Značka: NFT marketplace

Nifty News: NFT marketplace says no to opt-in royalties, Visa jumps on World Cup NFTs and more

NFT marketplace says no to optional royaltiesWhile nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces such as Ethereum (ETH)-based X2Y2, LooksRare, and Solana (SOL)-based Magic Eden have made the switch over to “optional” creator royalties, a newly launched marketplace is taking a hard stand against it. Find Satoshi Lab, the company behind the popular move-to-earn app StepN has launched its new NFT marketplace named MOOAR on Nov. 1, notably featuring “no optional royalties.” Instead, its NFT royalty policy will be set to a default of 2% but allows creators to set royalties between 0.5% to 10%. There is no option for 0% royalties, nor can it be set by the user.“With the raging debate going on surrounding the paying of royalties, we are aware that many users have been vocal in opposing the enforcement of such royalties,” said the MOOAR team in a Medium post. “Fully empathizing with the sentiment, we strongly believe this ‘cancel culture’ has forced marketplaces into a corner to the point that prominent marketplaces have adopted optional royalties,” it added. Launch Day! Get #MOOAR! Find Satoshi Lab (@FSLWeb3), the company behind STEPN, is thrilled to announce the launch of MOOAR NFT marketplace & launchpad.This milestone is one of many on our roadmap to become a one-stop platform for the Web3 Community. ⬇ [1/10] pic.twitter.com/IfSSo2RWaS— MOOAR | Season #1 (@mooarofficial) November 1, 2022On Aug. 27, Ethereum-based NFT marketplace X2Y2 announced it would be introducing an option that allows buyers to set the royalty fee when buying an NFT. With the new update, buyers on the platform will be given the liberty of setting the amount of royalties they want to contribute to an NFT project. This means that some creators may not receive royalties when their artworks are sold.The controversial move was followed by the Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden on Oct. 15, which announced it would also be moving to an optional royalty model after “difficult reflection and discussion with many creators.”Less than two weeks later on Oct. 27, NFT marketplace LooksRare became the latest to succumb to pressure from buyers, announcing it was doing away with enforcing creator royalties, allowing buyers to choose to pay royalties on an opt-in basis. Visa gets in on World Cup NFT actionCredit card giant Visa has become the latest major company set to cash in on FIFA World Cup-related nonfungible tokens (NFTs) — unveiling a charity auction for five NFTs ahead of the upcoming tournament in Qatar. The auction is in partnership with crypto exchange Crypto.com, with all auction proceeds going to Street Child United, a charitable organization promoting the rights of impoverished children. Each NFT features digital art inspired by icon goals from five famed soccer players including Jared Borgetti, Tim Cahill, Carli Lloyd, Michael Owen, and Maxi Rodriguez, and is part of the “Visa Masters of Movement.”NFT titled “Jared Borgetti 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea Japan™”The credit card company has been a long supporter of NFTs and its ability to provide a “promising medium for fan engagement.”In a report released on Aug. 23, 2021, Visa said that “NFTs appeal to collectors, fans, teams, leagues, and talent.” In particular, NFTs can become primary sources of fan engagement, customer relationship management, and newer revenue streams, it said. Visa’s announcement also comes on the same day that Crypto.com announced it will now be able to self-issue its own Crypto.com Visa card in Singapore, after becoming a Visa Associate Program Member in the city-state.The Crypto.com Visa card will allow the exchange’s users in Singapore to use it for everyday purchases and earn rewards in CRO coins. Visa is the Official Payment Technology Partner of FIFA. Other notable sponsors include Crypto.com which became an official sponsor in March, and blockchain network Algorand, which inked a partnership in May as FIFA’s official blockchain platform. Ripple’s new stomping ground for NFTsAs of Oct. 31, Ripple’s XRPL blockchain has officially become a new home for NFTs. RippleX developers have been working on the project since the XLS-20 proposal was filed on May 25, 2021, which proposed the goal to bring NFTs to the XRP Ledger.At the time, the team described the proposal as one that would introduce extensions to the XRP Ledger that would support a “native non-fungible token type, along with operations to enumerate, purchase, sell and hold such tokens.”Ripple CTO David Schwartz told his 395,600 Twitter followers on Oct. 31 that the XLS-20 standard has now been enabled on the XRP Ledger Mainnet after a vote approved the roll-out of the technology. Schwartz noted that “this presents a key milestone for developers and creators to tokenize any asset and build innovative Web3 projects with utility.”Thanks to the collective effort of the #XRPL community and @RippleXDev engineers, XLS-20 is now enabled on the XRP Ledger Mainnet and a few NFTs have already been minted. (1/4)— David “JoelKatz” Schwartz (@JoelKatz) October 31, 2022

In an accompanying Nov. 1 blog post, Schwartz said the benefits of launching NFTs on the XRP Ledger include much lower costs for minting, trading and otherwise transferring NFTs compared to “leading layer-1 blockchain solutions.”He also said their “no-smart contracts” approach will make NFTs on the XRPL less vulnerable to hacks, while NFTs will include “automatic royalties” which essentially allow creators to be given a share of revenue whenever an NFT is bought or sold. Scammers impersonate indie game, adding NFT twist The indie developer behind farming sim game Coral Island has taken to Twitter to warn its followers of a scammer impersonating them on the internet and purporting to be involved in “GameFi” and NFTs. The developer Stairway Games pointed to the doppelganger account on Twitter on Oct. 31, clarifying that Coral Island “is not an NFT game” and the page has no affiliation with Coral Island. Related: Steph Curry files trademark for the Curryverse, where players earn NFTsThe fake Coral Island Twitter page in question describes itself as “Re-imagined farm sim game goes GameFi. Enter the farmverse!” and links to a similar Instagram page, as well as a fully-decked-out website using assets, lifted directly from the developers. The website includes sections such as “Roadmap” and “Tokenomics,” with claims that it would launch staking, airdrops, character NFTs, and a “token earning system” in the future. Hey folks, this is not us. @coralislandgame is the only Coral Island game twitter page. We are not an NFT game and the page below has no affiliation to Coral Island. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/Aei1650McT— Stairway Games (@stairwaygames) October 31, 2022

Coral Island is a farming simulator game currently in early access, it’s said to be a mix of “Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, Stardew Valley and a tiny bit of Animal Crossing,” according to one user review on gaming platform Steam. More Nifty NewsThe nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace for American video game retailer GameStop has officially gone live on Ethereum layer-2 blockchain ImmutableX, all part of the latest Web3 push from the gaming retailer. There’s been pushback from Silicon Valley CEOs about the current iterations of the Metaverse. Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer called it a “poorly built video game,” while Snap CEO Evan Spiegel hinted that the current iterations of the concept are very basic, and he won’t feel like spending time inside it after a long day of work.

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Nifty News: GameStop NFT market goes live, Hong Kong’s NFT concept and more

The nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace for American video game retailer GameStop has officially gone live on Ethereum (ETH) layer 2 blockchain ImmutableX, all part of the latest Web3 push from the gaming retailer. The pair first partnered in February to build the marketplace offering a $100 million grant for NFT content creators and tech developers before a public beta of the NFT marketplace debuted in July.With the Oct. 31 announcement of the full launch, GameStop’s market will allow for popular Web3 games on ImmutableX such as the role-playing game Illuvium and Gods Unchained to be accessed by users.Gamestop has worked to launch a series of Web3-powered products over the past year with a beta self-custody crypto wallet released in May that integrates with its NFT marketplace. In March the retailer also launched its first beta NFT marketplace on Loopring, an Ethereum-based layer-2 protocol. Most recently in September, GameStop announced a partnership with FTX US aimed at bringing more customers to crypto and working together on e-commerce and online marketing initiatives. Hong Kong’s proof of concept NFTsThe Hong Kong government on Oct. 31 released a policy statement that set out its stance on virtual assets and detailed its related pilot projects, one of which involved NFTs.Its NFT-based project is a proof of concept to promote the usage of NFTs with the government Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and foreign investment department InvestHK issuing NFTs at their flagship Hong Kong Fintech Week event.The NFT serves as proof of attendance for the conference-goers with the statement saying it’s a “digital badge and memento using blockchain technology in celebration of their participation”.The NFT can also be used to create an Augmented Reality (AR) avatar “to experience the Metaverse” while at the event and holders will receive a discount on tickets for the event in 2023.Although it’s not mentioned what blockchain the NFTs are minted on they can be stored in a crypto wallet, or for those who are without a wallet, can be stored as what the statement calls an “NFT-to-be” with a user storing it on an email address until they create a digital wallet.Hong Kong Fintech Week kicked off on Oct. 31 and sees speakers from a range of Web3 firms including Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of FTX, and Sebastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox metaverse and others.Art Gobblers makes over $20M hours after launchNFT project “Art Gobblers” created by Justin Roiland, the co-creator of the popular animated show Rick and Morty, has seen nearly $20.5 million in ETH volumes just seven hours after launch.The project is a collaboration between Roiland and venture capital firm Paradigm, and describes itself as an “experimental decentralized art factory.” According to Blur data, the project is seeing strong launch success with 12,906 ETH in volume at the time of writing. According to a Paradigm overview, the Art Gobblers ecosystem is intended to work by financially incentivizing artists and collectors in a feedback loop for both to contribute to the project, either with better art, or more money.A diagram explaining the intention of the Art Gobblers ecosystem. Image: ParadigmArtists create a drawing using the websites tool which can then be turned into an NFT provided they have enough native tokens called GOO, these NFTs can then be “eaten” by an Art Gobbler which will store the artwork in its “belly gallery” with the NFT artwork associated to that Gobbler on-chain.The project also enacts other deflationary measures such as restricting the amount of NFTs that can be minted and mechanisms that automatically adjust prices in coordination with an issuance schedule.The initial mint saw 2,000 “Gobblers” minted with the community expected to spend GOO tokens to mint a further 8,000 over the next 10 years.Cardano NFTs hit third place for trading volumeCardano (ADA) NFTs surged in trading volume over the past month placing the blockchain in third place according to an Oct. 27 report by analytics platform DappRadar.The report said in the last 30 days Cardano’s NFT volume reached $191 million bringing it to the third-largest NFT protocol behind Ethereum and Solana (SOL).Related: An introduction to decentralized NFT catalogsThe blockchain’s popular NFT marketplace JPG Store saw a 40% increase in trading volume in the last 30 days also which reached a value of $11.2 million.DappRadar attributes the surge to the blockchain’s Vasil hard fork upgrade that went live on Sep. 22 which brought with it increased efficiency for its smart contracts allowing decentralized applications to deploy and run at lower costs.More Nifty News:American National Basketball League (NBA) athlete Steph Curry filed a trademark application for a so-called “Curryverse” that could see the basketball champion granted exclusive rights for, among other things, “metaversal appearances.”A Japanese city has adopted a metaverse-based school to try to get students to attend classes with students able to explore a virtual campus and classrooms, although the students must gain permission from their real school principals before attending.

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Nifty News: LooksRare the latest NFT market to sack royalties, Twitter’s tweeting tiles, and more

Nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace LooksRare is the latest in a string of NFT markets to do away with enforcing creator royalties by default following the likes of Magic Eden and X2Y2.The platform tweeted on Oct. 27 that it would not be supporting creator royalties by default, instead choosing to share 25% of its protocol fees with NFT creators and collection owners. Buyers can still choose to pay royalties when purchasing an NFT but will be on an opt-in basis.Explaining the changes, it said 0.5% of its 2% protocol fee would go to collections, as long as that collection has a receiving address for the funds.LooksRare said the willingness of buyers to pay royalties has “eroded” as a result of many NFT markets now moving to a zero-royalty model adding that these disadvantage creators by removing a source of passive incomeFor this reason, it says it wants to create a “competitive solution” through its fee-sharing model with creators.That’s why we’re choosing to lead the charge in this new landscape, by creating a competitive solution that still benefits creators: diverting protocol fees directly to creators.— LooksRare (@LooksRare) October 27, 2022The reaction from the community was mixed, with some praising LooksRare for the revenue sharing model, but well-known Twitter NFT statistician, the aptly named NFTstatistics.eth, said he doesn’t see the benefit.“The average royalty paid is around 6%” they tweeted, “I wouldn’t say that giving artists 0.5% […] is a competitive solution that benefits creators.”“I do get that everyone is trying to survive in this race to the bottom,” he added.Twitter’s testing token tweeting tilesTwitter’s development team announced on Oct. 27 that it’s testing “NFT Tweet Tiles” with some links to NFTs showing on the platform with a larger picture along with details of the NFT and the name of its creator.Now testing: NFT Tweet Tiles Some links to NFTs on @rarible, @MagicEden, @dapperlabs and @Jumptradenft will now show you a larger picture of the NFT alongside details like the title and creator. One more step in our journey to let developers impact the Tweet experience. pic.twitter.com/AkBisciB1i— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) October 27, 2022

Supported NFT marketplaces, for now, include Rarible, Magic Eden, Dapper Labs, and Jump.trade. It comes after the platform rolled out NFT profile pictures in January but only for its paid subscribers on Apple iOS.The new feature could be a move to appease its most active users as leaked internal Twitter documents show it found the topics of interest among English-speaking heavy users of the platform have shifted over the last two years, with one of the highest-growing topics now being cryptocurrencies.There are also circulating rumors that Twitter is developing a crypto wallet, but so far the claim hasn’t been backed by evidence nor confirmed by Twitter, regardless, speculation abounds that it could be in the works with the takeover by crypto-friendly Elon Musk.EPL lines up $35M NFT deal with SorareThe top English men’s professional soccer league — the English Premier League (EPL) — is working on signing a nearly $35 million (£30 million) NFT deal with Ethereum (ETH) blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare according to Sky News.Sorare is a fantasy soccer league trading card game where players buy, sell, and trade NFTs player cards to manage a team, that team can then enter contests and earn in-game points based on the actual on-pitch performances of the corresponding players.The EPL will hold discussions with its 20 clubs regarding the reported multi-year contract on Oct. 28, the deal will allegedly focus on static images of EPL players assigned to NFTs which of course will allow fans to buy, own, and likely trade them.In March it was reported that the EPL tapped blockchain firm ConsenSys for an NFT deal allegedly valued upwards of $300 million. Still, Sky News reports that a slide in NFT prices had ConsenSys renegotiating to lower the price of the agreement which made Sorare’s offer more attractive to the league.A separate deal between the EPL and blockchain developer Dapper Labs is reportedly also under discussion.New NFT market gains on leader OpenSea in 24-hour trading volume The new NFT marketplace and aggregator Blur hit a record high of 1,610 ETH, around $2.5 million, in 24-hour trading volume on Oct. 26 according to Dune analytics placing it only behind the largest marketplace Opensea.It topped its rivals LooksRare and X2Y2 in terms of market share on the day, taking to Twitter to celebrate the milestone.In the last 24 hours Blur became the #2 NFT marketplace by volume (excluding wash trades)! Blur is also the #1 aggregator.This is a huge win for the entire Blur community who will eventually be majority owners of Blur. It’s only day 7 and we’re just getting started! pic.twitter.com/YpvywTdU5H— Blur (@blur_io) October 26, 2022

The Ethereum-based platform launched a beta version on Oct. 19 with an airdrop of its native token BLUR to anyone who had traded NFTs in the last six months. It says it targets “pro traders” and offers no trading fees and optional royalties.Related: TV streaming providers should start relying on NFTsOn the same day, NFT marketplace X2Y2 tweeted that it would like Blur “to stop using our listings on your website” and subsequently blocked Blur from its platform claiming it violated X2Y2’s terms by using multiple application programming interface (API) keys.More Nifty NewsNFT marketplace myNFT will showcase its first-ever physical NFT vending machine at the NFT.London event slated for Nov. 2–4 that will allow eventgoers to buy an NFT by purchasing a displayed envelope, scanning a code to create a myNFT account, and receiving the NFT in their newly created wallet.Monkey Drainer, the pseudonym of an alleged phishing scammer, has reportedly stolen $1 million worth of ETH so far this week through creating copycat NFT minting websites, and its possible the scams may have stolen over $3.5 million in total so far.

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Crypto Twitter split as another NFT platform moves to opt-in royalties

Solana-based Magic Eden has become the latest NFT marketplace to shift to an optional royalties model, following in the footsteps of X2Y2 in August, albeit reluctantly. Under the optional royalties model, buyers are given the power to set the royalties they want to contribute to an NFT project, meaning there is a chance that some creators may not receive royalties when their artworks are sold.In an Oct. 14 post, the NFT marketplace noted that the decision came after “difficult reflection and discussions with many creators” and came as the “market has been shifting towards optional creator royalties for awhile.” The NFT marketplace shared a graph showing that the number of cumulative wallets using optional royalty marketplaces to buy or sell NFTs skyrocketed in late September. 4/ The market has been shifting towards optional creator royalties for awhile. These charts shows the cumulative wallets that have used optional royalty marketplaces to buy or sell NFTs. pic.twitter.com/wxiU800l2P— Magic Eden (@MagicEden) October 15, 2022However, the move has been met with split opinions from Twitter’s NFT community, with some seeing the move as positive for the long-term health of the industry, while others have labeled skipping royalties as akin to “theft.” Well-known NFT artist Mike “Beeple” Winkleman pointed out to his 700,000 followers on Oct. 15 that while he doesn’t love what Magic Eden and others are doing, the switch from a seller’s fee to a buyer’s premium could be better for the industry long term.while I am obviously pro-royalties and don’t love what @MagicEden and others are doing, I do think there is one key change that they hit on… switching from a sellers FEE, to a buyer’s PREMIUM. i think this is actually much more sustainable long term… — beeple (@beeple) October 15, 2022

Another Twitter user named CaptainFuego, behind Fuego Labs told their nearly 10,000 followers that “Royalties are stupid and shouldn’t exist. Glad to see platforms taking this approach.” Others were more critical of the change. Brocolli DAO argued that “royalties are needed in an immature ecosystem,” noting that as per their calculations, they’ve already lost as much as $27,000 in royalties due to 0% purchases on other marketplaces. ROYALTIES:After Magic Eden’s announcement that they will be making royalties optional, we have taken proactive measures to protect the integrity of our project.We’ve run analytics and determined how much we’ve lost in royalties to 0% purchases on other marketplaces: /1— Broccoli DAO (@Broccoli_DAO) October 15, 2022

“In future we will be blocking anyone who hasn’t paid royalties from accessing our Discord channels. Not paying royalties is theft. We will treat it as such,” they said. Cozy the Caller, a self-proclaimed analyst, made a grim prediction to their 108,000 followers, stating “I can see a scenario in which Magic Eden goes 0% and loses their market share to a marketplace enforcing royalties in an innovative way.”honestly unreal I don’t know who is advising magic eden but imagine fumbling a billion dollar company manI can see a scenario in which magic eden goes 0% and loses their market share to a marketplace enforcing royalties in an innovative waysuch a fumble man unreal— Cozy ⓣhe Caller (@cozypront) October 15, 2022

Magic Eden said the change was not taken lightly, and they “have actively been trying to avoid this outcome and spent the last few weeks exploring different alternatives.”Last month, the NFT marketplace attempted to bring forth a royalty enforcement tool called Meta Shield, aimed at deterring NFT buyers trying to skirt creator royalties by giving creators a tool that could flag and blur NFTs that sold bypassing royalties. Magic Eden noted in its latest post that: “Unfortunately, royalties are not enforceable on a protocol level, so we have had to adapt to shifting market dynamics.”In August, NFT marketplace X2Y2 announced they were introducing a similar option that allows buyers to set the royalty fee when buying an NFT. The move doesn’t appear to have affected the platform’s usage; according to data on NFTGo, in the last three months, X2Y2’s trading volume is ranked first, surpassing OpenSea. NFT marketplace trading volume data. Source: NFTGOCointelegraph has reached out to Magic Eden for further comment but has not received an immediate response at the time of publication. 

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Christie’s moves on-chain with NFT auction platform on Ethereum

After a series of successful high-priced nonfungible token (NFT) sales, Christie’s has launched its own dedicated NFT “on-chain auction platform,” allowing auctions to be carried out fully on-chain on the Ethereum network. The 256-year-old British auction giant, which is also the second-largest auction house in the world by fine-art auction revenue, said its “Christie’s 3.0” allows for NFT auctions to be conducted entirely on the ETH network “from start to finish.” “All transactions, including post-sale, will be automatically recorded on the blockchain.”In its past NFT auctions, the payments from the winning bidder were not always conducted on a blockchain, but the creation of Christie’s marketplace allows transactions to occur in a fashion much like the popular marketplace OpenSea, allowing for payments to be made in Ether (ETH). Christie’s said the new marketplace was developed in partnership with NFT smart contract development startup Manifold, metaverse development firm Spatial and blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.Christie’s 3.0 allows for auctions to be carried out on the Ethereum blockchain network from start to finish. All transactions, including post-sale, will be automatically recorded on the blockchain. (2/4)— Christie’s (@ChristiesInc) September 27, 2022The announcement was paired with an inaugural launch of only one project exclusive to the new marketplace by artist Diana Sinclair, featuring just nine NFTs which can be viewed in an online virtual gallery built by Spatial.Christie’s has seen major success with NFT auctions in the past, such as Beeple’s “Everydays – The First 5000 Days,” which was minted exclusively for the auction house selling for a record $69.3 million in Mar. 2021, becoming one of the most expensive NFTs ever sold.At the time, the sale of the NFT was conducted in partnership with NFT marketplace MakersPlace.The firm also facilitated the auction of nine CryptoPunks in May 2021 with the winning bid coming in at almost $17 million.Related: Beyond the NFT hype: The need for reimagining digital art’s value propositionChristie’s Web3 interest has moved outside of NFT auctions, in July it launched a venture fund aimed at supporting “art-related financial products and solutions” in Web3 with its initial investment going to LayerZero Labs, a company building decentralized applications compatible with multiple blockchains.Rival auction house Sotheby’s has taken a similar interest in Web3 and NFTs, launching its own metaverse in Oct. 2021 and having its share of high-priced NFT sales also.

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'Grotesquely overpriced' — Apple's App Store wants 30% cut on NFT sales

Non-fungible token (NFT) app developers and others have balked at a decision by tech giant Apple to impose a 30% commission on NFTs sold through apps on its marketplace, effectively putting NFT purchases in the same boat as regular in-app purchases. According to a Friday report from The Information, the smartphone company is now allowing NFTs to be bought and sold through apps listed on its marketplace but imposes its standard commission on in-app purchases of 30% — similar to that imposed by Android’s app store Google Play. The commission rate has however been slammed by some for being “grotesquely overpriced” — particularly when compared to standard NFT marketplace commissions, which are around 2.5%.Tech blogger Florian Mueller called Apple’s “app tax” on NFT sales “abusive but consistent,” while Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney tweeted that Apple is “crushing” another nascent technology that “could rival its grotesquely overpriced in-app payment service.”Now Apple is killing all NFT app businesses it can’t tax, crushing another nascent technology that could rival its grotesquely overpriced in-app payment service. Apple must be stopped. https://t.co/4KChp6jtFZ— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 23, 2022The report noted that popular Solana (SOL) NFT market Magic Eden withdrew its service from the App Store after learning of the policy, even after Apple offered to lower its commission to 15%, though the app continues to be listed on the app store at the time of writing. Meanwhile, other NFT marketplaces on the App Store have reportedly limited functionality due to the hefty commissions. There is also the added challenge of being forced to conduct transactions in U.S. dollars rather than cryptocurrency, which could prove risky given the volatility of cryptocurrency markets.Related: Throw your Bored Apes in the trashOthers have seen the positive side of Apple’s NFT acceptance. Gabriel Leydon CEO of Web3 game developer Limit Break said the move “could put an ETH wallet in every single mobile game onboarding 1B+ players!” adding he would “HAPPILY give Apple a 30% cut of a free NFT.”It’s not the first time companies have battled with Apple regarding its commissions, Epic Games has filed legal proceedings after its flagship game Fortnite was delisted from the App Store in Aug. 2020 after the publisher attempted to sell in-game purchases which skirted Apple’s fees.NFT marketplace apps on the app store currently include OpenSea, Rarible, Magic Eden and marketplaces in crypto trading apps include Binance, Crypto.com and Coinbase Wallet.

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DeFi platform sees strong interest in halal-approved crypto products

Australian-based crypto platform Marhaba DeFi says there has been a strong take-up of Halal-approved cryptocurrency products on its platform, with aims to release a suite of new products which align with Islamic law by the end of 2022.Launched in 2020, the platform is focused on adhering to the rules of “Islamic finance” which refers to how businesses and individuals raise capital in accordance with Sharia, or Islamic law. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Marhaba DeFi founder and CEO Naquib Mohammed said active users of their non-custodial multichain “Sahal Wallet” have grown to around 40,000 since its launch, stating:“People need a platform where they can trust every token they interact with, so we don’t have to go hunting on different platforms, tapping into different [Islamic] scholars or experts asking ‘can I invest in this protocol, this token, this strategy?’”“You just download a wallet, and it will give you everything that’s halal in the crypto ecosystem,” he adds.Marhaba, meaning “welcome” in Arabic, also has four more Islamic law aligned crypto products releasing this year, something Mohammed says will be an “end-to-end halal ecosystem” for those excluded from the market due to the lack of Sharia compliance.The first is TijarX, what he says is the first halal decentralized exchange (DEX) for commodity-backed tokens, a halal DeFi staking solution, a liquidity harvesting platform, and a new version of its existing halal non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace.“The fundamental property of blockchain is its transparent, it’s immutable, so bringing Islamic finance onto the blockchain makes perfect sense. Because of that transparency blockchain is the perfect puzzle piece that fits this gap.”The first cryptos launching this month on the TijarX DEX will be tokenized silver and gold backed by real and audited bullion reserves. Mohammed says there’s more to be added to the platform such as tokenized wheat, barley, soya, and cocoa.Mohammed says discussions are already underway but nothing is added to the platform without a vetting process which ensures not only that the provider has enough liquidity to handle the volume but also is complying with Islamic laws.“If the business is not Sharia compliant, if it’s not halal, then we can’t list it on the platform. All of this is a very time-consuming and intensive process, but we are absolutely fine with it.”It’s this process which meant its M.I.R.O. staking platform took eight months to build “because of the difficulty of addressing the Shariah compliance within the space.”The staking platform is based on the Islamic concept of Ju’ala, something Mohammed describes as “rewards for working”. Users earn a “commission”, part of a share of the platforms’ revenue for doing work within the platform such as participating in governance and voting on proposals.Marhaba’s liquidity harvester works on a separate Islamic financial profit and loss sharing arrangement called “Mudarabah” where on one party provides the capital while the other provides labor and both share in the profits and loss.Mohammed explains charging or earning interest in Islam is considered exploitative, and the liquidity harvester will be a “game changer” for those barred from accepting interest due to their beliefs as they’ll gain exposure to a similar style product.Related: NFT and Islamic education: A new frontier to teach religion?Marhaba is also providing solutions for Islamic businesses using NFTs, the second version of its NFT marketplace will be tailored to businesses, Mohammed revealed it’s already partnered with five organizations that will be utilizing NFTs.In April, Marhaba issued the first NFT Halal certification and Mohammed expressed this was an area he wants to personally ensure finds usability and adoption as it will give consumers greater transparency over the validity of a business’ Halal certification.“This NFT certification is a way to authorize, authenticate and ensure that the certification is valid, and is not expired, that the business has renewed their certification.”“We were appreciated greatly within the community for that,” he added.TijarX is set to go live on Sept. 27, with the revamped NFT market set for late October, M.I.R.O. and the Liquidity Harvester are slated for the first weeks of November and December respectively.

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GameStop doubles down on crypto amid a new partnership with FTX US

Gaming retailer GameStop is partnering with United States crypto exchange FTX US to bring more customers to crypto and work together on online marketing initiatives. In a Sept. 7 statement, the gaming retailer noted that the new partnership will introduce GameStop’s customers into the FTX ecosystem, including its marketplaces for digital assets, while also seeing the retailer become FTX’s “preferred retail partner in the United States.”The partnership will also see certain GameStop retail stores carrying FTX gift cards. As of Aug. 31, there are 2,970 GameStop stores across the United States. In its Q2 earnings call, GameStop CEO Matt Furlong said the new deal is aimed at establishing something “unique” in the retail space. The deal we just announced with FTX is a by-product of our commerce and blockchain team, working hand-in-hand together to establish something unique in the retail world.GameStop did not disclose the financial terms of the partnership in its statement. News of the new partnership came on the same day that GameStop released its financial results for the quarter that ended July 30, 2022. Despite GameStop reporting a nearly 4% decline in net sales to $1.14 billion in the quarter, shares in GameStop managed to rise nearly 12% in after-hours trading following the news, reaching $26.84 per share. GameStop has significantly ramped up its Web3 efforts this year after unveiling an NFT and Web3 gaming division in January, as well as the launch of its NFT marketplace on Jul. 11 in partnership with Ethereum (ETH) scaling solution Immutable X.Furlong noted during the earnings call that the launch of its marketplace “supports GameStop’s pursuit of long-term growth in the cryptocurrency, NFT and Web3 gaming verticals” which they expect to be increasingly important for gamers and collectors. The marketplace is a “non-custodial, Ethereum Layer 2-based marketplace” which allows users to connect their own digital asset wallets, like the recently launched GameStop Wallet.Related: GameStop NFT daily fee revenue plunges under $4K as gloom infects marketsGameStop noted that sales attributable to its digital collectibles were $223.2 million in the quarter, representing a nearly 26% increase compared to the $177.2 million worth of sales in the prior year period. According to DappRadar, the marketplace has seen a volume of $21.26 million traded on it since its launch. Activity on the marketplace has slowed dramatically since its launch, with only $922,350 worth of activity occurring on the marketplace within the last seven days.

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Reddit NFT avatars selling for a premium on OpenSea

Sales of recently launched Reddit blockchain-based avatars are rising on nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, outperforming the platform’s proprietary store.Reddit, the “front page” of the internet, plugged into the burgeoning world of NFTs with the announcement of collectible avatars in July 2022. The avatars became available to users in August and are already generating thousands of dollars in sales for artists.Reddit users are able to purchase a variety of avatars for their profiles using Vault, Reddit’s cryptocurrency wallet, with credit and debit cards accepted to make payments for the blockchain-based NFTs.Reddit Avatars are created by a number of independent artists that use the platform and are minted on purchase on the Polygon blockchain. Given that OpenSea features cross-blockchain support across Ethereum, Polygon, Klaytn and Solana blockchains, Reddit NFTs are now being sold at a premium on the popular NFT marketplace.NFTs currently available for purchase on the Reddit Avatar store page range from $5 to $49, while NFTs that were listed for $50 or more are now sold out. These more expensive avatars are still available on OpenSea, albeit for price ranges significantly higher than their original listings on Reddit.Two specific collections,The Senses x Reddit Collectible Avatars and Foustlings x Reddit Collectible Avatars, are prominent Reddit Avatar compilations that are featured on OpenSea.Related: Reddit partners with FTX to enable ETH gas fees for community pointsAround 1,300 The Senses NFTs are listed on the marketplace and have generated a total of 15 Ether (ETH) on Polygon, or $25,000, in sales since Aug. 20. The Mouths #12 is the most expensive NFT sold in the collection to date, sold for 1.377 Polygon-bridged ETH ($333) on Sept. 3.There are some 1,800 Foustlings NFTs listed on OpenSea with sales volume totaling 9.6 Polygon-bridged ETH at the time of writing. Rainbow Foustling #373 fetched 0.348 Polygon-bridged ETH ($577) on Sept. 4 and currently ranks as the most expensive NFT sold from the specific collection.The Natsukashii, Celestial Assembly and Wearing Your Emotions collections are slowly seeing trading action, accounting for 3.7 ETH, 2.4 ETH and 1.5 ETH in Polygon-bridged sales respectively.Reddit’s initial NFT announcement indicated that the launch of avatars would primarily empower artists to create and sell NFTs through its store and on secondary marketplaces.

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