Our weekly updates are put together by folks deep in the crypto scene, giving you a clear picture of what's happening without overwhelming you.
To Watch This Week
AIRDROPS + ALPHANov 13, 2024
Business
Tezos Co-Founder: U.S. ‘Consecration’ of Crypto Means Less Regulatory Ambiguity
Bitcoin's recent “parabolic” price rise reflects increased regulatory certainty in “major markets like the U.S.,” said Tezos co-founder Kathleen Breitman. Speaking at Web Summit, Breitman argued that, “The parabolic rise in Bitcoin’s price this week reflects this lack of ambiguity in the U.S.,” arguing that, “now that there's a lot less ambiguity as to the status of cryptocurrencies in major markets like the U.S., there will be more things like tying real world assets to cryptocurrencies, becaus...
Nov 1, 2024
Business
‘Blair Witch,’ ‘Host’ Filmmakers Launch $25,000 Web3 Horror Film Award
Web3 film funding platform Decentralized Pictures (DCP) is teaming up with the makers of horror films “The Blair Witch Project” and “Host” to launch a fundraising opportunity for horror short filmmakers, with two separate grants of up to $25,000 up for grabs. Decentralized Pictures announced the award alongside ‘The Blair Witch Project’ co-director Eduardo Sanchez and ‘Host’ writer-producer Jed Shepherd. We’re eager to announce our next award with @arts3fdn and with the mentorship of @Jedshephe...
Jun 25, 2024
NFTs
Digital Art Mile ‘Bridges Worlds’ Between Traditional and Electronic Art
Earlier this month, Decrypt’s sister Web3 media outlet Rug Radio headed to Basel to take part in the Digital Art Mile, a new digital art fair format that showcased contemporary and historical digital art from around the world. “We wanted to bridge these two worlds—the traditional art world and the digital art world,” Georg Bak, Artistic Director of the Digital Art Mile, told Decrypt. The inaugural Digital Art Mile succeeded in that aim, Bak said, drawing “a mix of the Web3 crowd and curious art...
Feb 28, 2024
NFTs
Musée d’Orsay Reveals NFT Auction Tied to Historic On-Chain Exhibition
On Thursday, a collection of tokenized artwork from the Musée d’Orsay’s first-ever commission of an on-chain exhibition will hit the market—the product of two experimental artists, months of coordination by the museum’s leadership, and thousands of exhales from unknowing strangers. The pieces, five single-edition NFTs minted on the Tezos blockchain collectively titled “The Convergence of Breath,” are the fruits of an art installation (and partial social experiment) now on display at Musée d’Ors...
Jan 23, 2024
NFTs
Agoria's 'Le Code d’Orsay': Inside the Musée d’Orsay’s First NFT Exhibition
Next month, for the first time in its history, the storied Musée d’Orsay in Paris will showcase original artworks featuring blockchain technology. Come February, however, the museum—a majestic 19th century railway station on the Seine’s Left Bank, lined with the masterworks of Monet, Manet, and van Gogh—will feature nary a stray CryptoPunk nor animated penguin. In fact, its new blockchain-backed art won’t utilize a single screen. “I don’t think it would be very relevant if I put 30 screens in a...
Nov 15, 2023
Gaming
Play-to-Earn Mobile Dog Training Game 'Dogami Academy' Launched
Paris-based gaming startup Dogami has released its new mobile game, Dogami Academy, which is available for iOS and Android. Currently playable in early access exclusively for Dogami NFT holders, the game serves up crypto token rewards for players. Dogami Academy is a dog training and racing game that pairs strategic elements with training and obstacle course navigation, letting players compete online in various events. Currently, the game features an environment based on Paris, although more loc...
Oct 10, 2023
The Coins
What is Tezos (XTZ)?
2Tezos is a lot like Ethereum. It is a platform to create smart contracts and Dapps that are censorship-free. As with the current iteration of Ethereum, Tezos runs on Proof-of-Stake. This means there is no crypto mining involved. It also features a governance model to ensure that people who own the coin have a say in decisions regarding the future of Tezos. As there are no miners, the people who check and confirm transactions are called “bakers” and they run what’s known as a “baking operation.”...
Oct 10, 2023
Coins
Tezos Jumps 7% on South Korean Volume Spike, Futures Liquidations
Tezos (XTZ) soared 7.5% overnight, whizzing past the majority of the crypto market which showed negative gains since yesterday, per CoinGecko data. The positive price action for the layer-1 token can likely be attributed to a surge in trading volume on South Korean exchanges like UpBit, as well as hefty liquidations. The 24-hour trading volume for XTZ reached $122.8 million, significantly higher than its 30 days of $16.8 million, per CoinGecko. Tezos is a blockchain network that uses a variety o...
Oct 4, 2023
NFTs
Chain Letters: MoMA Launches 'Postcard' NFT Art Project
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) announced the launch this week of an interactive, NFT-backed digital initiative designed to encourage users to experiment with creating art on the blockchain. The program, “MoMA Postcard,” will debut later this month. It will allow participants to send digital chain letters featuring 15 blank “stamps” across the blockchain to collaborators of their choosing. Together, the 15 participants in a single postcard will, one by one, build out a collaborative art piece w...
Sep 29, 2023
NFTs
Musée d’Orsay Embraces NFTs in Push to Reach New Audiences
It was 2021, and the Musée d’Orsay had a problem. The Parisian museum, which boasts the largest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world, was struggling to attract visitors amid the seesaw uncertainty of Covid lockdowns. Some museum staff felt assured that the French people’s commitment to cultural enlightenment would prevail, and museum attendance would soon return to pre-pandemic levels. But the doors were open—and huge crowds hadn’t turned up. “French peop...
Sep 28, 2023
Coins
Crypto Platform Fireblocks Expands Institutional Access to Tezos
Fireblocks, a platform that caters to the needs of financial institutions in areas like crypto custody and settlement, said on Thursday that it’s rolled out full support for the Tezos network. Those who use Fireblocks Wallet will be able to custody Tezos-based assets and tap into its roster of decentralized applications. At the same time, developers will be able to leverage Fireblock’s Web3 engine for building products and services on Tezos in a secure manner, according to the company. Giving Fi...
Jul 12, 2023
NFTs
Get Protocol Raises $4.5 Million to Take on Ticketmaster With NFT Tickets
NFT ticketing company Get Protocol has raised $4.5 million, launching its “Web 2.5” alternative to traditional industry giant Ticketmaster. More than 4 million blockchain-based tickets have been issued using Get Protocol’s tech so far, the company claims, including stubs for artists such as Ne-Yo, Gucci Mane, Lewis Capaldi, and comedian Louis C.K. The company says it has a number of other splashy announcements in the pipeline. Despite the big names, Get Protocol has been operating relatively und...
Mar 26, 2023
NFTs
Painter Lee Mullican’s Pioneering 1987 Digital Art Released via Tezos NFTs
Lee Mullican’s physical paintings reside in the permanent collections of the The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and other prestigious institutions—but the late artist was also an early digital experimenter, and some of his decades-old compositions have been tokenized and released as NFTs. On Thursday, NFT art platform Feral File released “LeeMullican.PCX,” a collection of 12 digital pieces created by Mullican in 1987. Each piece was made using the PC P...
Mar 2, 2023
Coins
Tezos Token XTZ Leads Weekly Losses With 20% Drop
As the broader crypto market struggles to find momentum for the next upward leg, several cryptocurrencies representing layer-1 blockchains are down heavily in the week. With a plunge of more than 20% over the past seven days, the token powering the proof-of-stake blockchain Tezos (XTZ) has led losses for this category. After hitting a two-week low of $1.14, XTZ climbed to $1.21 earlier on Wednesday before another slide took the asset down to $1.15 by press time, according to CoinGecko. Avalanch...
Nov 30, 2022
Business
Tezos Co-Founder Kathleen Breitman on FTX Fallout: 'A Lot of Goodwill Is Gone Now'
It’s always been a point of pride for Tezos co-founder Kathleen Breitman that the network doesn’t have a public face or figurehead. Sure, she does plenty of interviews—including one with Decrypt for the latest episode of the gm podcast—but she’s always been steadfast in saying that neither she, Arther Breitman, her husband and co-founder, nor the Tezos Foundation itself have privileged positions in the governance process that’s guided the network’s development. Now Breitman, along with the res...
Oct 24, 2022
Business
Robinhood Adds Aave and Tezos
Trading app RobinHood has added cryptocurrencies Tezos (XTZ) and Aave (AAVE), allowing users to buy and sell the tokens on its platform. The company tweeted the announcement on Monday, linking to a web page showing crypto that has been newly listed on Robinhood. Tezos is a proof-of-stake blockchain network, while Aave is a decentralized lending protocol. Both their native tokens have market capitalizations of over $1 billion. AAVE @AaveAave and XTZ @tezos are now on Robinhood #CryptoListinghttp...
Sep 13, 2022
Business
‘Still in Research Mode’ With Web3, NFTs Says Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot
In a recent interview, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot spoke at length about the video game firm’s adoption of blockchain technology and “Web3 capabilities,” admitting that the company is “still in research mode.” He said the French game studio is exploring many new technologies, including cloud computing and Web3, but is ultimately still “testing ground” to see if these new technologies “really answer the players’ needs.” Guillemot also confessed that the company’s recent NFT offerings (to date, on...
Aug 3, 2022
Long Reads
How Crypto and Esports Are Fueling Each Other’s Growth
When cryptocurrency exchange FTX announced a 10-year, $210 million sponsorship and naming rights agreement with leading esports club Team SoloMid (TSM) in June 2021, the towering terms sent shockwaves throughout both the crypto and esports worlds. But it wasn’t the first major move aligning the two buzzy, tech-centric industries. Popular teams like OG and Team Vitality launched crypto fan tokens via the Socios platform a couple years back, generating revenue while engaging fans and letting them...
Jun 9, 2022
Coins
Tezos Hits Four-Week High Following USDT Launch
XTZ, the native cryptocurrency of the Tezos blockchain, is outperforming the rest of the market on Thursday after soaring to a four-week high of $2.23. A minor correction has brought the asset’s price down to $2.15 by press time, which still represents an increase of more than 7.12% in value in the past 24 hours, according to data provided by CoinMarketCap. XTZ is also up nearly 12% over the last seven days. The latest price action follows today’s earlier news of stablecoin Tether announcing th...
May 17, 2022
Business
Coppola-Backed Decentralized Pictures Launches Web3 Film Funding Platform
Web3 film funding platform Decentralized Pictures has announced the launch of its blockchain-based film financing application, set to go live during the Cannes Film Festival on May 20. The app will launch with a documentary film award in partnership with The Gotham Film & Media Institute; up to two winning projects will receive up to $50,000 each in finishing funds, alongside mentorship from the Decentralized Pictures Foundation and The Gotham. The platform effectively works along the same lines...