Over the past weeks, I've been adding to my metaverse coins. Copped a few MANA, some SAND, started looking into ENJIN, thought maybe some GALA would look nice, right? And I thought, okay, I'm making some really good investment choices. After getting my fingers burned on LUNA, I was done with the layer one protocols for a bit. Well, guys, would you believe Fantom (FTM) went on a nice little run in the past 24 hours, posting gains of 14.7% at the time of this article?
Man, I had some Fantom and I traded it! I missed this one and I'm not about to FOMO into it now either. But if you were able to get on this train before it left station, good looking out!
By the way, in case you didn't know, the Statera token (STA) we're paid on Publish0x is a part of the Fantom ecosystem. And of course you'd know this, but just in case you don't.
Anyways, in other news, did you hear about the Beeple hack? Yep, the hackers are back at it. Seems like the underworld just sorta gave us a few moments of silence to grieve after the LUNA/UST death spiral, and then they were back on the job. This time, according to reports, phishing criminals netted $438,000 (a hefty sum but a relatively small bag when you think of some crypto heists) promoting a fake raffle. And I haven't even digested my pizza from Bitcoin Pizza Day yet. Anyways, guys, let's talk about it.
Hackers take over Beeple's Twitter
Well, guys, according to reports, a phishing criminal or criminals hacked the Twitter account of popular digital NFT artist, Mike Winkelmann. He owns the Beeple account, right? Last year, in March, he sold his digital artwork Everydays:The First 5000 Days at Christie's auction house and copped a cool $69,346,250. And I mean that kinda money is gonna attract followers like bees to honey, so you know he's got tons of people following his Twitter- 672.9K when I checked. I have like two followers. Guess that says something, right?
Anyways, last month, in April, Beeple collaborated with Louis Vuitton for an NFT raffle in its mobile game, Louis: The Game, which is supposed to run until August 4th. The real raffle promises to distribute a total of ten new NFTs that feature the game's character Vivienne, which is an anthropomorphism of the company's monogram.
And so, what the hacker did was post fake collections from Beeple's Twitter account, capitalizing on this Louis Vuitton raffle and promising users to mint unique NFTs for free. Sadly, some people fell for it. According to reports, the first link netted $73,000 worth of ETH, while the second link scored $365,000 worth of ETH and NFTs, all totalling approximately $438,000.
And, of course, the responses are filled with people lamenting their losses and seeking a refund.
I've got a quick question here, folks, and I genuinely would like to know what you think. Do you think Beeple is responsible for the lost ETH and NFTs? Do you think he should refund those followers who were taken by the scam artist? I don't know about this one, y'all. But tell me, what do you think?
SWIFT Tests CBDCs & Other News
Global financial messaging service SWIFT is joining the blockchain revolution, but hold onto your hats, it's not embracing cryptocurrency. In fact, according to reports, SWIFT is conducting experiments to test interoperability and cross border payments with central banked digital currencies (CBDCs). Now this isn't news news because it's been out since last Thursday, however for an update, SWIFT is now joining the blockchain wave and, with nine countries already operating their own CBDCs, SWIFT sees itself playing a critical role in the future enabling frictionless CBDC transfers across borders.
According to Chief Innovation Officer at SWIFT, Thomas Zschach, "Facilitating interoperability and interlinking between different CBDCs being developed around the world will be critical if we are to fully realise their potential. Today, the global CBDC ecosystem risks becoming fragmented with numerous central banks developing their own digital currencies based on different technologies, standards and protocols.”
Meanwhile, according to Cointelegraph, global payments giant Paypal is planning to expand to integrate more blockchain and cryptocurrency on its platform. Currently Paypal allows users in the US to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.
And in the world of fashion, Balenciaga is joining the wave and also accepting payments in cryptocurrency at some of its flagship stores in the US.
Closing Thoughts
And so friends, there you have it. I'm off again to cop some coins. The market's turned a bit green today, and Bitcoin is trading above $30,000 at the time of this article. Will you be trading?
Personally, I'm still focusing on the metaverse so we'll see how that goes. I know Doge co-founder Billy Markus thinks 95% of crypto is a scam, I can only hope the projects I support aren't, right? Tell me though, what are some projects that interest you?
Remember, you should always research the projects you invest in, and reserve your crypto investments to about 5% of your income or whatever you can afford to lose. Do not invest all your life savings. It breaks my heart to hear of losses because of crazy risks, all right? Be safe. And by the way, just this bit here, the bit about only investing what you can afford to lose, this is investment advice. Take care of yourselves. We'll chat soon.
