Snoop Dogg, Billy Ray Announce NFT Project; Elon Musk Backs Crypto Payments For Twitter

The non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are entering the mainstream world in a big way, now with the iconic rapper Snoop Dogg announcing his collaboration with country music singer Billy Ray Cyrus and the Avila Brothers to release an NFT collection. According to a Binance report, the “A Hard-Working Man” NFT collection will be released in collaboration with Animal Concerts, a pioneer in virtual world events.

The report said that the NFT project would prioritise collaboration among musicians. The NFTs will act as membership cards for IRL events such as concerts, comedy performances, meetings, celebrations, and poker games.

“The NFTs are classified into three categories: The Hustler Version will be the first to go live, with 9,999 unique NFTs. Owners will have direct exposure to virtual world events, special celebrations, a Snoop Dogg party at a live event, digital concerts, gaming bundles, and other benefits,” Binance said. In addition, it noted that the subscribers to the Overachiever Edition would have access to a special event with Snoop and Billy Ray, unpublished AHWM material, multiverse gear giveaways, and more.

The report added that Snoop has earlier published multiple NFT collections and multiverse events and even launched his bakery based on his Bored Ape IP, besides owning a Bored Ape and a private NFT collection worth a fortune.

Elon Musk Wants Twitter Payments System To Accommodate Crypto Transactions

Twitter chief Elon Musk has reportedly instructed his developers to build the platform’s payments system so that crypto functionality can be added in the future, according to a report by crypto news outlet Cointelegraph.

As per a January 30 Financial Times report, two people familiar with Twitter’s plans said that the payments feature would support fiat currencies to start but be built to accommodate cryptocurrencies should the opportunity arise, the report said. Interestingly, Twitter has long teased bringing payments to the social media platform. Still, it remained vague whether these payments will involve blockchain or crypto technology, despite the Twitter CEO seeing a big role for crypto on Twitter, the report said.

Meanwhile, in early December, images were leaked revealing “Twitter Coins” — a secret in-development digital asset for payments and tipping on the platform. Many hoped it would involve crypto somehow, the Cointelegraph report said. More recently, though, the report noted that the leaked images of the project in early January did not mention crypto or blockchain technology, much to the dismay of the community. In the meantime, the payments system will

go ahead with only fiat support. The report said that for now, Twitter has begun the application process for state-based regulatory licenses across the United States that would allow it to introduce payments to the platform.

Bitcoin Mining Revenue Witnesses 140% Surge Since Christmas: Report

The total bitcoin mining revenue (block rewards plus transaction fees) per day soared by almost 50% since the beginning of the month, tapping nearly $24 million, according to the Binance report. This development comes despite the significant rise leading to the figures standing nowhere close to the all-time high of over $80 million registered in April 2021.

Bitcoin’s rally during the first month of the year seems to have boosted profits for the mining community, and the data from YCharts shows that daily BTC mining revenue has soared from $16.1 million on January 1 to $23.8 million on January 29 (a 47% increase), according to Binance report.

The figure rarely surpassed $20 million during the prolonged crypto winter in 2022, dipping to as low as $13 million shortly after the FTX fallout and the consecutive market crash. The downtrend continued throughout December (when bitcoin struggled at around $16,500), with daily bitcoin mining revenue dipping below $10 million on Christmas Eve, it said. Notably, the figure was at its highest of over $80 million in mid-April 2021 (when BTC traded at almost $63,000), the report added.