An international chess tournament, Meltwater Champions Chess Tour (MCCT), has announced it will mint nonfungible token (NFT) trophies and collectibles to preserve the game‘s most defining moments forever. The winner of the MCCT will be awarded an NFT trophy, marking mainstream crypto involvement from the international chess community. The tournament’s finals will see participation from grandmaster Magnus Carlsen and nine other professional chess players, including Wesley So. According to an official statement, Chess Champs will mint two editions of the Champion’s Trophy NFT, allowing fans to obtain a replica of the trophy through an online auction. Moreover, the company will …

Cardano’s daggy dad turns DJ Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has teamed up with legendary electronic dance music (EDM) DJ Paul Oakenfold to launch a tokenized album on Cardano. Oakenfold is a three-time Grammy Award nominee and his career in the music industry spans back to the early 1980s. His upcoming album dubbed “Zombie Lobster” was announced during the Cardano summit on Wednesday. Every aspect of the album will be tokenized on the Cardano blockchain, including cover art, tracks, sleeve notes and remixes. The album is part of a release from an NFT project named “Starship Universe,” which is operated by …

Dapper Labs, the creators of NBA Top Shot, and top crypto derivatives exchange FTX are both turning to the National Football League as part of their expansion initiatives. Dapper Labs is reportedly working on an NFL collectibles marketplace, while FTX has signed an endorsement deal with star running back Aaron Jones of the Green Bay Packers. Dapper’s latest move comes one week after the firm teased — as part of its latest $250-million funding round announcement — that it would venture beyond its basketball-based nonfungible token (NFT) project, NBA Top Shot, and expand into other sporting codes and areas of …

Tokenized sport collectibles projects have raised almost $1 billion in funding in the space of a week. On Wednesday Dapper Labs — the firm behind the Flow blockchain and the widely popular tokenized basketball collectibles NBA Top Shot — announced a further $250 million in a funding round led by tech-focused hedge fund Coatue. As reported by Cointelegraph on Wednesday, French-based nonfungible token (NFT) soccer trading card game developer Sorare raised $680 million in Series B funding led by Japanese fintech giant SoftBank. The funding round raised the valuation of the firm to $4.3 billion. The combined funding for the …

The team behind the design of NBA Houston Rockets player John Wall’s nonfungible token may have ripped off one of the backgrounds directly from the popular online game Fortnite. Wall first announced he planned to release a line of “Baby Baller” nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, on Tuesday to raise $100,000 for charity and the “Ballers community.” However, once he posted a preview of the tokenized artwork on Twitter, social media users were quick to notice that the background appeared to be lifted from Fortnite. The image, available on eason 5 of Fortnite from Epic Games, shows a basketball court adjacent …

Sorare, a marketplace for nonfungible token (NFT) trading cards, has raised $680 million in a Series B funding round led by Japanese fintech giant SoftBank, resulting in a revised valuation of $4.3 billion for the platform. According to the company, the latest funding will help expand Sorare’s portfolio of football player NFTs by partnering with more football leagues and associations. In early September, the French NFT-based trading platform secured its first soccer league partnership with La Liga in addition to having NFT collaborations with Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool and other top-tier soccer teams. Sorare also plans to diversify its NFT-based portfolio …

Professional wrestler and actor John Cena said fans only purchased 7.4% of his World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that he made available last month. Speaking at Florida Supercon 2021 on Sept. 12, Cena said it was a mistake to market his WWE NFTs as part of a package with physical collectibles — a hat, shirt, wristbands, belt, towel, autographed picture, and the digital collectible. The organization offered 500 gold tier packages with the NFT for $1,000, but only a fraction of them sold. “I talk a lot about failure — this idea failed,” said Cena. “Myself and …

NFT NSFW Nafty, a blockchain firm that produces decentralized, “not safe for work” (NSFW) platforms, such as OnlyFans competitor Nafty.tv, launched an erotic-themed nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace dubbed “NaftyArt” on Thursday. NaftyArt aims to provide a platform for erotic artists and adult-content creators to promote and sell their tokenized works without fears of it being removed or their accounts shadowbanned. It may also give some NFT proponents an excuse for out-laying large sums of money on NSFW content. The announcement read: “Erotic Artists and Adult Content creators have been struggling for some time to get their work prominently featured on …

The auction of Yuga Labs’ 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection has smashed through expectations with a winning bid of $24.39 million. The auction closed on Friday and was hosted by the prestigious auction house Sotheby’s, which had estimated earlier that the collection would fetch between $12 million and $18 million. The bundle of nonfungibles consists of 101 Bored Apes and three M1 and three M2 “mutant serum” NFTs. When a Bored Ape token is combined with an M1 or M2 serum, it enables the holder to mint a new Mutant Ape NFT that keeps the same traits of …

Following a lucrative $206,000 purchase of a popular Bored Ape Yacht Club nonfungible token, or NFT, last week, NBA all-star Steph Curry has reached out to his 15.5 million Twitter fanbase for advice on progressing in the crypto game on Tuesday. The Golden State Warriors guard tweeted: “Just getting started in the crypto game...y'all got any advice??” According to the basketball athlete's Open Sea profile, he currently owns 16 NFTs in total, including the blue-furred Bored Ape showcased in his Twitter profile. Legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady, currently sporting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey, humorously offered his perspective: Whatever you …

Dolce & Gabbana knocking on the Dior of NFTs Luxury Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana is entering the nonfungible token (NFT) sector with a nine-piece collection of tokenized fashion items in collaboration with the Polygon-based UNXD marketplace. The firm was founded by designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana in 1985 and has since evolved into a multinational giant that offers high-end fashion items for eye-watering prices. Dubbed “Collezione Genesi,” the collection consists of nine one-of-one NFTs that are up for auction starting Sept. 20. The NFTs depict illustrations and digital art of garments designed by Dolce and Gabbana, which …

The United States National Football League (NFL) has reportedly barred all teams and members from crypto-related sponsorships and advertisements, as well as nonfungible token (NFT) sales. According to a report by The Athletic, the NFL has restricted the sale of sponsorships to cryptocurrency trading firms and NFTs until the league establishes a strategy “for sports digital trading cards and art.” The new guidelines were shared by an anonymous NFL member familiar with the matter: “Clubs are prohibited from selling, or otherwise allowing within club controlled media, advertisements for specific cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, other cryptocurrency sales or any other media …