All posts tagged: NFT

Shockingly, Bored Apes Now Laying Off Employees as NFT Market Disintegrates

Shockingly, Bored Apes Now Laying Off Employees as NFT Market Disintegrates

Published by skeptic

“To put it simply: Yuga lost its way.” Token of Gratitude Bored Ape Yacht Club developer Yuga Labs is laying off an unspecified number of employees as the appetite for the nonfungible tokens (NFTs) continues to evaporate. In an announcement on X-formerly-Twitter, Yuga Labs CEO Greg “Gargamel” Solano said that “some very hard, strategic decisions” had “unfortunately” included a “restructuring.” “To put it simply: Yuga lost its way,” Solano wrote. “Getting ourselves centered and on the right path means being a smaller, more agile and cryptonative team.” The news comes amid a major downturn in the NFT market, with Bored Ape NFTs that once were worth millions of dollars being sold off for a tiny fraction. But is the bizarre trend really on its way out once and for all — or are NFTs in for an imminent resurgence, as some recent reports suggest? Anything’s possible, but common sense suggests that at this point you should only invest with extreme caution. Apes of Wrath Celebrities who once shilled the drab JPGs of fatigued primates are even …

Starbucks is shutting down its NFT rewards program

Starbucks is shutting down its NFT rewards program

Published by skeptic

The Starbucks NFT rewards program will soon be no more. In late 2022, Starbucks dipped its toes into the world of Web3 with a beta launch of its new NFT rewards program, Starbucks Odyssey. It has remained as a closed, invite-only beta ever since. However, according to a recently updated FAQ on the official Starbucks Odyssey website, it seems that the NFT reward program will never leave beta. That’s because Starbucks is killing it. SEE ALSO: The pink Starbucks x Stanley cup is going for $200 on eBay. Shop these dupes instead. What’s happening to Starbucks Odyssey? On March 15, Starbucks added the following question to its FAQ: “Why are you ending the Starbucks Odyssey Beta program?” “The Starbucks Odyssey Beta must come to an end to prepare for what comes next as we continue to evolve the program,” reads Starbucks’ answer. According to the website, the Starbucks Odyssey program will officially end on March 31. Users in the closed beta have until March 25 to complete any remaining Journeys, which were “themed activities” like …

Starbucks ditches its Odyssey NFT program

Starbucks ditches its Odyssey NFT program

Published by skeptic

Update: Starbucks announced Friday that it’s discontinuing its NFT program, which was in beta, to “prepare for what comes next as we continue to evolve the program,” according to an FAQ page.    We spoke with Steve Kaczynski, the program’s lead, on the Chain Reaction podcast last month. On Friday, he tweeted that his future at the company was uncertain: Below is our original interview with Kaczynski from February 22:  The NFT space may be down substantially from all-time highs, but brands and loyalty programs looking to reach fans in new ways can still find value, said Steve Kaczynski, co-author of the book “The Everything Token” and community lead for Starbucks Odyssey. “Brand anchors” to gated areas like reward programs are something that companies will expand upon in 2024, he said. “I think this year we’re going to see a lot of community-based brand building,” he shared on TechCrunch’s Chain Reaction podcast. Starbucks launched Starbucks Odyssey in 2022 as its initial foray into the web3 world. The experience combined the company’s Starbucks Reward loyalty program …

NFT fantasy sport startup Sorare lays off 13%, as web3 gaming sputters

NFT fantasy sport startup Sorare lays off 13%, as web3 gaming sputters

Published by skeptic

Sorare is not completely shuttering its New York office but is shifting more employees to Paris Web3-enabled fantasy sports platform Sorare laid off 22 employees based in its New York office in February. The move comes as the startup wants certain teams to be concentrated at the company’s Paris headquarters to improve communication and efficiency, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. “As we plan for our next stage of growth, Sorare has made the decision to centralize some of our functions at our Paris HQ,” Nicolas Julia, the co-founder and CEO of Sorare told TechCrunch through email. “This primarily affects our product development team as we believe that bringing that team together in the same space in Paris will allow them to collaborate more effectively as they continue to build best in class products across our football, baseball and basketball offerings.” An additional 11 employees in the New York office were asked to relocate to Paris, a source familiar with the matter said. The company will backfill most of these laid-off roles in …

Bored Ape Yacht Club Creator Yuga Labs Acquires Rival NFT Company Proof

Bored Ape Yacht Club Creator Yuga Labs Acquires Rival NFT Company Proof

Published by skeptic

Yuga Labs, the web3 and lifestyle company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, recently announced it had acquired rival non-fungible token creator Proof. Proof is best known for Moonbirds, a collection of NFT profile pics known as PFPs. The Proof acquisition includes its team, intellectual property, and artistic portfolio, including the Oddities NFTs, Mythics PFPs, and Grails exhibition series. In addition to Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs is known creating the metaverse game Otherside, blockchain art series TwelveFold, and ownership of NFT brands Meebits, CryptoPunks, and 10KTF. Yuga Labs acquired Meebits and CryptoPunks from Larva Labs in March 2022. Related Articles “As a company committed to championing art, culture, and community on the blockchain, we’re excited to have PROOF join the Yuga ecosystem,” Yuga Labs CEO Daniel Alegre said in a press statement. “Moonbirds is a collection with great potential and many unifying brand elements with Otherside. We look forward to PROOF Collective becoming an important part of our ongoing art and community engagement efforts.” Last year, Proof collaborated with Pace Verso, Pace Gallery’s …

US Air Force Cyber Analyst Arrested in Major NFT Criminal Case

US Air Force Cyber Analyst Arrested in Major NFT Criminal Case

Published by skeptic

A United States Air Force cyber analyst has been arrested in a landmark criminal case for the NFT world, new court documents filed earlier this month reveal. Devin Alan Rhoden has been accused of being involved in a “rug pull” scheme, in which investors are lured in with the promise of digital assets, only for the project to be pulled and the duper to abscond with the project funds. In the criminal complaint, Rhoden is accused of promoting  UndeadApes NFTs (from the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT suite) using the username Deviinz to an Air Force veteran on the gaming platform Discord, falsely inflating the value of the NFTs, which led interested parties to believe the project was a collaboration with a sought-after NFT collective known as Stoned Ape Crew.  Related Articles Stoned Ape Crew, however, denied any such collaboration, causing the purported value of UndeadApes NFTs to nosedive. The victim, whose identity was not disclosed, said his digital assets were consequently made “worthless”. The filing alleges that Rhoden withdrew $80,000 from his Coinbase account in April 2022, a …

Why Puma is sticking to its web3 bets as crypto shakes off a long-held winter

Why Puma is sticking to its web3 bets as crypto shakes off a long-held winter

Published by skeptic

While some brands moved away from web3 in 2023 during a long crypto winter, Puma stayed the course and its head of emerging technology Ivan Dashkov told TechCrunch+ it has no intentions of leaving. After two years working with web3, Puma’s tech revenues remain modest, but the sportswear manufacturer intends to be ready for a more crypto-friendly future. “Web3 is a big shift in how people use the internet,” Dashkov said. Such changes to how the internet is used can lead to landscape-shifts for brands, something that Puma is more than aware of. The company “missed the boat” on the big e-commerce and social media waves that happened in the past few decades, so it wants to be early in this space, Dashkov explained. “We don’t think the way the space exists today will be what it looks like in four or five years, but we want to be ready.” In February 2022, Puma registered its first Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain, as Puma.eth. ENS domains are popular among Ethereum users who want to have accessible …

AI versus copyright, and why you shouldn’t count your NFT chickens before they hatch

AI versus copyright, and why you shouldn’t count your NFT chickens before they hatch

Published by skeptic

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. This being the first week of the year, we had to go over a thing or two that broke just as 2023 gave up the ghost. Here’s what we have on deck for you! Financial updates: Global stock market news, and the latest from crypto. On the decentralized front, strong price movements are driving trading volume. That’s good news for exchanges around the world. AI versus Copyright: The New York Times suit against OpenAI that dropped in the final days of 2023 is still the biggest story in tech at the moment. If major LLMs are built on shaky grounds, what does that mean for the generative AI boom? X’s value continues to fall, further evidence that social media is hard to monetize for nearly …

Love ’em or hate ’em, NFTs can survive thanks to the communities that drive them

Love ’em or hate ’em, NFTs can survive thanks to the communities that drive them

Published by skeptic

NFTs have suffered everything from ridicule and scams to a broad dip in demand due to the crypto winter. Sometimes it almost feels like some of the projects in the space are kept going simply on hopes and dreams. Still, the sector has persisted through the downturn, and recent momentum in crypto has investors, community members and spectators alike looking once more towards NFTs with interest. Sure, NFTs get a lot of heat for all the silly apes, rocks and JPEGs that people spend millions on, but there’s a widespread belief in the industry that there’s ample value underlying the concept and the various use cases it brings. “I think NFTs are just cultural artifacts of crypto at this point. When people have fun, it’s easier with a JPEG than just a token,” Ilja Moisejevs, co-founder and CEO of NFT marketplace Tensor, told TechCrunch+. Most people are holding on to their NFTs regardless of their monetary value, according to Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands. Making money from NFTs validates their holders’ …

Crypto market showing signs of recovery as prices, NFT sales rise on the month

Crypto market showing signs of recovery as prices, NFT sales rise on the month

Published by skeptic

Welcome back to Chain Reaction. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important crypto stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12 p.m. PT, subscribe here. The crypto market and overall ecosystem may be showing signs of recovery after a prolonged bear market. At the time of publication, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum were up 30% and 28% from the month-ago date, respectively, according to CoinMarketCap data. Separately, the total crypto market capitalization is up about 31% to $1.41 trillion during the same period. Even the NFT space, which took a tumble after its latest hype cycle in 2021 and 2022, has seen total sales increase 64% in the past 30 days, according to CryptoSlam data. The top three blockchains by NFT sales volume were Ethereum, Bitcoin and Solana, and all of them saw sales increase (44%, 1,222% and 56%, respectively) in that time frame. Separately, the crypto venture capital landscape is heating back up after six consecutive quarters of declines of investments into web3 companies. The bullish take comes at a …