While Meta and Twitter dominated NFT headlines last week, another new set of social media behemoths re-entered the fray this week. Meanwhile, NFTs are being eyed by the IRS with a microscope as fraud continues to run through the space, OpenSea continues to have some bumps in the road, and more brands continue to release their own NFTs.
It’s a few of this week’s headlines in the ever-growing list of NFT headlines. Let’s jump in.
This Week’s Non-Fungible Token News
Old Bids Come Back To Haunt Bored Ape Holders In Latest OpenSea Bug
OpenSea has had a rocky journey in recent months, dealing with a variety of pushback and NFT loyalist disappointment – as many in the community have flocked to platforms like LooksRare in recent months. The latest troubles for OpenSea include a bug that resulted in a number of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs hitting the market for a fraction of their worth. Our deep dive into the story can be found here.
Since that story broke, and within the last day, OpenSea has been reimbursing nearly $2M to owners of the lost NFTs.
The silver lining through all the troubles for the leading marketplace? Rumors have been swirling over the past week of Solana support, including supposed leaked images of such support.
Reddit Tests NFTs As Profile Pictures
While Twitter got the ball rolling with NFT profile pics, courtesy of the hexagon pfp that was recently rolled out, Reddit looks to be interested in something similar, according to reports. Reddit is currently exploring with a “small, internal test” around these features, and has previously been host to speculation around a dedicated NFT platform. The platform previously released an NFT project, ‘CryptoSnoos,’ and has explored crypto in a variety of ways in the past, too.
IRS Seeing “Mountains Of Fraud”?
As we covered here at Bitcoinist earlier this week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is seeing “mountains and mountains of fraud” surrounding crypto and NFTs. One special agent with the IRS’ criminal investigation division stated that there were substantial concerns around drug traffickers and other money launderers using NFTs to circumvent the IRS. The agent countered with a note that “this space is the future.”
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While OpenSea has been going through a challenging few months, it's still solidified itself as the clear market leader. Despite this, emerging marketplace LooksRare is taking an aggressive approach, backed by it's LOOKS token. | Source: LOOKS-USD on TradingView.com
YouTube Considers NFT Impacts For Creators
Reddit isn’t the only social media platform in NFT headlines this week. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki released an open letter to creators earlier in the week, covering a variety of topics – including NFTs. Wojcicki stated that Web3 tools are a “source of inspiration to continue innovating on YouTube.” Check out the full story for more from YouTube’s forward-looking perspective.
Fallon Facing Troubles For Promoting Bored Apes?
Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton’s brief discussion on Bored Apes over the past week or so gained major traction on social media for the immense levels of cringe. Now, there’s speculation that Fallon’s move violated company policy; NBCUniversal policy states that employees must “disclose and obtain approval for all outside work, financial interests and other personal activities/relationships that may create or appear to create a conflict.” Of course, NBCUniversal seems unlikely to drop a hammer down on Fallon – particularly as we turn to the next ‘NFT flavor of the week’ moment that is bound to gain traction and blow this all over for Fallon and company.
Wen Lambo?
In an earlier edition of ‘NFTs In A Nutshell‘ last month, we speculated that Lamborghini would be on the horizon for NFTs, after a tease from the automotive brand of a new ‘NFTPRO’ series.
This week, the brand introduced ‘Space Time Memory,’ the first foray for Lamborghini in the space. The space-inspired NFTs will be released “with the start of the lunar year” on February 1.
Gibson Guitars
Some of Gibson’s most iconic guitars have found the hands of music legends over the years. Now, those iconic guitars will find their way digitally, too, as Gibson is reportedly taking six of it’s most famous guitar styles and applying for trademark registrations around them. The news comes from Billboard, who state that the filing looks to “cover the categories of downloadable multimedia files containing artwork, text, audio, and video relating to music and entertainment authenticated by non-fungible tokens.”
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Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com
The writer of this content is not associated or affiliated with any of the parties mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice.