Tokens
NFT 2.0: The next generation of NFTs will be streamlined and trustworthy
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have been in the headlines for the past few years. While swaths of the population have tried to get their head around why NFTs exist, demand has soared, institutions have been built, and the lingo has entered our collective consciousness. There is an elephant in the room, though: NFTs are difficult to use and a majority of them are digital snake oil. But these problems create the opportunity to provide answers. The accessibility and legitimacy of NFTs are both ripe for change. As funding pours into the space, the market is starting to mature, and that change is gaining momentum. We’re entering a new era of NFTs — NFT 2.0 — where the technology will be more easily accessible by the mainstream, and the underlying value proposition of the NFTs will be more transparen...
GPU prices are still on a decline: Is Bitcoin’s sorrow gamers’ joy?
The prices of graphics processing units (GPUs), also known as graphics cards, are undoubtedly still a far cry from the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). However, they aren’t what they used to be either, especially considering what GPU prices looked like just a year ago. For instance, the price of a GPU from Nvidia GeForce RTX 30-series is 14% over its MSRP, according to reports from 3D Center. Whereas AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 is up 7% from its MSRP from April 17 and May 8. On the other hand, it is the first time since January that AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 dropped below 10% over MSRP. Meanwhile, just a month ago, these same prices were 19% and 12% above their MSRPs, respectively. The Nvidia RTX 3080 currently goes for a price range between $1,000 to $1,300. Despite being at such a long ...
Enforcement and adoption: What do UK’s recent regulatory aims for crypto mean?
In April, the United Kingdom’s Economic and Finance Ministry, also known as Her Majesty’s Treasury, announced its intention to put the United Kingdom at the forefront of technology by bringing stablecoins under the country’s payments regulation — a bold move that looks especially intriguing in contrast to the recent shock, caused by TerraUSD’s (UST) depegging. Later, in May, during the annual Queen’s Speech, Prince Charles informed the Parliament about two bills that will support “the safe adoption of cryptocurrencies” and “create powers to more quickly and easily seize and recover crypto assets.” Taken together, these initiatives give an impression of the nation’s growing interest in digital assets, which comes as no surprise, given the inevitable competition for innovation with the Europ...
ADDX bags $58M to reduce min. private investment by 10x via smart contracts
ADDX, a blockchain and smart contract-based digital securities platform from Singapore raised $58 million from mainstream financial institutions to fund its goal of reducing minimum private investment sizes via tokenization and fractionalization. The Monetary Authority of Singapore regulates ADDX as a digital securities exchange that aims to democratize private markets. The Pre-Series B funding round saw participation from the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), UOB, Nasdaq-listed Hamilton Lane and Thailand’s Krungsri Bank, which has brought total funds raised by ADDX to around $120 million. As explained in the announcement, ADDX uses blockchain technology and smart contracts to tokenize and fractionalize private markets, including pre-IPO equity, private equity, and hedge funds and bonds. A...
GameStop unveils beta cryptocurrency wallet and upcoming NFT platform
American electronics retail firm GameStop has taken a step into the world of cryptocurrencies, unveiling a proprietary blockchain wallet that will feature nonfungible token functionality. The GameStop Wallet will allow gamers to acquire, send and store Ether (ETH), ERC-20 tokens and NFTs through a self-custodial browser extension running on the Ethereum blockchain. A mobile application is also in the works. It’s official! The GameStop Wallet is here. Download: https://t.co/dK2dmRmwRI — GameStopNFT (@GameStopNFT) May 23, 2022 The wallet will run on Ethereum’s Loopring layer-2 scaling protocol designed for decentralized exchanges, which boasts of high throughput, low-cost trading and payment capability. Users will be able to download and install the wallet extension through the Chrome Web St...
Do Kwon shares LUNA burn address but warns ‘LUNAtics’ against using it
The recent Terra revival plan announced by Do Kwon, the co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, received mixed reactions as many questioned the effectiveness of a hard fork in reviving the fallen prices of Terra (LUNA) and TerraUSD (UST) tokens. Instead, the part of the community recommended burning LUNA as the most plausible way to achieve a comeback. Kwon’s proposal to preserve the Terra ecosystem involves hard forking the existing Terra blockchain without the algorithmic stablecoin and redistributing a new version of the LUNA tokens to investors based on a historical snapshot before the death spiral. However, several crypto entrepreneurs, including Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, opined that: “Reducing supply should be done via burn, not fork at an old date, and abandon everyone who tried to rescue ...
Blockchain, crypto set to take sports industry beyond NFT collectibles
Bitcoin (BTC) has been attributed as the most prominent blockchain use case, showing the technology’s prowess in successfully delivering an immutable and truly decentralized ledger over the past 13 years. Adding to the years of innovations since then— that saw the introduction of altcoins, non-fungible tokens (NFT), decentralized finance (DeFi) and more, a study conducted by fintech giant Deloitte highlighted the untapped potential of the crypto ecosystem to open up newer markets for the sports industry. Fan tokens and NFTs were first introduced to the sports industry to increase fan engagement via collectibles and voting mechanisms. However, Deloitte, one of the Big 4 accounting firms, envisions the industry further embracing crypto and blockchain technology over the coming years: “A nexu...
Life-changing money: The 10 most expensive NFTs sold to date
Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, are turning out to be a treasure store with prices striding into the millions of dollars. Instances of an NFT garnering more than $69 million or a tweet fetching $2.9 million are not a fantasy, but an incredible reality. In 2021, an NFT by digital artist Beeple, or Mike Winkelmann, sold for a whopping $69 million, making NFTs a media hotshot and opening the floodgates for a string of other NFT sales, many of these in millions of dollars. Prompted by the plentiful talk about NFTs, stars like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Eminem, Grimes and many more have hopped onto the NFT bandwagon. In 2022, NFTs have been garnering attention from investors, artists and collectors alike. Let’s take a glance at the 10 most expensive NFTs sold to date: Beeple’s Crossroads — $6.6 ...
Utility tokens vs. equity tokens: Key differences explained
Investors familiar with the concept of equity investing will find equity tokens to be an extension of the same thought process as initial public offerings while those with a riskier appetite can venture into plonking their capital on the utility tokens in which they believe. One glaring difference between utility and equity tokens is the fact that the former is not regulated as they provide access to a service rather than a specific investment in an asset or company as do equity tokens. However, for those asking the question of whether utility tokens can be traded, the answer is that they are similar to equity tokens in this aspect and are available for trading on various exchanges. To answer whether utility tokens are good investments though, any money put into a utili...
DeFi attacks are on the rise — Will the industry be able to stem the tide?
The decentralized finance (DeFi) industry has lost over a billion dollars to hackers in the past couple of months, and the situation seems to be spiraling out of control. According to the latest statistics, approximately $1.6 billion in cryptocurrencies was stolen from DeFi platforms in the first quarter of 2022. Furthermore, over 90% of all pilfered crypto is from hacked DeFi protocols. These figures highlight a dire situation that is likely to persist over the long term if ignored. Why hackers prefer DeFi platforms In recent years, hackers have ramped up operations targeting DeFi systems. One primary reason as to why these groups are drawn to the sector is the sheer amount of funds that decentralized finance platforms hold. Top DeFi platforms process billions of dollars in transactions e...
Rising global adoption positions crypto perfectly for use in retail
Even though the cryptocurrency market seems to be going through a bit of a lull at the moment, there’s no denying the fact that the industry has grown from strength to strength over the last few years, especially from an adoption perspective. To this point, a recent study revealed that the number of adults in the United States using digital assets for everyday purchases will increase by 70% by the end of the year when compared to 2021, with the metric rising from 1.08 million to 3.6 million users. The study’s chief author suggests that as the crypto market’s volatility continues to reduce — thanks to the growing use of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) — more and more people will look at these offerings as a legitimate means of payment. In fact, by the end of 20...
What are the top social tokens waiting to take off? | Find out now on The Market Report
“The Market Report” with Cointelegraph is live right now. On this week’s show, Cointelegraph’s resident experts discuss the social tokens you should be keeping a close eye on. But first, market expert Marcel Pechman carefully examines the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) markets. Are the current market conditions bullish or bearish? What is the outlook for the next few months? Pechman is here to break it down. Next up: the main event. Join Cointelegraph analysts Benton Yaun, Jordan Finneseth and Sam Bourgi as each makes his case for the top social token. First up, we have Bourgi with his pick of STEEM, the native token of the Steem social blockchain network, which rewards users for content creation. Its aim is to give back value to content creators who contribute on the platform. Although is ...
