NFT Mania

June 1, 2022

Former OpenSea Employee Charged with Insider Trading

The U.S. Department of Justice charged a former OpenSea employee with criminal insider trading. The incident, which took place last September, became a watershed moment for the crypto and NFT ecosystem.

OpenSea’s Head of Product, Nathaniel Chastain, used internal information to make millions of dollars. Namely, he knew which NFT projects would appear on the OpenSea homepage and purchased those assets in advance of their feature. He then sold them for multiples more once they listed.

Chastain was shown to the door at the company not long after the September incident. He was reportedly working on a new NFT project called Oval, according to investor materials.

He was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering today. The maximum sentence of each are 20 years in prison. He was arrested in New York this morning.

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Theft of $1.7 Million in NFTs On OpenSea Leads to a Lawsuit

February 23, 2022

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said that though NFTs were new, criminality is not. “Nathaniel Chastain betrayed OpenSea by using its confidential business information to make money for himself.” 

Williams underscored the office’s commitment to “stamping out insider trading” on both the stock market and blockchain.

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NFT Mania

July 1, 2021

FREE NFTs!!!

Social media is no stranger to NFTs. Twitter and Reddit are riding the wave at the moment. 🌊

Recently, Twitter gave away 140 free NFTs through Rarible, a marketplace. Twitter posted seven tweets yesterday showing off the digital art— 20 copies of each going for $0. The pieces were titled “Furry Twitter,” “Vitamin T,” and “Reply Guy,” to name a few.

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NFT Mania

February 16, 2022

NYSE’s Latest Trademarks Suggest a Future in Digital Assets

OpenSea and Rarible, two major NFTs marketplaces, might face tougher competition in the future. After all, everybody is getting into the NFT space – Coinbase, FTX, and crypto.com just make up a few of the names that have begun making inroads in the burgeoning space.  

Now, a titan of legacy finance might be looking to make their own move – the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) submitted a trademark application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the use of “NYSE” in blockchain and crypto-related products and services. 

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NFT Mania

November 23, 2021

The Art Craze Phase 🎨

The last two weeks have boasted a record for art sales — over $2.6 billion of artwork/collectibles was sold at major auction houses. Experts are citing fears over inflation and the ‘collectibles craze’ (think NFTs) as reasons for soaring sales.

Over the last two weeks, art sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Philips have raked in over $2.65 billion. According to Pi-eX, a data analytics firm specializing in art, this year’s art craze has even topped 2014’s record $2.59 billion worth of artwork sold. Bank of America’s head of specialty segments, Evan Beard, shared:

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NFT Mania

September 22, 2021

LaLiga Joins the Non-Fungible League

Dapper Labs, creator of NBA Top Shot, has announced a partnership with LaLiga, the leading soccer league which includes teams like Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, and more. 🥳 Today, the Canadian blockchain studio announced its soccer marketplace’s launch in the summer of 2022. ⚽

Similar to the NBA Top Shot project (where fans can buy, sell, and trade NBA moments), Dapper’s partnership with LaLiga will sell video moments from current seasons and past decades. The marketplace will run on Dapper’s Flow blockchain. Given the history of rivalries between LaLiga teams and fans, it’ll be interesting to see how they react to the new marketplace. 

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NFT Mania

March 14, 2022

Now You Can Buy Lazy Apes and Strange-Looking Humans On One Platform

Two monoliths of the NFT ecosystem – CryptoPunks ($PUNKS.NFT) and the Bored Ape Yacht Club ($BAYC.NFT) – will now be owned and operated by the same company. 

Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, has acquired the CryptoPunks and Meebits from developer Larva Labs. While the merger is historically significant, it will create a small “cultural monopoly” in Yuga Labs, which will now own two of the world’s largest, and most important, NFT collections.

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NFT Mania

June 6, 2022

Kanye West Applies For Yeezus Brand Blockchain Trademarks

Kanye West once famously told his fans that his focus was on building “real projects in the real world.” A post made on his Instagram some months ago indicated he had no interest in doing a “f***ing NFT”, pouring water on hopes that the hip-hop and rap icon would make a move in the world of web3.

However, one of the scene’s most innovative faces might be changing tune. A new trademark application for his Yeezus brand, filed May 27, was done so in a peculiar category: “blockchain-based non-fungible collectibles, assets, currencies and tokens” and “online retail store services featuring downloadable movies, videos, television, music, entertainment, digital art.”

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NFT Mania

April 11, 2022

Pudgy Penguins Dive Into the NFT Sea With New Hope

The Pudgy Penguins ($PUDGYPENGS.NFT) project is now under new leadership after closing its successful 750 ETH ($2.5 million) sale. A group led by Pudgy Penguins holder and Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Luca Netz will helm the new leadership by purchasing the whole project, as well as the royalty rights from its four co-founders. By controlling the project, the buyers’ group will be able to launch a token and send airdrops to other NFT holders, among other rights.

The new sale might breathe some life into Pudgy Penguins NFT, whose story is full of drama and tragedy. It made headlines last summer due to its unique collection of 8,888 chubby Antarctic creatures with different types of crowns, hats, and bow ties. Soon the project became one of the most successful NFT collections, raking in over 45,400 ETH in sales on OpenSea, which is approximately equal to about $136 million at today’s $ETH.X prices. 

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