NFTs

Now the volume for its crypto on-ramp business has fallen by about 70 percent, its chief operating officer has left, and the chief technology officer left, too. The bagholders include Tiger Global Management and Coatue. Unclear what this all means for the celebs who bought in because of the NFT concierge service!

The US government’s criminal case against the former product leader of OpenSea, Nate Chastain, kicks off this week. Chastain is accused of buying up NFTs that he knew would be featured on OpenSea’s homepage, then selling them shortly thereafter as their value spiked.

The question isn’t so much whether Chastain did this, it’s whether doing this is illegal. As a former SEC enforcement lawyer told Reuters, “Is it insider trading of anything?”

That’s right, you can use them to serve complaints now. Congratulations to the lawyers!

All memes aside, Bloomberg reporter Isaiah Poritz says closing arguments are scheduled today in the “first ever NFT trademark jury trial in Manhattan.”

French luxury designer Hermès International SA is suing Mason Rothschild, the creator of “MetaBirkin” NFTs that are based on its iconic handbags. While Hermès views the collection as a ripoff, Rothschild says they’re art, and everyone else is wondering how NFTs are still a thing.

As Reddit points out, today is the one-year anniversary of “Line Goes Up,” Dan Olson’s long investigation/treatise on what NFTs really are... and why there’s really not much value in them at all. Twelve months later it’s amazing how much the video gets right, and how little has changed since. Still a fun watch, too!

Each room of this Hollywood-based “Crypto House” contains questionable crypto- or NFT-inspired decor, including Bored Ape, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and Tweet-themed wallpaper.

Much like the actual crypto market, the value of the house has tumbled in recent weeks, falling from $1.2 million to $949k since it was first listed on Zillow in October 2022. We can’t imagine why.

It’s not the updated version of the label’s iconic prisoner logo (Pen & Pixel could do it so much better).

And it’s definitely not the plan for the brand — purchased by Snoop earlier this year — to have a “multi-category cultural platform across music, fashion, entertainment, and cannabis, all united by the blockchain for a new generation.”

But whoever made sure to have DJ Battlecat handling this Death Row Cannabis teaser music instead of going for a cringe BAYC tie-in deserves a raise — paid in real money, not crypto.

Daniel Alegre will be CEO of Yuga Labs starting sometime in the first half of 2023. Alegre isn’t a huge name in the gaming space — he’s only been at Activision Blizzard since 2020; before that he was at Google for over a decade.

But Yuga is certainly hiring him for his gaming credentials: the NFT group is trying to rapidly morph itself into a metaverse gaming company. Now, it’s Alegre’s job to make it happen.

Current FTX implosion notwithstanding, how seriously should you take crypto, NFTs, and everything else blockchain? Molly White, who runs Web3 is Going Just Great, gave a 15-minute presentation at Web Summit 2022 on exactly that topic — you should watch it (or read the transcript).
Here’s a small snippet:

There will be a web3. The web has been evolving ever since its inception, and there is no doubt in my mind that we are overdue for a fundamental shift. Will it be blockchains and crypto? Venture capitalists and blockchain startup founders really hope that you think so.

I hope that the rest of us will continue working towards utopian goals like the ones I mentioned earlier—the ones that many people who are working in web3 and on web3 projects share—without necessarily being shackled to a technology that holds little promise for the web.

After launching in the US and roughly 100 other countries, Meta is starting to roll out Instagram’s NFT integration in around 40 European countries, including the UK. There’s no support for minting or selling as yet.

Instead, Europeans can link a wallet to display NFTs that they’ve created or bought elsewhere. But with the NFT market flatlining, has Instagram missed the bandwagon?

Apple updated its App Store guidelines today to clarify that NFTs are still subject to the up to 30 percent commission the company takes on in-app purchases.

Apps may allow users to browse NFT collections owned by others, provided that the apps may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.

Not sure how to feel about Meta’s new VR headset and the motion-captured avatar legs revealed this week?

Verge senior reporter Adi Robertson spoke to Tech News Weekly about using the device and everything we learned about Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse plans.

Earlier in the episode, senior news editor Richard Lawler discussed CNN’s NFT shutdown and why people who bought its tokens might be angry about the rug disappearing from underneath their feet.

Call them NFTs, try to hide them by changing the name to digital collectibles, or do whatever you want to do — this doesn’t look like the sales activity chart of something that people are actually interested in as a product.