Guy Oseary, the manager of musical heavyweights U2 and Madonna has signed a representation deal with Yuga Labs to expand the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT project into movies, TV, music and gaming. The move from Yuga Labs comes a month after CryptoPunks creators’ Larva Labs penned a representation deal in Hollywood with the United Talent Agency. Oseary adds BAYC to a list of all star clients which includes, alongside U2 and Madonna, comedian Amy Schumer and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Welcome to the club, @guyoseary ! ☠️⛵️ https://t.co/PcUtD67zIF — Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) October 12, 2021 The announcement was shared via Variety on Oct. 12, with Oseary highlighting that despite the success of the BAYC project, Yuga Labs is still a relatively unknown ...
The Binance cryptocurrency exchange has announced a $1 billion accelerator fund to expand the capabilities of the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem and advance mainstream adoption across the financial technology sector. The exchange showcased the eight-figure fund in a tiered development model across four specialist areas: Talent Development, Liquidity Incentive Program, Builder Program, Investment & Incubation Program. The announcement suggested that they will allocate $100M, $100M, $300M and $500M to each segment respectively. The largest benefactor of the pot, the investment & incubation program, will focus on multi-chain expansion of the already burgeoning areas of the technological sphere. This includes various metaverses, gaming, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Maver...
Bitcoin had been underperforming against most altcoins ov the past two months, but that trend reversed when its 20% rally pushed its market capitalization to break the $1 trillion mark on Oct. 6. That shifted investors’ attention back to the leading cryptocurrency, and altcoins are currently in the red for the day. The current positive momentum could be dangerous if Bitcoin (BTC) traders become overconfident and abuse leverage to open long positions. To avoid this, traders need to carefully analyze derivatives markets to exclude this risk. Top 14 coins weekly performance. Source: CoinMarketCap Notice above how the altcoin market capitalization increased by 5.8%, while Bitcoin posted a 20.8% gain in the same period. Sure enough, there were some outliers such as Shiba Inu (SHIB), which rose ...
Major crypto exchange Coinbase has announced it will be opening a waitlist for a nonfungible marketplace it plans to launch later this year. In an Oct. 12 blog post, Coinbase vice president of product and ecosystem Sanchan Saxena said the nonfungible token, or NFT, marketplace would allow its users to mint, purchase, discover, and showcase Ethereum-based tokens. According to Saxena, the offering will allow creators to maintain control of their artwork “through decentralized contracts and metadata transparency,” with all NFTs on-chain. The Coinbase announcement comes following crypto exchange FTX and its U.S.-based subsidiary introducing a marketplace with users able to trade NFTs cross-chain through the Ethereum and Solana blockchains. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, entered ...
Ether (ETH) price is lagging Bitcoin’s (BTC) price action by 13% in October, but is this relevant? To date, the altcoin has still outperformed BTC by 274% in 2021. However, traders tend to be short-sighted and some will question whether the Ethereum network can successfully migrate to proof of stake (PoS) validation and finally solve the high gas fees issue. Bitcoin and Ether prices at Bitstamp. Source: TradingView Moreover, the increasing competition from smart contract networks like Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX) have been worrying investors: One big problem with the “ETH is ultra sound money” meme is that EIP-1559 only limits the supply of ETH if Ethereum continues to have lots of transactions. It’s just as possible that people will tire of $80 gas fees and opt for one of numer...
Blockchain payments firm Ripple has announced a $44-million environmental, social and governance (ESG) joint venture partnership with fintech provider Nelnet Renewable Energy to fund the adoption of environmentally conscious solar energy initiatives across the United States. According to the announcement, the new fund is expected to offset over 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide over 35 years, equivalent to the energy usage of 180,635 homes for one annum. In March 2021, Nelnet Inc. received a commendable E1 ESG accreditation from the S&P Global Ratings evaluation board for the former’s $9.9-million solar tax equity fund. The project entails the financial backing to build four photovoltaic solar projects in Upstate New York. The evaluation was assessed across t...
Cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network has raised $400 million in a new equity funding round amid United States regulators increasingly cracking down on crypto lending. Announcing the news on Tuesday, Celsius noted that the latest funding was led by Canada’s second-largest pension fund, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), and WestCap, an equity firm established by former Airbnb executive Laurence Tosi. Celsius Network raises $400m. @FT “The funding round was led by WestCap… and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ).” More:https://t.co/L5wpMxCvcR — Celsius (@CelsiusNetwork) October 12, 2021 The firm intends to use the proceeds from this investment to continue expanding its offering and products, focusing on institutional grade products. Celsius ...
Ethereum’s native token Ether (ETH) rallied by more than 15% in the first twelve days of October. But, compared to Bitcoin’s (BTC) 30% gains in the same period, the second-largest cryptocurrency is currently in a downtrend when priced in BTC. So far into October (and the fourth quarter of 2021), the ETH/BTC exchange rate has plunged by over 12%, reaching 0.060215 BTC for the first time in more than two months on Tuesday. ETH/BTC daily price chart. Source: TradingView.com The drop also pushed ETH/BTC below one of its longest-standing support zones, the 200-day exponential moving average (200-day EMA; the orange wave), as shown in the chart above. This raises the risk of more downside with 0.055304 BTC serving as the next possible target. Bitcoin dominance rises on ETF hopes More...
Last month China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), published a memo criminalizing practically all cryptocurrency activity. When the memo started circulating online, Bitcoin’s (BTC) price dropped over 6.5%. Soon after, however, industry experts suggested that the news may have been the ultimate dip-buying opportunity. China’s crackdown on crypto started years ago, to the point that Bitcoin suffered its biggest mining difficulty drop of nearly 28% in July of this year as miners started migrating out of China after the government tightened its grip on bitcoin mining and trading. The crackdown saw the computing power securing the Bitcoin network — its hash rate — drop by nearly 50%. The PBoC’s recent memo meant every remaining mining operation and exchange had to shut down. Fa...
Introduction of crypto payments will benefit foreign travellers, says the airport director The Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela has announced that it has begun preparations to enable travellers to pay for tickets and other services offered in its vicinity via major cryptocurrencies. According to popular regional news agency El Siglo the airport, located just 12km downtown from the Venezuelan capital Caracas, is looking to attract modern travellers who prefer to transact digitally. Maiquetía airport director Freddy Borges confirmed that the airport is working with regulators to ensure that the crypto payments facilities comply with the local industry standard requirements. He added that the airport administration will be partnering with Venezuela’s National...
The cryptocurrency market has continued its trend this week, with Bitcoin rallying while most of the altcoins are underperforming The cryptocurrency market has been experiencing a mixed performance since the start of the week. Bitcoin has been performing excellently and has recently broken past the $57,000 resistance level, thus paving the way for it to rally higher and target the $60,000 level. However, the majority of the leading altcoins are currently trading in the red zone despite Bitcoin’s excellent run. Ether, Cardano, Binance Coin, XRP, Solana, Polkadot and others are all recording losses at the moment. Litecoin is not left out as Bitcoin’s sister coin is down by more than 3% over the past 24 hours. It could record further losses if the current market conditions don’t improve...
The NFT space is one of the fastest growing in the crypto industry, and more companies are entering the sector FTX.US, the United States arm of leading crypto exchange FTX, has fully launched its non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. This latest development comes as the NFT market continues to gain more adoption globally. FTX’s NFT marketplace is designed to support the buying and selling of a wide range of Solana-based NFTs. In the past, the FTX NFT marketplace was only focused on buying and selling NFTs directly minted on the platform. However, the platform is now expanding beyond this scope to support Solana-based NFTs. FTX.US users can now buy and sell a wide range of Solana-based NFTs, including Degenerate Ape Academy and Solana Monkey Business. FTX.US president Brett Harrison stated ...