Latest news with #CryptoPunks
Indianapolis Star
a day ago
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
GameSquare Provides Details for July 29 Livestream To Discuss $250 Million Onchain Treasury Strategy
Conversation will feature visionary crypto leaders Ryan Zurrer of Dialectic, Robert Leshner of Superstate, and Rhydon Lee of Goff Capital FRISCO, TEXAS / ACCESS Newswire GameSquare Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:GAME) provides a link for its previously announced livestream on July 29, 2025 at 12:00 p.m. ET. The livestream will feature Justin Kenna, CEO of GameSquare, alongside its newest advisors and investors, a collective of the most forward-thinking leaders in decentralized finance:. Ryan Zurrer, Founder of Dialectic AG, Robert Leshner, CEO of Superstate, and Rhydon Lee of Goff Capital. Tomorrow's discussion comes at a pivotal moment for GameSquare, as the company accelerates its push into crypto with a series of bold, strategic moves. In just a matter of weeks, GameSquare has partnered with Dialectic, announced plans to scale its ETH treasury to $250 million, and acquired the Cowboy Ape, one of the most iconic CryptoPunks in a headline-grabbing deal that underscored the company's belief in the long-term cultural and financial value of digital assets. These decisions aren't isolated plays; they reflect GameSquare's broader commitment to bringing digital-native fluency to public markets, with an approach rooted in culture, credibility, and strategic Zurrer, Leshner and Lee will provide a transparent, front-row look at the Company's strategy, unpack the thinking behind these latest moves and explain what sets GameSquare apart from other public companies deploying ETH treasury strategies. One of the key messages that the team will relay in tomorrow's livestream is that GameSquare isn't just another ETH treasury company. Since its inception in 2020, it's created a core business that was built by connecting mainstream players to digital native audiences and educating the traditional marketplace on internet culture. A true market leading digital company, GameSquare provides services across advanced technology and data solutions, internet-first creative and production agencies, and the development and execution of authentic content and live experiences that uniquely serve internet-native audiences. The reason GameSquare has progressed their financial strategy into crypto is because it is a natural expansion of the Company's current ecosystem that is truly authentic. The livestream can be accessed at and is also available at About GameSquare Holdings, Inc. GameSquare (NASDAQ:GAME) is a cutting-edge media, entertainment, and technology company transforming how brands and publishers connect with Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and Millennial audiences. With a platform that spans award-winning creative services, advanced analytics, and FaZe Clan, one of the most iconic gaming organizations, we operate one of the largest gaming media networks in North America. Complementing our operating strategy, GameSquare operates a blockchain-native Ethereum treasury management program designed to generate onchain yield and enhance capital efficiency, reinforcing our commitment to building a dynamic, high-performing media company at the intersection of culture, technology, and next-generation financial innovation. To learn more, visit Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains 'forward-looking information' and 'forward-looking statements' (collectively, 'forward-looking statements') within the meaning of the applicable securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as 'expects', or 'does not expect', 'is expected', 'anticipates' or 'does not anticipate', 'plans', 'budget', 'scheduled', 'forecasts', 'estimates', 'believes' or 'intends' or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results 'may' or 'could', 'would', 'might' or 'will' be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to: the Company's future performance, revenue, growth and profitability; and the Company's ability to execute on its current and future business plans. These forward-looking statements are provided only to provide information currently available to us and are not intended to serve as and must not be relied on by any investor as, a guarantee, assurance or definitive statement of fact or probability. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions which include, but are not limited to: the Company's ability to grow its business and being able to execute on its business plans, the success of Company's vendors and partners in their provision of services to the Company, the Company being able to recognize and capitalize on opportunities and the Company continuing to attract qualified personnel to supports its development requirements. These assumptions, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: the Company's ability to achieve its objectives, the Company successfully executing its growth strategy, the ability of the Company to obtain future financings or complete offerings on acceptable terms, failure to leverage the Company's portfolio across entertainment and media platforms, dependence on the Company's key personnel and general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties. These risk factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect the Company which are discussed in the Company's most recent MD&A. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. GameSquare assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. GameSquare Corporate Contact Lou Schwartz, President Phone: (216) 464-6400 Email: ir@ GameSquare Investor Relations Andrew Berger Phone: (216) 464-6400 Email: ir@ GameSquare Media Relations Chelsey Northern / The Untold Phone: (254) 855-4028 Email: pr@ SOURCE: GameSquare Holdings, Inc. The post GameSquare Provides Details for July 29 Livestream To Discuss $250 Million Onchain Treasury Strategy appeared first on DA80 Hub.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Still Loving My ‘If It Went to Zero' NFT
During the NFT boom of 2021, NFT-aficionados said 'I'd love it even if it went to zero' as a tongue-in-cheek countercultural declaration that meaning and membership mattered more than profit. It became kind of like a punk rock ethos in Web3. Burning money (figuratively or literally) was a flex to signal individual belonging to an in-group that positioned itself as the moral antithesis to the speculative frenzy that defined the time. Like the early cypherpunks who fought for freedom and autonomy, or the Bitcoin maxis who held through multiple crashes, the next-gen NFT degens threw eyewatering amounts of magical internet monies at otherwise right-click-and-savable JPEGs to prove they understood the deeper layers of internet culture and crypto ideology. But even the most ardent believers in blockchain's promise are not immune to doubt when a long, cold Crypto Winter drains both capital and conviction. And the NFT bear has been grizzly. Despite a flutter of activity in recent weeks—someone picked up 45 CryptoPunks for nearly $8 million, someone else grabbed an Ether Rock for over $300K, the Pudgy Penguins' floor doubled, Moonbirds tripled—for the most part, the NFT market is down bad. At $156 million for July 2025, we're nowhere near the crazy highs of August 2021 when OpenSea reported over $3 billion in NFT trading volume. For NFT art specifically, trading is down 93% since its 2021 peak. So, assuming your beloved NFT is nearing its rock bottom, it's time to check in and see: do you actually still love it? If so, why do you still love it? And you can't just say: Oh, I love the art, otherwise a screenshotted JPEG would suffice. Because to still love these things at their rock bottom, firstly, you have to be content with the value you paid in relation to the value you still get out of it. Second, there has to be a reason for it to be an NFT. If it were just a pretty picture that can be saved, copied or shared without consequence, there's no point in it being an NFT and no sacrifice in watching it go to zero. As everybody's favorite media theorist, Marshall McLuhan, would argue: the medium is the message. You don't love the image more because of its content. You love it more because as an NFT, the image is something else. The NFT reprograms your role from mere viewer of the image to participant in a medium that tracks ownership, identity, value and status. McLuhan believed every medium is an extension of ourselves. A book extends the eye. A phone extends the voice. Likewise with an NFT, we are in relation to an object in a way we could not have been if it were just a JPEG. Bert Is Evil With this in mind, let me present to you a case study for my beloved NFT: Bert is November 2022, I bought an NFT that is very probably worth zero today. Called Bert is Evil, this was one of the first-ever viral internet memes (circa 1997), minted as an NFT by its original creator 25 years later. Despite its rich history as an early online joke, it failed horribly as an NFT collection. Which is a very big part of why I love it. For me, the NFT is a priceless artifact that you could be marveling at in a museum. It is an historical residue; an immutable memory from a failed crossing between two eras of the Web. It revealed the limits of translation between networks, eras and cultural grammars and how meaning and value in Web3 is not guaranteed by the act of minting. The OG Meme Before Pepe the Frog and Trollface, Wojak, LOL guy and GigaChad, there was: Bert is Evil. Prefaced perhaps only by Mr. T Ate My Balls and Dancing Baby, the early internet meme exposed the sordid secret life of one-half of the Sesame Street duo, Bert and Ernie. Photoshopped into a series of mock photographs, the Muppet was pictured alongside history's most infamous, from Jeffrey Dahmer and Lee Harvey Oswald to Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan. There was 'evidence' of Bert smoking marijuana, fondling a young Michael Jackson's crotch, and forcing Ernie to get a lap dance. Another 'photo' referenced an alleged deleted scene from Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee's leaked sex tape where the newlyweds had engaged in 'a torrid orgy' with Bert. Spawned in 1997 while he was still a student of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines, the website was just a thing that twenty-something Dino Ignacio did to make his friends laugh. Armed with a hand-me-down 14.4 baud modem and a magazine collection spanning Omni Heavy Metal to Mad Magazine, Ignacio was a disciple of mashup culture at the internet's dawn. Bert quickly went viral, traveling through nascent internet forums, email chains and blogs. Back then, the web was participatory and anarchic. Remixing was rampant and authorship blurred, privileging circulation over provenance. Anyone could edit Bert; no one owned him. He mutated endlessly at the hands of Photoshop pirates long before terms like 'fake news' entered our lexicon. When Bert won a Webby, his popularity exploded. The website became so popular that Ignacio could no longer afford to run it on his own. Rather than shut it down, he zipped it up and offered it to others to mirror in exchange for hosting the original site. After decentralizing, hundreds of mirrors popped up across the world, increasing Evil Bert's reach and notoriety. Then, in 2001, an altered image of Bert and Osama Bin Laden appeared on protestor signs at a pro-Taliban rally. Ignacio felt it had gone too far. He shut down the website out of concern. But the meme had a life of its own. It lived on. The NFT A quarter-century later, Ignacio had the idea to immortalize Bert is Evil as an historical, ownable object of record. Minting the meme as an NFT consciously resurrected an icon from a previous technological rupture. The gesture was not meant to be commercial but cultural: an act of media continuity. Initially, my affection for the NFT was grounded in nerdy McLuhianism. But, as Bert failed to attract fans, my relationship to the NFT deepened. I had learned about it by reading the maiden edition of Philippines Vogue (September 2022), where Ignacio had been profiled by the glossy in recognition of his impact on the technology industry. While Vogue is not the obvious place to get your NFT alpha, I was intrigued, thinking this unsold, unknown NFT might have been overlooked and undervalued. In the story, the journalist probed Ignacio as to why he thought his NFT project was a flop. 'Maybe I just don't understand NFTs,' he said. If I were a better investor, I would have recognized this as the red flag it was and continued to flip through my magazine. Instead, I jumped onto Foundation and bought the first of four in the collection. Within hours, a mutual friend had seen the transaction on-chain and connected Ignacio and I on Facebook DM. Ignacio was shocked that one of his NFTs had finally sold, almost a year after the mint. His friend told him that I was someone in crypto so he agreed to a phone call and then, I heard the backstory. Ignacio said he felt like an imposter in Web3, disingenuous, foreign. While he was confident amongst his existing Web2 spheres orbiting game design, software development, VR, avatars and more, he didn't feel the same credibility in Web3 and he blamed himself for not doing enough to publicize the mint. Some of his friends offered advice on how to build hype, like diving into Discords, shitposting on Twitter and doing some Spaces. But Ignacio spent only a couple weeks before giving up. Admission Requirements While crypto is technically permissionless, the culture is less so. As much as the Web3 community loves to bang on about onboarding the next billion, and insists on branding itself as inclusive and empowering, for the most part, it is a clique with its own meeting places, rituals, language and admission requirements. In Ignacio's case, his Web2 pedigree — having held senior roles at Electronic Arts, Oculus, Facebook and Roblox — earned him few reputational points in Web3; sliding into Discord to rattle off those roles conjures that Steve Buscemi 'How do you do, fellow kids?' meme. The Bert NFT failed because Ignacio brought a Web1 artifact into a Web3 context using Web2 assumptions about reputation, attention and status. Ignacio was rightly respected in early internet circles. But he didn't go to the effort to establish a presence in Web3 spaces. Web3 is tribal and tight-knit with a bullshit detector fine-tuned to outsiders who haven't done the time. Web3 doesn't care who you were on other versions of the internet. Web3 gives zero fu*ks what you listed on your LinkedIn. You can't just show up and expect your legacy to mint itself. Web3 wants to know what NFTs you're collecting, what shitcoins wrecked you, what DAOs you've contributed to. Wallets tell stories. And without real, verifiable involvement with crypto, the network sees you as read-only, not write-own. I mean, Ignacio admitted that he couldn't even get into Crypto Twitter. My guess is that he was quickly labeled an extractor rather than a value-add. Which is, perhaps, the fastest way to kill an NFT project before it's even launched. For that reason, I wonder if Ignacio actually dodged a bullet. He never had to have that conversation with his patrons about why those Bert NFTs went to hell instead of the moon. In a final, tragic, oh-so-crypto twist in the story, Ignacio was scammed when he clicked on a malicious link sent by email; a phony inquiry looking to buy one of the other Bert NFTs. Ignacio DM'd me for help and after briefly looking into it, all I could tell him was that the 1 ETH I paid for Bert #1 was gone forever. This was particularly painful since Ignacio had committed to donating 50% of the proceeds of the collection to the Seattle affiliate of the Public Broadcasting Service. The only reason he hadn't made the donation already was because I'd told him (back in 2022) it was better to wait til the whole collection sold, and in that time, the value of his ETH treasury would surely increase. In hindsight, that was the worst advice ever. Not Yet Dead And so, I thought, that was the end of the story. Bert was rich in meaning but poor in bids, had not sold by now, he was never going to sell. I wrapped my faithful homage to this market-resistant NFT, sent the article to my editor, and shot a DM to Ignacio to let him know something was coming out. 'Were you the one who purchased the second one?' Ignacio replied, with a link to a tx hash from a couple days ago. Umm, what?! No! I did not buy Bert #2. So who did? Searching the wallet address, I discovered it belonged to the Bureau of Internet Culture (BIC)—crypto's historic immutable meme treasury, as described at their X profile. Browsing their collection valued over 900 ETH, I saw they held iconic internet memes as creator-minted NFTs including Me Gusta, Baton Roue, Vibing Cat, Unimpressed Nightclub Girl and Kevin, and had paid as much as 11.11 ETH for Dancing Baby and 36 ETH for Keyboard Cat. I couldn't believe it. These guys got it; this was the museum I always knew Bert belonged in. I wondered: If Ignacio had known there was an on-chain collective that actually 'got' Bert, and who recognized Ignacio himself as a visionary whose online legacy deserved a place in a blockchain-based hall of fame… Then maybe, he wouldn't have felt so alone in Web3? And then I wondered: what if I was right in my original thinking that Bert was undervalued at 1 ETH? All it took was for this external body to agree that the NFT was worth buying and suddenly it was. Belief in value needs to be validated—through price action, cultural narrative, influencer support and community hype. And when that happens, the thing does indeed become valuable. But hey, maybe I loved it even more when it was at zero.
Economic Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Cryptocurrency Live News & Updates : NFT Sales Surge 40% to $221M
28 Jul 2025 | 01:05:12 AM IST The NFT market has seen a remarkable 41% increase in sales volume, reaching $221.5 million, with CryptoPunks sales skyrocketing nearly 590%. The NFT market is experiencing a significant revival, with sales volume soaring to $221.5 million, a 41% increase, driven primarily by Ethereum's performance. Notably, CryptoPunks has surged by 590%, reclaiming its position as a leading collection. While the number of transactions dipped slightly, the buyer and seller counts have risen sharply, indicating renewed interest across various blockchains, including Solana and Bitcoin. In parallel, altcoins like Pudgy Penguins and Ethena are also witnessing substantial gains, with Pudgy Penguins increasing by 41% in the past week. Analysts suggest that we are in an 'Ethereum season,' which often precedes a broader altcoin season. However, caution is advised as Bitcoin's price movements could impact altcoin liquidity. As the cryptocurrency landscape evolves, the performance of Ethereum and Bitcoin will likely dictate the trajectory of other tokens, making August a crucial month for traders. Show more
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Crypto Whale Spends $4.3M on CryptoPunks as NFT Market Cap Climbs 66% in 30 Days
A single buyer spent more than $2.9 million on six rare CryptoPunks featuring the coveted hoodie trait, deepening a resurgence in the market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that has pushed up prices and volumes. The purchase, carried out in rapid succession on NFT marketplace OpenSea, came after floor prices for top collections surged across the board. Over the last 30 days, CryptoPunks jumped 29% to nearly 51 ETH (about $190,000), while Pudgy Penguins and Bored Ape Yacht Club saw 66.7% and 9.8% rises, respectively, according to CoinGecko data. The hoodie sweep stands out because a single buyer picked up all of the rare NFTs. In total, the buyer now has 12 CryptoPunks. Market data from CoinGecko shows that overall NFT capitalization jumped 66% to $6 billion in the past 30 days. CryptoPunks' rally saw their share of the market grow past 30%. Despite the rally, the NFT sector is far behind the 2021 and 2022 boom, when the market capitalization reached $16.6 billion. Since then, major marketplaces including X2Y2 have shut down and others pivoted to token trading.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Top NFT collections roar back to life as Ethereum and Solana prices pump
No, you didn't wake up in 2021. But top non-fungible token collections like CryptoPunks, Bored Apes, Moonbirds, and Pudgy Penguins are seeing a sudden jolt in demand, with floor prices of some collections jumping by double digits overnight. The surge comes as Ethereum and Solana — the chains behind most major NFT collections — extend their gains. Ethereum hit a 2025 high of $3,800 on Monday, while SOL climbed to $190, its strongest level in five months. The total NFT market cap is now sitting at over $6.3 billion, nearly doubling from $3.2 billion less than a month ago. 'It feels incredibly good to be aping NFTs on OpenSea again with new ETH I'm purchasing at a rapidly inflating pace,' wrote Mike Dudas, founder of 6MV, the crypto venture fund, on X. 'Higher with haste.' The return of NFTs provides another signal that traders are cycling out of Bitcoin and back into more speculative plays. Other signs include how Bitcoin's dominance of the market has fallen 6.6% to around 61% over the past month, according to TradingView data. Bitcoin's diminishing percentage of the total cryptocurrency market, combined with skyrocketing altcoin prices and, now, the return of NFTs, suggest that investors are rotating into risk-on assets, which analysts say may trigger an altcoin rally. 'For a full-scale altcoin rally, we need two things: profit rotation and confidence,' Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, deputy CEO of crypto exchange Bitpanda, told DL News on July 15. 'Once Bitcoin consolidates and investors begin rotating capital into higher-risk assets, we tend to see altcoins move more aggressively.' CryptoPunks CryptoPunks are quickly climbing in price and dominance. At the peak of NFT mania in late 2021, scoring a Punk meant shelling out more than 100 Ether, back when Ethereum was trading near its all-time high of $4,800. Now, as the market comes back to life, the floor price has climbed back to 48 Ethereum, or about $182,000 per Punk. One whale appears to be betting big on the comeback. A new wallet address spent about $8 million in Ether to sweep 45 CryptoPunks in a single spree, according to Lookonchain data. That surge in demand has pushed the collection's market dominance to more than 28% of the entire NFT market, according to CoinGecko. Honourable mentions Beyond the heavyweights, most top NFT collections also saw a boost. Pudgy Penguins climbed over 14% to a floor of over $60,600, edging out Bored Ape Yacht Club, which rose nearly 13% to over $45,500. Both saw multiple millions of dollars in trading volume over the past day. The only collection in the top ten flashing red was Milady Maker, which dipped by about 1% despite a spike in volume. Still, Milady has quietly led much of the recent rally, with floor prices up nearly 26% to $9,800 so far in July. Crypto market movers Bitcoin has gained 1.6% in value over the past 24 hours and is trading at $119,400. Ethereum is up 3.6% in the same period to $3,800. What we're reading UK's seized Bitcoin stash could get sold off to ease budget deficits — DL News Trump to Unblock Crypto Access in America's $9 Trillion 401(k) Market: Report — Unchained South Korea's won-backed stablecoin ambition sparks crypto debates in Asia — Nikkei Asia What you missed this week — Milk Road Robert Leshner takes investors on 'crazy ride' that ends with a new crypto treasury company and heavy losses — DL News Kyle Baird is DL News' Weekend Editor. Got a tip? Email at kbaird@
