The United Kingdom’s independent advertising regulator has upheld a complaint involving former reality show Love Island contestants Eve and Jessica Gale for “triviali[zing] investment in cryptocurrency.” In a Wednesday notice, the U.K. Advertising Standards Authority, or ASA, said the reality stars promoted crypto in an Instagram story in June at the request of an influencer named Elizabeth O'Donell, upholding claims the ad was “misleading” and “irresponsible.” According to the regulator, O'Donell was not just providing trading advice for crypto as the Gales’ stories claimed, but promoting investing in cryptocurrencies without illustrating possible risks. “We therefore considered the ads were addressed …

In an ironic twist, Rug Pull Finder (RPF), a nonfungible token (NFT) watchdog focused on identifying Web3-based fraud has fallen victim to a smart contract exploit of its own. According to the NFT investigator’s post on Twitter on Sept. 2, two people exploited a technical flaw in the project during the free mint stage — pilfering 450 NFTs out of a possible 1,221 which were intended to be limited to one per wallet. As discussed on our Twitter space's earlier today - We messed up. We messed up big. Our contract had a flaw that allowed 2 people to scoop …

All for one and one for all We need GameFi, DeFi and SocialFi to create a holistic Metaverse experience. Even with metaverses focusing on one purpose, these elements are essential to ensuring viability and scale. In essence, a metaverse can scale only if DeFi, GameFi and SocialFi can work together seamlessly. DeFi, in essence, would take care of the financial elements, GameFi the experiential elements and SocialFi the credibility elements for the economic actors. Without the DeFi elements, a metaverse would lack commercial scalability. Without the GameFi elements, the community would lack the experience motive for continually returning to it. …

Two prominent YouTube content creators are set to lock horns in a legal battle over a cryptocurrency video allegedly promoting a project that ended up being a scam. Bitboy Crypto, a YouTube channel founded by Ben Armstrong, produces a variety of content focused on cryptocurrency news, projects and tokens and trading advice. The channel has been active since February 2018 and has over 1.4 million subscribers. The channel is known for its news pieces and trading-focused videos with headlines like ‘Top 3 Coins To Outperform Ethereum! (Strong Short Term Play)’ typifying the type of content disseminated to viewers. While these …

SudoRare, an automated market maker (AMM) protocol for ERC-721 to ERC-20 swaps, suddenly shut down its services and social media accounts after reportedly making away with 519 Ether (ETH), worth roughly $815,000. A crypto community member, sungjae_han, was first to point out a suspicious transaction that drained substantial funds off SudoRare using LooksRare (LOOKS) and USD Coin (USDC) tokens. #PeckShieldAlert #rugpull Seems like @SudoRare rugged 519 $ETH (~$815k). SudoRare already deleted its social accounts/groups, sudorare[.]xyz is down Stole funds already transferred to 3 new addresses (173 $ETH/address): 0x75c3b2...3981 0x0498d1...8074 0xbFb784...7EAa https://t.co/mPC4bl4k6W pic.twitter.com/O5D7jThYvm — PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) August 23, 2022 A subsequent …

Today’s social media landscape is dominated by Web2 corporations — mostly Meta (Facebook) and Twitter. The companies collect data from billions of users and collect billions of dollars in revenue from user-generated content. While it’s great for the corporations and their shareholders, it comes at a cost for average users and professional content creators. But in the near future, decentralized social media — or Web3 — is likely to end that old model by giving power back to users. No more evicting unruly users Because platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are centralized, users are at the mercy of …

Consumer watchdog group Truth in Advertising (TINA.org) has called out 19 celebrities for allegedly promoting non-fungible tokens (NFTs) without disclosing their connection to the projects. The not-for-profit consumer advocacy organization said on their website they investigated "celebrities who promote non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on their social media channels", finding that "it is an area rife with deception." Among the star-studded list are sports stars Floyd Mayweather and Tom Brady, music icons Eminem and Snoop Dog, and several actresses, including Gwyneth Paltrow, all of whom have been sent letters urging them to immediately disclose any material connections they have to NFT companies …

The Metaverse has become one of the biggest buzzwords of the year as a number of brands, companies and even countries begin to explore virtual worlds to conduct business. Even though Metaverse development is still underway, a recent report from the technology research and advisory firm Technavio found that the Metaverse will hit a market share value of $50.37 billion by the year 2026. Another report predicts that the growth of the Metaverse will be driven by e-commerce, which is expected to reach a market share of $60.47 billion by the year 2026. E-commerce across social media platforms is also …

When assisted senior living home The Preston of the Park Cities approached Owen Robertson to hold a course on crypto, NFTs, and the Metaverse for their residents, the 21-year-old didn’t expect how quickly they’d pick up on the complex topics. Speaking to Cointelegraph, the Quai Network marketing associate, board member of the Mccombs blockchain initiative, and guest lecturer at the University of Texas said he was more than eager to assist when he was first approached to put a class together. "A senior living community has almost no exposure to the crypto ecosystem unless their grandchildren tell them about it." …

The Celsius (CEL) community has rallied on Twitter once again to fight off short positions against their favored crypto token despite multiple challenges faced by the exchange, including bankruptcy and rumors of the company’s CEO fleeing from the United States. Thousands of tweets with the #CelShortSqueeze tag have been posted on the social media platform, advertising their long positions on CEL while encouraging others to do the same and post more content about the short squeeze. According to Twitter user Anakinsdad, the community is “at war with the shorts.” Another user posted: what #CelShortSqueeze teaches you is never to go …

After moving away from Bitcoin (BTC) payments years ago, online forum Reddit now seems to be inching closer to embracing cryptocurrency payments via a new partnership with the FTX exchange. Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX and Reddit announced in a joint statement on Tuesday that the platform intends to integrate Reddit’s Community Points in the United States, the European Union, Australia and other markets. The partnership features the integration of FTX Pay as a payment and crypto exchange solution to unlock new crypto-enabled perks for Reddit Community Points. Introduced in May 2020, Reddit Community Points are a measure of reputation …

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has watched his investment in SafeMoon (SAFEMOON) crash by over 94%, proving to crypto enthusiasts that he is, in fact, capable of hodling during the bear market. The stock trader and media personality took to Twitter Monday to lament his $40,000 investment in the meme coin, which has fallen to just $2,370.94 after he didn’t withdraw a single token. “Still holding by the way,” Portnoy said. “Diamond hands.” I put 40k into @safemoon I haven’t withdrawn any. It’s not worth 2.3k. And I’m being sued. https://t.co/qRAyBegQMm — Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) August 8, 2022 Portnoy claimed …