The NFT boom was supported by a healthy and bullish crypto ecosystem and positive investor sentiment. However, Bitcoin’s bear market had an adverse impact on the crypto ecosystem.Nonfungible tokens (NFT) took center stage in the year 2021 as artists, influencers, A-list celebrities and the sports industry finally came across a fan engagement tool that empowered the general public to cash in on their success. However, the hype around NFT did not manage to stand its ground as sales plummeted to one-year lows amid the ruthless bear market of 2022.

The NFT boom, which started in early 2021, upheld its glory until May 2022 — supported by a healthy and bullish crypto ecosystem and positive investor sentiment. However, Bitcoin’s (BTC) struggle to hold on to its all-time high prices had an adverse impact across the crypto ecosystem.more

Sales of Sorare NFTs are up 795% over the past 24 hours after adding the French star as an investor and ambassador.Sorare, an Ethereum NFT-based fantasy soccer game, signed its first player ambassador this week—and secondary sales of the game’s NFT player cards have been surging ever since.

On Wednesday, Sorare announced the signing of soccer star Kylian Mbappé, forward for Paris Saint-Germain F.C. and the World Cup-winning French national team, as an investor and global ambassador. Sorare has also pledged support to Mbappé’s charity, Inspired by KM, as part of the alliance. It is Mbappé’s first move into the Web3 space.more

Bitcoin price action will seal monthly losses over 40% for the first time in 11 years if it closes at $19,000.Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it abandoned $19,000 to hit its lowest in over ten days.

Bulls failed to preserve either $20,000 or $19,000 at the hands of limp U.S. stock market moves, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index down 1.8% and 2.6%, respectively, at the time of writing.

At the same time, the U.S. dollar once again staged a comeback to fix a trajectory toward twenty-year highs seen this quarter.

The U.S. dollar index (DXY) was above 105.1 on the day, coming within just 0.2 points of its highest levels since 2002.more

Bitcoin bulls still have a battle on their hands in low-volume weekend trading, analysis warns, while altcoins preserve multi-week record gains.Bitcoin was on track to log slights gains at its weekly close, the first weekly green candle — albeit small — since May.

Before then, however, anything could happen, according to on-chain analytics resource Material Indicators (MI).

Referencing recent weekend price action, MI recommended Twitter followers to not be complacent in the absence of weekday volume.

“If BTC can take out the 200 WMA there is room to run,” part of one post read:more

The crypto storage firm will allow institutions to stake the second-largest digital asset by market cap. By paving the way for institutions to stake their Ethereum, we’re providing heightened legitimacy to market-tested assets—and in the process, eliminating any hot wallet risks for institutions looking to generate new earnings from crypto,” Diogo Mónica, co-founder and president of Anchorage Digital, said in a statement.

The idea is that Anchorage Digital will keep funds safe for institutions—including banks, venture capital firms, and even governments—by holding their crypto in cold storage.more

Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs are made by Nazi racists? An elaborate troll has gone far enough, BAYC co-founder says.Six months after Yuga Labs first responded to accusations that its NFT collection, the Bored Ape Yacht Club, contained racist imagery, its founders have published a blog post addressing the issue in further detail.

“We’ve become the target of a crazy disinformation campaign accusing us—a group of Jewish, Turkish, Pakistani, and Cuban friends—of being super-secret Nazis,” Yuga Labs co-founder Gordon Goner (whose real name is Wylie Aronow) wrote on Medium on Friday.more

If previous downturns are any indication, the energy consumption of the Bitcoin network could fall further still.The Bitcoin network's power consumption has fallen to 11 GW as of yesterday, down 27% from 15 GW in April, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI).

The index, which estimates the amount of power used by Bitcoin miners, is maintained by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF). The CCAF estimates prices by determining a hypothetical maximum and minimum demand for a given day and produces a guess at actual consumption.more

The e-commerce platform is allowing brands to make their shops more exclusive.Shopify is leaning into NFTs as the future of e-commerce.

The online shopping giant, which allows small businesses to create custom e-commerce shops, is launching NFT-gated storefronts as a new feature for brands looking to make their stores more exclusive, Shopify announced Wednesday.“Invite your community into a world that recognizes and rewards loyalty,” a narrator says in Shopify’s announcement video, which features a skateboarding woman who goes through a pastel portal and turns into a Doodles NFT.more