The Forkast NFT 500 is the largest available broad-based index that tracks the performance of the top 500 tokenized assets across all blockchain networks to represent the broader digital assets
market. For the Love of the Game (Market Commentary) |
If you’ve been in crypto for as long as I have (2017), you come to expect the unexpected, and if there’s ever an industry that consistently adapts and reinvents itself it’s this
one. Today, looking at the 30,000 foot view, the macroeconomic market surrounding crypto and NFTs are in turmoil with
the US banking crisis spreading globally. Bitcoin and Ethereum have seen gains of 12% and 6% respectively over the past seven days and seem ready to challenge resistance to rise even more in the coming weeks. Adding more fuel to the fire, the SEC has recently taken on Coinbase for staking, while also issuing an investor alert for "crypto asset securities" to Americans. "We understand that this is all part of the journey to reform our financial
system," says Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase. "We are right on the law and confident in the facts and welcome the opportunity for Coinbase (and by extension the broader crypto community) to get before a court."
Meanwhile, Balajis, the former Coinbase CTO and proponent of decentralization, is using his influence to urge people to buy Bitcoin and predicts that it will reach $1 million in 90 days. These are just a few examples of the changing macroeconomic
narratives that are playing out as of this writing that is just a part of the dizzying speed at which this industry operates at. For those of us interested in NFT technology, such as myself, it’s still surprising to see tried and tested technical NFT
solutions like ERC-721 challenged by an even more disruptive technology. As I’ve written
previously, Ordinals are one such example of the rapidly changing NFT landscape, and since my first
tweet, a multitude of new marketplaces and projects have sprung up, including Magic Eden, DeGods, and Yuga’s TwelveFold. The narrative regarding what constitutes an NFT is also shifting. "Pure collectibles" are now finding a place on BTC, where smart contracts are not needed. “BTC DeGods did $2.8M (104.07 BTC) of volume in the past week via a spreadsheet run by two people.” – Source The debates about royalties, intellectual property, full commercial rights and utility haven’t reached conclusions yet on ETH but the newly evolving Bitcoin Web3 community finds those arguments unnecessary. Why? Because the Bitcoin tech
is so primitive that those things cannot even be enforced! There are no native smart contracts on Bitcoin, so there can’t be any logic layers to enforce royalties for example. Ethereum is being seen more as the home for Game-Fi, "enforced royalties," NFTs with commercial rights, and cheap transaction
costs on layer 2s. From an NFT perspective, it is remarkable to see the most common NFT standard, ERC-721, being disrupted by something so simple. All major NFT protocols except Solana use this standard. Ordinals, a month-old technology, recorded $75
million in sales in a mere month since launching, according to this tweet. If that's true, Ordinal sales would put Bitcoin in a solid #2 on our Blockchain rankings! Now I don’t consider this as 100% verifiable as most of this activity was off-chain or OTC and facilitated on Discord via spreadsheets, so the number could be off by quite a margin. Once these BTC transactions can be tracked better
on-chain, and be verifiable and run through our extensive wash trading algos, you can rest assured CryptoSlam will be tracking this data. But, if even off by 50%, it goes to show how quickly narratives can change consumer behavior. Recently, market analyst Andrew Steinwold tweeted this: I think part of this “recycling” is going to the Ordinal ecosystem as evidenced by buyers far outweighing sellers on Emblem Vault (an ETH wrapper for BTC NFTs),
plus the increase in number of Bitcoin inscriptions. In conclusion, to reference another 80’s movie, the current pace of change in the crypto and NFT market is intense, and runs at ludicrous speed. The NFT narratives are in flux, and the rapid pace of innovation isn’t stopping. From the regulatory landscape to the technology advancements, it's difficult to predict where the sector is heading. However, one thing is clear: If you are a believer in crypto and NFTs, what you've just read has always been on the roadmap, but maybe where we are going, we don’t need roads. Cheers! Date – Mar 21 Blockchain – Palm Price – $25 USD - $200 USD Date – Mar 25 Blockchain – Immutable X Price – $20 USD Date – Mar 28 Blockchain – WAX Price – $9.99 USD - $29.99 USD Date – Mar 29 Blockchain – Immutable X Price – $30 USD Date – Mar 30 Blockchain – Ethereum Price – TBA |
In NFTs and crypto a common driver of tech and the passion of the communities is the idea of decentralization. Decentralization refers to a structure that doesn’t have a centralized point of control, and because of that, does’t have a
centralized point of censorship and failure. This is a powerful component of Web3 and crypto of NFTs, and many would argue will reshape the world as we know it. Dive in and learn why so many people believe we are headed to a decentralized future. Happy researching! Received this from a friend? Sign up for this twice-a-week CryptoSlam VIP newsletter. |
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