This week in NFT land we saw Magic Eden causing a rift with NFT creators, Anthony Hopkins temporarily taking out Opensea and Slotie NFT getting four cease-and-desist orders. Buckle up, it’s going to get bumpy.
Magic Eden Splits Community with Royalties Decision
NFT exchange Magic Eden polarised the community this week when it announced that it was following other exchanges in opting for optional royalties, allowing NFT buyers to choose whether or not to offer a kickback to an NFT project.
In doing so, Magic Eden appeared to bow to pressure from similar platforms that have already enabled the feature, but this has led to criticism from those who believe that optional royalties will harm NFT creators who may get nothing for their work.
Anthony Hopkins Collection Breaks Opensea Record
Sir Anthony Hopkins’ Eternal Collection broke Opensea’s record for the fastest sell out this week, taking just seven minutes for all the pieces to be snapped up by eager buyers. Such was the demand for the collection that Opensea actually creaked under the pressure, with Hopkins joking that he has the ability to “crash the internet in one single leap”.
Hopkins has been a keen NFT adopter, and it can be assumed that The Eternal will be the first of many such collections.
Slotie NFT Engaged in ‘Fraudulent’ Sales
Officials in four states filed cease-and-desist orders against NFT company Slotie this week, alleging illegal and fraudulent sales of NFTs. Slotie was accused by the group of funnelling proceeds from the NFT sales into online and metaverse casinos, as well as violating state registration laws by failing to register their securitized NFTs with the appropriate securities boards.
As well as giving investors ownership of the metaverse casinos, the regulators argue that they also allow investors to passively receive a share of the proceeds from the casinos as well as a certain amount of Slotie’s native token WATT, which they said played “a key role in the illegal scheme.”
