Nonfungible tokens were one of the hottest sectors of the cryptocurrency market from the start of the year until March but as is the nature of the crypto sector, NFTs cooled off significantly in April as the hype died down and high fees on the Ethereum (ETH) network hampered the ability of buyers and sellers to interact with the protocols. The challenge of high fees eventually led some projects like Axie Infinity (AXS) and Smooth Love Potion (SLP) to migrate to other networks or embrace layer 2 solutions as a way to help lower costs. This move, along with a …

The market capitalization of Dogecoin (DOGE), a meme-based cryptocurrency that started as a joke seven years ago, briefly passed that of major Japanese video game company Nintendo following a price rally. According to data from AssetDash, the market cap of DOGE surged to $77.7 billion on Tuesday following a rally that took the price of the coin above $0.60 for the first time. This rally put the market cap of the project ahead of both cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase at $73.8 billion and Nintendo at $76.3 billion. Though the price of DOGE has since fallen to $0.53, its market cap is …

Gaming-focused venture capital fund Bitkraft Ventures has partnered with crypto industry research firm Delphi Digital in order to invest in related projects. The collaboration, announced on April 29, will allow Bitkraft to increase its focus on investments in firms that use blockchain technology in addition to crypto assets and economics. Bitkraft was founded in 2015 and has more than $400 million in assets under management with more than 50 investments in companies such as Epic Games, BitFry, and Fuze TV. In August 2020, the company raised $165 million to invest in digital gaming and e-sports and it is now betting …

The coronavirus pandemic has boosted the virtual entertainment industry and provided an opening for blockchain-based ventures to tie leisure to the expanding market for nonfungible tokens. On Monday, community-owned metaverse casino Decentral Games and veteran Ibiza club Amnesia announced their new partnership and launch of two virtual Amnesia dancefloors, dubbed “Amnesia Experience” and “Amnesia Hype.” The partners expect they will generate considerable revenue this year from the venture largely from ticket sales, NFTs and advertising. Each will take 45% of the earnings, allocating the remaining 10% to an unnamed event organizer, with whom negotiations are ongoing. Ibiza clubbing without Ibiza …

Ubisoft, the video game studio behind popular titles such as Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia and the Tom Clancy series, will become a corporate Tezos baker, or validator node. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Ubisoft announced its partnership with Tezos-backed Nomadic Labs that will see the latter creating a validator node on the Tezos network. @Ubisoft is exploring #Tezos technology by becoming a corporate baker. Welcome to the ecosystem! Read the announcement: https://t.co/ZM1IzBTVCM#blockchain #DigitalTransformation #crypto #Ubisoft pic.twitter.com/6wKCQIFAOJ — Nomadic Labs (@LabosNomades) April 20, 2021 As a Tezos baker, Ubisoft via its Strategic Innovation Lab will join the group of …

A multiblockchain game says it delivers a unique blend of decentralized finance and nonfungible tokens, or NFTs — meaning players, developers, traders and crypto veterans all benefit. The team behind the Blockchain Cuties Universe claims traditional gaming presents a plethora of problems. Players never truly own the items they purchase, and these assets often lack interoperability with other games. Although blockchain technology does help alleviate some of these pain points, the team argues that issues still remain. A difficult onboarding process can be offputting for newcomers who are buying crypto for the first time, transactions can be slow and expensive, …

The crypto markets in South Korea have long stood out from the rest of the world, and a lot of this has to do with the “Kimchi premium,” which often causes Bitcoin (BTC) to trade on local exchanges at much higher prices than what’s seen elsewhere. Now, one cutting-edge platform is aiming to capitalize on the fervent interest for digital assets in the country, with an ambitious expansion of its services that sit at the crossroads between cryptocurrencies and gaming. GamerHash says it has already amassed more than 570,000 users in three years and is now planning to make inroads …

Ethereum infrastructure firm ConsenSys and venture capital fund Pantera Capital have led a group of investors in a $5-million funding round for Virtue Poker, according to an announcement on Monday. Other participants in the strategic investment round included blockchain investment outfit DFG and FunFair founder Jez San. Virtue Poker, an Ethereum-based decentralized poker platform, was founded back in 2016 within the ConsenSys suite of blockchain projects. Back in 2020, the company secured a B2C — Gaming Service License from the Malta Gaming Authority. The $5-million investment will be used to bootstrap the mainnet launch of the blockchain poker platform scheduled …

A blockchain project says it offers the first Massive Multiplayer Online Open World boasting photorealistic graphics in virtual reality — a world built and owned by users. Victoria VR is designed to be a universal platform encompassing games and decentralized applications. The resulting metaverse is a shared virtual realm where people are free to do “absolutely anything” — from playing games to trading goods. Quests can even be completed in order to gain access to a plethora of rare rewards. Creativity is at the beating heart of this ecosystem, and players have the freedom to design their very own realistic …

Atari has announced the creation of a new blockchain division as part of an organizational shuffle within the company. In a press statement issued on Tuesday, the gaming behemoth revealed the creation of two new divisions — Atari Gaming and Atari Blockchain. The former will focus on continuing the developmental work on Atari’s catalog of popular retro gaming titles as well as the rebooted VCS consoles. As part of the announcement, Atari also revealed that current CEO Frédéric Chesnais will head the Atari blockchain division, while Wade J. Rosen will take over as the new company chief executive. Before the …

An IT security researcher has been able to adapt Nintendo’s first major handheld game console to mine cryptocurrency. According to a recent YouTube video, user Stacksmashing used the hardware from a Nintendo Game Boy first released in 1989 as a starting point to mine Bitcoin (BTC). Because the gaming console has no built-in wireless capabilities — and largely predates the internet — the YouTuber said he used a Raspberry Pi microcontroller board attached to the Game Boy’s link port and a USB flash card to establish a connection to a BTC node run from his computer. "My goal was to …

Decentralized finance has exploded in popularity over the past year and many analysts have pointed to the 2020 'summer of DeFi' as the primary catalyst for the rallies seen in Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC). In the beginning, investors were able to easily secure 4-digit annual percentage yield (APY) on an almost endless number of attractively priced assets on Uniswap but the increased activity on the Etheruem network eventually led to unsustainable spikes in gas fees and serious network congestion. These skyrocketing gas fees have priced out the average retail investor from participating in even the simplest protocol interactions like …