Yuga Labs Appoints new CEO, Metamask Partners With PayPal, and Sam Bankman-Fried Behind Bars
In other news, Donald Trump’s NFT Collection Sold Out in One Day ... and so much more news!
Hi Fellaz,
You might have noticed, but it has been a while since we sent out our Alpha Schedule. This is because we traveled to Art Basel (Miami edition), but also because we had to change to another newsletter platform as Elon Musk decided to axe Revue.
On the other hand, this email now includes more memes, as we’ve been hoarding up on those!
Next to these memes, I stumbled upon a few very insightful Twitter post, which you should also want to read up on:
- Consider creating a digital persona to be the face of a brand.
- Did Betty DFZ tease a new NFT project?
- Why you should use Twitter Spaces as a content creator and Web3 participant.
— 🩸💀 AMERICAN RADASS
Yuga Labs Appoints Activision's Daniel Alegre as CEO
Activision Blizzard COO Daniel Alegre is leaving the gaming giant to take over as CEO of Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Yuga’s first and current CEO, Nicole Muniz, will remain a strategic advisor.
“Nicole, Greg, and I have been on the hunt for someone with Daniel’s skill set for some time,” said Yuga co-founder Wylie Aronow in a press release. The crypto company wanted to appoint a gaming veteran as CEO to help work on projects like Otherside, its metaverse gaming platform. As an executive who oversaw franchises like “Call of Duty,” “World of Warcraft” and “Candy Crush,” Alegre fits the bill.
Metamask Partners With PayPal
PayPal has partnered with the non-custodial wallet MetaMask to allow users to purchase cryptocurrencies via the MetaMask platform using their PayPal accounts.
Through this partnership, PayPal aims to make it easier for users to get started with cryptocurrencies. To this end, the company behind MetaMask, ConsenSys, has agreed to add an integration in its crypto wallet that will allow users to purchase cryptocurrencies in a straightforward way using their PayPal accounts.
Sam Bankman-Fried Behind Bars
Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday and is accused of misusing billions of dollars in customer money to prop up his Alameda Research crypto fund and influence US public policy.
The FTX founder faces two counts of wire fraud, two of wire fraud conspiracy, and one of the money-laundering charges, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, the DOJ said in a statement. He’s also charged with conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the US and commit campaign finance violations, each carrying a maximum five-year term.
Congress sets the statutory maximum terms, but a judge will ultimately determine the length of the sentence.
📰 OTHER NEWS FROM THE PAST WEEK
Despite his seemingly poor market timing, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s recently launched collection of digital “baseball cards” sold out within 24 hours of their release. Turns out he minted a thousand of his own nfts to his vault wallet, including rare 1/1’s.
The court denied the defendant's motion to dismiss and strike in Yuga Labs v. Ryder Ripps, except for Yuga's claim of unjust enrichment.
Over $8 billion has been withdrawn from Binance recently - The massive outflow was triggered at the start of the week, with Coinsdesk reporting a $902 million outflow within 24 hours.
Mike McCaffrey, the former CEO of crypto news publication The Block, has resigned after it was revealed that he was taking undisclosed loans of roughly $43 million USD from FTX.
Cool Cats had a change in their management team, as Elu stepped in the role of advisor and stepped back from the day-to-day brand and biz dev.
Jordan Castro, the founder of Doodles, has shared some updates and deadlines regarding their roadmap.
RTFKT, the creator-led studio that became a Nike subsidiary in December 2021, announced the release of Cryptokicks. However, the community was hugely disappointed as only U.S.-based folks will be able to actually make the purchase.
OnlyFans Model Vanessa Sierra Rugpulled her NFT Project and blamed the recent general crypto bear market.
Alexey Pertsev, the creator of Tornado Cash's crypto mixer, will be detained in a Dutch jail for another three months, Pertsev's wife Ksenia Malik confirmed.
More than 40 celebrities and companies are defendants in a lawsuit brought against Yuga Labs and Moonpay over their alleged use to misleadingly promote NFTs. Here is a breakdown of this 95-page doc lawsuit.
EU announced that new laws would restrict crypto purchases above 10k € and that there would be significant regulatory restrictions on digital assets transactions above 1000€.
NFT Project Nouns will donate 100 ETH ($123,000) to zachxbt to fund their investigative journalism.
STAXX has released 5 planets into the STAXX Galaxxy storyline through special editions.
✨ NEW IN THE SPACE
Luxury car manufacturer Porsche has become the latest brand to enter the Web3 space by launching its own NFT collection.
Leading cross-chain NFT platform, Magic Eden, announced the launch of its Magic Eden Rewards program that allows collectors to create their own profile across wallets enabling them to receive rewards directly on the platform.
The Tiny Digital Factory has teamed up with luxury sports car brand Aston Martin to launch a limited edition range of “digital diecast.”
The digital assets security firm Ledger announced the release of a new device called Ledger Stax
Starbucks has launched the beta test of its highly anticipated Odyssey experience, which integrates customer loyalty benefits with an NFT collection and other gamified aspects.
Tokenproof is rumored to collab with SaaSy to create a legally binding on-chain licensing solution for IP licensing.
💀 HOW TO RECOGNIZE A RUG PULL
A scammer stole 14 BAYCs worth over 852 ETH ($1.07 million) through a month-long social engineering scam.
The scammer contacted the victim and asked to license IP rights for BAYC #2060. They claimed to be a casting director working for "Forte Pictures" which is an LA based Emmy award winning company with offices at Sony Pictures Studio.
The alias "Jason Brubeck" is fake and does not exist, however, Forte Pictures and Marcus Mizelle are both real and legitimate. The scammers registered and build a website 118 days ago, so they could pose as the Emmy award-winning company and pretended they were creating an NFT-related film called "The Return of Time" in collaboration with "Unemployd".
After going through contracts and discussing the terms, they sent an email stating they "sent a bid" through Unemployd. The scammer told him to visit their website to "sign the contract" where the wallet drain took place.
😂 LAUGH OUT LOUD
🤓 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.