Alpha Schedule #16 - Kanye West's Yeezus Jumps Into NFTs
Hi Fellaz,
It's the first time in a long time that I didn't send out the newsletter on a Friday. Oops!
The reason behind this is that I'm currently discovering Amsterdam and attending the SNEAKERNESS event.
As always: I've listed the most interesting articles in this email, and I've been 100% focused on updating the NFT NYC party schedule. My flights are booked, and I can't wait to see you there!
In the meantime: Please share the newsletter with your friends, and make sure to enjoy your weekend!!
— 🩸💀 AMERICAN RADASS
KANYE WEST'S YEEZUS JUMPS INTO NFTS
Kanye West's Yeezus brand has filed for 17 trademark applications indicating a possible move into the NFT space.
The applications, dated May 27, come months after West criticized non-fungible tokens in a now-deleted Instagram post in February.
The applications, accessible through the US Patent and Trademark Office, mention "blockchain-based non-fungible collectibles, assets, currencies and tokens" and "online retail store services featuring downloadable movies, videos, television, music, entertainment, digital art."
FORMER OPENSEA EMPLOYEE CHARGED FOR NFT INSIDER TRADING
The US Justice Department charged Nathaniel Chastain, a former product manager at OpenSea, with wire fraud and money laundering.
He was accused of secretly buying 45 NFTs based on confidential information about what NFT projects would be featured on the platform to make a considerable profit. The official release stated this case was the first-ever digital asset insider trading scheme.
COINBASE IS RETRACTING JOB OFFERS
Thanks to several tweets, we learned that Coinbase un-hired most of their new recruits and is suspending further job offers for the foreseeable future to navigate the bear market conditions better and emerge stronger.
The company informed the cancellation by sending an e-mail to the new hires, signed by Coinbase's Chief People Officer, L.J. brock. The e-mail stated that the company changed its hiring plans due to rapidly changing market conditions and that the recipient will no longer be starting their new position at Coinbase.
SOLANA SUFFERS
The Solana network is not having a good year, having suffered full or partial outages at least seven separate times over the past 12 months.
A bug has knocked the Solana blockchain offline again as block production halted at 16:55 UTC on Wednesday. This latest outage lasted around four and a half hours as validator operators managed to restart the mainnet at around 21:00 UTC, according to the incident report.
📰 OTHER NEWS FROM THE PAST WEEK
Mark Bozon, who spent 12 years at Apple in creative and gaming executive roles, has been hired by Disney in a senior post to help oversee the company’s push into the metaverse.
Binance announced that it is the official sponsor of The Weeknd’s “After hours Til Dawn” tour, marking one of the first instances of a prominent crypto firm funding a popular performing artist.
Someone fat-fingered their BYAC, which then sold for 10 ETH. The buyer sold the ape for 71 wETH in the same transaction, but 'only' walked away with 20 ETH after everything - Here is how he did it.
Sky Mavis, the company behind Axie Infinity, included 12 new projects in its Builders Program, which focuses on building new gaming experiences to help increase the number of users.
Crypto platform Gemini has cut approximately 10% of its workforce, due to “turbulent market conditions that are likely to persist for some time.”
Unstoppable Domains is running a giveaway in collaboration with Abu Dhabi firms to ensure each woman residing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital receives a domain name.
New venture capital firm Canonical Crypto has officially launched its inaugural $20 million fund, joining a series of crypto funds raised in recent weeks. Backers include Marc Andreessen (a16z) and Dan Romero (ex coinbase, now Farcaster)
✨ NEW IN THE SPACE
Renowned luxury brand Prada expanded its presence in Web3 with the launch of an NFT Collection. It will correspond to the series of physical shirts that have been on sale since December 2019.
A seven-story building in Manhattan's Flatiron District has been listed for sale as an NFT on OpenSea. After purchasing the NFT, you'll still have to go through the title & deed process.
Gambling website Rollbit has purchased 12 Bored Apes for a total cost of 1305.9Eth (~$2,572,623) to give away as prizes for hitting the jackpot on their site.
HOW YOU DOIN' NFTNYC?
I booked my flights and will be wandering around New York from 17 to 27 June! In order to make the most of this, I started a google document to track interesting NFT community events and parties. It currently contains double the events since last week, so feel free to bookmark it!
Our dedicated NFT NYC Telegram group already contains over 100 members as well. Makes us bullish for meeting everyone in our community!
🔮 LOOKING FORWARD
We normally highlight upcoming mints, but honestly? I haven’t seen a project I wanted to highlight for this week … so let’s look ahead to the next few weeks.
It’s no financial advice, but you might want to start doing your research and grinding for these allowlists before it’s too late.
📖 LEARN HOW TO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH
This week, I've stumbled upon two Twitter threads that I 100% agreed upon, and couldn't have worded any better.
😂 LAUGH OUT LOUD
On Friday, we challenged our 0xcareers community to post their best WEB3 memes. Some of them got me actually laughing out loud - enjoy!
🤓 DISCLAIMER: NFA & DYOR
This newsletter is a curated overview of the most interesting things I’ve read the past week, the projects I’ve researched, and the NFTs I’ll be trying to buy.
This means I’m - per definition - biased, so don’t consider this as financial advice and keep doing your own research if you see something you like.