NFTs stay hot; Bitcoin torched

Even a crashing crypto market can't contain the non-fungible token (NFT) juggernaut.

Marketplace participants, according to a new DappRadar report, have been purchasing, trading and selling an average of 85,787 NFTs per day (as of late May), an increase of 277% compared to the entire month of January.

On May 12, as crypto markets first began to crater, some 94,000 NFT transactions were recorded (Cointelegraph).

What isn't down?

Bitcoin, down. Ethereum, down. DeFi-related tokens, down. Even stablecoin Tether sank to $0.999 during a spell on Friday morning.

Polygon (MATIC) has been flying high of late but it fell 13% to $1.88 over the past 24 hours as of 8:45 a.m. (EST).

Although MATIC's still up 2% for the week.

To learn the title of Gwar's new EP or the latest Japanese hardcore release, we naturally turn to Decibel Magazine. Kitco News is our go-to for precious metal.

On Thursday, Kitco posted a video interview with Brett Heath, the CEO of Metalla Royalty & Streaming and who has a warning for the universe: the next financial crisis will be sparked by a crypto meltdown: “When you look back on the last few decades," Heath said. “And you look at all of the financial crises that happened, they all have a couple of things in common. And one of them is the mass adoption of a new financial product or a new technology that's not very well understood.”

Asking Bitcoin miners to be more transparent about their energy sources makes sense. That's the take from Castle Island Ventures’ Nic Carter, speaking with Bloomberg, referring to the Bitcoin Mining Council that recently emerged from a meeting, arranged by MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, between Elon Musk and major North American Bitcoin miners.

And while there's a valid debate surrounding Bitcoin's sustainability, it should not be left to Musk to lead it, Carter emphasized (Cointelegraph).

"Bitcoiners are still intensely skeptical of Musk," Carter said. 

Folk music aficionados booed Bob Dylan when he plugged in an electric guitar in 1965. Fourteen years later, hard rock group Kiss cut a disco record – the blowback from that still hasn't receded.

These days, the NFT explosion has left the music world divided (Decrypt).

Some performers have condemned NFTs as nothing more than a tawdry cash-grab. Songwriter Jacob Collier, citing environmental concerns, canceled his planned NFT auction.

Emerging-technology-steeped composer Holly Herndon, who uses machine learning and neural networks to conjure otherworldly vibes, just sold an NFT for 13.1 ETH (about $36,500) on Foundation’s crypto art marketplace.

Herndon’s “Crossing the Interface (DAO) I” incorporated digital animation created using software called Clip, which generates images from text by scanning the internet for relevant images that are blended into a distorted dreamscape.

Herndon is hip to why a lot of musicians are resentful of the NFT wave, acknowledging that some artists are able to cash in on brand new forms/forums while others get left behind.