We bet you’d forgotten about sort-of-Intellivision’s disastrous attempted console, the Amico. Revealed in 2020 as this super-cheap, super-exclusive, family-friendly gaming machine, replete with exclusive $8 games, the following years saw the business go through clusterfuck after clusterfuck. And yet it seems it’s…
Yup hacks together a cross-posting app for X, Threads, Bluesky and others
Decentralized social networking may be the future, but in the meantime, there are a lot of Twitter alternatives to keep up with. A new app called Yup aims […]
Best drawing tablets in 2023 (UK)
The best tablets for drawing from top brands like Apple and Samsung.
Crypto market showing signs of recovery as prices, NFT sales rise on the month
Welcome back to Chain Reaction. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important crypto stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12 p.m. PT, subscribe […]
Reddit meme-inspired Taproot Wizards raises $7.5M
Though Bitcoin is considered to be the grandfather of crypto, it’s not always talked about for its innovation or pushing the envelope. Some want it to stay that […]
NFT partygoers blame Bored Ape Yacht Club event for loss of vision
People who attended the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs ‘ApeFest’ event are complaining of eye pain and vision loss.
With the collapse of cryptocurrency in the mainstream last year, some might be surprised to find out that NFTs are still a thing. Yet, people are still buying receipts minted to the blockchain that point to a piece of digital art, and one of the most popular NFTs continues to be the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Now, the entire NFT market — including Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs — is worth a lot less than it used to be. But they do still grant holders of the NFTs access to exclusive parties and club events.
Bored Apes are once again back in the spotlight, and not because NFT prices are spiking again. It’s because one of those aforementioned Bored Ape parties has resulted in multiple attendees complaining of eye pain and vision loss.
“Anyone else’s eyes burning from last night? Woke up at 3 am with extreme pain and ended up in the ER,” posted @Feld4014 on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday after attending the three-day ApeFest event in Hong Kong.
The post received quite a few responses from other ApeFest attendees.
“I promise, it was really bad, so I had to go to the hospital,” replied one ApeFest goer. “After they cleaned my eyes and gave me medicine, I’m feeling a little better now.”
“I got it as well. Went to bed at 1:30, woke up at 5 eyes burning,” said another X user who shared that they also went to the hospital due to the issue.
According to tech founder Adrian Zduńczyk, who attended the party and went to the hospital after experiencing vision loss, doctors diagnosed him with “photokeratitis over both eyes.”
“Doctor told me it was due to the UV from stage lights. I go to festivals often but have never experienced this,” shared @CryptoJune777, another attendee of the event.
Bored Ape Yacht Club’s parent company, Yuga Labs, put out a statement regarding the reports.
Apes, we are aware of the eye-related issues that affected some of the attendees of ApeFest and have been proactively reaching out to individuals since yesterday to try and find the potential root causes. Based on our estimates, we believe that much less than 1% of those attending and working the event had these symptoms.
While nearly everyone has indicated their symptoms have improved, we encourage anybody who feels them to seek medical attention just in case.
Thankfully, it does seem that those who have shared their experience are on the mend.
In the NFT and cryptocurrency communities, fans of Bitcoin often like to show their support by portraying themselves with lasers shooting out of their eyes.
But after ApeFest, we might have to reconsider those depictions. As cryptocurrency researcher Moly White put it, maybe the lasers were going in the opposite direction the whole time.
The race to build tomorrow’s AI models, and signs of life in the crypto markets
Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the […]
Biden Got Nervous About AI After Watching Mission Impossible
President Joe Biden signed an executive order designed to create the first real US regulations and suggestions about artificial intelligence on October 30. The order came after months of meetings about AI tech, though the White House also confirmed that, strangely, the new Mission: Impossible film played a part in its…
Pudgy Penguins’ approach may be the answer to fixing NFTs’ revenue problems
Pudgy Penguins was once solely known for its 8,888 NFT collection. But ever since 24-year-old Luca Netz bought the project for $2.5 million and took over as CEO […]