The fashion industry is always on top of the game, quickly adapting to any innovative technologies that might come its way. From using virtual influencers to promoting their products to creating their own metaverses, fashion retailers have been actively expanding their horizons. On February 14 this year, we saw the launch of the metaverse fashion week in the Second Life metaverse.
In the early 2000s, the multiplayer online game Club Penguin was a new age internet phenomenon. You could buy outfits for your customizable penguin avatar and decorate your igloo any way you wanted. You also had the ability to chat and interact with others through various social scenarios in the game.
With the non-fungible token (NFT) market growing to US$41 billion, 2021 turned out to be a great year for those within the space. The popularity of NFTs is evident in the fact that the use of the abbreviation has increased by 11,000% in the past year. As interest in NFTs increases, more and more people are looking to grab one of these digital collectibles for their collections.
Recently, financial services startup BlockFi came under fire for failing to properly register its services—more specifically, the BlockFi Interest Accounts—as securities. The company had to pay US$100 million as a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Launched in 2017, this U.S.-based company gained popularity for providing high-interest loans to its users.
Last year was a landmark one for the cryptocurrency industry, featuring the NFT boom and new token launches. Funding into crypto and non-fungible token (NFT) startups grew by over 700 percent last year. Investors have poured in about US$28 billion into global crypto and blockchain startups, with US$3 billion being dedicated to NFT companies alone.
If you are a frequent user of decentralized platforms, you must have been acquainted with the concept of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). From startups to play-to-earn games—founders are optimizing the potential of DAOs to create ecosystems that thrive on collaboration and shared ownership.
In one way or another, all of us have been exposed to popular tech buzzwords, like non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the metaverse and Web 3.0. As of 2021, the NFT market is worth US$41 billion; several metaverse tokens, such as Axie Infinity Shard and SAND, have been climbing the crypto ranks.
Imagine Facebook, but without Mark Zuckerberg at its helm—sounds relieving, right? Well, that’s the concept of decentralized applications, or dApps. They are apps—akin to those on your phone—but without a single authority or entity controlling them. Today, there are approximately 4,000 dApps, with most of them existing on Ethereum. What’s more? Since October 2021, between 60 and 70 dApps have been launched every month.
The internet has always been a way for people with niche interests to find like-minded people. One of the communities that has thrived on the internet is the anime and manga community.
For those of you who may not know, “anime” means animation in Japanese. In English, it refers to Japanese animated content. “Manga” is the Japanese word for comics, and manga often serves as inspiration for anime series.
About 60 percent of American and UK-based video game developers have started using blockchain technology. For them, the scope of innovation and real-world value offered by “play-to-earn” crypto games—absent in traditional video games—enhances their appeal. Players, too, have been enjoying the chance to earn money while playing video games.
As a startup, you might be tempted to launch your own cryptocurrency to raise funds more seamlessly and in a decentralized manner—be it through an initial coin offering (ICO) or an initial DEX offering (IDO).
From being named word of the year to becoming a romantic Valentine’s Day gift idea, NFTs have become more and more mainstream in the past year.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have experienced an explosion in popularity in the past year. Sales volumes for NFTs increased from US$94.9 million in 2020 to US$24.9 billion in 2021. Be it through purchases of Apes or Cryptopunks, people have been actively diving into the NFT trend.
With NFT (or non-fungible token) becoming Collins Dictionary’s word of the year in 2021, their growing popularity and impact are hard to ignore. From Bored Apes to CryptoPunks, the past year has been huge for the growth of NFTs. In fact, we saw celebrities, like BTS, Shawn Mendes and Snoop Dogg, coming out with their own NFTs as well.
The cryptocurrency market has been thriving all through 2021. As per the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, the cryptocurrency market grew by 160% in 2021, which is much higher than the growth that conventional assets saw in the past year.
Valentine’s Day has rolled around again this year, and with it, the question of what to give your significant other is a headscratcher for almost everyone. It’s hard to be creative every year, isn’t it? Well, this year, we have the solution to your problem. Instead of gifting your partner with flowers that will wither after a couple of days or chocolates that will last a week, you can give them a present that will be preserved forever on the blockchain and that is, non-fungible tokens (NFTs).