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Success Story: Shahriyar Nasrmalek

“The Certified NFT Expert™ Instructor-Led Training has helped me understand the topic of Non-fungible Token and this will 100% help me to advise customers in a much better way,” says Shahriyar Nasrmalek, who successfully completed his ILT course from Blockchain Council.

Shahriyar, who describes himself as a blockchain consultant, believes that Certified NFT Expert™ Instructor-Led Training has motivated him to continue learning about this growing and beneficial technology.

Over the last two years, he has been working with Asan Pardakht in Tehran. Presently he is working as a Technical Project Coordinator, and has served as Business Intelligence and Data Engineer and ITIL & ITSM expert in the same organization. 

Talking about his educational qualification, he has completed his bachelor’s in Applied Science (IT) from Fontys University of Applied Sciences. Being a technocrat, Shahriyar holds various certifications, including Acadium Apprenticeship, Blockchain:Foundation and Use Cases, and many more.

Now that he has completed his NFT ILT from Blockchain Council, when asked about his takeaways from the online training, he replied that “Overall it was good, the benefit of online classes is the knowledge and experience sharing which was happening at this course, very good. Although some questions were very basic questions, but reviewing basic stuff is always good.”

He further shares, “Since NFT is a new trend/topic nowadays, I have been researching it for a long time. Then I saw this course and wanted to be the 1st to hold this certificate. As a blockchain consultant, I had and have clients that want to know about NFTs and I wanted to be120% confident when talking to them, so I took this course which turned out to be very useful and amazing.”

Initially, Shahriyar was struggling to fully understand how NFT works and how it can be implemented in different sectors. After going through the Certified NFT Expert™ Instructor-Led Training, he feels more confident within this domain.

Overall, Shahriyar seems satisfied and confident with the online NFT training as he mentions, “I am sure it will help a lot and open new doors to me in my career.”

Success Story: Shahriyar Nasrmalek

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Hedge fund that shorted GameStop closes as $1.13B GME stock offer completes

One of the hedge funds badly burned in the infamous GME social media driven short squeeze is closing down, while GameStop itself has just completed its $1.13 billion equity offering.

According the Financial Times, London-based White Square Capital operated by Florian Kronawitter has closed its main fund and will return capital to investors.

White Square Capital reportedly had $440 million in assets under management (AUM) at its peak. The hedge fund was one of many that suffered double digit percentage losses from short positions in January, when the Wall Street Bets subreddit helped pump GME’s price from $21 on Jan. 12 to around $345 on Jan. 27.

However the FT reported a source as saying the fund’s closure was unrelated to its GameStop misadventure. In a letter to investors, co-founder Kronawitter cited the traditional equity long-short model was being “challenged” in the current financial climate, as there are “way too many fish in the pond” that operate with the same long-short strategy.

“The traditional edge is being arbed away [eroded by other investors], there’s an oversupply of capital,” Kronawitter said.

The co-founder also highlighted that the hedge fund’s opportunities for arbitrage have “diminished” due to the “onslaught of capital caused by central bank monetary interventions.”

These factors are also accompanied by the relative ease of access to information and cheaper investment alternatives, with Kronawitter asserting that it brings it to question how the management fees from hedge funds can be justified in the current market.

In a Reddit thread discussing the news on the r/wallstreetbets subreddit, members of the group shared their delight, with user “turtleduck77” likening hedge funds that shorted GME to dominoes falling, noting that its “Time to invest in dominoes! The game not the pizza.”

Related: New decentralized crypto exchange is inspired by r/Wallstreetbets

GameStop completes ATM offering

Yesterday GameStop announced the completion of an at-the-market (ATM) equity offering, with the company selling five million shares of common stock generating almost $1.3 billion before commissions and offering expenses.

“GameStop will use net proceeds from the ATM Offering for general corporate purposes as well as for investing in growth initiatives and maintaining a strong balance sheet,” the announcement read.

One of the growth initiatives likely to be funded is GameStop’s NFT marketplace set to be launched on Ethereum.

While details are sparse at this stage, the firm’s blockchain division is reportedly headed by the former business operations leader of Ethereum and Loopring DEX, Matt Finestone.

The smart contract platform is based on the ERC-721 NFT standard and was created by foobar, a developer who has worked on wrapper solutions for the classic version of Crypto Punks, HD Mooncats, and MooncatHelper NFT projects in the past.

While top crypto assets and memecoins have been in a major down trend since May 12, GME’s meme stock has increased 36.6% within that time frame, increasing from $161 on May 12, to $220 as of today, according to TradingView.

In comparison, data from CoinGecko shows that crypto’s nearest equivalent in meme coin Dogecoin has cooled down, has dropped 64% — declining from a price range of $0.50 on May 12, to $0.18 today.

Hedge fund that shorted GameStop closes as $1.13B GME stock offer completes

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3 reasons why Ethereum may underperform Bitcoin in the short-term

Ether (ETH) price outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) by 173% from March 28 to May 15. The incredible bull caused the token to reach a $4,380 all-time high. However, as cryptocurrency markets initiated a sharp drop on May 12, the trend started to reverse, and since then, Ether has underperformed by 25%.

Some might say it is a technical adjustment after a strong rally. While this partially explains the move, it excludes some critical factors, including the fast advance of smart-contract network competitors and Bitcoin being adopted as an official currency for the first time.

Ether / Bitcoin price at Binance. Source: TradingView

Notice how the ETH/BTC ratio rallied again on June 8, reaching 0.77 despite Ether’s price remaining 36% below its all-time high and ranging near $2,800. To understand what could have been driving the ratio, analysts need to analyze Ether and Bitcoin price drivers separately.

Mike Novogratz may have been misinterpreted in his interview

Ether’s bull run potentially got an extra leg due to intense praise from institutional investors. Traders could have picked up a sense of urgency, known as FOMO, and promptly shifted their Bitcoin exposure towards the leading altcoin.

On May 13, New Yorker magazine published an interview with Mike Novogratz, the founder, and CEO of Galaxy Digital. In the conversation, Novogratz said:

“All of a sudden, you have decentralized finance and NFTs both on Ethereum at the same time roughly, with wild accelerating growth.”

Novogratz was then questioned on how much higher Ether could reach, to which he answered:

“You know, it’s dangerous to give predictions on the highs. But could it get to $5,000? Of course it could.”

While an Ethereum holder might have interpreted it as a prediction, others could have understood it as a wild guess, likely depending on general crypto market conditions.

However, roughly a week later, a report from Goldman Sachs revealed the global investment bank believed that Ether had a “high chance of overtaking Bitcoin as a dominant store of value.” Interestingly, one of the main quotes in the report was directly from Novogratz’s interview with the New Yorker.

At its peak, Binance Chain controlled 40% of DEX volume

While Ethereum has kept its 80% dominance on net value locked in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, Binance Smart Chain (BSC) has reached a 40% market share on DEX exchanges.

PancakeSwap DEX daily volume vs. top 10. Source: DeBank

The successful growth of the DeFi industry and non fungible token (NFT) markets caused intense congestion on the Ethereum network, raising median fees to $37 in mid-May. That bottleneck triggered an activity exodus to competing networks, and PancakeSwap was best positioned to capture that flow.

Related: Here’s why one analyst says Bitcoin will outperform Ethereum in the short term

To make things worse, important DeFi projects expanded to Binance Smart Chain, including yield aggregator Harvest Finance and decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch. Investors quickly realized that the trend could continue as the competing smart-contract network provided an easy solution for dApps looking for cheaper alternatives.

No country is adopting the ‘Ethereum standard’

Bitcoin might have had a subpar performance over the past 30 days because it has failed to break the $42,000 resistance multiple times. However, a major milestone was achieved when El Salvador became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender on June 12.

After the Central American country made the decision law, a handful of other Central and South American countries began discussing the advantages of taking a similar path.

Ethereum is undertaking a redesign that will change the issuing rate and how entities get paid to secure the network by moving away from the Proof of Work model. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is making sure that every upgrade is backward-compatible and maintaining its strict monetary policy.

That is the main reason why Ether will not outperform Bitcoin over the next 12 months, or at least until there’s a better understanding of how Ethereum network dominance of smart contracts will be.

Professional investors avoid uncertainties at all costs, and cryptocurrency markets already present plenty of that. There’s just no reason for institutional investors to ignore the risks while competing networks eat Ethereum’s lunch.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

3 reasons why Ethereum may underperform Bitcoin in the short-term

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What is NFT in Crypto? and why it matters in crypto world?

Understand NFT in Crypto

It is seen that the Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have exploded from the ether this year. Ranging from any form of art and any kind of music, types of tacos, and varieties in toilet paper, these particular digital assets have been selling like the exotic Dutch tulips from the 17 to-century—some even for around millions of dollars.

However, are these NFTs worth your money or this hype? Experts say that NFT crypto is a bubble poised to pop, much like the previous dot-com craze or the Beanie Babies. However, others believe that the NFTs have come here to stay and change the investing game forever.

Table of Contents

  • What is essentially meant by an NFT?
  • How Is an NFT Different from Cryptocurrency?
  • How do the NFTs Work?
  • Why are NFTs so popular?
  • What are the NFTs usually used For?
  • What are the risks to be kept in mind while investing in NFTs?
  • What is the possible future for the NFTs? 
  • How do I get to invest in NFTs?
  • Conclusion

What is essentially meant by an NFT?

To get to know the famous question of what is NFT crypto, one must understand how NFT is essentially a particular digital asset that tends to represent numerous real-world objects like any art, certain music, countless in-game items, and multiple videos. They are usually bought and are as well sold online and often about cryptocurrency. These have generally been encoded with the same particular type of underlying software as many other cryptos.

Numerous NFTs, which are at least in these particular early times, have been multiple digital creations that are already existent in some other form in any other platform, like the several iconic video clips from that of the NBA games or any different securitized versions of any state of digital art that has already been floating around and about on Instagram.

How Is an NFT Different from Cryptocurrency?

NFT basically stands for non-fungible token. It has been generally built by using the same particular type of programming, just like cryptocurrency, which would either be Bitcoin or Ethereum; however that is where this similarity would end.

It is to be understood that any form of physical money or any cryptocurrencies are basically “fungible,” meaning that they might get traded or exchanged for one another. They have also been equal in their value, just like one dollar would always be of the same value as another dollar. Similarly, one Bitcoin would always be similar to any other singular Bitcoin. The fungibility of Crypto makes it a relatively reliable means of being able to conduct transactions on any given blockchain.

However, NFT cryptos are indeed different. Each NFT has a unique digital signature, making it impossible for these NFTs to get exchanged for another or become equal to any one of the others and hence are deemed non-fungible. 

How do the NFTs Work?

NFTs tend to exist on a particular blockchain, usually a specific distributed public ledger that records the multiple transactions that occur. You would probably be the most familiar with any blockchain as a basic underlying process that makes these cryptocurrencies a usual possibility.

To be very specific, these NFTs are usually held on the various Ethereum blockchain, even though the other blockchains might give them the necessary support.

The NFT, which is created, or rather “minted” from any of the digital objects which tend to represent both the tangible and the intangible items, often include :

  • Art
  • GIFs
  • Videos and sports highlights
  • Collectibles
  • Virtual avatars and video game skins
  • Designer sneakers
  • Music

It is to be understood that these NFTs tend to get any sort of exclusive ownership rights. Yes, you read that right. The NFT cryptos can have only one particular owner at any given time. The unique data of the NFTs usually makes it extremely easy to get verified with their very own and helps to transfer numerous other tokens in between their owners. The particular owner or the initial creator might also store any precise information within them. For instance, an artist might sign their artwork, and they can do so by including their particular signature in the metadata of the NFT.

Why are NFTs so popular?

This particular coronavirus pandemic has indeed played a massive role in the present NFT boom. The absolute value of these NFT transactions quadrupled and went up to $250 million in the previous year, according to research from NonFungible and the BNP Paribas-affiliated research centre or firm L’Atelier.

That has been in no tiny part since the stay-at-home restrictions had paved a path that eventually resulted in the people spending much more of their precious time surfing on the internet and saving cash, which resulted from the lack of commuting. It has been similar to the particular rise of the retail traders who would be betting on the GameStop and the other, which led to historically unloved stocks, which were eventually promoted on the Reddit board of the WallStreetBets.

What are the NFTs usually used For?

Several blockchain technologies and the best NFT crypto artists and content creators have provided a unique opportunity to monetize their numerous wares. For example, the artists would no longer be dependent or rely on multiple galleries or any particular auction houses to sell their art. Instead, this artist might sell this piece of their art directly to any interested consumers as a specific NFT, which would also allow them to keep with them much more of their profits. In addition to this, the artists might also program in the royalties to receive a certain percentage of the numerous sales whenever their submitted art would get sold to any particular new owner. This has been an attractive feature since the artists generally do not tend to receive any future proceeds right after their art has been first sold.

What are the risks to be kept in mind while investing in NFTs?

NFTs have constantly been catching the necessary attention of several high-profile technology investors, numerous major global corporations, and the famous artistic community. The various NFT proponents tend to say that these could, in turn, turn out to be the future of the multiple collectables and would, in turn, allow the users to be able to prove that they own the necessary digital assets. However, this flurry of interest tends to echo the particular Gamestop Saga and also the rise of the Wall Street Bets available on Reddit. 

Like any other investment, NFTs also tend to come along with their concerns and risks. When given their seeming infancy, the particular fact that these NFTs have yet again been ready to gain a certain mass acceptance would mean that they have been a somewhat speculative investment. This would, in turn, suggest that they have been prone to both the high rises and the steep drops in any such values.

The supply and the necessary demand usually drive NFTs, and as a result of this sudden surge in demand, there have been buyers who are very well prepared and are ready to pay what would seem to be a ridiculous price. However, it is to be noted that there would be no such guarantee to ensure that these prices would always continue to rise.

What is the possible future for the NFTs? 

While these might appear to be somewhat speculative at this moment, many technologists believe that NFTs could represent an entirely brand new economy based upon specific digital ownership. 

The songwriters or any such creators could make good money just by selling their works directly to their determined fans and, in turn, collect a specific royalty with every time their deemed NFT gets re-sold. The developers might also be able to build an infrastructure and the platforms, which would help enable these new markets. 

How do I get to invest in NFTs?

Well, if you have been looking for multiple ways to invest in the necessary NFTs, you would be required to be familiar with the cryptocurrency and the essential need to own the same, which would, in turn, have to be kept in a particular digital wallet. You might use specific platforms like that of the CoinJar, the Coinspot, or maybe the Independent Reserve to purchase the required Ethereum, which could, in turn, be used as the necessary currency for the NFTs. 

Conclusion

It is to be understood that there has been a relatively wide range of multiple reasons which prove why people are often attracted towards investing in these NFTs. People might want to collect these NFTs for any particular emotional reasons (which might be the social status), or maybe because of the prospect of the re-selling of these NFT cryptos at a relatively higher price which would, in turn, be based on the necessary excitement and the momentum of that particular moment or the scenario. For better understanding, you might as well refer to  https://www.blockchain-council.org/.

What is NFT in Crypto? and why it matters in crypto world?

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CNN selling historic news ‘moments’ as NFTs

CNN has followed Fox and Time Magazine into the NFT market, announcing the launch of collectible historic moments from the news.

CNN’s NFT project is dubbed “Vault by CNN: Moments That Changed Us” and includes a series of tokenized iconic moments from its 41-year history, along with a vault to purchase, store and display the NFTs.

Vault by CNN: Moments That Changed Us

The news organization has not revealed which specific historic moments will be tokenized, however, it noted that themes including CNN exclusives, notable firsts, world history, and presidential elections, will be covered.

The initial launch will include six weekly drops starting from late June, with CNN teasing the first drops may depict space travel and election results. The NFTs will be sold in a combination of open and limited editions.

The NFTs will be minted on the Flow blockchain, which CNN chose for its energy-efficient proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Flow is also home to NBA Top Shot, which has had huge success selling iconic sporting ‘moments’.

To purchase NFTs, users will need to sign up to CNN’s vault, where they will store their moments. Cryptocurrency is not be required to purchase, with the platform accepting credit cards via third-party payment platform Stripe. The vault’s description reads:

“Until now, there has been no way to ‘collect’ these moments. Users can often find old footage online, or packaged up in documentaries, but they cannot ‘own’ them or display them in the way they can with a print newspaper or magazine.”

CNN has also partnered with video framing firm Infinite Objects so that users will have the option of rendering their NFT onto a screen and displaying it physically offline. The vault’s description reads.

Interestingly CNN’s online archive already boasts 700,000 hours of news content that can already be purchased and downloaded without conferring ‘ownership’.

Despite putting forward ownership as a value proposition of the NFTs, they note that “CNN retains copyright and ownership over the content.”

Related: Want to own an NFT of your favorite movie scene? Soon, you might be able to

A growing number of news outlets and media organizations have entered the NFT market in 2021.

CNN’s move into NFTs follows Fox Corp’s announcement of a $100 million creative fund for NFT content creation yesterday to accompany its animated tv shows.

In late March, Time Magazine entered the market with three tokenized magazine covers on SuperRare, with the “TIME Space Exploration — January 19th, 1959” generating the biggest sale of 135 Ether (ETH) worth around $318,000 at today’s prices.

Since then, Time has dropped another seven NFTs depicting magazine covers, with the “TIME First Issue — March 3, 1923” fetching 120 ETH worth roughly $283,000 in June.

CNN selling historic news ‘moments’ as NFTs

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