Are you ready for some NFTs news?
We've prepared a new article that covers the latest news and updates in the world of Web3 and NFTs. Read them below!
Contents
📈Macro - How MrBeast contributes to the NFTs ecosystem;
🗞️ Last week's news - ETH Smartphones, TinyTap, ParaX, Rare Protocol, OpenSea, NFTfi, tokenized US government bonds;
💰Investments/Financing - MoonPay Ventures, FirstMate;
📣 Projects news/Updates - Yuga Labs, DeGodsNFT, Pudgy Penguins, Alts by Adidas, RTFKT, Mercedes-Benz;
⚖️ Legal - Metaverse Lawyer writes about how the SEC charged Impact Theory, the media and entertainment company founded by Tom Bilyeu, with offering securities in the form of NFTs;
⚙️NFTility, by Mtk - Uptrip;
📚 Dictionary - Phygital, Seize the memes of production;
💸 Sale of the week - Mutant Ape #30002;
📈 Macro
How does MrBeast contribute to the NFTs ecosystem?
Large-scale adoption will come when we stop talking about adoption. That will happen at the very moment when we use NFTs without knowing we are using them.
Two days ago, MrBeast released a video on YouTube in which, among other things, he talks about NFTs, without mentioning the word NFT once. Or blockchain. Or crypto. Or web3. Nothing. Nada.
Good. Who is MrBeast? In short, at 25 he is the world's most successful YouTuber. He has 181 million subscribers and generally, the videos he uploads have tens or hundreds of millions of views. All kinds of stunts, challenges where he destroys Lamborghinis, trains, planes and anything else you can think of, or others where he changes people's lives, giving them tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars or even operations where people get their sight back & more.
His main YouTube channel here.
Coming back, the video from 2 days ago has already gathered +60 million views. Among all the other things it talks about, it also highlights the Creator League.
Creator League is the place "where 8 of the world's greatest gaming entertainers will compete for huge prizes and glory. As a pass holder, you'll control their team and reap exclusive rewards."
What are those passes? NFTs. They cost $20 each access pass and the 8 contestants who entered have a total of 226 million followers + MrBeast's 180 million. One of the contestants announced that he was considering withdrawing because he didn't know about blockchain technology. And he's kind of a hater.
The other competitors come from different backgrounds, including:
- Bella Poarch, musician & fashion star
- Darren "iShowSpeed" Watkins Jr., football personality, musician and content creator
- Connor "CDawgVA" Colquhoun, voice actor and podcast producer (he's retiring)
- Vinnie Hacker, TikToker
- Cody "Clix" Conrod, Professional Fortnite Player
- Nick "Sapnap" Armstrong, Creator of Minecraft
- OTK, Creative Collective
- Esports organization OpTic Gaming, led by owner and CEO Hector "HECZ" Rodriguez and Call of Duty legend Seth "Scump" Abner
It's only the first round of a long-term competition. The round will run from September to March. Those who buy their passes and get involved in the games will be entered for various prizes ranging from $50k to $200k pools.
The story is longer. Details here. And here.
On the website, in the intro, they say so:
"Gaming competitions wouldn't exist without fans, but they rarely have any decision-making power or participate in the rewards. All that is changing today with the Creators League. In almost every aspect, you, the fans, can control the league. Your Creator. Your Community. Your Call."
In short, we say so: Large-scale adoption will come when we stop talking about adoption. That will happen at the very moment when we use NFTs without knowing we are using them. We had the transition from Read to Write. From Web1 to Web2. Next is the shift from Write to Own. from Web2 to Web3. It's just beginning! LFG!
🗞️ News from last week
- A $1.1M on-chain loan was secured with an NFT representing a complete collection of Supreme Box Logo t-shirts.
- The first 50 Ethereum smartphones sold out in the pre-sale in less than 24 hours. In order to buy these devices, it was necessary to purchase an ethOS NFT and burn it to redeem the phones.
- TinyTap, an ed-tech subsidiary of Web3 developer Animoca Brands, has announced the integration of new NFT artificial intelligence tools aimed at educators and parents.
- Paraspace launches ParaX web3 application, providing a unified interface for NFTs and DeFi applications.
- Rare Protocol has officially launched, and Curation Staking is live on the Ethereum mainnet, allowing curators to stake $RARE to support their favorite artists and earn a percentage of future sales.
- Looking for a job? OpenSea is now hiring and posting jobs directly to their Twitter profile...or better say X.
- NFTfi users can now unlock cash in exchange for future revenue, airdrops and token vesting.
- OpenSea introduces Redeemables Standards for redeemable NFTs, publishing ERC-7496, ERC-7498, SIP-14 and SIP-15.
- Tokenized US government bonds are now available on the XDC network, part of a growing digital bond marketplace.
💰 Investments / Financing
- MoonPay Ventures will invest between $100k and $1M in startups developing web3 and gaming infrastructure tools.
- FirstMate announced a $3.75M funding round. The company is developing a platform that allows creators to easily launch custom marketplaces where they can offer their digital creations to their fans.
📣 Project News / Updates
- Yuga Labs has announced that it will release the beta version of Legends of the Mara (LoTM) based on the Otherside metaverse this month.
- A DeGodsNFT holder has won a Tesla car, part of the Points Parlor rewards scheme.
- The Pudgy Penguins have announced a tour of Asia that will take place between 11 and 15 September, covering Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. When Romania?
- Alts by Adidas has announced that Vending Machine users will have the opportunity to upgrade their features at no additional cost.
- RTFKT said that Cryptokicks will start shipping in the first week of September.
- Mercedes-Benz has revealed additional information about their upcoming NXT Icons. The lie will take place on September 5, at 7 pm EST. More details here.
⚖️ Legal
Impact Theory, the L.A.-based company founded by Tom Bilyeu, has been charged by the SEC with illegally selling securities in the form of NFTs.
On August 28, the SEC charged Impact Theory, LLC, the media and entertainment company founded by Tom Bilyeu, with offering securities in the form of NFTs without following legal registration procedures. Through this offering, Impact Theory raised approximately $30 million from hundreds of investors, including in the United States. Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, Tom Bilyeu will pay $6.1 million to the SEC. The order also establishes a fair fund to return money that harmed investors paid when buying NFTs.
According to the SEC order, from October through December 2021, Impact Theory offered and sold three tiers of NFTs, known as Founder's Keys, which Impact Theory called "Legendary," "Heroic" and "Relentless." The order finds that Impact Theory allegedly encouraged potential investors to consider purchasing a Founder's Key as an investment in the business, stating that investors would profit from their purchases if Impact Theory was successful in its efforts. Among other things, Impact Theory emphasized that it is _"trying to build the next Disney" _and that, if successful, it will offer _"tremendous value" _to buyers of Founder's Keys. The order finds that the NFTs offered and sold to investors would have been investment contracts and therefore securities. Accordingly, Impact Theory allegedly violated federal securities laws by offering and selling these crypto asset securities to the public in an unregistered offering that was not exempt from registration.
"In the absence of a valid exemption, securities offerings in any form must be registered,_" _said Antonia Apps, director of the SEC's New York Regional Office. "Without registration, investors of all types are deprived of the robust disclosure protections and other safeguards long provided by our securities laws."
Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, Impact Theory accepted a cease-and-desist order finding that it violated the registration provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and ordering it to pay a total of more than $6.1 million. The order also establishes a fair fund to return money that injured investors paid when they purchased NFTs. Impact Theory has agreed (i) to destroy all Founder's Keys in its possession or control, (ii) to publish notice of the order on its websites and social media channels, and (iii) to eliminate any royalties Impact Theory may receive from future secondary market transactions involving Founder's Keys.
⚙️ NFTility
Last week, Lufthansa Innovation Hub together with Miles & More announced the launch of the Uptrip app on Polygon. This is a platform through which users of the airlines that make up the Lufthansa Group can get NFTs for every trip. Let's see how it works:
The first step is to download the uptrip.app available in the Apple App Store and Google Play. Upon registration, you will automatically receive a welcome NFT. Then, for each ticket scanned into the app, you will be able to choose 2 cards to complete the collections from the following categories: planes, airlines, cities or special categories.
These cards can then be used to claim available rewards. The higher their value, the more complex the combination of cards needed to access it. NFTs are tradable (coming soon to the platform), but the whole structure comes with a rule: some collections require original cards. These are nothing more than NFTs obtained directly by the holder by scanning personal tickets.
For those who understand the value of the technology behind NFTs very well, the emergence of the big players in Web3 is natural. And this space needs them because as much as we would like major, native Web3 projects to generate traction in the mainstream economy, it may take a significant number of years before they even become sustainable.
Bonus: If you have traveled with any of the above airlines in the last 6 months you can use 2 airline tickets to retroactively claim the related cards.
Until next time, let yourself be inspired and fly as high as you can.
📚 Dictionary
- Phygital - The term Phygital comes from the merging of the words physical and digital - an integration of the physical and digital worlds.
- Seize the memes of production - it's hard to translate that phrase. But if we were to try it would be like this: if we want decentralization, it's time to take "tools, land, and factories" into our own hands. In Web3 it's simple: to do this we started with what was most handy, namely meme culture. Thus, by taking over and owning the memes we have the chance to "get our hands on the means of production".
💸 Sale of the week
Mutant Ape #30002 sold for 500ETH, equivalent to $817k. It was purchased by famous Taiwanese musician Jeffrey Huang, also known as MachiBigBrother.
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