Argentina’s fan token sinks 31% after World Cup loss against Saudi Arabia

November 23, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Algorand

The price of soccer fan tokens, designed for fan engagement, is seemingly impacted by the on-field performance of teams.

Argentina’s shock 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia in the opening match of the FIFA World Cup has plummeted the price of the Argentine Football Association Fan Token (ARG), in line with the hopes of the nation’s die-hard soccer fans.

With the ARG token priced at $7.21 at kick-off, the poor performance by the Lionel Messi-led soccer team saw the token’s price fall 31% to $4.96 by the end of the match before rising to $5.22 at the time of writing, according to data from Coingecko.

By contrast, the floor price of "The Saudis," a Saudi Arabian-themed nonfungible token (NFT) collection unrelated to the soccer team, skyrocketed 52.6% from 0.196 Ether (ETH) to 0.3 ETH over the same time before cooling off to a price of 0.225 ETH, around $250.

The collection's sales volume also spiked 990% over the last 24 hours, closing in on 24.5 ETH as per OpenSea data.

Despite the built-up hype for the FIFA World Cup, which officially kicked off on Nov. 20, cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital noted that the fan engagement platform Socios' native token Chiliz (CHZ), in addition to other soccer-based tokens representing participating nations, has also cooled off considerably over the last few days:

Football Fan Tokens have cratered over the past 3 days as the FIFA World Cup 2022 Begins:

Chilis / $CHZ: -21%
Argentina / $ARG: -17%
Portugal / $POR: -17%
Brazil / $BFT: -21%
Spain / $SNFT: -31%
Peru / $FPFT: -26%

The index (FOOTBALL) is down 21% over the period. pic.twitter.com/y7tb72R3Et
— Delphi Digital (@Delphi_Digital) November 21, 2022

CHZ is an ERC-20 token native on Socios, a blockchain-powered fan engagement platform that has been one of the largest contributors to the sports-fan token boom.

Many of the soccer–based tokens run on Socios, which has partnerships with some of the largest soccer clubs in the world, includi Barcelona F.C., Paris Saint-Germain F.C., and Manchester City F.C.

While the tokens don’t represent ownership in teams, the token allows buyers to vote in some decisions made by sponsoring teams in addition to enabling access to some rewards.

Popularity for fan-based tokens in the sporting industry has surged lately too, with token sales volumes often increasing more than 250% month-on-month since Jan. 2022.

Some appear to have viewed the tokens as an indirect way to bet on the success of such teams, despite them not being designed for that purpose.

The tokens are also impacted by factors other than the on-field success of soccer teams, such as the regular ebbs and flows of crypto markets and breaking news events.

An example is the recent FTX collapse sending the price of CHZ falling by nearly 40% since the reports of the exchange’s liquidity issues and proceeding bankruptcy.

In May, smart contract platform Algorand became the first official blockchain-based sponsor for the FIFA World Cup, which is set to wrap up on Dec. 18.

Nifty News: Chinese firms to offer World Cup metaverse viewings, X2Y2 backtracks on royalties, and more

November 21, 2022 Coin Telegraph

China

In early November the Chinese government made an ambitious plan to boost the nation’s VR industry, now it seems local tech companies are using the World Cup to test-run their products.

Chinese firms bet on ‘Metaverse-like’ experiences for FIFA World Cup

China-based technology companies are reportedly working on tech that would give Chinese soccer fans the ability to watch the FIFA World Cup within the Metaverse.

The efforts are part of a five-year plan released by the Chinese government in early November to boost the capabilities and development of the local Virtual Reality (VR) industry.

Video streaming platform Migu is one of six Chinese firms that has secured the rights to show the World Cup and plans to create a “Metaverse-like” space accessed through VR headsets for users to watch a live stream of the game, according to a Nov. 20 report from the state-run media outlet Global Times.

ByteDance, who owns TikTok and its Chinese version Douyin received licensing rights to air the competition, with ByteDance’s VR headset subsidiary Pico offering live broadcasts of the World Cup with the ability for users to create and hang out in “digital rooms” to watch the game together.

The World Cup is seemingly being used by China’s nascent VR industry as a testbed for the technology, as the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology along with four other agencies pushed an ambitious industry plan on Nov. 1.

The five-year plan from 2022 until 2026 outlined that China wants to bolster its VR industry and ship over 25 million units to the tune of $48.56 billion, although the plan doesn’t clarify if its unit target is annually or cumulative over the life of the plan.

The stated plans don’t mention whether the Metaverse will utilize blockchain technology, such as the one posed by the Chinese city of Wuhan which was later revised to remove reference to nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

X2Y2 rolls back optional royalties

NFT marketplace X2Y2 has backtracked on its opt-in royalties play, saying in a Nov. 18 Twitter thread that it will again enforce creator royalties on all existing and new collections.

The marketplace was one of the first to introduce optional royalties in August moving to a “Flexible Royalty” allowing buyers to set the amount they want to pay, receiving mixed reaction from the NFT community.

2/
We used to believe the best way to handle royalties is to give both parties, creators and traders, the right to choose.

It is the rationale behind our Flexible Royalty feature. And we still believe so.
— X2Y2 (@the_x2y2) November 18, 2022

X2Y2 said it decided to reinstate royalty enforcement after taking a page from its peer Opensea, which decided on Nov. 9 to enforce royalties.

X2Y2 also admitted many new collections are using OpenSea’s royalty enforcement tool that blacklists NFTs being sold on markets that don’t enforce royalties.

In response, OpenSea said it was “proud to stand” with X2Y2 adding it removed the marketplace from its blacklist.

Proud to stand with you--and the many brilliant creators in our community--on this critical measure. @the_x2y2 has been removed from our OperatorFilter and we hope other marketplaces will continue to join us. Onwards and upwards
— OpenSea (@opensea) November 18, 2022

Givenchy drops ‘phygital’ NFTs

French luxury fashion brand Givenchy has become the latest company to offer “phygital” NFTs — a physical good backed by a digital token.

On Nov. 18, the company released a collection of physically backed NFTs as part of a collaboration with streetwear label Bstroy.

The collaboration between the two brands sees a new limited “capsule collection” of six items that include a “complimentary NFT twin” of the physical piece.

As expected of a luxury brand, the items don’t come cheap with the lowest priced item being a $595 t-shirt and the most expensive, a $5,450 wool and leather bomber jacket.

*Screenshot of a selection of items listed on Givenchy’s site that include an NFT. Source:* *Givenchy*

Givenchy Creative Director Matthew M. Williams was quoted saying how Bstroy’s founders are “longtime friends” who “share [his] vision of fashion” and that Givenchy and Bstroy “focused on creating streetwear with unexpected treatments” that “enters the realm of contemporary art on the street and in Web3.”

Other recently offered “phygital” NFTs include the Azuki NFT project, which created a Physical Backed Token (PBT) standard that has sold skateboards and been used in streetwear collaborations. The sandals of the late Apple founder Steve Jobs were also sold as a “phygital” NFT at auction.

Johnnie Walker keeps on walking into Web3

Scotch whisky maker Johnnie Walker has continued its Web3 push by allowing NFT holders to vote on the design of a bottle for a limited-edition drop of its top “blue label” range.

The whisky company has partnered with BlockBar, a luxury alcohol NFT marketplace, and streetwear designer Junghoon Vandy Son, known as VANDYTHEPINK, the latter of who will be creating the bottle’s design.

Johnnie Walker has left the design up to NFT holders, who will vote on the final design or artwork that Son will make for the bottle.

It’s the designers first time taking on a Web3-related project according to the brand.

Once the physical bottles are made, they’ll be held by BlockBar who will only release the physical bottle to an NFT holder once they’re ready to swap, “burning” their NFT “bottle”, initially priced at $355, for a replacement of the real thing.

The brand has delved into Web3 in the past partnering with Gary Vaynerchuk's NFT project VeeFriends in May giving holders of particular NFTs spirits-related offerings. This collaboration was also spearheaded alongside Vayner3, Vaynerchuk's Web3 consultancy firm.

More Nifty News

Metaplex is feeling the sting of the collapse of crypto exchange FTX with the NFT protocol laying off “several members” of its team on Nov. 18 citing the “indirect impact” of FTX’s fall. Its treasury wasn’t directly affected but Metaplex CEO Stephen Hess said a “more conservative approach moving forward” was needed for the company.

A partner for the Australian arm of Big Four accounting firm KPMG, James Mabbott, told Cointelegraph on Nov. 18 he believes the Metaverse “explosion” will be driven by businesses. The company created a new Head of Metaverse Futures role that looks to build its own metaverse for the company’s internal business operations and business-to-business services.

Robinhood not giving up on crypto despite Q3 crypto revenue slashing 12%

November 3, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The Robinhood CEO also announced the brokerage firm’s plans to expand the Robinhood Wallet internationally in the months to come.

Crypto and stock trading platform Robinhood highlighted lagging cryptocurrency revenue in the third quarter of 2022, though the results will do little to dampen its ambition to serve the market, its CEO says.

The trading platform announced its third-quarter results on Nov. 2, with the Robinhood executives pointing to a 12% quarter-on-quarter decrease in Monthly Active Users (MAU) and a 24% quarter-on-quarter drop in notional volume as two of the main drivers behind a 12% fall in crypto revenue, reaching $51 million.

In a results filing, the company attributed the fall in active users and trading volume as “customers continued to navigate the volatile market environment.”

Despite this, the company’s executives said it would continue investing its resources into the crypto space, including rolling out support for more cryptocurrencies, a new international retail-focused wallet and NFT-related features on its platform.

Robinhood rolled out the Beta of its Polygon-based Robinhood Web3 Wallet to 10,000 customers on Sept. 27, with more than 1 million on the waitlist. Robinhood also integrated Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin a day later.

During the conference call, Robinhood’s CEO Vladimir Tenev said the firm is planning to offer the Robinhood Wallet to its international retail base in the months to come.

When asked about Robinhood’s plans for nonfungible tokens (NFTs), Tenev said they will likely integrate a feature to view and custody NFTs in the near future. However, connecting to NFT marketplaces didn’t appear to be on Tenev’s radar for the short term.

Tenev also noted that “customers have asked for Robinhood to add more blockchains to increase the breadth of coins available for them to swap and trade.”

While Tenev noted that several more coins were rolled out in Q3, he stressed that Robinhood would not compromise on its vision to become “the safest, most trusted” cryptocurrency service provider:

“We hope that customers understand and appreciate that we're moving carefully [...] Sometimes, that means moving a little bit slower than a lot of these other crypto companies. But we want to be extremely deliberate and to help protect customers and their money.”

Tenev also noted that Robinhood rolled out a free “Learn and Earn” cryptocurrency education program as a means to educate and retain a broader retail base over the long term.

As for Q4 2022, Robinhood’s said it will continue to make progress on its Robinhood Wallet, in addition to its Lightning Network integration.

Robinhood finished the quarter with a net loss of $175 million despite its total net revenue increasing 14% to $361 million. While its adjusted EBITDA was $47 million.

According to Investopedia, Robinhood’s net loss of $0.20 per share for Q3 2022 beat estimates.

Robinhood’s (HOOD) share price dropped 4.36% to $11.40 on Nov. 3, and is down 69.22% over the last 12 months, according to Yahoo Finance.

Come one, come all! Meta to bring NFT minting and trading to Instagram

November 3, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

An “end-to-end toolkit” for creators to make, show, and sell “digital collectibles” is coming to the social media platform Instagram.

Social media platform Instagram is set to introduce a number of nonfungible token (NFT)-related tools that will allow creators to mint, show and sel NFTs.

Instagram parent company Meta said on Nov. 2 during its Creator Week 2022 event that the platform would allow its creators to make “digital collectibles” and sell them “both on and off Instagram.”

Meta says creators will have an “end-to-end toolkit” from creating, showing, then selling NFTs within the platform and has chosen the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain as an initial partner for this functionality.

*Concept images of Meta’s NFT interface for Instagram. Image:* *Meta*

It says a “small group” of United States-based creators will be eligible to test the new features and expansion to other countries will follow, but provided no information on when this would take place.

In addition to its current lineup of supported blockchains that include Ethereum (ETH), Flow (FLOW), and Polygon Meta also revealed its support for the Solana (SOL) blockchain and its popular Phantom wallet.

Support for video NFTs will also be added and metadata such as names and descriptions for select NFT collections will be pulled from NFT marketplace OpenSea.

Meta’s head of commerce and financial technology, Stephane Kasriel, said Meta won’t charge fees to create or sell NFTs until 2024, and blockchain gas fees for buyers will be covered by Meta “at launch” but didn’t clarify how long the launch timeline would be.

Kasriel said NFT transactions would still be subject to “app store fees,” referring to Apple’s 30% commission on NFT sales that has drawn heavy criticism for being more expensive than the average 2.5% commission enforced by NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea.

With this, buyers seemingly won’t be able to purchase Instagram NFTs using crypto through the Instagram app as both Apple and Google only support in-app purchases using fiat currencies and both forbid buttons, external links, or other actions that give users a way to circumvent their commissions.

Meta has not released how much of a commission it plans to take from NFT sales nor what its creator royalties system will look like, it's unknown if it will follow the recent pushes from NFT marketplaces to move to opt-in royalty models.

Cointelegraph contacted Meta for clarification on its commission and royalties structure but did not immediately receive a response.

Nifty News: LooksRare the latest NFT market to sack royalties, Twitter’s tweeting tiles and more

October 28, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain

LooksRare joins the lineup of NFT marketplaces that have abandoned default creator royalties but says its replacement solution is “competitive.”

Nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace LooksRare is the latest in a string of NFT markets to do away with enforcing creator royalties by default, following the likes of Magic Eden and X2Y2.

The platform tweeted on Oct. 27 that it would not be supporting creator royalties by default, instead choosing to share 25% of its protocol fees with NFT creators and collection owners. Buyers can still choose to pay royalties when purchasing an NFT but it will be on an opt-in basis.

Explaining the changes, it said 0.5% of its 2% protocol fee would go to collections, as long as that collection has a receiving address for the funds.

LooksRare said the willingness of buyers to pay royalties has “eroded” as a result of many NFT markets now moving to a zero-royalty model adding that these disadvantage creators by removing a source of passive income

For this reason, it says it wants to create a “competitive solution” through its fee-sharing model with creators.

That’s why we’re choosing to lead the charge in this new landscape, by creating a competitive solution that still benefits creators: diverting protocol fees directly to creators.
— LooksRare (@LooksRare) October 27, 2022

The reaction from the community was mixed, with some praising LooksRare for the revenue sharing model, but well-known Twitter NFT statistician, the aptly named NFTstatistics.eth, said he doesn’t see the benefit.

“The average royalty paid is around 6%” they tweeted, “I wouldn’t say that giving artists 0.5% [...] is a competitive solution that benefits creators.”

“I do get that everyone is trying to survive in this race to the bottom,” he added.

Twitter’s testing token tweeting tiles

Twitter’s development team announced on Oct. 27 that it’s testing “NFT Tweet Tiles” with some links to NFTs showing on the platform with a larger picture along with details of the NFT and the name of its creator.

Now testing: NFT Tweet Tiles

Some links to NFTs on @rarible, @MagicEden, @dapperlabs and @Jumptradenft will now show you a larger picture of the NFT alongside details like the title and creator. One more step in our journey to let developers impact the Tweet experience. pic.twitter.com/AkBisciB1i
— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) October 27, 2022

Supported NFT marketplaces, for now, include Rarible, Magic Eden, Dapper Labs and Jump.trade. It comes after the platform rolled out NFT profile pictures in January, but only for its paid subscribers on Apple iOS.

The new feature could be a move to appease its most active users, as leaked internal Twitter documents show it found the topics of interest among English-speaking heavy users of the platform have shifted over the last two years, with one of the highest-growing topics now being cryptocurrencies.

There are also circulating rumors that Twitter is developing a crypto wallet, but so far, the claim hasn’t been backed by evidence nor confirmed by Twitter. Regardless, speculation abounds that it could be in the works with the takeover by crypto-friendly Elon Musk.

EPL lines up $35M NFT deal with Sorare

The top English men’s professional soccer league — the English Premier League (EPL) — is working on signing a nearly $35 million, or 30 million British pounds, NFT deal with Ethereum blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare, according to Sky News.

Sorare is a fantasy soccer league trading card game where players buy, sell and trade NFTs player cards to manage a team. The team can then enter contests and earn in-game points based on the actual on-pitch performances of the corresponding players.

The EPL will hold discussions with its 20 clubs regarding the reported multi-year contract on Oct. 28. The deal will allegedly focus on static images of EPL players assigned to NFTs, which of course, will allow fans to buy, own and likely trade them.

In March, it was reported that the EPL tapped blockchain firm ConsenSys for an NFT deal allegedly valued upward of $300 million. Still, Sky News reports that a slide in NFT prices had ConsenSys renegotiating to lower the price of the agreement, which made Sorare’s offer more attractive to the league.

A separate deal between the EPL and blockchain developer Dapper Labs is reportedly also under discussion.

New NFT market gains on leader OpenSea in 24-hour trading volume

The new NFT marketplace and aggregator Blur hit a record high of 1,610 Ether (ETH), around $2.5 million, in 24-hour trading volume on Oct. 26, according to Dune analytics, placing it only behind the largest marketplace, OpenSea.

It topped its rivals LooksRare and X2Y2 in terms of market share on the day, taking to Twitter to celebrate the milestone.

In the last 24 hours Blur became the #2 NFT marketplace by volume (excluding wash trades)! Blur is also the #1 aggregator.

This is a huge win for the entire Blur community who will eventually be majority owners of Blur. It's only day 7 and we're just getting started! pic.twitter.com/YpvywTdU5H
— Blur (@blur_io) October 26, 2022

The Ethereum-based platform launched a beta version on Oct. 19 with an airdrop of its native token BLUR to anyone who had traded NFTs in the last six months. It says it targets “pro traders” and offers no trading fees and optional royalties.

On the same day, NFT marketplace X2Y2 tweeted that it would like Blur “to stop using our listings on your website” and subsequently blocked Blur from its platform, claiming it violated X2Y2’s terms by using multiple application programming interface (API) keys.

More Nifty News

NFT marketplace myNFT will showcase its first-ever physical NFT vending machine at the NFT.London event slated for Nov. 2–4. It will allow eventgoers to buy an NFT by purchasing a displayed envelope, scanning a code to create a myNFT account and receiving the NFT in their newly created wallet.

Monkey Drainer, the pseudonym of an alleged phishing scammer, has reportedly stolen $1 million worth of ETH so far this week through creating copycat NFT minting websites, and its possible the scams may have stolen over $3.5 million in total so far.

Is MATIC price about to double? Polygon’s Reddit hype pushes exchange balance to 9-month lows

October 26, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Berkshire Hathaway

MATIC price could sustain bullish momentum on cues from a mix of optimistic fundamental and technical indicators.

A sharp rebound in the Polygon (MATIC) market in the last four months has increased its price by 200% when measured from its June 2022 bottom of $0.31. And now, the token is showing signs of undergoing another major market rally.

MATIC exchange balance hits nine-month low

Notably, the MATIC supply held by all crypto exchanges fell to 802.15 million on Oct. 26, its lowest level since January 2022. The plunge came as a part of a broader downtrend that has witnessed over 600 million MATIC leaving exchanges in the last four months, data on Santiment shows.

*MATIC balance on exchanges versus price. Source: Santiment*

A declining crypto balance across exchanges is perceived as bullish by the market since traders typically withdraw their funds from trading platforms when they want to hold the tokens long term.

The MATIC chart above shows a similar albeit erratic negative correlation between its price and supply on exchanges. As a result, a period of decline in MATIC reserves at exchanges has historically coincided with an uptrend in price, and vice versa.

Therefore, the latest plunge in MATIC supply across exchanges hints at more upside for the token in the coming weeks.

Reddit using Polygon to mint collectible NFT avatars

More cues for a potential MATIC price rally come from the news of Polygon's adoption by mainstream fintech companies.

Notably, Nubank, a Brazilian neobank bank backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, picked Polygon to build its native Web3 ecosystem. Since the Oct. 20 announcement, MATIC price has rallied by nearly 12% and was trading for $0.95 as of Oct. 26.

Furthermore, the massive MATIC outflow from exchanges coincides with the soaring trading and sales volume of Reddit nonfungible token (NFT) avatars. These digital collectibles are minted as NFTs on the Polygon blockchain.

*Reddit NFTs sales volumes. Source: Dune Analytics*

From a technical perspective, MATIC has broken out of a bullish continuation pattern, dubbed a bull flag, whose profit target sits almost double the token's current valuation, as shown below.

*MATIC/USD three-day price chart. Source: TradingView*

MATIC also shows similar strength against Bitcoin (BTC), according to a technical setup shared by Kaleo, an independent market analyst.

"The predominate structure is a HTF [higher timeframe] flag dating back to May of '21 that looks ready for another leg higher," the analyst wrote while citing the chart below.

*MATIC/BTC daily price chart. Source: TradingView*

"I'm expecting a small retrace before breaking out / continuing higher," he added.

The MATIC/BTC setup could propel the pair to 0.000065 BTC by early 2023 versus the current price of 0.0000458 BTC, a 30% price rally.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Nifty News: Enter the afterlife in style, Solana NFT game demo hits Epic store and more

September 30, 2022 Coin Telegraph

build-a-bear

300 holders of the Spartan NFT will be able to spread their ashes at a 35-foot memorial to Spartan soldiers, to be built in Greece.

The company behind the Spartan Race has released a nonfungible token (NFT) collection which will immortalize the names of the initial holders in stone, with plans to build a 35-foot (10.5 meters) statue in Ancient Sparta encircled with 15,000 name-engraved stones.

Spartan founder and CEO Joe De Sena plans to bury his ashes under his stone at the site dubbed the Spartan 300 Memorial, which will pay homage to the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which 300 Spartans were said to have fought and were killed.

Of the 15,000 NFTs, 300 will be “Super Rare,” with holders of that NFT type given the option of spreading their ashes over the memorial after their death, which could see it become one of the first NFTcollections to grant someone a final resting place.

Owners can sell their NFT on markets such as OpenSea, but it’s unclear if this burial perk is transferred to the new owner.

The passes sell for $3,000 and also permit holders up to nine years of unlimited access to all Spartan brand events, including its 70-hour long Death Race and its Tough Mudder obstacle race, as well as with exclusive merch drops.

NFT holders will also be granted access to an exclusive yearly event in which they can train with pro athletes along with testing the fitness brands’ products and obstacles.

Star Atlas launches demo on Epic Games store

Solana-based NFT game Star Atlas launched its first playable pre-alpha on Sept. 29 through the Epic Games store for owners of its NFTs, allowing them to view in-game vehicles they’ve purchased within the games’ environment.

Star Atlas is an open-world space exploration strategy game set in the year 2620 in which players can buy and sell NFTs representative of vehicles such as spaceships, players also mine for resources to sell on the in-game marketplace and join political factions.

The Showroom pre-alpha demo is powered by the Unreal Engine 5, a 3D creation tool released in April by Epic Games, and is used in its flagship game Fortnite.

The Star Atlas developers have also launched an open source tool, The Foundation Software Development Kit (F-KIT), which allows Unreal Engine 5 developers to more easily integrate their titles into the Solana blockchain.

Build-A-Bear enters Web3

Stuffed animal retailer Build-A-Bear Workshop is entering Web3, partnering with NFT marketplace Sweet to launch its first NFT collection in celebration of its 25th year in business.

The NFTs will be minted on the Polygon blockchain and will begin with the October auction of a physical and digital bundle which includes a unique physical teddy bear studded with Swarovski crystals along with its NFT counterpart.

A second November auction will offer five silver teddy bear NFTs also accompanied by matching physical counterparts before a December launch of 5,000 NFTs are made available for public mint.

CryptoPunk sells for 3,300 ETH

A rare CryptoPunk has sold on NFT marketplace OpenSea for 3,300 Ether (ETH), worth over $4.4 million, to an anonymous buyer on Sept. 28 marking the fourth-highest sale in terms of ETH spent, according to data from DappRadar.

CryptoPunk #2924 features rare attributes such as being an “ape” type, of which only 24 exist in the 10,000-strong collection. It also has one “accessory” — a hoodie which is a rarity in the collection, and more so as it is the only “ape” to feature one.

The most expensive CryptoPunk ever sold was purchased for 124,457 ETH, worth over $530 million at the time of purchase in Oct. 2021

More Nifty News:

Warner Music Group announced a partnership with NFT marketplace OpenSea to allow select artists to launch NFT collections on customizable and dedicated landing pages to build their Web3 presence.

Facebook and Instagram users in 100 countries can connect their crypto wallets to post and share NFTs across both platforms with parent company Meta supporting digital assets from the Ethereum, Polygon and Flow blockchains.

Almost everything could be tokenized in 5-10 years — Matrixport co-founder

September 27, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain

Cost efficiencies, improved liquidity, 24/7 market access, and the removal of intermediaries were the main advantages' cited which blockchain infrastructure has over current legacy systems.

In five to ten years, almost every “real world” asset class could be tokenized in the form of a nonfungible token (NFT) according to Cynthia Wu, co-founder of digital asset service platform Matrixport.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Wu said the best case for NFTs would see the widespread representation of real-world assets to be stored and traded on-chain:

“Eventually all the major financial asset classes are going to be represented on this new financial infrastructure [and] NFTs could be our instrument to represent off-chain assets like real estate deeds, equities or bonds.”

The move on-chain would make these real world assets “more liquid and more tradable” which would improve price discovery and transaction activity, Wu added.

But Wu said that while it’s great that we’ve created over two trillion worth of digital native assets on-chain from Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and other tokens, the only niche to have generated NFT transaction activity has come from digital collectibles — which hasn’t really helped institutional adoption:

“We haven't really been seeing off-chain assets being represented on-chain [...] we're now really only at the first 3-5% of it.”

But nonetheless, Wu is confident that the tide will turn.

Earlier this month, a report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimated the total size of tokenized illiquid assets to reach $16.1 trillion by 2030.

BCG predicted much of this tokenization to come from pre-initial public offering (IPO) stocks, real estate, private debt, and revenue generated from small to medium-sized businesses.

However, while the tokenization of real-world assets has piqued the interest of financial institutions, Wu said some have been a bit reluctant to move on from the legacy systems that have served them well over the years.

Wu pointed out the traditional financial system hasn’t accounted for the trading of nonfungible assets because they can’t easily be exchanged the same way a fungible or divisible asset can, but tokenization on the blockchain provides a solution for that.

She also argued that blockchain infrastructure is the superior option to legacy systems, citing cost efficiencies, improved liquidity, 24/7 market access, and the removal of intermediaries as the main factors that would lead to a more streamlined financial system.

Matrixport was established in Feb. 2019, and currently manages between $3-4 billion in digital assets from a broad mix of retail and institutional clients.

Totality Corp CEO explains why India is still largely untapped for NFTs

September 21, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Anshul Rustaggi

Despite a strong emphasis on “social status” in India, holding a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT there isn’t impressing anyone.

Despite ranking as one of the highest adopters of cryptocurrency among emerging markets, the majority of the Indian market is yet to embrace nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Totality Corp Founder and CEO Anshul Rustaggi explained that social and cultural barriers, as well as anti-crypto regulations, are holding back NFTs from mass adoption — particularly in some of the lower-tier cities in the country.

India has a population of 1.38 billion people and is the second-most populous country in the world sitting just behind China. Last month, the United Nations forecast the country to overtake its competitor sometime in 2023.

However, Rustaggi explained that crypto trading and NFT collection are seen as speculative investments — a concept that is frowned upon in Indian culture and sits in a similar boat as gambling.

“India has a very love and hate relationship with speculation. So all of Asia, including India loves speculation. But morally, we like to always say bad things about it,” he said.

Rustaggi explained that even his time as a hedge fund manager in London was seen by his own mother at the time as “basically gambling with other people’s money.”

“With NFTs, the only way to earn money was speculation [...] We haven't yet as a society accepted digital goods.”

While studies have found that most NFTs are bought due to their speculative nature, some collections can be seen as a “signal” for wealth and status, such as in the case with the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection which boasts a long list of celebrities and heavy hitters in crypto as hodlers.

However, Rustaggi says this concept hasn’t taken flight in India despite the strong emphasis on “social status” in Indian society.

“In India, social status matters massively, the largest expense we have in India is marriage. On average, 34% of your life’s expenses are for the marriage of your children. And the thing is that it's such a social event, you want to showcase your best to the world. So social status is important.”

Rustaggi says the speculative nature of NFTs has prevented it from reaching the same level of social “signaling” compared to a luxury car or a Rolex watch, but noted:

“So I think that time for NFTs to become a great signaling will come in India. I don’t think it has come yet, but it will come.”

In late 2021, Totality Corp launched its first “Lakshmi NFT” — inspired by the goddess of wealth and fortune. Rustaggi said this was “by far” the largest NFT drop in India, bringing in a total of $561,000 from a collection of 5,555 NFTs.

Rustaggi said the drop was successful as it touted staking rewards in USD Coin (USDC) as an incentive to hold the NFT, which made it a “guaranteed return” rather than “speculation.”

Overall, however, Rustaggi believes that crypto adoption will remain challenged in India as long as there is regulatory uncertainty.

The Indian government has maintained a strong anti-crypto stance since 2013. Earlier this year, the government proposed and implemented two crypto tax laws which have since seen trading volumes plummet and many crypto unicorns leaving the country.

“The government in India definitely doesn’t want crypto anymore [...] The government is outright saying we don’t like blockchain and we don’t like cryptocurrency. But it's kind of ridiculous.”

3 reasons SOL price is up 30% in two weeks — will Solana’s uptrend continue?

September 13, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Altcoin

A mix of solid fundamental and technical catalysts helped SOL price reach its best level in three weeks.

Solana (SOL) ticked higher on Sep. 13, mirroring similar upside moves in the broader cryptocurrency market, led by Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).

On the daily chart, SOL's price gained over 4% to $39, its best level in three weeks. The token's intraday gains came as an extension of a prevailing uptrend that has seen its price gaining 30% in just two weeks.

*SOL/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView*

In comparison to Solana, Bitcoin and Ether underperformed, securing 16% and 22% gains in the same period. Let's look at the mix of fundamental and technicals that may have prompted SOL to rally higher.

Helium's merge with Solana

On Aug. 30, core developers behind the Helium Network, which offers decentralized wireless 5G network coverage by enabling users to become hotspots, announced a governance proposal to migrate to the Solana blockchain from its native chain.

The Helium developers cited their "need to improve operational efficiency and scalability" while seeing Solana as an ideal fit.

SOL is the staking and transaction payment token inside the Solana ecosystem.

*SOL/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView*

NFT boom

The latest buying period in the Solana market has also coincided with upticks in its nonfungible token (NFT) metrics.

Notably, volume across NFT marketplaces like OpenSea, Metaplex, and Magic Eden reached nearly 1.2 million SOL (~$42.8 million) in the week ending Sept. 11, data tracked by Nansen shows. That further accompanied a rise in NFT transactions, hitting a record high of over 1 million in the same period.

Solana NFT volume per week presented without comment pic.twitter.com/QaPanxpOkv
— Nansen Intern (@nansen_intern) September 12, 2022

The jump in Solana's activity appeared as a unique bright spot in the NFT sector that's otherwise seeing lower demand in recent months. For instance, the trading volume at the leading NFT marketplace OpenSea has seen a drastic decline.

Of all Solana NFT collections, the newly-launched "y00ts mint t00b" collection recently secured the most trading volume, with HyperSpace tallying the average figure at around $18.45 million per day.

SOL's technical bounce

From a technical perspective, SOL's 30% rally started after testing a historically significant support level.

SOL/USD has been consolidating sideways inside a range defined by two flat, parallel trendlines since May 23. A drop toward the lower trendline (support) has been typically followed by a 58%-60% bounce toward the upper trendline (resistance).

Similarly, a pullback from the upper trendline has seen SOL's price crashing toward the lower trendline, as shown below.

With SOL rebounding, its path of least resistance appears to be toward the upper trendline near $47.50, up around 38% from current price levels.

nonfungible token

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