One of the most controversial decisions in the NFT space was Blur’s announcement to lower its royalty fee from 10% to 2.5% in September 2022. This move was intended to attract more artists and collectors to the platform, but it also had a devastating impact on Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, one of the most popular NFT collections on Blur.
Yuga Labs relied heavily on the royalty fee as a source of income, since it did not sell any new apes after the initial launch in April 2021. The fee reduction meant that Yuga Labs lost 75% of its potential revenue from secondary sales, which amounted to millions of dollars. Some analysts speculated that this was a deliberate attempt by Blur to undermine Yuga Labs’ success and dominance in the NFT market, while others argued that it was a necessary step to foster a more competitive and diverse ecosystem.
Improbable, the company behind the SpatialOS platform for creating massive online worlds, has shifted its focus from gaming to metaverse applications in recent years. According to CEO Herman Narula, this move has been rewarding for the company, as it has attracted new clients and partners from various industries. Narula believes that the metaverse is not just a buzzword, but a real opportunity to create immersive and interactive experiences that transcend the boundaries of physical reality.
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FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, has revealed that it does not have a fixed amount for its insurance fund, but rather uses a random number generator to determine its size. The company claims that this method allows it to adjust the fund according to market conditions and avoid over- or under-funding. However, some critics have raised concerns about the transparency and reliability of this approach, as well as the potential risks for traders and investors who rely on the insurance fund to cover losses in case of liquidations or hacks.
The legal team of the SBF has filed a motion to exclude any reference to Anthropic, a rival AI research company, from the trial. The motion argues that Anthropic is irrelevant to the case and that mentioning it would prejudice the jury against SBF. SBF is accused of violating several safety and ethical regulations in its pursuit of artificial superintelligence.
The hacker who stole 2.8 million HTX tokens from the Hotbit exchange has returned the funds, according to a tweet by Justin Sun, the founder of TRON. Sun also confirmed that the hacker will receive a 250 ETH reward for acting as a “whitehat” and helping to improve the security of the exchange. Sun praised the hacker for their “high moral standards” and said that the incident was a “win-win situation” for both Hotbit and the hacker.
According to a report by The Block, Bitmain, the world’s largest producer of cryptocurrency mining hardware, has paid its employees the wages that were delayed due to its financial troubles. The report cites unnamed sources who claim that Bitmain has resolved its cash flow issues and is now able to pay its staff on time.
Bitmain has been facing a series of challenges in the past year, including a leadership dispute, a failed IPO attempt, and a decline in demand for its products amid the crypto market downturn. The company reportedly laid off a significant portion of its workforce and closed some of its overseas offices in an effort to cut costs and survive the crisis.
Pfizer-backed DAO launches community-funded biotech firm Science crowdfunding project VitaDAO has launched Matrix Biosciences, seeded with $300,000 and future funding via IP-NFT fractionalization. The DAO, called VitaDAO, aims to fund and support innovative biotech projects that can benefit humanity and the environment.
VitaDAO is a community-driven platform that allows anyone to propose, vote, and fund biotech initiatives using blockchain technology and smart contracts. VitaDAO leverages Pfizer’s expertise and network in the biotech industry, as well as its commitment to social responsibility and sustainability.
Solana Investment products see largest week of Inflows
Solana, the blockchain platform that claims to offer fast, scalable and low-cost transactions, has seen a surge in demand from investors in the past week. According to data from CoinShares, Solana investment products attracted $49.4 million in inflows in the week ending October 6, 2023, the highest amount since March 2022. This represents a 28% increase from the previous week and brings the total assets under management (AUM) of Solana products to $314.7 million.
The inflows into Solana products reflect the strong performance of the SOL token, which has risen by more than 300% since the start of September 2023. SOL reached an all-time high of $214.76 on October 4, 2022, making it the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The rally was driven by several factors, including the launch of Wormhole, a bridge that connects Solana with other blockchains such as Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, the growth of decentralized applications (DApps) and decentralized exchanges (DEXs) on Solana, and the anticipation of more institutional adoption.
One of the most notable DApps on Solana is Audius, a music streaming platform that has over 6 million monthly active users and hosts artists such as Skrillex, deadmau5 and Diplo. Audius uses Solana to store and verify the ownership of music tracks, as well as to reward users and creators with its native token, AUDIO. Audius recently announced a partnership with TikTok, allowing users to share their songs directly to the popular social media app.
Solana investment products returned their largest inflows since March 2022, adding $24 million, according to CoinShares’ latest report. Solana is “continuing to assert itself as the altcoin of choice,” Head of Research James Butterfill wrote, particularly considering the recent launch of ether futures ETF products. Solana funds have recorded inflows in 28 weeks this year, with just four weeks of outflows in 2023. Bitcoin dominated the overall inflows, adding $43 million. However, some investors capitalizing on recent price strength began adding to short-bitcoin product positions — resulting in inflows of $1.2 million during the same period.
Another DApp that has gained traction on Solana is Serum, a DEX that leverages Solana’s high speed and low fees to offer fast and cheap trading of crypto assets. Serum claims to process over 50,000 transactions per second, with an average fee of less than $0.0001 per transaction. Serum also supports cross-chain swaps, allowing users to trade assets from different blockchains without intermediaries.
Solana’s popularity among investors and developers is also evident in the number of projects that have raised funds through its ecosystem. According to data from Messari, Solana projects have raised over $1.2 billion in funding in 2023 so far, surpassing Ethereum’s $1.1 billion. Some of the notable fundraises include Star Atlas, a metaverse game that raised $40 million in a public sale, Mango Markets, a DEX that raised $70 million in a token sale, and Pyth Network, a decentralized oracle that raised $31.5 million in a private sale.
Solana’s impressive growth has attracted the attention of institutional investors as well. In September 2023, Osprey Funds launched the Osprey Solana Trust, the first investment product in the U.S. that offers exposure to SOL. The trust has a management fee of 2.5% and requires a minimum investment of $10,000. Osprey Funds CEO Greg King said that Solana is “one of the most exciting projects in crypto” and that the trust will provide investors with “a secure and cost-effective way to access it”.
CoinShares, the digital asset manager that tracks the inflows and outflows of crypto investment products, said that Solana’s inflows indicate that investors are diversifying their portfolios beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. CoinShares also noted that Solana’s inflows accounted for 86.6% of the total inflows into crypto products in the past week, which amounted to $57 million. The remaining inflows went to Bitcoin ($5.2 million), Ethereum ($1.8 million), Cardano ($0.9 million) and Polkadot ($0.8 million).
Solana’s strong momentum shows no signs of slowing down, as more projects, users and investors flock to its platform. With its innovative technology, vibrant ecosystem and growing adoption, Solana may soon challenge the dominance of Ethereum as the leading smart contract platform in crypto.