Celebrities facing huge losses from BAYC NFTs The hype behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) over the last year resulted in many celebrities investing in the Ethereum-based nonfungible token (NFT) collection with many, such as singer Justin Bieber, paying top dollar. Bieber paid 500 Ether (ETH) for BAYC #3001 on Jan. 29, which at the time was valued at around $1.28 million, while the current top offer on the NFT cracks just over $69,500. According to data from NFT Price Floor, the floor price for the collection has fallen considerably since it peaked at 144.9 ETH on May. 1 …

Japanese conglomerate Sony Electronics collaborates with blockchain video delivery network Theta Labs to launch nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that can be viewed in mixed reality through Sony's Spatial Reality Display, a monitor that lets people perceive things in 3D without using traditional 3D accessories. The Spatial Reality Display tracks eye movement and adjusts the display as the viewer moves, giving users a 3D viewing experience. With this, Mitch Liu, co-founder and CEO of Theta Labs, believes that NFTs and metaverses now have a “huge potential” for 3D visualization. Liu also noted that at the moment, the NFT industry is comprised of …

Epic Games, video game publisher behind popular PC and console game Fortnite, announced a $2 billion funding round with plans to accelerate the company’s vision to make its mark in the Metaverse. The deal, which is still subject to customary regulatory approvals would bring Epic's equity valuation to $31.5 billion. This round includes a respective $1 billion investment from existing investor Sony Group Corporation and from KIRKBI, the holding company behind the LEGO Group. Sony, the company behind PlayStation consoles, also invested $200 million into Epic in April, 2021. According to a statement, the three partners plan to combine expertise …

MakersPlace, a nonfungible token (NFT) market dedicated to digital art, has secured $30 million in Series A financing, highlighting once again that venture funds are keen to back promising NFT plays. The funding round will be used by MakersPlace to scale business operations and acquire additional talent as it continues to attract new users and artists to its platform. The investment was co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Pantera Capital, with additional participation from Coinbase Ventures, Sony Music Entertainment, Uncork Capital, Dragon Digital Assets and 9Yards Capital. Several notable angel investors also participated in the round, including Acquavella Galleries, Sabrina …

Sony's European subsidiary is the latest company to join the validator program of the Theta Network, a decentralized blockchain-based video protocol. Sony Europe’s research and development group, the Center Europe Brussels Laboratory, has joined Theta’s enterprise validator and governance council program, the company announced Tuesday. As part of the development, Sony will operate an enterprise validator node located in Europe to validate network transactions on Theta’s proof-of-stake consensus protocol. Sony Europe will also act as a member of the governance council to participate in strategic technology planning and ensure the network’s security and stability. The validator program includes major technology …

While users might still be able to adapt some gaming consoles for mining cryptocurrency, evidence suggests that recent reports of a modified PlayStation 5 mining Ether (ETH) are fake. According to a report from news outlet GizChina, Chinese software developer Yifan Gu mined Ether using a PlayStation 5. The report claimed that the developer may have overclocked the PS5’s AMD Ryzen CPU and AMD Radeon GPU cards to achieve a mining hash rate of 98.76 megahertz per second, and a screenshot from Gu showed the seemingly modified hardware required 211 watts of power to run. However, the screenshot shared by …

Plasm, a smart contract protocol built on Polkadot’s Substrate framework, has integrated Chainlink’s (LINK) price feeds. Interestingly, the oracle project itself will likely soon become a Polkadot parachain. Polkadot has a modular design wherein various parachains serve particular use cases. Its mainnet does not have smart contracts, but Plasm hopes to fill this void. Plasm CEO, Sota Watanabe, told Cointelegraph that they intend to use Chainlink’s data oracles for Plasm’s Lockdrop — a token distribution mechanism pioneered by Edgeware. In order to receive Plasm’s tokens, a user needs to lock Ether or Bitcoin in a smart contract. In return, the …

The world’s largest technology companies have made concerted efforts to investigate and integrate blockchain technologies over the past few years. Partly driven by a massive boom in interest caused by Bitcoin’s stellar bull run in 2017, blockchain technology quickly became the new catchword in tech. A swathe of startups entered the fray during that period as entrepreneurs looked to cash in on the hype in the space. Bigger companies that weren’t looking into the benefits of the technology faced the risk of being left behind and began to carefully explore solutions to their own business mechanisms. Others had already begun …

United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is expanding its team with new high level hires, according to the company’s blog post published on March 7. In the post, Kraken announced five new appointments to its team. The new appointments will see Matt Mason as Chief Marketing Officer, Steve Hunt as Vice-President of Engineering, Nelson Minier as Head of OTC Sales and Trading, Bob Zagotta as Head of Business Operations and Strategy, and Mary Beth Buchanan as General Counsel. Prior to joining Kraken, Mason was employed by Sony Pictures as Studio Head at a secretive innovation lab focused on game mechanics. Mason …

The education units of Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony and IT equipment services firm Fujitsu are to trial blockchain technology for improving the integrity of course records and grade data. The news was officially reported in a press release from Fujitsu today, Feb. 27. The pilot comes via a joint venture between Sony Global Education, Inc., Fujitsu Limited, Fujitsu Research Institute and Human Academy Co., Ltd. — the latter being a language school for foreign students in Japan. Prospective foreign students participating in the blockchain trial will complete a course, “Nihongo Dojo,” which prepares them to pass the Nihongo Kentei, a …

Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony and IT equipment services firm Fujitsu have created an encrypted database for educational proficiency documents, The Asahi Shimbun reports on Feb. 26. The database, which reportedly employs blockchain technology, is used to prevent forgeries of language proficiency documents, which some foreigners purportedly use to receive resident status to study in Japan. Foreigners must submit a Japanese language proficiency certificate to the Immigration Bureau in order to receive resident status to study in Japan. Said certificates can be issued by Japanese educational institutions abroad. Japanese language schools within the country will submit the certificates on behalf of …

The research arm of Japanese technology giant Sony announced it had created a contactless cryptocurrency hardware wallet in a press release Tuesday, Oct. 23. The as yet unnamed device utilizes IC smart card technology popular in Japan to communicate with the Bitcoin (BTC) or other cryptocurrency network. The advantages, according to developers from Sony Computer Science Labs (SCSL), lie in dispensing with the need to attach the wallet to a host device via USB, as is the current standard for the industry. “In addition, it is possible to securely generate and store a private key with a highly reliable tamper-proof …