A quick response from a number of blockchain security companies has helped facilitate the return of around 70% of the $23 million exploit of decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator Transit Swap. The DEX aggregator lost the funds after a hacker exploited an internal bug on a swap contract on Oct. 1, leading to a quick response from Transit Finance team along with security companies Peckshield, SlowMist, Bitrace and TokenPocket, who wer able to quickly work out the hacker’s IP, email address and associated-on chain addresses. It appears these efforts have already born fruit, as less than 24 hours after the hack, …

As one of the oldest entertainment industries in existence, the music business has experienced many technological advances that enhanced widespread adoption. The digitalization of music meant that artists could reach any audience across the world, and digital distribution gifted people with unlimited access to music. With these advances in distribution came some drawbacks in music monetization. The way musicians make money in a digital format has reduced margins from media or video revenue. Artists have been pushed back to generating revenue from offline endeavors like concerts and selling merchandise as the online landscape has been filled with intermediaries that take …

Tennis legend Maria Sharapova appeared at the Binance Blockchain Week Paris 2022 to share her interest in nonfungible tokens (NFTs). During an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Sharapova mentioned that “she is exposing herself to this new world of crypto and Web3,” noting that the sector will help her better engage with her fans. Sharapova was also one of the strategic investors behind MoonPay’s Series A financing round, yet she mentioned that she aims to bridge her personal experiences to the digital world moving forward. Cointelegraph: What are you doing here today at Binance Blockchain Week Paris? Maria Sharapova: I’m crypto …

A community-driven platform is making a bold prediction for the future: the worlds of DeFi and NFTs will eventually fuse and form a new, brighter star. Starfish Finance says its infrastructure has been built in anticipation of this happening — and it's based on Astar Network, one of Polkadot's top parachains. The Starfish protocol is based on Balancer V2. Users have the freedom to create liquidity pools of up to eight different cryptoassets on top of a full stack DeFi product suite. Beyond its DeFi capabilities, users can stake NFTs on their native chain through Celer Network’s latest IM framework, …

It’s no secret that the fashion industry has started to explore the cryptoverse, with brands like Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Philipp Plein and Tiffany & Co. taking their own path down the metaverse runway. Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week hinted at a new wave of fashion, while Philipp Plein brought the metaverse and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) right into his London shop. The innovative technology mixed with the ever-changing fashion world was an inevitable pair, but there is always room for more. Even during its inception, the promise of the metaverse has convinced people to pay millions for land in the virtual …

Major decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap is in the early stages of raising significant funds to further expand its decentralized finance (DeFi) offerings, according to a new report. Uniswap Labs, a DeFi startup contributing to the Uniswap Protocol, is engaging with a number of investors to raise an equity round of $100 million to $200 million, TechCrunch reported on Sept. 30. The startup is working with investors like Polychain and one of Singapore’s sovereign funds as part of the upcoming funding round, the report notes, citing two anonymous people familiar with the matter. According to the report, Uniswap would be valued …

The company behind the Spartan Race has released a nonfungible token (NFT) collection which will immortalize the names of the initial holders in stone, with plans to build a 35 foot (10.5 meter) statue in Ancient Sparta encircled with 15,000 name-engraved stones. Spartan founder and CEO Joe De Sena plans to bury his ashes under his stone at the site dubbed the “Spartan 300 Memorial” which will pay homage to the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which 300 Spartans were killed. Of the 15,000 NFTs, 300 will be “Super Rare” with holders of that NFT type given the option of …

User activity on blockchain gaming decentralized applications (DApps) surged in September, with a host of games posting significant increases in the number of active users. According to data from DappRadar, seven out of the top 10 games in terms of the number of “unique wallet addresses interacting with dapp’s smart contracts” increased over the past 30 days, with all of the top five games being in the green during that time frame. At the time of writing, the DApps registering growth in the period include Web3 gaming platform Gameta, and blockchain-based games Alien Worlds, Solitaire Blitz, Benji Bananas, and Splinterlands, …

On Sept. 29, global music and entertainment company Warner Music Group (WMG) announced a partnership with nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, Opensea, to provide a platform for select musical artists to build and extend their fanbase into the Web3 community. According to the release, the collaboration between these two entities will allow select WMG artists to get early access to Opensea’s newly rolled-out feature, which enables artists to launch their NFT collections and limited-edition projects on their own customizable and dedicated drop pages. These WMG artists will have access to personalized storytelling on customized landing pages, as well as, to OpenSea’s …

Meta, Facebook and Instagram's parent company, announced another development on its digital arts initiative. As of today, all users on both platforms can connect wallets and share nonfungible tokens (NFTs) across 100 countries. As part of the feature, which has been in testing since May, users will be able to tag creators and collectors and cross-post digital collectibles between platforms without paying any fees. Everyone on @instagram and @facebook can now share their digital collectibles in the US, and on Instagram in the previously announced 100+ countries. Creators like artist Lívia Elektra are sharing their #NFTs on our apps. https://t.co/6yV4HgfHSW …

According to data compiled from Dune Analytics, the weekly trading volume of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, across the blockchain realm has plunged to $114.4 million. This represents a decrease of 98% from the $6.2 billion witnessed around the end of January. Weekly NFT trading volume rose to an all-time high of $146.3 billion in early April before falling off a sharp cliff in May with the start of an ongoing crypto bear market. At the same time, however, the number of wallets owning at least one NFT has skyrocketed to 6.14 million, compared to 3.36 million at the end of …

In this week’s newsletter, read about how UNICEF is using nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to help connect schools to the internet and how post offices are able to revive the philately sector through NFTs. Check out how an NFT gaming project lets many aspects of its game be customizable and sold as NFT packs. In other news, Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu spoke with Cointelegraph and shared his thoughts about Asia’s perception of NFTs. And, don’t forget this week’s Nifty News featuring Walmart’s entry to the Metaverse. UNICEF Giga NFTs to connect schools in developing countries to internet Humanitarian aid organization …