It’s the crossover you didn’t expect, but probably aren’t shocked by: multiple FTX execs donated to the campaign of New York Rep. George Santos. We’ll let you fill in the jokes. This week also brought crypto claims from Gary Gensler and the White House, NFTs from Porsche (scroll to the cocktail party fodder), Bitcoin advocacy from Ted Cruz, and price gains for AVAX, APT, AXS, and MATIC. Have a good weekend!
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Porscheâs debut Ethereum NFT drop crashed and burned, drawing scorn from collectors and founders alike as the brand stumbled into Web3. The luxury automaker tried to sell 7,500 NFT passes with vague utility for an eye-popping 0.911 ETH ($1,475) a pop on Monday, but slow sales forced the company to stop the mint and cut the supply.
Fewer than 2,400 NFTs sold, and Crypto Twitter critics called the drop âtone deafâ and âclueless.âÂ
Despite the backlash, the brand may ultimately emerge relatively unscathed from the wreckage. With a smaller supply, Porsche NFT prices have so far surged on the secondary market, doubling to a current starting price of nearly 1.9 ETH ($3,000). And the company still made $9.7 million from the sales.
Supporters point to rising buzz around the chain, plus crypto prices are broadly up. But thereâs another layer: much of the trading volume comes from the South Korean won trading pair on Singapore-based UpBit, where APT has been listed at a higher price than on rival exchanges.
It’s the âKimchi premium” back again, first made famous by Bitcoin traders.
In our week in review, Dan Roberts, Matthew Diemer, and Kate Irwin talk about more layoffs in crypto and broader tech (including how Google botched its layoffs), the NFT market rebound and Porscheâs NFT drop (fail or surprise success?), Sam Bankman-Friedâs latest claims about FTX US and the surprising list of big companies on the FTX creditor list, and Ted Cruzâs weird effort to get DC vendors to accept Bitcoin.
Decrypt’s Kate Irwin spoke to Marvel and DC Comics alum Sean Chen, who said that while studios have made billions, comic artists aren’t seeing even a fraction of that wealth, and Web3 and NFTs can help.
