💰 When you thought headlines couldn't get weirder: $3.6 Billion Hack from a TikTok Rapper
McDonalds & Panera in the Metaverse, SuperBowl wasn't as filled with NFTs as we wanted it to be😕
Dear NFTimer,
Last week, Heather Morgan and her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, were charged with conspiracy to launder cryptocurrency concerning the 2016 Bitfinex hack. The Department of Justice in the US announced that they seized $3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin.
Weirdly, she is extremely active on social media. So she is not your average money launderer. She was an aspiring rapper and a Forbes contributor. Yes, FORBES! Want to know what one of the articles was? How to “Protect Your Business from Cybercriminals.” 😂 I mean, I’m speechless, especially after seeing her TikToks…
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🎨 NFTs
104 Crypto Punks will be auctioned on Sotheby’s Metaverse in this historical event.
Building protocol briq launched its alpha 1.0.
LooksRare is in its phase 2 of LOOKS emissions.
New exhibition is up by William Peaster on JPG titled “Super Strong Acid.”
Boss Beauties is launching a 1/1 collection called Boss Beauty Role Models on March 8 for International Women’s Day. It will be the first complete NFT collection ever shown at UN headquarters.
As part of Bud Light’s NFT launch, they are offering holders of the N3XT NFTs something new: Nouns-inspired actual physical glasses!
Pablo Picasso’s great-grandson Florian released NFTs inspired by the late Spanish painter’s work, but he is struggling to sell them.
Photography NFT platform Quantum Art by Justin Aversano raised a $7.5 million Series A round led by True Ventures. Justin is the name behind arguably the most famous photography NFT project, Twin Flames. (If you don’t know the story, I’d suggest you check it out.)
Satoshibles NFTs can now be bridged from Ethereum to Stacks, a platform that is secured by Bitcoin.
Only Fans follow Twitter in enabling NFT profile pictures.
OpenSea launched an investment arm, and a community grants program.
Sales volume for the CryptoDickbutts NFT collection jumped last week after Rug Radio host Farokh shared his 3.8 ETH purchase from the collection.
🔮 Metaverse News
McDonald’s filed for 10 applications to open a restaurant in the metaverse. The request reads, “Operating a virtual restaurant featuring actual and virtual goods,” and “operating a virtual restaurant online featuring home delivery.”
Panera also filed a request for “Paneraverse” to trademark its downloadable, virtual food and beverage items “for use in virtual worlds.”
Check this law firm in the metaverse: ZannesLaw. They also have a gallery featuring some NFT artworks.
Metaverse land investor Everyrealm raised a $60 million in the Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz and from the likes of Coinbase Ventures and Paris Hilton.
💃🏼 Fashion
Gucci bought LAND on Sandbox Game to create metaverse experiences and sell virtual clothing and other items. How big is the land? We don’t know yet.
👾 NFT Games
Gala Games, the popular blockchain gaming platform, has announced a major new relationship with Snoop Dogg, who will release his new album, B.O.D.R. (Bacc on Death Row), as a Stash Box of NFTs on the Gala Music shop.
Creator of FarmVille and Zynga Poker, Zynga will launch its first blockchain-based NFT game this year.
🎶 Music
Portugal the Man announced their first single, “ What, Me Worry?” off of their anticipated upcoming album due this June. Fans have a unique incentive to listen to the new single, with those who pre-save “What, Me Worry?” to be gifted PTM coin, the band’s very own community-built social token.
RAC has announced racOS, an artist and fan-controlled platform that provides a space where holders of his token, $RAC, can connect with each other and access myriad experiences.
⚽️ Sports
College football players in Senior Bowl each received a 1/1 personalized Panini collectible NFT.
Candy Digital will launch NFTs based on 23 NASCAR Cup Series vehicles as part of a partnership with the Race Team Alliance.
🎥 Movies
CEO Strauss Zelnick of Take-Two, the publishing company behind the Grand Theft Auto said, “We're highly convinced there's an opportunity for NFTs to fit with Take-Two's offerings in the future.”
YouTube’s Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan published a blog post about the company’s plans for new products and features this year, citing an interest and an ‘incredible potential’ in Web3, blockchain, and NFTs.
🔥 What else is hot?
Salesforce co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor spoke about the company’s vision for an NFT cloud service.
India and the European Union are preparing their own central bank digital currencies.
Russia is drafting legislation to incorporate crypto into the same regulatory framework as foreign currencies.
This NFT was bought for 8,000 ETH ($23.7M) by Chain CEO Deepak Thapliyal.
Ehm, well, I don’t have a “Food x NFT” section yet, even though might have to introduce it at some point. The former Domino’s Pizza VP, Kory Spiroff, joined the FriesDAO as an advisor. For those who don’t follow my TLDR Sunday Recap newsletter for Adam, FriesDAO is a new organization that plans on running a real-world fast food business. They are raising $9.69 million to run the franchise.
During the Twitter Q4 earnings call Twitter’s new CEO Parag Agrawal said he sees “an incredible amount of developer energy’ in Web3.
NFT marketplace Ethernity raised $20 million in seed round and launched its Ethernal Labs creative studio.
Vitalik Buterin, who normally tweets in English, used his native tongue Russian to comment on the possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. He said an invasion would harm both countries and humanity as a whole, and the decision lies on the hands of Kremlin, and Kremlin only.
🤪 Cool fun beans
Punk #5577 bought for 2,501 ETH. ($7,704,080.16)
D I S O R D E R by XCOPY was sold for 202 ETH. ($647,464)
Is the Murat Pak X Julian Assange collab sale the largest on-chain sale to date? Went for a juicy 16,593 ETH. ($53M)
🧵 Threads
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Disclaimer: Investing in NFTs comes with inherent risk including technical risk, human error, platform failure and more. This newsletter is strictly educational and nothing we offer is financial advice. We are not professionals or licensed advisors. Views my own and not any other company I’m affiliated with.