NFT News Digest: Coinbase NFT Suspends Creator Drops
In addition to the news that Coinbase NFT is suspending Creator Drops, in today’s NFT News Digest for the past week from Jan 28 to Feb 03, you’ll find:
- Sorare concludes a global NFT deal with the English Premier League,
- Azuki Twitter hacked, over $750K stolen.
Coinbase NFT is suspending Creator Drops
Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US, announced on Wednesday that their Coinbase NFT marketplace is suspending the Creator Drops NFT feature. This allowed the creators to release collections directly on the site, and not as a secondary market. But at the same time, representatives clarified that the trading floor is not completely closed, but remains only as a secondary market.
We recently shared that we are pausing creator Drops on the NFT marketplace to focus on other features and tools that creators have asked for.
To be clear: We are not shutting down the Coinbase NFT marketplace.
— Coinbase NFT 🛡️ (@Coinbase_NFT) February 1, 2023
Why is Coinbase suspending Creator Drops NFT release?
Coinbase has commented on why it is suspending the release of the Creator Drops NFT. According to them, such a move is necessary to free up resources to work on other tools and features that the creators have asked for.
The Coinbase NFT team has reallocated its resources to focus on areas that have the most impact on our users. So, they answered and presented the question why it is impossible to combine drops with other developments
This could potentially be due to a shortage of staff as Coinbase, like many other crypto firms, has continued to lay off employees over the past year. Just last month, Coinbase announced the layoff of 950 more employees. Chief Product Officer Surojit Chatterjee also left the company just six months after the launch of Coinbase NFT.
In addition, he closed his operations in Japan and was recently fined in the Netherlands for operating without a license.
We believe that ultimately these changes will bring more focus and effectiveness to the ability of the Coinbase NFT team to build a solid product that will best serve the community in the long run. Our mission for Coinbase NFT remains unchanged and we remain optimistic about the future as we continue to build. CoinBase representative commented on the latest events
How is Coinbase NFT doing?
After a significant spike in NFT transaction volume in September 2022, trading activity on Coinbase NFT has since plummeted, with sales on some days zero. Since September 2021, the platform has seen a steady drop in the number of users, the number of daily transactions, and the volume of sales.
Recently, the daily trading volume on Coinbase NFT is $100-200 per day. And the all-time trading volume of Coinbase NFT is 4454 ETH (about $7 million). For comparison, in January alone, OpenSea‘s trading volume was 306.645 ETH, which is about $483 million.
However, Coinbase NFT remains one of the leaders in the NFT industry as Coinbase is also one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. The company has repeatedly stated its commitment to the development of a thriving NFT ecosystem. As a result, the company sees this pause in relation to the creators as an opportunity to improve its platform.
Sorare concludes a global NFT deal with the English Premier League
The English Premier League has signed a $4.3 billion multi-year deal with gaming company NFT Sorare.
Collect, play, win. 🏆
Here’s all you need to know to start your Premier League journey on @Sorare#BuildYourLegacy: https://t.co/SmTbfOgBJ9 pic.twitter.com/TApXdt6nZv
— Premier League (@premierleague) February 3, 2023
The partnership between the Premier League and French fantasy sports platform Sorare to sell The Premier League NFTs is a sign that the sports world continues to leverage digital assets despite the market downturn.
The agreement grants Sorare a four-year license to sell digital sports cards for players from each of twenty Premier League clubs.
What are The Premier League NFTs?
The Premier League NFTs are official player cards licensed by the English Premier League. Sorare players buy, sell, and use these NFTs, allowing them to compete against league-specific player cards. NFTs will bring a new level of authenticity and excitement to Sorare games. In addition, the game allows players to collect and sell their favorite Premier League players. The experience is comparable to previously used features in games like FIFA Ultimate Team.
How did the English Premier League choose Sorare?
The English Premier League has been choosing the right NFT for the licensing deal since February 2022. For example, it selected four platforms (Sorare, Candy Digital, Dapper Labs and ConsenSys) for an NFT licensing deal worth up to $589 million over a four-year period.
ConsenSys won the NFT deal in March 2022 while Dapper Labs got the rights to make NFT videos. The deal agreement with Sorare replaces the revised agreement with ConsenSys, which attempted to make downward adjustments to the deal value following the market downturn.
How is Sorare doing?
Sorare has been showing a positive trend lately. Sorare’s revenue increased 50% in 2022 compared to 2021 as gross sales rose from $292.3 million in 2021 to around $541.2 million in 2022. Additionally, Sorare previously raised $680 million at a $4.3 billion valuation in a 2021 funding round led by SoftBank.
The company has also partnered with some very famous names in the sports world such as Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and tennis legend Serena Williams.
And the Premier League deal is the latest in a series of major partnerships for Sorare, which now has over 280 partner sports organizations including La Liga, the Bundesliga, AC Milan, Liverpool FC, Argentinian Football Association and Major League Baseball.
Azuki Twitter hacked, over $750K stolen
On January 28, the Community manager of one of the most popular Azuki NFT projects from the Chiru Labs team reported that Azuki’s official Twitter account had been hacked.
AZUKI OFFICIAL TWITTER ACCOUNT IS HACKED.
DO NOT CLICK LINKS FROM OUR ACCOUNT.
PLEASE RETWEET.
— Rose ⛩️ (@emilyrosemcg) January 27, 2023
How did the Azuki Twitter hack happen?
This hack led some users to fall for yet another wallet emptying scam. In less than 30 minutes, over $750,000, 11 NFTs and over 3.9 ETH were stolen via malicious links posing as Mint. However, it was fake. And instead, the link led users to a “drain” contract that tricked them into signing a transaction that resulted in assets being stolen from their wallets.
1/ The @AzukiOfficial Twitter was compromised today. A series of malicious tweets were posted during the morning of Friday, Jan 27th (Pacific Time).
The team has regained control of the @AzukiOfficial Twitter.
Details below 👇
— Azuki (@Azuki) January 27, 2023
Luckily, Azuki was able to reach out to Twitter contacts and delete the malicious tweets within an hour of posting, and has since regained control of his account.
Why was Twitter account of Azuki hacked now?
The hacker who hacked into the account understood the mood of the Azuki community, apparently. Recall that on January 13, the project team announced a large-scale launch of the Hilumia metaverse. This event brought excitement, increased loyalty, trust and anticipation of the public. Therefore, all fans of the project are waiting for news and unexpected drops and mints. This is what the hackers were counting on.
Unfortunately, social engineering techniques flourish along with the growth of the market itself. In addition to many fans and communities of popular NFT projects, experienced influencers are not immune from this either. Recall that just a week ago, Kevin Rose, the CEO and co-founder of the Proof Collective, which is behind the top NFT project Moonbirds, was hacked in this way. As a result of the scam, the hackers stole over $1 million worth of top NFTs. Once again, it is worth recalling your own cybersecurity, not following the FOMO principles and always double-checking information from primary sources.
