Tag: Bayc

CoinGecko: Top NFT Traders Made Profits of $9.60 Million to $101.63 Million

by Blockchain News

The non-fungible token (NFT) market has been a subject of intense scrutiny and interest, with top NFT traders realizing substantial profits. A recent study by CoinGecko, published on August 4, 2023, sheds light on the investment returns of the top NFT traders on the Ethereum blockchain.

Key Findings

Top Traders’ Profits: The leading NFT traders have made profits ranging from 5,221 ETH to 55,291 ETH, equivalent to $9.60 million to $101.63 million at the time of writing.

Dominant Collections: Blue chip NFT collections from Larva Labs, Yuga Labs, and Art Blocks account for over 94.5% of total profits across the top 15 NFT traders. CryptoPunks alone represents an estimated 70.6% of top trader profits.

Top Trader: The pseudonymous SethS leads the pack with 55,291 ETH in profits, worth $101.63 million. The returns were made across 9 addresses consolidated into one NFT whale address.

CryptoPunks Millionaires: 11 of the top 15 NFT traders made millions from CryptoPunks investments, ranging from Franklin’s 1,782 ETH ($3.28 million) to SethS’ 49,216 ETH ($90.46 million).

Art Blocks and BAYC Investments: Art Blocks investments generated millions for 5 of the top 15 traders, while just 3 of the top 15 made millions from Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) investments.

Analysis and Implications

The data suggests that NFTs have been a lucrative investment for those who have managed to identify collections that would become blue chips or have diversified their NFT investments. However, the report also emphasizes that not everyone is guaranteed to achieve the same success, and investment in NFTs requires skill, timing, and sometimes luck.

CryptoPunks continues to dominate the NFT trader rankings, with 8 of the top traders reaping more than half of their profits from this collection. Other notable collections include Art Blocks, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Meebits, and Mutant Yacht Club (MAYC).

The top 15 most profitable NFT traders on Ethereum, as of August 7, 2023, include well-known names like SethS, Punks OTC, Mr.703, Pranksy, and Franklin, with realized profits ranging from $9.60 million to $101.63 million.

Conclusion

The study provides valuable insights into the NFT trading landscape, highlighting the significant profits made by top traders and the dominance of certain collections. While the success stories are inspiring, the report also serves as a reminder that NFT investments carry risks and require careful consideration and research. The recent shutdown of Mark Cuban-Backed NFT Platform Nifty’s on August 3, 2023, after failed investment opportunities, further underscores the volatility and uncertainties in the NFT market.

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Yuga Labs Acquires Roar Studios to Expand Metaverse Vision

by Blockchain News

Yuga Labs, the web3 company known for its association with Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), CryptoPunks, Meebits, 10KTF, and Otherside, has announced its agreement to acquire Roar Studios, a firm at the intersection of gaming, social media, and the metaverse with deep technology and AI roots. The announcement was made on July 31, 2023.

Key Details of the Acquisition

Roar Studios’ Contribution: Roar Studios is the developer of ROAR, an immersive media experience that allows artists and fans to connect, collaborate, and compete in real time. The platform combines innovative proprietary technology with established MMO game and platform systems, creating an experiential, semi-autonomous music and entertainment world.

Integration with Yuga Labs: As Yuga Labs develops Otherside, its ambitious, interoperable metaverse, the Roar team will contribute their innovative technology, specialized expertise, and leadership. The acquisition aligns with Yuga’s vision of creating new ways for communities to connect and express themselves.

Leadership Changes: Eric Reid, Founder and CEO of Roar Studios, will join Yuga as the General Manager of Otherside. He will be responsible for evolving the vision and leading the development and production of the platform.

Yuga Labs’ Background: Yuga Labs has been shaping the future through storytelling, experiences, and community in the web3 space. Since their launch in April 2021, they have made headlines for releasing IP licenses to their NFT holders, acquiring rights to other top collections, and making web3 history with Otherside. In March 2022, Yuga Labs raised a $450M seed round at a $4B valuation.

Statements from the Companies

Daniel Alegre, CEO of Yuga Labs, stated, “Roar Studios has redefined what it means to experience media content in the metaverse. Roar’s dedication to creative content creation and social connections will accelerate our execution of our bold vision for Otherside and Yuga’s ecosystem more broadly.”

Eric Reid added, “Our team’s mission is to empower players to create and be social in a community-driven, open media experience, so our work fundamentally aligns with Yuga’s larger web3 metaverse strategy. When Daniel and Mike Seavers opened the door for us to contribute to Yuga’s paradigm-shifting approach to content and immersive experiences, we jumped at the opportunity.”

The acquisition of Roar Studios by Yuga Labs signifies a strategic move to enhance Yuga’s metaverse offerings and leverage Roar’s technological innovations. By integrating Roar’s immersive media experience and aligning with Yuga’s web3 metaverse strategy, the collaboration aims to redefine the way media content is experienced in the virtual world. The addition of Eric Reid to Yuga’s leadership team further strengthens the company’s vision for Otherside and its broader ecosystem.

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NFT royalties of BAYC, Azuki, Pudgy Penguins are Surprisingly $58M+, $43M+, $7.2M+ Respectively

by Blockchain News

Blockchain data and research firm Nansen has reported the royalty earnings of top Ethereum non-fungible token (NFT) brand.

Leading the charge in Ethereum NFTs, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has reported impressive earnings of over $58 million in royalties. BAYC, a well-known series of NFTs, is a prime example of the commercial potential that this digital realm offers, adding a new layer to the Ethereum ecosystem’s economic viability.

Following BAYC’s trail, Azuki, another popular NFT series, also announced substantial royalty earnings through Ethereum NFTs. The anime-inspired NFT project has amassed a remarkable $43 million-plus in royalties, underscoring the lucrative prospects of the burgeoning NFT marketplace.

Furthermore, the whimsically-named Pudgy Penguins didn’t fall too far behind, earning more than $7.2 million in royalties from Ethereum NFTs. The charming and unique characters have managed to carve a niche for themselves in the highly competitive digital token space.

NFT royalties are a built-in monetary feature present in certain Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), granting the initial artist or creator of the digital asset a percentage of the earnings every time the NFT is resold or exchanged in the future. This mechanism guarantees an ongoing stream of income for creators, marking a notable departure from the traditional art sector, where creators are typically compensated with a single upfront payment for their work.

This is made possible through smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain (and others). When an NFT is minted, the creator can include terms in the smart contract specifying a certain percentage that they receive from all future transactions. Each time the NFT is resold on the secondary market, the smart contract automatically redirects a portion of the sale to the original creator’s cryptocurrency wallet.

In a nutshell, NFT royalties help ensure that artists can continually benefit from their work, even as it increases in value and changes hands over time. This feature is seen as a significant innovation in favor of artists and content creators in the digital space.

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Yuga Labs to Raise $50m by Launching New NFT Collection “Mecha Apes”

by Blockchain News

Yuga Labs, the startup that developed the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) series of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), plans to launch a new NFT series, “Mecha Apes”, by the end of this year, according to a filing on Sept. 15.

The new collection of NFTs is aimed at raising $50 million and 100,000 metaverse parcels.

Previously, Yuga Labs successfully raised $600 million by selling its NFT series “Otherdeeds for Otherside” at an initial price of $6,000.

Team Yuga continues to expand its reach in the emerging Web 3.0 and metaverse worlds by acquiring IP rights to the CryptoPunks and Meebits series.

Yuga Labs has been low profile on releasing the NFT series. Still, the company has launched a Mecha Piece as a product in the Otherdeeds virtual land, and Yuga Labs has not disclosed any information about the Mecha Apes collection.

In March, the team also floated the ApeCoin (APE) token, which rose to become the best performer, as detailed by Blockchain.News. 

Yuga Labs proposed to move ApeCoin from Ethereum to its own blockchain, and Ape holders are currently competing for this proposal.

Meanwhile, Yuga Labs raised funds worth $450 million in March. As a result, the funds effectively placed the blockchain startup at a $4 billion valuation. The team aimed to inject the funds into building a media empire that predominantly features NFTs.

This fundraising came days after Yuga Labs unveiled a metaverse project dubbed the “Otherside”. The teaser featured an animated Bored Ape NFT smoking Tobacco in what appeared to be a metaverse-themed world.

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MTV Awards Feature Eminem and Snoop Dogg as Bored Apes

by Blockchain News

The push into the metaverse is taking a new turn for the positive as the Snoop Dogg and Eminem duo performed in the metaverse at the MTV Music Video Awards on Sunday. 

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While their performance as Bored Apes remains the highlight of the event, the debut of the MTV Music Video Awards opened a new category for the best performance in the metaverse for the first time.

 

Eminem and Snoop Dogg’s performance was set in the Yuga Labs’ owned Otherside metaverse platform. The duo’s debut into the metaverse began with the smoking of an oversized pot. 

 

According to popular media descriptions of the performance, it features some choice acting from the rappers, who fall down a swirling multicoloured vortex and morph into the Bored Apes they own. There are also cameos from Kodas, the mysterious creatures created by Yuga that live in the Otherside.

 

The embrace of the metaverse by MTV connotes many positive things for the broader Web3.0 world. It highlights how much traction the metaverse is gaining amongst major entertainment brands. It also shows how far the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Otherside project is going far in bringing value to its community of users across the board.

 

The MTV MVA’s best performance title was won by South Korean girl band Blackpink, ahead of Justin Bieber and Charli XCX. 

 

The Otherside metaverse is pitched as the media empire of the Bored Ape enterprise. 

 

While there are significant events that have been recorded thus far, Yuga Labs has reiterated the fact that more use cases are in the works for the project as it looks toward creating significant value for the other NFT collections under its collections including Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), CryptoPunks and Meebits.

 

The metaverse is a remarkable world that many entities are working hard to develop. The idea is that in the next few years, the metaverse will define social interactions and activities.

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Over $100m Worth NFTs Stolen YoY: Elliptic

by Blockchain News

The theft of digital currencies might have been more publicized in the past year, but Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have also had their fair share of exploits and cash drains.

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According to a new report from blockchain analytics startup Elliptic, a total of $100 million worth of NFTs have been reported stolen from July 2021 to July 2022. 

Per the Elliptic report, these recorded losses may be reasonably more as most stolen digital collectables are hardly discovered. 

The losses recorded in the past year are, however, a very insignificant percentage of the total NFT transactions for the period under review. The Block’s Research data pegs the complete transactions within this period at $15.3 billion, implying that the $100 million loss is just 0.65% of the total sales volume generated.

According to the Elliptic data, scammers earned around $300,000 per scam on average. The insights also revealed that the month of July saw over 4,600 NFTs stolen, the highest month on record. The report insinuated that with this figure, it is evident that scams involving the Non-Fungible Token ecosystem have not decreased despite the crypto bear market.

The month of May is arguably the most dreaded month, with about $24 million worth of NFTs stolen as recorded. Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is the most targeted of all blue chip NFTs with a record $43.6 million stolen in total from Bored Ape owners. 

Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), a sister NFT collection also from BAYC’s creators, Yuga Labs as well as Azuki NFTs were the next most targeted NFTs with a total of $14.5 million and $3.9 million lost to both within the defined time frame.

NFT thefts have placed trading platforms like OpenSea under a lot of legal battles. Exploited platform users have often resorted to legal options as many accuse OpenSea of not implementing the right security measures to combat these thefts.

OpenSea, on its part, has introduced a more thoughtful policy that will guide its dealings with stolen NFTs to give all its users a better trading experience.

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Yuga Labs Files Lawsuit Against Artist Producing BAYC Copycat Collection

by Blockchain News

Yuga Labs, the blockchain startup behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Non-Fungible Token (NFT) collection has filed a lawsuit against digital artist Ryder Ripps and several associates for producing a copycat version of Bored Apes. 

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In the 43-page lawsuit filed in California on Friday, Yuga Labs argued that the move from Ryder and his cohorts is an attempt to devalue the economic value of the Bored Ape NFTs. The team confirmed that there are only 10,000 Bored Apes out there with many prominent celebrities proud to have them as their digital identities.

The suit noted that Ryder and his team are creating a new collection using the original copies of their flagship NFTs and calling this new collection “RR/BAYC” NFTs.” The suit is praying the court to restrain Ryder and his team from “engaging in further interference with its prospective economic relations,” as well to compel them to pay damages and attorneys’ fees.

Ryder has been on the frontlines in recent times, accusing Bored Ape of creating the NFTs with Nazi ties, a claim that Yuga Labs has denied with facts.

Yuga Labs is arguably the biggest name in the Web3.0 ecosystem, and besides its BAYC collection, it currently controls the IP to the CryptoPunks and Meebits collection following the purchase of these collections earlier this year. The startup has been introducing impressive products for its NFT holders, launching the Otherside metaverse project in an attempt to build a media empire that will feature and provide utility to all of these NFTs.

Fighting infringement on its Intellectual Properties is one of the lawsuits being fueled by the Yuga Labs team. The startup has had to be named as the defense to a number of lawsuits filed by aggrieved holders, particularly with respect to the constant breaches of its social media account that led to the loss of valuable NFTs.

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Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Discord Compromised Again with 200 ETH Carted Away

by Blockchain News

The Discord server of the iconic Non-Fungible Token (NFT) project, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has been exploited again as criminals gain access to the manager’s profile to post fake mint links.

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The breach was first identified by a Twitter user @NFTHerder, an on-chain analyst and security expert who noted that the criminals gain access to Yuga Labs’ social media manager, Boris Vagner’s account.

“Our Discord servers were briefly exploited today. The team caught and addressed it quickly. About 200 ETH worth of NFTs appear to have been impacted. We are still investigating, but if you were impacted, email us at discord@yugalabs.io,” Yuga Labs tweeted to confirm the news.

The NFT startup also warned its users that it does not conduct free mints or any of the surprise giveaways that are often portrayed on Discord, which has caused investors a lot of pain in recent times.

Discord has grown to become a very prominent hub for Web3.0 projects and particularly NFT collections. As much as the platform has a lot of features that make it an ideal place to show the sophistication in design by NFT projects, incessant hacks and exploits are generally making the platform highly unusable.

As NFTHerder pointed out, as many as 70 projects saw their Discord servers compromised in May with OpenSea, Blockworks, Cool Cats, Alpha Kongs Club, and Okay Bears amongst the most popular. 

With the growing rate of exploitation of NFT and blockchain-related startups, a new level of security is highly sought after with many proponents already advocating for the emergence of a decentralized social media platform that will be powered by blockchain technology. 

The race to get these decentralized social media platforms is already underway, and besides Bluesky which is being bankrolled by Twitter, many other innovators in the space are also reportedly working on a similar solution.

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VanEck to Launch Community NFT Collection

by Blockchain News

VanEck, one of the few American asset managers that have a Bitcoin futures Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) product, has announced the launch of its Community NFT Collection.

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The firm said the NFT collection is the first of its kind for any asset manager globally and that it will be resident on the Ethereum blockchain network.

The Community NFT Collection, a collection of 1,000 uniquely built digital currencies, was floated in conjunction with South Korean-based startup NOMOMO and was designed as a membership card for the few lucky individuals who will lay their hands on them.

“We’ve designed the VanEck Community NFT to function as a digital membership card, providing NFT holders with exclusive access to a wide range of events, digital asset research, and the insights of an inclusive community of digital assets enthusiasts and investors,” said Matthew Bartlett, VanEck Community NFT Co-Founder.

The NFT collection is symbolic as it will tell the story of finance, drawing insight from the past, evaluating the present, and projecting an ambitious run for the future. With Hammy, modelled after Alexander Hamilton, as its theme personality, the VanEck Community NFT is divided into three unique categories, including commons (which will total 750), rare (approximately 230), and legendary (approximately 20).

The NFT collection will be airdropped to the first 1,000 individuals that register on the project’s portal page starting this week. The VanEck NFT showcases the growing popularity of digital art and collectables, which has been taken to a whole new level by prestigious collections like the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), and CryptoPunks, amongst others.

Besides VanEck, other major players in the investment and banking world have also waded into the growing NFT world. From KPMG in Canada, which acquired a World of Women (WoW) NFT to identify with the ideology of the entire collection, to Dolce & Gabbana, which has floated its own exclusive NFT collection, the embrace of NFTs by multinational firms is arguably going mainstream today.

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Crypto Exchange Okcoin Launches a Free Trading NFT Marketplace

by Blockchain News

To tap into the non-fungible token (NFT) craze, crypto exchange Okcoin has established a marketplace that will attract no transaction fees.  

The free trading NFT marketplace is expected to offer creators significant agency when selling their work since royalty rates range from 0-10% in other marketplaces.

Hong Fang, Okcoin’s CEO, acknowledged:

“We’re launching a free market for NFTs where prices and profits will be determined by supply and demand, more so than anywhere else. Web3 is about restoring economic power to the people.”

The San-Francisco-based crypto exchange will offer NFTs from famous collections like Crypto Punks, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Boss Beauties, and World of Women. 

To adhere to the “crypto for all” objective, the marketplace will also showcase collections from previously marginalised creators in the traditional finance and tech innovation fields. 

Fang noted:

“In the same way that blockchain technology empowers financial freedom with cryptocurrency, it empowers creators with NFTs.”

Minting of NFTs usually takes place on Binance, OKC, Polygon, and Ethereum blockchains. Therefore, users will have the chance to link external wallets like MetaMask, enabling them to trade NFTs.

Randi Zuckerberg, Okcoin’s brand advisor, sees the marketplace as a stepping stone towards making crypto more accessible. He added:

“Making NFTs more inclusive is something I’ve dedicated myself and my company HUG to because we know there are huge opportunities for both creators and collectors in NFTs waiting to be unlocked.”

Crypto exchanges are gearing up for the NFT marketplace based on announcements from Gemini, Kraken, and Coinbase. For instance, the launch of the Coinbase NFT marketplace is expected to tie with the Bored Apes entering the movie scene in June. 

Furthermore, different brands are entering the non-fungible token sector for various reasons. For example, Nestle, a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate, recently released NFTs for a charitable cause in the Middle East & North Africa. 

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