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Business

Cameo Launches Ethereum NFT Pass With Expanded Celebrity Access

Cameo, a popular app that allows users to purchase personalized video greetings from celebrities and internet influencers, is entering the NFT market. It is launching Cameo Pass, an Ethereum NFT that functions like a ticket to unlock exclusive events and privileges.

The Cameo Pass, which is available on prominent marketplace OpenSea, will cost 0.2 ETH $528 and will grant access to Cameo’s new membership club. New artwork from Doodles artist Burnt Toast, NFT artist Vinnie Hager, and cartoonist Luke McGarry, who currently sell artwork via Cameo, will be featured on the passes.

Future live and online events, such as parties at the Cameo House in Beverly Hills, meet and greet opportunities, and online Q&A sessions with celebrities, will be open to Cameo Pass NFT users. Exclusive items will be available, as well as admission to a Cameo location in a metaverse universe.

Cameo will reinvest revenue from NFT purchases towards future Web3 activities and explorations, according to a company representative, as the company embraces fan-centric experiences supported by decentralized technology.

Cameo was founded in 2017 and was valued at $1 billion after a $100 million Series C financing last year, making it a unicorn. Thousands of celebrities, athletes, and prominent personalities from the entertainment, sports, politics, and other industries are included on the platform.

Digital graphics and films, social media avatars, and interactive products for use in video games are examples of prominent use cases for NFTs. Last year, as brands, celebrities, and athletes poured in, the market surged, generating approximately $25 billion in trading volume (per DappRadar).

As the utility of NFT initiatives grows, the digital assets are increasingly being used as a membership pass to an elite club—or even to gate real-world experiences.

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, for example, announced that lifetime passes will be sold as Solana-based NFTs. Adidas and The Gap have both recently created Ethereum NFTs that allow holders to purchase unique items.

The most famous crypto-native example is the famed Bored Ape Yacht Club initiative, which portrays itself as an exclusive club and is a valuable favorite of celebrities. Bored Ape NFT holders gain access to a private online community, exclusive item drops additional free NFTs, and even live events like The Strokes and Chris Rock performing in New York.

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Business

Nelson Mandela’s Paintings Of Prison Are Being Sold As NFTs For $3,500

The contrast between Nelson Mandela’s small basic cell on Robben Island, where he spent 18 of his 27 years in prison, and the digital world’s endless diversity could not be greater.

However, the two will collide next month when the first non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of artwork by the former South African president and anti-apartheid hero are sold amid a booming worldwide digital art market.

My Robben Island is made up of five vibrant watercolors created by Mandela after he stepped down as president in 1999, as well as The Motivation, a handwritten text explaining his vision of the harsh island jail. His autograph may be found on all six pieces.

In The Motivation, Mandela writes: “It is true that Robben Island was once a place of darkness, but out of that darkness has come a wonderful brightness, a light so powerful that it could not be hidden behind prison walls, held back behind prison bars or hemmed in by the surrounding sea … The most fantastic dreams can be achieved if we are prepared to endure life’s challenges.”

The former president’s daughter, Makaziwe Mandela, described her father’s watercolors as “the victory of the human spirit.”

She said: “When my dad was on the island, he was surrounded by gray. Remember, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He never thought he would walk out of prison. But the paintings say we should never despair.”

Offering the artworks as NFTs was a way of reaching new audiences, she added. “My dad was all about creating an accessible society. This is a way of democratizing his art.”

Digital art attracted “new audiences that probably don’t go to art galleries and museums,” according to Giles Peppiatt, director of modern and contemporary African art at Bonhams, which is selling the NFTs. “These are people who spend a lot of time on their phones, on the internet, and who have a lot of money at their disposal – and they’re collectors.” “They’re becoming a bigger and bigger component of the art market,” he explained.

In recent years, sales of NFTs have soared, fueled by youthful investors who have made fortunes from cryptocurrencies and other technology. Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, sold an NFT named Everydays: the First 5,000 Days for a record $69 million in March 2021.

On March 9th, Bonhams will offer My Robben Island on the Nifty Gateway platform for a six-hour period at a fixed price of $3,495 for the edition, or $699 for a single work. There is no specific number for sale, although there is an upper limit of $10,000. “The edition is however many sold in that six-hour span,” Peppiatt explained.

The watercolours were “quite good, somewhat sad and heartbreaking,” according to the watercolours, which were produced in 2002 as a therapeutic exercise under the tutelage of art teacher Varenka Paschke. Peppiatt added, “You couldn’t obtain more personal photographs.”

The Cell represents the interior of Mandela’s cell during his time on Robben Island. It has become a pilgrimage site, with Barack Obama and Bill Clinton among those who have visited. The meagre belongings of Nelson Mandela are heaped beneath the window.

Through vibrant orange bars, the Window portrays the shape of Table Mountain. When new detainees came by boat, the first thing they saw was the prison’s harbour. The Lighthouse and The Church, both of which were off-limits to convicts, were island landmarks.

“Robben Island is a place where courage endured in the face of endless hardship, a place where people kept on believing when it seemed their dreams were hopeless,” wrote Mandela in The Motivation.

Makaziwe Mandela expressed her desire that some of the proceeds from the NFT sale will go toward the creation of a memorial garden in Qunu, where her father is buried. “Hopefully, before I close my eyes, we’ll be able to finish the garden,” she remarked.

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Social Good

Ukraine Crypto Donations Pour In After Russian Invasion

As of Monday, 28th February morning, $20 million in bitcoin had been contributed in support of Ukraine’s resistance to Russian invasion as Ukraine’s government is directly collecting cryptocurrency donations, adding to a crowdfunding campaign that has raised more Bitcoin, Ether, and other cryptocurrencies since Friday.

This follows the country’s official Twitter account sharing two cryptocurrency wallet addresses on Saturday, through which it could take Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Tether donations directly.

Ukraine is currently embroiled in an armed confrontation with Russia, the country’s larger neighbor, which invaded the country last week after years of hostility, sending forces to move on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. The move has sparked international outrage and concern.

According to transaction information accessible for the wallets and statistics from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, the addresses posted by these accounts have received hundreds of donations worth more than $3 million in less than 24 hours. Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson said  that the median gift was roughly $95.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Monday that at least 102 civilians had been murdered in Ukraine, with hundreds more injured, though the true count could be much higher.

Ukraine, a 44 million-strong country, has requested donations via its official Twitter account as it fights Russia’s march. On Saturday, one such tweet specifically requested cryptocurrency donations. “Stand with the people of Ukraine,” it said, sharing the addresses of two cryptocurrency wallets. Donations in cryptocurrencies are now accepted. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT are all digital currencies.

Justin Sun, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, made several posts in support of the fundraising drive, including one inviting Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin to “join hands to gather support for the Ukraine assistance,” and suggesting that if Buterin gave, he would be “glad to match.”

Buterin began promoting UkraineDAO’s campaign, which stated that the money would be donated to “Ukrainian people who assist those suffering from Putin’s war” and connected to The Return Alive Foundation’s website.

“This is a monumental moment in the history of humanitarian donation on a global scale,” Sun said. “Every government, thought leaders, high-profile public figures, and everyday Joes can make transparent donations,” he added.

After that, Tomicah Tillemann, a former State Department diplomat and digital policy specialist, tweeted that he had “verified directly with Ukrainian ambassador @olex scherba that the addresses are correct and under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian government.”

Wire transfers, which are used to send money overseas, can be expensive, slow, and unreliable, which is why, according to Tillemann, crypto donations are advantageous in this case.

“Digital assets are frequently the only way to give rapid, direct assistance to people in international combat zones and humanitarian crises,” he said.

Celsius founder and CEO Alex Mashinsky announced on Saturday that he had transferred a second Ether gift to the Ukraine wallet, which contained at least 126 tokens, or roughly $352 000 at current values, as of Saturday afternoon. Bloomberg reported that he had personally donated about $10,000 in Ether.

The two bitcoin wallets had received roughly $10.3 million as of about 6 a.m. EET on Monday, according to Blockchain.com’s wallet search tool, with millions already transferred out of the wallets, presumably by the Ukrainian government.

The entire amount of cryptocurrency donations to Ukraine, on the other hand, might be far larger. Elliptic, a bitcoin security firm, updated a blog post on Monday, claiming that the Ukrainian government and NGOs had raised $20 million in cryptocurrency donations since Russia’s invasion began. A single donation of $3 million in Bitcoin was purportedly made at one point.

To raise funds for Ukraine, non-fungible tokens are also being sold. Reli3f, a web3-founded humanitarian aid organization, raised more than $1 million on Friday through an NFT collection that sold out in 30 seconds, according to the organization.

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Business

Music NFT Market 2022 Development Status – Global Inc, Rarible, OpenSea

In the most recent research on the NFT Music Market’s industrial growth from 2022 to 2028,  a comprehensive analysis has been compiled to provide the most up-to-date information on the critical aspects of the NFT Music market. The study includes several market forecasts for revenue, production, CAGR, consumption, gross margin, price, and other significant parameters. While emphasizing the market’s key driving and restraining forces, the report also provides a comprehensive analysis of the market’s future trends and developments. It also looks at the role of the industry’s top market players, including their corporate background, financial summary, and SWOT analysis.

In the music industry, NFT music is a trend. From the earliest discs to streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, from the advent of record changing to the rise of modern electronic sound, technological advancements have changed how music is made, played, saved, distributed, and enjoyed. 

A number of artists and performers, including Grimes and the Rolling Stones, have expressed interest in the new technology. In the music industry, an NFT is a rare item that is registered on a digital ledger. This year, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) conquered the music industry.

OpenSea, Rarible, SuperRare, Foundation, Nifty Gateway, Async Art, Mintable, Makers Place, Enjin Marketplace, KnownOrigin, Catalog, and Coinbase are among the major players profiled in this report.

The NFT Music Market Study ensures that you will keep / stay ahead of your competitors. The research document examines the NFT Music using structured tables and data and provides you with a leading product, submarkets, revenue size, and forecast to 2028. In comparison, the industry is divided into growing and established leaders.

The research also includes company profiles, product descriptions and images, sales, market share, and contact information for various regional, international and local NFT Music Market suppliers. With the surge in scientific innovation and M&A activity in the business, the market proposal is regularly evolving ahead of the competition. Furthermore, several local and regional manufacturers offer specialized application goods for a wide range of end-users. New merchant applicants are finding it difficult to compete with foreign merchants based on reliability, quality, and technological modernity.

Key takeaways from the report

  1. Drivers, trends, limitations, restraints, opportunities, and important micro markets in the NFT Music market are all carefully considered.
  1. A comprehensive assessment of the NFT Music market’s opportunities and threats.
  1. An in-depth examination of industry growth strategies for NFT Music’s market-leading players.
  1. The latest technologies and key procedures are available on the NFT Music market.
  1. A favorable dip into the Market’s energizing high-tech and market current developments.

Get a free sample of the report here: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/3851875-nft-music-market-global-outlook-and-forecast-2022-2028

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Business

NFTs worth $1.7 Million stolen from OpenSea users.

After being tricked in a cyber fraud, dozens of NFT owners have lost $1.7 million in digital art.

Criminals targeted users of the online NFT platform OpenSea, using the phishing tactic to get the owners to sign over the digital assets.

PeckShield, a blockchain security business, reported a 253 tokens taken over in the course of three hours on Saturday evening, affecting 32 different OpenSea users.

Tokens from the metaverse marketplace Decentraland and the Bored Ape Yacht Club were among the NFTs stolen.

The phishing assault appears to have taken use of the Wyvern Protocol, a smart contract standard that saw victims sign a blank cheque for the perpetrators.

Although phishing is one of the oldest types of cyber attacks, security experts warn that it is continually developing and growing more sophisticated.

“Criminals are becoming smarter, but older, proven attack paths can still yield results,” David Mahdi, chief security officer of cyber security firm Sectigo said.

“It’s no longer enough to be aware of bluntly phrased emails when it comes to phishing attacks; recipients must also examine context, content, and sender, especially if financial transactions are involved.”

Although OpenSea is still investigating the incident, it has denied that its platform was ever breached.

“The attack did not originate on opensea.io,” Devin Finzer, the NFT platform’s CEO and co-founder, tweeted.

Hackers use phishing attacks to trick unsuspecting users into disclosing personal information or installing malware that would harm them further. To keep protected from such deadly attacks; 

  • users should be more cautious about the links they open from emails or direct social media communications;
  • if your Chrome, Edge, or Safari browsers warn you that a website isn’t safe, don’t go there;
  • set up a solid firewall;
  • installing programs from unknown sources is not a good idea;
  • antivirus software should be used;
  • keep your personal information (passwords, etc.) secure; and
  • when perusing the internet, avoid clicking on pop-up advertising.

OpenSea is a digital marketplace dedicated to non-fungible token trading (NFTs). Images, artwork, songs, and a variety of other items can all be traded as NFTs.

NFTs are electronic proofs of ownership for digital assets that are kept on the Blockchain. Anything can be an NFT if it is sold and its “certificate of ownership” is maintained on the Blockchain. The majority of people today associate NFTs  solely with artworks! While artwork is not the only type of NFT that may be sold on OpenSea, it is one of the most popular.

Ethereum (ETH) is the most popular method of trade on OpenSea, however other cryptocurrencies are also accepted. On OpenSea, several items are worth millions of dollars, such as the $69.3 million Beeple NFT artwork. As a result, it’s clear that these hackers were aiming high, as the phishing effort resulted in the theft of $1.7 million in NFTs from a variety of users.

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Business

Cardano To Dominate The Market As A Leading Layer 1 Blockchain, Onboarding The Next Billion Users In Crypto – Kraken Report

The Cardano blockchain has a lot of interesting developments planned for 2022. A new analysis released by the analysts at Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange, highlights a handful of these. The analysis hyped the proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain to be developing as one of many strongest challengers within the Layer 1 blockchain house, while mentioning the tremendous community improvement and key achievements Cardano has attained.

Cardano’s values will be a key factor to place them at the top, says Kraken Intelligence report. 

The modification was made in the February edition of the Kraken Intelligence report on the crypto market, and it focused on the crypto world’s largest proof of stake blockchain. The research, titled “Cardano: A completely new technology of excellent contract platform architecture,” praised the Cardano blockchain for its value-based approach to ecosystem construction.

“Cardano’s values have noticeably directed the undertaking’s developments and design decisions, and as a result, , the blockchain looks like it has been designed with a purpose and standards of providing decentralized, global, financial infrastructure rather than only focusing on providing a Web3 experience,” Kraken remarked.

To strengthen this argument, Kraken points out that Cardano is one of the more durable blockchain networks to emerge from the crypto market’s initial coin offering (ICO) timeframe. Cardano has also continued to deliver on its planned roadmap, albeit with significant delays. However, once they get their product to market, the Cardano blockchain has always lived up to expectations, with a focus on “neighborhood governance, instructive peer assessment, and reassurance programming.”

According to Kraken Intelligence, if Cardano keeps on track, it will be well on its way to realizing its objective of enrolling 2 billion individuals. This is due to the network’s important collaborations and milestones from the previous year.

Cardano has forged alliances with a number of governments, particularly in Africa. On Cardano, massive network expansion is being recorded both on-chain and off-chain. The developing web 3 ecosystem, which is being developed and utilizes Cardano’s unique Plutus smart contracts platform, is a crucial driver of network expansion.

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Business

Crypto Exchange FTX Now Valued at $32 Billion With $400 Million Raise

FTX, a major cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Monday that it had received $400 million from investors including SoftBank, valuing the platform at $32 billion, making it one of the most valuable start-ups in the fast-growing digital currency sector.

According to FTX, the funding round includes investments from Temasek Holdings of Singapore and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, among others.

Bahamas-based FTX is the owner and operator of FTX.com, a crypto platform that caters to a diverse customer base outside of the United States, including retail and institutional investors.

In the six months since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has raised a total of $1.8 billion, backed by venture capital bets on an industry that has sparked extraordinary interest.

The company was valued at $25 billion in October.

The U.S. arm of FTX announced last week that it was valued at $8 billion after obtaining $400 million from the same group of investors in its first investment round.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 made its latest investment in the crypto business.

It invested in the Sandbox, a Hong Kong-based game platform that allows players to create virtual worlds using non-fungible tokens (NFTs), in November .

It also led a $680 million investment round for Sorare, a blockchain-based fantasy soccer game, and a $155 million funding round for Blockdaemon, a blockchain startup. In addition, the Japanese company spent $200 million in Mercado Bitcoin, one of Latin America’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.

Since its latest investment round in October, FTX has grown at a quick pace, according to the company. Its daily trading volumes have increased by 40% to around $14 billion, making it the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.

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Business

Cryptocurrency Payments Key To Lowering Cross-border Remittance Charges and Boosting Microwork Uptake In Africa, Study Shows

Microwork, a $1 billion employment market centered on technologies that break down actions into piecemeal tasks to be completed by many people over the internet, primarily using cell phones, has evolved in the last decade.

According to a study conducted in Kenya by Mercy Corps Ventures (MCV), the impact investing arm of global development organization Mercy Corps, the appeal of microwork opportunities has grown to pique the interest of Africa’s youth, who stand to earn as much as $7 per day, compared to a daily city revenue charge of $4.35 for low-income groups.

According to the African Development Bank, microwork has the potential to provide opportunities for gig workers of all skill levels and increase employment for Africa’s burgeoning youth population, with 10 million to 12 million young people entering the workforce each year.

However, according to the MCV study, costs associated with cost collection, as well as other barriers, have limited the popularity of microwork in Africa, where a turnaround may be made via crypto-payment options. According to a study conducted in Nairobi, Kenya to see if digital stablecoins and mobile wallets could alleviate frictions and lower prices in cross-border money, cryptocurrency cut transaction costs by 93 percent regardless of the cost dimension.

Celo, a mobile-first DeFi platform; Kotani Pay, a technology stack that permits blockchain protocols; Appen, a publicly traded knowledge firm; and NairoBits, a Kenyan non-profit that uses ICT to empower impoverished youth, were among the study’s other collaborators.

“We educated 200 Kenyan youth to enter digital microwork from international platforms utilizing a cell app and built-in Valora digital pockets, which are constructed on Celo. Our pilot examined how a stablecoin may cut back the prices and challenges of sending and receiving cross-border micropayments over a three-month interval,” stated Mercy Corps Ventures Senior Managing Director, Scott Onder.

According to Celo partner Will Le, the study’s findings indicated that “by reducing monetary frictions, we opened a brand new paradigm for leveraging talent across borders, which was not previously possible with traditional financial infrastructure.” Cryptocurrency, particularly stablecoins, has the potential to drastically reduce the cost of remittances while also facilitating cross-border trade.”

Individuals were paid a few seconds after completing tasks in the experiment, using Celo dollars (cUSD), a Celo-native stablecoin that tracks the value of the US dollar, with fees of around $0.01. The monies were temporarily saved in Celo’s digital wallet, Valora, and could be cashed out at any time to Kenya’s mobile money platform, M-Pesa, thanks to Kotani Pay’s off-ramp technologies, which permitted the conversion.

Remittances, along with money for online jobs, accounted for 3.5 percent of Kenya’s GDP in 2021, totaling $3.7 billion. With global weighted average remittance rates at 4.71 percent, Kenyans receiving remittances are likely missing out on about $100 million each year.

“Provided that the common value of remittances to the worth of $200 is considerably increased than the worldwide common (8.72 p.c in sub-Saharan Africa versus 6.30 globally), the financial savings are doubtlessly even larger. If all these transactions solely value the two.02% enabled throughout the pilot, the overall potential effect to the Kenyan financial system might be over $200 million, or 0.22% over Kenya’s total GDP,” stated MCV, in an announcement.

In general, the internet jobs market in Kenya is growing steadily due to increased web penetration — about 90% of the country’s city dwellers have access to mobile internet. According to this study, at least 1.2 million Kenyans work online now, earning an average of $182 per month in a country where 36 percent of its 2.6 million salaried employees (about 1 million people) make between $176 and $274 per month.

PayPal, Skrill, and Payoneer are some of the most widely utilized options for international on-line employment, with some of them having policies for withholding cash without justification and higher fees for lower rewards.

“High transaction fees, especially for lower payouts, mean that microworkers often forfeit a significant portion of earnings (with a global weighted average cost of 4.71% but in some cases up to 30% of gross earnings),”, stated MCV, including that these boundaries may be overcome utilizing cryptocurrency.

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Business

European Union To Grant Crypto Oversight to New AML Watchdog: Report

According to Bloomberg, the European Union is considering appointing a new financial inspector to monitor the crypto industry’s anti-money laundering efforts and associated concerns. The European Commission is spearheading the plan, which is set to launch in 2024.

“It is key that the scope of the new EU authority explicitly includes crypto-assets, given that this is one of the fields more prone to money laundering activities,” said Luis Garicano, a leading EU lawmaker in favor of the proposed move.

A group of EU member states, led by Germany, is now pushing for cryptocurrencies to be expressly included in the approach. Furthermore, the proposed scope of the watchdog is said to include cross-border organizations like crypto asset service providers.

The EU, crypto, and money laundering

The proposed EU step follows a slew of crypto-related criminal charges, including money laundering, in Europe.

An investigation by Reuters earlier this year revealed that German law authorities and lawyers were in contact with cryptocurrency exchange Binance over at least €2 million in transactions involving potentially stolen assets. Binance apparently responded that it was unable to assist.

Binance was recently approached for assistance by German police in relation to two persons suspected of supporting an Islamist shooter who killed four people in Vienna, Austria. One of these men was discovered to have conducted “unspecified” transactions on Binance, according to law enforcement.

Monero and Dash, two privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, were involved in a missing person case in Norway last year. As part of their investigation, Norwegian law enforcement confronted the issue of tracing transactions made utilizing the anonymity-preserving cryptocurrency. Hydra, at the time one of the leading crypto markets in Eastern Europe, was discovered to be a darknet market in a study conducted by blockchain analytics firm, Chainalysis in 2020.

More recently, British police refunded more than $5 million to victims of a multinational crypto fraud that included not only various European countries, but also the United States, Australia, and China.


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Business

Bank of Spain Governor Calls for Crypto Surveillance

The Governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, has called for increased monitoring, regulation, and oversight of the cryptocurrency market by the Spanish government.

According to Hernández de Cos, the measure is necessary to address the threat posed by popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH); stablecoins like Tether (USDT); and other decentralized services like the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector.

In a speech presented on February 21 at the II Observatory of Finance, Hernández called for stronger coordination at the national and international levels, as well as across institutions, to ensure that the crypto industry is monitored and regulated.

He addressed some of the benefits that cryptocurrencies provide for the financial industry during his speech, such as their ability to improve payment systems or act as a catalyst for new capabilities. He did, however, emphasize the hazards they pose to the financial system and, as a result, to the banking industry’s consumers.

De Cos raised attention to the risk the bitcoin business poses to the financial markets in general, among other risks mentioned in the governor’s message.

“It is true that the existence of these large swings in the prices of these assets can alter sentiment, causing an overreaction that ends up transcending other trading environments,” he said. 

The stable coin sector, according to De Cos, is particularly vulnerable to this risk.

“In this case, the accumulation of redemption requests resulting from a generalized panic around [stablecoins] could stress the money markets, and by extension also impact the entities of custodians of the assets,” He said. 

A considerable rise in transactions, according to the governor, could cause service delays or interruptions, resulting in “tensions” in payment processing.