Token

Starknet token distribution not yet finalized, despite speculation over portal screenshots

The Starknet Foundation is warning community members to be on the lookout for scams relating to circulating screenshots of early iterations of a token distribution portal.

The Starknet Foundation has moved quickly to quash speculation around screenshots of early iterations of a distribution portal for the upcoming launch of its native SRTK ecosystem token.

Information shared with Cointelegraph ahead of an announcement on X (formerly Twitter) outlined that the Foundation is still developing plans to distribute the token to certain users, contributors, and investors. The Ethereum layer 2 scaling network previously outlined initial plans for the Starknet token design in July 2022.

Screenshots disseminated online have been labeled “draft plans that are still under development.” A spokesperson from StarkWare told Cointelegraph that details of official criteria and the provision mechanism of STRK tokens will be shared once the company has finalized them:

“The cut-off for any criteria used to determine who may receive tokens or how many tokens is in the past, and no actions or activity now can impact eligibility in any way.”

The company also stressed that community members should be acutely aware of scams that will look to take advantage of any uncertainty around the STRK token distribution.

Related: Ethereum L2 Starknet aims to decentralize core components of its scaling network

A number of different X users reposted screenshots of the early iterations of the Starknet token provisions portal and further information that alluded to certain requirements to receive STRK tokens.

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Starknet token distribution not yet finalized despite speculation over portal screenshots

The Starknet Foundation is warning community members to be on the lookout for scams relating to circulating screenshots of early iterations of a token distribution portal.

The Starknet Foundation has moved quickly to quash speculation around screenshots of early iterations of a distribution portal for the upcoming launch of its native STRK ecosystem token.

Information shared with Cointelegraph ahead of an announcement on X (formerly Twitter) outlined that the foundation is still developing plans to distribute the token to certain users, contributors and investors. The Ethereum layer-2 scaling network previously outlined initial plans for the Starknet token design in July 2022.

Screenshots disseminated online have been labeled “draft plans that are still under development.” A spokesperson from StarkWare told Cointelegraph that details of the official criteria and the provision mechanism for STRK tokens will be shared once the company has finalized them:

“The cut-off for any criteria used to determine who may receive tokens or how many tokens is in the past, and no actions or activity now can impact eligibility in any way.”

The company also stressed that community members should be acutely aware of scams that will look to take advantage of any uncertainty around the STRK token distribution.

Related: Ethereum L2 Starknet aims to decentralize core components of its scaling network

A number of different X users reposted screenshots of the early iterations of the Starknet token provisions portal and further information that alluded to certain requirements to receive STRK tokens.

Read more

Beware of fake Arbitrum airdrops, community warns

The community has warned others to stay vigilant after reports of phishing websites and scams offering Arbitrum airdrop tokens.

Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum’s upcoming “ARB” token airdrop appears to have become a popular target for scammers, with the community warning of hundreds of phishing scams aimed at tricking crypto users.

Announced in a March 16 post by the Arbitrum Foundation, the airdrop will send out 10 billion governance tokens via a token airdrop, allowing holders to vote on code changes. The airdrop is set for March 23.

Unfortunately, the development has led to more than a few attempts from scammers to set up fake token airdrops aimed at stealing funds from victims ahead of the official event.

In a March 19 post, blockchain security company, Redefine, said it found a website impersonating an official Arbitrum airdrop website. The screenshots show the website asks a user to allow access to their funds, which would presumably result in the scammers draining their wallet.

Blockchain security company Redefine has found several websites impersonating official Arbitrum airdrop website. Source: Redefine

CertiK, another blockchain security firm, pointed to a fake Arbitrum Twitter account — “arbitrum_launch” — advertising a token airdrop. It has warned users not to interact with it.

Meanwhile, Reddit user u/CryptoMaximalist posted a thread on March 19, warning that “scammers are hoping to capitalize on the complexity of crypto and users excited for free money.“

According to u/CryptoMaximalist, they found fake Arbitrum Twitter profiles with links to fake Arbitrum websites, advising everyone to check a user’s profile and history, and check if they are spamming links across many subreddits before clicking on shared links.

Last week, Web3 anti-scam tool Scam Sniffer told its Twitter followers that it had already detected more than 273 phishing sites related to Arbitrum since the token airdrop was announced, with the number expected to rise before the official drop on March 23.

According to the Arbitrum Foundation, it used a points system to determine who could claim tokens in the Airdrop and how many they could claim.

Related: Navigating the world of crypto: Tips for avoiding scams

Qualifying actions included completing more than four transactions or interacting with at least four smart contracts, bridging funds into the Arbitrum One chain and depositing more than $50,000 of liquidity into Arbitrum.

Blockchain analytics firm Nansen, which helped develop the criteria with Arbitrum, revealed that out of more than 2.3 million wallets bridged on the Arbitrum One chain before Feb. 6, only 625,143 are eligible for the airdrop.

The Arbitrum airdrop had a long list of eligibility criteria. Source: Nansen

“Organic activity earned positive (behaviors to encourage) or negative behaviors to discourage) points. The number of tokens that a wallet received in the airdrop was a function of how many points it collected,” Nansen explained in a tweet on March 16.

Scam alert: $300K stolen by fake Blur airdrop websites

Unsuspecting users looking to claim Blur token airdrops have had funds stolen by a number of fake websites.

Scammers continue to prey on nonfungible token (NFT) users looking to claim Blur (BLUR) token airdrops through numerous scam websites.

According to data from TrustCheck, over $300,000 has been stolen from unsuspecting users that have linked wallets to malicious websites.

The legitimate Blur platform is a newcomer to the NFT marketplace space, making waves in the industry with booming user numbers and trading volume directly resulting from the platform’s three-phase airdrop incentive scheme. 10% of Blur’s total token supply was distributed to users based on their trading activity in its second token airdrop scheme from Feb. 15.

The first airdrop was retroactive, awarding tokens to anybody who traded an NFT on Ethereum in the six months leading up to the platform’s launch in October 2022. The second airdrop awarded tokens to users who listed NFTs before Dec. 6, while the third awarded tokens to users placing bids on the platform after the feature went live.

Related: What is a phishing attack in crypto, and how to prevent it?

Given the incentive program’s mechanics, many users have been looking to claim BLUR tokens across the NFT ecosystem. This created an opportunity for scammers to promote fake airdrop links to malicious websites.

Data shared with Cointelegraph from Ethereum-based Web3 browser security extension TrustCheck, reveals that over $300,000 worth of funds have been stolen from 24 different scam websites since Feb. 15. A handful of these websites are still functional, with users warned to be wary when connecting wallets.

A screenshot of a fake website looking to scam users attempting to claim BLUR token airdrops. Source: TrustCheck

The websites use smart contracts that automatically prompt transactions when users connect their Ether (ETH) wallets. All the ETH from the wallet is then drained to a specific address, which has allowed TrustCheck to keep tabs on the number of funds stolen to date.

Tools like TrustCheck will flag suspicious websites and transactions, warning Web3 users of potential fake websites and smart contracts.

Blur has also been in the spotlight due to reports of users carrying out NFT wash trading in order to cash in on its token airdrop incentive scheme. However, data analytics carried out by data scientist Hildebert Moulié on Dune suggests that Blur’s NFT trading volumes are legitimate.

Fake websites and phishing attacks are commonplace across the internet, while scammers continue attempts to drain funds through Web3 functionality. In February 2023, a URL masquerading as the ETHDenver conference website was linked to a notorious phishing wallet address that has stolen over $300,000 to date.

In late 2022, scammers also preyed on FTX investors by using phishing websites scrambling to recoup funds after the implosion of the failed cryptocurrency exchange.

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.

350 new ‘scam tokens’ were created every day this year: Solidus Labs

Nearly 118,000 scam tokens were deployed from the start of January through the end of November, according to blockchain risk monitoring firm Solidus.

More than 350 fraudulent cryptocurrency tokens were created per day this year, defrauding millions of investors, according to blockchain risk monitoring firm Solidus Labs.

From the start of the year to Dec. 1, 117,629 “scam tokens” were deployed, according to Solidus’ 2022 “Rug Pull Report.” That’s a 41% increase from the nearly 83,400 scam tokens that Solidus detected in 2021.

The report claims that BNB Chain harbors the greatest number of scam tokens, with 12% of all BEP-20 tokens being fraudulent.

The Ethereum network was second, with a purported 8% of ERC-20 tokens alleged to be scams.

Solidus claims that 2022 is the biggest year on record for fraudulent crypto-tokens. Image: Solidus Labs

A rug pull is a type of crypto exit scam where an individual or team creates a token and pumps up its price before extracting all the value from the project, abandoning it as the token price plummets to zero.

Almost 2 million investors have lost money to these scams since September 2020, a greater numberthan the estimated 1.8 million combined creditors affected by the bankruptcies of crypto exchanges and lending platforms FTX, Celsius, and Voyager.

FTX, Celsius, BlockFi and Voyager bankruptcies are estimated to affect over 2.3 million users combined. Image: Solidus Labs

The most popular type of scam token was a “honeypot,” which is a token smart contract that doesn’t allow buyers to resell.

Solidus said the most prolific “honeypot” successfully executed in 2022 was the $3.3 million Squid Game (SQUID) token scam, which grew 45,000% in a few days as investors bought the hype but were unable to sell, ending with the anonymous founders apparently running off with investor funds.

Centralized exchanges (CEXs) are also affected by rug pulls as many behind these malicious tokens use them to fund their fraudulent project and cash out the ill-gotten gains.

Solidus claims around $11 billion worth of Ether (ETH) pilfered from scam tokens flowed through 153 CEXs since September 2020, with the majority of the exchanges being overseen by United States regulators.

Related: 5 key takeaways from Huobi 2022 crypto industry report

Nearly $4 billion dollars flowed to U.S. CEXs in the analyzed time frame which was nearly double that of the second-most exposed CEX jurisdiction: The Bahamas.

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.

Tokenization of illiquid assets to reach $16T by 2030 — Report

A large chunk of the world’s wealth today is locked in illiquid assets, notes the report’s authors.

The total size of tokenized illiquid assets, including real estate and natural resources could reach $16.1 trillion by 2030, according to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

In a newly released report from BCG and digital exchange for private markets ADDX, authors including BCG managing director Sumit Kumar and ADDX co-founder Darius Liu noted that “a large chunk of the world’s wealth today is locked in illiquid assets.”

According to the report, illiquid assets include pre-IPO stocks, real estate, private debt, revenues from small and medium businesses, physical art, exotic beverages, private funds, wholesale bonds, and many more. 

Reasons for this asset illiquidity are attributed to factors such as limited affordability for mass investors, lack of wealth manager expertise, limited access — such as when assets are restricted to elite cliques (in the case of fine art and vintage cars), regulatory hurdles, and other scenarios in which users have difficulty acquiring or trading an asset. 

On-chain asset tokenization could solve this problem, a market that surpassed $2.3 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $5.6 billion by 2026, as per the report.

The authors added that in just the last two years, global digital asset daily trading volume has soared from 30 billion euros in 2020 to 150 billion euros in 2022, noting that it “is still minuscule in comparison to the total potential of illiquid tokenizable assets in the world.”

By 2030, the authors forecast the on-chain asset tokenization opportunity to reach $16.1 trillion — made up largely of financial assets (such as insurance policies, pensions, and alternative investments), home equity, and other tokenizable assets, such as infrastructure projects, car fleets, and patents.

Tokenization of global illiquid assets by 2030. Source: Boston Consulting Group

The authors also noted that this was a “highly-conservative forecast” and that in a best-case scenario, the tokenization of global illiquid assets could reach $68 trillion.

However, the potential of tokenized assets will differ across countries due to various regulatory frameworks and asset class sizes.

In Singapore, the Monetary Authority recently launched the Project Guardian, a blockchain-based asset tokenization pilot that will explore decentralized finance (DeFi) applications in wholesale funding markets by establishing a liquidity pool of tokenized bonds and deposits to execute borrowing and lending processes on-chain.

In addition to Singapore, tokens issuance is regulated in Hong Kong, Japan, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Other authors in the report include BCG’s project leader Rajaram Suresh, associate director Bernhard Kronfellner, and consultant for BCG Aaditya Kaul, noting:

“On-chain asset tokenization presents an opportunity to obviate many of these barriers of asset illiquidity as well as the current modality of traditional fractionalization.”

Real estate may be among the illiquid assets that could benefit from tokenization, with investors looking for investments backed by real-world assets in DeFi.

Cointelegraph Research Terminal revealed that real estate assets account for upwards of 40% of the pipeline for certain technology providers, making it one of the primary sectors for security token offerings.

Earlier this month, the digital asset investment platform Zerocap announced that companies on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) could be able to trade tokenized bonds, equities, funds, or carbon credits after a successful proof-of-concept trial.

Tokenization of illiquid assets to reach $16T by 2030: Report

A large chunk of the world’s wealth today is locked in illiquid assets, notes the report’s authors.

The total size of tokenized illiquid assets, including real estate and natural resources could reach $16.1 trillion by 2030, according to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

In a newly released report from BCG and digital exchange for private markets ADDX, authors including BCG managing director Sumit Kumar and ADDX co-founder Darius Liu noted that “a large chunk of the world’s wealth today is locked in illiquid assets.”

According to the report, illiquid assets include pre-initial public offering (IPO) stocks, real estate, private debt, revenues from small and medium businesses, physical art, exotic beverages, private funds, wholesale bonds and many more. 

Reasons for this asset illiquidity are attributed to factors such as limited affordability for mass investors, lack of wealth manager expertise, limited access such as when assets are restricted to elite cliques (in the case of fine art and vintage cars), regulatory hurdles and other scenarios in which users have difficulty acquiring or trading an asset. 

On-chain asset tokenization could solve this problem, a market that surpassed $2.3 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $5.6 billion by 2026, according to the report.

The authors added that in just the last two years, global digital asset daily trading volume has soared from 30 billion euros in 2020 to 150 billion euros in 2022, noting that it “is still minuscule in comparison to the total potential of illiquid tokenizable assets in the world.”

By 2030, the authors forecast the on-chain asset tokenization opportunity to reach $16.1 trillion — made up largely of financial assets (such as insurance policies, pensions, and alternative investments), home equity, and other tokenizable assets, such as infrastructure projects, car fleets and patents.

Tokenization of global illiquid assets by 2030. Source: Boston Consulting Group

The authors also noted that this was a “highly-conservative forecast” and that in a best-case scenario, the tokenization of global illiquid assets could reach $68 trillion.

However, the potential of tokenized assets will differ across countries due to various regulatory frameworks and asset class sizes.

In Singapore, the Monetary Authority recently launched Project Guardian, a blockchain-based asset tokenization pilot that will explore decentralized finance (DeFi) applications in wholesale funding markets by establishing a liquidity pool of tokenized bonds and deposits to execute borrowing and lending processes on-chain.

In addition to Singapore, tokens issuance is regulated in Hong Kong, Japan, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Other authors in the report include BCG’s project leader Rajaram Suresh, associate director Bernhard Kronfellner and consultant for BCG Aaditya Kaul, noting:

“On-chain asset tokenization presents an opportunity to obviate many of these barriers of asset illiquidity as well as the current modality of traditional fractionalization.”

Real estate may be among the illiquid assets that could benefit from tokenization, with investors looking for investments backed by real-world assets in DeFi.

Cointelegraph Research Terminal revealed that real estate assets account for upward of 40% of the pipeline for certain technology providers, making it one of the primary sectors for security token offerings.

Earlier this month, the digital asset investment platform Zerocap announced that companies on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) could be able to trade tokenized bonds, equities, funds or carbon credits after a successful proof-of-concept trial.

Tiffany & Co turning CryptoPunk NFTs into $50K custom pendants

The customized pendants are set to cost 30 ETH a pop and will go on sale on August 5.

Luxury jewelry brand Tiffany & Co has announced the sale of 250 diamond and gemstone encrusted pendants for CryptoPunk nonfungible token (NFT) holders. 

The handcrafted CryptoPunk pendants were announced by the jewelry brand on Sunday on Twitter, and are priced at 30 Ether (ETH), equivalent to $50,600 each at the time of writing.

According to an NFTiffs FAQ page, the NFTiff token sale is set to launch on August 5 at 2:00 pm UTC, and will only be available for purchase NFTiff tokens via its website.

Each CryptoPunk is limited to a maximum of three NFTiff tokens that allow them to mint a customized pendant. There are 87 different attributes and 159 colors that can be used to custom design the pendants, and the pendant itself will be composed of 18-Karat rose or yellow gold, based on the color palette of the NFT. 

Should all the limited edition pendants sell out, Tiffany & Co stands to make 7,500 in ETH, currently $12.7 million at the time of writing.

The campaign was first promoted by Tiffany & Co vice president Alexandre Arnault, who owns CryptoPunk #3167 in April. In a tweet, Arnault revealed his new rose gold and enamel CryptoPunk, which was transformed with a new sapphire and Mozambique-colored set of glasses and a yellow diamond round earring.

Community reacts

The crypto community on Twitter appears largely excited about the new NFT offering from the luxury jewelry brand.

Twitter user markfidelman, chief marketing officer of SmartBlocks Agency, called the NFT project an “incredibly tasteful activation,” adding:

“More Web2 firms looking to dip their toes in Web3 need to be learning from the quality of this $NFTiff offering and taking notes.”

The jewelry company first ventured into NFTs in March when they purchased an Okapi NFT from contemporary artist Tom Sachs for $380,000. Tiffany & Co have since set the rocket-styled NFT as their profile picture on Twitter.

On April Fools’ Day, April 1, Tiffany & Co also produced TiffCoins, a limited-release of 400 18-karat gold coins with the company logo individually engraved on each coin.

Related: Gucci the latest luxury brand to accept crypto payments in store

Luxury brands are no strangers to the crypto space, with many beginning to accept crypto as payment, such as Gucci, Balenciaga and Farfetch.

Last April, Louis Vuitton, Cartier and Prada joined forces to launch Aura, a consortium blockchain that will utilize NFTs so that high-end shoppers can authenticate goods, track products and materials and also fight counterfeits.