The Dallas Mavericks, the NBA franchise owned by Mark Cuban, have started a cashback rewards program to incentivize merchandise and ticket payments in Dogecoin (DOGE). The rewards program is dubbed “Mavs Cryptomania,” and customers who spend more than $150 worth of Dogecoin in one transaction will receive a $25 e-gift card that they can use for online purchases in the Dallas Mavericks shop. The program is to run until Sept. 30. At the time of writing, users will need to outlay 505 DOGE in order to receive the e-gift card. The Mavs started accepting DOGE for payments back in March …

Naomi Osaka, a top professional tennis player from Japan, has been open about diversifying her investments in cryptocurrency after noticing the hype around Dogecoin (DOGE), which was primarily led by Elon Musk. In a recent Bloomberg interview, Osaka revealed that she has been in talks with her agent about cryptocurrencies after reading about Dogecoin and its possibility to “pop up.” The tennis legend attributed Twitter’s crypto ecosystem to be the primary source of her interest in Dogecoin investments, way before she spoke to her agent about it. Osaka has also joined the nonfungible token (NFT) space by launching a collection …

Visa’s splash into the NFT market was driven by an evaluation of the underlying technology and its ability to serve as a “promising medium for fan engagement,” according to a recent whitepaper published by the global payments giant. The Aug. 23 publication described nonfungible tokens as an important innovation during the pandemic, where strict shelter-in-place orders limited live sports, entertainment and music festivals. At the same time, NFTs are emerging at a time when fans are eager to join digital communities centered around their favorite artists or sports teams. Professional sports were hit especially hard by the pandemic, with an …

The return of Fame Lady Squad The Fame Lady Squad (FLS), a nonfungible token (NFT) avatar project purporting to have been created by an all-female team, is set to relaunch today with a new team after it was uncovered that three Russian men were behind the project earlier this month. SO EXCITING!! pic.twitter.com/V1LKgIU34c — Cadboros (@cadboros) August 23, 2021 The project’s NFTs depict cartoon female avatars, with the tokens having generated $1.9 million worth of total sales since launching on OpenSea Marketplace in mid-July. The FLS website previously listed three team members named Cindy, Kelda and Andrea who all had …

Mike Tyson bites the ear off NFTs Boxing legend Mike Tyson has dropped a series of tokenized collectibles on the heavyweight champion platform of the nonfungible token (NFT) world, OpenSea. The 55-year-old collaborated with digital artist Cory Van Lew to launch the “Mike Tyson NFT Collection,” which consists of 11 one-of-one NFTs up for auction and six open-edition NFTs that range from 50 to 250 copies. The collection was released earlier on Friday. The NFTs depict neon-colored illustrations of iconic moments from Tyson’s career, such as knockouts, championship wins and the notorious “ear-biting” escapade. At the time of writing, there …

Digital asset exchange platform Crypto.com will be prominently featured in football matches during Italy’s Lega Serie A competition as part of a partnership with the league. In a Thursday announcement, Lega Serie A said Crypto.com was going to be presenting key broadcast moments for the Italian football competition “where technology enhances the match.” Specifically, the platform has formed a multi-year partnership to help present the series’ “goal of the month,” as well as broadcast moments using video playback to judge fouls and whether goals are legitimate. Crypto.com sponsored Lega Serie A in the Coppa Italia football cup in May, when …

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) announced on Monday that it would be dropping nonfungible tokens (NFT) depicting WWE Hall of Famer John Cena. Last week, the beloved wrestling organization dropped its first NFT collection featuring The Undertaker, with the highest-selling NFT going for $100,000 through auction. The latest NFT release will see the first tier consisting of a one-of-one “John Cena Platinum NFT” that will be opened up for a 24-hour auction starting on Friday, Aug. 20, in the lead up to this year’s SummerSlam event. THIS FRIDAY Just in time for #SummerSlam, @WWE drops a unique 1-of-1 @JohnCena Platinum NFT! …

PSG, a fan token launched by Paris Saint-Germain, resumed its uptrend on Thursday after Argentinian football superstar Lionel Messi confirmed that he was joining the French football club. The PSG/USD pair jumped by 10.57% to hit an intraday high of $41.90. The pair’s latest upside move followed an almost 40% bearish correction from its all-time high of $61.53 achieved on Tuesday amid speculation that Messi would sign a multi-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain. “Paris Saint-Germain is a possibility, yes,” Messi stated during his emotional farewell address after ending his 19-year stint at FC Barcelona on Sunday. However, he added that …

Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi, regarded as one of the game’s greatest players of all time, has reportedly made crypto fan tokens a part of the payment deal in his financial package with French club Paris Saint-Germain. The information comes from sources close to the matter, according to Reuters. Messi, 34, who had been at FC Barcelona since he was 13, this week signed a two-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), with an option to extend for a third year. His departure from Barcelona, with which he won four Champions League titles, was sealed after Spanish La Liga’s financial fair …

Fenerbahçe S.K., one of the three biggest sports clubs in Turkey, issued its own fan token on the Ethereum blockchain through a new partnership with local crypto exchange Paribu. The initial presale of 500,000 unlocked tokens was completed on Monday, netting the club 15 million Turkish lira ($1.75 million) in 30 seconds. The club announced that the Fenerbahçe Token would have a maximum supply of 190,700,000 tokens in reference to 1907, the year Fenerbahçe was established. According to the project’s white paper, a total of 117 million treasure tokens wil be created on smart contracts over the next 25 years …

Investment firm and development studio Polyient has unveiled a nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace with decentralized finance (DeFi) functionality. The marketplace dubbed “PolyientX” is set for a beta release in August on Ethereum, with an official launch targeted for sometime in the fall. The initial launch will feature NFTs from Ape In, a DeFi-enabled NFT collectibles game and Rate Network, a decentralized NFT pricing and rating protocol. According to Polyient, users can stake their NFTs in a vault to earn rewards, describing it as “a unique fee share mechanism where users — not corporate stakeholders — are the beneficiaries of transaction …

The NBA’s Chicago Bulls have launched NFTs depicting six championship wins from the 1990s via leading e-commerce platform Shopify. Shopify is a multinational firm that provides website-based storefronts and payments infrastructure. Shopify president, Harley Finklestein, announced the NFT drop on Twitter earlier today. If you’ve spent 1 minute on the internet this year, you’ve seen a lot about NFTs. @Shopify we are making it easier for our merchants to sell NFTs directly through their stores, with one of the first being the @ChicagoBulls NFT store. https://t.co/Qv2wKO7RCS — Harley Finkelstein (@harleyf) July 26, 2021 According to Finklestein, the Chicago Bulls franchise …