The SEC once again "attacks" to regulate NFT, will royalties also receive an "iron fist"?
Betting in the NFT trading market, is "casinoization" no longer a joke?
When is Milady's "fall" ongoing?
APE DAO wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to repurchase Yuga assets?
BlockBeats BlockBeats will review the latest NFT news last week with you!
The SEC once again "attacks" to regulate NFT, will royalties also receive an "iron fist"?
Half a month ago, the third issue of NFT News reviewed the SEC's first supervision of NFT projects, and BlockBeats BlockBeats reported the incident in detail for the first time. (Recommended reading: Are NFTs hugely negative? SEC regulates NFTs for the first time in history )
I never expected that the SEC’s second supervision of NFT projects would come so quickly. The NFT project accused of "unregistered securities" this time is Stoner Cats. Stoner Cats issued a total of 10,420 NFTs on July 27, 2021 at a price of 0.35 ETH (approximately $800) and sold out within 35 minutes.
Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, the Stoner Cats accepted the SEC's cease-and-desist order and paid a $1 million civil penalty. Stoner Cats also agreed to destroy all NFTs it owns or controls and to post a notice about the cease-and-desist order on its website and social media. In addition, an equity fund will be established to return the funds paid by damaged investors to purchase NFTs.
Let’s look at the details of the SEC’s charges against Stoner Cats:
- Both before and after being sold to the public, Stoner Cats NFT conducted an extensive media campaign to promote the project, on its official website and on social media including podcasts, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Discord, as well as on well-known Interviewed on network and cable TV shows. In these promotions, Stoner Cats and its representatives stated that proceeds from the NFT issuance will be used for the production of the Stoner Cats online video series, and emphasized the benefits of holding Stoner Cats NFTs, including exclusive access to Stoner Cats content, and the ability to permanently Additional access to any additional content created by Stoner Cats in the future; Exclusive access to the Stoner Cats community on Discord and the ability to participate in various events, contests, and interactions with the creators of the animated show; Holder has the ability to resell on the secondary market Its NFT.
- Stoner Cats emphasized that its team has the qualifications to execute project planning, but its animation works were still far from being completed when the NFT was released (the last episode was only launched 15 months after its release). Stoner Cats is trying to convince investors that both animation and NFT will be successful with their efforts. In its media campaign, Stoner Cats highlighted its roster of Hollywood producers and renowned animators, writers and editors, citing the successful past work of these professionals. Stoner Cats also highlighted the in-depth knowledge some on its team have of Crypto projects, and NFTs in particular. Through these actions, investors expect to profit from the success of Stoner Cats, as a successful web animation may cause the value of the Stoner Cats NFT to increase in the secondary market.
- Investors are told that the Stoner Cats NFT is like a "ticket" and "if people don't appreciate it, you can sell the ticket." Investors are also told, “The more successful the animation, the more successful your NFT will be.”
- After the IPO, Stoner Cats’ Twitter account frequently touted secondary market sales of its NFTs and encouraged the public to buy them. Specific situations include: On September 7, 2021, the Stoner Cats Official Twitter released an emoticon, suggesting that during the Crypto market decline, the wisest thing to do is to "buy more ETH and sweep the floor of Stoner Cats"; in 2021 On August 9, the Stoner Cats Official Twitter emphasized the recent four NFT sales with ETH pricing, which were converted into US dollars to $137,493, $124,994, $31,134 and $17,123 respectively; on August 9, 2021, the Stoner Cats Official Twitter emphasized that its current NFT sales 3,376 holders, while also highlighting the floor price at that time of 0.5 ETH and the trading volume at that time of 3700 ETH.
- Prior to release, a Stoner Cats programmer contacted an NFT trading platform to "validate" the Stoner Cats NFT series, and in doing so ensured that his team would receive royalties from secondary market transactions. More importantly, Stoner Cats assures secondary market buyers that they are purchasing genuine Stoner Cats NFTs, which facilitates secondary market transactions of Stoner Cats NFTs. The Stoner Cats NFT began trading on the secondary market immediately after minting. Between July 27, 2021, and June 2, 2022, there were at least 10,475 secondary market transactions for Stoner Cats NFT. Across these transactions, thousands of buyers spent more than $20 million worth of ETH to purchase Stoner Cats NFTs.
Carolyn Welshhans, deputy director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said, "Registration of securities, including crypto-assets, protects investors by providing them with the disclosures they need to make informed investment decisions." All the benefits of offering and selling securities while ignoring the legal responsibilities that come with doing so.”
Of course, there are also people within the SEC who object to this regulation, and they are still the two commissioners Hester M. Peirce and Mark T. Uyeda who raised objections last time. "Whether an artist is selling numbered editions of physical prints for fans to display on their walls or selling NFTs for fans to display on social media, artists should receive clear guidance on whether and how securities laws apply," the two commissioners said. Artists of all kinds have long struggled to support themselves, and NFTs offer them a potentially viable way to monetize their talents. The fact that money is involved does not convert NFTs into securities." They also point to the 1977 Kenner Toy Company selling "Star Wars Early Bird Certificate Packs" redeemable for future Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, R2-D2 action figures and memberships to the Star Wars Fan Club to illustrate that Stoner Cats were just A new popular phenomenon in the new digital age.
Another interesting controversy in this matter comes from @Loopifyyy's reply to ChatGPT, saying whether the fair fund used to compensate NFT investors in the injunction was established by the $1 million fine paid by Stoner Cats. As a result, NFT players began to ridicule Stoner Cats and the SEC. They believed that Stoner Cats could continue to enjoy themselves by making 8 million and spitting out 1 million. At the same time, they believed that the SEC was just to collect "protection fees" and was not really trying to protect NFT investors at all. However, if the Mint price was around US$800 at the time, the US$1 million was far from enough to compensate... In addition, the detailed injunction also mentioned that Stoner Cats should provide the SEC with the list of wallet addresses of the holders, so this Compensation may not be to the original minter as some English circles understand it.
I feel that this ridicule is too early... However, the most important thing is that from these two accusations by the SEC, we can see that a naked and direct promise of dividends is not a necessary condition for being accused. Stoner Cats drew Finally, when the cake was brought out, it still suffered an "iron fist" ...
As long as you read the details of the accusations above, you will definitely feel how fully the SEC has collected evidence for "calling for orders". The more and more NFT projects there are, I think they will start to tremble...
Betting in the NFT trading market, is "casinoization" no longer a joke?
After the bear market, everyone will always sigh pessimistically, "The NFT market is becoming more and more casino-like", and I am no exception. But this time, the NFT trading market is really starting to bet...
Take a look at LooksRare’s Official Twitter, and you will find that they have recently been promoting a new feature called “YOLO”. This "YOLO", if you are a player of games such as CSGO/DOTA2 with developed accessories markets, you will definitely be familiar with it-throw in some junk skins and win all the skins in the game as a "roulette"...
It's very simple. Every NFT player can throw in ETH/ERC-20 Token/ERC-721 NFT to gamble, and at least throw in assets equivalent to 0.01 ETH. The winning probability of each participating player is the amount invested divided by the total amount invested in the round. For example, if you invest 0.5 ETH and all players invest a total of 10 ETH in the round, your winning probability is 5%. In addition, LooksRare takes a 5% cut of each round of roulette.
After the countdown ends, the gears of fate begin to turn. Of course, the most common thing that happens is that the big whale wins all the money from the small shrimp, but as you know, there will always be situations where the small shrimp that we like to talk about most will overwhelm the big whale...
In addition to LooksRare, Magic Eden also launched a new feature called “Lucky Buy” last week. Unlike “YOLO”, “Lucky Buy” is for a single NFT. For example, the listing price of an NFT is 20 SOL. The buyer can choose to spend 10 SOL on a "Lucky Buy" and there is a 50% probability of buying the NFT at a price of 10 SOL. If it fails, $SOL will be collected by Magic Eden, and both sellers and creators will receive a 1% share. The failed player will receive Magic Eden's "diamonds" as a consolation prize.
Although they are all "pumping", Magic Eden's looks relatively mild. After all, we can also understand that this is a means to activate NFT trading liquidity, and sellers and creators can also enjoy the benefits. However, the NFT market is indeed in turmoil. There is no way to stabilize the trading market, so we can only bite the lighter like Brother Dao...
When is Milady's "fall" ongoing?
Milady, which fell more than 30% in the past week.
What happened? First of all, there is a daily auction project in the Milady ecosystem called "Bonkler" like Nouns.
On September 11, Milady founder @CharlotteFang77 tweeted that a Bonkler development member had embezzled about $1 million in assets from Bonkler’s treasury and tried to control Milady-related social media accounts, and used personal and parent company Actions were filed on Remilia's behalf against three individuals.
On September 13, Remilia creative director @Milady_Sonoro tweeted to refute Charlotte Fang’s accusations. @Milady_Sonoro said that the Bonkler treasury was not stolen (this is indeed true when looking at the data on the chain), and claimed that they are the co-founders of the Remilia company, which was established one year after the release of the Milady series and 4 months after the release of the Remilio series Yes, Charlotte Fang not only does not have the sole ownership of Milady's assets, but also suppresses their status and contribution. In addition, @Milady_Sonoro in turn accused Charlotte Fang of being the one who embezzled funds, totaling US$2.6 million.
On the same day, Charlotte Fang fought back, claiming that Remilia had no so-called "co-founders" and that no commitments regarding equity distribution had been made. She had sole control over the assets used to fund Remilia's on-chain operations. right. Bonkler's contract ownership was not transferred to the agreed address, and treasury assets were seriously threatened. Charlotte Fang also said that she received very little salary, and @Milady_Sonoro received the most generous salary, and was even promised 20% of Bonkler's income.
This incident caused great harm to Milady. Not only is there "internal strife" in the team, but also because the reason for this "internal strife" is the issue of profit distribution (at least this is how it seems to everyone so far). For a PFP project with decentralized memes as its core competitiveness, if this matter is not handled properly, it is very easy for everyone to feel that Milady is "no longer pure" and lose community cohesion.
That may be a bit abstract. If you can't understand this huge injury, think about Azuki's accident a while ago. However, one is that the community no longer trusts the long-term vision of the project, and the other is that the community believes that the cultural identity established by the project has become disillusioned.
Here I have to lament the keen sense of smell of our BlockBeats colleagues. Last month, a colleague and boss chose to sell Milady for the simple reason that it felt "no longer pure." And I made a very strong statement, "Although it is a very low probability event that Milady will surpass BAYC this year, it is not impossible"...
As I write this, my heart is full of shame... Shame!
APE DAO wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to repurchase Yuga assets?
"Machi Big Brother" Huang Licheng launched the AIP-304 proposal in July this year, which plans to use 11 million coins from the APE DAO treasury $APE to purchase Yuga-based assets (BAYC, MAYC, BAKC and CryptoPunks) and others famous NFTs (art and other) to form a collection of assets called the "Digital Art Movement", and then curate the NFTs in the collection and submit them to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Getty Center, the Louvre, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art Famous art institutions such as museums award NFTs. The proposal also includes the issuance of $DAM Token to hand over the governance of the asset collection to the ApeCoin community. Huang Lichen himself promised not to control any asset-related keys, nor to obtain any rights against him from the proposal. Personal Compensation.
Voting on the proposal begins on September 15th and will end on September 21st. It's hard to decide the outcome at the moment, with the support and opposition ratios almost 55-55. However, Huang Lichen himself has not yet participated in the voting.
My personal opinion is that the vision of this proposal is still acceptable. If BAYC can settle in the Louvre, the publicity effect will definitely be there. However, this proposal lacks many specific operational details. For example, if I want to send the BAYC to the Louvre, will they be willing to accept it? If a certain BAYC is designated for exhibition after negotiation, are there any appropriate measures to ensure that the secret is not leaked? After all, if it were revealed in advance which BAYC would be exhibited at the Louvre, it would cost an unknown amount of money to buy the BAYC...
Also, is it really necessary to spend so much money to buy so many NFTs and send them to various regions for display? Considering $APE continues to fall in value, this may not be a good idea. Judging from the current voting progress, the community’s recognition of this idea is not high.
Weekly project preview
New projects worth watching this week include:
Nakamigos-CLOAKS
I admit that I still like these images (at least judging from the preview images), and as the second generation of Nakamigos, this project is definitely worth paying attention to. But I have to say that Sartoshi's image has completely fallen...
The total number of Nakamigos-CLOAKS is the same as Nakamigos, 20,000. The problem lies in the fact that at the beginning, the official announced that these 20,000 were all paid, 0.05 ETH each, and even the holders of the first generation of Nakamigos had to pay. Although it was changed to free casting for Nakamigos holders due to strong protests from the Nakemigos community, I am still not optimistic about this project - just like Milady's cultural identity mentioned earlier, cracks are beginning to appear, Nakamigos is also a decentralized meme and A project whose art is indivisible, a project that makes people feel that "purity" is really, really important. From the moment Sartoshi announced his "retirement" from the industry to the time he came back to convert the "End of Sartoshi" series into Pass cards and bring out Nakamigos, a project that has earned millions of dollars in royalties, he has lost the "pure" label given to him by mfers. (Of course, I think the royalties issue for mfers has been lost since much earlier).
Speaking of the "End of Sartoshi" series, yes, the owner of "End of Sartoshi" has also been forgotten...
In any case, the size and popularity of the Nakamigos community are still there. The project will be released on September 21st, so we still have to stay tuned.
Nyan Balloon Season 3
At the beginning of the year, there was a wave of ERC-1155 burning gameplay. I reported it in the article "Art Gamification" of NFT: Burn-Redeem and Lottery , and also mentioned one of the star projects at the time - Nyan Cat Founder "Balloon Nyan Cat" Nyan Balloon is hand-made by the artist himself.
In fact, after the burning of the first season ended, Nyan Balloon has continued, and the second season has introduced more different flying Nyan Cat images that can be exchanged for burning. Now, the second season is coming to an end, and there will be more new images in the third season, such as the lumberjack Nyan Cat below being carried by a mushroom balloon:
Of course, this project may be more suitable for consumption without much room for hype... However, I like Nyan Cat :)
SOMO
Sugartown, mentioned in the NFT news last week, has risen to a price of 0.3 ETH after Free Mint. It seems that at this stage, everyone still favors and has confidence in the game project.
SOMO will probably be an elf battle game, collect, upgrade, fight, and earn tokens. The description on the Premint page says that the former director of Jam City will lead the game development together with members from EA, Rockstar, Blizzard and other teams. The background is not as big as Sugartown's Zynga, but Token is expected, so let's pay attention first...
PROJECT ZIRCON
This is also a game project. Compared with SOMO, it is really big. It is Konami's first Web3 game project. If you are unfamiliar with Konami, you may have played "Contra". They also have "Pro Evolution Soccer", "Metal Gear Solid", "Silent Hill", etc.
The game is still very mysterious and there is almost no information to share in this article. However, they will be showcasing the project at the Tokyo Game Show on September 21st, so keep an eye out.
Conclusion
This is the fifth issue of BlockBeats“NFT News”. The various things that happened last week are still very interesting. I hope that this article not only provides you with valuable information, but also makes you smile while reading. In addition, although there were still no NFT projects with strong wealth effects last week, the rise of Sugartown can still give us some expectations for gaming NFT projects. This week I will work hard to discover more gaming NFT projects, and I look forward to having more information to share with you next week.
Let us look forward to what new NFT news will happen in the new week!
