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69 DeGods NFTs swept in massive buy

Greg Jackson Greg Jackson on January 24, 2023

Image source:

DeGods: NFT whales are individuals or entities that own large amounts of NFTs, which are digital assets that are unique and cannot be replicated.

They may be collectors, investors, or creators of NFTs, and they often have significant influence in the market.

Due to their ownership of a large number of NFTs, they can potentially control the supply and demand of certain NFTs, as well as the prices.

One NFT whale spent a bulk to obtain 69 DeGods NFTs through Magic Eden, intending to bridge them to Ethereum.

DeGods NFT

In the Solana NFT space, DeGods have become one of the most prominent NFTs, racking the most trading volume in SOL than other projects.

DeGods is a Solana-based NFT collection of deflationary art comprising 10,000 virtual gods.

The NFT project plans to make the switch to Ethereum, attracting the attention of a prominent player in the space.

DeGods NFTs launched in late 2021 but only rose in prominence and value in 2022.

DeLabs developer, under Rohun Vora or the pseudonymous Frank, debuted a reward token.

It also rolled out new art pieces and bought the rights to a BIG3 basketball league team.

Finally, DeLabs launched y00ts, a follow-up project to DeGods.

The news

On Monday, Pokeee, a pseudonymous NFT trader, spent almost $1 million to buy 69 DeGods NFTs.

He bought the NFTs via the Magic Eden marketplace with tools that allow buyers to “sweep the floor,” otherwise known as buying specific amounts of NFTs from a project.

Traders typically purchase amounts of low-priced NFTs in a project as an investment, especially in the event of the collection becoming a future success.

Purchase buildup

On January 13, Pokeee promised to make the massive purchase if his tweet reached 1,000 likes .

He said he would buy 69 DeGods NFTs to support the project’s switch to Ethereum.

Three days later, he made the purchase for over $900,000.

Read also: Build Your Realm draws similarities to Game of Thrones’ final season

The marketplace

Previously, Magic Eden only allowed 50 NFTs to be purchased at a time with its bulk buying feature.

However, a prospective buyer prompted the marketplace to upgrade its functionality and enable the larger mass purchase.

The buyer urged the marketplace that the change was of “ultimate inconvenience.”

Pokeee

The massive DeGods buyer claims to own the Pokeee.eth Ethereum, holding three valuable Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, the titular Ethereum Name Service (ENS), and other NFT collectibles.

In addition, Magic Eden posted through its website, saying Pokeee claimed he runs a private crypto fund.

The NFT collector also confirmed he bought the NFTs to aid the move to Ethereum.

“My purpose of this investment is actually to have them bridged to ETH,” said Pokeee.

“Due to on-chain risks, I wasn’t able to deploy larger portions of my portfolio into Solana.”

“I was having fun in Solana on smaller NFTs and mints back then.”

Trading volume

According to CryptoSlam data, DeGods have garnered over $135 million worth of trading volume.

The NFT project’s total USD trading value beat projects like Solana Monkey Business and Degenerate Ape Academy, both of which were popular SOL had more value.

As a result, DeGods tops all SOL projects with 3.7 million SOL worth of trading.

The switch

In late December, DeLabs announced that the DeGods NFT project will be bridged to Ethereum’s mainnet.

Meanwhile, y00ts will head over to Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain.

DeLabs plans to complete the switches by the end of the current quarter.

In addition, they disclosed that they received a $3 million grant from Polygon Labs, allowing y00ts to switch over to Polygon.

DeLabs will put the funds into hiring efforts and later launch a crypto incubator as a means to support the NFT ecosystem.

References:

A Bored Ape whale just spent nearly $1 million on DeGods NFTs

Polygon paid y00ts NFT collection $3 million to leave Solana

DeFi landscape leads to loss in FTX restructuring

Madelyn Stewart Madelyn Stewart on January 24, 2023

Image source: ET BFSI

DeFi: DeFi, or Decentralized Finance, refers to a set of financial services and applications that are built on top of blockchain technology.

It operates independently of traditional financial intermediaries such as banks.

The goal of DeFi is to create a more open, transparent, and accessible financial system.

In the DeFi space, “restructuring and recovering funds” refers to the process of addressing issues or failures in decentralized finance protocols, and finding a solution to regain access to locked or lost funds.

This can happen due to a variety of reasons such as smart contract bugs, hacking, or mismanagement by the protocol’s development team.

A team in charge of restructuring FTX and Alameda Research recently ran into some problems.

The news

The restructuring team tasked with locating and recovering customer funds in the FTX and Alameda Research bankruptcy process are going through some trouble.

The team navigated the DeFi space to move funds into the Alameda multi-sig wallet.

According to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham Intelligence, the team lost 4 Aave Wrapped BTC worth over $72,000 while trying to move funds to an Alameda multi-sig wallet.

The head of Arkham operations Zachary lerangis said it would be better to bring in an expert.

“The liquidators would benefit from having a DeFi expert to advise on the mechanics of closing Alameda DeFi positions and retrieving as much money as possible,” said Lerangis.

What happened

Aave is a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain, which allows users to lend and borrow a variety of cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum and stablecoins.

Users can lend their assets to the protocol and earn interest on them, while other users can borrow assets from the protocol and pay interest on them.

Aave uses a unique lending model called “flash loans” which allows users to borrow funds for a single transaction, and then immediately repay the loan, making it useful for high-frequency trading and other short-term strategies. 

It also requires loans to be overcollateralized.

Once the loans are repaid, borrowers can unlock their collateral.

However, Alameda liquidators were unaware of the system.

The Arkham team wrote a report, saying:

“Rather than paying back the debt to close out the position, the liquidators opted to remove the extra collateral, putting the position in danger of liquidation.”

“This resulted in the liquidation of around 4 WBTC, $72K at current prices.”

The team also went through nine attempts to move $1.75 million worth of Lido (LDO) tokens that were still vesting.

Read also: FTX recoups frozen funds, but not all of it

Wallets

Arkham reports that there is another Alameda wallet which sent $0.60 worth of DAI stablecoin and $0.02 COLLAR token to the multi-sig.

However, the wallet still has $1.5 million worth of funds waiting to be moved.

According to Arkham, the identified wallets have at least $25 million worth of Alameda funds in the DeFi protocols, including $6 million USDC – the stablecoin from Circle.

The funds are also being used to secure a $2 million NEAR loan on the Bastion Protocol.

In addition, there are funds retained on other chains.

One Alameda wallet has a $300 balance remaining on Etherscan, while Aurora holds a larger $4.4 million worth of ETH.

The fallen kingdom

In November, the once prominent crypto exchange platform FTX collapsed.

Bank runs prompted the company to confess that it no longer held one-to-one reserves of customer assets, freezing platform movement, and filing for bankruptcy.

Since then, Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX and Alameda founder, has been arrested.

He is now charged with eight crimes in finances, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

According to authorities, FTX customer funds were being funneled to Alameda for various purposes, including trading and investments.

As a result, the company lost billions of dollars.

Other notes

This week, the FTX restructuring team managed to locate $5 billion worth of assets.

FTX’s new CEO John Ray III admitted at the start of the bankruptcy process that liquidators were unaware of how much money it had or how they could access it.

After the bankruptcy protection in November, suspicious transactions persisted.

ZachXBT found Alameda wallets swapping obscure tokens for Bitcoin and Ethereum via mixers, which obscured transactions.

Reference:

FTX liquidators lost $74K in wrapped Bitcoin in ‘embarrassing on-chain faux pas’

Build Your Realm draws similarities to Game of Thrones’ final season

Larry Jansen Larry Jansen on January 24, 2023

Image source: The Crypto Times

Build Your Realm: Game of Thrones is a highly-popular fantasy television series that first premiered on HBO in 2011.

Based on the series of novels “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R.R. Martin, the show quickly gained a massive following for its complex storylines, dynamic characters, and shocking plot twists.

The show has won multiple awards, including numerous Primetime Emmy Awards, and has become one of television’s most watched and critically acclaimed series.

The show’s popularity has extended beyond the small screen, with its influence being felt in popular culture, merchandise, and even tourism.

It was only a matter of time before Game of Thrones entered the NFT world.

Game of Thrones NFTs

The famous HBO adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s novels received its official NFT collection: “Build Your Realm.”

The anticipation led to the collection selling out seven hours after its release on Nifty’s NFT marketplace.

However, the quality of the NFT collection’s art drew similarities to the show’s final season, and many were disappointed.

Build Your Realm

The first series of the Build Your Realm collection was first announced in December.

It is a collaboration between Nifty’s and Daz 3D, a digital production company that produces NFTs.

Each token is minted on the Palm blockchain and features elements from the land of Westeros.

It allows collectors to create their own avatars and build a unique realm to their liking.

The NFTs were distributed through a presale of 3,450 Hero Boxes before a public sale came four hours later, offering 1,500 Hero Boxes.

The Hero Box costs $150 or 0.11 ETH, and they have one Hero Avatar, three Story Cards, and nine Resource Cards.

Controversy

While highly anticipated, the Build Your Realm NFT launch was riddled with controversies.

Two of the most frequently raised issues are minting problems and poor avatar designs.

On Wednesday, Nifty’s announced it was hitting the brakes on the queue, citing congestion.

“We’ve paused the queue temporarily to work through current transactions,” they tweeted.

“Processed payments that did not result in NFTs appearing in your wallet will be reversed or refunded.”

“If any Hero Boxes remain, we’ll resume the sale shortly.”

Read also: Niall Dailly to drop a unique music VR NFT experience

Complaints

Prospective buyers aired their frustrations on Twitter as the issue persisted.

One user said they waited one hour only to be told to wait a further two and a half hours before they could mint.

Meanwhile, another was able to get hold of their NFT.

However, once they had it, the floor price dropped, the lowest price for NFTs in the collection that could be bought.

Although minting and delivery issues are common when a project launches, the most vocal criticism boiled down to the avatars.

The Build Your Realm avatars’ visual look was slammed, emphasizing how the hands were designed.

Bryan Brinkman posted two avatars, describing the design as “looking like salad fingers.”

“This Game of Thrones NFT collection is just like the last season of the show: no creative vision and terrible,” said Justin Taylor.

Loopify, the co-founder of Web3 game project Treeverse, described the collection as the worst thing he’s ever seen, alluding to his avatar’s hand.

Room for growth

While the Build Your Realm criticism may come off as harsh, it could lead to improvements in the project.

Last year, the Web3 game project Pixelmon was hyped to be the next big thing.

With promises of a Pokemon experience, the artwork proved to be its initial downfall, with a founder saying the reveal was a mistake.

However, Pixelmon managed to launch a comeback.

The project overhauled its roadmap and brought in a new leadership team.

The Minecraft-like models were transformed into polished 3D creatures.

NFTs and mainstream

Build Your Realm is the latest proof of NFTs joining the mainstream.

In December, Donald Trump released his own collection of 44,000 NFTs, selling out within 24 hours.

However, the excitement quickly soured as the floor price of the NFTs plummeted.

In addition, the NFT market has seen improvements, with the following collections receiving double-digit increases:

  • Bored Ape Yacht Club
  • Bored Ape Kennel Club
  • Azuki
  • CryptoPunks

References:

Crypto Twitter reacts to official ‘Game of Thrones’ NFTs: ‘Worst thing I’ve ever seen’

NFT game Pixelmon attempts comeback after $70M ‘horrible’ art reveal

Why SaleBased is Bullish on Dubai

Anna Evans Anna Evans on January 24, 2023

Why is Salebased, the leading online business incubator, so bullish on Dubai? First, it’s a city that continues to amaze and inspire with its rapid progress in the right direction. From a small fishing village in the 1960s, Dubai has transformed into a modern metropolis that is now considered one of the most important business hubs in the world. 

They’re at the forefront of technological innovation, with a strong focus on smart city initiatives, artificial intelligence, and the “Internet of Things”. The city has invested heavily in advanced infrastructure, making it one of the most connected cities in the world. This focus on technology has also created new business opportunities, making Dubai a hub for online business startups.

The city’s economy is one of the most dynamic and diversified in the world. With a rapidly growing real estate, tourism, and finance sector. The government’s pro-business policies and strategic investments have helped make Dubai a global business hub, attracting companies and entrepreneurs from around the world.

A melting pot of cultures, with a diverse population of expats from all over the world. This diversity has helped to create a vibrant and multicultural city, with a wide range of cuisines, festivals, and events that reflect its diverse population. With its excellent infrastructure, world-class healthcare, and high standard of living, Dubai is a city that offers a high quality of life. The city’s commitment to sustainability, safety, and security also make it a great place to live and raise a family.

In conclusion, Dubai is a city that is constantly evolving and pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Its focus on innovation and technology, economic growth, tourism, cultural diversity, and quality of life make it a city of the future, and a place that will continue to attract people from all over the world. SaleBased is well connected to Dubai and is in the process of expanding into the region.