Coming every Saturday, Hodlers Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more a week on Cointelegraph in one link.Top Stories This WeekBeeple NFT auction closes at record-setting $69.3 millionTheres plenty to discuss in the crypto markets, but this week, nonfungible tokens have stolen the limelight for multiple reasons.Digital artist Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, has made history after his latest piece Everydays: The First 5000 Days sold for a whopping $69.3 million following an auction at Christies.Only two other living artists, Jeff Koons and David Hockney, have created more expensive works and as you might expect, this is the priciest NFT ever sold.Its a pretty special one at that. Everydays consists of 5,000 unique images, produced every day for 13-and-a-half years. The collage shows Beeples evolution as an artist and his shift to becoming a political cartoonist. NFT representing incinerated Banksy painting fetches nearly $400,000Beeple isnt the only one laughing all the way to the crypto exchange. A group of crypto investors known as Burnt Banksy has made a tidy profit after a daring stunt involving one of the graffiti artists creations.They bought a real-life Banksy painting for $100,000 last month. Morons satirizes the art industry and depicts a bustling auction for a framed canvas, adorned with the words: I cant believe you morons buy this shit.Last week, they set the painting on fire during a Twitter livestream in Brooklyn and turned it into an NFT instead. Now, its sold on the NFT marketplace OpenSea for 228 ETH worth over $400,000 at the time of writing.Other big sales this week included a former DC Comics artist who made $1.85 million in four days by selling Wonder Woman NFTs. But not everyone has a price. A collector turned down a staggering $1 million for an NBA Top Shot moment they originally bought for $100,000. Breaking new ground is never easy Kings of Leons NFT sale takes in $2 millionKings of Leon have reportedly made a cool $2 million through sales of their tokenized album with $600,000 going to a fund thats designed to support live music crews affected by the coronavirus pandemic.Alas, the event hasnt been without teething problems. Many of the bands fans are complete newcomers to crypto and NFTs and it can be a steep learning curve. This prompted Kings of Leon to extend their sale to March 20.The NFTs have been released in collaboration with YellowHeart, a blockchain-based ticketing platform that is handling the auction on NFT marketplace OpenSea.Six golden tickets have been released giving fans front row seats for life, their own driver to gigs, and the chance to enjoy meet-and-greets with the band. One of the golden tickets fetched a whopping 89 ETH.In other music news, the Russian punk feminist group Pussy Riot has revealed it is releasing four NFTs for its latest single to support a shelter for victims of domestic violence. Bitcoin hits new record highs after agonizing two-week waitWhat a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, Bitcoiners were licking their wounds after a devastating flash crash that took it below $4,000. Fast forward to now, and BTC has now set a new all-time high above $59,000.It took a couple of weeks to reach this milestone, with BTC falling below $45,000 along the way. But the bounceback indicates that bullish momentum remains unshaken. What remains to be seen is whether this spike is the product of weekend volatility, or the start of something bigger.Of course, there are reasons to be cautious. ExoAlphas David Lifchitz said this week that, despite Bitcoins price being in a long-term uptrend, there are some reasons for a more bearish outlook for the short term.Tax season in the U.S. could prompt investors to sell off their holdings. Its also March, traditionally a bearish month for the crypto sector. Solution to scale Ethereum 100X is imminent and will get us through until Eth2, Vitalik saysWith DeFi protocols flocking to rival blockchains with Binance Smart Chain a big beneficiary of this exodus Ethereum needs to take swift action to boost capacity and clamp down on sky-high transaction fees.Eth2 remains some time away yet, but Vitalik Buterin has revealed that a temporary fix may be just around the corner: rollups.Speaking on The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, he said Optimisms layer-two solution could help Ethereum scale by a factor of 100. And by the time any additional capacity is needed, sharding will have already been ready for a long time by then, Buterin added.Rollups process and store transaction data on a designated sidechain before bundling batches of transactions together onto Ethereums mainnet. This helps mitigate the blockchains scaling woes, where fierce competition for bandwidth on the Ethereum mainnet has resulted in exorbitant fees.Optimisms solution is set to launch in about a month, and the rollups are expected to be embraced by industry leaders in DeFi, with rumors suggesting the feature will be heavily utilized by V3 of Uniswap. Winners and Losers At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $60,539, Ether at $1,936 and XRP at $0.44. The total market cap is at $1.8 trillion.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Chiliz, Theta Fuel and Ankr. The top three altcoin losers of the week are NEM, Fantom and Voyager Token.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraphs market analysis. Most Memorable QuotationsGolds ability to hedge against inflation has been somewhat exaggerated. While it is a reasonable store of value over the very long-term think centuries it is less reliable across most investment horizons.Russ Koesterich, BlackRock portfolio manager The fact that Oracle hasnt bought yet is very bullish and signalling how early it still is.Jeff Booth, entrepreneur Tesla in Rear View, About $80,000 Bitcoin Eyes Amazon Market Cap Once Bitcoins back-and-fill process around the $1 trillion market cap is complete, we see internet pioneer Amazon.com as a potential next threshold.Mike McGlone, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Lets Make History together with the first ever NFT for REAL ESTATE!Ivan Malpica, investor Youd have over $10,000 if you bought #bitcoin with your stimulus check.@BitcoinStimulus DOGE does certainly already have a use case as a niche currency with avid fans, and adoption can certainly grow from here. But for it to genuinely be considered future money, the narrative of DOGE as a meme coin will have to erode.Kadan Stadelmann, Komodo chief technology officer Last year, @Ripple and I sued @YouTube for failing to enforce its own policies by allowing fake accounts (impersonating my/Ripples verified accounts) to conduct XRP giveaway scams. Weve now come to a resolution to work together to prevent, detect and take down these scams.Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO Rollups are coming very soon. Were fully confident that by the time that we need any more scaling of that, sharding will have already been ready for a long time by then.Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder Gold will always have a place in jewelry and coin collections, but most indicators point to an accelerating pace of Bitcoin replacing the metal as a store of value in investor portfolios.Mike McGlone, Bloomberg senior commodity strategist Its so cool to see women and girls in the cryptocurrency space. Its important for us to have empowered financial futures.Lily Knight, three-year-old Bitcoin educator If blockchain designs and infrastructure get done at the enterprise level and there arent enough women, there wont be anything created by female thinking patterns. This is the biggest issue we face today.Efi Pylarinou, blockchain and fintech adviser Even if you dislike Bitcoin, you should still buy it just in case it pans out.Dan Held, Kraken Prediction of the WeekMark Cuban sees $1 written in DOGEs tea leavesJust three days after the Dallas Mavericks started accepting Dogecoin for merchandise, the basketball teams billionaire owner, Mark Cuban, was exceedingly bullish.The Shark Tank star is predicting that DOGEs price will eventually hit $1 meaning Elon Musk isnt the only megarich entrepreneur whos in love with the joke coin.Last weekend, he said customers had used more than 20,000 DOGE in transactions with the Dallas Mavericks, making it the largest Dogecoin merchant in the world.The Mavericks were one of the first NBA franchises to recognize crypto as a form of payment for tickets and merchandise, having started accepting Bitcoin through wallet company BitPay two years ago.Fans can also pay for gear and souvenirs with Bitcoin Cash, USD Coin, Gemini Dollar, Paxos Standard and Binance USD. FUD of the Week OpenSea collector pulls the rug on NFTs to highlight arbitrary valueReturning to NFTs now, and some are expressing fears that the market is overheated and engaging in daring stunts to prove their point.A crypto artist known as Neitherconfirm listed 26 NFTs for sale on OpenSea, featuring people and animal faces in a stained glass style. But things took an unexpected turn on Tuesday when they changed the images associated with each token into photos of literal carpets.Neitherconfirm said no one was hurt by the move, explaining: All discussions about the value of NFTs are meaningless as long as the token is not inseparable from the artwork itself. What is the meaning of creating an unforgeable token on a highly secured network if somebody can alter, relink or destroy your possession? As long as the value of your artwork is reliable on a central service you do not own anything. Peter Schiffs son moves 100% of his portfolio into BitcoinWeve known for a long time that Peter Schiff is a crypto skeptic and a gold bug. But this week, his son made a powerful statement that shows he couldnt agree less with his father.Spencer Schiff seems to have decided to move his portfolio investments into Bitcoin, with his dad expressing concern after he went all in. Peter wrote: If my own son is this brainwashed imagine how vulnerable most kids are. Hes HODLing to infinity or bust.Snarky comments came in thick and fast, with Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano replying: At least someone in your family is growing their wealth this year.Schiff went on to suggest that he needs to disinherit his son: Otherwise he will squander my hard earned wealth on more Bitcoin.His criticisms of BTC have often proven to be well off the mark. Indeed, in 2019, he confidently declared that the worlds biggest cryptocurrency would never hit $50,000. Ripple ends YouTube lawsuit over XRP giveaway scams, says CEOAs the SEC lawsuit over the sale of XRP tokens rumbles on, Ripple is dialing down its legal action elsewhere. This week, the company announced that it has ended its lawsuit against YouTube for the video-sharing sites alleged complicity in a spate of XRP giveaway scams.Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse had taken YouTube to task for failing to enforce its own policies by allowing fake accounts to conduct XRP giveaway scams fraudulent profiles that often impersonated his official page or other verified Ripple channels. Both sides have now reached a resolution that will see them work together to prevent, detect and take down these scams.On Twitter, he added: Social platforms are starting to acknowledge their role in allowing crypto scams to persist and recognize the need to be part of the solution.In other developments, Ripple and Moneygram have officially terminated their partnership, but both companies expressed hope that theyll get to work together again in the future. Best Cointelegraph Features Too little, too late? Ethereum losing DeFi ground to rival blockchainsDecentralized exchanges explore alternatives as Ethereum continues to be overloaded. Is this the beginning of the end for the blockchain?Black Thursday anniversary: Can crypto markets see another huge crash?The market may witness flash crashes in the near term, and another March 12 drop is not completely off the map.True or false? A single NFT can power a European household for 1.5 monthsNFTs are coming under scrutiny as more attention is drawn to the carbon footprint of PoW blockchains.
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Buterin helping to strategize against Ethereum 51% attack possibility
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is working to proactively solve a blockchain vulnerability.
Ethereum developers recently proposed a network change called EIP-1559 — a proposal meant to combat the network's rising transaction fees. Expected to take effect in July of this year, the move would send a part of every transaction fee to the Ethereum network itself. Ether allocated in this manner would then be burned, reducing the number of coins in circulation.This change would also decrease the amount of rewards going to the network's miners, leading some to protest the move. A vocal group of participants have since begun to advocate for a demonstrative network takeover, which could threaten the security of the network. The group, however, does not seemingly intend to overthrow Ethereum, insisting that they only desire to show the viability of such an attack. Buterin and other Ethereum developers have since responded by planning defensive efforts.“The goal of this document is to describe a mechanism by which a merge can happen quickly, with little modification to either the ethpow or beacon clients,” said Buterin. This move would essentially transition the network to Ethereum 2.0 faster than expected. “Like clockwork, the Ethereum community has quickly organized potential solutions to this possible 51% attack, with Vitalik leading the charge,” a blog post from Status said on March 12, pointing toward the framework written by Buterin. “Vitalik describes how Ethereum can perform a ‘quick merge’ by rapidly moving from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake with limited changes required to Ethereum clients,” the post said. A miner known as "Bits Be Trippin" commented during a March 9 YouTube video that, "Part of the risk display here is not to attack the network, it's to show that force projection is possible." Ethereum 2.0 is a scaling effort that looks to take the network from proof-of-work, or PoW, to a proof-of-stake, or PoS, mining consensus — an endeavor that has been in the works for years. Buterin's recently proposed framework would expedite the network’s mining consensus transition, choosing to work out the kinks and details of the system after the fact, the Status post detailed. The merge could pave the way for smoother development on Ethereum 2.0, according to the post and Buterin’s write-up. The Status blog noted that the EIP-1559 opposition group have already technically mustered enough power to conduct their 51% attack, based on the group’s web page at the time of the blog post. Ethereum’s network has been home to many significant developments in both the decentralized finance and nonfungible token arenas over the past year. As the number of platforms and assets running on the Ethereum network have grown, however, so too have the network's transaction fees. Ethereum initiated Eth2 in December 2020, with the launch of its beacon chain.
NFT bonanza sends Chromia (CHR), Rarible (RARI) and Lukso (LYXE) price higher
Nonfungible token projects continue to rally as big-name players dabble in digital assets and the pace of cryptocurrency's mainstream adoption increases across multiple sectors.
Nonfungible tokens (NFT) have risen in popularity over the past couple of months as stories of record-setting multi-million dollar auction sales begin to emerge on a daily basis. While projects like Cryptokitties, Axie Infinity (AXS) and Aavegotchi (GHST) are some of the well-known NFT tokens in the space, several new platforms have burst onto the scene in recent weeks and established new all-time highs. CHR/USDT vs. RARI/USDT vs. LYXE/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingViewChromia (CHR), Rarible (RARI) and LUKSO (LYXe) are three projects that have all broken out to new highs in recent days as NFTs take center stage and look to head higher as blockchain increasingly becomes mainstream. CHR/USDTChromia is a public blockchain platform that currently operates on top of the Ethereum (ETH) network and is powered by a new blockchain language called Rell. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of CHR has rocketed more than 900% over the past 4 days, going from a low of $0.66 on March 7 to a new all-time high of $0.668 on March 11 with a record $1.76 billion in 24-hour trading volume. CHR/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingViewMovement for the token was kickstarted after it was announced on March 9 that the ALICE token, the native token for the multiplayer game My Neighbor Alice would be listed on Binance beginning March 15. The game is actually built on Chromia and this could be one of the bullish catalysts behind the most recent surge.The game combines the play experience of popular games like Animal Crossing with the functionality of the emerging decentralized finance and NFT sector, including offering a staking yield, collateralized NFTs and NFT rentals. RARI/USDTRarible is a creator-focused marketplace and issuance platform for NFTs that utilizes the RARI token to reward engagementwith the protocol. The platform bills itself as the “first community-owned NFT marketplace” that allows users to “create, sell or collect digital items secured with blockchain.”Data from and TradingView shows that the price of RARI has risen 200% since reaching a low of $12.92 on Feb. 28, establishing a new all-time high of $40.52 on March 10 as interactions on the Rarible platform increase by the day. RARI/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingViewScrolling through the project's Twitter feed shows that while the Rarible community has been quite active for some time, it was the March 1 announcement that Rarible had listed on Product Hunt that kicked off the latest rally to a new high. A renewed wave of optimism for the token came on March 7 when Taco Bell, a popular American fast food restaurant, introduced its own custom NFT that was only available on the Rarible marketplace. The announcement led to a surge in trading volume that helped lift RARI to new highs on March 10.LYXE/USDTLukso is a blockchain infrastructure that claims to offer “a series of standards and solutions for physical and digital consumer goods” that foster transparency and create “new forms of responsible production and consumption.”The Lukso multiverse is a blockchain network that connects fashion, gaming, design and social media into one centralized venue where the general public can interact with blockchain via decentralized applications.Data from and TradingView shows that the price of LYXE has increased from $6.94 on March 1 to a new high at $23.82. This 240% rally was accompanied by a $15 million bump in trading volume.LYXE/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingViewTrading activity for LYXe actually began to increase on Feb. 26 as the project's participation in the Crypto Fashion Week came to a close. The event included big-name partners like Vogue Germany, which is now dipping its toes into the world of NFTs and looking to combine the world of blockchain and digital fashion. Since the conclusion of Crypto fashion week, LUKSO's Twitter feed has received increased engagement from those interested in learning more about the future of digital economies and the various use cases for NFTs. The explosion of interest in NFTs has brought new life and enthusiasm to the cryptocurrency space just as the DeFi sector entered a cooling-off period which has seen many of the top tokens consolidate as traders shift their attention toward Bitcoin price and NFTs. With new projects and mainstream companies starting to get involved with the creation of digital memorabilia, NFT related projects like Chromia, Rarible and Lukso are well-positioned to see further growth as mainstream adoption increases. The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Not just another gas token — Theta’s TFUEL surges 775% in 5 weeks
Theta Fuel price has been on a triple-digit rally since the beginning of February, a signal that the gas token will play an integral role in the rapidly expanding Theta ecosystem.
The Theta project has been making waves alongside many other altcoins that are riding this year's bullish wave to new all-time highs. While the main token of the Theta network has been receiving a majority of the attention, the ‘gas’ token of the protocol, TFUEL, has quietly been surging alongside THETA as its importance to the network becomes apparent to savvy crypto investors. TFUEL/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingViewData from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of TFUEL has increased 775% over the past five weeks, going from $0.026 on Feb. 1 to a new all-time high at $0.22 on March 10 as the network underwent a hard fork at 12pm PST. Fundamentals show TFU is more than just a gas tokenThe dual token model rose to prominence in 2017 with the emergence of Neo (NEO) and Gas (GAS) as an alternative to the single token model that continues to be plagued with high transaction costs as the prices of Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) increase. Theta Fuel was created when the Theta mainnet launched in 2019 and it is designed to be the operational token of the protocol, powering on-chain operations like sending payments and deploying smart contracts. A significant difference between Theta and other dual token models is holders who stake THETA in validator and guardian nodes help to secure the network and earn TFUEL as a reward. According to data from the Theta explorer, 57.96% of the 1 billion available THETA are staked on the network as of March 10, a figure that has been slowly increasing as the project attracts more attention. As more THETA is staked on the network, the role TFUEL plays in the ecosystem increases as the token begins to be used more to interact with community members and transfer value. Following the launch of Theta 3.0 on April 21, token holders will be to stake TFUEL as another way to earn passive income and help secure the network. The upgrade will also introduce a new burning mechanism that is essentially a “network fee” for using the Theta edge. This could eventually lead to further reductions in the supply of TFUEL and increase its price. VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for TFUEL on March 6, prior to the recent price rise. The VORTECS™ score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. TFUEL price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets ProAs seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ score for TFUEL reached a high of 70 on March 6 and was followed by another spike to 67 on March 7, which was less than 6 hours before the price rallied 56% over the next 48-hours days.Due to the network hard fork on March 10, some may see the recent rise in the price of THETA and TFUEL as a “buy the rumor, sell the news” type of event, but upcoming developments for the protocol including the Theta 3.0 mainnet launch suggest that the rally for this dual token system may just be getting started. As smart contract features come online and enable NFT creation and decentralized finance applications, the Theta ecosystem is well-positioned to attract new users and support increased engagement, which has the potential to lead to further upside for THETA and TFUEL. The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
OpenSea collector 'pulls the rug' on NFTs to highlight arbitrary value
The most expensive single NFT ever sold went for $6.6 million in February.
A crypto artist known as "Neitherconfirm" recently listed 26 nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, for sale on OpenSea's digital marketplace. Things took an unexpected turn earlier Tuesday, however, after the artist changed the images associated with each token from computer-generated portraits into photos of literal carpets.It's a knowing comment on a DeFi token exit scam known as a 'rugpull' where a little known token suddenly collapses when liquidity disappears, metaphorically pulling the rug out from under victims' feet. The art pieces, which originally featured people and animal faces in a seemingly stained-glass style, are now nothing more than an expensive metaphor for why you can’t trust the store-of-value proposition of any asset that maintains an aspect of centralized control.I just pulled the rug at my NFT collection on @opensea . Nobody got hurt.It is pretty easy to change the jpg, even if it does not belong to me or it is on auction. I am the artist, my decision, right?A thread from somebody making his living with art irl about the value of NFTs. pic.twitter.com/LNAZqPpDMZ— neitherconfirm (@neitherconfirm) March 9, 2021
“All discussions about the value of NFTs are meaningless as long as the token is not inseparable from the artwork itself,” said Neitherconfirm. “What is the meaning of creating an unforgeable token on a highly secured network if somebody can alter, relink or destroy your possession? As long as the value of your artwork is reliable on a central service you do not own anything.”The current price disparity between the artist's seemingly similar rugs seems to lend some validity to their claims. At the time of publication, the top bid on many of the NFTs is for under $1.00, while one (which currently has no offers) is listed for an astonishing $139 quadrillion — or around 80,000 times the market capitalization of the entire crypto space. Neitherconfirm has since implied that they have received more offers on their rugs than they did on the original portraits.Though the artist's identity is unknown, they stated on Twitter that their full-time job is “making sculptural art” under a top-selling artist that regularly sells pieces for more than $10 million. It is unclear if Neitherconfirm created unique computer-generated rug images to prove their point or simply found pictures of carpets online and turned them into NFTs.The crypto space is currently experiencing a massive boom in the quantity and value of nonfungible tokens. While crypto artists were auctioning their works for up to $130,000 late last year, 2021 has seen NFT prices inflate to once-unfathomable amounts. Back in February, the owner of an NFT created by Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, resold the piece on Nifty Gateway for a record-breaking $6.6 million.Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently jumped in on the action as well, auctioning off tokenized ownership of the first-ever tweet. He has promised to convert any proceeds into Bitcoin (BTC) and donate them to nonprofit organization GiveDirectly's Africa Response. At the time of publication, the highest offer on the tokenized tweet is $2.5 million.“Right now the appeal of NFTs is the status of owning one,” said MyEtherWallet founder and CEO Kosala Hemachandra. “NFTs are hot in the same way lambo’s are hot to Bitcoin purists. I think this current version of non-fungible tokens will continue to evolve into bigger and broader use cases.” However, Neitherconfirm claimed that pieces of art are “only a store of monetary value if they possess artistic value” as well as subjective beauty:“Certainly a token can bring a huge benefit for moving rightful ownership, especially for digital art. Without any doubt there is revolutionary value in distributing ownership. Just the token itself is not the artwork — it certainly can be, but this is a different story.”The artist noted in a pinned tweet that they will donate 51% of all profits from the rug-pull NFT series to charity.Cointelegraph reached out to Neitherconfirm for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.