‘Media and entertainment brand’ Doodles NFT has appointed a high-profile figure as CEO and partner.
Julian Holguin, former president of Billboard, has joined the company behind a collection of 10,000 NFTs co-founded by digital artist Burnt Toast and Web3 pioneers Evan Keast and Jordan Castro.
Launched in October 2021, it counts Justin Bieber and Snoop Dog among its collectors.
Holguin’s brief is to scale growth and expansion in the mainstream consumer market across music, culture and entertainment including gaming.
He oversaw Billboard’s transformation from a B2B trade publication to a consumer-facing music brand.
“I couldn’t be more excited to join Evan, Jordan, and Scott on this journey. What they’ve been able to accomplish and the way they have innovated in such a short time is truly remarkable,” he said.
“Doodles has already shown that a blockchain-based media company can and will change how we engage with and value content fundamentally. I look forward to helping build Doodles into one of the world’s next great brands and push blockchain and NFTs into the mainstream market.”
Doodles says it is securing some of the most renowned artists in the world and expects to onboard millions of new crypto users.
YouTube Web3 channels axed
Three educational Web3 channels have been shut down by YouTube, allegedly without prior warning.
Ethereum-focused Bankless, which had 150,000 subscribers to its newsletter and podcast channel, had more than 10,000 hours of content.
Among those featured on the channel was Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
Gabriel Haines.eth and the Optimism Collective were also shut down.
Cryptocurrency shorts
An apartment in Braga, Portugal has been sold for three bitcoins. It is the first transaction under new regulations in the country. The deal for the two-bedroom property was worth $110,000 at the time, but following the rapid decrease in the value of Bitcoin is now worth little more than $100,000.
NFT investments made by collectors in 2022 are now at $37 billion, almost the level for the total of 2021.
Crypto prices – Bitcoin plummets to 10-month low
The overall market cap of the more than 19,300 coins is at $1.54 trillion, down from $1.68tr on Friday morning.
Market leader Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto – plummeted $3,000 over the weekend to $33,500 at the time of writing (7am UK). BTC is down 14% in a week.
Ethereum, the second most valuable crypto coin – created as a decentralised network for smart contracts on the blockchain – shed $300 to around $2,450. ETH is 15% down over the course of a week.
Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency created by popular crypto exchange Binance to assist its aim in becoming the infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain ecosystem. Its BNB token lost $33 to $346, leaving it 12% down over seven days.
The XRP token of Ripple, a payment settlement asset exchange and remittance system, acts as a bridge for transfers between other currencies. XRP dropped more than 4 cents to 56.5c, which leaves it 9% down over seven days.
Solana is a blockchain built to make decentralised finance accessible on a larger scale – and capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second. Its SOL token dumped $10 to $74 and is down 18% compared with a week ago.
Cardano is an open source network facilitating dApps which considers itself to be an updated version of Ethereum. Its ADA token, designed to allow owners to participate in the operation of the network, dropped 9c to 70c. It is 11% down over the course of a week but moves above Terra in the market cap valuation table.
Terra, described as a programmable money for the internet, lost a massive $20 to below $62. Its payment token LUNA is 26% lower than its price a week ago.
Meme coin DOGE was created as a satire on the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies but is now a major player in the space. DOGE fell less than 1c to 12c, leaving it 9% down in a week.
Avalanche, a lightning-quick verifiable platform for institutions, enterprises and governments, came out of nowhere months ago to break into the top 10 currencies. Its AVAX token dropped $9 to below $51 and is 16% down in a week.
Polkadot was founded by the Swiss-based Web3 Foundation as an open-source project to develop a decentralised web. Its DOT token, which aims to securely connect blockchains, fell almost $2 to $12.87 and is 17% lower than its price a week ago.
To see how the valuations of the main coins have changed in recent times – and for round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments – click here.
For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.