Latest NFT News & Headlines

Magic Eden announced that users can now trade Bitcoin collectibles using BTC on its marketplace.

❗ Why It Matters

Though it started as a Solana-only NFT marketplace, Magic Eden is now the first major marketplace on Bitcoin.

While there are no smart contracts on Bitcoin like there are on Ethereum, the introduction of Magic Eden's marketplace for Ordinals means that supported Bitcoin NFT collections no longer need to be traded "over-the-counter" (OTC).

🔎 The Deets

• Magic Eden's new Ordinals marketplace includes numerous collections, such as BTC DeGods, and features "a fully permissionless, non-custodial marketplace for secondaries that utilizes partially signed Bitcoin transactions (PSBT), as the core technology, instead of smart contracts."
• Magic Eden is integrating support for non-custodial BTC wallets from Hiro (@hirowallet) and Xverse (@xverseApp).
• Magic Eden has decided to launch on Bitcoin without royalty support for now.

🎤 Founder Feedback

🔜 What’s Next?

Magic Eden's Ordinals marketplace is a secondary collectibles platform, but the team noted, "we have already been met with enormous demand to provide a Launchpad to deliver inscription services directly to creators. We are thinking through the best approach to this and will share more to come."

🖼️ The Big Picture

Magic Eden opening a Bitcoin marketplace is a big step forward that will allow for the increased adoption of Bitcoin NFTs. Previously, all of the trading of Bitcoin NFTs was done OTC, relying on trust and spreadsheets.

🧠 Learn More

• Magic Eden Bitcoin Marketplace (magiceden.io/ordinals)
• Magic Eden blog: Welcoming Our Bitcoin Marketplace on Magic Eden
• Twitter account for Magic Eden on Bitcoin (@MEonBTC)
• LuckyTrader Guide: Bitcoin NFTs | What You Should Know (February 13, 2023)

Sony Interactive Entertainment filed a patent application that relates generally to NFT frameworks for transferring and using digital assets between game platforms, per web3 gamer and streamer @brycent_.

❗ Why It Matters

The year of web3 gaming continues. This news comes a month after Sony joined forces with Astar Network in a web3 incubation program whose goal is to explore "how blockchain technology can solve various problems" for the tech giant. Sony also hinted at NFT and blockchain experimentation in a different patent filing back in November, so this patent application is the logical next step in the company's exploration of web3.

Sony's new patent application lays out a framework that allows players on the PlayStation platform to earn NFTs in the form of unique skins and other in-game content. The idea is that once they own the NFT, they'll be able to use the skin in other games and across other game systems and platforms.

What It Means

The patent application includes a few graphics that illustrate how a potential system involving NFTs could be implemented on Sony's gaming platform.

The example below shows how a user could transfer "Skin 2456", or move it to another console/platform, among other things.

Source: https://www.scribd.com/document/631694034/US-20230079127-A1-I#

🎤 Community Quotes

🧠 Learn More

• Scribd: US-20230079127-A1_I
• PatentScope: "NFT Framework For Transferring And Using Digital Assets Between Game Platforms"
• Sony Partners with Astar Network on Web3 Initiatives (February 17, 2023)
• Sony Hints at NFT, Blockchain Experimentation with Patent Filing (November 14, 2022)

Magic Johnson has filed U.S. trademark applications for "Magic Johnson's Neighborhood" and "Building. Magic. Together", which hint towards future web3 initiatives. This is according to documents filed with the USPTO (97843294 and 97843322) and identified in a tweet by trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis.

❗ Why It Matters

Magic is no stranger to dipping his toes into web3, partnering with TopShot to create a special Anthology set last year and then subsequently speaking about that collection with Jimmy Kimmel. Now, Magic is taking a more immersive step into the metaverse with these trademark applications.

🔎 The Deets

Mentioned in Application 97843294 for "Magic Johnson's Neighborhood" are the following items:

• Downloadable virtual and digital goods, namely, sports trading cards, sports memorabilia, sports collectibles, clothing, footwear, sportswear, headwear, sporting goods, sports jerseys, shoes specially adapted for sports, clothing specially adapted for sports, food items, home goods, home repair tools and supplies, and personal electronic devices and chargers, in each case, for use online and in virtual worlds and authenticated by non-fungible tokens (NFTs);

• Providing of an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of downloadable digital goods, virtual goods or digitized assets authenticated by non-fungible tokens (NFTs); online retail store services featuring digital goods, virtual goods or digitized assets

• Providing an online community forum, online environment, virtual online environment, and extended reality virtual environment for users to engage in virtual experiences and utilize virtual goods and items; providing an online community forum, online environment, virtual online environment, and extended reality virtual environment for allowing users inside virtual worlds, online virtual environments, video games, and the metaverse to communicate with each other, and view, attend and participate in educational classes, events, meetings, discussions and workshops;

Application 97843322 for "Building. Magic. Together." includes the same group of items, with that listed as the mark instead of "Magic Johnson's Neighborhood".

🕳️ Go Deeper

• View the Trademark Applications here and here

Wynn Las Vegas has filed U.S. trademark applications on behalf of two of its properties, Desert Inn and Encore Beach Club, that hint towards possible future web3 initiatives for the casino and gaming giant. The news was first reported by intellectual property and web3 lawyer @eliana_esq.

🔎 The Deets

Mentioned in Application 97843014 for Desert Inn are the following items:

• Retail store services rendered in a virtual environment, namely casino chips, gaming tables and slot machines
• Provision of an online marketplace for files containing digital charms authenticated by NFTs
• Provision of an online marketplace where individuals can buy, sell or trade NFTs

Application 97842992 for Encore Beach Club hits on the same group of items, with Encore Beach Club listed as the mark instead of Desert Inn.

🕳️Go Deeper

• View the Trademark Applications Here and Here.

Last week, Pudgy Penguins filed two new U.S. Trademark applications, as reported by trademark and copyright attorney, @NeerMcD.

❗ Why It Matters

CEO Luca Netz has been vocal that he envisions Pudgy Penguins existing as a brand outside of the NFT space, and today's news perhaps sheds a little light on exactly what Netz may have up his sleeve for the project's future.

🔎 The Deets

Mentioned in Application 97842598 are the following items:

• Printed comic books; printed materials, namely novels and series of fiction books and short stories featuring scenes and characters based on video games
• Collectable printed trading cards
• Various merch items (hoodies, hats, pants, etc.)
• Board games, puzzles, action figures, stuffed animals, trading card games, stress relief toys, social emotional toys, educational toys
• Candy, various snacks, cereal, frozen yogurt
• Retail store services featuring virtual goods
• Entertainment services, namely providing virtual characters for use in online and virtual environments 
• A website allowing users to upload and download music, video clips and images

Application 97842583 added these items:

• Audio and video recording featuring music and artistic performances
• Downloadable music files authenticated by NFTs
• Downloadable multimedia file containing artwork relating to characters through NFTs or soulbound tokens

🕳️Go Deeper

• View the Trademark Applications Here and Here.
• Retail Monster to Help Launch Pudgy Toy Line
• Pudgy Penguins: Expansion Starts Soon
• Pudgy Penguins Screen Protectors Now Available

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Market Summary

Monday was a fairly light day in terms of NFT news, but it remains an active time for macro news in the midst of an ongoing banking crisis and an important FOMC meeting on the horizon. Let's get into the headlines.

💰Balaji's Big Bitcoin Bet

Former Coinbase CTO, Balaji Srinivasan raised eyebrows on Friday when he bet James Medlock that the price of Bitcoin would exceed $1m within the next 90 days. In his challenge, Balaji agreed to send $1m USD while asking Medlock to buy 1 Bitcoin. If the price of Bitcoin failed to reach $1m USD within 90 days, Medlock is to receive $1m in USDC. If Balaji is correct, Medlock will send 1 BTC to Balaji. At the time of the proposal, the price of Bitcoin was around $26k, effectively making this a 38:1 bet. And not only was Balaji willing to take this bet with Medlock, he also put out an open offer for another person to take him up on the bet.

But does Balaji really believe the price of Bitcoin will hit $1m within the next 90 days or is this, as some have suggested, more of a publicity stunt? Let's dig in.

Balaji is calling for a moment when the world "redenominates on Bitcoin as digital gold, returning to a model much like before the 20th century." He envisions this process beginning when a US state or "normal" country (he doesn't define what he considers a "normal" country, but apparently that definition does not include El Salvador) buys Bitcoin. While 90 days seems like an extremely ambitious timeline for this to happen, Balaji believes we'll get there due to hyperinflation, which he expects to be triggered "once people check what I'm saying and see that the Federal Reserve has lied about how much money there is in banks."

The bank runs we've seen at Silicon Valley Bank and others, to a lesser degree, this month have happened extremely quickly, and Balaji is counting on hyperinflation to similarly occur in a "1 to 0" manner. "Just like the bank runs, except this is the central bank," he says. Balaji sees Bitcoin's rise in price from $1 USD to where it is now as a vote against the dollar since the 2008 financial crisis by "much of the smart money."

As news of the bet spread, several of Balaji's followers started retweeting a thread he had posted on January 30, 2020, about a month and a half before the U.S. closed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In that thread, Balaji asks, "What if this coronavirus is the pandemic that public health people have been warning about for years?" while correctly predicting some of the resulting effects, like border closures, a rise in remote work, the prevalence of facemasks and distrust in governments.

In 2020, Balaji was able to read the tea leaves and forecast what was likely to happen next. Is history repeating itself with his latest Bitcoin bet? In this case, the "tea leaves" Balaji is reading are:

• The amount of "newly printed money" on the Fed's balance sheet.
• The potential for hundreds of banks to face the same issues that doomed Silicon Valley Bank.
• The potential for Bitcoin to serve as a "digital gold" reserve.

Somewhat ironically, even if Balaji were to win the bet, he will still lose purchasing power, as the $1m USD he placed into escrow will be massively devalued. As one Twitter user suggested (in a tweet that was retweeted by Balaji), "He's burning this cash to get YOU to pay attention."

So, what do you think? Was this a smart bet by Balaji, a publicity stunt, an educational campaign? And will Jack Butcher be wearing this hoodie in late June? 

Only time will tell.

🏦 FOMC Meets Ahead of Rate Move Decision

Another major macro event kicks off today with the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) scheduled to meet over the next two days, culminating in a press conference tomorrow at 2:00 PM ET with Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The market is expecting Powell to announce a rate hike of 25 bps in the conference, assigning roughly a 86% probability to this outcome per data supplied by CME Group. These expectations have been in flux over the past couple weeks as the Fed is navigating both an inflation rate that is still high, and a banking sector which has come under duress, partially as a result of the break-neck speed at which the Fed has hiked rates over the past year.

Expect more volatility in the markets as we learn more about Powell's plans over the next couple of days. If you'd like to stay updated on these events in real-time, some helpful Twitter accounts to follow include @tier10k and @gurgavin.

🔄 NFT Round Up

With macro news dominating the headlines, it was a slower news day in NFT land. Here are the main stories I'm focused from the last 24 hours:

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

• Trading volume came in at 32.2k ETH on the day, highest since last Thursday with Wrapped Punks leading the charge (24.3k ETH).
• NBA Top Shot is teaming up with HOMAGE to gift free tee-shirts to 2,500 collectors.
• In more web3 basketball news, former NBA star Baron Davis is working on a new venture whose goal is to onboard a new demographic that has not yet been exposed to web3.
• Pindar Van Arman, a pioneer in the AI art space and BrainDrops contributor, has a 1/1 byteGAN NFT up for auction at Sotheby's.
• ZED RUN is offering community grants to those interested in building aliongside the virtual horse-racing platform.
• Wrapped Punks had so much sales activity on Blur yesterday afternoon that popular valuation site DeepNFTValue was unable to keep up with the price movement for the first time.
• Golf equipment company Titleist filed a U.S. trademark application centered around NFTs.

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Polygon Labs announced a partnership with Immutable to create a new chain for games that aims to make developing web3 games faster, easier and more secure.
• With Signature Bank shut down, Coinbase is no longer supporting Signet, which was a "real-time payments network" offered by Signature. Customers who used this service will no longer be able to deposit or withdraw U.S. dollars outside of banking hours.
• Belgian regulators will require crypto ads include the disclaimer, "The only guarantee in crypto is risk."
• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis introduced a law to ban the use of CBDCs in the state.

🚀 NFT Total Volume

• Wrapped CryptoPunks (24,342 ETH, 65.16. ETH Floor)
• Azuki (2,356 ETH, 13.41 ETH Floor)
• Mutant Ape Yacht Club (2,116 ETH, 12.67 ETH Floor)
• CryptoPunks (1,715 ETH, 58.98 ETH Floor)
• Moonbirds (767 ETH, 4.14 ETH Floor)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase

• NFT Worlds (14.9%, 1.11 ETH Floor)
• Nouns (14.29%, 32 ETH Floor)
• RENGA Black Box (11.18%, 2.52 ETH Floor)
• FLUF World (7.28%, 1.75 ETH Floor)
• Crypto Citizens (7.1%, 0.59 ETH Floor)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

It's another fairly quiet day of mints and reveals with three projects I'm tracking. First up, we have Latent Couture by Mikey Woodbridge, a collection of 555 generative AI art NFTs created by digital artist Mikey Woodbridge.

Next up, we have what I consider the drop of the day in the Candy x Getty Images collection, dropping at 1:00 PM ET. This collection is centered around the music and culture of the 1970's, featuring photography by David Redfern and subjects like David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix and more.

Rounding out the day, we have Archive of PEACEMINUSONE, hosted by OpenSea. This is a collection by K-pop star G-Dragon, in collaboration with Fandom Studio.

• Latent Couture by Mikey Woodbridge (12:00 PM ET, 0.1 ETH)
• Candy Digital x Getty Images (1:00 PM ET, $25)
• Archive of PEACEMINUSONE (11:00 PM ET, 0.27 BNB)

Enjoy this write-up? Follow along with me on Twitter @wmonighe or reach out via email bill@luckytrader.com.

For all volume and floor price data, see Lucky Trader's Project Rankings page.

For all upcoming mints, see Lucky Trader's Project Schedule page.

Polygon Labs announced a partnership with Immutable to create Immutable zkEVM, a chain for games that offer EVM compatibility powered by Polygon.

❗ Why It Matters

zkEVM is the first of its kind, a chain for web3 games that offer EVM compatibility with ZK-rollups. Building on Immutable zkEVM will make developing web3 games faster, easier, and more secure. Many suspect that games will ultimately be the bridge to mass adoption of web3, making web3 games easier to create and, more secure to use, and with less friction to get started will definitely improve the chances of that happening. 

🔎 The Deets

While the Immutable zkEVM chain is a few months away, here's what we know about Immutable zkEVM:

NBA Top Shot announced that it has teamed up with HOMAGE to create a debut t-shirt, available for free to 2,500 collectors. 

❗Why It Matters

It's been a while since Top Shot has garnered enthusiasm or positive headlines....but everyone loves free merch. Any Top Shot user can enter the drawing for free, with shipments available to both the United States and Canada. It's a small announcement, but at least Top Shot isn't making anyone pay for the t-shirt. 

🔎 The Deets

• Must sign up before 1:00 p.m. ET on Monday, Apr. 3.
• 2,500 winners will be selected from the pool for a free t-shirt. 
• The shirt is designed after the Top Shot Debut badge. 

🎬 Take Action

Users with an NBA Top Shot account can sign up for the raffle with this form.

🧠 Learn More.

• Learn More About HOMAGE.
• NBA Top Shot Dives Deep on Challenges

In an exclusive interview with CoinDesk, Baron Davis provided insight into his move into web3 and what he aims to bring to the court with his new endeavor "SLiC."

❗ Why It Matters

Baron Davis, former NBA point guard for the Golden State Warriors, is working on "SLiC" which stands for Sports Lifestyle in Culture, a platform that "offers creators and brands the opportunity to freely create, own, distribute, and monetize their content." Davis' venture aims to open web3 up to a new demographic, aligning incentives for creators that haven't already found their way to web3. 

The Details

• SLiC aims to create multiple verticals, the first of which will be a SiLC Images - a database for photographers, galleries, and publishers where they can connect with potential suitors. 
• Davis also indicated that a future SiLC will make use of social tokens, alluding to the potential utiliziation from athletes and creators to "align with their communities" through tokens. 

🧠 Learn More

• Read the Full Interview With Baron Davis
• Explore SLiC