Are you ready for some NFTs news?
We've prepared a new article that covers the latest news and updates in the world of Web3 and NFTs. Read them below!
Contents
📈 Macro – Unstoppable Domains x ENS;
🗞️ Last week's news – Unstoppable Domains, Bank of America, Google Play, Coinbase, Decentraland;
💰Investments/Funding – Get Protocol, Sound, Binance Labs, Siemens;
📣 Projects news/Updates – Pudgy Penguins, Doodles, Cool Cats, BAYC;
⚖️ Legal – Metaverse Attorney writes about Ripple Labs' historic victory in the SEC's XRP lawsuit;
🐈 Veefriends – Passionate colleagues wanted!;
⚙️NFTility, by Mtk – TWO – DanceFight;
📚 Dictionary – Burner, Rekt;
💸 Sale of the week – BAYC #1734, CryptoPunk #8531;
📈 Macro
Unstoppable becomes the One-Stop-Shop for Web3 domains after integrating support for .eth domains from ENS.
Thus, there is now a single platform to buy .eth, .nft, .crypto, .polygon & more domains.
Each .eth domain purchased via Unstoppable will be registered via the ENS smart contract with the same full functionality as other .eth domains – no name overlap.
To be honest, I've never really liked Unstoppable. I felt there was too much marketing around what they do and not necessarily as much value as ENS. Mainly because they "pulled over" at least hundreds of preferred domains where bids started at $100k. I mean it's not like they were reserved for brands like Amazon or Nike. They were selling them. Whoever paid more.
This integration seems to wash the sins out of my eyes – of course, here I admit I am as subjective as can be, after all, who am I when the market decides?!
Some facilities:
- There is the option to secure your .eth or other Web3 domain in a vault managed by Unstoppable (but wholly owned by you, not Unstoppable). That means you can buy a .eth domain without having to immediately connect it to a crypto wallet.
- Automatic renewal for your own .eth domain. It will cost $4 per renewal period, and you can decide whether the extension will be for a few months or a few years
- We will be able to buy .eth domains with credit cards through Stripe, PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay, as well as with Bitcoin or 11 other cryptos, obviously including Ethereum.
- We will be able to manage, transfer domains, use ENS integrations and even pay renewal fees directly through ENS if we prefer
- All .eth domains purchased through Unstoppable will be minted on the Ethereum blockchain
- Unstoppable domains, including .nft, .crypto, .x and .polygon, will continue to be minted on Polygon
In closing, I leave you with the words of Matt Gould, CEO and co-founder of Unstoppable Domains: "There is room for all of us in Web3 and it's time to move forward as an industry – together".
It's what we repeat every day: only together we can grow the ecosystem. Otherwise, we are too small and will get lost in the grand scheme of things!
🗞️ News from last week
- Unstoppable Domains will launch its own Unstoppable marketplace powered by Polygon Labs. It will offer a wide range of applications integrated with Unstoppable.
- Bank of America provides Metaverse training for over 200,000 employees using VR and AI technologies.
- Google Play has announced that it now allows NFTs to be integrated into apps and games.
- Coinbase integrates Web3 messaging, allowing any two Ethereum addresses to communicate with each other in the application. Although Coinbase puts 1.3M users in the pool, the pool of ETH addresses it can communicate with is even larger, including those on the Web3 platform, Lens.
- Decentraland introduces new functionality in the form of pre-built scenes that users can customize in their own style. These templates have been specifically designed to speed up the process of creating virtual spaces in the Metaverse.
💰 Investments / Financing
- NFT's ticketing company, Get Protocol, has secured $4.5M to launch its "Web 2.5" alternative competing with traditional industry giant Ticketmaster.
- Snoop Dogg and a16z participated in Web3 music platform Sound's $20M funding round.
- Binance Labs invests $15M in Xterio to develop AI-enhanced Web3 games.
- Siemens will invest €1B in Germany to create an industrial metaverse in the Nuremberg metropolitan region.
📣 Projects News / Updates
- Pudgy Penguins has announced a new secure, fee-free OTC trading solution called PudgySwap.
- Luca Netz's proposal for collaboration between Nouns Dao and Pudgy Penguins to create a toy collection has just been validated. The launch will take place in December (_just in time for Christmas _🎁), and 10 lucky buyers will be able to receive a gold-plated Nouns Penguin with glasses.
- The Doodles Community Council introduces "The Inkubator", a start-up platform that allows holders to connect and collaborate on projects/events designed to expand the brand and community.
- Cool Cats plans to develop three games in collaboration with nWay, iCandy and Sync Studios (entities in the Animoca Brands ecosystem), to be released in late 2023 and early 2024.
- BAYC announces 2 major events: the ApeFest to be held in Hong Kong on 3-5 November and the MAYC 2-year anniversary party in Miami on 26 August.
⚖️ Legal
Ripple Labs scores a historic (partial) victory in the SEC lawsuit against XRP cryptocurrency!
On 13 July, a US judge ruled that Ripple Labs Inc. did not violate federal securities law by selling XRP on public exchanges, a landmark legal victory for the cryptocurrency industry that led to a meteoric rise in the value of XRP.
The SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) filed suit against Ripple and two of its executives in 2020, claiming that $1.3 billion of XRP sales are illegal sales of securities (eternal securities 🙄).
U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres' ruling was the first victory for a cryptocurrency company in a case brought by the SEC, though it also provided a partial SEC victory. She sided with the SEC in its claim that Ripple's direct sales of XRP to institutional participants constituted a securities offering.
An SEC spokesman said the agency was pleased with part of the ruling in which the judge held that Ripple violated federal securities law by selling XRP directly to sophisticated investors.
The judgment can be appealed after a final judgment has been issued or if the judge allows it before then. The SEC spokesman said the regulator is reviewing the decision.
In an interview, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse called the ruling "a huge win for Ripple, but more importantly for the entire US industry."
Following the decision, Coinbase, Binance US, and other crypto exchanges have relisted XRP on their platforms.
The court intends to issue a separate order setting a trial date for Ripple and the SEC "in due course." We all know what that means
XRP was up 75% by late Thursday afternoon. Boom!
Overall, the verdict in this trial could have wider ramifications for how cryptocurrencies and other digital assets are regulated.
🐈⬛ Veefriends
A new podcast called "VeeFriends On-Air!" has been launched and will provide updates on community news, partnerships and events. Each episode will feature interesting discussions between people from the VeeFriends team and special guests. New episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays, with the first episode available now.
VeeFriends is looking for teammates! If you're attracted to what's growing within the project, ready to work alongside industry leaders, collaborate with a diverse and passionate community, and contribute to the evolution of VeeFriends, you have the opportunity to explore available resident positions in the following areas: social media, marketing, project management, and community.
⚙️ NFTility
I don't know how many of you reading this article are paying attention to The Sandbox ecosystem and the potential it offers creators. For the general public, the most common reference points of this environment are the Land (ERC-721) and Sand (ERC-20) tokens. We'll talk about them in the next issue; today I want to focus on the value that can be created with avatars on the platform.
One of the collections that caught my eye is The Wild Ones – DanceFight, a collection of 3130 avatars created through a partnership between The Sandbox and DanceFight.
TWO avatars are created in the likeness of some of the 10 most famous street dance artists, and each comes equipped with unique, dancer-specific moves that help define the rarity of the token as such:
-
tier 1 is equipped with 5 unique movements and represents 2% of the supply
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tier 2 is equipped with 3 unique movements and represents 18% of the supply
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tier 3 is equipped with 2 unique movements and represents 80% of the supply.
NFTs come with two direct benefits:
- Holders can use them in The Sandbox universe to participate in events where they can accumulate the $SAND token by completing certain tasks. One such event was Go Wild XP which provided players with 100k $SAND.
- The artists who inspired the avatars collect royalties (👈 click this) every time they accumulate tokens from in-game activities.
Blockchain technology and the leverage that can be created through NFTs is not known to the vast majority of people. They often understand the idea of the Metaverse as something futuristic, potentially harmful to our species.
In fact, this space can be used in particular to democratize the economy in almost all industries by functioning very effectively as a direct link between creator and customer, but also by offering the possibility to generate forms of income in a borderless manner, where physical barriers disappear.
Until next time, I wish you to remain open to innovation.
📚 Dictionary
- Burner – A burner wallet is a temporary crypto wallet, on which it is not advisable to hold anything (no NFTs, no BTC or ETH and clearly no EGLD). It is recommended for minting NFTs or interacting with decentralized applications (DApps) that have not yet been verified. I mean you don't do FOMO and start logging in with your main wallet (where you have all your NFTs and other tokens) everywhere you see a link to something new being minted. In short, there's no difference between a normal wallet and a burner wallet, other than what you keep on it.
- Rekt – In slang/jargon it means "destroyed"/gravely damaged or completely destroyed and ruined. In Web3, rekt (which comes from wrecked) refers to someone who has suffered a large financial loss due to a bad transaction or investment.
💸 Sale of the week
It's gold, brunette, with a Johnny Bravo haircut and sold for 600 ETH ~ $1.2M. Guess what the monkey is?
In the big fight for the podium was also this Zombie Punk, sold for 550 ETH ~ $1.06M.
Find us:
Creative Tim
- Official Website
- NF-Tim – Our official NFTs Collection
Metaventis
- Official Website
