The “solid gold cube” crypto promo that surfaced in New York this week has turned out to be hollow on the inside, with onlookers online lampooning the stunt as an appropriate critique of the extravagant promises of crypto and blockchain tech. On Feb. 2, Artnet reported that a 24-carat 410 pound gold cube worth $11.7 million had been placed in Central Park surrounded by a “heavy security detail” as part of a promo for German artist Niclas Castello’s crypto project dubbed Castello Coin (CAST). New in NYC: A cube made from $11.7 million worth of solid gold is sitting in …

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival has partnered with FTX US to launch a series of NFT collectibles that includes tokenized lifetime access passes to its annual music festivals. The iconic music festival is held over two consecutive three-day weekends every April in California, and is being headlined by Harry Styles, Billy Eilish and Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) in 2022. The partnership was announced on Feb. 2 and it will see the duo launch a Solana-based Coachella marketplace and NFTs that offer real world and virtual benefits. Coachella FTX One of a kind NFTs for …

Sandbox (SAND) refused to go down despite broader negative market sentiment in the past 24 hours. Instead, the altcoin logged a breakaway recovery as traders assessed its recent high-profile partnerships as a sign that the project has strong fundamentals. SAND rose 10.23% to $3.38 at the UTC close on Jan.27, followed by another 5.42% spike to $3.57 on Friday. In contrast, Bitcoin (BTC), dropped 1.41% within the same timeframe. SAND adoption booms Traders decided to increase their exposure to SAND after the Sandbox announced partnerships with American rapper Snoop Dogg and Warner Music, a major record label. On Jan. 27 …

NFT marketplace OpenSea has backflipped on a controversial decision to limit the number of NFTs and collections creators can mint using its smart contract. The platform previously allowed unlimited collections and items, but changed its policy to only allow five NFT collections with 50 items per collection when using OpenSea’s collection storefront contract. That’s its own smart contract allowing creators to mint NFTs without needing to deploy their own. The unexpected announcement from OpenSea’s Twitter Support account, posted on Jan. 27, stated the lower limits came after it had "addressed feedback received about its creator tools." . A follow-up tweet …

Reddit is testing out NFT profile pictures on its platform, with the news coming just a week or so after Twitter implemented a similar feature. The popular social media platform had around 430 million monthly users in 2021, and is reportedly working on an NFT profile picture implementation that will enable users to set their profile picture to any non-fungible token with an attached image. In an Interview with Techcrunch on January 27 , Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt stated that: “We’re always exploring ways to provide value for users and communities on Reddit. At the moment we’re testing the ability …

Despite a general consensus amongst degen apes that NFTs are headed to the proverbial moon, space agency NASA has revealed it will not clear the use of its content and logos for take off. This is an important clarification as the US government agencies’ images and video content are typically not copyright protected, and can ordinarily be freely used for educational and informative purposes in media. (Its logos meanwhile are copyrighted and can only be used if approved by NASA). While the NFT sector continues to surge full steam ahead — with platforms such as OpenSea posting record monthly volumes …

Nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Metaplex has concluded a $46 million investment round to support its strategic pivot into metaverse applications — offering further evidence that existing blockchain networks were looking to capitalize on advances in Web3 technology. The investment round was co-led by venture firms Multicoin Capital and Jump Crypto, with additional participation from Solana Ventures, Alameda Research and Animoca Brands. Over 90 individual investors also participated in the raise, including NBA legends Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson. The funding round will allow the Metaplex Foundation, which oversees the development of the Metaplex protocol, to expand its support for metaverse …

An Indonesian college student has reportedly become a millionaire by selling nonfungible token (NFT) versions of his selfies on the OpenSea NFT marketplace. Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali, a 22-year-old computer science student from Semarang, Indonesia, converted and sold nearly 1,000 selfie images as NFTs. According to Ghozali, he took photos of himself for five years — between the ages of 18 and 22 — as a way to look back on his graduation journey. Uploading my photo into nft lolhttps://t.co/E3Q4sBmN26#NFT #opensea pic.twitter.com/rD51rdcpzp — Ghozali_Ghozalu (@Ghozali_Ghozalu) January 10, 2022 Ghozali selfies were taken sitting or standing in front of his computer, …

Alternative sports organization Fan Controlled Football (FCF) has raised $40 million in Series A funding from crypto and blockchain gaming firms to support the league’s expansion plans, including four new teams and an NFT project. The FCF was founded in 2017 by Sohrob Farudi, Patrick Dees, Ray Austin and Grant Cohen and hosted its debut season inside a bubble environment in Atlanta amid the pandemic last year. The FCF features an indoor version of American football in a seven vs seven-player format, and the games are streamed live on Twitch. The unique feature of the league is that the teams …

Mike Tyson is living the $DREAM Boxing icon Mike Tyson has stepped into the ring this week, after he shared his enthusiasm for Solana and unveiled a partnership with mental health-focused crypto project TheDreamChain ($DREAM). In the first round, Tyson — who previously launched an NFT project on Ethereum via OpenSea last year — tweeted on Jan. 13 that he was a born-again Solana (SOL) proponent while sharing a screenshot of a new NFT he'd snapped up from the Catalina Whale Mixer project. The Solana-based Catalina Whale Mixer NFTs currently have a floor price of 15 SOL ($2,200), and Tyson’s …

U.S.-based music platform LÜM is set to announce 25 partnerships with globally known musicians as part of a re-launch involving NBA Top Shot’s Dapper Labs later this quarter. LÜM was founded in 2018 and built up a user base of more than 200,000 users with a platform that provided services such as social media, music streaming and micro-tipping for its partnered musicians and fans. The firm has raised around $4.4 million worth of funding since 2018 according to data from Crunchbase, and partnered with popular R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo back in 2020. However, LÜM is now moving on fro that business …

Las Vegas-based glass pipe maker to the stars Jerome Baker Designs will launch a series of bong-related NFTs tied to corresponding physical assets early next month. The NFTs, on FDCTech’s Ethereum-based platform, depict the unique glassblowing process for each bong and come with additional unique benefits. They are due to drop on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 13) and the corresponding physical bongs will be auctioned off at Superchief Gallery. Jerome Baker Designs Founder and President Jason Harris is considered to be one of the top ten glassblowers in the world, according to smoking products marketplace SLX. He founded the business …