Značka: NBA

Texas to probe FTX endorsements by Tom Brady, Stephen Curry and other celebs

NFL quarterback Tom Brady and NBA point guard Stephen Curry are reportedly among the celebrities facing a probe from the Texas financial regulator over their promotion of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange, FTX. Joe Rotunda, director of enforcement at the Texas State Securities Board reportedly told Bloomberg in a Nov. 22 report that the Texas State Securities Board is scrutinizing payments received by celebrities to endorse FTX US, what disclosures were made and how accessible they were for investors.Rotunda however noted that while the watchdog was taking a “close look at them,” the celebrities’ endorsements of FTX were not an “immediate priority,” but would be part of the “regulator’s larger probe into FTX’s collapse.”Both Brady and Curry have also been named in a Nov. 15 class-action lawsuit against FTX, along with former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.The lawsuit alleged that they “controlled, promoted, assisted in, and actively participated” in FTX Trading LTD and West Realm Shires Services Inc.Others named in the class action include model Gisele Bundchen, the Golden State Warriors basketball team, NBA player Udonis Haslem and co-creator of Seinfeld Larry David. Cointelegraph reached out to the Texas State Securities Board for comment but did not receive a reply before publication.Related: The SEC should be aiming at Do Kwon, but it’s getting distracted by Kim KardashianIn the past surveys have found that nearly half of retail investors will follow digital asset advice from the social media accounts of celebrities and influencers without question, and this has seen more than a few use their influence to shill crypto products and projects. In October, reality TV star Kim Kardashian was fined by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for “touting on social media” about the EMAX without disclosing she was paid $250,000 to post about it.Kardashian has neither admitted to nor denied the SEC’s allegations, but settled the charges and agreed to not promote any cryptocurrency assets until 2025.

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Esports team TSM suspends $210M sponsorship deal with FTX

Professional esports organization Team SoloMid (TSM) (previously TSM FTX) has suspended its $210 million sponsorship deal with the now-bankrupt FTX crypto exchange “effective immediately” following the cryptocurrency trading platform’s shock collapse last week.The United-States-based esports organization made the announcement in a Nov. 16 tweet to its 2.2 million followers, adding that the decision was made after “monitoring the evolving situation and discussing internally.”We’ve suspended our partnership with FTX effective immediately. pic.twitter.com/u8vQSWnAbX— TSM (@TSM) November 16, 2022The $210 million deal was put to paper in Jun. 2021, which resulted in the renaming of TSM to TSM FTX. At the time of the deal, the esports organization said it would allocate its new resources to all corners of the globe by opening offices in Asia, Europe and South America, according to Esports insider.TSM also purchased $1 million worth of FTX’s native token, FTT, which was distributed to players and employees. Following FTX’s collapse last week, TSM in a Nov. 13 tweet said the firm was discussing its legal counsel “to decide the best next steps to protect our team, staff, fans and players.”TSM Statement on FTX pic.twitter.com/nbiCCnciNF— TSM (@TSM) November 13, 2022

In its most recent announcement, TSM said its partnership suspension with FTX means that FTX branding would be scraped off TSM’s official name, team and player social media profiles and jerseys, stating: “This means that FTX branding will no longer appear on any of our org, team and player social media profiles, and will also be removed from our player jerseys.”TSM also took the opportunity to confirm with its stakeholders that its balance sheet remains intact and would be so for the foreseeable future without FTX’s support:“TSM is a strong, profitable and stable organization. We forecast profitability this year, next year and beyond. The current situation with FTX does not affect any part of TSM’s operating plan, which was set earlier this year.”TSM is most well known for its participation in League of Legends, one of the largest multiplayer online battle arena video games that is played competitively. TSM also fields players in the online games Dota 2, Apex Legends and Valorant.TSM isn’t the only company to have struck off a massive sponsorship agreement with FTX following its collapse. The NBA’s Miami Heat took things one step further than TSM in announcing to terminate its business relationship with FTX in a Nov. 12 Twitter post:Miami-Dade County and the Miami HEAT have released the following statement pic.twitter.com/ERZo1IsZ2o— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) November 12, 2022

The Miami Heat added that they’re looking to find a new naming rights partner for the arena, which was officially renamed to FTX Arena in Mar. 2021 following a 19 year sponsorship agreement worth $135 million. Related: FTX collapse: The crypto industry’s Lehman Brothers momentThe Mercedes Formula 1 team was another sports team to suspend its sponsorship with Sam Bankman-Fried’s fallen empire, which was announced shortly after FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 14.Grand Prix 247 reported that in a recent video call, the CEO of Mercedes’ Formula 1 team Toto Wolff stated that while he still believes in the long-term prospects of blockchain and cryptocurrency, FTX’s collapse provided a textbook example of the many vulnerabilities still present in the industry:“This situation is very unfortunate. We considered FTX because they were one of the most credible and solid, financially sound partners that were out there.”“Out of nowhere we can see that a crypto company can basically be on its knees and gone one week. That shows how vulnerable the sector still is,” the executive added. But not every sports organization with a business affiliation to FTX has pulled the pin yet.The Major League Baseball (MLB) is currently in discussing with its legal counsel about what the best course of action is, according to SportTechie.

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Steph Curry files trademark for the 'Curryverse' where players earn NFTs

National Basketball League (NBA) megastar Steph Curry looks set to introduce his own version of the Metaverse to NBA’s 650 million fans — filing a “Curryverse” trademark application on Oct. 26. If approved, the United States-based trademark application, filed by SC30 Inc. will grant the four-time NBA champion exclusive rights for “entertainment services, namely, personal and virtual and metaversal appearances.”According to the filing, the “Curryverse” will also provide “online gaming services in the nature of virtual worlds,” where players will be able to earn both fungible and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), which will be able to be bought or sold at an “online marketplace.”The application also covers virtual clothing and goods, business management and investment services, charitable fundraising services, and software as a service (Saas) featuring software platforms for designing, promoting, selling, and exchanging NFTs, among others. While more specific details of the Curryverse haven’t been announced, the NBA star’s metaverse will likely garner a lot of attention given his 47 million fan base on Instagram and 17.1 million followers on Twitter. While the Metaverse-related trademark appears to be a first for Curry, it definitely isn’t his first move into Web3. In August 2021, Curry first became a part of the NFT community following a $206,000 Bored Ape Yacht Club purchase. The Golden State Warriors player’s liking for golf also led him to invest in LinksDAO — a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that aimed to build the “world’s greatest golf community.”The NBA superstar has also featured in an FTX advertisement in March as part of his ambassador role with the popular crypto exchange. NBA’s Miami Heat gets Web3 sponsorMeanwhile, just eight days after landing a multi-year partnership with National Football League (NFL) team New England Patriots, blockchain infrastructure firm Chain has just become the official “Web3/Blockchain infrastructure partner” of the Miami Heat. Chain stated in its Nov. 1 press release that its partnership will aim to “bridge the gap between the sports industry and Web3 technology” by providing a suite of products and services that “address the complexities of overall blockchain management.”Related: Aussie media company goes all in on NBA fan engagement with NFTsThe partnership will also see Chain’s logo be imprinted on the Miami Heat player’s pre-game shooting shirt, with the blockchain solutions company also set to prominently feature on the NBA team’s social media platforms. Things are HEATing up this fall. Chain is proud to announce a partnership with the @MiamiHEAT as their official Web3/Blockchain infrastructure partner. Read more: https://t.co/7mgQVHPmAR pic.twitter.com/FhBeabooAp— Chain (@Chain) October 31, 2022In Mar. 2021, FTX entered a $135 million partnership with the Florida-based team to secure naming rights to the Miami Heat’s 21,000 seat stadium until 2040 — which is now officially called FTX Arena.

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Nifty News: Meta wants 50% of NFT sales, Coke’s Metaverse flavor… and more

Meta has announced plans to charge 47.5% on each item sold on its new Meta Quest app store, including nonfungible tokens (NFT) when they are available.The Meta Quest app store sells apps and games on the Horizon Worlds platform which Meta, formerly Facebook, is using to build its part of the Metaverse. CNBC reported on April 13 that the store is also expected to sell NFTs. The fee is broken down as a hardware platform fee of 30% per transaction plus a 17.5% usage fee on Horizon Worlds.Potential customers aren’t pleased with what is seen as an outrageously high cut. Popular NFT collector Pranksy — who has nearly 400,000 Twitter followers — called it “the greatest example of being completely and utterly out of touch with something that I have ever witnessed.”The ‘pretty competitive’ 47.5% sales fee for @Meta’s planned #NFT platform is perhaps the greatest example of being completely and utterly out of touch with something that I have ever witnessed. #ZuckBux #Hopeless – article via @BusinessInsiderhttps://t.co/RpqwE4EJ0E— Pranksy (@pranksy) April 13, 2022By comparison, the most popular NFT marketplace OpenSea takes a flat 2.5% fee while its close competitor LooksRare charges just 2% per transaction. Apple’s App Store takes a maximum 30% cut on sales.Coca-Cola BytesAmerican food giant Coca-Cola has unveiled a new product called Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Byte which was apparently born in the Metaverse and tastes like pixels.The drink’s gimmick as a physical drink from the Metaverse includes the fact that it comes with an Island Code that unlocks special maps and four mini games on the popular Fortnite video game by Epic Games. Epic recently scored a $2 billion investment from Sony and LEGO to build its own part of the Metaverse, although whether Fortnite is actually a metaverse right now is debatable.The product line will launch on May 2 and will only be available in the United States, Latin America, and China. What do you think taste like? Reply with your most creative guesses. pic.twitter.com/MJDZE4VHNm— Coca-Cola (@CocaCola) April 4, 2022

Join the Mile-high NFT clubAirline asset tokenization platform TravelX and Spanish airline Air Europa have partnered up to allow the airline to issue tickets in NFT form as NFTickets.The specially-designed series of tickets grant owners a business class flight to Miami Beach on Nov. 29, 2022. There will be a total of 10 NFTickets auctioned off every 14 days on the Travel Exchange auction platform, with the NFT collection issued on the Algorand blockchain network.The Eiffel Tower in Paris will host the event for the final bid of the first NFTicket to be released and sold during Paris Blockchain Week on April 14.NBA may be going virtualThe National Basketball Association (NBA) has filed a patent application for a laundry list of items it wishes to make into “virtual consumer merchandise.” Among the 37 items that could become NFTs are game tickets, collectibles, and player autographs.The wide array of virtual items is paving the way for the league to enter the Metaverse as it appears applications for everything but the playing surface have been submitted.NBA players are already immortalized in NFT form on NBA Top Shot by Dapper Labs. Other Nifty NewsJapanese gaming mainstay Sega wants to include cloud technology and NFTs into its Super Game project designed to connect different games together. While NFT collectors may applaud the decision, some in the gaming community disagree with the move.NFT startup Genie has locked in $150 million in Series C funding with a $1 billion valuation. This makes the NFT avatar creator and new Metaverse entrant a certified tech unicorn.

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3x NBA champion Andre Iguodala becomes the latest athlete to receive salary in crypto

On Monday afternoon, Andre Iguodala, three-time NBA champion and the professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors, announced via Twitter that he would be taking a portion of his estimated $2.647 million annual salary in Bitcoin (BTC). In addition, Iguodala added that he will give out $1 million worth in BTC to fans to increase the digital currency’s adoption. Payments were said to be facilitated by Block’s (formerly Square) Cash App.I’m excited to announce I’m taking part of my salary in BITCOIN w. Cash App! Bitcoin is the future, @klaythompson and I are both believers. To make bitcoin more accessible, we’re giving out $1M in bitcoin back to fans today. Drop your $cashtag w. #PaidInBitcoin & follow @CashApp— andre (@andre) January 10, 2022Iguodala joins the growing list of celebrities, athletes, influencers, and government officials that are doing the same. At least seven NFL players are currently choosing crypto over cash salaries. Last year, Mayor of Miami Francis Suarez and New York City Mayor Eric Adams said they would take their paychecks in BTC, with Suarez taking it up a notch by investing in BTC with his 401(k) retirement savings as well.Taking paychecks in BTC or other crypto could potentially benefit both employers and employees alike. For starters, companies with large percentages of international workers would not need their staff’s private banking information, nor have to make costly, slow turnaround wire transfers to make payments. In addition, it saves employees the trouble of moving their fiat funds to crypto exchanges for investments as they can readily swap the digital currencies they receive for the one they wish. Volatility issues are also easily resolved. Employees who are skeptical or bearish on coins’ near-term movements can simply exchange their crypto paycheck to stablecoins the instant they receive them via a wallet or exchange.

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