Losses in the NFT markets have exceed ether’s decline, which is down 9.6% on-month.

Some of the best-known “blue-chip” non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have seen their floor prices decline by more than 25% in the last month, according to Nansen.ai data.

NFTs are a special type of crypto asset that provide its holder ownership over a real or digital asset. The floor price in NFTs refers to the minimum price a seller wants for an item in a collection, serving as an indicator of a collection’s popularity and perceived value.

However this metric can be manipulated and does not always accurately represent the true market value of an NFT, with other factors like rarity traits and market conditions causing variations in prices.

On-chain data shows that the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection’s floor price has declined by 27% while DeGods is down by 55%. Azuki, which sold out its ‘Elementals’ NFT mint in 15 minutes in June, ranking in $38 million in the process, saw its floor prices drop by 36%.

Meanwhile, the Nansen NFT-500 index is down 40% year-to-date, while its Blue Chip 10 index is down 33%.

While ether prices usually dictate the value of NFTs, values have dropped faster than the currency they are usually denominated in. Ether is down 9.6% on-month, and is up 1.9% during the last year, according to CoinDesk Indices data.

However, it isn’t all bad news in the NFT market. Some lesser-known collections have seen gains.

The floor price of Miladays has risen by 66%, approaching Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Nansen explained in a tweet thread, while Sproto Gremlins, which has a following amongst bitcoin HODLers, has surged 262% over 30 days.

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63.5% of respondents said they are positive on the outlook of crypto for the next year and 88% said they are optimistic for the next decade, according to a recent survey by the exchange.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by market value, said its institutional clients are optimistic on the outlook of crypto for the next year and beyond, according to a survey it conducted between March and May 2023.

The study, conducted by Binance Research and Binance VIP & Institutional team, surveyed 208 of their clients from March 31 to May 15. More than half the respondents, 52%, had crypto assets under management (AUM) of less than $25 million and 22.6% had AUM larger than $100 million.

63.5% of respondents said they are positive on the outlook of crypto for the next year and 88% said they are optimistic for the next decade, according to the report.

The survey also found that despite negative market events in the past year, respondents maintained their crypto allocations. 47% of institutional investors kept their crypto allocations over the past year and more than a third increased their allocation. Just 4.3% said they expect to reduce allocation to crypto in the next 12 months.

Institutional clients appeared positive in Binance’s survey despite the regulatory crackdown against Binance and Coinbase from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month and a continued bear market that started last year.

In terms of areas of interest for investing, 54% of investors saw infrastructure to be the most important, closely followed by layer 1 and layer 2 projects with 48% and 44%, respectively.

Web3 infrastructure has been an investor darling from the beginning of this year following last year’s FTX implosion. The term – infrastructure – is used broadly and can range from inter-blockchain portals to on-chain wallets.

Most recently, blockchain infrastructure provider LayerZero Labs raised $120 million in a Series B funding round at a valuation of $3 billion, tripling its valuation from its $135 million round in March 2022.

On the flipside, NFTs, metaverse and gaming sectors were least important for the institutional investors, according to the survey.

NFTs and metaverse experienced a meteoric rise in popularity during the bull market of 2021, with eye-watering NFT sales like “Beeple’s Everydays: the First 5000 Days and Facebook rebranding to Meta to focus on the metaverse. Since then, the hype has dwindled due to an continued bear market that saw lower NFT trading volume and a stagnant growth for metaverse.

However, Apple’s most recent mixed reality headset brought some short-lived optimism back into the metaverse industry.

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An industry report is expected to outline best practices in areas like due diligence and risk management.

Singapore’s central bank and police authorities have been helping banks to set uniform standards for fine-tuning their vetting approach when opening crypto accounts, according to a Bloomberg report, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The project has been ongoing for about six months, the Bloomberg story said. A separate industry report expected to outline best practices in areas like due diligence and risk management, could be published in the next two months, the sources told Bloomberg. The report that focuses on firms that provide payment services would cover stablecoins, NFTs, and gaming credits.

Singapore’s Central Bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

The MAS told Bloomberg that there are no rules stopping banks operating in the country from doing business with firms handling cryptocurrencies or other forms of digital assets. According to the sources cited by Bloomberg, “even with such guidelines, the banks will decide whether to accept these clients based on their risk appetites.

In the past few week, U.S. authorities have been cracking down on banks that served crypto customers to cut the cryptocurrency industry off from banking services. The collapse of crypto-friendly banks Signature Bank (SBNY), Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), and Silvergate Bank (SI) has lead to crypto companies scrambling to find banking partners and jurisdictions to conduct businesses. In the past, similar “shadow ban” steps have been taken by other jurisdictions, like India.

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SUDO holders can vote on on-chain governance proposals, and the tokens are initially non-transferrable.

Popular non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Sudoswap on Monday issued and airdropped its sudo tokens to users based on predetermined criteria.

Airdrops are the unsolicited distribution of a cryptocurrency token or coin, usually for free, to numerous wallet addresses and are generally used as a tactic to gain users. SudoSwap allows users to instantly swap their NFTs for other tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. It locks over $3.7 million worth of token value as of Tuesday, per DeFiLlama.

Eligible for the airdrop were early liquidity providers on SudoSwap as well as holders of 0xmon NFTs, an NFT collection created by SudoSwap’s founding team. Furthermore, xmon (XMON), is Ethereum-based utility token 0xmons project, can lock up their tokens on SudoSwap to receive sudo tokens after one month.

Some users received over $100,000 worth of the tokens at the time of the airdrop, as per The Block director of research Steven Zheng who compared the valuation to Looks, another NFT project, and based the token values on the 60 million initial sudo supply.

The sudo tokens are initially non-transferable but can be used to vote on governance decisions to determine SudoSwap’s future development and ecosystem strategies, developers said.

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The phishing scam, where people were defrauded out of millions of dollars worth of NFTs, was brought to light in August.

Five people connected to the phishing scam involving the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection were indicted in Paris on Wednesday, months after the scam was undercover by prominent crypto sleuth ZachXBT.

Christophe Durand, the deputy head of the French National Cyber Unit, told the AFP that the investigation had started “at the end of 2021.”

The police suspect the five individuals of having formed a network that fraudulently advertised a service that would produce an animated version of any users’ BAYC non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The individuals operated out of BAYC’s official Discord channel, which lent a blanket of authenticity to their purported services.

The phishing scam required interested users to click on a link to generate an animation. But instead of animated apes, the users found the service stole their NFTs, digital assets on a blockchain that represent ownership of virtual or physical items, with the scammers managing to steal over $2.5 million in total.

ZachXBT first uncovered the crime in an August post titled “Scammers in Paris.” An online trail of the crypto funds movement at the time eventually led to the unmasking of the scammers Mathys and Camille, who the Paris police now consider central to the operation.

The duo mainly targeted BAYC collections, but also seemed to have phished holders of Azuki and Doodles, two other popular NFT collections.

Meanwhile, the Paris police said the five individuals were born between 1998 and 2003 and lived in Paris, Caen and Tours. The parents of one of them were also initially indicted but later released without prosecution.

Among the five, two are suspected of having made the site and the marketing, and three others are said to have done the advertising and the money laundering operations.

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The bankrupt crypto hedge fund once aimed for a $100M NFT collection, which now may be worth less than $1M.

Starry Night Capital, a fund backed by bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, had its non-fungible tokens (NFT) moved to smart contract wallet Gnosis Safe, according to Nansen.ai.

Starry Night was set up by the doomed Singapore-based firm in August 2021 to act as an investment arm for digital collectibles following the early NFT boom. The fund partnered with well-known NFT collector Vincent Van Dough to assemble “the world’s finest collection of CryptoArt,” according to its now-defunct Twitter account. The fund’s website has also since been pulled.

CoinDesk reported last year that Three Arrows’ NFT wallets initially swooped up assets from popular collections like CryptoPunks and invested in multimillion-dollar artworks from artists including Dmitri Cherniak, with the goal of raising $100 million. In addition, the firm planned to launch an NFT educational portal and physical gallery.

Ultimately, Starry Night Capital moved its entire collection of 70 works onto NFT marketplace SuperRare, according to CoinMetrics researcher Kyle Waters, ahead of its June 2022 liquidation order. At the time, it was estimated to have spent more than $21 million building the collection.

According to Nansen.ai, NFTs previously collected by Starry Night have since been moved to a Gnosis Safe address, including a Pepe the Frog NFT Genesis, which sold in October 2021 for about $3.5 million; a Fidenza, which sold for about $1.1 million in November 2021; and several CryptoArt NFTs by XCOPY that sold at multiple points last year for around $5.5 million, among others.

The shifting of these assets into a Gnosis Safe is significant, given that the smart contract digital asset management platform requires multiple signatures to move assets – meaning, multiple team members need to approve each transaction in order for it to be executed. This method is helpful for companies that may have multiple owners of a digital portfolio and prevents any single party from running off with the funds inside.

As noted by CoinDesk’s Sam Reynolds, it’s difficult to value all of the NFTs in the Starry Night safe because different valuation tools use different metrics in their estimations. According to Nansen.ai, the portfolio of NFTs is worth about 625 ether (ETH), or about $846,431. In addition, it notes that about 89% of the NFTs in the collection have low liquidity, which it measures as less than 35 sales in the last seven days.

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Prime Minister Fumio Kishida continued calls for Web3 technology integration.

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a policy speech on Monday that the country’s plans for investing in digital transformation include non-fungible tokens (NFT) and metaverse services.

The country has steadily been promoting investment in digital technology, including through tax incentives for companies that embrace a digital future. In his speech to Japan’s parliament, Kishida said the country will continue to focus on “supporting the social implementation of digital technology” and will “promote efforts to expand the use of Web3 services that utilize the metaverse and NFTs.”

Japan’s federal foray into Web3 follows a trend of officials taking strides to implement Web3-related services in the country – rather than following the typical bureaucratic route that policies must often travel through. Kishida’s administration recently established a Web3 policy office under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), which is focused on creating policies for the country’s gradual blockchain expansion.

In April, a task force launched by Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party and led by politician Akihisa Shiozaki released an “NFT White Paper,” which called Web3 the “the new frontier of the digital economy” and outlined plans to advance the national strategy on Web3.

METI is also reportedly looking into a proposal to offer tax exemptions to Japanese crypto companies in order to entice them to keep their business in the country and further fuel the nation’s growing Web3 industry.

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The company is seeking legal counsel to help it navigate crypto, NFT and DeFi regulations as it expands its Web3 strategy.

The Walt Disney Company posted a job listing on Friday for a principal counsel specializing in non-fungible tokens (NFT) and decentralized finance (DeFi), hinting at its broader Web3 expansion across the Disney ecosystem.

The full-time position, which operates within the legal department of the Walt Disney Company, calls for an experienced corporate attorney to “work on transactions involving emerging technologies, including NFTs, blockchain, metaverse and decentralized finance.” The position would provide guidance on “global NFT products” across the company’s business branches, including Disney Media and Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, and ensure compliance with U.S. and international laws and regulations. Specifically, the position would “evaluate securities law issues in connection with the promotion and sale of NFTs.”

The listing also mentions vetting NFT projects, blockchain networks, third-party marketplaces and cloud providers, as well as providing legal guidance on digital currency and blockchain technology. The hire would collaborate with other legal and business teams, including product, engineering, tech and IP, and would “partner with business teams as they plan new global emerging technology projects, typically on an accelerated and aggressive timeline.”

Disney has in recent months accelerated its hiring of Web3-focused executives to integrate crypto elements into its many business branches. In February, it appointed media and tech strategist Mike White as senior vice president of next-generation storytelling and consumer experiences to lead its metaverse strategy. In a memo to staff obtained by Variety, CEO Bob Chapek wrote that White would be responsible for blending experiences in the “physical and digital worlds,” and called the metaverse “the next great storytelling frontier.”

On an earnings call around the same time, Chapek outlined the next five years for the company, saying that Disney considered its Web3 ambitions to be “less of a passive type experience where you just have playback” and “more of an interactive lean forward, actively engaged type of experience.”

In June, the company brought on former Apple gaming executive Mark Bozon as its vice president of next-generation storytelling, with Variety reporting that he would be responsible for executing plans across business areas like “gaming, film, TV, toys, parks and more.” Disney was quoted as saying that its metaverse strategy would span digital, physical and virtual experiences.

In July, Disney announced that its Accelerator program would be focused this year on “building the future of immersive experiences” including augmented reality, NFTs and artificial intelligence characters. Companies added to the Accelerator program this year include layer 2 blockchain network Polygon, Web3 social app FlickPlay, storytelling platform Lockerverse and more.

The pattern throughout is language stressing a merge of in-person and digital experiences, with blockchain at its core. The company has already begun toying around in Web3 by releasing NFTs, forming a long-term partnership with digital collectibles marketplace VeVe to offer a collection of “Golden Moments” featuring iconic characters across its Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and classic Disney brands.

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A leaked draft of the text, reviewed by CoinDesk, shows the rules could apply to fractionalized NFTs.

The European Union has finalized the full text of its landmark Markets in Crypto Assets legislation. Officially, the text is still open to comments, but sources briefed on the talks have told CoinDesk that it is, in practice, finalized.

A leaked draft of the bill dated Sept. 20 and verified by CoinDesk urges EU enforcers to take a “substance over form” approach to the law, meaning its provisions could even apply to some assets categorized as NFTs.

In principle, NFTs are excluded from the framework, which requires issuers of crypto assets to publish white papers containing technical roadmaps, for platforms to register with the authorities, and requires stablecoin issuers to hold capital and be prudently managed.

NFTs are typically designed to have a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, interchanged or subdivided, but the rise of fractionalized assets – where a set of fungible tokens are issued to represent one NFT – have been drawing some attention from regulators as they could resemble traditional securities.

While the leaked draft – thrashed out in a series of technical meetings following a June 30 deal – shows MiCA doesn’t apply to NFTs that are genuinely unique and incapable of being traded with each other, “the issuance of crypto-assets as non-fungible tokens in a large series or collection should be considered as an indicator of their fungibility,” the [final] compromise text says in a Recital, even if the issuer gave it a unique identifier.

A Recital is a text which introduces an EU law and sets out its motivation. Though not – unlike the substantive articles of the regulation – legally binding, a recital can be used by supervisors and courts when interpreting the scope of the legislation.

The details of the provision have caused concern within the industry. The exact drafting used could determine whether in practice the regulation covers the bulk of the NFT market – such as similar, but distinct Bored Apes, implying issuers and trading platforms would be caught by its strictures.

When considering whether to regulate a particular asset, national and EU regulators “should adopt a substance over form approach under which the features of the asset in question should determine the qualification, not its designation by the users,” the text added.

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The entrepreneur, Nick Swinmurn’s foray into NFTs includes Gremlin-style collectibles that let owners predict outcomes in all the major sports leagues.

Golden State Warriors co-owner and online retailer Zappos’ founder, Nick Swinmurn, is entering the non-fungible token (NFT) game with Play Hellebore, a fantasy sports-style platform that lets users predict the outcome of professional sports games for blockchain-based prizes.

Users start by purchasing a “Siber” NFT for 0.03 ETH (around $50), which grants them access to the site. From there they can form leagues and play head-to-head matchups to win “NFT prizes, merch, and unique fan engagement experiences,” according to a press release.

“Play Hellebore isn’t meant to replace traditional fantasy sports,” Swinmurn told CoinDesk. “We expect crypto natives [to be] early adopters that know the value of digital ownership, but we are also passionate about helping to educate and onboard newcomers.”

The game is just the latest addition to the larger fantasy sports NFT family. The top-heavy genre is currently dominated by Sorare and Dapper Labs, who both tout partnerships with nearly all of the major sports leagues.

The mint for Play Hellebore opens Tuesday, with the first sports users can predict outcomes of baseball, football and soccer. The company plans to add hockey, golf, tennis and basketball integrations by the end of 2023, according to its website.

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