Metaverse gaming tokens Ethverse (ETHV), The Sandbox (SAND), GameSwap (GSWAP), Yield Guild Games (YGG), Axie Infinity (AXS) are the few cryptocurrencies seeing gains on Nov. 17 with Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and most of the market in the red. Best-performing crypto sector The emerging division of the blockchain universe saw its market cap swell by more than 9% in the previous 24 hours and almost 8% in the last seven days to reach $17.42 billion. Its gains came on the back of volatile upside moves in Ethverse, The Sandbox, GameSwap, Yield Guild Games, Axie Infinity, and other markets. Meanwhile, about …

MyEtherWallet, or MEW, launched its first NFT collection called ETH Blocks on Thursday, which tokenizes individual blocks on the Ethereum blockchain. Unique images associated with ETH Blocks are generated based on the block’s data. These NFTs are available exclusively to MEW users via the MyEtherWallet website. A number of blocks have already been claimed, according to the company. Ethereum's founders called first dibs on blocks 1-10. There are also thirteen ETH Blocks representing The History of Ethereum, such as major milestones, forks and updates to the Ethereum blockchain, that have been put up for a month-long auction — The proceeds …

A virtual band made up of four expensive cartoon apes from the Bored Apes Yacht Club NFT collection is hoping to become the next big hit in the music industry. The primate band called KINGSHIP will put out music, perform in the metaverse and release plenty of NFT collectibles. It takes inspiration from Gorillaz, Damon Albarn’s cartoon band. Major music label Universal is backing the unique act and KINGSHIP will join its stable of artists alongside Billie Eilish, Queen, Taylor Swift and Nirvana. gm! pic.twitter.com/Jqkvy9Bd2P — KINGSHIP (@therealkingship) November 11, 2021 The highly collectible 10,000 NFTs in the Bored Ape …

Digitalization keeps on coming to one of the oldest games in the world as FIDE, the International Chess Federation, announces its plans for an NFT marketplace. The group said that the marketplace, which launches at the end of November, will be called ChessNFT. FIDE is the first global sports federation to create its own NFT ecosystem and it does so ahead of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2021. The event is set to take place at the Expo 2020 Dubai from Nov. 24 to Dec. 16. Just last month, the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen, won an NFT trophy in …

Identity verification tech firm Civic Technologies has launched a free tool to combat botting activity in Solana (SOL)-based NFT drops. According to a Nov. 8 announcement, Civic’s new tool “Ignite Pass” will filter out bots by requiring buyers to complete a liveness verification before being approved to make NFT purchases. Civic’s website notes that users will be required to take a video selfie in order to verify, with an Ignite Pass then being issued to their wallet address upon completion. The pass also remains active for 24 hours to “limit the options of malicious botters verifying multiple wallets. ” The …

Solana's (SOL) autumn rally continued on Nov. 3 with its price and market cap hitting a new record high. SOL surged by 7% in the past 24 hours to $236, pushing its market capitalization to over $70 billion for the first time in history. As the token wobbled near its record high levels, it flipped Cardano (ADA) briefly to become the world's fifth-most valuable crypto asset. Currently, SOL's market cap was around $69.37 billion, just $500 shy of ADA's $69.87 billion market valuation. Solana rallies on NFT craze Solana battling for the top-five cryptocurrency spot came on the heels of …

On Nov. 2, crypto trading and payments firm Crypto.com revealed the release of the first authorized UFC nonfungible token. According to the news release, the UFC's new NFT series will include digital collectibles such as fight night paintings, event posters, championship belts, fighter personas and avatars. On Nov. 4, the collection of NFTs known as “UFC 268 Packs” will be made available. The upcoming bout “UFC 268: Usman vs. Covington 2” will be represented by this event's fight posters and belt designs. The NFTs will be accessible for purchase to fans “while supplies last.” According to Cointelegraph in July, the …

Facebook's decision this Thursday to rebrand itself to Meta—to indicate its plans to build an avatar-filled metaverse—helped spark a speculative rally across cryptocurrencies that belong to similar virtual world projects. Decentraland, a virtual place with its own economy, currency (MANA), and social events, accessible to anyone with a web browser, saw its market valuation exploding from $1.44 billion to $2.08 billion in the previous 24 hours. That happened as its native token MANA jumped circa 45% to $1.14 in the same period. At its intraday best, the Decentraland cryptocurrency was changing hands for $1.227 Friday, its highest level since May …

The wolf of nonfungible streets Erstwhile crypto skeptic Jordan Belfort has bravely outed himself as an NFT proponent amid the booming growth of the sector in 2021. Belfort is known for his dodgy antics while working as a stockbroker on Wall Street, with his story being captured in “The Wolf of Wall Street” film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The 59-year-old has slammed crypto on multiple occasions, and in 2018 he even compared Bitcoin to the level of fraud that his firm Stratton Oakmont used to engage in before he was indicted for securities fraud and money laundering in 1999. On Oct. …

Jenny Ta, founder of CoinLinked and chief operating officer of nonfungbile token (NFT) platform developer Hodl Assets, believes that the fashion-based NFT market will be worth billions in the future. Ta is a self-made millionaire who founded the crypto-powered social marketplace CoinLinked in May 2020. The firm was set to host a Dogecoin Conference in Las Vegas, but the event has since been rebranded to the “Cryptotainment Conference” following Hodl Assets’ acquisition of CoinLinked in August earlier this year. Ta was on-boarded as the new chief operating officer of Hodl Assets as part of the deal, and the rebranded event …

Dapper Labs, the firm behind NBA Top Shot, said that pro sports leagues are no longer resistant to exploring nonfungible tokens (NFTs) now that the sector is hot. Speaking at Yahoo Finance's All Markets Summit on Oct. 25, Dapper Labs’ head of partnerships, Caty Tedman, said that the stance of professional sporting organisations suddenly shifted regarding NFTs amid the sector’s booming growth in early 2021, stating: "The conversation has shifted dramatically, where I think there's a little bit of an understanding that there's something here. I meet very little resistance these days that NFTs are a thing." Dapper emerged as …

Open source blockchain analytics firm Moonstream published a report, which found that around 17% of addresses control more than 80% of all nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on Ethereum. The report was published on Oct. 21 and the analysis was conducted on more than seven million NFT transactions on the Ethereum blockchain between April 1 and Sept. 25, 2021. The report found that whales, NFT platforms and exchanges, which comprise the top 16.71% of all addresses, own 80.98% of NFTs on Ethereum. The remaining 83.29% of NFT owners were only able to snap up “a handful of tokens'' during that time frame. …