Crypto News, Dec. 14: Nike Goes Meta

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Could You Forget a $300,000 Fat Finger Mistake?

This former Bored Ape Yacht Club owner can.

Over the weekend, an NFT collector known as Max accidentally listed his X-eyed, one earing's, metallic looking Bored Ape for .75 ETH instead of 75 ETH. That’s a difference of about $275,000.
Due to the nature of blockchain payments (and the ingenuity of NFT buying bots that clearly lie in wait for this type of error), an offer was put forward with a gas price of 8 ETH (which is definitely larger than normal, even with skyrocketing ETH fees) — and the offer was immediately accepted and the Bored Ape was sold for about $3,000 (with that $32,000-ish in gas fees, of course).

It’s now being listed for 85 ETH — or roughly $321,000.

Of course, this kind of error has happened before in crypto (and in regular finance too, of course): remember when that crypto exchange accidentally paid $24M in fees for a $100K transaction? In some cases (like that case), the fees or mistakenly low-priced items were returned. In this case, the NFT wasn’t.

But the most perplexing part of the whole story, IMHO, is Max’s laissez faire attitude to this loss of a $275,000 profit. In an interview this weekend, he said: "The industry is so new, bad things are going to happen whether it's your fault or the tech. Once you no longer have control of the outcome, forget and move on."

If I dropped a $20 bill down a sewer drain, or accidentally tipped a $50 when I meant to tip $5, sure, I could forget and move on. If I accidentally lost $275,000, it would not be quite so easy…

Perhaps we should take Max’s words to heart and apply them to our attitudes when something bad happens in the market? Or perhaps we should dismiss them as the ravings of an insanely rich NFT collector. Up to you!
Play to earn with your Bored Apes?

A blockchain game based on Bored Ape Yacht Club is in the works. In partnership with Animoca Brands, the ape-themed game is set to launch in the first half of 2022. While we don’t know much about how the game will actually work, we know that it will feature play-to-earn mechanics and that owners of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs will be able to use them in the game. See more here.

Give the gift of crypto this Christmas

Robinhood is reportedly planning to allow its users to send cryptocurrency as a gift to their loved ones. According to code found in a beta version of Robinhood’s iOS app, digital gift cards could be available on the trading platform, allowing just 180 characters to write a message explaining just what cryptocurrency is (kidding). And given that a staggering number of gift cards go unredeemed every year, there also appears to be a clever feature: users will be able to retrieve their crypto if it isn't claimed by the recipient. Read on here.

Just do it! Nike has entered the metaverse

Nike has purchased a company that makes virtual sneakers as it attempts to secure a foothold in the metaverse. RTFKT was only founded last year — and it's now been snapped up for an undisclosed sum. The start-up originally raised $8 million in funding back in May — it will now be a part of Nike, helping “accelerate Nike's digital transformation.” Get the scoop here.