NFTs In A Nutshell: A Weekly Review

BitcoinistPublicado em 2022-06-27Última atualização em 2022-06-27

Resumo

Q2 closes up with NFT.NYC, another week packed of Yuga Labs and BAYC headlines (and discourse), and eBay continuing it's...

Q2 closes up with NFT.NYC, another week packed of Yuga Labs and BAYC headlines (and discourse), and eBay continuing it’s active push into the space – this time with a new acquisition. Menawhile, one of your favorite candy brands is getting a sweet tooth, and there is more updates from the latest developments in Quentin Tarantino’s legal battle over his past non-fungible token release.
We’re back with our usual recap to digest all things NFT from the past week.
This Week’s Non-Fungible Token News
Bored Ape Yacht Club All Over New Eminem And Snoop Dogg Music Video
The Bored Ape Yacht Club crew brought all sorts of music artists – such as LCD Soundsystem and Lil Baby – as part of their ApeFest 2022 showing, what many in the community tout as an early display of blue chip utility; however, it was the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this week for BAYC. They rounded out ApeFest with a Bored Ape music video courtesy of Snoop Dogg and Eminem.
Meanwhile, the BAYC team is dealing with the need to respond to growing allegations around Nazi ties, including filing a lawsuit against critic Ryder Ripps, who released an amplified video criticizing the NFT project and subsequently launched his own imitation project.
NFT.NYC: Improved, But Still Room To Grow
Speaking of Snoop Dogg, NFT.NYC was host to great experiences, interesting impersonators (I’m looking at you, Doop Snogg), plenty of networking opps, and also it’s fair share of cringe. We can keep it honest. Goblins took things a little too far with IRL goblin noises, the Invisible Friends pop-up was made fun at times, and The Hundreds did an excellent exhibition of fake NFT protestors.
In all, it was seemingly a step in the right direction after last year’s experience – and a much louder and more present community this time around, too. We took some time to cover the good, the bad and the ugly from this year’s NFT.NYC.

Uniswap has seen strong token performance this week following the acquisition of NFT aggregator Genie, and potentially a broader market slowdown of bear market effects. | Source: UNI-USD on TradingView.com
M&M NFT
Mars Inc., longtime candy behemoth and maker of chocolate candies M&Ms, is the latest brand in the consistent flow of ‘filing reports’ of new trademark applications around web3. According to reports this week, Mars has filed crypto, NFT and metaverse related trademark applications for the M&Ms brand which includes “online virtual store environments” and “virtual snacks” for the metaverse.
Tarantino’s Legal Battle: Latest Update
November of last year feels like the ‘simple times’ of crypto. So little time has truly past, but things sure do feel different. Look no further than the curious case of crypto and Quentin Tarantino for a prime example: last year, we covered the emergence of Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction‘ NFTs, and by the beginning of the new year we started briefly covering the ongoing debates between Miramax and Tarantino.
Well the court system in the U.S. can be notoriously slow moving, but we’ve seen developments this week as Hollywood Reporter outlined an “early win” for the legendary director, but there’s still precedent to be set based on how things shake out. As the Reporter aptly notes, it could shake out somewhere down the middle, including NFTs around rights usage divvied up with “Miramax with regard to the movie and Tarantino with regard to the screenplay.”
New Acquisitions: eBay & KnownOrigin, Uniswap Snags Genie
In tough times there can be consolidation. Regardless of reasoning, we saw some interesting acquisitions this week, some more centralized than others. Let’s take a look a couple of the big headline names to see movement this week:

eBay Acquires KnownOrigin: eBay has expressed a desire to be a digital marketplace hub, a forward-thinking player in a new era of collecting, and has doubled down this week with the buyout of NFT marketplace KnownOrigin. The marketplace was relatively small but has displayed tenacity as an early mover in the space.
Uniswap Labs Acquires Genie: Meanwhile, in more DeFi structured orgs, leading dex Uniswap Labs snagged NFT marketplace aggregator Genie over the week as the platform looks to integrate NFTs into APIs and widgets.

Leituras Relacionadas

If the AI Bubble Is Already Bursting, Who Will Truly Survive?

If the AI Bubble is Bursting, Who Will Remain? The debate over an AI bubble is intensifying, with figures like Ray Dalio warning of high levels and Jensen Huang seeing immense, early-stage opportunity. Both views hold truth: a speculative bubble in capital markets likely exists, mirroring the dot-com era, but the underlying technological shift is real and transformative. History shows that while bubbles burst—wiping out overvalued companies and speculative capital—they often leave behind critical physical and digital infrastructure. The dot-com bust, for instance, eliminated many firms but left the global fiber optic networks and data centers that enabled the rise of Amazon, Netflix, and cloud computing. Today's massive AI infrastructure investments (projected at trillions by 2030) in data centers, power, cooling, and GPUs may follow a similar path, creating the foundation for future applications. A key divergence from past bubbles is the "Jevons Paradox" effect in AI. As the cost of AI inference has plummeted by over 99.7% since 2023, enterprise spending on AI has skyrocketed. Cheap "tokens" have unlocked vast, previously uneconomical use cases, moving AI from simple chatbots into core business workflows—code generation, legal document review, scientific simulation, and financial analysis. The market is now in a phase of self-correction, weeding out superficial "API-wrapper" startups, but this cleansing process strengthens the ecosystem. The long-term trajectory is clear. The value is gradually shifting from capital expenditure (CapEx) on hardware to operational expenditure (OpEx) on transformative applications. As AI becomes a utility, the winners will be firms that deeply integrate it to solve vertical industry problems in law, healthcare, finance, and manufacturing. The泡沫 will recede, but the foundational shift towards an AI-powered era across all sectors is irreversible. The underlying productive force of AI contains no bubble.

marsbitHá 2m

If the AI Bubble Is Already Bursting, Who Will Truly Survive?

marsbitHá 2m

If the AI Bubble Is Already Bursting, Who Will Truly Remain?

**Summary: If the AI Bubble is Bursting, What Will Remain?** The debate around an AI bubble is intensifying, with figures like Ray Dalio warning of high valuations while Jensen Huang sees immense opportunity. This echoes the dot-com bubble, which saw massive wealth destruction but ultimately left behind critical infrastructure like undersea cables and broadband, enabling future giants like Amazon and Netflix. Similarly, today's AI boom involves trillions invested in data centers, power, cooling, and GPUs, while application-layer revenue remains comparatively modest. This investment-disparity signals a bubble. However, the core technological progress is real and accelerating. AI inference costs have plummeted by over 99.7% since 2023, making intelligence increasingly cheap and accessible. This cost collapse is unlocking vast new demand. Instead of reducing spending, enterprises are tripling their AI cloud expenditure. Cheap "tokens" enable AI to move beyond simple chatbots into complex workflows—automating code writing, legal document review, financial analysis, and scientific research. This follows "Jevons's paradox": improved efficiency leads to greater total consumption. The market is now undergoing a necessary purification, weeding out "API-wrapper" startups with no real moat. The deeper evolution involves a shift from capital expenditure (CapEx) on infrastructure to operational expenditure (OpEx) on value-creation in applications. While hardware vendors currently profit most, long-term value will migrate to AI-native firms solving vertical industry problems. Ultimately, a market correction will cleanse speculative excess but will not reverse the AI+ trend. The massive physical and algorithmic infrastructure being built will endure, becoming a cheap, utility-like foundation. Just as the internet became indispensable to all industries post-2000, AI is poised to empower and redefine every sector, moving society irreversibly toward an intelligence-augmented era. The bubble may burst, but the underlying productive momentum is solid.

链捕手Há 9m

If the AI Bubble Is Already Bursting, Who Will Truly Remain?

链捕手Há 9m

Microsoft CEO: In the AI Era, How Do You Define a Company's Moat?

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella argues that in the AI era, a company's true competitive edge, or "moat," is not determined by choosing the single most powerful model, but by its ability to build a continuous "learning loop." This system integrates and evolves by connecting human workflows, domain expertise, organizational judgment, and employee experience. He posits that future companies will accumulate two types of capital: Human Capital (employee knowledge, judgment, creativity) and "Token Capital" (a firm's own built and owned AI capabilities). Importantly, AI amplifies rather than devalues human capital. Human direction is essential to guide progress, as computational power alone is aimless. The core opportunity lies in creating a closed-loop system where human and token capital reinforce each other in a compound, self-improving cycle. A company must be able to preserve its unique institutional knowledge—its "company veteran" expertise—even if it switches underlying general-purpose AI models. This requires private evaluation benchmarks, reinforcement learning environments based on internal data, and queryable knowledge bases. Nadella warns against a future where economic value is concentrated by a few dominant models that commoditize entire industries' knowledge. Instead, the priority should be building a broad "frontier ecosystem" where every company, industry, and nation can own its learning loop. This allows organizations to retain control of their intellectual property, amplify employee capabilities, and ensure the economic value created by AI is captured within their own businesses and communities. True corporate sovereignty in the AI age comes from turning organizational knowledge into a compounding system that creates enduring, defensible value.

marsbitHá 44m

Microsoft CEO: In the AI Era, How Do You Define a Company's Moat?

marsbitHá 44m

ETFs Are Just the Ticket: The True Institutionalization of Bitcoin Is Happening Where You Can't See It

Beyond the Bitcoin ETF spotlight, a deeper institutionalization is underway, leveraging Bitcoin as a foundational financial primitive. Institutions are using Bitcoin for purposes long reserved for assets like U.S. Treasuries and gold: as collateral for loans, insurance reserves, and the backbone of rated bonds. Examples include a Barbados-based insurer capitalizing with $40M in Bitcoin reserves and Ledn's $188M securitization of Bitcoin-backed loans, which received the first-ever investment-grade rating (BBB-) from S&P for a digital asset-backed security. This structure was stress-tested during a 27% price drop in early 2026, triggering automatic liquidations that functioned as designed but revealed the systemic risk of synchronized selling across leveraged positions. Infrastructure is evolving to support this, with platforms like Anchorage Digital's Atlas network enabling secure, institutional-grade settlement and collateral management. Strategies like basis trades and corporate treasuries (exemplified by companies like MicroStrategy issuing billions in equity and debt to fund Bitcoin acquisitions) further integrate Bitcoin into financial mechanics. While ETFs solved "how to own" Bitcoin, these developments answer "what to do with it," embedding the asset into the working machinery of finance—as collateral upon which loans, derivatives, and structured products are built. The real, enduring institutional shift is happening in these largely invisible plumbing and financing systems.

marsbitHá 50m

ETFs Are Just the Ticket: The True Institutionalization of Bitcoin Is Happening Where You Can't See It

marsbitHá 50m

ZEC Co-Founder Responds to Orchard Vulnerability: No Signs of Theft, Orchard Pool to Be Sealed

ZEC Co-Founder Addresses Orchard Vulnerability: No Signs of Theft, Plans to Sunset Orchard Pool A security vulnerability was recently discovered in Zcash's Orchard shielded pool, raising key concerns. The primary questions are whether the flaw was exploited, if user funds are safe, whether users can verify the total ZEC supply, and if other similar vulnerabilities exist. Analysis suggests the vulnerability was likely not exploited prior to its discovery. It was found proactively by a researcher using specialized tools, not due to an active breach. The development team and mining pools acted quickly to contain the issue. Typical financially-motivated attacks would likely have left visible on-chain evidence, which has not been observed. User funds in Orchard are considered safe and should be recoverable, assuming no prior exploitation. If the flaw was never used, all legitimate funds can be withdrawn. The article outlines risks associated with moving funds to transparent addresses or other pools, but concludes that leaving assets in place is a reasonable option. Currently, users cannot independently verify that the total ZEC supply hasn't been inflated due to this bug. However, the planned Ironwood network upgrade is designed to resolve this. It will permanently close the Orchard pool to new deposits and internal transfers, allowing only withdrawals. This mechanism will cap total withdrawals at the amount of legitimately deposited funds, enabling anyone to cryptographically verify the supply post-upgrade. Multiple teams, including Shielded Labs, have conducted extensive audits focused on counterfeiting vulnerabilities, assisted by advanced AI tools. No additional flaws of this type have been found so far, increasing confidence that no other similar undisclosed vulnerabilities exist. In summary, evidence indicates the Orchard bug was probably not used, user funds are secure, and no other counterfeiting flaws are currently known. The upcoming Ironwood upgrade will restore users' ability to independently verify the total ZEC supply, closing this chapter.

Foresight NewsHá 55m

ZEC Co-Founder Responds to Orchard Vulnerability: No Signs of Theft, Orchard Pool to Be Sealed

Foresight NewsHá 55m

Trading

Spot

Futuros