GM and happy Friday!

What an exciting week it’s been…Between the Vanity Fair NFT Cover Collection auction on the APENFT marketplace and Fabio Giampietro’s Nifty Gateway drop yesterday, “The Journey”...and the upcoming FakeWhale Physical Exhibition right here at the Valuart Gallery…How can it get any better?!

⚡ This week's highlights

📢 The APENFT auction featuring the Vanity Fair NFT Cover Collection. 

So far, as of May 27th at 11:40 am, this is how it's going 🔥

• The Plum Thief, by Coup of Grace : 275,666 WTRX ($22,428.73)

• Ludwig, by Von Doyle: 260,000 WTRX ($21,243.56)

• Say the Words That I Can't Say, by The Isolationist: 257,999 WTRX ($21,080.06)

• Ratty Portrait, by Matteo Ingrao : 230,000 WTRX ($18,713.26)

P.s. you are still in time to place your bids, as the auction ends on Monday 👀

🪐 Some clips of Fabio Giampietro as he reveals the backstory and layers behind his latest drop, “The Journey”.

🎨 NFT & METAVERSE NEWS

✨ Vitalik Buterin Proposes Soulbound Tokens as the Web3 Credentials of the Future

“‘Souls can encode the trust networks of the real economy to establish provenance and reputation.”

By the end of 2022 we might already see them in action, and by 2024 see them become mainstream: a new kind of token standard proposed by Vitalik Buterin, Soulbound tokens (SBTs).

Soulbound tokens (SBTs) are non-transferrable NFTs held by unique crypto wallets called Souls, that enable the decentralization of power from major institutions and companies and give ownership back to the users. Of literally anything tied to their identity.

Among its use cases, it can be used for example as a university degree, education credentials, and as web3 credit scores just to name a few. The full paper is definitely worth reading!

✨ Metaverse Company Somnium Space offers “Live Forever” mode to its users

We try to grasp onto any memory or sentimental object possible to get to live our loved ones who are no longer here just one more time…whether it's letters, texts, photos or videos.

But what if it were possible to go one step further?

Metaverse company Somnium Space mentioned it is looking into introducing a feature thanks to which users will be able to continue living in the metaverse even after they depart from the mortal world as we know it.

Technology still has to get there completely, but is almost there. It’s imminent and the possibilities are endless.

In summary, this ”Live Forever” mode will replicate the exact same way a user once behaved when alive, thanks to AI and all information from data: voice, character, gestures, facial expressions…all of it.

And you? Would you choose to live forever?

✨ OpenSea introduces a new protocol, Seaport, to allow NFT trading.

OpenSea introduces a new protocol, Seaport, in order for users to trade NFTs with different token standards including ERC20 and ERC721.

From a user-experience perspective, this means:

• Better transaction fees: the contract foresees a “significant” amount of assembly code compared to Solidity, but does come with the perk of broader control and gas optimization.

• New ways to trade NFTs: individual NFTs from different collections can be subject to direct trade, or traded purely for specific traits. Kind of like we used to do when we traded our Pokemon cards when we were youngsters

✨ Deep face technology of Elon Musk is being used in crypto scams

It’s been all over the place this week and a hot topic up for discussion: a video featuring an Elon Musk deepfake has been circulating, talking about a “new investment project” that people should put their money in to make “30% dividends every day for the rest of their life.”

Either way, Elon Musk quickly commented it was not him.

Tom Graham, thought-leader in this industry and founder of Metaphysic.ai added how there is work needed on awareness around deepfakes, and shared some insight on how we can protect our identity from scammers. Would love to hear even more insight from Tom on this topic!

📈 Crypto & DeFi

✨ The Fed just released its latest Economic Well-Being of Americans Report with a new chapter dedicated to Crypto.

On Monday, May 23rd, the Federal reserve published their annual survey of 11,000 participants and for the very first time included questions on crypto ownership and adoption.

For now, this is the data we have:

• 12% of Americans held/exchanged assets like BTC or ETH in transactions in 2021

• 13% of people that use crypto for transactions do not own a bank account

• 27% of people that use use crypto for transactions do not own a credit card

The road to full adoption of cryptocurrency in everyday life matters is still long, as the data from this survey does reflect the fact that at the moment American consumers are more interested in crypto from an investment standpoint, rather than from a currency one. But we are getting there.

Being Bitcoin legal tender Bitcoin in countries such as in El Salvador, and more seeking to take on this transition in the near future, it will be interesting to see how this changes worldwide.

✨ Stripe to launch a new app that will allow instant Fiat-to-Bitcoin conversions for businesses in the next few weeks.

It was only a few months back, in February, when OpenNode closed a $20 million Series A funding round by U.K. firm Kingsway at a $220 million valuation to further expand.

"The app gives businesses a simple and secure way to convert incoming payments to Bitcoin in real time, automatically or on demand,” comments Josh Held, OpenNode’s head of strategy.

Now, Fintech firm Stripe is officially partnering up with (BTC) payments infrastructure platform OpenNode in order to allow Stripe’s merchant customers to be able to convert payments to bitcoin via the OpenNode app in the blink of an eye.

✨ Balenciaga announces it will be accepting bitcoin and other crypto as payment.

“Balenciaga is thinking long-term about crypto, and fluctuations in currency value are nothing new,” Balenciaga commented.

Balenciaga has officially joined the list of luxury goods and service providers starting to accept bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies along with other recent players this year including Gucci and Swiss luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer.

FakeWhale | Spaces. 🐋

Remember to set your reminder for today at 12 pm EST / 6 pm CEST for FakeWhale Live, hosted by Jesse Draxler along with some very special guests on the @fakewhale_xyz Twitter profile.

We’ll talk about physical exhibits & NFTs and present the upcoming FakeWhale Physical Exhibit at our Valuart Gallery in Lugano this weekend.

Not to mention that the lucky winner of the Von Doyle Giveaway will be announced.

🍿 Events this Month.

FakeWhale Physical Exhibition.

📅 May 28th-May 31st.

📍Valuart Gallery, Paradiso - Lugano (CH)

RSVP-only event via [email protected]

MetaVanity. A meta-exhibition.

📅 Ongoing exhibition.

📍HADEM.

The Lift. An immersive-physical exhibition.

📅 Live until May 31st.

📍MEET – Digital Culture Center, Milan.

📚 Book of the Month.

Just one week left to finish reading this month’s book, Check your Financial Privilege, by Alex Gladstein.

A book all about Bitcoin, human rights, financial privilege, and personal freedom…And why we should not take any of these for granted. This is one you will want to keep on your shelf.

Stay tuned for the full review at the beginning of June.