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Solana NFT Platform Says FTX Crash Force It To Adopt “Conservative Approach”

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Solana NFT marketplace Metaplex took to Twitter to announce trimming its working force to ensure the long-term sustainability of the protocol.

Although they were not directly affected by the collapse of FTX, the marketplace stated the resultant indirect impact on the market has forced the firm to take a “conservative approach moving forward”.

Founded in 2021, Metaplex is a Solana-based protocol that aims to be the de facto NFT tool on the blockchain. It also recently launched its own governance token, MPLX which however did not perform well in the ongoing bear market.

Due to the FTX insolvency, the total crypto market cap tanked over 20% in a span of just four days. While prices of nonfungible tokens [NFTs] on Ethereum fell 14% over the same period, Solana NFTs suffered more blows.

For instance, SolanaFloor revealed that their aggregate floor value dropped 68% from $424 million to $135 million over the last few days.

Similarly, the floor price of another SOL-powered platform DeGods plummeted by a staggering 66% to $2,700. Solana Monkey Business and y00ts too registered a drop of 68% and 70% respectively in the same time period.

One of the reasons for the poor performance of its NFT collection is attributed to FTX’s advocacy of the Solana layer-one blockchain.

During the exchange’s implosion, the price of the SOL token tanked 68% to $12. FTX’s fungible exchange token known as FTT and FTX’s SOL-based decentralized exchange [DEX] Serum was down 89% and 53%, individually, in recent days.

Investors Might Hold Off On Buying Solana-Based NFTs

It is interesting to note that FTX and Alameda Research have been closely linked to the Solana blockchain since the protocol’s inception in 2020. Both entities have been instrumental in boosting the network’s traction and visibility.

Moreover, SOL is also Alameda’s second-largest holding token, representing about 10% of the crypto’s market cap.

Due to the prevailing uncertainty on Solana-based projects, investors might look for other leading layer-one protocols to put their long-term bets. The market has currently entered a new risk-off phase, and it might take some time before confidence returns.

Additionally, NFTs being riskier assets has a much greater impact on the returns [profits/losses]. Hence, risk-averse investors might wish to hold off on buying NFTs until the issue is fixed.

Solana NFT Platform Announces New Update On Royalties

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One of Solana’s top NFT marketplace Magic Eden has shifted to optional royalties meaning the decision on how much royalties to pay will be passed to the buyer.

“Our rationale for shifting royalties payments to the buyer is to make sure the buyer has a full understanding of whether they are going to receive the benefits that creators provide [Discord, staking, etc], Magic Eden stated in the thread.

The platform also stated that the latest move is a result of the shifting preference for dynamic creator royalties, and hopes to see new standards that protect royalties in the near future.

In order to justify its latest adoption, the platform also illustrated the no. of wallets that have used optional royalty marketplaces to buy or sell NFTs.

We are going to review our marketplace fee structure. For the foreseeable future, Magic Eden will not be making any % of any sales… we hope that this decision is not permanent.

In addition, a creative monetization hackathon to create pro-royalty & alternative creator monetization technologies on Solana would also soon be launched by Magic Eden with up to $1 million investment.

Magic Eden is prepared to provide resources that will help creators deal with a market that is changing quickly because it is a platform dedicated to equally serving both collectors and creators, as stated in the press release.

More Solana NFT Brands Are Opting For Optional/ 0% Royalties

As reported by TronWeekly, the Popular Solana-powered NFT collection DeGod, just made an upgrade to implement a royalty-free policy.

Royalty payments to NFT authors in secondary market trades have been the subject of an ongoing discussion on Crypto Twitter.

The debate intensified after SudoAMM, an Ethereum NFT marketplace from Sudoswap that ignores artist royalties on sales, was introduced and started to gain popularity.

A similar conversation was spurred by Yawww, a Solana NFT marketplace. as well as Solanart, a different Solana NFT marketplace, which similarly introduced a new model in which sellers may choose whether or not to pay artists a royalty charge as well as how much they wish to pay.

Some proponents of the royalties believe that they will restrict artists’ ability to thrive in the Web3 environment.

Solana NFT Brand Creator Says 0% Royalties Would “Redefine” Rug Pull

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A popular Solana-based NFT collection DeGod has recently announced a new update to implement a royalty-free policy. Calling it a “new experiment”, the platform also added that the scheme would be extended to its other projects such as y00ts and t00bs.

Without divulging much, the team decided to reduce the royalties fee to 0% from what was previously 9.99%.

DeGods, which was introduced in October 2021, is a collection of 10,000 Solana NFTs. DeGods and DeadGods NFT holders can stake their NFTs in exchange for DUST utility tokens.

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Solana NFT Brand Creator Says 0% Royalties Would "Redefine" Rug Pull 2

In response to prior claims that DeGods was a “rug pull” or a scam, Frank, the project’s pseudonymous founder, stated that “If royalties go away… the space will be more open to redefining what “rug” means.”

While some welcomed the move, others were critical and called out Frank for pivoting from his earlier statements.

There has been a long-standing debate in Crypto Twitter over royalty payments to NFT creators in the secondary market trades.

The problem got worse when SudoAMM, an Ethereum NFT marketplace from Sudoswap that disregards artist royalties on sales, was introduced and started to gain popularity.

To put it another way, one can sell an NFT on the market without having to pay the additional 5%, 10%, or other amount set aside as a creator royalty.

Solana NFT Marketplaces Too Sided With The Collectors/Buyers

Yawww, a Solana NFT marketplace, sparked a similar discussion. as well as another Solana NFT marketplace, Solanart, which too unveiled a new model in which sellers can select whether or not to pay creators a royalty fee and how much they want to pay.

Some supporters of the royalties think it will limit the capacity of creators to succeed in the Web3 environment.

Among them was Frank who surprisingly stood up in support of creator royalties and similarly forewarned of possible changes that might occur if royalties are disregarded, including more projects that break their promises [or “rug pull” buyers] because there is no ongoing compensation from secondary trades.

Amidst the barrage of angry tweets, Frank found support from DeGod fans, who commented the following,

“They are just frontrunning the market,” wrote @punk828_. “Everyone is already looking for zero royalties. This just forces teams to build outside revenue streams and actual businesses and not just be a jpeg project with no real-world use case.”

Ethereum Hosts Christie’s New “On-Chain Auction Platform”

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Ethereum became the preferred blockchain to host renowned auction giant Christie’s fully on-chain NFT marketplace. In terms of wallets, Christie’s said it supports all major digital wallets, including the highly popular and user-friendly MetaMask.

The new Christie’s 3.0 marketplace, which just went live, is designed to fully record all transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. and also claims to also offer assistance for tax and compliance needs.

The 256-year-old British auction powerhouse has come a long way after a string of profitable high-priced nonfungible token [NFT] sales, including the $69 million NFT sale by artist Beeple in 2021 to finally launching its very own dedicated NFT platform on the Ethereum network.

In May 2021, nine CryptoPunks were auctioned off through the company, with the winning offer coming in at approximately $17 million.

The focus of Christie on Web3 has expanded beyond NFT auctions. In July, the company established a venture fund to support “art-related financial products and solutions” in Web3.

Its first investment was made in LayerZero Labs, a firm that creates decentralized applications that are compatible with various blockchains.

Meanwhile, Ethereum is basking in glory and attention for successfully completing its highly-anticipated Merge, a historic switch to a new “proof-of-stake” blockchain architecture intended to significantly reduce energy consumption by as much as 99%, according to some estimates.

Ethereum’s Merge Brought Greater Inflation Resistance

Now, it seems as though the second-largest blockchain is delivering on another promise made during the Merge: increased inflation resilience, a quality that is typically more closely linked to Ethereum’s bigger and more well-known rival, Bitcoin.

According to Lucas Outumuro, head of research at cryptocurrency analytics and analysis firm IntoTheBlock, the annualized net issuance rate of ether, the native token of Ethereum, has decreased to a range of 0% to 0.7% in the days following the Merge.

For those uninitiated, the new supply is divided by the current supply to determine the net issuance rate, often known as the inflation rate.

Ethereum’s lower issuance rate could increase its appeal to investors in both the crypto and traditional markets in a world where central banks are fighting to control inflation in the face of massive money printing and severe supply-chain bottlenecks.

Ripple Welcomes CrossTower NFTs On XRPL

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Ripple has inked a deal with US-based crypto exchange CrossTower to integrate the NFT marketplace on the XRP Ledger. Additionally, the partnership is aiming to build web3 in India and around the world.

CrossTower in a statement said the marketplace will allow developers to quickly onboard NFT projects by giving them access to wallets, payments, liquidity support, and more.

Further, it stated that fans stand to “benefit from an optimized digital purchase experience with the ability to transact NFTs via credit card and receive the assets through integrated wallets on the XRP Ledger”.

Speaking on the partnership, Kapil Rathi, CEO of CrossTower stated,

“We are thrilled to partner with Ripple and build our Web3.0 platform on the XRPL. Ripple’s commitment to building a developer network in India is particularly exciting for CrossTower as we are committed to developing India’s blockchain talent. We look forward to the growth of our global NFT platform.”

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Ripple Welcomes CrossTower NFTs On XRPL 4

Besides that, CrossTower is extending its marketplace functionality to support XRPL which will significantly reduce the costs and barrier to entry for creators to mint their projects on the blockchain, the statement read. 

The Nft platform founded in 2019 has offices located in the US, Bermuda, and India. Among its bunch of curated projects are David Bowie’s World Genesis and Antara Movie Nfts.

Last week, British automotive firm Lotus Cars has announced “plans to launch into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).”

According to the press release, Lotus said that for its first NFT collection it is working with NFT PRO and Ripple [which is “providing technical support” on the XRP Ledger].

Ripple’s XLS-20 Unlocks New NFT Potential On XRP

Recently, Ripple developers successfully conducted tests of a new standard called XLS-20 on the XRP Ledger to measure NFT throughput.

The San-Francisco-based blockchain firm is making waves for its high-profile legal fight with the SEC. A day earlier, the firm’s lawyers send out a letter to the judge seeking an expedited briefing against the agency’s ‘Extreme Position’ on expert reports.

As reported by TronWeekly, the defendants slammed the plaintiff’s move to keep all its witnesses’ depositions away from public scrutiny.

OpenSea to address scams and IP violation

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Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO of OpenSea, said the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace would step up its efforts to combat fraud and plagiarism.

Although fraud, intellectual property (IP) theft, and plagiarism are prohibited under OpenSea’s conditions, “at our scale, thorough policies aren’t enough,” Finzer wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

To date, the platform has developed systems to counteract the majority of prohibited actions, including a new authentication system, an image scanning “copy mint prevention system,” and improved search capability to assist users in finding genuine information.

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OpenSea went on to state that the firm’s primary focus areas are trust, safety, and customer experience, beginning with transparent user guidelines and standards spelled out in its Terms of Service. Because not all NFT marketplaces follow and enforce the same standards, the company’s Terms provide the ground rules for what is and isn’t allowed on OpenSea. They also serve as a vital guide for the community and wider ecosystem.

OpenSea an open sea of lawsuits

Despite this, the ecosystem is replete with fraud and hacking, and OpenSea – the largest platform by market volume – has been chastised in the past for being slow to respond to events where stolen NFTs were sold on.

OpenSea, one of the most well-known crypto startups, is facing backlash over nonfungible coins that have been stolen and plagiarised.

Plagiarism has also increased on OpenSea, with vendors converting traditional artwork into NFTs and then selling the pieces without paying the original creator.

Mr. Chapman is one of many crypto aficionados who have expressed concerns about OpenSea, an eBay-style website where users may explore millions of NFTs, buy them, and sell their own. OpenSea has grown to be the leading NFT marketplace and one of the most well-known crypto start-ups in the previous 18 months. The business has raised more than $400 million in funding from investors, valuing it at a whopping $13.3 billion, and has hired executives from internet behemoths such as Meta and Lyft.

Mr. Chapman missed out on his projected ApeCoin windfall because he had lost his ape, which he had planned to spend to buy a property near his wife’s family outside of Houston.

OpenSea, on the other hand, stated in May that it was deploying image-recognition technology to combat plagiarism. However, because the scanning program only compares newly uploaded images to other NFTs on OpenSea, it is unlikely to find artwork copied from other websites.

Can Instagram dethrone OpenSea as the largest NFT marketplace?

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Mark Zuckerberg’s recent announcement of Instagram hosting NFT sent the crypto community into a tizzy. In March 2022 at the South by Southwest [SXSW] conference, Zuckerberg said, “Hopefully, in the next few months, you’ll be able to mint NFTs within Instagram.”Prior to this, Adam Mosseri, the head of the social networking platform had shared that it was “definitely actively exploring NFTs”.

Proponents believe this might be the turning point as the popular social media platform has a user base of more than a billion people. In fact, analysts from Deutsche Bank went on to predict that the addition of blockchain-based digital works of art on Instagram can lead to an influx of millions of new users and possibly generate billions in revenue for the social media giant.

Until now, OpenSea managed to remain the undisputed king. With their 1.4 million users and trading volume worth $23 billion, they are at the top of the NFT game. In Jan 2022 alone, the platform saw $5 million worth of NFT sales. But with the introduction of these unique digital tokens on Instagram, Opensea might finally meet its match.

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Can Instagram dethrone OpenSea as the largest NFT marketplace? 7

One cannot deny the fact that the NFT marketplace is an extremely lucrative place as seen from its widespread adoption by firms around the world. So, it’s understandable why a social networking site decides to plunge into the highly competitive NFT market.

Instagram will top 2 billion monthly active users in 2023

Besides experts from Deutsche Bank envisioned that Instagram will have 2.2 billion monthly active users in 2023. According to their estimates, even if a mere 2 percent of those users start trading NFTs, it would open up a marketplace of 44 million people. This is roughly 31 times more users than Open sea.

Earlier this year, a new NFT platform for Instagram called Everlens went live. The platform championed itself as the first NFT marketplace dedicated to social networks, allowing over 1.4 billion Instagram users to connect to the Everlens NFT marketplace and trade their posts for NFTs.

It uses the ELEN cryptocurrency as the main token to power the marketplace, enabling users to create, buy, sell, swap, and display a wide range of unique digital artifacts.

Coinbase NFT: First came alpha, here comes beta!

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After first announcing plans for it in October, Coinbase’s long-awaited NFT marketplace has now debuted in testing for a restricted group of users.

The beta NFT marketplace is open to the public starting today, although only a few people will be allowed to buy or trade at first. According to reports, Sanchan Saxena, the exchange’s VP of product, took to Twitter to announce the Beta version going live.

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In October, the exchange platform introduced a marketplace waitlist, which received more than 1.5 million sign-ups. According to the site, only a limited number of clients will be able to utilise the beta marketplace at first, based on their position on the waitlist.

On the marketplace, beta testers will be able to create a profile and purchase and sell NFTs. They can use exchange’s Wallet or MetaMask, or any other self-custody wallet. For a limited period, transaction fees will not be charged, but will eventually impose fees in accordance with industry standards, according to the exchange.

For the time being, Coinbase NFT only supports Ethereum-based NFTs and ether payments. The marketplace will eventually connect other blockchains, according to Saxena, and complete fiat on-ramps will be arriving shortly.

In terms of gas prices, Coinbase stated that it has teamed up with 0x Protocol to optimize transactions for cheaper costs. Users will be able to buy NFTs using credit cards, as the exchange platform revealed earlier this year. At the time, the company worked with Mastercard to allow consumers to purchase NFTs using their credit cards.

Coinbase NFT marketplace to permit social engagement

The exchange platform claims that their NFT marketplace would allow communities to interact as well as purchase and trade NFTs. Coinbase NFT intends to use this community-building function to differentiate itself from competitors like OpenSea and LooksRare.

Coinbase has joined the ranks of other cryptocurrency exchanges in introducing an NFT market. Binance, FTX, and Okcoin have all recently created similar exchanges. However, Saxena believes that Coinbase NFT will be the favoured destination for users due to its ease of use as a primary platform for buying and selling cryptocurrency.

OpenSea in troubled waters; faces 3 lawsuits over stolen BAYC NFTs

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OpenSea’s trouble woes continued to pile up after a year rife with hacks and scams that have already played havoc on the world’s largest NFT platform. As per sources, the Nft marketplace is now facing three separate lawsuits from plaintiffs who lost access to their Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.

Texas native Timmy McKimmy and Michael Valise of New York both claimed to have lost Bored Apes in a hack that exploited a known security vulnerability in OpenSea’s code. The third plaintiff Robert Armijo, of Nevada, said he lost his NFTs in a social engineering attack which he blamed was caused due to the platform’s negligence.

As per court filings, McKimmy also failed to get compensation for the lost assets despite numerous requests with the platform though OpenSea allegedly told him that it was “actively investigating” the issue.

OpenSea Has Prioritized Growth over Consumer Safety- Court filings

According to the court documents, Armijo suggested a certain website and the user sent him a link to it, claiming that they had already uploaded their NFTs. As he clicked the link, his wallet containing his two Mutant Apes and his Bored Ape, along with some cryptocurrency, was drained off.

Armijo then attempted to contact OpenSea to freeze his assets, But he reportedly encountered numerous obstructions. “Mr. Armijo tried to find a phone number to contact the customer service, but no such number exists,” read the court documents. He next went to OpenSea’s Discord server.”

There too, Armijo didn’t receive any responses. As this critical window of time closed, the plaintiff found his stolen Bored Ape was listed on OpenSea and sold off two hours after the hack.

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Armijo accused the platform’s delayed reply who took 4 hours to respond to Armijo’s help tickets and froze his Mutant Apes. But that could not do any good, as the hacker already listed the Mutant Apes on LooksRare, where they were sold almost immediately. Frustrated, Armijo is now suing LooksRare as well.

“OpenSea has prioritized growth over consumer safety and the security of consumer’s digital assets,” the complaint reads.

The complaint cited the example of an approval process that OpenSea used to have, which required that NFTs be verified before upload by their proper owner. The process was discontinued in March 2021, since then thefts became rampant, it alleged.

GameStop Launches NFT Beta Marketplace With Loopring

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GameStop is clasping the crypto world as it shifts its focus away from tangible items, and its long-teased NFT marketplace is now taking shape.

The shop launched a limited-functionality beta, powered by Ethereum scaling provider Loopring.

Users may now add funds to the platform using Loopring’s layer-2 scaling solution by connecting an Ethereum wallet (such as MetaMask).

You may also customize your display name and profile, however, there are currently no NFT trading capabilities.

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GameStop Launches NFT Beta Marketplace With Loopring 11

Loopring and Gamestop collaboration

According to Browman, GameStop, in collaboration with Loopring L2, seeks to give the general public “quick, affordable, and secure” access to digital ownership.

With GameStop at the “forefront of these emerging global digital economies,” they plan to return control to gamers, producers, and collectors.

He described how users may now mint NFTs directly on Loopring L2 for “fractions” of the expensive gas expenses that often occur from minting on L1, which is less than $1.

The Loopring zkRollup inherits the self-custodial security of Ethereum L1 to ensure that its users “get the strongest digital property rights.”

Immutable will power GameStop

The company has announced a $100 million award for game designers and developers as part of its partnership with Immutable X (IMX) for its NFT marketplace.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission report released on January 28, 2022, it indicated that Immutable was its first Layer 2 NFT integration for trading and minting and that Loopring will follow.

Immutable X just completed a $200 million funding round, bringing the company’s worth to $2.5 billion.

It turns out that both layer-2 technology vendors will eventually fuel GameStop’s NFT initiatives. Immutable tweeted that it is GameStop’s “preferred partner” for the marketplace and that the companies are collaborating to find game creators to launch their NFTs on the platform.

Immutable claims to have received thousands of inquiries about its IMX token incentives from game developers and NFT creators.

Immutable further stated that the Loopring integration “was not a surprise (and we welcome them!)” and that the GameStop marketplace will serve as an aggregator for NFT minting systems. However, it looks that Immutable X will attract the most attention in the market.