From Hollywood Investors to Crypto Fraud — Happy International NFT Day

Kristin Snyder

Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.

From Hollywood Investors to Crypto Fraud — Happy International NFT Day

The first International NFT Day is celebrating the digital assets sweeping the Internet.

The day is meant to highlight the nonfungible tokens that have quickly gained popularity by bringing together companies like a16z, Dapper Labs and Metaverse HQ, among many others. The celebration comes amid the latest crypto crash, perhaps putting a slight damper on things. Still, celebrities like Snoop Dogg are observing the occasion.

From celebrity collection drops to local startups, here’s a roundup of all things NFT.


Investing

Entering the NFT space can be daunting. Scams abound—Titanium Blockchain CEO Michael Alan Stollery recently pled guilty in a crypto fraud case—and even celebrities like Seth Green aren’t immune to phishing. Here’s dot.LA’s guide to safely investing in NFTs. The key takeaways: do your research and be a bit paranoid.

Earlier this month, the California Assembly passed a bill that would require crypto companies to have licenses. If Gov. Gavin Newsom signs the bill, it could help regulate the space.

LA Is The Epicenter of The Latest Crypto Investing Craze: Crypto IRAs Photo by Viktor Forgacs on Unsplash

Creatives Go Crypto

Hollywood has gone big on crypto. Talent agency UTA has signed a number of NFT collections and creators to its talent roster. A number of NFTfilms offer viewers exclusive access to behind the scenes content and control over the characters.

Meanwhile, Bored Apes—of Bored Ape Yacht Club fame—are popping up in movies, TV shows and books. Bored Apes recently appeared in “The R3al Metaverse,” an animated series that brings together a number of NFT characters. The popular animated figure has also made its way to Cameo, where people can buy videos of the 3D ape in action.

Paris HiltonParis Hilton at the 2022 Upfront Summit in Downtown Los Angeles. Image courtesy of the Upfront Summit

Celebrities are also betting on crypto. But Paris Hilton dubbing herself the “crypto queen” doesn’t mean she always follows the rules. The socialite was one of many celebrities to receive a letter from consumer watchdog group Truth in Advertising (TINA). Figures ranging from Justin Bieber to Gwyneth Paltrow were called out for not disclosing financial connections to the NFT collections they were promoting.

Intellectual property laws are also a point of contention with NFTs. Miramax recently settled its lawsuit against filmmaker Quentin Tarantino over his “Pulp Fiction” NFTs—however, plenty of IP-based NFT lawsuits are still up in the air.

NFTs in LA

Across Los Angeles, a number of startups are riding the NFT wave.

NFL legend Tom Brady launched his NFT agency, Autograph, in 2021. The Santa Monica-based company raised $170 million earlier this year. Celebrities like Tiger Woods and Naomi Osaka have used the platform for their own NFT drops. Brady is capitalizing on fans' apparent affinity for collectibles; most “avid sports fans” are interested in NFTs, according to a survey from National Research Group.

A number of LA startups are trying to make NFTs social. TerraZero sells digital land as NFTs for a virtual bar, while Jadu recently launched NFT avatars for its gaming platform. For those looking to make the digital physical, Long Beach’s NFT-themed restaurant accepts crypto payments.

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Relativity Space Launches World’s First 3D-Printed Rocket, But Falls Short of Orbit

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Relativity Space Launches World’s First 3D-Printed Rocket, But Falls Short of Orbit
Photo: Relativity Space

The largest 3D-printed object to ever fly had liftoff yesterday as Long Beach-based Relativity Space launched its Terran 1 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Terran 1 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at around 7 p.m. PST March 22. It was Relativity’s third attempt at sending Terran 1 to the cosmos and the nighttime launch was quite a sight to behold. The clarity of the night sky was perfect to see the blue jets of flame cascading out of Terran 1’s nine Aeon 1 engines, all 3D-printed, as the rocket took off.

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Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Sports Stadiums Are Turning to Immersive Sound to Keep Fans Engaged
Photo: Edge Sound Research

In 2020, the Minnesota Twins experimented with a new technology that brought fans the ability to physically feel the sounds they were hearing in the stadium in the back of their seats as part of a new immersive way to experience baseball.

The tech was made by Riverside-based startup Edge Sound Research, which built a mobile lounge – basically, a small seating section equipped with its technology and on wheels to travel around the stadium – for Twins fans to experience what it calls “embodied audio” around Target field. It was a bid on the Twins’ part to keep fans more engaged during the game, and Edge Sound Research CEO Valtteri Salomaki said the Twins were impressed.

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B Capital’s Howard Morgan On The Key To Early Stage Investing

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

B Capital’s Howard Morgan On The Key To Early Stage Investing
Provided by LAV

On this episode of the LA Venture podcast, B Capital Group General Partner and Chair Howard Morgan discusses his thoughts on early stage investing and the importance of company ownership.


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