Coinbase Drops Free Ethereum NFT via Zora to Mark Base Network Launch

Coinbase Drops Free Ethereum NFT via Zora to Mark Base Network Launch

Coinbase announced a major new project today in the form of Base, a layer-2 scaling network for Ethereum built in collaboration with Optimism. To mark the news, the crypto exchange dropped a free open edition Ethereum NFT for anyone to mint—but it’s not through Coinbase’s own struggling NFT marketplace.

“Base, Introduced” is a free NFT that Coinbase made available through Zora, an NFT minting platform and startup focused on Web3 creator tools. It’s an open edition NFT, which means that anyone can claim one of the identical collectibles until the minting window ends on Sunday, with a limit of one NFT per wallet.

Already, more than 24,000 of the Ethereum NFTs have been minted since this morning’s announcement of Base. As a result, the NFT’s smart contract—which contains the code that powers the project—has become the largest “gas guzzler” on the Ethereum network, with over $271,000 worth of gas (or network transaction fees) used over the past three hours.

Zora is a well-known NFT minting platform for Web3 creators, but Coinbase already has its own NFT marketplace. However, Coinbase NFT has gained very little traction since launching last spring, with public blockchain data showing less than $8,000 worth of total NFT trading volume over the past week.

Compare that to some $596 million worth of trading volume over the last week at Blur, the top NFT marketplace that recently surpassed longtime leader OpenSea on the back of whale traders flipping assets in a rapid race to maximize BLUR token trading rewards.

Coinbase NFT shows the Base, Introduced NFTs on its marketplace, but they’re secondary listings posted by users who minted through Zora. Coinbase President and COO Emilie Choi said on an earnings call this week that the exchange is “not throwing in the towel” on its NFT ambitions, despite having “a very lean team on it now.”

The exchange’s NFT marketplace has supported NFT mints in the past, including significant drops like The Bill Murray 1,000. However, the company confirmed earlier this month that it “paused” creator drops on Coinbase NFT to push resources toward other features on the marketplace.

The free Base NFT nods towards the recent “open edition meta” in the NFT world, in which creators launch low-priced NFT mints that then layer in gamification elements, in some cases providing incentives to holders to “burn” (or permanently destroy) a number of them in exchange for a unique, rarer version that isn’t identical to the others.

Coinbase hasn’t promised any future utility or benefits for the Base NFT. However, NFTs are finding some traction in secondary markets. Most of them are selling for a relatively low price right now, about 0.01 ETH ($16) apiece, but some of the early-numbered editions or those with so-called “vanity numbers” are commanding higher prices.

For example, NFT #888 sold for 0.888 ETH (about $1,455) this morning, and the buyer has listed it for 8.888 ETH ($14,700) in the hopes of securing a sizable flip. Other three-digit NFT editions have sold for hundreds of dollars since the free mint launched this morning.

BRICS Predict More Fed Hikes, Bitcoin Records Large Blocks as Ordinals Gain Currency

BRICS Predict More Fed Hikes, Bitcoin Records Large Blocks as Ordinals Gain Currency

In spite of turbulence in traditional global finance, with BRICS nations said to be pushing for de-dollarization and major banks like Bank of America and Goldman Sachs predicting further interest rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve, creativity in crypto has found a new boon in the form of controversial inscriptions, called Ordinals, on the Bitcoin blockchain. All this and more, just below, in the latest cryptoflings.com News Week in Review.

Expert Predicts Looming Economic Collapse as BRICS Nations Unite Against the Dollar

Expert Predicts Looming Economic Collapse as BRICS Nations Unite Against the Dollar

Andy Schectman, CEO of Miles Franklin Precious Metals Investments, explained in a recent interview that the five leading emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, collectively known as BRICS nations — are “coalescing against the dollar.” Schectman believes that since 2022, de-dollarization “seems to be spinning much, much faster.”

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Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, UBS Share Predictions of Further Fed Rate Hikes

Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and UBS Share Predictions About Further Fed Rate Hikes

Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and UBS have shared their predictions about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates further. Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, for example, now expect the Fed to raise interest rates three more times this year.

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Economist Warns the Fed Can't Get to Inflation Target 'Without Crushing the Economy'

Economist Warns the Fed Can’t Reach Inflation Target Without ‘Crushing’ US Economy

Economist Mohamed El-Erian, Allianz’s chief economic advisor and chair of Gramercy Funds Management, has warned that the Federal Reserve cannot achieve its 2% inflation target without crushing the U.S. economy. “You need a higher stable inflation rate. Call it 3% to 4%,” the economist suggested.

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Bitcoin Continues to Record Blocks Above the 3.75 MB Range as Ordinal Inscriptions Near 150,000

Bitcoin Continues to Record 3.75 MB Blocks as Ordinals Increase

As Ordinal inscriptions approached the 150,000 mark, blocks larger than 3 MB have become commonplace, with many blocks near the 4 MB range. Meanwhile, after the average transaction fee on-chain rose 122% higher at the beginning of February 2023, the average fee has remained the same over the last few weeks.

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What are your thoughts on this week’s hottest stories from cryptoflings.com News? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. cryptoflings.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods, or services mentioned in this article.

Federal Judge Rules NBA Top Shot NFTs May Be Considered Unregistered Securities

Federal Judge Rules NBA Top Shot NFTs May Be Considered Unregistered Securities
Federal Judge Rules NBA Top Shot NFTs May Be Considered Unregistered Securities

A federal judge, Victor Marrero, ruled on Wednesday that the NBA Top Shot non-fungible tokens (NFTs) issued by Dapper Labs may meet the requirements to be considered unregistered security. The case arose in 2021 when an NBA Top Shot collector sued Dapper Labs, claiming that the NBA Top Shot NFTs, known as “Moments” issued via the Flow blockchain, are securities.

Judge’s Ruling Allows Friel v. Dapper Labs Case to Continue

United States District Court Judge Victor Marrero agreed with the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against Dapper Labs on Feb. 22, 2023, noting that NBA Top Shot NFTs could plausibly be unregistered securities in the eyes of the law. On May 13, 2021, Jeeun Friel sued Dapper Labs for selling Top Shot NFTs without registering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Dapper Labs attempted to get the court to dismiss the case, but Marrero denied the company’s motion.

Marrero’s ruling simply allows the case to continue based on the judge’s opinion that NBA Top Shot NFTs may be considered a security. Marrero said the ruling does not apply to the sale and distribution of FLOW, the Flow blockchain’s native crypto asset. However, the Howey Test was applied to the NBA Top Shot “Moments” NFTs, and the Howey analysis is what supports the judge’s decision.

“Although the literal word ‘profit’ is not included in any of the tweets, the ‘rocket ship’ emoji, ‘stock chart’ emoji, and ‘money bags’ emoji objectively mean one thing: a financial return on investment,” Marrero said in the court filing. “The court is persuaded that Dapper Labs’s scheme to sell Moments plausibly reflects horizontal commonality by being ‘intertwined with interest in Dapper Labs,’ its burgeoning new blockchain, and the token that ‘powers it all.’”

Dapper Labs Responds to Judge Marrero’s Ruling on NBA Top Shot NFTs

On Wednesday, Dapper Labs commented on the lawsuit and the judge’s recent decision. “Today’s order in the Friel v. Dapper Labs matter – which the Court described as a ‘close call’ – only denied our motion to dismiss the complaint at the case’s pleading stage,” the company said on Twitter.

“The judge did not conclude the plaintiffs were right, and it’s not a final ruling on the case’s merits. Courts have repeatedly held that consumer goods – including art and collectibles like basketball cards – are not “securities” under federal law. We’re confident the same holds true for Moments and other collectibles, digital or otherwise,” Dapper Labs added.

What do you think the implications of this ruling could be for the NFT market as a whole? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. cryptoflings.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods, or services mentioned in this article.

Solana-Themed Storefronts Close Shop, Ending Experiment in IRL Blockchain Evangelism

Solana-Themed Storefronts Close Shop, Ending Experiment in IRL Blockchain Evangelism

Solana Spaces will close its New York City and Miami locations by the end of February.

By Danny Nelson

AccessTimeIconFeb 22, 2023 at 8:45 a.m.

Updated Feb 22, 2023, at 8:44 p.m.

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Solana Spaces, a company that used storefronts in New York City and Miami to pitch adoption of its namesake blockchain, said in a tweet Tuesday it will close its locations by the end of the month.

The startup reached “an inflection point” in the past two months and will pivot away from brick-and-mortar experiences and into non-fungible tokens (NFT), CEO Vibhu Norby said in the tweet. He indicated Solana Spaces will rebrand itself as DRiP, a boutique NFT distribution platform created by Norby, which he also promoted in his stores.

The closure comes seven months after Norby opened Solana Spaces’ first location in a glitzy mall in New York City’s Hudson Yards. Its staffers guided visitors through interactive stations that taught them how to get going on Solana, from setting up a crypto wallet to swapping tokens on a decentralized exchange. Norby later set up a second shop in Miami.

Some 60,000 total visitors came to the stores over six months and they completed 16,000 onboarding tutorials, according to a spokesperson for the Solana Foundation, which gave Norby a grant to help Solana Spaces launch. The spokesperson said the Foundation had no financial stake in the company.

Rather than selling a product, Solana Spaces pitched its storefront as an interactive billboard for crypto brands like FTX, Phantom, and Orca that paid for exposure to mainstream audiences. Their advertising dollars paid for Solana Spaces operations; when the FTX exchange imploded it shook the company, but Norby insisted Solana Spaces could still sustain itself using his so-called “retail-as-a-service” (RaaS) model.

Just over a year ago, Norby’s first attempt at RaaS, the tech gadget-focused store b8ta, closed its doors after failing to reach a deal with its landlords. Solana Spaces’ New York location inhabited a former b8ta storefront.

Norby said he closed Solana Spaces’ brick-and-mortar operations because the behind-the-scenes administrative operations proved too burdensome and the potential for growth was too small.

“It’s a little less about the economics and more about where I thought this was going in the future,” Norby said.

The company will continue building DRiP, the NFT distribution platform Norby said attracted tens of thousands of signups during Solana Spaces’ in-person run.

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Polygon Labs President Ryan Wyatt: 'The Next Jeff Bezos Will Come From Web3'

Polygon Labs President Ryan Wyatt: 'The Next Jeff Bezos Will Come From Web3'

Ryan Wyatt has quickly become a prominent figure in the crypto space since joining Polygon Labs early last year—but he’s arguably better known for his past in gaming and esports.

Under the gamer tag Fwiz, Wyatt was a fixture in the early Call of Duty esports scene, working as a commentator and later VP of Programming for Major League Gaming. He even co-wrote a bestselling book about the popular esports team OpTic Gaming. He then launched and grew YouTube Gaming from 2014 to 2022 as the company’s Global Head of Gaming.

Given his prominence in the gaming world, what ultimately pulled him into crypto? On the latest episode of Decrypt’s gm podcast, Wyatt said he “really got into just simply the idea of digital ownership, this idea that we’re going to keep spending more money on digital items.” He recognized, he said, that people “want more autonomy and ownership” over their digital items as both spending and affinity grow—and that blockchain enables that.

“I was immediately sold, right? I think there’s an infinite amount of things that can be done in the space on this,” he said. “And that’s what made me jump in with such conviction.”

Wyatt, who joined Polygon Studios as CEO in February 2022 and recently shifted into the president role at the rebranded Polygon Labs, said that he’s come to understand why some people are “very spirited” about the economic angle of cryptocurrency. But for him, embracing Web3 was all about seeing the potential future impact of true digital ownership.

The prospective benefits for gamers are obvious, even if some video game fans have vocally rejected NFTs. Gamers already shell out for digital items in games like Fortnite and Call of Duty that they can’t resell or use in other games and worlds. Blockchain-based games can potentially give players that level of control with broader advantages.

Interestingly, Wyatt said he chose Polygon Labs above other potential opportunities due to the ability to work with creators and builders across a wide array of verticals. He helped grow the creator economy at YouTube and now wants to do the same for Web3 creators without being solely tethered to the gaming space.

“I wanted to expand outside of gaming, and see how all of this world is very interconnected,” he said. “That part, I felt pretty strongly about.” He added that while rival layer-1 platforms like Solana and Avalanche were certainly gaining steam, the Ethereum space already had established users and developers.

Wyatt also “loved” that the founders of Polygon—an Ethereumethe scaling network that enables faster and cheaper transactions than mainnet—acquired and integrated ZK scaling projects in 2021, signaling long-term ambitions. Furthermore, Wyatt believed he could help elevate Polygon by bringing his experience from the Web2 world.

“I also felt that where I could add value is helping with scaling, and helping add some of the non-Web3-native elements into Polygon to make it more multifaceted,” he said. “And so I just really clicked with Sandeep [Nailwal, Polygon co-founder] and the team because it felt like we were very complementary of each other’s skill sets and weaknesses.”

Earlier in his career, Wyatt wrote in his OpTic Gaming book that he hoped to lead a company someday. Now he’s doing it, albeit in a very different industry. And he thinks the next huge tech giant or luminary will come from this industry.

“I have no doubt,” he said, “even going as far as like, is the next Amazon already out there? Or that person—is Jeff Bezos out there? The next Jeff Bezos is out of Web3. Watch out. He’s coming. Hopefully, he’s building on Polygon.”

Listen and subscribe to the gm podcast wherever you get your podcast.

Coinbase Says Client Assets Are 'Segregated and Secure' Following Proposed SEC Rule Change

Coinbase Says Client Assets Are 'Segregated and Secure' Following Proposed SEC Rule Change

Coinbase is confident that its Coinbase Custody Trust Co. (CCTC) will remain a qualified custodian even if new rules proposed by the SEC come into play, according to the company’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal.

Coinbase Custody Trust is a New York-based business that provides cold storage for third-party investors’ digital assets. The SEC on Wednesday published a rule-change proposal that seeks to enforce much stricter provisions governing where registered investment advisers can custody cryptocurrency on behalf of their investors, limiting such investments to what are known as “qualified custodians.”

These custodians must adhere to a stricter set of regulations, including keeping funds in a siloed account, unmixed with their own funds or those of other organizations.

Coinbase’s Grewal told Decrypt that his firm supports the SEC’s proposal and fully agrees that “investors deserve to feel confident their assets are safe.” Grewal added that its custodial clients’ assets “are segregated and secured.”

“We commend the SEC for recognizing Coinbase Custody Trust Co. (CCTC) is a qualified custodian, and after today’s SEC proposed rulemaking, we are confident that it will remain a qualified custodian,” said Grewal.

Crypto industry cautious over custody

SEC Chair Gary Gensler didn’t mince words when it came to criticizing the practices of some crypto custodians.

In the proposal, Gensler said that “though some crypto trading and lending platforms may claim to custody investors’ crypto, that does not mean they are qualified custodians.”

Gensler said that certain platforms have commingled investor assets with both their own or other investors in the past, leaving these “investors in line at the bankruptcy court” when such platforms have gone bankrupt.

In the wake of FTX’s high-profile collapse last November, which saw the crypto exchange mix user funds with its sister trading firm Alameda Research, investors have been on high alert regarding how trading platforms custody their assets.

One such development to cool investors’ nerves has been the rise of reserve reports, with exchanges like Binance, KuCoin, ByBit, and others providing users with attestations as to how they manage their reserves.

Coinbase is confident that its Coinbase Custody Trust Co. (CCTC) will remain a qualified custodian even if new rules proposed by the SEC come into play, according to the company’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal.

Coinbase Custody Trust is a New York-based business that provides cold storage for third-party investors’ digital assets. The SEC on Wednesday published a rule-change proposal that seeks to enforce much stricter provisions governing where registered investment advisers can custody cryptocurrency on behalf of their investors, limiting such investments to what are known as “qualified custodians.”

NBA Top Shot Will Let Users Buy NFTs via Apple, and Android Mobile Apps

NBA Top Shot Will Let Users Buy NFTs via Apple, and Android Mobile Apps

NBA Top Shot, the officially licensed basketball NFT platform that has generated more than $1 billion in sales to date, is headed to mobile with the launch of smartphone apps through Apple’s iOS App Store and Google’s Android Play Store.

For NBA Top Shot users, the native apps aim to provide a smoother way to access and buy digital collectibles on the go. But for creator Dapper Labs, which developed the Flow blockchain and also runs platforms like NFL All Day and UFC Strike, it’s the first step in the company’s transformation into a mobile-first Web3 company.

“The NBA Top Shot app will really be the start of our move to be a mobile-first company,” Dapper Labs Senior VP of Sports Partnerships Jennifer van Dijk told Decrypt. She added that the move will let Dapper “lead the way in what mobile looks like in Web3, and continue our path of wanting to bring everybody to Web3.

nftPromotional artwork showing the NBA Top Shot mobile app. Image: Dapper Labs

Dapper Labs will initially release a limited version of the app. At first, users will be able to view their own collection of NBA Top Shot NFTs, see platform activity, be notified of drops, and purchase a starter pack of NFT moments. More features will be added over time.

The ability to buy NFTs through a mobile app is the new twist here. Web3 startups and NFT marketplaces have had to restrict the ability to transact NFT assets via mobile apps due to Apple and Google expecting a cut of sales.

That wrinkle potentially makes primary sales more expensive for mobile users, but really throws a wrench into the idea of secondary market sales between users. Where does Apple’s 30% fee come from in that case? It’s a hurdle that Web3 startups have been wrestling with over the past months since the tech giant clarified its stance towards NFT sales and uses.

Van Dijk said that Dapper is bearing this in mind while developing and expanding the Top Shot app, and working closely with not only its sports league partners but also Apple and Google to try and find the best path forward. When users buy an NBA Top Shot starter pack through one of the mobile apps, the price shown will include any fee considerations on Dapper’s part.

“When we present a price, that will include everything that would be taken out or managed by us on the back end, and the consumer will have that price,” she explained. “We’re committed also to keeping prices reasonable for fans and making them accessible.”

She pointed to last week’s sold-out drop of 100,000 Top Shot starter packs designed around LeBron James’ feat of breaking the NBA’s all-time scoring record. Those packs, sold through the web interface, cost $9 apiece.

“We’re going to continue in that trend, as well, on the starter packs,” van Dijk added. “Maybe not $9, exactly, but reasonable and affordable.”

Mobile evolution?

Eventually, the goal is to expand the Top Shot mobile apps to enable peer-to-peer marketplace trades between users—despite the challenges given the fees that Apple and Google charge for in-app transactions. Van Dijk said that Apple and Google appear “very interested in exploring this space with the right partners and experiences.”

Already, NBA Top Shot sees as much as 75% of its traffic from mobile web, Van Dijk said—but trying to buy and handle NFTs via a mobile browser can be a challenge.

Dapper Labs was one of the brightest stars in the early days of the NFT boom in 2021 as Top Shot permeated the mainstream, but it has faced more recent challenges amid falling NFT sales. In November, the Canadian firm laid off about 22% of its team citing market conditions as the broader NFT and cryptocurrency markets struggled.

Embracing mobile in this way signals a new path forward as the company finds its place in the ever-changing Web3 industry. The Top Shot app is the first step towards “bridging that divide” between clunky Web3 experiences and a potentially much larger audience of smartphone-wielding users that don’t have easy access to NFT experiences.

She added that Dapper’s “hope for the future” is that the company and its partners can “over time, come together and figure out what evolves from here.” Part of realizing that ambition, she suggested, is playing by the current mobile app marketplace rules and then trying to nudge the regulations toward a more Web3-friendly place.

“There are no easy answers,” van Dijk said. “But I think that is also the ability for us to be good partners together, and come to those things together—instead of in any way trying to go around the rules or things like that. [We’ll] change together, evolve together, and I think we’ll get to a pretty good place.

Stanford Alumni Revealed as Co-Signers of FTX Co-Founder’s $250M Bond

Stanford Alumni Revealed as Co-Signers of FTX Co-Founder’s $250M Bond
Stanford Alumni Revealed as Co-Signers of FTX Co-Founder's $250M Bond

According to the latest court documents in the fraud case involving former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in Manhattan, the New York judge presiding over the case unsealed the co-signers of Bankman-Fried’s bond on Wednesday. The names of the two bail bond co-signers that were previously redacted from court documents are Stanford University alumni Larry Kramer and Andreas Paepcke.

Details Emerge on SBF’s Bail Bond Co-Signers

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), a co-founder of FTX, faces eight counts of financial misconduct for allegedly mishandling customer funds. He is currently out on bail and is being monitored by an ankle bracelet, with his trial scheduled for Oct. 3, 2023. SBF’s $250 million bond agreement was secured by his parents’ Stanford faculty home, and two co-signers backed the agreement. However, their names were previously unknown because lawyers argued that they should remain redacted for privacy reasons.

Stanford Alumni Revealed as Co-Signers of FTX Co-Founder's $250M Bond
The two co-signers of SBF’s $250M bail bond were both members of Stanford University. Co-signer Andreas Paepcke is pictured on the left and co-signer Larry Kramer is pictured on the right.

On Wednesday, the New York judge unsealed the previously redacted names of the two co-signers, revealing that they were prominent members of Stanford University. One co-signer was Larry Kramer, a former dean of Stanford Law School from 2005 to 2012. The other co-signer was Andreas Paepcke, a senior research scientist in computer science at Stanford University. Kramer is the president of the left-leaning Hewlett Foundation, which aims to bolster ‘effective philanthropy.’ He has described SBF’s parents as “the truest of friends.” In a statement sent to multiple media publications, Kramer said:

Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried have been close friends of my wife and I since the mid-1990s. During the past two years, while my family faced a harrowing battle with cancer, they have been the truest of friends — bringing food, providing moral support, and frequently stepping in at moment’s notice to help. In turn, we have sought to support them as they face their own crisis.

According to reports, several news outlets have attempted to get a comment from computer science researcher Andreas Paepcke, but he has not responded to requests. According to his bio, Paepcke is interested in ‘interfaces and systems’ and leverages ‘data analytics to create tools that benefit these online efforts.’ Some people on Twitter also commented on the resemblance between SBF and Paepcke. SBF told journalist Tiffany Fong that neither of the bond guarantors “received payments from FTX or Alameda.”

What are your thoughts on the revelation of the co-signers identities in Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail agreement? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. cryptoflings.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods, or services mentioned in this article.

Sony Teams Up With Astar Network for Web3 Incubation Program

Sony Teams Up With Astar Network for Web3 Incubation Program

Sony Network Communications hopes the program will explore “how blockchain technology can solve various problems in their industry.”

By Rosie Perper

AccessTimeIconFeb 17, 2023 at 7:30 a.m.

Updated Feb 17, 2023, at 7:37 a.m.

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Sony Network Communications, a business division of The Sony Group, has teamed up with multi-chain smart contract network Astar Network to launch a Web3 incubation program for projects that focus on the utility of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

According to a press release, the Web3 incubation program will be organized by Singapore-based Startale Labs, a company founded by Astar Network CEO Sota Watanabe, and will run from mid-March to mid-June of this year. Applications for the program open on February 17 and close on March 6.

Those accepted into the program will be split into 10 to 15 cohorts, and learning sessions will be provided by global venture capital firms such as Dragonfly, Fenbushi Capital, and Alchemy Venture.

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The goal of the program for Sony Network Communications is to explore “how blockchain technology can solve various problems in their industry,” the press release adds. Projects in the program may also be considered for investment from Sony Network Communications.

The incubation program is part of Astar Network’s continued partnerships with companies looking to explore use cases for Web3 technology. Last month, Astar Network – one of the first para chains to come to the Polkadot ecosystem – teamed up with automotive giant Toyota on a Web3 hackathon.

More broadly, Sony has also started to embrace Web3 technology, announcing a motion-tracking metaverse wearable called Mocopi in November 2022.

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Rosie Perper is the Deputy Managing Editor for the Web3 news section, focusing on the metaverse, NFTs, DAOs, and emerging technology like VR/AR. She has previously worked across breaking news, global finance, tech, culture, and business. She holds a small amount of BTC and ETH and several NFTs.

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Neon Link’s Gaming-Focused Neon Coin Presale Begins

Neon Link’s Gaming-Focused Neon Coin Presale Begins

press release

PRESS RELEASE. LONDON, ENGLAND – February 15th, 2023 – Neon Link, the new blockchain gaming ecosystem consisting of a layer-1 blockchain, native coin, wallet, dex, bridge, games, and more is opening up the opportunity to own part of this project by holding the NEON coin on the 15th February at 5 PM UTC. By connecting a wallet and purchasing coins with ERC-20 $ETH or $USDT, anyone can invest in some of the 55 million coins that are on offer in this presale.

Combining web3 innovation with gameplay-first experiences for gamers and game developers, Neon Link is racing through a sophisticated roadmap that includes, amongst other things, the release of an AI-enhanced Software Development Kit (SDK) for game developers.

The game-focused NEON coin provides utility and governance to the Neon Link blockchain and its suite of products and can be earned through gameplay in any of the three upcoming Neon Link Games: Ascend The End (which has recently launched its Closed Alpha test), Neon Saga and Neon Punks Arcade.

The Neon Bridge can be used to bridge tokens from one chain to another, with all major chains supported and more to be added in the future.

The minimum purchase is $12 and the maximum is $50,000 worth of Neon Coin, and prices are discounted through bands as the sale progresses. Funds will be allocated to the development of the games, community growth, and an accelerator program for the first 20 projects that sign up to build games on Neon Link.

Visit the Presale Page to find out more, and sign up to receive important updates and take part on the 15th of February at 5 pm UTC.

For media inquiries, please reach out to roland@neonlink.io.

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