Decentralized gaming guild Yield Guild Games (YGG) has partnered with, and invested in, eight new play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain games. YGG lends out nonfungible token (NFT) gaming assets to Guild players so that they can earn rewards from a long list of P2E games without having to front the costs of purchasing the NFTs themselves. The guild boasts assets from widely popular games such as Axie Infinity and Splinterlands. In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Nov. 16, YGG revealed that it had backed eight games with “strong play-to-earn models” including Influence, CyBall, Thetan Arena, KOGs SLAM!, MOBOX, Aavegotchi, DeHorizon and …

The first-ever parachain auction on Polkadot is heating up, with leading projects from the Polkadot ecosystem competing for the coveted first slot. On Nov. 15, DFG Group — a global blockchain investment firm controlling $1 billion in assets under management — announced it had pledged 300,000 DOT tokens (worth $12.65 million) in support of Astar Network’s parachain bid. Polkadot will use parachain auctions to realize its sharded proof-of-stake ecosystem. In order to secure a parachain or shard on the Polkadot network, projects compete in auctions by bidding to lock up large sums of DOT for the duration of a parachain …

This week a number of contenders are set to participate in Polkadot's first parachain auctions and this process tends to place buy pressure on DOT, while also giving aspiring blockchain projects a chance to show why they offer the most competitive solutions to the different demands that exist in the crypto sector. The ongoing Polkadot parachain auctions follow the success of similar auctions on its sister network Kusama, where projects like Moonriver (MOVR) and Karura successfully secure a parachain slot for the next year. The Kusama parachain auctions began during a downturn in the wider crypto market and played a …

The wolf of nonfungible streets Erstwhile crypto skeptic Jordan Belfort has bravely outed himself as an NFT proponent amid the booming growth of the sector in 2021. Belfort is known for his dodgy antics while working as a stockbroker on Wall Street, with his story being captured in “The Wolf of Wall Street” film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The 59-year-old has slammed crypto on multiple occasions, and in 2018 he even compared Bitcoin to the level of fraud that his firm Stratton Oakmont used to engage in before he was indicted for securities fraud and money laundering in 1999. On Oct. …

Nonfungible token (NFT) investors have poured $7 million into a Dutch auction that sold 50 tokens conferring ownership over digital artworks that will not be minted until December. Tyler Hobbs, the artist behind the popular NFT series “Fidenza,” will launch 100 one-a-kind digital artworks in his latest collection “Incomplete Control” at the New York City-based Bright Moments gallery from Dec. 9 to Dec. 13. On Friday, Hobbs’ fans contributed 1,800 Ether (ETH) (worth more than $7 million) in exchange for 50 of 100 “Golden Tokens” that grant its holder ownership rights to one of the artworks slated to be minted …

NFT development studio Mojito announced Friday that they have raised $20M in seed funding from a number of investors including internationally known auction house Sotheby's. According to an announcement published in Forbes, Sotheby’s auction house, in partnership with Future Perfect Ventures, Creative Artists Agency and NEA’s Connect Ventures, contributed to the round at Mojito’s estimated value of $100 Million. The Delaware-based start-up indicated that it will use this new injection of capital to grow and develop its engineering teams, make a better version of its current NFT platform and further develop its NFT trading and investment platforms. The NFT market …

Playboy to release tokenized bunnies into the wild PLBY Group Inc, the owners of the raunchy lifestyle magazine Playboy, unveiled a new nonfungible token (NFT) project consisting of 11,953 unique 3D animated bunny avatars. According to a Wednesday announcement, the number of NFTs pays homage to Playboy’s founding year of 1953, and the tokens will serve as “keys to a reimagined Playboy Club,” which gives the owners access to exclusive events, content and merchandise. The launch of the Ethereum-based NFTs begins on Sunday, with a pre-sale for whitelisted investors until Tuesday. Two public sales launch the following day, one for …

Polkadot founder Gavin Wood has unveiled a $777-million development fund ahead of the network’s parachain lease auctions. Wood tweeted on Sunday that Polkadot’s treasury has allocated more than 18.9 million Polkadot (DOT) (worth roughly $777 million at the time of writing) to a development fund that will be disbursed through community governance. Wood gave broad suggestions as to how the funds might be spent, stating the capital will be mobilized to realize the community’s vision for “building, improving, educating” Polkadot’s ecosystem, in addition to “anything else that the Polkadot governance believes valuable.” According to Polkadot’s Wiki, the treasury funds can …

Prestigious auction house Sotheby’s has launched a new Metaverse-themed nonfungible token (NFT) platform. The platform is dubbed “Sotheby’s Metaverse” and was announced alongside the “Natively Digital 1.2: The Collectors” (ND1.2) auction that will run between Monday, Oct. 18 and Tuesday, Oct. 26. The auction consists of 53 lots of tokenized art from the vaults of 19 curators. Welcome to Sotheby's Metaverse. https://t.co/hZvYIkO3xx pic.twitter.com/9Wl9fUwibe — Sotheby's Metaverse (@Sothebysverse) October 14, 2021 The list of curators includes some top collectors in the NFT space such as PleasrDAO, Pranksy and 888 along with crypto-friendly stars such as DJ Steve Aoki and self-described “Boss-Babe” …

For the first time in chess history, grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has been awarded a nonfungible token (NFT) trophy for winning an international chess tournament, Meltwater Champions Chess Tour (MCCT). The tournament minted a number of NFT trophies and collectibles to indefinitely preserve the game’s most defining moments. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Carlsen shared his appreciation of the cryptocurrency ecosystem for supporting virtual chess tournaments. The chess champion cited MCCT’s recent partnership with FTX crypto exchange that allowed professional chess players to compete for a prize fund of 2.1825 Bitcoin (BTC) ($81,079). “NFTs help the chess community celebrate great moments and possibly …

Bitcoin (BTC) adoption is growing in the auction world, where privacy is a key concern. An anonymous buyer purchased a legendary rally car driven by iconic rally figures Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz, which was thought to be long-lost in an auction for half a million Australian dollars ($360,000) and reportedly used Bitcoin as a payment method. Australian auction house Lloyds Auctions announced that the 1994 Subaru Prodrive 555 Group A World Rally Championship Car had been found in a barn, covered in dust, in the Victoria state of Australia. The car was originally thought to be valued at 15,000–20,000 …

Nonfungible token (NFT) company Bookblocks.io has partnered with a New York-based organization to help women in Afghanistan have access to education amid the Taliban takeover. Bookblocks.io announced it would be releasing a nonfungible token, or NFT, on Oct. 5 with the proceeds to be given to Women for Afghan Women, an organization that helps to provide women with access to education and vocational training in both Afghanistan and the United States. The artwork, inspired by American author Louisa May Alcott, features half a woman’s face covered by a single butterfly wing with the quote “nothing is impossible to a determined …