An anonymous nonfungible token (NFT) collector spent 204 Ether (ETH) worth roughly $488,800 (at the time of writing, considerably more when it occurred) on gas fees to mint 1,000 Tubby Cats NFTs. In total, the Tubby Cats enthusiast clearly had some capital to burn as they spent more than $720,000 on minting the NFTs including gas fees, according to the Etherscan transaction history. Following the mint of 1000 NFTs, and with Tubby Cats invading Nifty Twitter timelines, it appears that the community has turned the occurrence into a meme, as various figures have claimed to be Tubby Cat whales in …

The cryptocurrency market has had a less than stellar start to the year and it appears that the downtrend that began after the November 2021 market peak has been extended thanks to a multitude of negative developments, including the expectation of rising interest rates and the threat of a war between Russia and Ukraine. While many traders have little appetite to risk capital during bearish conditions, contrarian investors looking to buy while “there is blood on the streets” have several viable options with data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro indicating that Bluzelle, a decentralized storage network for the creator economy, is …

FTX.US, the American arm of the global crypto derivative and spot exchange FTX, seems to be launching a new blockchain gaming unit. As per a job posting by the crypto exchange, the firm is looking for software developers for its upcoming blockchain and gaming unit. The new gaming unit will be focused on bringing more gaming developers to the blockchain-based gaming ecosystem that incentivizes players via crypto tokens and nonfungible tokens. The job posting revealed that the exchange is looking for software engineers with robust knowledge of the C# programming language and the Unity gaming engine. FTX didn’t respond to …

If you’re not keen on joining Mark Zuckerberg in the Metaverse, I have bad news for you: You’re already there. You don’t need a virtual reality headset to enter a virtual world. Humans have been representing reality since our distant ancestors first painted on cave walls. If TV, radio, books or newspapers have ever given you access to events that you did not physically attend, you have experienced a kind of metaverse already. Sport and games are another reality that we often partake in virtually — in the stands or behind a screen — when not on the field. So, …

Hot off the news that the FarmVille and Words With Friends developer Zynga will release the first NFT game this year, Zynga’s blockchain gaming aspirations are taking shape. Matt Wolf, the marketing veteran with experience at EA and SEGA, is the new vice president of blockchain gaming for Zynga. He’s setting up the new team, bringing a wealth of “traditional gaming” experience to play-to-earn (P2E). In an interview with Cointelegraph, he said the talent pool in P2E gaming is: “Off the charts in terms of economics and traditional finance firepower; incredible people. Also, on the innovation side and on the …

After eradicating crypto trading and mining in the country, the Chinese government’s next concern lies with the growing scams around the metaverse projects. The Chinese Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued a risk warning for the common public against fraudulent metaverse projects. The notice highlighted how the buzz around metaverse had made it a primary target of scammers and fraudsters illegally raising money in the name of such projects and robbing people of their hard-earned money. The official warning highlighted four different ways in which fraudsters are illicitly making profits using metaverse as the premise of their fraud. The first …

The team behind the new gaming-focused proof-of-stake blockchain Oasys say that it’s been designed to increase mainstream play-to-earn (P2E) adoption. The Singapore-based firm (Oasys PTE. LTD) behind the new chain touts its scalability, eco-friendly PoS blockchain, “zero gas fee experience” and the portability of digital assets between different projects built on the blockchain as key drawcards for developers and users. The founding team includes a host of names from top crypto and gaming firms including Bandai Namco Research president and CEO Hajime Nakatani, Sega Corporation co-COO Shuji Utsumi, double.jump.tokyo CEO Hironobu Ueno, Thirdverse CEO Hironao Kunimitsu and Yield Guild Games …

This week on “The Market Report,” we jump right into our main event. Join Cointelegraph analysts Benton Yaun, Jordan Finneseth, Sam Bourgi and Ornella Hernández as they debate each other on the top metaverse projects on the market. First up, we’ve got Bourgi’s pick of Wilder World, which allows you to interact with its immersive 3D world via nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and is also based on the massively popular Unreal Engine 5. Following Bourgi, we have The Market Report first-timer Hernández, who has decided to go with Boson Portal, which aims to revolutionize metaverse commerce. Will its high-profile partners such …

An experience-to-earn (E2E) nonfungible token (NFT) ecosystem rewards people on-chain for doing everyday activities, bringing new forms of value creation to everyone. This was previously reserved for invested gamers in play-to-earn (P2E) worlds. While P2E has experienced a record-breaking year ($4.5 billion in-game NFT sales, according to the recent DappRadar report), most blockchain games still rely on some level of skill such as battling, breeding or collecting strategy that attracts gamers with the downtime, temerity and sometimes some starting funds to invest — prerequisites that can put off any non-gamer from entering NFTs to earn. In contrast, experience-to-earn aims to …

The rise of blockchain-based play-to-earn (P2E) gaming was one of the leading stories in 2021 as games such as Axie Infinity exploded in popularity and players realized that they could make life-changing amounts of money while also having fun. According to data from Footprint Analytics, the Ethereum network remains the leader when it comes to the number of games launched on-chain, but persistently high fees and network congestion have pushed a growing number of players to layer-2, cross-chain, bridge-supporting networks and competing blockchains that offer lower-cost transactions costs. Here’s a look at a few non-Ethereum blockchain networks that are gaining …

Since launching in 2018, Axie Infinity has amassed over 2 million daily active users (DAUs) and its decentralized exchange, Katana has a market cap of $5.5 billion, but this growth has not come without challenges. Axie Infinity’s in-game token, Smooth Love Potion (SLP) decreased nearly 93% from it's all-time high in July 13, 2021 of $0.39 as it faces uncontrollable inflation. As such, the team has announced it will significantly remove SLP issuance from the game, making it harder to farm. Gamers and guilds will in turn focus their attention on their strategic competitive edge and the potential increase price …

The team behind one of the top memecoin projects Shiba Inu (SHIB) is rolling out tokenized real estate dubbed “Shiba Lands” as part of its upcoming metaverse project. Shiba’s upcoming metaverse is yet to receive a name, with the team referring to it as the “Shiberse,” and stating that the official title will be revealed later this month. The launch date for the tokenized land sales and auctions is also set to be announced soon and hodlers of the LEASH token (which is available via Shiba Swap) will be granted first access to the land sale events. After the first …