelady Maker, OCM Karma, KILLABEARS and more collections added to Kraken NFT

June 23, 2023 Kraken

German intelligence service launches dog-themed NFTs to fetch cyber talent

June 22, 2023 Coin Telegraph

bnd

Nearly 1,000 NFTs have been put on Ethereum by Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service in its quest to recruit blockchain talent for the agency.

Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), has launched a dog-themed nonfungible token (NFT) collection with an on-chain treasure hunt aimed at recruiting cyber talent.

Earlier in June, the Federal Intelligence Service launched its “Dogs of BND” collection — 999 dog NFTs inspired by BND’s guard and security dogs as well as “different intelligence roles.”

According to the BND’s website, the NFTs are only collectible by finding a character string that it posted on Instagram and which points to an Ethereum address. The cyber talent would need to use that information to find the collection and be eligible to mint an NFT.

*A Twitter user shared an image posted on BND’s Instagram and rhetorically asked if the NFTs are taxpayer-funded. Source: Twitter*

On June 19, the BND spoke to the German crypto outlet BTC-Echo; the agency said it created the collection and challenge to try to find cybersecurity talent.

Twelve of the NFTs aren’t up for grabs in the collection yet. The BND said its planning more difficult challenges in the future with these tokens as the prize.

BTC-Echo reported the BND was considering a smart contact hacking challenge.

Since the collection has received more attention, the floor price and trading volumes of the NFTs have skyrocketed.

Between June 21 and June 22, the floor price jumped from 0.000001 Ether (ETH) to 0.052 ETH, worth about $100.

Despite the significant jump in value, the liquidity on the collection is still quite low. On June 21, the collection saw a total volume of around 1 ETH, which suggests only around 20 or so NFTs were sold by collectors.

NFT Creator: ‘Holy shit, I’ve seen that!’ — Coldie’s Snoop Dogg, Vitalik and McAfee NFTs

3 reasons why Ethereum’s market cap dominance is on the rise

June 21, 2023 Coin Telegraph

bnb

Bitcoin dominance is rising, but so is Ethereum’s share of market dominance among its altcoin competitors. Cointelegraph explains why.

Ethereum has been the dominant smart contract and decentralized application (Dapp) network since its inception. An analysis based on Ether’s price (ETH), and its market capitalization, shows indisputable evidence that the blockchain has been gaining market share over time.

*Ether market capitalization dominance (%). Source: TradingView*

As shown above, Ether’s dominance in market capitalization terms grew over the past couple of years, from an 18% average in July 2021 to the current 20%. Excluding Bitcoin (BTC) from the analysis, Ether’s market share presently stands at 40.6%, while the next competitor, BNB, holds a 7.2% share.

This shows the disparity from the leading Dapp-focused network to the incumbents, which is also evident when analyzing the total value locked (TVL) on each network’s smart contracts. Ethereum is the absolute leader with $24.6 billion in TVL, followed by Tron’s $5.4 billion and BNB Chain’s $3.3 billion.

*Total value locked market share (%). Source: DefiLlama*

The above chart depicts the Ethereum network’s TVL market share declining from 70.5% in June 2021 to 49.5% in May 2022. The movement happened while Terra and Avalanche gained a combined 20% market share in smart contract deposits. However, after the Terra-Luna ecosystem collapse in May 2022, which culminated with developers halting network activity, Ethereum quickly regained a 58% market share.

Despite the emergence of Dapps on the BNB and Tron blockchains, Ethereum’s leadership has remained unquestioned over the past 12 months. This data shows the irrelevance of the total number of unique active wallets interacting with smart contracts (UAW) per chain.

For instance, according to DappRadar, WAX has 363,600 active users, followed by BNB Chain's 517,300 30-day UAW. These figures are way higher than the Ethereum network’s 66,300 unique active addresses, but they reflect a much lower transaction fee, opening room for manipulation.

Decentralization matters, and Ethereum stands out among its competitors

Ethereum is the ecosystem with the highest number of active developers, surpassing 1,870, which is more than the next three competitors combined: Polkadot (752), Cosmos (511), and Solana (383).

Currently, the Ethereum network has over 700,000 validators, with 99% of the balances locked in staking participating in the process. The 32 ETH threshold limit per validator undoubtedly inflates this number, but Lido, the largest known staking pool, controls 32% of the staking, with Coinbase coming in second with 9.6%.

Consequently, it is safe to say that Ethereum is far less centralized in terms of development and validation in comparison to Tron, BNB Chain and Solana.

Other reasons why Ether’s dominance has been on the rise, even as Bitcoin reached a 50% market share on June 19 are: derivatives activity and Ethereum’s dominance of the NFT market

Derivatives markets are essential to institutional investors

Ether’s future contracts are essential for institutional trading practices like hedging and trading with leverage. Ether’s cash-settled futures were added to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in February 2021. To date, no other cryptocurrency, apart from Bitcoin, has ever reached the world’s largest derivatives exchange.

In futures markets, longs and shorts are balanced at all times, but having a larger number of active contracts — open interest — allows the participation of institutional investors who require a minimum market size. Ether futures aggregated open interest stands at $5.4 billion, while competitors BNB hold $380 million and Solana a mere $178 million.

Ethereum is still the market leader in NFTs

Nonfungible tokens (NFT) are a perfect example of how cheaper and faster transactions do not always translate to increased adoption. There’s nothing stopping NFT projects from shifting between blockchains, whether for new listings or existing collections. In fact, y00ts and DeGods moved to Polygon earlier in 2023.

Despite facing gas fees that oftentimes break above $10, Ethereum remains the absolute leader in the number of buyers and total sales. According to CryptoSlam!, the leading network reached $380 million in sales in the past 30 days, while Solana, Polygon and BNB Chain totaled a combined $93 million.

Ultimately, the data favors Ethereum versus the competing smart contract-focused blockchains. The positive trend in Ether’s dominance might fade over time if the promised upgrade to allow parallel processing (sharding) does not come to fruition, but for now, Ether’s 20% market capitalization share remains unchallenged.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Sotheby’s auctions off Dmitri Cherniak’s ‘The Goose’ NFT from 3AC collection for $6.2M

June 15, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Sotheby’s auctions off Dmitri Cherniak’s ‘The Goose’ NFT from 3AC collection for .2M

Art

Su Zhu and Kyle Davies originally purchased ‘The Goose’ digital artwork in August 2021 for roughly $5.8 million in Ether.

Sotheby’s auction house has sold a piece of digital artwork from the collection of collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) for more than $6 million.

According to auction records updated June 15, Dmitri Cherniak’s artwork ‘The Goose’ sold for roughly $5.4 million in addition to Sotheby’s premium fees, totaling just over $6.2 million. The nonfungible token (NFT) artwork was part of 3AC’s digital portfolio assembled in 2021. Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, 3AC's co-founders, purchased ‘The Goose’ in August 2021 for 1,800 Ether (ETH), roughly $5.8 million at the time.

Thesis: we like the Goose. pic.twitter.com/RBI9Axuvac
— 朱溯 (@zhusu) August 27, 2021

Other pieces in the collection auctioned by Sotheby’s included CryptoPunks #291, #6574 and #8950, as well as Autoglyph #218 from Larva Labs. Reports on social media suggested the Punks sold for between $75,000 and $90,000 each.

As one of the first major auction houses to launch a dedicated marketplace for digital artwork and NFTs in 2021, Sotheby’s has sold many pieces relevant to crypto users for upward of millions of dollars. An NFT of the first tweet from former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has passed through the auction house, as well as the original manuscript of the book that coined the term 'metaverse.’

Once a leader in the crypto space, 3AC went bust amid the 2022 market crash, and Zhu’s and Davies' whereabouts have since been largely unknown. In April, the duo backed the launch of a new exchange — OPNX — which claimed to be aimed at “help[ing] the industry” amid the collapse of platforms including FTX and Celsius. However, disgruntled 3AC investors have continued to target the pair through various court procedures in the United States and abroad.

Magazine: NFT art pioneer wants to upload her brain so she can live forever: Josie Bellini, NFT Creator

Y00ts, LO-FI PEPE, Trump Digital Trading Cards Series 1 & 2 and more collections added to Kraken NFT

June 15, 2023 Kraken

Footwear conglomerate Puma launches 3D Web3 experience

June 13, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The experience is designed for everyone, but Puma Pass holders gain access to exclusive perks.

On June 13, German footwear conglomerate Puma launched its 3D metaverse experience, Black Station. As told by developers, Black Station is an “experiential home” for product drops built to provide “unbridled access” for Puma Pass nonfungible token (NFT) holders.

The firm says that the experience is for everyone to explore, but only those possessing RB tokens airdropped to Puma Pass holders can purchase a digital "Rulebreaker” sneaker and claim two digital wearables. At the time of publication, RB tokens currently have a price tag of 0.0125 Ether (ETH). Developers wrote:

“If you do not own an RB token there is still so much to explore. Unkai, our city in the clouds, and Unter, our exhilarating club below, both are filled with mysteries to explore and collect."

Holders of the RB token can burn it from June 13-20 on Black Station, granting their parent wallet access to various product drops in the metaverse. According to its roadmap, Black Station will have a few more general events and NFT drops this year, with 2024 events still in development.

The experience remains open until June 23. Previously, Puma stated it was exploring alternative chains but nevertheless decided to remain on Ethereum. It is also possible to purchase digital collectibles via credit card in addition to connecting one’s wallet and using ETH.

Cointelegraph reported in February 2022 that Puma registered an Ethereum Name Service domain and changed its Twitter name to Puma.eth. At the time, Puma had invested in various feline-inspired NFT collections, including Cool Cats NFT, Lazy Lions, Gutter Cat Gang and CatBlox.

Black Station is now LIVE! ⚡️

PUMA’s digital experience reveals new limited edition shoes in an entirely new light...

Explore UNKAI & UNTER for yourself and discover the mysteries of these worlds

ENTER EXPERIENCE: https://t.co/5EXphtTxSA pic.twitter.com/lRpOFw0nqe
— PUMA.eth (@PUMA) June 13, 2023

Magazine: Nonfungible Tokens - The Quick Guide

NFT

Sega co-COO yawns at P2E games

Tom Brady’s NFT co. breaks up with NFTs

No need for Euro Metaverse regulations…yet: EU competition chief

Major League Baseball gets new virtual ballpark

Other Nifty News

‘Blue chip’ floor prices near two-year lows

Credit Suisse takes a shot at NFTs

Slow sales for Melania Trump’s NFTs

Dior’s NFTs go quiet about the ‘NFT’ part

Other Nifty News

ETH price faces macroeconomic headwinds

Ethereum network demand, gas fees drop

ETH price rally not supported by derivatives markets

Resistance below $2,000 remains formidable

Decentralization matters, and Ethereum stands out among its competitors

Derivatives markets are essential to institutional investors

Ethereum is still the market leader in NFTs

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