ALTCOIN JOURNAL

2021 is proving to be a breakthrough year for NFTs, but what is driving such impressive performance? This Altcoin Journal Research report has the answers. In 2010, if someone had told you that Internet memes, digital artwork and Twitter avatars would sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, would you have believed them?  Well, these are nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, in a nutshell. NFTs are driving blockchains toward uncharted territory on the backs of cute kitties and pixelated punks. What may appear to be a shroud of speculation over pointless collectibles is actually the clouded horizon of fintech innovation. NFTs represent a turning point. Blockchain technology is now being used to represent assets beyond the chain. In order to understand the thriving and intriguing world of NFTs, the Altcoin Journal Research team delves deep into this new space, presenting the findings in the latest report “Nonfungible Tokens: A New Frontier.” This report covers the history and development of ...

Goodbye Spotify, music nonfungible tokens have arrived: Reimagining the music streaming model in the Web 3.0 era. The music industry has undergone a massive transformation in recent years. We have seen the advent of the internet leave its mark on music, and most notably, 1999 spelled the coming of Napster. This then-revolutionary peer-to-peer online streaming service defined a whole generation and enabled musicians to share their creations with the world. Streaming has become the dominant format for music today, through Apple, Amazon, Tencent Music and the clear category winner — Spotify. The goal of distribution services and platforms like Spotify is to enable and empower artists to create more without worrying about anything besides honing their craft. However, that’s just on paper — does reality reflect this utopian ideal? Not so much. Sure, the “transformation” of music in the past decades is evident, but it seems that someone got left behind. And the saddest thing is that those wh...

Metaverse Group has snapped up a lot of land and has said it has no plans to stop buying plots of metaverse land across various metaverse platforms. Metaverse Group, which is headquartered in Decentraland, announced on Nov. 23 that it had completed what it calls “the largest Metaverse land acquisition in history.” The subsidiary of Tokens.com snapped up 116 parcels of land “in the heart of the Fashion Street district” in Decentraland. The total size of the land purchased is equivalent to 6,090 square feet of land at the cost of 618,000 MANA tokens worth about $2.5 million. Metaverse Group plans to develop the estate for fashion shows and commerce. It will also form partnerships with fashion brands looking to expand their presence in the Metaverse, especially in Decentraland. “Fashion is the next massive area for growth in the Metaverse,” said Sam Hamilton, Head of Content at the Decentraland Foundation. The deal is the first of many by Metaverse Group since Tokens.com became its primar...

Search queries for “NFT” and “nonfungible token” have become even more popular than searches for “Dogecoin”, “blockchain” and even “Ethereum.” Google’s keyword search data shows interest in nonfungible tokens (NFTs) has surged to record levels, with traffic beating out search terms pertinent to many crypto assets ranked among the top ten. According to Google Trends, interest in NFTs saw a dramatic spike at the start of the year as Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot and vintage Ethereum-based NFTs saw frenzied speculation. While the bubble initially appeared short-lived — with search volume drying up by roughly 75% as of the end of June, interest began to bounce back in July before breaking into new highs at the end of October. Search volume for “NFT” (blue) and “non-fungible token” (red) over 24 months: Google Trends Since then, Google search traffic for NFT-related keywords has continued to surge, doubling over the past three months. The spike in interest has seen “NFT” overtake many of keywor...

With NFTs and blockchain technology, artists are empowered to monetize the secondary market and eliminate ticket fraud. The music industry is dominated by scalpers who are looking for arbitrage opportunities to resell tickets. Although the phenomenon is not new, it has only become more apparent with the impact of the pandemic, making the market even more centralized than it had been previously. The sad reality is, now artists’ insiders, automated bots, partnerships with second-hand ticket retailers and those looking to make ticket resales their business have used these actions for their own personal gain. Unfortunately, many still do not recognize the impact this has on their favorite artists. The result has been that artists now have a more difficult time making a decent living. Typically an artist's album sales will go directly to their label, making them more reliant on revenue from performing live shows, which is further amplified by artists who will lose out on a good chunk of...

While Jason Citron said the NFT feature was in “pre-release” mode, he has now changed his tune after being bombarded with thousands of comments calling on him to drop the plans. Popular community messaging app Discord has been forced to walk back its plans to integrate with Ethereum-based nonfungible tokens (NFTs) following a strong backlash from a significant number of its user base. The pushback started on Tuesday after Discord’s founder and CEO Jason Citron tweeted “probably nothing” accompanied by a screenshot of the app’s user settings page that displayed an Ether (ETH) logo and option to connect digital wallets such as Meta Mask and Wallet Connect. Citron was then bombarded with thousands of comments calling on him to abandon the plans along with users threatening to cancel Nitro subscriptions. The crypto-skeptics asserted that NFTs are a Ponzi scheme and damaging to the environment due to the amount of energy consumption used to mine cryptocurrencies. "I kindly request that...

FIDE said that it hopes to “welcome a new crypto demographic” through the “gamification of iconic match moments, unique collectibles [and] chess-related art.” Digitalization keeps on coming to one of the oldest games in the world as FIDE, the International Chess Federation, announces its plans for a nonfungible token (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 the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. A replica trophy was auctioned off to a fan for 6.88 ETH, with the winner also getting the chance to play with Carlsen. By further delving into the world of NFTs, FIDE said that it hopes to “welcome a new crypto demogra...

Zynga will work on integrating NFTs and blockchain into its existing portfolio in addition to developing new NFT-based games. Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) scored another win with gaming giant Zynga’s announcement of the upcoming integration of NFTs and blockchain into the publisher’s portfolio. San Francisco-based game developer Zynga, best known for its FarmVille and CSR Racing series, appointed marketing veteran Matt Wolf as its vice president to oversee the company’s blockchain gaming efforts. With the addition of Wolf, Zynga will work on integrating NFTs and blockchain into its existing portfolio and developing new NFT-based games. Zynga chief product officer Scott Koenigsberg noted that the company became an early adopter of emerging platforms and technologies with new releases on Snap Games, Google Nest and Amazon Alexa. Remarking on the prominence of blockchain technology in the digital economy, Koenigsberg said that Wolf would help them reach a new addressable market through NFTs ...

Wandering through the damp, grey streets of Brooklyn this past Tuesday, I encountered a paper sign, haphazardly taped to a street pole. “Missing Cat,” it read. But there was something off about the image of the cat itself – a sort of Halloween-themed caricature, rendered whimsically in midnight black, with a stitched-up mouth and a button for an eye, a la “Coraline.” Cautiously, I approached the sign. “After an experiment went awfully wrong, this Monsta Cat went missing from the Paw-X Lab on Wednesday, October 13th, 2021,” declared the fine-print. “She’s been generated from over 500 traits and her ID is #5502. Might look scary, but actually really shy.” It was only when I saw the proposed “reward,” denominated in ETH, that whatever empathy I’d felt for the supposedly lost pet evaporated. This wasn’t a real cat, but an ad for a collection of animal-themed NFTs (non-fungible tokens) in the vein of the Bored Ape Yacht Club: 10,000 randomly generated icons living on the Ethereum blockchain...

NFTs have evolved into entire worlds and, perhaps more importantly, expansive user experiences. Leading technologists believe the internet will soon evolve into the metaverse, a digital experience that offers mind-blowing virtual realities. Within the metaverse, users can be a part of immersive experiences in different virtual spaces, owning and trading things like they do in the real world or traveling to distant parts of the world without leaving the couch. Although just a concept, if the metaverse did become a reality, it could have the potential to transform society and the industry as a whole. Some believe that with the metaverse, participants can be a part of a better version of the world we live in today, one free from the pain, sorrow and other problems plaguing people today. TCG World aims to bring the metaverse to life as the first 4K virtual reality low poly game and the largest open-world metaverse on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), taking place over 800 km2. The NFT-based v...

The game developer’s total valuation is now $1.25 Billion, following a successful raise. Mythical Games announced the conclusion of a $150 million fundraising round. The company conducted the raise at a $1.25 billion valuation on Thursday, which was led by global venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Mythical said it plans to use this new infusion of capital to help integrate NFTs into games. Andreessen General Partner Arianna Simpson said in a statement: “Co-Founders John, Jamie, and Rudy have a wealth of experience in the gaming world, and have built a world-class team to support their vision. We’re thrilled to partner with them to bring NFT gaming to an even larger stage.”  Other investors in this round included venture capital firms D1 Capital, 32 Equity (the investment arm of the National Football League), Red-Bird Capital, Com2Us, and The Raine Group in addition to cryptocurrency exchanges FTX and Binance Labs. Several professional sports franchise owners also participate...

Major video game publisher Electronic Arts sees NFTs and blockchain-based games as the future of the industry. Wider adoption for nonfungible tokens (NFT) and play-to-earn games appears to be on the horizon, as one of the biggest names in the gaming industry sees both as the future of the industry. Speaking at an earnings call, Andrew Wilson, CEO of major video game company Electronic Arts (EA), said that NFTs and play-to-earn games are the gaming industry’s future even though it’s still early to figure out how that would work. Widely known as a business-oriented company that utilizes the pay-to-win model in several games, EA has not yet tried its hand at the play-to-earn games. However, EA hinted that it had set its sights on blockchain and NFTs, as a job posting from summer revealed. The popularity of titles such as Axie Infinity shows that play-to-earn products could easily find a solid player base if the product is well-refined. In such games, players gain in-game digital assets by...

The bullish outlook appears as Polkadot prepares to auction highly anticipated parachain slots on its network. Polkadot’s native DOT token looks poised to rally toward $100 in the coming sessions as it triggers a classic bullish reversal setup. Dubbed “inverse head and shoulders” (IH&S), the technical structure appears when an instrument forms three troughs in a row, with the middle one — called the head — being the lowest and the other two — known as the right and left shoulders — of almost equal heights. Meanwhile, the level at which all the troughs top out represents the “neckline.” So, it appears DOT has been forming an IH&S ever since its price correction from the $43–$49 price range (neckline), as shown in the chart below. On Nov. 1, the Polkadot token broke above the area and continued rallying the next day to bring its month-to-date returns to almost 25% while bumping its record high to $53.35 The price jump accompanied an increase in trading volumes, showing that trade...

The $200 million fund aims to foster growth and innovation on the Avalanche Network. The Avalanche Foundation has unveiled“Blizzard” — a fund offering more than $200 million in incentives to developers who build on the Avalanche (AVAX) network. The fund will provide liquidity to those early-stage projects that innovate decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and other products on Avalanche. Avalanche is a Proof-of-Stake network that launched in September 2020. The network boasts Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatibility, allowing developers to port decentralized applications over from Ethereum. The network now boasts more than 320 projects that are currently building on it, including top stablecoin issuer Tether, popular DEX SushiSwap, and oracle providers Chainlink and The Graph. Per a Nov.1 announcement, Blizzard’s contributors include the Avalanche Foundation, Ava Labs, Polychain Capital, Three Arrows Capital, Dragonfly Capital, and CMS Holdings. Bli...