YouTube's new CEO actually gets NFTs

Blur debuts token, Opensea drops fees, Moonbirds cancels NFT conference,..

Feb 21, 2023

Hi Fellaz,

Last week, I failed to report the newest hype: Bitcoin Ordinals. The introduction of the Ordinals Protocol, which enables the development of Bitcoin-based NFTs, has coincided with significant activity and transaction size changes. Since its launch, over 100K ordinals minted on Bitcoin, and someone even forked Bitcoin ordinals NFTs onto Litecoin network. Worth a deep dive if you haven’t already!

In the meanwhile, here are some interesting articles from last week. Food for thought!

This Friday, NFT Paris will take place! As always, I’ve started a party schedule that contains over 30+ side events, a telegram group for onsite updates, and a travel guide for the convention. Feel free to reach out if you’re planning to attend and want to get some drinks 😀 🍻

— 🩸💀 AMERICAN RADASS

YouTube's new CEO actually gets NFTs

Neal Mohan @nealmohan

Thank you, @SusanWojcicki. It's been amazing to work with you over the years. You've built YouTube into an extraordinary home for creators and viewers. I'm excited to continue this awesome and important mission. Looking forward to what lies ahead...

Susan Wojcicki @SusanWojcicki

Today, after nearly 25 years at @Google, I’m stepping back to start a new chapter. I'm inspired every day by creators around the world who bring people together on @YouTube. It's been an honor to have a front row seat to this incredible community. https://t.co/063sYalPzX

Crypto fans have another reason to be hopeful of Web2 giants going Web3: YouTube has a new chief executive officer who once floated integrating NFTsinto the video sharing platform.

Susan Wojcicki, YouTube’s long-serving CEO and one of its earliest employees, stepped down last week, ending her 25-year-long stint at the Google subsidiary.

She has been replaced by Indian-American tech executive Neal Mohan, who joined Google in 2008 and became a senior executive in the company’s display and video advertising business.

Mohan, an engineering graduate from Stanford University, was appointed chief product officer at YouTube in 2015. He was instrumental in building some of the platform’s biggest projects including YouTube TV, YouTube Music and Premium.

During his long tenure shaping YouTube’s offerings, Mohan has kept an open mind about the evolution of the internet and its assorted platforms. Last year, he disclosed in a blog post that YouTube was looking at ways it could possibly integrate Web3 technology, whether by “making YouTube more immersive” by leveraging the metaverse or tapping technology like NFTs, unique digital tokens that are often used to assert ownership of online content.

Blur debuts token while Opensea drops fees

Blur @blur_io

IT'S TIME FOR $BLUR Care Packages can be opened on Feb 14 at 12PM EST, 1AM HKG, 6PM CET. Make sure the launch announcement comes from our official @blur_io account tomorrow and double check all URLs before claiming.

Blur's native token is finally live, marking a long-awaited milestone for the NFT marketplace that may be primed to go head-to-head with market leader OpenSea.

"It's time for $Blur," the company posted to Twitter on Monday, advising people to "double check" they are following Blur's official account when claiming tokens, a warning almost certainly meant to help prevent holders from being scammed.

Tuesday's token drop comes on the heels of revelations that Blur raised enough money to achieve the much-coveted unicorn status, meaning a valuation north of $1 billion. The trading activity has kept hitting record levels, even after finishing its crypto airdrop.

This resulted in the largest NFT Marketplace, OpenSea, dropping its fees, citing a shift in the NFT ecosystem (here is why! + some memes). Shortly after Blur made its case for creators to list on its platform rather than OpenSea, it tweeted that it had started “started to see meaningful volume and users move to NFT marketplaces that don’t fully enforce creator earnings.”

This while NFT marketplace Magic Eden axed roughly 15% of its staff as part of its company-wide restructuring efforts this year, and Ebay’s NFT platform KnownOrigin published a lot of new vacancies, including a head of community, a content designer, a tech lead, and crypto counsel.

Moonbirds creator cancels NFT conference over low interest

KΞVIN R◎SE (🪹,🦉) @kevinrose

We made a tough decision today, I want to apologize to everyone that planned on making the trip out. Full ETH refunds have been processed, hotels are refundable, and contact us about flights. 🙏 (details below)

PROOF of Conference @PROOF_CONF

We've made the difficult decision to cancel PROOF of Conference this year. We didn’t take this decision lightly, nor did we make it quickly. We have spent considerable time pouring over all the alternatives, but ultimately canceling the conference this year was the best choice.

Moonbirds NFT collection creator Kevin Rose has confirmed the cancellation of the “PROOF of Conference” event scheduled for May over low interest from participants.

PROOF of Conference is the flagship event organized by Moonbird for holders of the PROOF NFT collection. The NFT event was scheduled to be held between May 11 and May 13 in Los Angeles.

However, due to recent market downturns and declining interest in NFT events, the team has decided to cancel the PROOF of Conference.

📰 OTHER NEWS FROM THE PAST WEEKS

The EU is working hard to push through tough capital rules for banks that hold crypto assets, as the global Basel Committee of banking regulators has set a January 2025 deadline. The rules are for capital requirements for banks exposed to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
The gaming streamer who won the top prize in Yuga Labs' debut game Dookey Dash has put the NFT up for sale on OpenSea for 2,222 ETH, or about $3.7 million.
Global leading crypto exchange Binance allegedly moved $400 million to a private company linked to Changpeng Zhao, Binance CEO. The shocking news was sourced from the reputable publication Reuters.
FTX Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, will resume crypto and fiat withdrawals from Feb. 21.
NFT marketplace Magic Eden inked a partnership with Web3 payment platform MoonPay to add payment alternatives to its platform, according to Fintech Finance.
Blur is allegedly taking your data and building highly invasive profiles that include your job history, browser history, psych profiles, and more.
Reddit’s MOON token is growing in value and becoming more popular. A single MOON is now worth more than 100 fiat currencies.
Yuga Labs Co-Founder, Greg Solano, announced that Bored Ape Kennel Club would change its logo following copyright allegations against the company related to images from Easy Drawing Guides, a learn-to-draw company.
Norwegian Police authority disclosed that it has seized up to 60 million krone (worth roughly US$5.9 million) of assets stolen from the Axie Infinity hack.
Helium Network migration to Solana now has a proposed date as it is set to happen on March 27.
Alexey Pertsev, the developer of Tornado Cash , an open-source crypto-mixing protocol, will continue to be detained until his next hearing on April 21, according to a ruling by a Dutch court.

✨ NEW IN THE SPACE

VeeFriends, the popular NFT project founded by serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, has announced the release of a new platform called "Burn Island."
Degen Toonz has announced a partnership with Xiaohongshu “Little Red Book”, one of China’s leading lifestyle platforms (over 200 million active monthly users).
X2Y2 is introducing NFT Loan Refinances
A California regulator has launched a crypto scam tracker based on complaints from consumers and investors.
Yield Guild Games (YGG), a top web3 gaming guild, is entering the venture capital space, raising $75 million for its first fund.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) received 22 NFT donations this week. The digital works were curated by an anonymous NFT collector who goes by the alias Cozomo de’ Medici.
The NFT marketplace VeVe is now partnering with the Italian company Lamborghini in order to release a new NFT car collection.
Superplastic has announced that Amazon's Alexa Fund is the leading contributor in its recent Series A-4 funding round of $20 million USD.

💀 RUG PULLS

The Ethereum Denver conference website was duplicated by cybercriminals, who used it to start a phishing scheme that culminated in the theft of almost $300,000 worth of Ethereum. NFT Paris reported a similar warning on their socials.
Galois Capital – a cryptocurrency hedge fund based in San Francisco – reportedly shut down as a consequence of the collapse of FTX.
Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of WallStreetBets, filed a complaint against Reddit this week, saying that the platform violated his trademark rights by removing him as a moderator in 2020 (for monetizing the community).
Last week, in advance of Rihanna’s hotly anticipated Super Bowl halftime show, an NFT collection featuring royalty rights from her 2014 song “Bitch Better Have My Money” was taken down and delisted from OpenSea.
Former NBA player Paul Pierce agreed to pay $1.409 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as penalties for his undisclosed promotion of the unregistered securities token EthereumMax.
Gilbert Armenta – the former boyfriend of Ruja Ignatova (more famous as the “Cryptoqueen”) – will reportedly spend five years in jail for participating in the fraudulent cryptocurrency project OneCoin.

😂 LAUGH OUT LOUD

Jeremiah @JeremiahThinks

🤓 DISCLAIMER: NFA & DYOR

This newsletter is a curated overview of the most exciting 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.

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