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NFTandGameFi has been around for some time already and today marks the start of our new series dedicated to NFT news today. In short, it is a snapshot of everything that happened over a week within the industry, be it bad, the good or simply outrageously interesting and worth covering.
NFT news is a medium that is congested with releases of new irrelevant NFT collections and our goal is to cherry-pick just the right industry revelations. Without further ado, let’s see what exactly has been hitting the headlines in the past week and today.
NFT news today
The current series of NFT news today ranges from Steve Aoki to Axie Infinity and its shift to a free-to-play gaming model. We also touch base on how NFTs move from digital to tangible art and the recent busts conducted by US and UK authorities in a bid to stop tax evasion and bitcoin fraud.
Steve Aoki and his love for NFTs
One of the most well-known DJs in the world continues to support NFTs and states that it has been a one of a kind addition to his revenue stream. Aoki calls himself a futurist and believes that NFTs can and will transform the music industry.
It is hard not to agree with this, since the music industry is notoriously difficult to profit from. God can bless you with the most beautiful voice that has ever existed but as pop industry proved time and time again, it is never only about your vocal abilities. Therefore, NFTs allow artists to continue pushing their work through all channels possible, and at the same time draw revenue from it by imposing copyright via NFTs.
As for Aoki, he went on to say that he made more money on a single NFT drop than through last 10 years of his music career, which included 6 albums and countless live gigs.
UK authorities do an NFT bust
It is not a secret that NFTs are widely used for money laundering and tax evasion. Therefore, it is only natural that police would try to clamp down on it and UK tax authorities are one of the first ones to post their investigation results. The HMRC announced that they have arrested 3 people in conjunction with an ongoing investigation, set to uncover a $1.4 million VAT fraud. The news comes as a follow up to the recent success of the US officials who managed to retrieve $3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex in 2016.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs say they seized a collection of NFTs from the detained individuals. Three suspects have been arrested on suspicion of attempting to defraud the taxman.
A $3.6 billion Bitfinex fraud
UK tax authorities are one of the first officials to succeed in crypto-related fraud arrests but it is the US officials that shined across all news outlets for most of last week. The Justice Department announced Tuesday morning it seized more than $3.6 billion in allegedly stolen cryptocurrency linked to the 2016 hack of Bitfinex. As part of the operation, authorities detained a New York couple on allegations they planned to launder the digital goods.
DOJ said they arrested Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31. Ever since the hack back in 2016, the couple tried to defraud the stolen crypto by all means possible. NFTs, bitcoin ATMs, mixer crypto exchanges and investing in startups served as the main vehicles of making the money disappear.
NFT stocks
Large public companies continue to take on the NFT space. Some use it to create new revenue streams, others see NFTs as a new way to market their products and target new audiences. The move served as the foundation to the appearance of the NFT Stocks term, which covers any large publicly listed company that is exposed to the NFT market.
There has been quite a turmoil of events in the past month, all related to corporates and NFTs, and all of it surfaced to be part of NFT news today. Adidas is working on its second NFT collection drop, whilst Hermes is taking a digital artist to court, for apparently trying to profit from the brand’s Birkin name.
Read more on this in our complete NFT stocks guide.
NFT art turns tangible
Digital art has indeed sparked the first wave of NFTs but we are finally starting to spot movements towards the conventional art world. In NFT news today, we start seeing crypto collectors shifting their focus towards tangible artwork and even sculptures.
The art market is always looking for a new territory to expand into and the NFT world is like the perfect gateway drug,” said Natasha Degen, chairwoman of art market studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology. “Anyone involved in a market like NFTs that is so volatile and speculative would have an easy time transitioning to the art world where those same dynamics occur.
Sotheby’s started selling NFTs only last year, but the digital assets generated $100 million in sales, the company said, with 78 percent of all NFT bidders being new clients — and more than half of those bidders under 40.
Axie Infinity goes freemium?
By now the undoubtedly most popular play2earn game is shifting towards a free-to-play gaming model in a bid to attract new players. The move will enable players to take part in the game without having to buy an initial card set, which has to be scooped up for crypto.
An insider of the Axie Infinity world has told NFTandGameFi that the game has become a fully-fledged mining playground. Companies hire players, who then sit and play the game as a full-time job, mining the SLP token, which has recently gone up by 300% in price.
And just like this we are done with NFT news today for the q1.02.2022
