Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), has introduced a collection of dog-themed non-fungible tokens (NFTs) accompanied by a treasure hunt to attract and assess new cyber talent. The NFTs, featuring cartoon depictions of dogs, require participants to discover a character string posted on the BND’s Instagram account. This clue leads users to a specific Ethereum address, where they can uncover the collection and mint the NFTs.
Meanwhile, luxury fashion brand Hermès achieved victory in its legal battle against the MetaBirkin NFT sales. A Manhattan-based U.S. judge granted Hermès’ request to halt all sales of the unauthorized NFTs, expressing doubt regarding the artist’s defenses and intentions. The court found that the artist’s actions aimed to deceive customers into believing Hermès endorsed the project.
In another development, the Faroe Islands’ postal service released its first series of stamps called “crypto stamps.” These physical stamps are also stored as digital copies on the blockchain as NFTs, serving both as collectibles and usable postage. Following the footsteps of Austria and the Netherlands, the Faroe Islands embraced NFT technology for stamp issuance, ushering traditional philately into the digital era.
Surprisingly, the United States Secret Service’s San Francisco field office possesses an NFT collection on the OpenSea platform. The collection was created by the Digital Asset Technology Alliance Squad, which focuses on crypto-related crime investigations. It serves as an educational tool for understanding NFTs and showcases the agency’s engagement with the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Additionally, Immutable Games’ NFT trading card game, Gods Unchained, expanded its reach by becoming available on the Epic Games Store. With access to Epic’s vast community of 230 million customers, Gods Unchained aims to broaden its player base. Each card in the game represents an NFT on Ethereum’s layer-2 network, Immutable X.
This weekly Nifty Newsletter highlights significant developments in the NFT space, featuring the German intelligence agency’s innovative recruitment strategy, Hermès’ legal victory, the Faroe Islands’ crypto stamps, the Secret Service’s NFT collection, and Gods Unchained’s expansion to the Epic Games Store.