In this week’s newsletter, read about footballer Cristiano Ronaldo facing a lawsuit after promoting nonfungible tokens (NFTs) tied to crypto exchange Binance, and find out how an NFT collector thwarted a hacking attempt by a person impersonating a journalist. In other news, Azuki DAO is rebranding to Bean, game developer Square Enix announces an NFT collection, and one user claimed tokens worth $11 million in the recent Blur airdrop. 

Cristiano Ronaldo sued for promoting Binance, unregistered securities

Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo faces a class-action lawsuit for allegedly participating in the sale of unregistered securities in partnership with crypto exchange Binance. The famous football player entered a multiyear partnership with the exchange to promote NFT collections tied to Binance’s NFT-focused arm.  

The legal complaint argued that Ronaldo encouraged his millions of followers to invest using Binance and contributed to its growth. The plaintiffs also allege that Ronaldo’s NFT sales successfully promoted the exchange, leading to a 500% increase in searches after the first sale.

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Asked to get a banana, a BAYC owner narrowly avoids a fake Forbes scam

Pseudonymous NFT trader “Crumz” avoided a scam that could have stolen NFTs from his stash. According to the trader, a person impersonating a Forbes journalist asked for an interview about the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection. 

During the interview, the scammer asked Crumz to click a button to allow them to record the interview and tried to distract him by asking him to say something resembling his BAYC NFT. The scammers took control of his screen, but Crumz thwarted the hacking attempt before he lost anything.

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Azuki DAO rebrands to “Bean” as it drops lawsuit against founder

Azuki DAO, an unofficial decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) made for the NFT collection of the same name, announced it is rebranding to “Bean.” The DAO is also dropping its proposed lawsuit against Zagabond, the founder of Azuki. 

According to Azuki developers, the DAO will become a memecoin project and join the ecosystem of Blast, an Ethereum layer-2 platform. The developers also claimed that Bean has already secured a $10 million investment for its development and acceleration.

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Square Enix announces auction dates for Symbiogenesis NFTs

Square Enix, the developer of popular game franchises like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, has started the auction of its Symbiogenesis NFTs. A social media announcement highlighted that the first batch’s schedule is from Nov. 27–28, while a second batch will go out from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4. There will also be a third batch of NFTs to hit the auctions on Dec. 2–3. 

Symbiogenesis is a blockchain game that Square Enix is currently developing. The game will feature Web3 elements such as Ethereum-based NFTs.

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User claims $11 million in Blur token rewards at NFT marketplace’s season 2 airdrop

A user participating in the recent airdrop of the NFT marketplace Blur has claimed tokens worth around $11 million. A wallet with the ENS tag “hanwe.eth” claimed over 22 million Blur tokens in the NFT platform’s season two airdrop. The owner of the address celebrated on social media and posted their rewards for everyone to see.  

While some seemed happy with the results, NFT whale Jeffrey Hwang cursed at Blur after the airdrop, seemingly unhappy with the rewards. Hwang is known to have attempted what some consider the largest NFT dump, which aimed to generate more profits through the airdrop.

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Thanks for reading this digest of the week’s most notable developments in the NFT space. Come again next Wednesday for more reports and insights into this actively evolving space.

Final Fantasy game developer Square Enix announced auction dates for its upcoming Symbiogenesis non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In a Nov. 24 social media post, the team said it would sell the NFTs in three batches. The first batch will be auctioned from Nov. 27-28, the second from Nov. 30-Dec. 4 and the third from Dec. 2 to Dec. 3. Symbiogenesis is Square Enix’s upcoming blockchain game that features Ethereum-based NFTs.

Starting next week, it’s finally time for the start of the auction!

Phase 1: 11/27 12:00 – 11/28 11:59 (JST)
Phase 2: 11/30 12:00 – 12/1 11:59 (JST)
Phase 3: 12/2 12:00 – 12/3 11:59 (JST)

More details herehttps://t.co/MFprrApwio#SYMBIOGENESIS

— SYMBIOGENESIS -NFT Art＆Game Project- | SQUARE ENIX (@symbiogenesisPR) November 24, 2023

According to the game’s documents, the first phase will include facet and mesh characters and will only allow “stakeholders” to participate. This seems to imply that only early investors will be able to participate in the Novemb 27-28 phase. The second and third phases will be available to participants in an “allowlist entry campaign,” the documents state.

From Nov. 7 to Nov21, the game’s team ran the allowlist entry campaign. Collectors were asked to participate in a series of quizzes, as well as a “treasure hunt” that took place within a prototype version of the Symbiogenesis game world.

The participants earned NFT “relics” as a result of these activities, and they scored points toward participating in phase 2. The to 50 highest scores will be allowed to acquire NFTs in phase 2, as well 40 random participants ranked 51st to 300th. The rest of the participants will be allowed to bid on items in phase 3.

Square Enix describes Symbiogenesis as a “narrative-unlocked NFT entertainment” game. It is scheduled to be launched on Dec 21.

Square Enix is the creator of the Final Fantasy series of games, which the company claims has sold over 173 million units. It launched Final Fantasy NFT trading cards on March 31. In April, the company announced it was partnering with Web3 infrastructure provider Elixir, although details of the partnership have been scarce.