nonfungible token

NFT aggregator Blur eyes 30% price pump by March amid airdrop euphoria

BLUR price is also forming a Doji candlestick pattern on its four-hour chart, hinting at a bullish reversal ahead.

Blur’s BLUR token could rise by up to 30% by March 2023 owing to a mix of technical and fundamental factors.

Blur airdrop hype

Blur is a nonfungible token (NFT) aggregator that indexes digital art listings across various base marketplaces like LooksRare and OpenSea. In doing so, the aggregator allows users to trade across all NFTs marketplaces via a single interface.

Since its launch in October 2022, Blur has become the leading NFT aggregator, accounting for 40% to 60% of the daily NFT trading volume, according to data tracked by Messari.

Blur versus other NFT marketplaces’ volumes. Source: Messari

The period has also witnessed the Blur team airdropping free BLUR tokens to users who have traded Ethereum-based NFTs in the past six months. On Feb. 15, Blur officially launched its native token of the same name, allowing airdrop recipients to trade it for fiat money and other crypto assets.

According to Dune Analytics, Blue has airdropped 360 million tokens to its users. Interestingly, users have claimed nearly 339 million BLUR in the first six days of the launch against the 60-day deadline.

Typically, traders dump airdropped tokens early to secure an instant profit. Nonetheless, BLUR’s price remains approximately 25% higher than its market debut price of $0.88, suggesting that most traders have decided to hold it longer.

One reason could be the Blue team’s intention to conduct another airdrop in the coming months. The news coincides with Blur’s total-value-locked (TVL) metric reaching a record high of 76,490 Ether (ETH), according to DefiLlama.

Blur TVL performance. Source: DefiLlama

“Blur airdrop reminds me of the Uniswap airdrop,” noted independent market analyst Nekoz, adding:

“Early sellers sold for a ps5. Diamond hand sellers sold it for 5 figures. Imo if you don’t need the funds, just chill with it. It will be the number 1 NFT platform.”

BLUR price Doji reversal

BLUR price technicals are also hinting at a bullish scenario being more likely.

On the four-hour chart, BLUR has painted a Doji pattern at the end of its short-term correction phase. That is confirmed by the four-hour candlestick with almost the same open and close levels and extreme bearish and bullish wicks.

The Doji shows indecisiveness among traders about the next market bias. But coupled with BLUR’s other technical indicators — namely, its short-term support level of around $1 and a neutral relative strength index — it appears the Doji may result in a bullish reversal in the coming weeks. 

BLUR/USD four-hour price chart. Source: TradingView

In other words, BLUR’s price may bounce from its $1 support level to eye an interim rally toward $1.21, which has served as resistance and support in recent sessions. Moreover, an extended run-up could push the price to $1.39, or BLUR’s recent peak, by March 2023.

Bearish arguments  

Despite solid fundamentals, BLUR’s price could see an extended correction below its $1 support level, per the technical setup shared by analyst Altcoin Sherpa.

The chartist maintains his short-term bullish bias for BLUR but anticipates its price to fall toward $0.94 first, saying that it “should provide a solid bounce.”

BLUR/USD hourly price chart. Source: TradingView, Altcoin Sherpa

He also argues that BLUR’s market bias will take cues from how Bitcoin (BTC) performs in the coming sessions.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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

The logo for a popular Yuga Labs NFT collection is being changed after it was seemingly ripped off from a follow-along children’s drawing creator.

New logo slated for Yuga’s dog-themed NFT collection

The logo for the Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) from nonfungible token (NFT) conglomerate Yuga Labs is getting a refresh after recently surfaced allegations of intellectual property theft.

Yuga co-founder, Greg Solano, more widely known as “Garga” tweeted on Feb. 18 that the BAKC logo would be changing and the project would “debut the new logo soon.”

Yuga has been in the doghouse over its trademarked logo as it looks remarkably similar to the finished product of a follow-along drawing guide made for children by a company called Easy Drawing Guides.

Easy Drawing Guides released a wolf skull drawing guide on April 5, 2021, a little over two months prior to BAKC’s June 17, 2021 launch. The firm has asserted its intellectual property rights over the drawing.

Solano said the whole debacle “was news to us,” adding Yuga was “still investigating the situation” and had contacted Easy Drawing Guides and the freelance artist contracted for the design.

Blurred lines: NFT marketplace wars surge sales

NFT sales over the past seven days have skyrocketed amid a battle for domination between OpenSea and its rival Blur — with the two sparring over fees and creator royalties.

According to data from NFT aggregator CryptoSlam, NFT sales volume has increased over 101% in the past week compared to the week prior and has hit over $524 million transacted in the last seven days at the time of writing.

Seven-day data shows fewer NFTs are selling for higher prices as NFT transactions have slightly declined while sales volume and buyers have increased. Source: CryptoSlam!

One of the key factors in the rise was Blur’s token airdrop on Feb. 14 giving users the incentive to farm the drop by using the platform.

Blur has remained the dominant marketplace in terms of trading volume since the start of the year and has dominated OpenSea in that regard.

Analytics from DappRadar show the trend continuing over the past week — with Blur seeing nearly $400 million in volume compared to OpenSea’s $105 million.

OpenSea has recently spun up a comeback campaign and has slashed its platform fee to zero, enacted optional creator royalties and more lenient blocks on other marketplaces.

‘Fat-finger’ blunder costs NFT trader thousands of dollars

The pseudonymous NFT collector known as “Franklin” has made a “fat-finger” mistake bidding on a collection, which saw him accidentally bidding more than 21 times the floor price of an NFT.

On Feb. 19, Franklin owned up to the bungled purchase, which saw him buy an NFT from the Azuki project’s BEANZ collection for 35 ETH — or around $60,000 at the time — despite the floor price being around 1.7 ETH, or $2,800.

He said he “placed a fat-finger collection offer” on the BEANZ collection but was actually meant to input a “much lower bid with a quantity of 35.”

“I instead bid 35 ETH for 1 purchase […] It got accepted before I could cancel. Oops. I’ll be okay.” Franklin tweeted.

It however appears that Franklin was the owner of Bean #10626 for only a short time as just two hours after the blundered purchase it was sold for just 1.77 WETH — an equivalent loss of nearly $56,000.

Free mint Starbucks NFTs now fetching high prices

An initially free NFT collection launched by the global cafe chain Starbucks is now seeing NFTs inexplicitly list for thousands of dollars just two months after the initial mint.

The Starbucks Odyssey Polygon NFT collection is a rewards program launched in December 2022, still in closed beta. Only four “drops” have been released amassing a total volume of $148,000, the first of which is a 5,000-strong “stamp” titled Holiday Cheer Edition 1 Stamp.

The owners of the collection initially received the NFTs for free and, despite the low trading volume, now ask for around $2,000 for one token on Nifty Gateway.

The first NFT drop from Starbucks is currently asking a minimum price of $2,000. Source: Nifty Gateway

The collection on its own makes up $117,000, or around 80% of the total collections sales volume.

Related: What are the applications of NFTs in supply chains?

Being the first drop, the NFT could be seen as more special to certain collectors. Starbucks has also said rewards on its NFTs will range from NFT holder-only merch, invites to exclusive events and maybe a trip to a Costa Rican coffee farm.

Meanwhile, the other drops are seeing much lower floor prices, with another 5,000-strong drop going as low as $100, while a 30,000-strong drop is nearly half that at just $59.

Other Nifty News

KnownOrigin, the NFT marketplace from eBay, is launching no-code required creator smart contracts so artists can split earnings and earn royalties as co-creators on collections. A beta release has been tested for the last few weeks with 84 contracts deployed and 250 editions of NFTs minted.

The Web3-friendly Neal Mohan was appointed as the new chief of YouTube, his previous tentative plans for the platform included the potential for creators to tokenize videos, photos, art and experiences to bring them additional revenue streams.

Bitcoin Ordinals creator looks for fix after first instance of shock porn

A rather unsavory image made it to the front page of the Ordinals website for 30 minutes before it was hidden, however, the image itself is immutable.

Only days after the launch of the Bitcoin (BTC)-based Ordinals protocol, its creator had to deal with their first shock pornographic image, which has been inscribed into the blockchain.

On Feb. 2 at around 12:15 am UTC, an unsavory image known as “goatse” was inscribed onto the Bitcoin blockchain via the Ordinals protocol.

It featured on inscription 668 and was live on the Ordinals’ front page for roughly half an hour before the image was removed. It still exists on the blockchain but is not able to be viewed using the Ordinals website.

Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor told Cointelegraph he acted quickly to remove the image from the Ordinals website but admitted there isn’t much that can be done to stop future instances given the nature of the protocol.

He is at least working on a solution to stop the images appearing on the Ordinals website.

The image, known as “goatse,” depicts a man manipulating his anus. Due to its shock value, it’s often used to trick internet users.

Rodamor said for the moment, that there was no way to hide certain inscriptions on the Ordinals’ website without manual input.

“The explorer has a config file that can be used to hide certain inscriptions, so we decided that was not very pleasant to look at,” he said. “We added it to that config file and now the server does not return that inscription and will not return that content.”

Ordinals has a simplistic website with every new inscription appearing on its home page.

While Rodarmor plans to have a “very liberal content policy” where people will “certainly” be able to inscribe pornographic images, he would like to censor them until he finds a way to automatically keep them off the first page, such as creating a separate space for them on the website.

Recent inscriptions on the Ordinals site show users are inscribing images of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon internet meme. Sou: Ordinals

Critics of blockchain technology have concerns that its immutable nature could be used to forever host illegal or grotesque media, while others argue its censorship resistance should be viewed as a key feature.

Asked if he was concerned about the criticism Ordinals may receive for censoring certain images, Rodarmor responded:

“The inscription is still on the chain and if you run your own copy of Ordinal — which everybody is free to do — it will not have that config file and you will see the gaping butthole if that is what you so desire.”

He added his site is just one instance of the block explorer and hopes others create more where they can “implement their own moderation policies according to their tastes.”

Related: ‘WTH did I just witness?’ Magic Eden turns porno after hosting service hacked

Rodarmor said it’s only the second time he’s censored a pornographic image. He believes the technical difficulty and cost of inscribing an image onto the BTC network have reduced the instances of such trolling attempts.

Ordinals launched on Jan. 21 and immediately divided the crypto community with arguments on whether it was good for the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The protocol works by inscribing satoshis — the native currency of the Bitcoin network — with content such as images to make NFT-like structures that can be transferred.

The cost of inscribing a satoshi can cost tens of dollars in comparison to a regular network transaction that ranges from a few cents to a few dollars.

Nifty News: Fake Pokémon NFT game spreads malware, ‘Jai Ho’ singer to launch metaverse and more

Software used to access computers remotely has been inserted in a phishing website fronting as an NFT card game for the popular Pokémon franchise.

Hackers hide malware in fake NFT game

A phishing website purporting to offer a Pokémon-branded nonfungible token (NFT) card game has been spreading malware to unsuspecting gamers, a cybersecurity firm has warned.

The website, which at the time of writing was still online, also claims to offer an NFT marketplace, with a link to buy tokens, and even an area to stake NFTs — all based on the popular Japanese media franchise.

However, an arm of the South Korean cybersecurity firm AhnLab warned the public about the website on Jan. 6, noting that instead of downloading agame, users were actually downloading a remote access tool that allows hackers to take control of their device.

A screenshot of the phishing website. The “Play on PC” link at the bottom of the image downloads the malware.

The tool, known as NetSupport Manager, would allow the attackers to remotely control the computer’s mouse and keyboard, access the system’s file management and history and even execute commands allowing them to install additional malware, the firm warned.

The public has been advised to only purchase or download applications from official websites and not open attachments in suspicious emails.

The composer behind ‘Jai Ho’ to spin up metaverse

Allah Rakha Rahman, the Indian composer and singer known for the Grammy Award-winning song “Jai Ho,” is launching his own metaverse platform for artists and their music.

Rahman tweeted on Jan. 6 that his “Katraar” metaverse “is one step closer to launching.” He attached a video of him explaining the upcoming platform, which will use “decentralized technology,” according to its website.

In the video, Rahman said his vision for the platform was to “bring in new talents, technologies, and […] direct revenue for artists,” with one revenue stream seemingly the integration of NFTs.

“Right now we are working with the HBAR Foundation to do many cool things, one is bringing a lot of NFTs.”

The HBAR Foundation is a not-for-profit independent organization of the distributed ledger firm Hedera Hashgraph, the creator of the ledger and cryptocurrency Hedera (HBAR).

Rahman added there’s also “an undisclosed project based on virtual beings” but did not provide further details.

2023’s first week saw NFT sales jump 26%

Post-Christmas blues appears to have worn off, at least for the NFT market, with sales volume jumping nearly 26% in the first week of 2023, compared to the prior week.

According to data from market metrics aggregator Cryptoslam, in the seven days that ended Jan. 7, NFT sales volume was over $211.4 million, with around 1.2 million NFTs transacted between over 400,000 buyers.

The number of buyers increased by 17% on the week, but transactions only grew by just over 2.5%.

Ethereum-based NFTs remained popular, with sales on the blockchain up nearly 26%.

The top three collections for the week were similarly Ethereum-native, Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club was in first place with nearly $19 million traded, up nearly 50% in terms of volume.

The Mutant Ape Yacht Club collection was second, with an increase of 80% to hit $14 million in sales volume. Azuki was third, with sales surging 132% to $12.7 million.

Every frame of feature-length film minted as an NFT

The producers of the 2022 thriller film The Rideshare Killer have released nearly 120,000 unique NFTs in what they’ve dubbed the “first ‘every frame minted’ (EFM) film.”

Exactly 119,170 NFTs each representing one frame of the 83-minute long film shot in 24 frames per second were minted on the Polygon blockchain, according to a Jan. 5 press release.

The film’s producer, Tony Greenberg, said he believed tha NFTs “will change the independent film landscape” as they offer a “potentially appreciating collectible” to fans and a “sustainable revenue source for artists.”

The film may have to rely on its NFT sales to break even if its reviews are anything to go by.

It currently has a rating of 4/10 across eight reviews on the online film database and reviews website IMDb, with one critic saying the movie “should never have been made.”

Other Nifty News

YouTuber and sports beverage merchant Logan Paul has made a U-turn on his threat to sue Stephen “Coffeezilla” Findeisen for defamation over Findeisen’s allegations that Paul’s NFT project CryptoZoo was a scam.

NFT marketplace SuperRare has gutted 30% of its staff, with CEO John Crain saying it “over-hired” during the crypto bull market. Crain added the company was “facing headwinds” due to the ongoing crypto winter.

Magic Eden follows OpenSea with NFT royalty enforcement tool

The open-source Open Creator Protocol of the NFT marketplace will enforce NFT creator royalties for new collections that opt-in to the tool.

Magic Eden, a Solana-based nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, has become the latest platform to release a tool allowing creators to enforce royalties on their collections.

It follows the announcement of a similar tool from rival NFT marketplace OpenSea in early November.

According to a Dec. 1 statement, the open-source royalty enforcement tool is built on top of Solana’s SPL token standard and is called the Open Creator Protocol (OCP). This will allow royalty enforcement for new collections that opt-in to the standard starting Dec. 2.

Lu previously floated the idea of NFTs designed to enforce royalties at Solana’s Breakpoint 2022 conference on Nov. 5, citing the need for NFT creators to have a “sustained revenue model.”

Creators who use OCP will also be able to ban marketplaces that have not enforced royalties on their collections. Magic Eden will still maintain optional royalties on its platform for collections that do not adopt OCP.

In a Dec. 1 Twitter thread, Magic Eden said it “can’t retroactively apply OCP to existing collections,” telling creators they will have to conduct “burn [and] re-mints” where the NFTs are sent to an unrecoverable wallet address and re-issued by the collection.

“We have been in active conversations with multiple ecosystem partners to identify solutions for creators in a timely manner,” Lu said in the statement. He added the marketplace’s intention with OCP was to “immediately support royalties” for new collections while it coordinates with other partners for more solutions.

Related: Coinbase claims Apple blocked wallet app release over gas fees

An additional feature of the protocol touted by Magic Eden is the ability for creators to introduce dynamic royalties — that could reduce the value of royalties of buyers who pay higher prices — and customizable token transferability, which could see, for example, NFTs limited to a number of trades or be subject to a trade freeze for a set period of time.

Magic Eden moved to an optional royalties model in October allowing buyers the option to set the royalties they wish to contribute to projects, which split opinions in Twitter’s NFT community.

The OCP tool follows a similar on-chain tool launched in early November by OpenSea that restricted NFT sales to only marketplaces enforcing royalties.

Magic Eden created a similar royalty enforcement tool, MetaShield, in partnership with peer marketplace and aggregator Coral Cube in September before its move to optional royalties.

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

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

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

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

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

The collection’s sales volume also spiked 990% over the last 24 hours, closing in on 24.5 ETH, according to OpenSea data.

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

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

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

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

Related: Billions are spent marketing crypto to sports fans — Is it worth it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chinese firms bet on “Metaverse-like” experiences for FIFA World Cup

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

X2Y2 rolls back optional royalties

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

The marketplace was one of the first to introduce optional royalties in August, moving to a “Flexible Royalty” that allows buyers to set the amount they want to pay. It received mixed reactions from the NFT community.

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

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

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

Givenchy drops “phygital” NFTs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Johnnie Walker keeps on walking into Web3

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

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

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

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

Related: Helping mainstream artists into Web3: The triumphs and struggles

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

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

More Nifty News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related: Robinhood lands steep 60% discount on $170M exchange acquisition: Report

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

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

Robinhood finished the quarter with a net loss of $175 million despite its total net revenue increasing 14% to $361 million. While its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was $47 million.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related: Facebook is on a quest to destroy the Metaverse and Web3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twitter’s testing token tweeting tiles

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

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

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

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

EPL lines up $35M NFT deal with Sorare

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related: TV streaming providers should start relying on NFTs

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

More Nifty News

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

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