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China’s wave of ChatGPT rivals, Alibaba goes multichain: Asia Express

Huawei unveils latest in wave of Chinese ChatGPT rivals, Alibaba’s multichain bridge, Hong Kong crypto exchange regulations imminent.

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industrys most important developments.

Hong Kong inching close on a clear crypto regulatory pathway

A few months after prominent industry players lamented the lack of registration pathways for cryptocurrency exchanges in Hong Kong, some respite may finally be on the horizon. On Apr. 27, Julia Leung, chief executive officer of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong, revealed that regulation of virtual asset trading platforms (VATP) remains one of the commission’s key priorities, stating:

“The SFC has received more than 150 responses to the consultation on the proposed regulatory requirements for licensed VATP operators and will issue the conclusions and final guidelines in May before the new regime takes effect on Jun. 1 2023.”

Leung also said that Web3 and blockchain technology will bring “enormous benefits to the financial industry in terms of efficiency” and reiterated the commission’s support for “underlying distributed ledger technology and responsible innovation in relation.” Nevertheless, the SFC also issued the following warning: 

“The regulator takes firm and prompt enforcement action, against market manipulation activities, social media ramp and dump schemes, abusive behavior in listings, intermediary misconduct and virtual-asset-related misconduct. The amended Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance (AMLO) will give the SFC new power to combat these scams.”

In February, the SFC stirred up a crypto frenzy when it launched a consultation on its proposed regulatory requirements for digital asset trading platforms. On Apr. 20, a report published by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange daily trading volume of all Hong Kong crypto ETFs averaged about $1.19 million between December 2022 and early February.

Alibaba takes an interest in multichain

On Apr. 26, Ant Financial, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba, announced during its annual Digital Technologies Developer Conference that it would officially open source its cross-chain protocol AntChain Bridge to developers worldwide.

The AntChain Bridge was designed based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard for Blockchain Interoperability, one of the first standardized communications protocols in this category.Yan Ying, technical director of AntChain, said that cross-chain technology “is essential to unlocking the full potential of Web3” and would allow for “large-scale transferring of digital assets.”

During a live demonstration, AntChain Bridge developers several commemorative NFTs to different blockchains. Developers can access its cross-chain systems or business smart contracts by downloading the cross-chain plug-in on the AntChain Openlab Github repository page. Two months prior, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Chinese subsidiary announced that it would expand its partnership with Ant Financial to mint more NFTs on its native AntChain. The blockchain was launched in 2017 with a focus on fintech. 

Yan Ying speaking at AntGroup's annual Web 3 conference. (AntGroup)
Yan Ying speaking at AntGroup’s annual Web 3 conference. (AntGroup)

Huawei and the GPT craze

On Apr. 27, local news outlet IThome reported that Chinese telecommunications conglomerate Huawei has filed for a national trademark application labeled “Huawei NetGPT” under the classification “scientific instruments.” Earlier this month, Huawei developers shared further insight into its other ChatGPT clone, “PanguGPT,” claiming that:

“It has entered the field of intelligent document search, intelligent enterprise resource planning, and has implemented scenarios such as enterprise financial anomaly detection, large-scale models in Arabic, etc.”

Similar to Huawei, Chinese tech giant Baidu unveiled its answer to ChatGPT, Ernie Bot, on Mar. 16. One month later, Alibaba also began testing its ChatGPT rival dubbed “Tongyi Qianwen.” Around the same day, American business magnate Elon Musk also revealed that he would create his own ChatGPT equivalent, TruthGPT, for seemingly political reasons. Chat-based large language models can have major applications in blockchain, such as auditing smart contract code orguiding its audience on crypto trading.

Chinese city public servants to receive digital yuan salaries

Earlier this week, government officials from the City of Changshu (population 1.56 million) announced that the city’s public servants would be paid in digital yuan (e-CNY) effective starting next month.

The move follows a successful pilot test beginning last October that saw select public officials receive public transport reimbursements through the digital yuan. While means of spending the e-CNY directly are currently somewhat limited on a national level, the City of Changshu has begun allowing e-CNY payments for utility bills, cell phone bills, cable TV, and public transportation.

Digital Yuan
Customer using e-CNY to pay at a restaurant (Shenzhen People’s Government)

WeChat, too, expands digital yuan adoption

On Apr. 26, Chinese social media app WeChat, which boasts over 1 billion monthly active users, expanded digital yuan adoption to its video content creation platform and “Mini Programs” platform for vendors.

According to local reports, services payable on WeChat via e-CNY now include ride-sharing, online shopping, or ordering takeaway from restaurants. To use the feature, users must first pass through know-your-customer checks. Despite its increased presence, e-CNY accounted for just 0.13% of the total Chinese Yuan in circulation at the beginning of the year.

A WeChat digital yuan payments page. (WeChat)
A WeChat digital yuan payments page. (WeChat)

Shirtless shitposting and hunting SBF on the meme streets: Gabriel Haines, Hall of Flame

Gabriel Haines can most likely be found screaming about crypto with his shirt off in public or at home. Why is that and who is he?

Name: Gabriel Haines 
Anonymous: No 
Twitter followers: 45,300
Known for: satirical ranting, shiting posting, and comedic content

Who is Gabriel Haines anyway? 

Gabriel Haines is a content creator, podcaster and Crypto Twitter shitposter who has a proclivity for ripping off his shirt in videos and ranting about the market in a goofy and comedic fashion. 

His entertainment value has seen him quickly build up a following of 45,300 not a bad effort considering his online journey only started on YouTube in early 2020, when he was making videos on subjects as diverse as hummus reviews and educational videos on content marketing.

Haines jumped into the crypto space around the end of 2020 after seeking out ways to hedge against inflation in response to the inordinate amount of U.S. dollar printing and stimulus thrown about during the height of the global pandemic. 

Although he started his journey learning about Bitcoin, Haines soon dived into the Ethereum ecosystem and says that his biggest early wins came from hustling on token airdrops.

Also read: Simon Dixon on bankruptcies, Celsius and Elon Musk

Airdrops are a great way to make money in crypto because you dont necessarily have to risk a lot of capital; you dont have to make a big trade or anything like that. You can, you know, actually spend your time earning tokens. And that can often be a big payday. 

Read also
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How did he get popular on Twitter?

Haines earlier crypto content was mainly focused on longer-form interviews and educational videos on subjects such as decentralized finance (DeFi); however, his popularity grew on Twitter as he ramped up his short-form comedic antics.

One key break, in particular, was a satirical video that he posted as a comment in response to a Nov. 12 tweet from Sam Bankman-Fried announcing that he had filed FTX, FTX US and Alameda Research for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In the video, which has roughly 961,400 views, 13,800 likes and 1,834 retweets, Haines can be seen in sweatpants and no shirt, holding a sword in his hand and ranting about the alleged sex orgies that went on behind closed doors within SBFs inner circle.

Following on from that, another key moment was undoubtedly when he raised $10,000 from the community via a campaign started by @CupOJoseph crypto fundraising platform and DAO Juicebox to go search for SBF in the Bahamas during the immediate aftermath of the FTX implosion.

In a community poll of 2,220 participants on Nov. 26, 70% voted in favor of funding the trip, while 11.8% voted No and 18.1% voted Whos Gabriel?

The capital covered flights and accommodation for Haines and his family, and notably, no one expected Haines to do anything but make some funny content out of it all. 

Also read: Mati Greenspans boss bribed him with 1 BTC to join Twitter

The adventure ultimately culminated with a video of Haines standing out the front of SBFs apartment complex, ranting with his shirt off. This has since been turned into an NFT, which is free to mint for those who donated to the Juicebox campaign. 

What can you expect from him on Twitter? 

Haines brand of shitposting mostly consists of rallying the troops in bearish or bullish situations and screaming with his shirt off at home or in public. 

He also likes to make fun of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, but he has serious reasons for doing so.

I think that Gary Gensler has been especially egregious in his regulatory practices by not providing any clarity to the regulatees. I think hes been very heavy-handed, malicious and not really trying to help the market. 

Twitter beefs 

I dont have beef with anyone I dont really give a shit, he says before immediately adding, But I did have a Twitter beef with BitBoy Crypto for like a day, going back and forth.

Haines says he doesnt particularly like some things about the BitBoy YouTube channel relating to allegations of paid promotions.

Youve got to be very open and upfront about what is sponsored. You know if youre talking about a token that youre holding, just to make a disclosure, its okay. As long as you mentioned disclosure, then you should be okay as long as youre open and honest, he says.

Read also
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The value of a legacy: Hunting down Satoshis Bitcoin

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Powers On… Top 5 crypto legal and regulatory developments of 2021

Twitter likes and dislikes

I love the community. I love the memes. I think that its the place to be if youre into crypto. Its the place where youre gonna get the most amount of information, and its where most of the people are. If you love crypto, you better be on Crypto Twitter because (if youre not) youre gonna miss out, he says. 

Haines says theres not particularly anything he dislikes about Crypto Twitter or anything hed like to change. 

Looking ahead 

Haines has a simple and direct plan for the future: Continue to make videos. Continue to get better and better and seek out more opportunities and exciting things. Those are my plans.

District 9 director’s shooter, Decentraland red-light district battle: Web3 Gamer

Trouble in Decentraland’s red light district, “no mercy” for Vulcan Forged autoclickers, District 9 director’s immersive blockchain shooter.

Theres trouble brewing in the red-light region of Decentraland called District X.

The ongoing dispute between the leader of District X and a group of community members came to a head with the Decentraland DAO asked to weigh in on the districts future.

Decentraland districts are collectively owned areas on the map built around a particular theme, in District Xs case: adult content. However, its seen little development in the five years since it was established.

Member Morph submitted a proposal on April 12 that the DAO and the Decentraland Foundation should ask OpenSea to mark the districts land NFTs as stolen until a solution can be found for the issues in the District X community.

Morph alleges that the District X custodian, RobL, took the role without contributors input and his Wyoming-based LLC called District X Land Holdings controls the multisig wallet that holds the districts land. He claims the district pivoted from its original intent, while little development has occurred, and the worst offense is that RobL allegedly attempted to sell the entire district.

Morphs proposal has two more stages to go through until it passes. A preliminary vote showed 73.94% of voting power allocated to support it. He tells Cointelegraph that it was great to see the community come out and make a majority decision.

However, RobL denies Morphs claims about how he had handled the districts land, telling Magazine:

There was a claim that I somehow marketed the district for sale, which is also nonsense.

However, just to be clear, selling districts is not illegal. Many district owners have over the past two or so years sold their districts, he says, clarifying that he himself has never sold any.

The view from District X Tower in Decentraland. (Decentraland/screengrab)

RobL says that his voting power in the DAO alone is enough to prevent the poll from passing. But even if it passed the final stage, he believes it would not be enacted.

Why? Because [the] Decentraland Foundation and the DAO all know full well the proposals are filled with misinformation and are at face value patently false Moreover, Decentraland DAO has absolutely no control over OpenSea, he says.

The Decentraland Foundation says its an external party to the situation and is not involved in the matter. At the time of writing it has not been called on by the community to participate in the proposal.

District 9 directors vision for blockchain game like an immersive film

One upcoming shooter to watch for later this year is Off The Grid, the first title from indie studio Gunzilla Games. 

A cyberpunk-style battle royale third-person shooter, the blockchain game is set on the fictional Teardrop Island in the Pacific Ocean, where corporations battle for resources. 

Midtown Harbor
Midtown Harbor will be one of the places featured in the game. (Gunzilla Games)

Filmmaker Neill Blomkamp of District 9 and Elysium fame is on board as chief visionary officer. Gunzilla Games co-founder Vlad Korolov tells Magazine that Blomkamp is helping turn the game into an interactive player-driven movie.

Unlike other battle royale games out there, Off The Grid is being developed as a narrative-driven game that will immerse our players into the universe we created.

The game will be free-to-play with new in-game items regularly added for players to collect and will be available to play on Xbox, PlayStation and PC. Korolov says the game runs on Avalanche subnet Gunz blockchain, but the aim was to make the experience for our future players as familiar as any other traditional game on consoles. 

The announcement follows the release of several other blockchain shooter games, including Undead Blocks, and Korolov says that shooting things could be the key to mass adoption.

Shooter games are the most popular genre in video games today, uniting over half a billion users. Its only natural that developers and gamers alike want to explore their potential in the Web3 space with a genre that already has such a strong user base, Korolov explains. 

While they may not be easy to master, shooter games are easy to learn, pick up and play.

They provide an accessible entry point for new users to explore the true benefits of Web3 gaming, such as decentralized in-game item trading and player-owned economies, he adds. 

Vulcan Forged showing no mercy to autoclickers

Vulcan Forged is cracking down on autoclickers, according to a Discord post on April 10. 

It said it had received reports that some players were using autoclickers with its new in-game foraging system and vowed to thoroughly investigate, adding, Offenders will be shown no mercy. 

Autoclickers, which mimic mouse clicks to game the system for rewards and cryptocurrency, have long been an issue for Web3 studios. Adam Bendjemil, head of business development at BNB Smart Chain, tells Magazine that games offering daily rewards and other financial incentives are a prime target for autoclickers and warns they can skew the tokenomics of a game. 

If the game is unbalanced, unfortunately, the game is going to die. Players wont be interested in playing it, and [this] benefits no one but the person using the clickers.

Although studios can do things like blocking IP addresses or adding captcha verifications, they are constantly battling against ever-adapting, ever-more innovative bots.

Theyre very smart people behind [the bots], so its a tough battle. As of today, its still a problem, Bendjemil adds.

The use of bots also presents an issue when it comes to gauging Web3 player numbers. Its a problem Pedro Herrera, head of research and analytics at DappRadar, understands only too well. But Herrera notes that as Web3 games become more complex, were likely to see fewer bots, as its just not worth the bother. 

If youre playing a first-person shooter, you wont be able to program a bot. I mean, you can, but its not worth the effort But definitely, idle games are the ones that will be exploited. RPGs, FPSs [and] MMOs will be very difficult to exploit in that manner, he says.

Aurorys Adventures game: Pokemon meets The Matrix

Aurory Tactics
Aurory Tactics came out last November. (Aurory/screengrab)

The team at Aurory is aiming to roll out its new game, Adventures, next week.

Aurory head of production and executive producer Jonathan Campeau tells Magazine that in version zero of the game, players will be able to visit lands and capture creatures called Nefties through battles. Campeau says, The slogan that I used at GDC a lot for what Aurory is is Pokemon meets The Matrix for the Roblox generation.

The highly-anticipated launch follows the release of Aurorys first game, Tactics, in November last year. But Campeau says that Adventures is likely to appeal to a broader range of gamers. 

The limited rollout next month will be followed by a full public launch by the end of the summer.

NFT Worlds respawns and starts again

I would love to have schadenfreude where Minecraft has this whole story 10 years from now where they banned this group that was building a game on it and then that group went and built the replacement for Minecraft. That would be very entertaining to me.

So said someone in a Twitter Spaces on April 20 when the team behind NFT Worlds sat down for almost two hours to talk with its community about its plans for a rebrand after a difficult year.

Their troubles started in July when Minecraft creators Mojang Studios said that NFTs and other blockchain tech were not something they would generally support or allow on their servers. 

The move was a blow to NFT Worlds, whose entire gaming system was built on Minecraft, and forced it to pivot to its own soon-to-be-released game engine.

NFT Worlds zombie mob versus Minecrafts. (ArkDev/Twitter)

So, has Minecraft inadvertently spawned the monster that will eat it? NFT Worlds believes that Minecraft has lost its spark and, particularly since it was bought by Microsoft, hasnt been as innovative as it once was. 

It thinks that it can create a better alternative that will make it easier to create servers and mods, as well as allow Web3 integrations. 

Were here to build what we wish Minecraft had become, had it continued on its innovation, said ArkDev on Twitter last month.

The Sandbox: Irish pubs and underground cities

I spent a lot of time collecting plungers in The Sandbox’s Rabbids game last September. I have now upgraded to other items.

The platform rolled out its April Festival at the start of this month, and theres still time to check it out before it closes on May 2.

The festival features The Sandboxs typical mix of brand collaborations, creative builds and cultural projects. While the client can be a bit slow and buggy at times, Ive always liked the attention to detail in the different games.

Collecting shamrocks in an Irish pub. (Screenshot from The Sandbox)

First, theres a really cool build called Chongqing Underground City based on Cixin Lius short story The Wandering Earth. The first quest involves collecting 88 dumplings scattered around the scene. As with a lot of The Sandbox builds, its full of NPCs, which gives the impression there are a lot more people there than there actually are. 

That said, being alone in a crowded room is slightly preferable to the monstrous bulging peopleberg that occurs when everyone tries to spawn into the same place at once. 

A Hells Kitchen demon and I observe a congested spawn spot. (Screenshot from The Sandbox)

But in an attempt to make the metaverse less lonely, I tried to get my grandad to take a look by visiting The Shebeen, an Irish pub. Because why open your front door and walk 100 meters down the road to an actual Irish pub in Ireland when you can collect shamrocks in a virtual version of one online? 

Besides, The Shebeen has way more flags, a deer with glow-in-the-dark antlers and a beer garden that doesnt smell like a graveyard for every cigarette that has ever been smoked.

He looked for a grand total of about five seconds, said “that’s nice” and went back to watching the Manchester United game. 

Whats coming up

Crypto Unicorns has released two Team RPG prototypes to community members. Match-3 and Auto-Battler came out on April 13 and are accessible to those with a MetaMask wallet containing five or more unicorn NFTs.

The Mutant Ape Yacht Club is getting its own game. Novel Labs and Faraway announced this month they are working on Serum City, a city-building game that will star Mutant Apes. Its expected in Q3 this year.

Unioverse will launch an alpha of Proving Grounds on April 26. Those who sign up before that day will get the chance to play the game and use their Reyu NFTs as avatars for the first time.

Got gaming gossip, Discord drama or underappreciated projects you think I should be writing about? Please direct all tips, tricks and tirades to me on Twitter at @quinnishvili. 

3AC cooks up a storm, Bitcoin miner surges 360%, Bruce Lee NFTs dive: Asia Express

3AC’s Kyle Davies becomes a connoisseur of white poultry, meanwhile SAI.TECH’s stock more than doubles on no news as Bruce Lee NFTs flunk.

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industrys most important developments.

Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a once-bourgeoning Singaporean hedge fund worth an estimated $10 billion at its peak, was utterly obliterated by the bear market last year. However, the carnival it has created since the initial blowup still lives on, and its main characters appear to be doing quite well, too.

One of 3AC co-founders, Kyle Davies, appears to have finally found some solace from the experience. After much turmoil, the former hedge fund manager has now transitioned into an aspiring restauranteur fixated on one task perfecting the art of cooking chicken.

Kyle Davies
Kyle Davies chopping up … nothing for some reason. (Twitter)

Any seasoned chef would know that cooking a tender, well-seasoned, juicy and crispy-skinned chicken is a rather exquisite skill. To perfect it, one needs to maintain a razor-sharp focus on the meat while techniques are applied, which requires cutting out distractions such as focusing on negative feelings related to creditors trying to claim $3.5 billion from 3ACs bankruptcy during the performance.

Also read: Heres how Ethereums ZK-rollups can become interoperable

Generally speaking, chefs dont like customers who are rude. This is why when a user suggested on April 14 to review-bomb Davies new Dubai restaurant, the now professional cook immediately threatened legal action against individuals who post intentionally false reviews and defamation against my restaurant.”

Meanwhile Davies and fellow co-founder Su Zhu launched the OPNX exchange on April 5, launched to trade bankruptcy claims of fallen crypto entities such as FTX and Celsius. Although daily volume was only around $13 initially, by the time of publication, the exchange has reached nearly $1.8 million in daily trading volume.

Its not pleasant being the one to disappoint the crowd, but these numbers are pretty impressive. Consider the fact that the sum of all regulated crypto products listed in Hong Kong only does about $1.19 million in volume per day.

Not that the exchange is playing up its 3AC ties. In an April 14 interview, OPNX CEO Leslie Lamb reportedly said that While Su Zhu and Kyle contributed much in terms of early-stage ideas and vision, they currently are no longer involved in OPNXs everyday operations.”

In other 3AC news, on April 19, Sothebys auction house announced it would sell a series of NFT collections recovered by liquidators, including Dmitri Cherniaks artwork The Golden Goose, purchased by Davies and Zhu with $5.8 million in Ether in August 2021.

Zhu appears to have taken the new philosophically, quoting the famed English poet Alfred Tennyson: [Tis] better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all,” while highlighting the NFT auction for his followers. 3ACs bankruptcy proceedings are currently ongoing.

In a post to followers, Su Zhu bids his audience good morning and asks for
In a post to followers, Su Zhu bids his audience good morning and asks for good vibes only.” (Twitter)

Singaporean Bitcoin miners wild week

On April 14, shares of Singaporean Bitcoin (BTC) mining operator SAI.TECH, listed on the Nasdaq exchange, surged by over 360% in one day to a high of $7.42 before giving back much of its gains. The stock is currently trading at $3.68 per share at the time of publication. There was no material news preceding the unusual price action and we certainly tried to identify some.

SAI.TECH develops Bitcoin mining infrastructure hardware, namely Saihub, Tankbox, and Rackbox, that utilizes liquid cooling and waste heat recovery solutions to improve efficiency for miners.

On April 20, the company consolidated its product lines into three categories; Ultiaas, Boltbit, and Heatnuc. Boltbit will focus on providing decentralized transaction system services and technical support, while Heatnuc focuses on the “research and promotion of small modular reactors.” Ultiaas puts the emphasis on hardware and software products that convert mining chip heat to reusable energy.

The company terminated its Phase II 90 megawatts (MW) crypto mining and hosting expansion plan in Kazakhstan last year following a force majeure,” and will continue to execute its Phase I 15 MW agreement for the same purpose. In January 2022, the Kazakh government resigned following protests and shut down access to the internet, disrupting the operations of Bitcoin miners in the country. The company is currently emphasizing operations at its testing and distribution facility in Ohio.

SAI.TECH's main Bitcoin mining infrastructure products. (SAI.TECH)
SAI.TECH’s main Bitcoin mining infrastructure products. (SAI.TECH)

Bruce Lee NFTs fizzle…

Not even the late Hong Kong film legend could defeat the economic laws of supply and demand with his martial arts dexterity. Between April 12 to April 14, the Bruce Lee Foundation, directed by his daughter Shannon, partnered with NFT video platform Shibuya to launch The House of Lee collection to celebrate the life and work of the namesake Kung Fu legend. A total of 48,691 NFTs were minted at a price of 0.008 Ether (ETH), to 6,452 owners (13% unique).

There was one slight issue, only one NFT was unique in the collection, that of the House of Lee Genesis NFT. With an abundance of supply, the floor price of the collection quickly dropped to around 0.003 ETH apiece on OpenSea at the time of publication. The sale still grossed approximately $730,000, minus the cost of placing a mega billboard advertisement for the NFT drop on Broadway.

While the initial sale may have been somewhat lukewarm, the NFTs are billed as Your ticket to the House of Lee, and there are reports that this is a mere first stage of an ongoing Web3 collaboration. It seems the martial arts legend may continue to fight on in the realm of blockchain after all.

From SNL and The Tonight Show to Sotheby’s:  NFT Creator Bryan Brinkman

Bryan Brinkman (of SNL and The Tonight Show) reveals that the secret to being a successful NFT creator involves spending just one-third of the time on art.

From working on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show as an animator to now having more than 1,000 collectors of his NFTs, Bryan Brinkman is an example of how a digital artist can thrive in ways never before possible. 

Best described as a digital pop artist with an emphasis on animation, Brinkmans fans include high-profile NFT collectors such as Pranksy, J1mmy.eth and WhaleShark. He has also been featured at Christies and had fractionalized art of his put up for auction at Sothebys.

Scroll by Bryan Brinkman. (SuperRare)

Prior to NFTs, I spent 15 years working in various industries such as fashion, MTV shows and animated television series. Ive also worked a large chunk of my career on late-night TV shows like Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show, which revolve a lot around humor, Brinkman says. 

When NFTs came along, animation finally became a medium that could be quantified and collected. It immediately clicked with me. There are lots of branches you can do as an animator, but this is the only one that allows you to truly be independent and in control.

In its simplest form, I describe myself as a digital pop artist, but I also think mixed media is a term I use as well. I like to mix 2D and 3D as well as play around with different mechanics and forms.

Brinkman also understands how to market his work and build community essential ingredients for an NFT artist today.  

I think about dividing your time into thirds. Spend one-third of it making art, and spend another third working on marketing your art, whether that be making cool teasers or videos talking about your art, or maybe writing Twitter threads about how you made it. That stuff is very important. Then the final third is spending time in the community, learning from other artists, talking to other artists, just connecting in general, Brinkman states.

I learned from many of the artists who came before me, whether it was Sarah Zucker, Coldie, Josie Bellini, Alotta Money, Hackatao, Matt Kane and a host of other OGs out there. 

Read also: The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future

Influences:

Brinkman draws inspiration from many styles and artists, but animation is at his core, and he studied it in college.

Don Hertzfeldt [American animator, writer and independent filmmaker, best known for animated films World of Tomorrow and Its Such a Beautiful Day] is a big one. He influenced me with a lot of his short films that are simply brilliant. Bill Plympton [American animator and cartoonist best known for his 1987 Academy Awards-nominated animated short Your Face] influenced me with his work ethic and how he was able to maintain an independent animation artist lifestyle for all these years. I think hes nearly 80 years old now, Brinkman states.

Brinkman also cites pop artist Keith Haring, an American graffiti-inspired pop artist, and NFT artist Killer Acid. 

I think Keith was able to ride the line between pop art and commercial art in a way that still kept his integrity. I also have to shout out Killer Acid, who inspired me to join the NFT space. He was a very early SuperRare artist.

Peace Sign Dude by Killer Acid, animated by Patrick Passaro
Peace Sign Dude by Killer Acid, animated by Patrick Passaro. (SuperRare)

In fact, Peace Sign Dude by Killer Acid is still his favorite NFT in his collection.

J1mmy.eth actually owned it, and he offered to give it to me as a gift, which was incredible. Its now my never-sell grail gift. Pretty cool story because its the artist I discovered NFTs via and its my collector who first supported my career, so its my most special NFT. 

Read also: Become a hot new NFT artist via the soft shill taco method Terrell Jones 

Notable sales to date:

Betty's Notebook
Bettys Notebook, a collaboration with Async Music. This worlds first programmable music NFT made $375,000 in sales. (Async Music)
Flywheel
Flywheel, an edition of 15, from the CTRL collection. CTRL was released on Nifty Gateway Curated on Sept. 16, 2022 and sold out, grossing over $100,000. (Nifty Gateway)
Explode
Explode. Sold at Sothebys off-chain for $75,600 on Oct. 26, 2021 to Pranksy. (SuperRare)
Yearn
Yearn. Secondary market sale for 18 ETH ($58,400 equivalent on the date of sale) on Aug. 23, 2021. (SuperRare)

Hot new NFT artists to watch 

Brinkman is a prolific NFT collector himself, with a reputation for spotlighting and elevating other artists: 

Alimo (@alimofun): Best known for curvy post-pop imagery, highly saturated colors, vibrant hand-drawn letters and worlds inhabited by figures arranged on flat tonal surfaces. 

I think Alimo does really beautiful landscapes that are very simplified and kind of pop art. The colors he uses are very soothing. Im a big fan of the stories he tells with surfing and snowboarding.

Ykha Amelz (@ykhaamelz): Indonesian artist who specializes in 2D. She combines her inner-child nostalgia and chaotic mind into a vibrant universe populated by a family of cartoon characters.  

With Ykha, I think the world shes building is extremely fun. Its sort of like a mixture of skater artwork, but then she has all these characters that go from scene to scene and tell a story. Visually, its eye candy. 

Jisu (@JisuArtist) Korean-American illustrator based in Los Angeles. 

With Jisu, her work has these harsh angles on faces, but there are lots of colors and almost like a glitchiness to it. Im a big fan. I think theyre really cool. All three of them are crushing it. I imagine theyre all going to be big names eventually. 

Read also: Breakdancing medics NFT auctioned at Sothebys Grant Yun, NFT creator

Process: 

Breezy by Bryan Brinkman
Breezy by Bryan Brinkman. (Nifty Gateway)

Brinkman takes the process of making art on the blockchain seriously, as theres a record of the work forever, he points out.

It usually starts with sketches. Sometimes this is done in physical form on a sketchbook, or sometimes its Procreate on an iPad, but it unusually starts with thumbnails which goes back to my background in animation, where you start with storyboards, says Brinkman. 

I usually think small initially and then decide if it is an idea or an opinion and how I convey that visually. Not everything has the same deeper meaning, but usually, theres that thought process I go through, and then I refine it. From there, the process of building kicks in, and Ill use some animation software as I start building the pieces and it starts to evolve into its own thing. Theres a lot of layers of refinement and tweaking required as well as getting the timing and motion to feel right. 

Once it becomes an animation, I then need to decide, is this going to be a video with audio or an animated GIF? Should it be tall, or wide, or square?

Finally, Ill give consideration to how I think its going to be displayed, because everythings on the blockchain forever. I think about building things for TV screens because thats going to be how people look at this stuff in the future. Its a lot of different steps along the way, but each of those steps can have a totally different detour that turns the work into something totally different. 

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The NFT space is missing?

For Brinkman, discoverability is the missing piece of the puzzle.

Its really hard to find artists. We need sites that allow you to see artists and new artists. We need to create algorithms that show you other artists that are in the style you might be searching for, he says.

Currently, its all word of mouth and based on influencers on Twitter, which is fine, but its still a very curated way of doing it, says Brinkman. 

I think, for better or worse, artists need liquidity on their secondary markets. To that degree, maybe some sort of universal artist bid mechanism where I will buy any piece by this artist for X amount of money. That way, theres always a low level of liquidity like youd see in places like Blur. 

Some artists might say thats a terrible thing. I dont know. But there is that problem right now. When you buy art, its hard to get out of it if you need to in a pinch. I think if there is that, that will attract more people that might see it as more of a liquid asset than a long-term investment. 

Bull Run by Bryan Brinkman
Bull Run by Bryan Brinkman. (Nifty Gateway)

Royalties debate

Since the explosion of Blur over the last four to five months, the royalty debate has been a hot topic. Incentives to use Blur to receive future airdrops have been a significant driver in OpenSeas market-share hit.

Blur does not recognize royalties, which was part of the value proposition for NFT artists in the early days when the narrative was that creator royalties would be paid in perpetuity via a smart contract. However, royalties are actually captured at the marketplace level, and many artists have been understandably outspoken about missing out.

I realized very early on that creator royalties were a social contract, not a smart contract, Brinkman says.

Read also: 4 out of 10 NFT sales are fake: Learn to spot the signs of wash trading

People would trade my SuperRare one-of-ones and not pay royalties. So early on, I knew not everybody was going to pay royalties. So, how do we look at this situation? I think some of it is an incentive question.

Brinkman says that if there are secondary hubs where everything is listed, there is discoverability and royalties are paid, then thats going to be the place where you go to buy art, and thats where artists send people. I believe 70% of people will just go there and buy it.

You pay a premium because they have everything in one place.

Then there are going to be these people that are going to go off and try to find the best deal. Maybe my 70/30 prediction is off, but I think theres always going to be the dynamic of ease of accessibility versus avoiding royalties.

Links: 

Linktree: linktr.ee/bryanbrinkman

Twitter: twitter.com/bryanbrinkman 

Website: bryanbrinkman.com 

Bitcoin glory on Chinese TikTok, 30M mainland users, Justin Sun saga: Asia Express

Bitcoin’s day of glory on Chinese TikTok, 30M crypto fans still in China, Justin Sun’s subpoena after dream rendezvous with Web3 socialite.

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industrys most important developments.

Bitcoin’s day of glory on Chinese TikTok

On Apr. 10, Douyin, the version of Tiktok exclusive to Chinese users, began publishing price quotes related to Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Ripple (XRP). The move sparked rampant speculation among the Chinese media and users alike related to a potential change of policy by the country’s central government on cryptocurrency regulation.

Unlike its Western counterpart, content on Douyin is heavily monitored and sometimes censored by Chinese authorities. Since Sept. 2022, Douyin has been cracking down on content relating to cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and Metaverse.

Also read: Why join a blockchain gaming guild? Fun, profit and create better games

Hence, many individuals were genuinely surprised to see cryptocurrencies discoverable on the government-curated platform. For around 24-hours, any of Douyin’s estimated 730 million mainland Chinese users could freely view crypto price quotes on the app. However, dreams of a relaxation in the country’s strict crypto laws were crushed shortly thereafter. On Apr. 11, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies price quotes were removed from Douyin, with a message stating:

“Based on relevant national regulations, unofficial digital currencies do not possess the same legal standing as fiat currencies. Please invest cautiously.”

Since 2021, China has banned all forms of crypto exchanges, crypto-fiat transactions brokered by financial institutions, and initial coin offerings. That said, the country stopped short of banning the ownership of cryptocurrencies altogether and the Chinese controlled territory of Hong Kong has unveiled plans to become a crypto hub.

Bitcoin on Douyin before and after the crackdown. (GamerSky)
Bitcoin on Douyin before and after the crackdown. (GamerSky)

Bruce Lee lives again via NFTs

On Apr. 12, the Bruce Lee Foundation announced it would partner with NFT video platform Shibuya to launch a collection of genesis NFTs featuring the late legendary martial arts actor, who died in 1973 at the age of 32 under mysterious circumstances. The House of Lee collection is one sale on Manifold from Apr. 12 to Apr. 14 and is minted on the Ethereum network, with digital image storage on Arweave.

The Bruce Lee Genesis NFT (Arweave)
The Bruce Lee Genesis NFT (Arweave)

There is no limit to the number of NFTs minted during the sale. At the time of publication, over 19,592 House of Lee digital collectibles have been minted with a current floor price of around 0.008 Ether. The Bruce Lee NFT was drawn by artists Maciej Kuciara and Emily Yang, with its design inspired by Shannon Lee, daughter of Bruce Lee and president of the Bruce Lee Estate. An Ethereum Name Service address has also been registered for the collection at bruceleeofficial.eth.

China’s 30M crypto users despite ban

According to a joint research report published on Apr. 10 by Foresight News, CoinNess, and BlockTempo, China still has around 30 million crypto users, representing around 2.12% of its population, compared to 12% for the U.S. and 11% for Taiwan. Researchers cited the Sept. 2021 People’s Bank of China ban on crypto-fiat transactions as “the nail in the coffin” for the industry in China.

China's crypto user count has dwindled but still thriving (Foresight Ventures)
China’s crypto user count has dwindled but still thriving (Foresight Ventures)

That said, the report also noted Hong Kong is becoming a rising hub of blockchain technology in Asia. In Feb. 2023, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) proposed a pathway for exchanges to obtain regulatory licenses through fulfilling the custody, know-your-customer, record-keeping, and risk management requirements. The policy is scheduled to come into effect on June 1, 2023.

Interestingly, Foresight wrote that despite tailwinds from a spending campaign during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, only 13.61 billion of China’s digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC) were in circulation, representing just 0.13% of China’s M0 or outstanding monetary supply. “Trade settlement applications are still in development and are only accepted by very limited partners,” the firm noted.

Despite headwinds, three major venture capital firms, Hashkey Capital, Dragonfly, and Foresight Ventures, are still active in the mainland China region. Notable projects tracing their origins from China include Conflux, Alchemy Pay, Animoca Brands, and CertiK.

Hong Kong’s rising Web3 power

The Hong Kong Web 3.0 Festival gallery hall (Twitter)
The Hong Kong Web 3.0 Festival gallery hall (Twitter)

On Apr. 12, more than 10,000 crypto enthusiasts and 300 guest speakers gathered in Hong Kong for the special administrative region’s annual Web3 Festival. During its debut, Lee Ka-Chiu, chief executive of Hong Kong, pledged to allocate 700 million Hong Kong dollars ($89.17 million) from this year’s budget to accelerate the development of digital assets and Web3 technologies in the region. Chan Mo-Po, the financial secretary of Hong Kong, also commented:

“Web3 is in its infancy, and the current common applications include cryptocurrency, decentralized exchanges, digital identity verification, DeFi, blockchain games, and even NFT but it is conceivable that in the future there will be many more new applications and opportunities. From a historical point of view, the development of Web3 will grow rapidly again after going through the shock stage.”

For Justin Sun, founder of Tron and de facto owner of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global, the 2023 Hong Kong Web3 Festival appears to be the pinnacle of his blockchain career. First off, before his arrival, Sun claims to have successfully turned around Huobi’s operations after years of stagnation, posting an impressive profit of $30 million in Q1 2023.

Then, with an aura of awe, the blockchain personality dispelled rumors that he was arrested in Hong Kong on arrival. In 2019, Sun allegedly hired a smuggler to help him bypass mainland China’s border controls and escape the country. This has been linked to exit restrictions due to his involvement in the initial coin offering (ICO) of Tron, which took place days before China banned ICOs. Sun has been out of mainland China ever since. Interestingly, no extradition agreement exists between China and Hong Kong, after a bill for such measure was quashed by a pro-democracy student uprising in 2019. The protests, in turn, were quashed by China’s central government.

Thanks to the sacrifice of the students, Sun was able to land in Hong Kong safely and meet face-to-face with Nina, an iPollo community ambassador whom Sun wants to feature in a Huobi beauty pageant and “[personally] guarantee as a final contestant in the Top 20.” Unfortunately, not everyone appears to be dazzled by Sun’s attempt at flirtation. As Sun’s euphoria reached its peak whilst partying onboard a Binance yacht, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued a subpoena for Sun on Apr. 12, kindly reminding him of his obligation to appear in court on charges of fraud and securities law violations.

“If you fail to respond, judgment by default will be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint. You also must file your answer or motion with the court.”

The SEC complaint, filed on Mar. 26, alleges Sun and his companies, Tron and BitTorrent, “fraudulently” manipulated the secondary market for Tron tokens through “extensive wash trading,” conducting more than 600,000 such trades, and also paid numerous American celebrities to promote TRX and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens with zero disclosure.

Sun has since stated that the SEC complaint “lacks merit” and that the regulatory body is “still in its infancy and is in need of further development” with regards to digital assets. The lawsuit is ongoing. Around the same day of the subpoena, Binance.US announced that it would be delisting TRX from its platform.

Justin Sun blushes as he shares a stage with Nina on Apr. 11, oblivious to the looming legal threat that will materialize the day after.
Justin Sun blushes as he shares a stage with Nina on Apr. 11, oblivious to the looming legal threat that will materialize the day after. (Twitter)

Pro-XRP lawyer John Deaton ‘10x more into BTC, 4x more into ETH’: Hall of Flame

He’s best known as the “pro-XRP lawyer,” but John Deaton was actually “10 times more into Bitcoin and four times more into Ethereum.”

From childhood dreams of becoming a rapper to serving in the United States Marines, to now being the pro-XRP lawyer on Crypto Twitter, John Deaton has had an eventful life.

While his dream of becoming a rapper didnt work out, John Deatons 260,000 Twitter following would make many up-and-coming rappers envious.

That was about 10 years before Eminem came out I didnt have that level of school, Deaton says of his music biz dreams.

He has become a legend among the XRP army over the past couple of years, fighting in their corner after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple, alleging it had issued unregistered securities.

Deaton has a strong belief that the innocent holders of XRP deserve a knight in shining armor standing up for them in the same way Ripple has a squad of lawyers fighting for the company. 

I was butting heads with the Ripple lawyers… with what they should be doing to protect individuals, but the Ripple lawyers are protecting Garlinghouse and other executives at Ripple.

Deaton put out a call on Twitter and gathered 76,000 signatures from XRP holders worldwide to let Deaton represent the XRP community in court.

They all joined on a form wanting to be heard in the lawsuit, essentially, saying, Yes, you can speak and advocate for me, he says. 

Seventy-six thousand people, 143 countries; from Afghanistan, Russia, Ukraine, Australia, Zimbabwe, and of the 76,000, 52% are from the United States.

What led to Twitter fame?

Deatons fame grew as he offered an informed legal take on what can often be opaque and confusing legal maneuvering in the court case. It certainly helps that hes usually pretty optimistic about Ripples chances of beating the charges. His follower count has shot up exponentially ever since he was granted permission by U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres to write a brief on behalf of XRP holders in March 2021, collecting anywhere between 3,000 to 20,000 each month since then.

Deatons feed about the case helped him break the 250,000-follower milestone on Twitter and its clear from the coverage that he generates hes followed by many crypto journalists, too.

What to expect on his Twitter

A lot of my content is about the war on crypto, Deaton says, while also sprinkling his spicy thoughts on government regulation and throwing shade at the SEC from time to time, too. 

But of course, Deaton is best known for his aggressive support for XRP, to the extent that many people think hes actually representing XRP. Funny thing is, hes more of a Bitcoin and Ethereum guy.

When I started off, a lot of people called me the XRP attorney. The reality is, XRP was a small investment for me; I was 10 times more into Bitcoin and four times more into Ethereum.

Strong beef: SEC

The SEC spat the dummy in a 2021 court filing regarding Deatons mock cross-examination of then-SEC Chairman Jay Clayton in a YouTube video.

Deaton sliced and diced Claytons various interviews about crypto regulations and Ripple, hilariously inserting clips of himself as the interviewer, grilling Clayton with a series of questions. 

The SEC cried to the judge and dobbed on Deaton for teasing Clayton online.

The filing claimed the video made many inflammatory statements, including about supposed drug use, and that Deaton might have to walk over and [profanity] out of Chairman Clayton. 

Avoiding beef: Brad Garlinghouse

Deaton remembered how Ripple boss Brad Garlinghouse tried to alpha-dog him at a crypto conference. Deaton says Garlinghouse has a unique quality, the kind of charisma that made everyone want to be around him and shake his hand. However, Deaton walked right past him and wasnt going to talk to him.

Garlinghouse enthusiastically yelled out, John, Im Brad Garlinghouse and they shook hands.

Garlinghouse cheekily followed up with no pictures and Deaton replied, Hell, Im not even going to talk to you.

Deaton says the last thing he would want floating around the internet is photos of him and Garlinghouse, as he is acting independently for the investors, and people already think that hes working on behalf of Ripple.

Minor beef: Vitalik Buterin

Deaton has taken on Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin over his public comments about XRP.

Buterin was decidedly unimpressed when Ripple tried to drag Ethereum into the securities case and called Bitcoin and Ether the two Chinese-controlled virtual currencies. He tweeted that XRP was a shitcoin and that it had lost their right to protection as a result. 

Deaton stood up for XRP holders in a long thread calling Buterins tweet a shameful and disgusting comment.

I dont care about Ripple, in the same way, I dont care about Vitalik [Buterin], I dont own Ethereum because I like Vitalik, I own it because I like Ethereum.

Deaton signed off the series of tweets directed at Buterin with a little bit of advice for the young man.

Twitter likes

I follow the big names, but I take it as a compliment that [Binance founder] CZ follows me, as well as [Kraken founder] Jesse Powell, Brad Garlinghouse, amongst other big names, Deaton notes.

On several occasions, Deaton has been seen quoting Powells thoughts on XRP.

Given his popularity on Crypto Twitter, Deaton has come to expect some encounters with wacky characters. 

I think Crypto Twitter, you have to get past the crazies, but there are certifiable people on there; it has been major for the whole XRP case.

The future?

Deaton tips that new legislation to clean up digital asset regulation in the U.S. is unlikely to happen soon.

I think the people out there saying that regulation will come from Congress, that isnt going to happen within the next two years, Deaton says. 

And while hes not a price person, he thinks Ripple winning the court case would give it a significant boost.

Do I think it goes to $100 after they win? No. Do I think it goes up significantly from $0.45? Yes. I would see it going to previous all-time highs.

But while he tips a strong future for the major cryptocurrencies, hes not sure about the 10,000 other digital currencies.

The crypto space is in for more pain. In a couple of years from now, there will be some survivors. Bitcoin will survive, Ethereum will survive, XRP will survive, Deaton says, adding that the thousands of tokens that are garbage will probably fail.

Zhu Su’s exchange did $13.64 in volume akshually, Huobi in crisis: Asia Express

Huobi Global’s token crash and ongoing layoffs, 3AC founders deny reports of $1.26 in day 1 volume on new exchange and claim $373 on day 2.

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industrys most important developments.

Blowing up a Singaporean crypto hedge fund worth an estimated $10 billion at its peak was, by all means, a life-changing event for its co-founders Kyle Davies and Zhu Su. It appears that the trauma from the incident had been so severe that the two executives embarked on a series of spiritual journeys starting mid-2022 to transcend the effects of Three Arrows Capitals (3AC) bankruptcy.

The voyage appears to have been fruitful. From escaping the pursuit of creditors, to making philosophical observations after witnessing the deaths of German tourists, to discovering the grace of Allah through Islam, to reigniting their passion for life through the culinary arts, to finding companionship in Japanese NFT avatars, Davies and Su may have finally found the answer to overcoming lifes hardships: If you dont get it right the first time, keep trying until you succeed.

After reportedly soliciting $25 million from investors in January, the former 3AC co-founders launched the OPNX exchange on April 5. The exchange is designed to trade bankruptcy claims of fallen crypto entities, such as their own bankrupt hedge fund. It is unclear how the highly personalized and private nature of bankruptcy claims can allow them to be traded on a public exchange without prior approval from bankruptcy trustees or courts.

Nevertheless, Davies and Su decided to press forward with the idea anyway. On the first day of trading, the total trading volume on OPNX in the previous 24 hours was reportedly $1.26. The report drew swift condemnations from OPNX, which clarified that the exchanges 24-hour trading volume was actually $13.64, or 982% more than stated.

OPNX clarifies to users that the exchanges trading volume had been grossly understated in the CoinDesk report (Twitter)

On the second day, Zhu Su claimed that the exchange facilitated $373 in trading volume after a media blitz brought much attention to the lackluster results. However, with great power comes great responsibility. Despite improving the exchanges trading volume by 2,634% in one day, OPNXs traction was partly derailed by Twitter suspending its official account due to terms of use violations.

Su has since created a Chinese Telegram channel for official OPNX communications. Meanwhile, the two were kindly reminded by critics once again that despite their continued entrepreneurship, creditors are still claiming an estimated $3.5 billion from their defunct hedge fund.

Huobis liquidation controversy

In a letter submitted to Chinese news aggregator Odaily.news, cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global appears to have presented its side of the story regarding a flash crash that affected its native Huobi Token (HT) on March 10.

On the date of the incident, HT plunged to as low as $0.31 apiece from a high of $4.85 before subsequently recovering most of its losses. It currently trades at $3.58 at the time of publication.

Huobi Tokens suffered a flash crash that liquidated many leveraged users on Mar. 10. (Huobi Global)
Huobi Tokens suffered a flash crash that liquidated many leveraged users on March 10. (Huobi Global)

According to Huobi, the incident was caused by industry-wide macro events relating to the recent failure of American tech banks. Under such downward pricing pressures, repeated selling by big investors, and lack of liquidity with the HT token, led to margin liquidations, and in turn caused many leveraged investors to suffer losses,” Huobi wrote.

The event led to big losses among users who pledged HT as collateral for loans or were simply holding the token with leverage. Amid the guidance of self-proclaimed adviser and de facto owner of Huobi, Tron founder Justin Sun, Huobi rolled out a compensation program for users affected by the HT flash crash, claiming that more than 98% of affected users have negotiated a satisfactory solution with the platform and received compensation.”

However, one user, Lantian666, says he lost nearly $4 million during the incident and that his losses are yet to be fully compensated by Huobi. In the Odaily letter, Huobi acknowledged that one user lost an estimated $2.9 million after the flash crash caused liquidations. Lantian666 posted a series of screenshots and claims that Huobis customer service had only agreed to waive a portion of liquidation fees, which are nowhere close to his loss on trading positions.

Sun has stated that Huobi will bear all leverage-through position losses on the platform resulted from this market volatility event of HT.” Huobi has stated that it seeks to reach a consensus as soon as possible with the remaining users who still have doubts about the current solution and negotiate a more satisfactory solution.” However, the exchange also wrote it did not want such compensation to encourage users to engage in high-risk leveraged transactions.”

Justin Suns troubled acquisition

According to purportedly leaked employee screenshots on April 4, Huobi Global plans to cut its staff count by a further 200, and the exchange is apparently not yet profitable. Last November, Sun reportedly acquired 100% of a co-founders stake in the exchange through his entity About Capital.

There have been issues ever since but the exchange had issues before as well. Early this year, Huobi reportedly slashed its employee benefits and laid off as much as 20% of its staff. The exchanges market share had fallen from an estimated 5.4% in the first quarter of 2022 to 2.2% in the final quarter. On April 5, Sundeniedthat he was in talks to sell his Huobi stake to Binance.

Huobi was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, holding 19% market share in 2020 before Chinas crypto exchange ban took effect, and it had to say goodbye to much of its user base. Sun apparently has a plan to get around the ban as part of its turnaround. The proposed scheme involves leveraging Huobis digital identity partnership with the Caribbean island of Dominica. Mainland Chinese users can register for Dominicas digital citizenship, then reportedly use their new citizenship documents to create a Huobi account.

Sun is currently facing a lawsuit from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations of market manipulation related to the Tron and BitTorrent tokens. Recent reports also indicate that Sun was stripped of his status as Grenadas ambassador to the World Trade Organization last June, depriving him of the fancy title his excellency and access to a diplomatic passport that grants him theoretical immunity against prosecution.

Microsofts new blockchain partnerships

According to a recent announcement, Singaporean gaming studio Metagame Industries has joined the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub through the ID@Azure Program. The partnership with Microsoft will explore the use of AI and cloud computing in Web3 game development.

Metagame Industries will receive Azure credits, OpenAI Services, technical support and business development resources as part of the agreement. We’re excited to work with Microsofts tools and technology to create innovative and immersive gaming experiences,” said Joe Zu, CEO of Metagame Industries.

Abyss World gameplay (Metagame Industries)
Abyss World gameplay (Metagame Industries)

The firm is the developer behind Abyss World, a third-person, dark fantasy action role-playing game scheduled to launch on Mysten Labs Sui blockchain in Q4 2023. Abyss World will feature an in-game NFT factory that enables the minting of digitized weapons and heroes via monster drops.

Token rewards will also be available to players who complete special tasks in the PvE section, climb the game leaderboard, and win PVP arena seasons. Developers also plan to implement an Abyss World decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to regulate game tasks such as new systems and the introduction of new character sets.

Asia Express previously reported that Microsoft has partnered with decentralized blockchain infrastructure provider Ankr on Microsoft Azure. Rashmi Misra, Microsofts general manager of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, commented that its partnership with Ankr will allow projects to access blockchain data in a reliable, scalable, and secure way.” The tech conglomerate is also reportedly testing a Web3 wallet integration for its native internet browser, Microsoft Edge.

The Sarah Show’s analog childhood meets dizzying digital future: NFT Creator, Sarah Zucker

Sarah Zucker remembers the analogue world of her youth, and creates NFT art that explores the insane tech revolution we’re all going through.

As a Millennial who remembers the world before digital devices and the internet were everywhere, Sarah Zucker aka The Sarah Show is fascinated by the accelerated transition society at large is going through.

I feel as a Millennial that Im part of this generational cohort thats in this very unusual experience of having had an analog childhood and now living a digital future, says Zucker. 

Im specifically using tools of the recent past like analog TVs to take people out of our present moment and create this different experience of time and sense. I would say my work really is about time more than anything. 

The Los Angeles artist is considered an OG of the NFT art scene, having started way back in 2019 (her first mint was on April 4 that year) compared to most artists who arrived on the scene in the last 1224 months.

Dream Loaf from Grails Season 1 by Sarah Zucker
Dream Loaf from Grails Season 1 by Sarah Zucker. (PROOF)

Her art seems to resemble something youve seen before, all while feeling like something completely new, telling stories with a dose of humor while tapping into cutting-edge and obsolete technologies. 

Having been featured at Sothebys and more recently at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Zuckers love for art started with film photography.

Ive always expressed myself visually. As a teenager, I got very into photography and specifically working with film photography. Were talking about the early 2000s when everything was going digital, she says.

Vintage technology has always been of interest to me. Its not necessarily about nostalgia, its more that I find the physicality of vintage technology really interesting.

She was an early convert to uploading pics on Tumblr and Instagram and spent about a decade pursuing photography before her masters in screenwriting saw her embrace narrative filmmaking on video.

Influences:

The Sarah Show takes inspiration from German expressionist art, which emerged in a similarly tumultuous period to today around the end of the First World War. 

There had just been this World War that made everyone feel like the world was suddenly getting a little more global than felt comfortable. There was a pandemic. There were all these things in society, and yet the artists of that time were so expansive, emotive and free, she says. 

They were breaking forms and creating things in a way that said, We dont care how were supposed to do this; were going to do this the way that this expression needs to come out of us. I cant get enough, says Zucker. 

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Personal style: 

Ive always been something of an outlier in my artwork. I would say its not easily defined. You could call it glitch art, you could call it video art, you could call it GIF art, or, more recently, NFT art as it gets called now. I dont think those terms are incorrect, but they miss the big picture. 

I describe it more like a multiverse that Im channeling through. Im channeling through myself and through these vintage broadcast devices into a body of work that gets referred to as The Sarah Show.

Cassandras Vision from The Cassandra Complex by Sarah Zucker
Cassandras Vision from The Cassandra Complex collection by Sarah Zucker. (OpenSea)

With technological advancements like AI happening at a breakneck pace, Zucker says shes trying to address the big universal existential questions about the fact were on the brink of a completely new way of living as human beings.

I view my work as a way of depicting what its like to be this sort of silly, scared, happy, manic, dreadful little creature strapped to this rocket ship going into the future and trying to make sense of what this life has been and what its going to continue to be.

Notable sales to date:

Space Loaf sold for $44,062 at Bonhams, June 2130, 2021

Self Transcending - sold for $22,680 at Sothebys on 11 June, 2021
Self Transcending – sold for $22,680 at Sothebys on 11 June, 2021. (Sothebys) 
Everythings Different Now - sold for 15 ETH ($22,600 equivalent on date of sale) on 28 October, 2022
Everythings Different Now – sold for 15 ETH ($22,600 equivalent on date of sale) on 28 October, 2022. (SuperRare)
Rhapsody in Hugh - sold for 14 ETH ($17,300 equivalent on date of sale) on 27 June, 2022
Rhapsody in Hugh – sold for 14 ETH ($17,300 equivalent on date of sale) on 27 June, 2022. (SuperRare)

Up-and-coming NFT artists to watch

Zucker is a big fan of performance art and has two specific artists to put on your radar. 

Edgar Fabian Frias 2022 MFA Art Practice at UC Berkeley. 

Edgar works regularly in the contemporary art world and is a bit of a shapeshifter, bringing such a unique perspective from their background. Theres a high weirdness approach to art-making that I certainly connect with. Admittedly, I turned them on to NFTs in mid-2020. 

David Henry Nobody Jnr New York performance artist, reality hacker, NFT artist. 

David is someone who Ive followed for years and years. Ive always found his work to be just irresistible. He has a huge following on Instagram; he has a lot of visibility there. 

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Process: 

Zucker creates her distinctive style using a mix of old analog devices and new digital tools, such as Adobe After Effects. 

I start with sketching or writing things out, essentially conceptualizing things. From there, I generally begin in some sort of digital way, either animating in After Effects or Photoshop. I often shoot live video in my studio.

I also have this analog video rig Ive built out in my studio thats made of vintage broadcast devices. I have custom glitch hardware, with different devices and capabilities that allow me to apply all sorts of different analog effects. In addition, I have a number of different TVs and cameras for creating feedback loops for creating texture.

With some of my work, youre often seeing screens within screens because that experience of the screen is a big part of what Im aiming to convey through my work.

Making work in an analog system can often mean making multiple versions because there is no easy way to save the work. 

Theres no saving in the analog system. It all has to be done with immediacy. An example would be laying it all down on VHS tape, and then I bring it back out to digital and have basically two ways to convert it to the digital realm. 

One is to film it in 4K, essentially like filming it in high definition digital video off of the vintage screen because often thats the look I want, the screen within the image itself. The other option is to use a transfer system that basically digitizes the analog signal. It brings it back into digital signal where I can record it digitally, says Zucker. 

NFT Creator Sarah Zucker
NFT Creator Sarah Zucker

Artnomes influence as a collector: 

Zucker has been collected by a lot of people over her four years in NFT land but singles out Jason Bailey aka Artnome as someone thats played a pivotal part in her journey. 

I have a great relationship with a lot of my collectors. I think collectors and artists do this great dance of symbiosis, she says.

I think Artnome had been checking out my work and recognized that I had a number of pieces just sitting there on the market, and he swept them all. More importantly, its not just that he bought my work its that he wrote a very thoughtful thread on Twitter about my work.

In the thread, he drew attention to my work and video art in general. He really did this service to me by contextualizing my work for people. Plus, Jason is an arts writer; hes very knowledgeable and told everyone about what my work was. 

This was January, in 2020, when he showed my work off, and from that day on, it has snowballed into an increasing amount of visibility and appreciation. I can always point to that one moment of that one person bringing a little bit of spotlight to me and it has continued to echo out through my life over the past three years, says Zucker.

Lynkfire: linktr.ee/thesarahshow 

Twitter: twitter.com/thesarahshow 

Instagram: instagram.com/thesarahshow/ 

NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future

Sarah Zucker remembers the analogue world of her youth, and creates NFT art that explores the insane tech revolution we’re all going through.

As a Millennial who remembers the world before digital devices and the internet were everywhere, Sarah Zucker aka The Sarah Show is fascinated by the accelerated transition society at large is going through.

I feel as a Millennial that Im part of this generational cohort thats in this very unusual experience of having had an analog childhood and now living a digital future, says Zucker. 

Im specifically using tools of the recent past like analog TVs to take people out of our present moment and create this different experience of time and sense. I would say my work really is about time more than anything. 

The Los Angeles artist is considered an OG of the NFT art scene, having started way back in 2019 (her first mint was on April 4 that year) compared to most artists who arrived on the scene in the last 1224 months.

Dream Loaf from Grails Season 1 by Sarah Zucker
Dream Loaf from Grails Season 1 by Sarah Zucker. (PROOF)

Her art seems to resemble something youve seen before, all while feeling like something completely new, telling stories with a dose of humor while tapping into cutting-edge and obsolete technologies. 

Having been featured at Sothebys and more recently at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Zuckers love for art started with film photography.

Ive always expressed myself visually. As a teenager, I got very into photography and specifically working with film photography. Were talking about the early 2000s when everything was going digital, she says.

Vintage technology has always been of interest to me. Its not necessarily about nostalgia, its more that I find the physicality of vintage technology really interesting.

She was an early convert to uploading pics on Tumblr and Instagram and spent about a decade pursuing photography before her masters in screenwriting saw her embrace narrative filmmaking on video.

Influences:

The Sarah Show takes inspiration from German expressionist art, which emerged in a similarly tumultuous period to today around the end of the First World War. 

There had just been this World War that made everyone feel like the world was suddenly getting a little more global than felt comfortable. There was a pandemic. There were all these things in society, and yet the artists of that time were so expansive, emotive and free, she says. 

They were breaking forms and creating things in a way that said, We dont care how were supposed to do this; were going to do this the way that this expression needs to come out of us. I cant get enough, says Zucker. 

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Personal style: 

Ive always been something of an outlier in my artwork. I would say its not easily defined. You could call it glitch art, you could call it video art, you could call it GIF art, or, more recently, NFT art as it gets called now. I dont think those terms are incorrect, but they miss the big picture. 

I describe it more like a multiverse that Im channeling through. Im channeling through myself and through these vintage broadcast devices into a body of work that gets referred to as The Sarah Show.

Cassandras Vision from The Cassandra Complex by Sarah Zucker
Cassandras Vision from The Cassandra Complex collection by Sarah Zucker. (OpenSea)

With technological advancements like AI happening at a breakneck pace, Zucker says shes trying to address the big universal existential questions about the fact were on the brink of a completely new way of living as human beings.

I view my work as a way of depicting what its like to be this sort of silly, scared, happy, manic, dreadful little creature strapped to this rocket ship going into the future and trying to make sense of what this life has been and what its going to continue to be.

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Notable sales to date:

Space Loaf sold for $44,062 at Bonhams, June 2130, 2021

Self Transcending - sold for $22,680 at Sothebys on 11 June, 2021
Self Transcending – sold for $22,680 at Sothebys on 11 June, 2021. (Sothebys) 
Everythings Different Now - sold for 15 ETH ($22,600 equivalent on date of sale) on 28 October, 2022
Everythings Different Now – sold for 15 ETH ($22,600 equivalent on date of sale) on 28 October, 2022. (SuperRare)
Rhapsody in Hugh - sold for 14 ETH ($17,300 equivalent on date of sale) on 27 June, 2022
Rhapsody in Hugh – sold for 14 ETH ($17,300 equivalent on date of sale) on 27 June, 2022. (SuperRare)

Up-and-coming NFT artists to watch

Zucker is a big fan of performance art and has two specific artists to put on your radar. 

Edgar Fabian Frias 2022 MFA Art Practice at UC Berkeley. 

Edgar works regularly in the contemporary art world and is a bit of a shapeshifter, bringing such a unique perspective from their background. Theres a high weirdness approach to art-making that I certainly connect with. Admittedly, I turned them on to NFTs in mid-2020. 

David Henry Nobody Jnr New York performance artist, reality hacker, NFT artist. 

David is someone who Ive followed for years and years. Ive always found his work to be just irresistible. He has a huge following on Instagram; he has a lot of visibility there. 

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Process: 

Zucker creates her distinctive style using a mix of old analog devices and new digital tools, such as Adobe After Effects. 

I start with sketching or writing things out, essentially conceptualizing things. From there, I generally begin in some sort of digital way, either animating in After Effects or Photoshop. I often shoot live video in my studio.

I also have this analog video rig Ive built out in my studio thats made of vintage broadcast devices. I have custom glitch hardware, with different devices and capabilities that allow me to apply all sorts of different analog effects. In addition, I have a number of different TVs and cameras for creating feedback loops for creating texture.

With some of my work, youre often seeing screens within screens because that experience of the screen is a big part of what Im aiming to convey through my work.

Making work in an analog system can often mean making multiple versions because there is no easy way to save the work. 

Theres no saving in the analog system. It all has to be done with immediacy. An example would be laying it all down on VHS tape, and then I bring it back out to digital and have basically two ways to convert it to the digital realm. 

One is to film it in 4K, essentially like filming it in high definition digital video off of the vintage screen because often thats the look I want, the screen within the image itself. The other option is to use a transfer system that basically digitizes the analog signal. It brings it back into digital signal where I can record it digitally, says Zucker. 

NFT Creator Sarah Zucker
NFT Creator Sarah Zucker

Artnomes influence as a collector: 

Zucker has been collected by a lot of people over her four years in NFT land but singles out Jason Bailey aka Artnome as someone thats played a pivotal part in her journey. 

I have a great relationship with a lot of my collectors. I think collectors and artists do this great dance of symbiosis, she says.

I think Artnome had been checking out my work and recognized that I had a number of pieces just sitting there on the market, and he swept them all. More importantly, its not just that he bought my work its that he wrote a very thoughtful thread on Twitter about my work.

In the thread, he drew attention to my work and video art in general. He really did this service to me by contextualizing my work for people. Plus, Jason is an arts writer; hes very knowledgeable and told everyone about what my work was. 

This was January, in 2020, when he showed my work off, and from that day on, it has snowballed into an increasing amount of visibility and appreciation. I can always point to that one moment of that one person bringing a little bit of spotlight to me and it has continued to echo out through my life over the past three years, says Zucker.

Lynkfire: linktr.ee/thesarahshow 

Twitter: twitter.com/thesarahshow 

Instagram: instagram.com/thesarahshow/