Latest news with #NFT
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Axie Infinity exec, NFT scammer testify in Roman Storm trial
Validators, relayers, and private keys. Self-custody and 'smart contract logic.' Decentralised autonomous organisations. HODL. Jurors in the trial of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm were buried under an avalanche of crypto jargon on Wednesday as prosecutors' witnesses explained — or tried to explain — the basics of blockchain technology. Those witnesses included Viet Anh Ho, the chief technology officer at Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis, and 23-year-old Andre Llacuna, one of the people behind a $1.1 million NFT scam. Their testimony continued prosecutors' effort to show that Tornado Cash was the tool of choice for cybercriminals attempting to launder dirty crypto. Storm has been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, and violate US sanctions. He faces 45 years in prison. Testimony Ho recalled how hackers affiliated with North Korea tricked a Sky Mavis employee into downloading malicious software. The hackers then stole more than $600 million in crypto from the software bridge connecting Ethereum and Sky Mavis' blockchain. Much of that crypto was laundered through Tornado Cash. Llacuna detailed his own scheme to steal crypto worth more than $1 million in 2022. That year, the young hairdresser and one of his clients created 8,888 NFTs featuring images of anthropomorphic scoops of ice cream called 'Frosties.' They drummed up interest in the project, promising would-be investors a Frosties-themed videogame and other features that could boost the NFTs' price. They managed to sell all 8,888 Frosties for 0.04 Ether apiece — a total of $1.1 million. Llacuna and his partners promptly deleted the Frosties website and social media accounts. Soon, they tried splitting their haul among fresh crypto wallets. But they realised that wouldn't be enough to cover their tracks. 'It was obvious to us that no matter how many wallets we sent it in and out of, it would still be traceable,' he told jurors Wednesday. One of Llacuna's partners suggested they use Tornado Cash. 'It seemed like the best option for us to hide the money and get away with it,' he said. Llacuna was arrested in March 2021. He pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud, but has yet to receive a sentence. He said Wednesday he was testifying in hopes he would receive a lenient sentence. A third witness, Tornado Cash enthusiast Justin Bram, was asked to explain how the crypto mixer works. Bram made an educational video about Tornado Cash in 2021 and soon began exchanging messages with the protocol's co-founders. They eventually suggested he take a position co-managing a pool of Tornado Cash tokens that could be used to fund marketing initiatives or research. Bram detailed its so-called relayer system, which makes crypto transfers untraceable. He explained how an 'anonymity mining' program offered Tornado Cash tokens to people who deposited and left their crypto in the protocol, beefing its transaction-cloaking capabilities. Bram said he ended his Tornado Cash affiliation in 2021 because 'the regulatory climate was heating up.' Hackers were sending money to Tornado Cash, 'and it seemed like a bad look,' he said Wednesday. But he also said the protocol provides a key service for Ethereum users who want or need privacy. And Storm had never asked him to make videos 'pitching Tornado Cash to money launderers.' 'Moment of radicalisation' Storm's attorneys, in turn, continued their attempt to reframe Tornado Cash in jurors' minds. It was not a tool built for and marketed to money launderers, Storm's attorneys suggested, but a tool for the privacy-conscious that was simply misused by cybercriminals. Under questioning from one of Storm's attorneys, Llacuna acknowledged Tornado Cash was easy to find online — not some forbidden software he had to use the so-called dark web to access. Indeed, US citizens can legally use the crypto mixer. But that wasn't always the case: In 2022, the US sanctioned Tornado Cash, making it a crime for any US citizen to use the protocol. 'The original Tornado Cash blacklist by OFAC was sort of a moment of radicalisation for me,' Tim Clancy, a member of the Silviculture Society, a group that advises the Ethereum Foundation, told DL News outside Storm's courtroom Wednesday. 'Tornado Cash was filling an extremely valuable role.' The sanctions were lifted this year after a group of Tornado Cash users successfully challenged them in court. A federal appellate judge found the government did not have the authority to sanction self-executing software that was, for all intents and purposes, owner-less. That Storm still faces a decades-long prison sentence is a grave injustice, Clancy said. He traveled from Boston to support the embattled software developer. Clancy wasn't the only person who traveled in a show of solidarity. Storm has become a cause célèbre among crypto enthusiasts, who consider his prosecution an attempt to stifle the development of privacy-preserving software. HAI developer Ameen Soleimani was in attendance Wednesday, and other notable crypto developers and enthusiasts plan on attending Storm's trial in the coming days. Clancy said he has personally donated more than $100,000 to Storm's defence — and has a plan to donate more. On Wednesday, he brought a copy of 'PGP: Source Code and Internals,' a book by software engineer Philip Zimmermann. While Zimmermann never faced criminal charges, he became a target for US authorities in the 1990s after publishing online the source code for his Pretty Good Privacy encryption protocol. Clancy spent $600 to buy the book, he said. After just one print run, it has become hard to find. He intends to ask Storm to sign the book. If Clancy succeeds, he'll auction the signed book and donate the proceeds to Storm's defence, he said. 'We don't want him to be martyred,' Clancy said. Aleks Gilbert is DL News' New York-based DeFi correspondent. You can reach him at aleks@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Upturn
a day ago
- Business
- Business Upturn
Troller Cat Presale Enters Final Stages with Over $425K Raised and More Than 1,600 Holders
By GlobeNewswire Published on July 30, 2025, 04:15 IST NEW YORK, July 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The meme-powered crypto project Troller Cat ($TCAT) has entered the 15th and final stages of its presale, raising more than $425,000 and attracting over 1,600 token holders to date. With a listing price set at $0.0005309, Stage 15 tokens are currently available at $0.0001063, offering a potential value gap that has contributed to renewed market interest. This presale milestone follows a consistent rise in participation, reflecting increased demand for utility-driven meme tokens. The project has also published its roadmap, which includes plans for Tier-1 exchange listings, the launch of a staking dApp, and NFT integrations following the presale's conclusion. Utility-Driven Features and Community Momentum Troller Cat operates on a deflationary token model with periodic token burns and staking incentives aimed at supporting long-term ecosystem growth. The project has completed a smart contract audit and KYC verification to enhance investor confidence, and reports indicate positive community engagement across platforms like Telegram and Discord. According to on-chain data, token distribution so far has remained decentralized, with no single entity holding a disproportionate share—an encouraging signal for potential investors watching for whale activity. Strategic Focus for Post-Presale Launch The Troller Cat team states that the project's next phase includes unlocking DeFi utility features such as community staking, liquidity pool farming, and NFT reward systems. These developments aim to build on the momentum of the presale and foster a broader utility ecosystem. With only a few stages left, investors are showing increased urgency to participate before the token transitions to its public exchange listing. For More Information Website: Now: X (Twitter): About Troller Cat ($TCAT) Troller Cat is a meme-themed cryptocurrency project that combines community engagement with decentralized finance (DeFi) features, including staking and deflationary mechanics. The project has undergone a full smart contract audit and KYC compliance process to ensure transparency and security. Contact: [email protected] Disclaimer: This content is provided by Trollercat. The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this content are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily reflect the views of this media platform or its publisher. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information presented. We do not guarantee any claims, statements, or promises made in this article. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or trading in crypto and mining-related opportunities involves significant risks, including the potential loss of capital. It is possible to lose all your capital. These products may not be suitable for everyone, and you should ensure that you understand the risks involved. Seek independent advice if necessary. Speculate only with funds that you can afford to lose. Readers are strongly encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. However, due to the inherently speculative nature of the blockchain sector—including cryptocurrency, NFTs, and mining—complete accuracy cannot always be the media platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any fraudulent activities, misrepresentations, or financial losses arising from the content of this press release. In the event of any legal claims or charges against this article, we accept no liability or responsibility. Globenewswire does not endorse any content on this page. Legal Disclaimer: This media platform provides the content of this article on an 'as-is' basis, without any warranties or representations of any kind, express or implied. We assume no responsibility for any inaccuracies, errors, or omissions. We do not assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information presented herein. Any concerns, complaints, or copyright issues related to this article should be directed to the content provider mentioned above. Photos accompanying this announcement are available at Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same. Ahmedabad Plane Crash GlobeNewswire provides press release distribution services globally, with substantial operations in North America and Europe.
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.
Business Upturn
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Upturn
How Has Crypto Impacted Big Industry in 2025?
By News Desk Published on July 28, 2025, 20:50 IST The cryptocurrency landscape is continually changing and that is what makes crypto such an exciting technology. Crypto not only has an impact within its own ecosystem but also wider industry and commerce. Read on as we assess how crypto has impacted big industry in 2025. Bitcoin Holding New cryptocurrencies are created regularly but 2025 has seen a shift back to Bitcoin as a foundational asset. Investors are no longer looking at Bitcoin as a form of speculation but more as a long-term investment. The value of Bitcoin has hit an all-time high in 2025 and we have seen a rise in the number of Bitcoin Treasury Companies. These are publicly trading businesses that have added Bitcoin as a strategic asset. Many firms are choosing to invest in Bitcoin to avoid currency risk and inflation. The United States government has created the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, so not only are big businesses taking steps towards long term investment in cryptocurrency but so too is the world's biggest economy. Blockchain and the Cloud Cloud computing has become extremely popular in recent years, and a good example of cloud computing is video games. Thanks to the cloud, people can play the latest video games without having to own the hardware to power the games. Other servers and networks are powering the games and users simply login to their account and access the game on the cloud. This works in a similar way to the range of crypto casinos available online, where players access and play the crypto casino games without ever hosting or running the game themselves. The blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger that records the transfer and ownership of digital assets. So, how is the blockchain impacting the cloud and big industry in 2025? While blockchain technology will struggle to replace the cloud, the strengths of both technologies are being combined. By combining the two, it is possible to host blockchain networks on the cloud which means greater security for financial transactions with the efficient data processing capabilities of the cloud. There is no doubt companies are moving away from traditional cloud computing solutions in 2025 and adopting a more hybrid approach that includes the use of the security and scalability offered by the blockchain. Digital Collectibles With the rise in NFTs, big companies are releasing their own digital collectibles. Football is a notable example, and the sport is big business around the world, with millions of people tuning in to matches. The owners of football clubs have witnessed the increased popularity of NFTs and have decided to get some of the action themselves. Manchester United have started their own NFT collection for fans and have taken traditional memorabilia and transformed it into digital collectibles using the blockchain. The beauty of using the blockchain for collectibles means fans can see where the digital collectible came from, who has previously owned it, and how many were created. Football is a massive industry and crypto is beginning to have a major impact on the business side of the sport. Ahmedabad Plane Crash News desk at
New York Post
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
Kain Warwick has sold his NYC penthouse for $29M
Australian crypto entrepreneur Kain Warwick has sold his four-story West Village 'glass box' penthouse at 601 Washington — with a plunge pool and a rooftop hot tub — for $29 million, according to property records. Warwick is taking a hit on the splashy spread, which he bought as a pied-à-terre for $30.65 million in 2021. The residence was asking $36.5 million last December. Warwick is the founder of Synthetix — a crypto-based derivatives platform — and Infinex, a crypto company. 9 The residence fills with light. The Real Estate Production Network 9 The great room is made of grand proportions. The Real Estate Production Network 9 There's plenty of room for dining — with a view. The Real Estate Production Network 9 A view into the kitchen. The Real Estate Production Network In 2021 — the same year that Warwick bought this penthouse — two of his three brothers, Kieran and Aaron Warwick, briefly became billionaires, separately, for their role with their other brother Grant in creating a crypto computer game, Illuvium. It allows players to own their in-game assets, NFT 'monsters,' that they capture, trade or keep. This 'townhouse in the sky' comes with six bedrooms, six baths, two powder rooms, a private elevator and up to 16-foot-high ceilings — along with multiple outdoor spaces. It opens on the seventh floor with a gallery that leads to a 43-foot great room and a 25-foot chef's kitchen. There's also a dining area that showcases downtown views from sliding glass doors that open to a wrap terrace. 9 One of the home's six bedrooms. The Real Estate Production Network 9 The outdoor space is a delight. The Real Estate Production Network 9 There's space for covered dining. The Real Estate Production Network 9 At night, the pool dazzles. The Real Estate Production Network 9 The pool looks out to the Hudson River. The Real Estate Production Network Upstairs, there's a full-floor main bedroom suite with walk-in closets, a gas fireplace and a spa-like bath. Outside, there's a summer kitchen, a pergola-shaded dining area, a fire pit and that plunge pool with an infinity edge — all with downtown views that include One World Trade Center and the Hudson River. Shibumi Development's nine-story, 10-unit condo building was designed by BKSK Architects. The listing brokers were Serhant's Scott Francis, Sara Gore, Ashley Brooke and Ryan Serhant.
