MAYC

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.

Mutant Ape Planet creator arrested in NY for alleged $2.9M NFT ‘fraud’

The developer of a Mutant Ape Yacht Club knock-off collection has allegedly defrauded investors of $2.9 million and admitted to a rug pull.

The developer of a Mutant Ape Yacht Club knock-off collection — Mutant Ape Planet — has been arrested in New York and charged with defrauding investors of $2.9 million in a “rug pull scheme.”

The arrest took place on Jan. 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, with homeland security agent Ivan J. Arvelo alleging that French national “Aurelien Michel perpetrated a rug pull scheme” and stole “nearly $3 million from investors for his own personal use.” He added:

“Purchasers of Mutant Ape Planet NFTs thought they were investing in a trendy new collectible, but they were deceived and received none of the promised benefits.”

Internal Revenue Service agent Thomas Fattorusso was quoted in a press release from the Department of Justice as saying that “Michel defrauded investors by making false representations of, amongst other things, giveaways, tokens with staking features, and merchandise collections.” But Michel withdrew the funds once the nonfungible tokens (NFTs) were sold out, the release says.

According to the statement, Michel admitted to the community via a social media chat that he had perpetrated a rug pull, saying “we never intended to rug but the community went way too toxic.”

The collection — a knock-off of the popular Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT collection — consists of 6,797 NFTs stored on the Ethereum blockchain. The collection has had a total of 567 Ether (ETH) in sales but has seen its average price and sales volume crater since it launched in January 2022.

Sales of the Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection. Source: Opensea

Following the arrest, holders of the collection have been sharing their side of the story via Twitter, noting that James had attempted to blame his departure on the community who were becoming skeptical due to the lack of activity.

The project has since been taken over by the community who is attempting to breathe some life back into it, spearheaded by a user with the pseudonym HTMadge.

A screenshot of discussions between community members. Source: Discord.

According to a Dec. 21 DappRadar report, rug pulls — a type of exit scam where the creators of a project suddenly abandon or withdraw liquidity from the platform — were the most common type of attack last year, accounting for 119 incidents and $200 million in stolen funds.

Related: Magic Eden to refund users after fake NFTs sold due to exploit

Popular influencer and former adult film star Lana Rhoades was accused of being behind one of the bigger rug pulls of 2022, after reportedly walking away with $1.5 million from the minting of an NFT project that has seen less than 1 ETH worth of secondary market sales since its launch last February.

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.

Nifty: M&M’s jump into BAYC mania, a Pudgy Penguin sells for 400 ETH and more

Owners of luxury watches can now verify ownership as NFTs and then take DeFi loans out against them, while Miley Cryus may soon enter the Metaverse and NFTs with new patents.

Global confectionery giant Mars has teamed up with virtual metaverse band KINGSHIP to create limited edition boxes of M&M’s featuring content from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).

KINGSHIP is a group made up of three BAYC NFT hodlers and one Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) owner. As part of the deal, the avatars depicted in the nonfungible token (NFT) art will be printed on the chocolate candies in a select number of boxes.

There has been a total of 4,000 boxes created in total, split between two tiers of rarity. The regular tier comes in 3,900 brown celebratory gift boxes, while the 100 gold edition boxes are wrapped in gold and white foil, number 1 to 100 and have the Kingship member’s apes printed on the M&M’s.

KINGSHIP M&M’S: Mars

Additionally, 6,000 candy gift jars have been put up for sale from today via the M&M’s website. Hodlers of the KINGSHIP Key Card NFTs were given early access to this promotion, suggesting the gold edition boxes may already be gone.

“We’re excited to continue our Mars foray into the metaverse through this partnership with 10:22PM and KINGSHIP, as a way to engage our fans in a new and exciting space,” said Jane Hwang, global vice president at Mars Wrigley.

The deal marks another interesting utilization of the IP behind Yuga Labs’ NFT projects, with other BAYC hodlers using the content for TV shows and restaurants in the past.

400 ETH Pudgy Penguin

Despite the NFT sector going through a lengthy bear market, one Pudgy Penguin NFT has recently sold for a whopping 400 Ether (ETH) on Monday, worth roughly $670,000 at current prices.

There are 8888 Pudgy Penguin NFTs in circulation and the project is one of the most popular NFT collections on the market.

The NFT sold was Pudgy Penguin #6873, one of the rarest in the collection as nearly all of the penguin avatar’s traits are shared by just 0.01% of the other NFTs in the project.

According to the transaction history on OpenSea, the seller CoinUnited previously bought the NFT for 225 ETH on Sept. 8 last year, worth roughly $788,000 at the time. As such, they banked a major ETH profit, though it would be counted as a $118,000 fiat loss.

Over the past 30 days, Pudgy Penguin NFTs have generated $7.5 million worth of sales, marking a 314% increase within that time frame, according to data from CryptoSlam.

NFT Rolex meets DeFi loan

The 4K Protocol, a Web3 project that bridges real-world assets to NFTs, has partnered with decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform Arcade to launch decentralized finance loans against physically backed luxury watch NFTs.

The 4K protocol enables users to mint NFTs tied to their assets and guarantees a 1-to-1 ownership via storage providers and asset authenticators.

Related: NFTs are a ‘natural place’ for digital artists — Gal Yosef

As part of the partnership, an NFT minted on 4K linked to a top-of-the-line Rolex Cosmograph Daytona was used to secure a loan from Arcade, marking an interesting, albeit risky, use case for tokenizing real-world assets.

Party in the virtual USA

Former Disney star and widely popular musician Miley Cryus is gearing up for Web3 after filing two metaverse and NFT trademarks relating to the words “Miley” and “Miley Cryus” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

According to a Monday tweet from trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis, Cyrus is planning to launch digital goods such as virtual clothing, footwear, sports gear and also entertainment services.

Other Nifty News:

Cryptocurrency risk management firm Elliptic has released a report suggesting that scammers have stolen more than $100 million worth of NFTs since in 2021.

Decentralized exchange Uniswap is reportedly in talks with multiple NFT lending protocols to build NFT financialization, according to a social media post from Uniswap’s head of NFT product Scott Lewis.

GameStop NFT daily fee revenue plunges under $4K as gloom infects markets

GameStop NFT has generated roughly $166,800 worth of sales volume over the past 24 hours, with the platform charging only a 2.25% fee on NFT sales, the figure equates to just $3,753 worth of revenue.

Daily revenue for GameStop’s nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace has plummeted to under $4,000, suggesting that interest in the platform has waned significantly since launching in mid-July.

According to data from DappRadar, GameStop NFT has generated roughly $166,800 worth of sales volume over the past 24 hours. With the platform charging only a 2.25% fee on NFT sales, the figure equates to just $3,753 worth of revenue during that time.

DappRadar’s limited data on GameStop appears to confirm figures actually plunged down to around $2000 as trading volume has pumped 91.23% over the past day.

The latest figures mark a significant decrease from the project’s first full day of business on July 13, with an NFT sales volume of $1.98 million, equating to about $44,500 worth of fees.

At the time of writing, the HyperViciouZ project on GameStop has generated the largest 24-hour sales volume of 29.78 Ether (ETH) worth roughly $47,841. In comparison, OpenSea’s top-selling project during that time frame is Pudgy Penguins with 860.8 ETH, or $1.37 million.

Broader doom and gloom

GameStop isn’t the only part of the NFT world struggling at present. According to data from NFT Price Floor, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) floor price has dropped a hefty 19% since the start of August to sit at 68.48 ETH, or $109,900 as of Monday while the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) floor has plunged 28.6% to 11.2 ETH, or $17,986.

Since the BAYC and MAYC’s respective all-time floor price highs of 153.5 ETH and 41.2 ETH in May and April, the floors have dropped 55% and 72% each.

NFT analysts warned that $55 million worth of blue chip NFTs were at risk of liquidation on BendDAO last week.

The BendDAO platform enables users to deposit their NFTs and take ETH loans out against the floor price of their assets. The loans total around 30-40% of the deposited NFT floor price. However, if the price drops so low that the loan equates to 90% of the floor price, the depositor has 48 hours to pay the loan down to avoid their NFT being liquidated and sold off via auction.

The platform represents this threshold as a health indicator in which a score below one triggers the NFT liquidation proceedings. As of last week, there were at least 20 loans against BAYC NFTs that had a health indicator fall perilously close, below 1.01, and a lot more for Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs as well.

At the time of writing, two BAYC NFTs have been liquidated this week and put up for auction, while 10 are playing with fire with health indicators ranging from 1.01 to 1.06. However that’s half the number from last week, suggesting the situation has improved.

In terms of loans against MAYC NFTs, there are currently 14 in severe danger of liquidation, with health indicators ranging from 1.01 to 1.03. There are also 13 that have recently been liquidated and are up for auction on BendDAO.

Related: Web3 games incorporate features to drive female participation

So far this month, the floor price for other top NFT projects such as CryptoPunks has tanked a fair amount as well. Despite surging from 68.3 ETH on Aug. 1 to 77.4 ETH on Aug. 4, the CryptoPunk floor has since retraced back down to 66.45 ETH, or $106,518.