Trait Sniper Weekly News 10 (01.08 - 07.08.2022)
More than 8,000 wallets in the Solana system were infiltrated at the start of the week, causing many shocks. The OpenSea system's remedy for stolen NFTs is still unsatisfactory to users, and the largest marketplace will face class action. In addition, news from the NFT community has revived the community, including the NFTs.com domain transaction, Gucci's acceptance of BAYC tokens, and Instagram's introduction of an NFT feature. Trait Sniper will give you a quick summary below.
Blockchain Market
Approximately 8,000 Solana Wallets were attacked
Late Tuesday (August 04, 2022) evening, users of Solana suddenly found their crypto hot-wallets—including Phantom, Slope, and Trust Wallet—were completely drained of their digital assets. Solana initially confirmed the hack in the Tuesday night (August 04, 2022) tweet, saying: “Engineers from multiple ecosystems, with the help of several security firms, are investigating drained wallets on Solana. There is no evidence hardware wallets are impacted.” Then, Solana confirmed in an early Wednesday morning tweet that “7,767 wallets [had] been affected.”
Almost $5.2 million in digital coins, including Solana’s sol token and USD Coin, or USDC, have been drained, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
After their investigation, Solana Status tweeted more details on August 4, 2022, following the image below.
Affected users are still awaiting more details and refunds. The Solana network was once considered one of the most promising in the cryptocurrency market. However, it has since had a bunch of problems, including downtime during periods of activity and the idea that it is more controlled than Ethereum. In June, the Solana platform was offline for many hours due to an outage.
OpenSea Faces Lawsuit Because Of The ‘Broken’ Stolen NFT Feature
The official policy of OpenSea bans the selling of stolen NFTs and prevents their appearance on the platform. Obviously, protecting people's assets is crucial, but many in the NFT community are troubled about how the policy operates.
Some individuals have discovered that their NFTs are locked and cannot be sold. Typically, this is because the previous owners of these NFTs contacted the market and reported them as stolen. There are tens of millions of dollars now suspended.
This is not the first time that the policy has come under scrutiny. The lawsuit by Jesse Halfon—an attorney/strategic advisor for NFTs, DAOs, and dealing with IP Law for creators and platforms—against OpenSea focuses on its NFT policy regarding how it deals with ‘stolen’ NFTs. Jesse, like many others in the NFT community, is fed up with OpenSea's policies and wants a change. Jesse thinks that this would serve as a wake-up call for the very popular NFT platform.
Despite the fact that numerous individuals have requested to join the case, it is equally challenging. The OpenSea regulations prohibit class action lawsuits. However, in later tweets, Jesse emphasized that it does not mean impossible. He also mentioned that he had ideas on how to bypass OpenSea's terms of service in a class action lawsuit.
With this official lawsuit ongoing, it will also be interesting to see if there is any change from OpenSea.
NFT Market
NFTs.com Domain Name Sells For $15 Million
The sale of the NFTs.com domain is a crazy and massive win for the crypto world. Jackson Elsegood, General Manager at Escrow.com, said, “The recent acquisition of NFTS.com is one of the largest web3-related transactions we’ve seen on the platform.” Moreover, the sale of the NFTs.com domain is the second-largest public domain transaction ever. The first-largest acquisition is Voice.com for $30 million, which happened in 2019.
Due to the anonymity of both parties in the NFTs.com domain transaction, the future of the website is uncertain. However, the website's landing page now includes the phrase "Powered by DigitalArtists.com Marketplace." This web3 art portal provides artists with handpicked NFT drops and services. Due to the linkages to web3 and the domain name NFTs.com, it will likely become an NFT marketplace or a center for NFT services.
Instagram NFT Features Launch in 100 Countries
On August 5, 2022, Instagram announced via its blog that it is growing its NFT service, which allows people, creators, businesses, and collectors to share, own, and create NFTs on its platform.
Instagram will enable connections to third-party wallets from Coinbase Wallet, Dapper Wallet, Rainbow, Metamask, and Trust Wallet. The presently supported blockchains include Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow. They also revealed that uploading or sharing digital collectibles on the Meta-owned site would be free of charge.
On the Instagram feed, NFTs will appear as posts with a "Digital collectible” tag at the bottom left. They have said, “We focus on empowering diverse voices. We want Instagram to be a safe and enjoyable place for everyone. We are committed to building in this space with sustainability in mind.”
Gucci Now Accepts BAYC Tokens, ApeCoin
The announcement reveals that Gucci will be the first retailer to accept ApeCoin. Currently, this is only accessible in certain locations of the premium brand in the United States. Gucci now accepts 10 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others. This is a historic moment for the Bored Ape Yacht Club's native currency.
In a tweet, Gucci confirmed the news to its 6.8 million followers. @Gucci said, “Now accepting @ApeCoin payments via@BitPay, select Gucci boutiques in the USA expand the range of cryptocurrencies available for in-store purchases, yet another step in the House’s exploration of Web3.”
Gucci has actively worked to adapt to the Web3 space. In recent months, they have been developing a metaverse space in Roblox, a partnership with SuperRare, and their own NFT collection.
Final Thoughts
The Solana attack indicates that systems must be more cautious in safeguarding their users. We may have to wait a little longer to see for a response from Solana, as well as OpenSea's answer in the class action. However, the NFT adoption on Instagram and Gucci's acceptance of BAYC tokens will attract a large number of new users into the NFT market and blockchain. Last but not least, the $15M sale of the NFTs.com domain is a significant victory for the cryptocurrency industry. The community cannot wait to see what they will do.