On Feb. 6, the United States Department of the Treasury released a report under the headline “Study of the facilitation of money laundering and terror finance through the trade in works of art.” In fact, only a tiny fraction of the 40-page document is dedicated to the “Emerging Digital Art Market,” by which the department understands the market for nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. Still, even a brief mention of the emerging NFT space in this context can have major implications for the tone of the nascent regulatory debate with regard to the asset class. What the report said The overall …

Manchester United, one of the oldest soccer clubs globally, has confirmed the partnership with blockchain firm Tezos as the official training kit and technology partner. The soccer club aims to introduce its fans to the decentralized Web3 tech amid growing focus from mainstream firms and brands. The team would make its first appearance in the new kit on Saturday against Southampton Man United’s previous sponsorship deal with AON expired last month, and Tezos will be paying 33% on top of the previous agreement at $27 million yearly. Tezos will help the soccer club gain more exposure to Web3 technologies and …

The price of the Axie Infinity (AXS) token has surged by nearly 40% in three days. AXS rallied to over $65, its best level in more than two weeks, as Axie Infinity revealed a revamped reward structure for its player-vs-player (PVP) competition round. In detail, the play-to-earn startup expanded its number of leaderboard slots to 300,000 and boosted the amount of AXS rewards to 117,676 from the earlier 3,000 for the next season. "This will supercharge the competitive Axie scene and create more demand for quality Axie teams in the ecosystem," Axie Infinity explained, adding that their move would create …

Sandbox (SAND) refused to go down despite broader negative market sentiment in the past 24 hours. Instead, the altcoin logged a breakaway recovery as traders assessed its recent high-profile partnerships as a sign that the project has strong fundamentals. SAND rose 10.23% to $3.38 at the UTC close on Jan.27, followed by another 5.42% spike to $3.57 on Friday. In contrast, Bitcoin (BTC), dropped 1.41% within the same timeframe. SAND adoption booms Traders decided to increase their exposure to SAND after the Sandbox announced partnerships with American rapper Snoop Dogg and Warner Music, a major record label. On Jan. 27 …

A bug in the front end of popular nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea has reportedly led to an exploit allowing users to buy popular NFTs at their previous listing price. The bug seems to be prevalent with Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFT collectibles, where the exploiter managed to buy them at their old listing price and then sold them for the current market price. The affected NFTs include BAYC #9991, BAYC #8924, MAYC #4986. A user named jpegdegenlove is suspected of exploiting the current bug and has reportedly profited 332 Ether (ETH) ($754,000). …

January 2022 continues to be rough for crypto investors as current markets see turbulent fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Some have attributed the slump to recent federal intentions to introduce new rate hikes, and the political turmoil in Kazakhstan which significantly lowered the hash rate of bitcoin. On Jan. 14, the price of Bitcoin dipped below $42,000 as traders continued to hold out hope for bullish signals. NFT trading and blockchain games on the other hand seem to have resisted the dip. According to reports from DappRadar, NFT transactions continued to increase amidst declining crypto prices. …

Daily volume on NFT marketplace LooksRare has already exceeded $394 million following the platform’s official launch on Jan. 10. The platform was able to bring in this customer base by offering only 2% fees on basic sales and zero fees on private sales, compared to competitor OpenSea’s 2.5% fee on every transaction. The project also allows traders to earn rewards in the form of its native LOOKS token for buying and selling NFTs. The premier NFTs that have taken LooksRare by storm are the Meebits collection, which come from LarvaLabs — the same creators behind Cryptopunks and Autoglyphs. Meebits are …

Within months after its launch in April 2021, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has become one of the main reasons Wall Street should take the emerging nonfungible token (NFT) market seriously, thanks to its recent sales turnover of over $1 billion. Celebrities ape into BAYC For the uninitiated, BAYC is a collection of 10,000 cartoons of anthropomorphic apes with stylish clothes and disreputable expressions. Each ape is practically an image file that should be worthless in a sane world. Nonetheless, they have been managing to fetch astonishing sums, sometimes from some of the world's most renowned celebrities. For instance, Jimmy …

Wider adoption of nonfungible tokens (NFT) and play-to-earn games may be on the way, as one of the world's largest gaming companies sees them as the future of the industry. Yosuke Matsuda, CEO of Square Enix, revealed the company's intentions for blockchain and NFT spheres in his new year's message on Saturday. In his letter, Matsuda begins with a discussion of the metaverse before noting that Facebook's renaming to Meta is proof that the concept isn't a passing fad. He expects 2022 to be a year of hype for the metaverse as society begins to slowly embrace virtual worlds and …

According to a recent report by Cointelegraph Research, the volume of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) sold this year could eclipse $18 billion. From artwork, music and in-game characters to videos and photographs, these minted certificates of ownership for digital assets on blockchains are well sought after by collectors, investors and philanthropists alike. They can also be freely traded across decentralized NFT platforms such as OpenSea. Without further ado, let's look at the biggest trends developing in the NFTs space. 1. Celebrity and contemporary NFTs Of course, at the number one place this year, as there was no shortage of NFT drops …

In an effort to democratize access to nonfungible tokens, art collections and other digital assets of value for the masses, Bitwise Asset Management launched its new index fund on Dec. 16. As per the announcement, the Bitwise Blue-Chip NFT Index Fund is designed to allow accredited investors to invest in major nonfungible tokens and art collections. The NFT industry has exploded in 2021. Retailers throughout the world purchased millions of dollars worth of CryptoPunks, drawing institutional and accredited investors. In the third quarter of 2021, NFT trading volumes surpassed $10 billion for the first time. The crypto firm stated that …

On Thursday, Adidas announced it was entering the Metaverse in collaboration with Bored Ape Yacht Club, gmoney NFT, and PUNKS comic. In an article posted on the Adidas mobile app, the developers behind the initiative said the following: This autumn, Adidas, known for celebrating ideas at the bleeding edge of originality, it settling in at the frontier of creativity: The Metaverse. Our goal there? To see every one of its inhabitants thrive. The Metaverse is where anyone can express their most original ideas and be their most authentic selves, in whatever form they might take. And thanks to the blockchain …