This week the crypto and web3 spaces are celebrating a slight uptick in prices. It’s actually quite funny to see everybody celebrating Bitcoin touching the $24,000 levels after last year’s craze around $60,000 and predictions of the price going as high as $100,000 by the end of last year.
Still, the markets seem to be recovering slowly, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are seeing trading volume going up as well. Some NFTs like Tubby Cats have seen their sales increase as much as 27,816.93% over the past 24 hours.
And just a reminder: none of this is financial advice.
This startup wants to fight NFT fraud with AI, raises $11 million to do that
NFT authentication platform Optic, founded by a former director of product at Google, announced it closed an $11 million seed funding round (pretty cool, right?).
The round is led by Pantera Capital and Kleiner Perkins and includes investors like Circle, Polygon, OpenSea, Greylock Partners, Lattice Capital, and others.
Optic is building an AI-based NFT content recognition platform by processing NFTs and assessing their authenticity by matching the existing collections. It also plans to provide tools for NFT collectors and creators.
“Without Optic, there is no real ‘NF’ in NFT,” Doronichev said Optic’s co-founder Doroniched.
How it feels trying to launch a NFT project in summer of 2022 pic.twitter.com/YWowaQ2a6k
— Alan Carroll (@alancarroII) July 21, 2022
Does it mean there will be less NFT fraud in the space? I sure hope so.
Someone paid $2.5 million for a bottle of champagne. It had a Bored Ape NFT image on it
Cryptocurrency investors Giovanni and Piero Buono bought the world’s most expensive bottle of champagne, which features popular NFTs’ artwork, for $2.5 million in a private event.
The artwork included a Bored Ape, Mutant Ape, and a Sneaky Vampire. Giovanni, the buyer, said he’s not planning to sell the bottle, calling it “a good investment.”
“There is a lot of turmoil in the investment world, things are changing geopolitically very quickly. Wealthy people will look for places to store their wealth for a while—and that could be a champagne with an NFT attached to it.”
The creator of the artwork featured on the bottle, Shammi Shinh, calls it “a masterpiece.” (I mean, why wouldn’t he?)
“NFTs are the new diamonds. This 1 of 1 bottle features art from NFT collections that have over a billion dollars in sales. Encrusted with diamond-cut Swarovski crystals with pure pewter embedded in the design, I wanted to create something timeless for the modern investor, nothing less of a masterpiece,” said Shinh.
I have to admit, if I had $2.5 million just lying around, I… wouldn’t invest it in a bottle of champagne, even if Andy Warhol painted it himself.
Cadbury Gems launches NFTs to help children get education
Cadbury Gems, a candy company, aims to make a difference through their collection of NFTs. How? The Junior NFT campaign, launched by the company, will feature children’s artwork converted into NFTs (through a third-party protocol).
This is Cadbury Gems’ first step into the web3 world. The company partnered with Save The Children initiative and pledged to donate the proceeds from the NFT collection sales.
Save The Children India is a non-profit organization that helps children in India get access to education.
How to participate?
Parents can upload their children’s artwork (or rather, a photo of it) through Gem’s official website. The only condition is that the artwork should be done with Cadbury Gems. The NFTs, by the way, could be bought with fiat money.
Personally, I’m happy and grateful to every platform that makes steps (doesn’t matter how small) to make a difference. I wish there were more companies like that.
You definitely want to read it
NFT and Islamic education: A new frontier to teach religion? via Cointelegraph
NFT Influencers Who Disappeared In The Bear Market via NFT Evening
A New Alternative to Discord is Emerging in Web3 Called gm via Medium
