Metaverse

In 2000, almost $8 trillion of wealth vaporized when the dot-com bubble burst. It was a tough year for Wall Street, venture capitalists, and average retail investors. Why? The pundit parade did its best to explain the crash, but markets are complex systems (which makes them computationally unpredictable). So, in the end, the only thing we could be sure of was that $8 trillion had gone missing. What did we learn? Continue Reading →

This past week, I had the pleasure of spending time with several bankers, financial professionals, and business leaders. While everyone agreed that it's too early to make predictions about how the world of crypto, Web3, and DeFi are going to go, there was one common thread: to a banker, crypto looks like money. I'm not sure that's a good thing. Continue Reading →

Set to launch in early 2023, NFL Rivals will make you the General Manager of a fantasy NFL team as you compete against other GMs with their assembled player rosters and teams, building, leveling up and improving their lineup. In addition, you'll be able to own, collect, and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of your favorite players through this play-and-own game experience. Continue Reading →

It's the end of an era: New York City removed its last public payphone on Monday. The city began removing street payphones in 2015, replacing them with kiosks that offer free phone calls, Wi-Fi, and device charging. The boxy enclosures were once an iconic symbol across the city, but the rise of cellphones made the booths obsolete. Continue Reading →

I’m thrilled to announce the public beta launch of Metacademy: a free-to-use, risk-free, hands-on website that will teach you about blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs, smart contracts, Web3, and other associated technologies. You’ll learn about the world of Web3, decentralized finance (DeFi), the correct way to set up a crypto wallet, how to mint your own NFTs, and how to buy and sell them. Continue Reading →

Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, sold 55,000 virtual plots of land in its upcoming metaverse, Otherside, for about $5,800 each. While the transactions were done in ApeCoin, the NFTs were minted on Ethereum, where gas fees for each mint ranged from 2.6 to 5 ETH ($6,500-$14,000) at the time of the transactions. By the time the virtual land deeds sold out, buyers paid a total of about $123 million in gas fees to send Yuga Labs about $320 million. Ouch! Continue Reading →

Axie Infinity, the world's most popular play-to-earn game, can't catch a break. Two weeks ago, the company was hacked for $625 million, the largest hack in crypto history. Now, it looks like the game's economy is under extreme pressure. Continue Reading →

Two weeks after being hacked for $625 million (the largest hack in crypto history), the price of Axie Infinity (AXS) has fallen by nearly 30 percent. Despite a $150 million raise (led by Binance) to help Axie Infinity reimburse players whose ETH was stolen, the market for AXS appears bearish. Continue Reading →

Axie Infinity announced the global early access release of its free-to-play game Axie Infinity: Origin. The launch of the entry-level game comes a week after Axie's Ronin Network was hacked for $625 million, which was one of the largest crypto hacks ever. Continue Reading →

Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook) is thinking about creating its own virtual currency. Some reporters (and anonymous company sources) say it is unlikely to be a cryptocurrency. That seems naive. No matter how they create Zuck Bucks, if it has a value inside of the Zuckerverse, it will have a value outside of the Zuckerverse. Continue Reading →