Business

The Matrix’s NFT revelations Soaring demand for the Warner Bros.’ Matrix NFT avatar drop on Nifty’s this week caused the website’s purchasing page to crash. Earlier this month, the film studio announced it would be dropping 100,000 unique Matrix-inspired avatar NFTs for $50 each as part of a promotional campaign for the new Matrix Resurrections film set to hit cinemas in the U.S. on Dec. 22. After more than 300,000 Matrix fans queued up for the drop on Nov. 30, Nifty’s was forced to start and stop the queue multiple times due to max capacity-induced “infrastructure issues.” Hello again everyone. While we are obviously still working through the launch not going the way we had hoped it would, we appreciate every single one of you that have hung in with us, and we want to send a very si...

The Matrix’s NFT revelations Soaring demand for the Warner Bros.’ Matrix NFT avatar drop on Nifty’s this week caused the website’s purchasing page to crash. Earlier this month, the film studio announced it would be dropping 100,000 unique Matrix-inspired avatar NFTs for $50 each as part of a promotional campaign for the new Matrix Resurrections film set to hit cinemas in the U.S. on Dec. 22. After more than 300,000 Matrix fans queued up for the drop on Nov. 30, Nifty’s was forced to start and stop the queue multiple times due to max capacity-induced “infrastructure issues.” Hello again everyone. While we are obviously still working through the launch not going the way we had hoped it would, we appreciate every single one of you that have hung in with us, and we want to send a very si...

The court case between Australian Craig Wright and the estate of his now deceased friend David Kleiman over legal rights to tens of billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin mined by Satoshi Nakamoto could end in a mistrial if jurors remain deadlocked. Wright claims he used the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto when he invented Bitcoin. The case being deliberated began in 2018 when the estate of his associate Kleiman sued him on the grounds the pair were partners who’d invented and mined Bitcoin together By about 5PM UTC on Nov. 2, the jury was deadlocked, having issued the following statement: “Unfortunately we cannot come to a conclusion and we cannot all agree on a verdict on any of the questions.” As of 10PM UTC, the jury remained deadlocked and is set to return tomorrow, accordi...

The court case between Australian Craig Wright and the estate of his now deceased friend David Kleiman over legal rights to tens of billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin mined by Satoshi Nakamoto could end in a mistrial if jurors remain deadlocked. Wright claims he used the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto when he invented Bitcoin. The case being deliberated began in 2018 when the estate of his associate Kleiman sued him on the grounds the pair were partners who’d invented and mined Bitcoin together By about 5PM UTC on Nov. 2, the jury was deadlocked, having issued the following statement: “Unfortunately we cannot come to a conclusion and we cannot all agree on a verdict on any of the questions.” As of 10PM UTC, the jury remained deadlocked and is set to return tomorrow, accordi...

Four blockchain-based Metaverse projects generated more than $100 million worth of virtual land NFT sales last week according to data from DappRadar. A Nov. 30 post from the decentralized application (DApp) analytics firm reported that between Nov. 22 and Nov. 28 activity was “booming” on The Sandbox, Decentraland, CryptoVoxels and Somnium Space with a combined $105.8 million worth of trading volume between them from more than 6,000 traders: “Undoubtedly, Metaverse land is the next big hit in the NFT space. Outputting record sales numbers and constantly increasing NFT prices, virtual worlds are the new top commodity in the crypto space.” The Sandbox represented the lion’s share of volume for the week with $86.56 million, Decentraland accounted for $15.53 million, while CryptoVoxels a...

Four blockchain-based Metaverse projects generated more than $100 million worth of virtual land NFT sales last week according to data from DappRadar. A Nov. 30 post from the decentralized application (DApp) analytics firm reported that between Nov. 22 and Nov. 28 activity was “booming” on The Sandbox, Decentraland, CryptoVoxels and Somnium Space with a combined $105.8 million worth of trading volume between them from more than 6,000 traders: “Undoubtedly, Metaverse land is the next big hit in the NFT space. Outputting record sales numbers and constantly increasing NFT prices, virtual worlds are the new top commodity in the crypto space.” The Sandbox represented the lion’s share of volume for the week with $86.56 million, Decentraland accounted for $15.53 million, while CryptoVoxels a...

There has been no shortage of people and institutions that woefully underestimated the potential of cryptocurrency. Among the ranks of once-were Bitcoin naysayers is Wired, which destroyed the private key to a Bitcoin (BTC) wallet holding 13.34623579 BTC back in 2013 in order to make the point the cryptocurrency was nothing more than an “abstraction”. The Bitcoin in the now inaccessible address is now worth $761,000. Author Robert McMillan (who now is a reporter with the Wall Street Journal) set up a Butterfy Labs Bitcoin mining rig in the corner of his office at Wired to see what all the fuss was about. And at the conclusion of his little experiment, he was far from impressed. Full marks for being early, null points for wise choices. “The world’s most popular digital currency really...

There has been no shortage of people and institutions that woefully underestimated the potential of cryptocurrency. Among the ranks of once-were Bitcoin naysayers is Wired, which destroyed the private key to a Bitcoin (BTC) wallet holding 13.34623579 BTC back in 2013 in order to make the point the cryptocurrency was nothing more than an “abstraction”. The Bitcoin in the now inaccessible address is now worth $761,000. Author Robert McMillan (who now is a reporter with the Wall Street Journal) set up a Butterfy Labs Bitcoin mining rig in the corner of his office at Wired to see what all the fuss was about. And at the conclusion of his little experiment, he was far from impressed. Full marks for being early, null points for wise choices. “The world’s most popular digital currency really...

Bitcoin (BTC) started the new month in strength and Dec. 1’s run up to $59,053 suggests that bulls are beginning to shake off the fears stirred up by the Federal Reserve’s taper talks and the emergence of a new strain of COVID-19.  Altcoins also saw their prices lift off and early hopes of a potential “Santa Claus rally” are making the rounds on crypto Twitter. Top 7 coins with the highest 24-hour price change. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24-hours were Request Network (REQ), Bifrost (BFC) and SafePal (SFP). Request Network transactions hit an all-time high Request Network (REQ) is an Ethereum-based decentralized payment system that allows users to send an...

Ben McKenzie, the actor known for his roles on TV shows including Gotham and The OC, is speaking out against public figures endorsing projects in the crypto space without seemingly disparaging the technology, itself. Working with The New Republic staff writer Jacob Silverman, McKenzie made waves in early October after penning a Slate piece with his partner titled, “Celebrity Crypto Shilling Is a Moral Disaster.” The duo called attention to Kim Kardashian’s Instagram account promoting the token EthereumMax (EMAX) in early June, a project whose price gained 116,000% in just one week before shedding more than 99% of its value, leaving many in the red. “Celebrities are lending their names and promotional talents to everything from NFTs to crypto exchanges to their own custom coin offerings,” s...