Yuga Labs & Their Troubled Auction

GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, and here's the scoop.

⭐️Today's selection:

• 🙋Yuga Labs Auction
• 🕵South Korea Detect Illegal Crypto
• 😎Cool Fact Tuesday
• 👌Selected Meme of The Day
• 📰Bite-Sized News

YUGA LABS AND THEIR AUCTION

Yuga Labs, the creators of the BAYC, have organized an auction for 288 NFTs from the TwelveFold collection.

This is the studio's first project based on the Ordinals protocol.

More than 3,000 users participated in the auction for 24 hours, from March 5 to 6. In total, the studio received $16.49 million.

The maximum bid for one token was 7.1159 BTC or almost $160,000, while the lowest successful bid was 2.2501 BTC, or just over $50,000.

All 288 winners of the auction will receive their tokens (Bitcoin "NFTs" or so-called inscriptions) within a week.

Bids from other users who did not win have been returned already.

This was the reason for criticism against the studio.

The very concept of the auction with the accumulation of funds in one account and the return of unplayed bets "manually" caused outrage.

Even the creator of the Ordinals protocol himself came in for criticism. He called the auction a "degenerate nonsense", accusing the studio of distributing crap.

Nevertheless, top buyers paid as much as 7 BTC for a BTC 'NFT.' They probably wouldn't like hearing such comments about their newly-acquired treasures. Not even mentioning the fact that they... might have... overpaid..?

Also notable is the fact that the project is in no way connected with the rest of the Yuga ecosystem: Bored Ape Yaught Club and other collections.

However, it also perfectly demonstrates that Ordinals (BTC 'NFTs') could compete powerfully enough with Ethereum-based NFTs in the future.

TL;DR: Yuga Labs organized an auction for their 288 NFTs from the TwelveFold collection. More than 3,000 users participated. The studio ended up pocketing $16.49 million.

SOUTH KOREA DETECTS ILLEGAL CRYPTO

The South Korean Customs Service detected large illegal transactions in cryptocurrencies. The total amount for the year was 5.6 trillion Korean won ($4.3 billion).

Here's the catch: Cryptocurrencies in South Korea tend to trade at higher premiums or discounts compared to global markets.

This means that people can "save" money by buying cryptocurrencies at a lower price in another country and reselling them in South Korea (or vice versa).

The reason is that the local authorities do not allow foreign platforms to serve local investors and foreign investors are not allowed to use local platforms.

So... Why do traders engage in illegal stuff? The profit potential seems to be worth enough to cover the potential risks.

This is evident in the increasing number of shady foreign transactions involving cryptocurrencies every year.

For instance, in 2022, the amount of transactions detected by the Customs Service increased by a staggering 211%!

Well. We'll see what the numbers will look like with more and more attention being directed to the issue.

TL;DR: South Korea is facing an issue. Illegal crypto transactions have increased by 211% in 2022.

COOL FACTS TUESDAY

Alright, today we've got a jaw-dropping story from the world of crypto.

There's an address that bought $75k worth of Ethereum (ETH) during its ICO in 2014, and since then, it has never made a single transaction.

This untouched wallet is now worth a staggering $390M+, a 5217x return on the initial investment, making it one of the most mysterious addresses in the crypto universe!

The wallet has also received over $4M in airdrops, a whopping 64x return on the initial investment (Ethereum Classic (ETC) accounts for the major part of the received airdrops).

Well. One way to look at it is... That this is one hell of a mysterious mega-whale wallet that's about to shake the waters, and the earth, once it decides to make a move.

Or...

The wallet's owner might have simply... forgot the seed phase... who knows.

SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• Biden Administration is "Aware of the Situation" At Silvergate Bank. They're refering to Silvergate as 'yet another crypto-related firm' that's having a rough time.
• Uranium Finance Hacker-Related Wallet Moves $3.3 Million Worth of Crypto. All eyez on them.
• Hackers Stole $21 Million in 7 DeFi Protocol Attacks in February. No one's even surprised at this point. This better changes.