Magnus Jones, Nordic innovation lead at big four accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY), believes that the Metaverse would be led by the younger generation and cannot be built on the same principles of the corporate business model. Jones's comments came during an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph managing editor Alex Cohen at the European Blockchain Convention (EBC) 2022. The Nordic innovation lead at EY shed light on the company’s investment strategy, explaining why a significant chunk has gone towards younger generation firms and startups. He said that many of these young firms have proven themselves with valuable products and revenues …

Yuga Labs has finally broken its silence over the conspiracy theory that alleges the team embedded alt-right and Nazi memes/imagery into the artwork and branding behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) nonfungible token (NFT) collection. As Cointelegraph previously reported, the BAYC conspiracy theory was once again brought into the limelight on June 20 after YouTuber Philion published a video exploring the supposed evidence that artist Ryder Ripps initially compiled at the start of this year. In a Medium blog post shared via Twitter on Saturday, Yuga Labs co-founder Gordon Goner said that the team finally decided to clear the …

ApeCoin (APE), the Ethereum-based token tied to the widely popular and almost definitely probably not 4Chan-related Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project, saw its market cap drop by 67.2% or $4.3 billion during May and it has continued to slide since. Despite bearish macro factors looming over both crypto and stock markets throughout 2022, May, in particular, was a difficult month for crypto — thanks, Terra. Much like many other assets, ApeCoin was unable to escape the brunt of this downturn, and its market cap declined by $4.3 billion to sit at roughly $2.1 billion by May 31 as the …

Instagram's parent company, Meta, announced Wednesday that it will begin testing NFTs on Instagram Stories using its augmented reality platform Spark AR. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said of the news, “We're expanding our test so more creators around the world can display their NFTs on Instagram.” The company also stated in an announcement, “Creators and collectors will be able to share their digital collectibles across Facebook and Instagram after we begin rolling out the feature on Facebook with select US creators at a later date.” Zuckerberg also confirmed that Facebook is set to support NFTs in the future: “We'll bring this …

A video released by investigative YouTuber Philip Rusnack, known as Philion, has revived the debate over whether Yuga Labs’ flagship Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) nonfungible token (NFT) collection employs racist imagery and white supremacist esotericism. In the hour-long video released Monday on YouTube, Rusnack laid out his case, claiming that BAYC is “one massive alt-right inside joke” using language, symbols and memes from the anonymous image board website 4chan. He alleged the NFT images featured racist caricatures of Black and Asian people and drew comparisons between the symbology and language used by Yuga Labs and the BAYC with that …

The top social media platform in China, WeChat, has updated its policies to ban accounts that provide access to crypto or nonfungible token- (NFT)-related services. Under the new guidelines, accounts involved with the issuance, trading, and financing of crypto and NFTs will be either restricted or banned and will fall under the “illegal business” category. The policy also covers secondary NFT trading, with the firm noting that “accounts that provide services or content related to the secondary transaction of digital collections shall also be dealt with in accordance with this article.” The move was highlighted by Hong Kong-based crypto news …

Noah Davis, the nonfungible token (NFT) specialist at auction house Christie’s, has said he’s leaving the position in July to take up a post as brand lead for the CryptoPunks NFT collection with Yuga Labs. Announcing the move on Sunday in a Twitter thread, Davis looked to quash any anxieties holders had regarding the future of one of the oldest NFT projects, saying he “will not f*ck with the punks.” What does that mean? It means no Punks on lunchboxes or cringe TV shows/shitty movies. It means no arbitrary rushed utility or thoughtless airdrops. It means if you love your …

Lacoste launches NFTs and DAO Accessible luxury brand Lacoste has launched a nonfungible token (NFT) project named Undw3 that includes a new decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that will offer token holders voting power on certain products and business partnerships. There are 11,212 NFTs in total — in a nod to the firm’s popular polo shirt L1212 — that were sold for a mint price of 0.08 Ether (ETH) or roughly $96 each on June 14. The NFTs depict an animated alligator that pokes the top of its head out from underwater. The collectibles appear to have had reasonable demand, as …

Nonfungible token (NFT) trading volume has surged over the past 24 hours as crypto markets tank taking floor prices of many top NFT collections along with it. A long list of top NFT projects such as Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Crypto Punks and Sorare have all seen more than 100% increases in 24-hour trading volumes as investors look to snap up cheaper NFTs as floor prices tumble. According to data from CryptoSlam, eight of the top 10 NFT projects in terms of 24-hour sales volume have posted at least a 115% increase in trading …

Major toy brand Mattel has signed a multi-year partnership with forthcoming toy-focused nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Cryptoys to exclusively feature its brands on the platform. Cryptoys is expected to launch in late summer 2022 on the Flow blockchain and is the flagship product of OnChain Studios, which has received funding from crypto-interested venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Dapper Labs. OnChain Studios also plans to make a Cryptoys metaverse and other play-to-earn games where Mattel’s intellectual property — including Barbie, Hot Wheels and Masters of the Universe, among many others — will be made into playable avatars. …

The market for nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, has slowed from its peak, but that doesn’t mean the industry is dead — far from it, actually. NFT sales volumes came in at a healthy $3.7 billion in May, according to DappRadar’s latest Industry Report, which was released on Wednesday. While volumes were down 20% compared with April, industry activity remains robust considering that crypto assets as a whole are in a bear market. DappRadar also highlighted the fact that marketplace volumes aren’t down nearly as much when measured in their native tokens such as Ether (ETH). Case in point: OpenSea, the …

The NFT market is undergoing a painful downturn right now — but many in the space regard this as an opportunity to build. CSLIM, a South Korean artist, joins us for a discussion about how he got involved in this fast-moving space. He reveals why the rarity levels of NFTs may need a rethink, how crypto collectibles can help good causes, and compelling use cases for the future. 1. Hello! Tell us about CSLIM STUDIO — what's your story… and your main goal? I am an artist with an engineering background — and I've worked on AI, autonomous driving and …