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Pixel Penguin accused of ‘charity carpet’, Epic adds new NFT games and more

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Pixel Penguin alleged ‘charity project rug’

The Pixel Penguin non-fungible token (NFT) project has caused a stir this week on what one blockchain researcher, ZachXBT, has alleged is a “charity project rug”.

The project launched quietly in February, but drew a lot of attention on May 31 following a Twitter thread by Web3 influencer Andrew Wang.

Wang claimed that her friend Sarah, known online as Hopeexist1, was the creator of the Pixel Penguins, noting that she had “created a collection to help herself fight cancer.”

At a mint price of $13, Wang claimed that 20% of the proceeds would go to charity, while the other 80% would go towards Hopeexist1’s alleged cancer treatment.

“I will put my representative on the line to say that this is real amidst all the scams in our space,” Wang said, adding: “I often talk to her art teacher when she has gone for treatment and he says that she is the best student. she ever had, that her talent is too valuable, that she must survive”.

Following this, Pixel Penguins NFTs sold out quickly, with the floor price skyrocketing from 0.0099 Ether (ETH) to around 0.0126 ETH worth about $130. However, community members NFT did some digging and alleged that the creator had been profiting from selling stolen art in the past, and was potentially lying about having cancer.

ZachXBT then found the Pixel Penguin smart contract containing over $117,000 worth of ETH, and followed those funds as they were diverted to two new wallet addresses.

Hopeexist1 later deleted his Twitter account and went AWOL. Since then, the minimum price for NFTs has plummeted to 0.004 ETH, or $7.

Epic Games Store will add more blockchain games

Fortnite developers Epic Games will soon be releasing two new blockchain games on their store, adding to the five already available to play.

One of the upcoming games is called Defimons, a Pokémon-inspired free-to-play multiplayer RPG with turn-based combat.

The game will have an in-game currency and NFT battle monster characters with the same name as the title. Epic Games Store does not include a release date.

The other blockchain game is called Project Red, which seems to have open-world elements inspired by games like Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row, along with a first-person shooter gameplay too.

Early gameplay snippets reveal that people will need to purchase Mobster NFT to navigate through the higher levels and interact with play-to-win in-game elements.

Epic Games initially listed Blankos Block Party as the first Web3 game on its store in September 2022, and while these types of games still receive strong skepticism from many traditional gamers, the company is not shying away from this space.

Epic Games recently told Axios in March that it plans to add approximately 20 new blockchain games over the course of 2023 and early 2024.

Related: Japan’s Largest Airline Launches NFT Market

Three Arrows NFT Garage Sale Part Two

After the first auction of $2.5 million NFTs belonging to the defunct cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), the second round is scheduled for this month.

3AC’s NFT collection is called Grails and features a long list of tokens from major projects like CrytoPunks, Tyler Hobbs’ Fidenzas, and Dmitri Cherniak’s Ringers.

In the second round scheduled for June 15, Sotheby’s will auction 37 of 3AC’s NFTs in what it describes as “the largest live digital art auction in history.”

NFTs sold in the first part of the auction. Source: Sotheby’s

Kellogg’s sieves in the metaverse

Kellogg’s has reportedly applied for a long list of trademarks for several of its food brands related to Metaverse, NFTs, collectibles, and crypto tokens.

Some of the brands include Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, Special K, and Pop-Tarts.

According to US Patent and Trademark Office trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis, the firm has shown interest in releasing anything from NFT avatars to crypto collectibles, virtual environments, and VR games revolving around the cryptography.

Other witty news

Some of the most sought-after NFT collections of 2022 have taken a huge hit in value over the past year, with investments in major projects like Doodles, Invisible Friends, Moonbirds, and Goblintown all losing up to 95% of their value in ETH.

On May 31, Web3 wallet-as-a-service provider Magic announced that it had successfully raised $52 million in a strategic funding round led by PayPal Ventures. The funding round also saw participation from venture firms Cherubic, Synchrony, KX, Northzone and Volt Capital, bringing Magic’s total funds raised to more than $80 million.

Magazine: NFT Creator, 0xDEAFBEEF: Mad Scientist’s NFTs Degrade When Traded





This post Pixel Penguin accused of ‘charity carpet’, Epic adds new NFT games and more

was published first on https://cointelegraph.com/news/pixel-penguin-charity-rug-epic-games-store-new-games

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