BAYC

‘Scammers dream’ — Yuga’s auction model for Bitcoin NFTs sees criticism

Yuga Labs’ first Bitcoin NFT collection saw some backlash from the crypto community over the weekend, pointing to flaws in how it conducts the auction.

Nonfungible token (NFT) company Yuga Labs faces criticism from the cryptocurrency community, including the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals, over how it plans to auction its new Bitcoin NFT collection. 

On March 5, Yuga opened bids for its “TwelveFold” collection, which will see 300 NFT-like images inscribed on satoshis using the Bitcoin-native Ordinals protocol, with 288 from the collection sent to the highest 288 bidders.

According to a March 5 press release, those participating in the bidding process must send their entire bid amount in Bitcoin (BTC) to a unique BTC address controlled by Yuga. Winners would simply pay up the BTC they bid, while Yuga said it would return BTC to those unsuccessful in placing a top bid.

However, such a plan has earned the ire of some within the crypto community, with some pointing out that having to conduct refunds for unsuccessful bids manually is like the “stone age.”

The user behind an Ordinals-focused Twitter account “ordinally” called the auction model a “scammers dream,” adding while they doubt Yuga would keep the BTC from failed bids, the way it carries out the auction sets a “REALLY bad precedence.”

The post even saw a response from Bitcoin Ordinals creator, Casey Rodarmor, who hotly weighed in on the discussion, telling Yuga to “get fucked” and calling the conduct of the auction “degenerate bullshit.”

He added if Yuga were to conduct a similar auction he would encourage others to boycott the project.

Other users pointed out the shortcomings of the auction system, saying it’s possible some could overpay for a TwelveFold due to a potential significant price discrepancy between the highest and lowest bids in the top 288.

Despite the criticism from some, many were happy to see a large project such as Yuga — which rose to prominence due to multiple Ethereum-based NFT collections — bridge across to Bitcoin.

Related: Luxor Mining acquires OrdinalHub amid Bitcoin-based NFTs hype

Ordinally, who criticized the collection, later tweeted appreciation of “the fact that Yuga took the effort to attempt [to] go a Bitcoin route when setting up this auction.”

An Ordinals-based collection, Ordinal Pizza OG, expressed excitement at Yuga’s BTC collection and called it a “massive net positive for Ordinals.”

The criticisms weren’t enough to stop cashed-up bidders from wanting to try to cement a top spot to nab Yuga’s first BTC collection.

At the time of writing, the top bid was 1.11 BTC (around $25,000), according to the TwelveFold website with the lowest bid registered showing as 0.011 BTC, or around $250.

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

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 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.

However, Machi Big Brother promptly bought back 991 NFTs, with Thurman theorizing it 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 (BLUR) token airdrop from upstart NFT marketplace Blur, which recently ousted OpenSea from being the top-ranked NFT platform in 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, cashing it out for $1.3 million.

As such, Machi could 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.

Related: Blur founder Pacman puts the NFT marketplace war into perspective

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.

At the time of writing, BLUR’s price is $0.79, declining 17.7% in the past seven days, according to CoinGecko.

On Feb. 22, the Blur team tweeted that the project will soon airdrop $300 million of tokens in its second round.

NFTs will act as high-end property during boom cycles: Real Vision CEO

The former hedge fund manager says that top-tier NFTs essentially serve as status symbols and should see significant upside during crypto boom cycles.

Real Vision CEO and co-founder Raoul Pal believes nonfungible tokens (NFTs) will act similar to “high-end property” in the traditional economy, outperforming Ether (ETH) during crypto market boom cycles.

In an hour-long YouTube video published on Feb. 20, the former JPMorgan executive offered a run-down of what he felt most bullish about when it came to NFTs, including key use cases for the asset class, its underlying tech and its potential performance relative to Ether.

Pal said just as “high-end property” often outperforms the market when the “economy recovers,” the same is likely to occur with certain NFTs during crypto boom cycles.

“So I can take my ETH and put it into a JPEG, an NFT. But why? Well, because much like high-end property and think of a [Crypto]Punk as a high-end property in London or New York or Hong Kong or wherever it is, when the economy starts booming and people have more money, they tend to buy expensive high-end property.”

“And it tends to outperform the rest of the market. And I think the same thing will happen in ETH economy,” he added.

He highlighted that major collections such as CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) have become status symbols in the crypto community, much like owning a luxury house, car, or item from a famous brand that offers access to exclusive clubs or what he dubbed as “mini network-states.”

He saidthat NFTs serve as a “way of owning property in the ETH economy,” adding:

“Humans are ridiculous and we love to socially signal stuff.”

Looking back, the former hedge fund manager said NFTs started to draw his attention in 2022 as he started to “understand the power of what they are and what they can do,” such as being able to transfer “value” via blockchains and automated smart contracts.

He also pointed to NFTs’ uses in the resolution of contracts, noting that blockchain-based ledgers can offer verifiable transparency on what has been agreed between people, while smart contracts can essentially do away with unnecessary third parties.

“Now what’s interesting about the smart contract element of an NFT is the fact that it kind of allows for the settlement mechanism to be automated in code and resolves without the need for a third party so you don’t need the courts, the lawyers, the notaries and the accountants.”

Pal stated that since he got into NFTs, he’s allocated roughly 10% of his ETH holdings into “premium NFTs” such as CryptoPunks and BAYC NFT.

Related: Nifty News: Yuga in doghouse over Kennel Club logo, NFT marketplace wars rage on and more

He suggested that such collections potentially offer more upside potential than downside risk, as they have managed to sustain a decent level of value during the bear market. He also believes the price of ETH is likely to increase moving forward.

“When you look at the price of CryptoPunks and Bored Apes, they’ve remained incredibly stable in ETH terms. Yes, they had a blow-off top and they came back and they’ve traded about 65 ETH forever. And that’s interesting to me because they didn’t fall much further. They had a sharp spike in June in the big crypto collapse. But other than that, they’ve just rallied back and stayed at 65 ETH. So whatever ETH does, they’re just mirroring it,” he said.

BAYC copycat files opposition to 10 Yuga Labs trademark applications

A Yuga Labs spokesperson has played down the significance of the opposition notice and suggested that the RR/BAYC co-founder is just trying to cause trouble.

One of the founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) copycat NFT collection RR/BAYC has filed an opposition notice against 10 trademark applications from Yuga Labs.

The move marks another strange twist in the ongoing intellectual property dispute between BAYC creators Yuga Labs and RR/BAYC founders Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen.

Cahen filed the opposition notice to the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) Trademark Trial and Appeal Board on Feb. 9. The opposition status on all of the trademark filings currently read “pending” at the time of writing.

Yuga Labs’ trademark applications were mostly submitted in the latter half of 2021. They covered a bunch of BAYC logos, artwork and branding for potential use across digital products such as nonfungible token (NFT)-based art, trading cards and metaverse wearables.

The filings also list the potential for physical BAYC products, including clothing, jewelry, watches and keychains, along with entertainment services such as gaming, television and music.

Opposition example. Source: USPTO

Speaking with Bloomberg Law on Feb. 11, a Yuga Labs spokesperson played down the chances of Cahen’s opposition being successful and suggested that the move was just another attempt to cause trouble for the firm.

“The Trademark Office has preliminarily approved Yuga Labs’ trademark applications for registration, and we look forward to their full approval in due course,” they said, adding that:

“Jeremy Cahen’s filing is just another attempt to distract from the real issue at hand, his infringement of the Yuga intellectual property.”

In the notice, Cahen puts forward a lengthy list of “grounds for opposition” against Yuga Labs’ filings. In particular, Cahen claims that the company “abandoned any rights” to certain logo and artwork designs due to BAYC NFT sales granting “all rights” of the digital images to the owners.

He also claims that Yuga Labs is not the rightful owner of specific skull designs due to the firm supposedly handing over the rights to the ApeCoin decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) back in March 2022.

Additionally, Cahen argues that Yuga Labs failed to provide a “bona fide intent to lawfully use” the trademarks in its filings, as the NFTs should be registered and classified as securities under federal law.

Related: Nifty News: Find love in Paris Hilton’s metaverse, BTC CryptoPunks soar and more

BAYC creators Yuga Labs sued digital artists Ryder Ripps and Cahen back in June 2022 for using BAYC imagery in the RR/BAYC collection. The firm also alleged that the duo was intentionally “trolling Yuga Labs and scamming consumers” into purchasing their copycat NFTs.

The move from Cahen also comes just three days after Yuga Labs settled a separate lawsuit against RR/BAYC website and smart contract developer Thomas Lehman.

As part of the settlement, Lehman essentially agreed to a permanent injunction barring him from partaking in any “confusingly similar” BAYC-related projects. In a statement, Lehman also distanced himself from Ryder Ripp and Cahen.

Yuga Labs settles lawsuit with developer involved in copycat BAYCs

The BAYC creators have settled with developer Thomas Lehman over his role in selling a copycat collection of BAYC NFTs.

The creator of the nonfungible token collection Bored Ape Yacht Club has settled a lawsuit with one of the developers behind a copycat collection known as RR/BAYC. 

On Feb. 6, Yuga Labs settled a lawsuit that involved Thomas Lehman, the developer of websites and a smart contract that sold “misleading” BAYC NFTs from digital artist Ryder Ripps.

The firm behind the blue-chip collection sued Lehman in January for his involvement witand technical support of the collection of mimic monkeys.

According to the suit, Lehman assisted Ripps and Jeremy Cahen to develop and promote the NFTs on social media. It claimed that this was a “deliberate effort to harm Yuga Labs at the expense of consumers by sowing confusion,” regarding the two collections.

In the settlement, Yuga Labs and Lehman agreed on a permanent injunction barring Lehman from using any “confusingly similar” BAYC imagery or operating any social media accounts insinuating association with the company, according to Law360.

In a statement, Lehman said that “it was never my intention to harm Yuga Labs’s brand, and I reject all disparaging statements made about Yuga Labs and its founders and appreciate their many positive contributions to the NFT space.”

Speaking to Law360, a Yuga spokesperson said the firm was pleased that Lehman “acknowledged his role in assisting former cohorts, Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen, to infringe on Yuga Labs’ trademarks in developing, marketing, and selling counterfeit NFTs.”

Ryder Ripps Ape #8774. Source: Opensea

However, there are separate ongoing cases regarding Ripps’ use of imagery from the BAYC collection. Jeremy Cahen has also been sued for copying and selling the same products on the same platforms as Yuga.

Ripps and Cahen were sued in June, with Yuga alleging that the artists were “trolling Yuga Labs and scamming consumers” into purchasing their copycats. The complaint also claimed that Ripps made more than $5 million by “pumping and dumping fake NFTs.”

Related: New video revives debate over Bored Ape Yacht Club’s alleged ‘racist’ imagery

On Jan. 30, investor rights protection law firm Rosen reiterated that investors that purchased Yuga’s BAYC NFTs or its native token ApeCoin (APE) could join a securities class-action suit against the firm.

Rosen sued Yuga Labs in December for violating U.S. securities laws by misleading investors about the financial benefits of owning NFTs and tokens and using celebrity promoters.

Nifty News: Price drops on ‘Cryptohouse’ with NFT decor, mint your personality as an NFT and more

The owner of the crypto-themed home has dropped its price by over 20% in a few months as they struggle to sell the house.

Waning interest in a North Hollywood crypto-themed home

A crypto-friendly house in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, is seemingly struggling to sell, as the property has seen its price reduce three times in a little over four months.

The so-called “Cryptohouse,” as stated on the glowing neon sign in its kitchen, was listed for sale at $1.2 million in October 2022. As of Jan. 5, its asking price is now $949,000.

The impressive custom neon sign never lets you forget just where you are. Image: Zillow

The four-bed, three-bath home sees the listing agents boasting in the property description of its spacious and flowing floor plan ideal for “savvy investors.”

For unknown reasons, the description doesn’t mention its tasteful wallpaper choices, which include multiple nonfungible tokens (NFTs) from the classic Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunk collections prominent in the living and dining areas.

The future owner can look forward to explaining the unique decor choices to dinner guests. Image: Zillow

The house also features themed wallpapers in each of the four rooms, one each for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE), with one room smattered with a selection of crypto-positive tweets.

Guests will surely be saying “much wow” if they sleep in the DOGE room. Image: Zillow

Those wanting to try before they buy can even rent the house through Airbnb. Although, there’s no rush because it currently has no future bookings.

Make your personality an NFT and mint your heart on the blockchain

A project is offering up NFTs as a way to visually portray an individual’s personality and own the result on the blockchain.

Rubens DB, a Tel Aviv-based artist, launched the “Psynesthesia” NFT collection with 1,024 possible NFTs generated by the results of a personality test.

The Polygon-based NFTs are generated according to the traits identified by the test and an algorithm coded by DB. The process is explained in a release shared with Cointelegraph:

“For example, the more the agreeableness is high, the more the colors are warm; the more the extroversion is high, the more the connections are developed.”

The resulting art can be collected as an NFT. The original owner is also granted a photoshoot at Rubens DB’s studio in Tel Aviv, where their artwork is projected onto them in a portrait.

An example of the NFTs generated from the personality tests. Image: Psynesthesia

10% of the sales are donated to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a United States-based nonprofit aiming to increase understanding of psychedelic substances.

UK NFT investment firm gets phished

NFT Investments, a United Kingdom-based investment firm that invests in NFT-related companies, said it was the target of a phishing attack resulting in the loss of $250,000 worth of assets.

The firm announced on the London Stock Exchange’s news wire on Jan .12 that it is “managing a cybersecurity incident” resulting from the attack on Jan. 9.

Apparently, the hacked amount represents “less than 1%” of the firms current net asset value.

It did not disclose what assets were stolen or how attackers compromised the security surrounding the storage of the investments.

Cointelegraph contacted NFT Investments for more information regarding the incident, a spokesperson said the company had no further comment.

What bear market? Shiba Inu NFT collab sells out in seconds

An NFT collaboration between Shiba Inu’s (SHIB) NFT project “SHIBOSHIS” and luxury handbag company Bugatti Group sold out in 110 seconds, according to a Jan. 14 tweet from Bugatti Group.

Bugatti Group — not to be confused with the luxury sports car manufacturer Bugatti Automobiles — created a new batch of NFTs with the dog-themed project and offered those who minted one a piece of custom luggage emblazoned with a SHIBOSHIS NFT.

Related: NFTs have a brighter future on Instagram than on Twitter

The collaboration between the two also sees Bugatti Group creating a SHIBOSHIS-themed limited edition collection of backpacks, satchels, luggage and wallets.

Other nifty news

The crypto wallet of an NFT influencer has been drained after mistakenly downloading malware hiding in a program advertised on a Google Ad.

YouTuber Logan Paul revealed a $1.5 million recovery plan for those who invested in his troubled NFT project CryptoZoo after an exposé from fellow YouTuber Coffeezilla.

How to avoid getting hooked by crypto ‘ice phishing’ scammers: CertiK

Ice phishing is a type of scam that exists only in Web3 and is a “considerable threat” to the crypto community, the firm says.

Blockchain security company CertiK has reminded the crypto community to stay alert over “ice phishing” scams — a unique type of phishing scam targeting Web3 users that was first identified by Microsoft earlier this year. 

In a Dec. 20 analysis report, CertiK described ice phishing scams as an attack that tricks Web3 users into signing permissions that end up allowing a scammer to spend their tokens.

This differs from traditional phishing attacks that attempt to access confidential information such as private keys or passwords, via methods like the fake websites that claim to help FTX investors recover their lost funds.

A Dec. 17 scam where 14 Bored Apes were stolen is an example of an elaborate ice phishing attack. An investor was convinced to sign a transaction request disguised as a film contract, ultimately enabling the scammer to sell all of the user’s Apes to themselves for a negligible amount.

The firm noted that this type of scam was a “considerable threat” and found only in the Web3 world, where investors are often required to sign permissions to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols that could be easily faked. CertiK wrote:

“The hacker just needs to make a user believe that the malicious address that they are granting approval to is legitimate. Once a user has approved permissions for the scammer to spend tokens, then the assets are at risk of being drained.”

Once a scammer has gained approval, they are able to transfer assets to an address of their choosing.

An example of how an ice phishing attack works on Etherscan. Source: Certik

To protect themselves from ice phishing, CertiK recommended that investors use a token approval tool and a blockchain explorer site such as Etherscan to revoke permissions for addresses they don’t recognize.

Related: $4B OneCoin scam co-founder pleads guilty, faces 60 years jail

Additionally, addresses that users are planning to interact with should be looked up on these blockchain explorers for suspicious activity. In its analysis, CertiK points to an address that was funded by Tornado Cash withdrawals as an example of suspicious activity.

CertiK also suggested that users should only interact with official sites they are able to verify and be particularly wary of social media sites like Twitter, highlighting a fake Optimism Twitter account as an example.

Fake Optimism Twitter account. Source: Certik

The firm also advised users to take a couple of minutes to check a trusted site such as CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko to be sure that a URL links to a legitimate site.

Tech giant Microsoft was the first one to highlight this practice in a Feb. 16 blog post, saying at the time that while credential phishing is very predominant in the Web2 world, ice phishing gives individual scammers the ability to steal a chunk of the crypto industry while maintaining “almost complete anonymity.”

They recommended that Web3 projects and wallet providers increase their security on the software level in order to prevent the burden of avoiding ice phishing attacks being placed solely on the end-user.

ApeCoin geo-blocks US stakers, two Apes sell for $1M each, marketplace launched

The U.S. made the list of regions blocked from using an upcoming website for ApeCoin staking with the related DAO claiming regulations are to blame.

United States-based ApeCoin (APE) holders could miss out on staking rewards after the U.S. was added to a list of regions geo-blocked from using an upcoming APE staking service.

Blockchain infrastructure company Horizen Labs, which is building the site on behalf of the ApeCoin decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), revealed the news in a Nov. 24 update regarding ApeStake.io on Twitter, saying, “unfortunately, in today’s regulatory environment, we had no good alternative.”

Canada, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Cuba, Russia and the Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk are also on the block list.

There are likely ways to get around the geo-block. The update noted the website is only an interface to interact with the Ethereum-based open-source smart contract, and “several other” interfaces are being crafted by parties such as exchanges and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.

Prominent Twitter user Zeneca told their 312,00 followers that those from regions geo-blocked by ApeStake.io will still be able to stake by interacting with the smart contract directly or using another interface without geo-blocks. Those in blocked regions could also use a VPN to spoof their location.

The decision to block U.S. users likely resulted from the probe in October by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into APE creator Yuga Labs. The regulator is investigating if the company’s nonfungible tokens (NFTs) act more like securities and are subsequently violating federal laws.

Two Bored Ape NFTs sell for nearly $1M each

Meanwhile, some Bored Apes are still fetching high prices even during the depths of crypto winter. An NFT from Yuga Labs’ flagship Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection sold for 800 Ether (ETH), or almost $950,000 at the time of sale on Nov. 23.

BAYC #232 was sold to pseudonymous NFT collector Keungz — who seemingly has multiple Yuga Labs NFTs, according to their OpenSea profile — by Deepak Thapliydal.

Thapliydal is the CEO of Web3 infrastructure company Chain and gained notoriety for making the Guinness World Records for buying the “most expensive NFT collectible” after purchasing CryptoPunk #5822 for 8,000 ETH, or $23.7 million, on Feb. 12.

The sale of BAYC #232 was closely followed by another on Nov. 24 for BAYC #1268 between two unidentified wallets for 780 ETH, or almost $940,000 at the time of sale.

The sales are significant as the NFTs sold far above the current floor price for the collection which has seen a decline over the past months.

According to data from NFT Price Floor, the minimum price for a Bored Ape at the time of writing is just under 63 ETH, or about $75,600, and is 80% down in U.S. dollar terms from its May 1 all-time high of 144.9 ETH, or over $391,000 at the time.

ApeCoin DAO launches marketplace

The community-led DAO made up of ApeCoin holders has launched its own marketplace to buy and sell NFTs from the Yuga Labs ecosystem.

The aptly named ApeCoin Marketplace built by NFT infrastructure firm Snag Solutions was launched on Nov. 24 and supports transactions of the BAYC, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Bored Ape Kennel Club and Otherdeed NFT collections.

In a Nov. 24 Twitter thread Snag Solutions CEO, Zach Heerwagen, said the marketplace “includes unique features” specifically for NFT communities including the ability to stake APE.

The marketplace “respects royalties while heavily reducing fees,” according to Heerwagen. A 0.25% slice of each sale is held in a multisignature wallet and used to fund DAO initiatives.

Related: Industry expresses confidence in the NFT space amid the FTX collapse

The marketplace’s support for royalties comes as some other NFT marketplaces such as the Solana-based Magic Eden and Ethereum-based LooksRare stopped enforcing creator royalties by default.

Others such as OpenSea have continued to enforce royalties and even created a tool to help NFT creators with on-chain enforcement of royalties, allowing them to blacklist the sale of their NFTs on royalty-free marketplaces.

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

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.

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 vice president 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.

Bored Apes founders propose new model for NFT creator royalties

The BAYC founders want an NFT creator royalties model that ensures transferring NFTs between wallets remains free and encourages creators to remain within the NFT ecosystem.

The founder of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has weighed in on the ongoing nonfungible token (NFT) creator royalties debate and shared a potential path forward that they believe best deals with the issue.

A Nov. 8 blog post from BAYC co-founder Wylie Aronow — co-signed by co-founders Greg Solano and Kerem Atalay — shared that they regard creator royalties as “the single most important factor that brought them [creators and artists] into the ecosystem.”

The post was in response to OpenSea’s Nov. 6 announcement that it would follow other NFT marketplaces on royalty enforcement, which Aronow said shows its intent “to move with the rest of the herd and remove creator royalties for legacy collections from their platform,” and opined this move was “not great,” adding:

”For as much as NFTs have been about users truly owning their digital assets, they’ve also been about empowering creators.”

In response, the BAYC founders proposed a model for NFT royalties that uses “allow lists” coded into an NFT collections smart contract, which permits NFT trading between regular wallets but only allows NFT trading for “marketplaces that respect royalties.”

A basic version of how this would work was explained, with the first step being to check if the wallet is a regular wallet or a smart contract making the transfer request.

Regular wallets would have transfer requests allowed, while transfers initiated by smart contracts are checked against “an oracle of contracts that are known to respect royalties,” with the requests approved if a match is found.

This model would allow free wallet-to-wallet transfers, which the BAYC founders emphasize is a must to ensure one of the core benefits of NFTs — asset ownership — is acknowledged, with owners able to move assets between wallets without fees.

Related: NFTs are the key to turning passive fandom into an active community

The BAYC founders acknowledge that this model does still carry trade-offs, citing allowlist maintenance and an increased barrier to entry for new marketplaces, but said that for now, this allowlist is relatively small, noting:

“To start with, there are only a handful of known good actors today. Starting the allowlist is easy–just add those couple marketplaces that pay creator fees. Done.”

Allowlist maintenance is what they see as the more challenging issue, particularly the make-up of the governing body, adding:

“The real work is just in figuring out what this governing body looks like. But I think that’s a solvable problem for the NFT ecosystem to take on.”

In a Nov. 8 tweet, popular NFT artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, applauded the post as a great way to protect creator royalties as many NFT marketplaces move away from them.