- World marks anniversary of Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on jobs data
- Cancer, cardiovascular drugs tipped for Nobel as prize week opens
- Tunisia incumbent Saied set to win presidential vote: exit polls
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Oil extends gains, jobs report lifts Wall Street
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
- Oil extends gains, Hong Kong stocks resume rally
- 'A man provides': Ukrainian miners send families away as Russia advances
- EU states greenlight extra tariffs on EVs from China
- Hong Kong stocks resume rally, oil dips after Middle East-fuelled surge
- Crude stable after Israel-Iran surge, Hong Kong stocks resume gains
- Hera spacecraft to probe asteroid deflected by defence test
- US dockworkers to head back to work after tentative deal
- After Helene's destruction, North Carolina starts to rebuild
- Dockers end three-day strike at Montreal port
- What next for OpenAI after $157 billion bonanza?
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- Milan's Morata moves house after Inter-fan town mayor 'violates' privacy
- 'Devastating' storm hits Augusta National but Masters will go on
- Relief in Brazil, Asia over delay to EU deforestation rules
- Oil prices jump, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Biden says 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
- Oil prices rise, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Oil rallies, stocks mostly retreat on Middle East tensions
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- 'Welcome relief': Asia producers hail EU deforestation law delay
- Japan PM slated to announce plans for 'happiness index'
- Turkish inflation falls less than expected in September at 49.4%
- Easing inflation lifts profit at UK supermarket Tesco
- Skiing calls on UN climate science to combat melting future
- China wine industry looks to breed climate resilience
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong drops after surge
- Dutch airline KLM unveils 'firm' cost-cutting measures
At Web Summit, 'Bored Apes' emerge from swamp but remain murky
With a blast of "Break on Through" by The Doors and a flashy video of cartoon apes careening around a fantasy landscape, the boss of one of crypto's most secretive companies took to the stage on Thursday.
Nicole Muniz, CEO of Yuga Labs, had a tough mission at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon –- to explain what exactly the "Bored Ape Yacht Club" (BAYC) offers the world.
BAYC is a set of 10,000 auto-generated images of cartoon apes sporting various expressions and accessories, with a back story about them living in a swamp.
Enthusiasts have shelled out many millions in trading the images, which come in the form of digital tokens known as NFTs.
Celebrity owners range from Justin Bieber to Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow.
But Muniz was keen from the off to sketch out a wider concept of the company, tying it to "web3" –- an imagined future for the internet that has cryptocurrencies at its heart.
"We need to be thinking about how we can help onboard the next 100 million people into web3," she told the audience.
"That's really a true mission for us in this company."
Her wider focus was unsurprising as interest in NFTs has dropped off a cliff.
Trading volumes crashed by 97 percent between January and September, according to Dune Analytics.
Yet Yuga Labs has a notional value of $4 billion and its apes are among only a handful of NFTs that still sell -– one fetched $450,000 last week.
- NFT 'community' -
The company has been an enigma since it burst on to the scene last year.
Its founders tried to stay anonymous but BuzzFeed News revealed their identities in February.
The Web Summit was supposed to play host to Muniz and co-founder Greg Solano in one of their most high-profile public appearances.
But he pulled out just a couple of hours before his talk.
"Hey Lisbon Apes, not feeling well at all and need to skip my panel at WebSummit today," he tweeted.
"Glad I got to meet so many of you last night though."
Ironically, it was this sense of "community" in the real world that was flagged by Muniz as one of the secrets of BAYC's success.
"I was talking to an ape last night and they were talking about being at ApeFest," she said, referring to meet-ups the fans host in New York.
"You're living and breathing these communities. These people are your friends."
- 'Unclear' licences -
Yet on the face of it, the conceptual framework of Muniz's pitch is the same as almost every other NFT project.
She talked of community, promised a big new multi-player game and envisaged a world where NFTs would somehow be the keys to a magical online world.
"We have a vision of a future where people can own these assets –- whether they're NFTs or digital collectibles, whatever you want to call them," she said.
"You can take them where you want, you can build on them and monetise."
She claimed BAYC was unique in offering owners full intellectual property rights to do whatever they like with their NFTs and cited the Bored & Hungry restaurant chain, which has an ape on its logo.
But a recent report by the specialist website Galaxy.com said BAYC's licensing agreement did not give the buyers any IP ownership, describing the terms as "unclear and potentially misleading".
The authors speculated that high-profile ape-related projects had probably negotiated separate deals.
Muniz said ultimately it was her mission to make it easier for people to understand "web3" and enter its world.
But even the title of her talk -- "NFTs, metaverses and the road to Web3 Disney" -- was no clearer at the end than it had been at the start.
X.Cheung--CPN