For the Love of the Game (Market Commentary) |
The vibes are back and so are NFTs. That’s right, while we’ve been speculating that NFTs feel like they may have turned a corner, now the numbers confirm it. Last month’s total NFT transactions and unique sellers reflect that we had our highest month of NFT transactions in well over one year, with nearly 9 million unique transactions in May. Only January and February 2022 were higher with 11.2 million and 10.3 million
transactions. Before we get too excited we need to understand that the NFT landscape is vastly different from last year. Today we have projects like
DMarket’s gaming skins on Mythos Chain, which did over 2 million transactions in the past 30 days
alone. Still, growth isn’t measured in just sales, and the May turnaround just might indicate that mass adoption is happening right under our noses Speaking of growth, it’s happening in every corner of NFTs. From Bitcoin to art, and even a new reputation ranking system driven by crypto, Web3 is evolving at a blistering pace. Remember, if you build it,
they will come, so let’s get into what is being built in NFTs
- Nike and EA Sports are teaming up in a new partnership, and NFTs are acting as their handshake. Nike’s newly launched Polygon-backed. Swoosh platform, home of their virtual wearables, recently made news when they sold over $1m worth of digital shoes. Their new partnership with EA will bring select virtual shoes to future EA Sports games, where players can equip their shoes to use in-game.
While the news is not market impacting yet,
it is another indicator that NFTs are growing and highlights why traders are so bullish on the Polygon blockchain and the class of NFTs they attract. Polygon Sales, Unique Buyers, and Unique Sellers – Source - Bitcoin’s $OXBT is still hanging out at the top of the NFT Collection Rankings by Sales Volume leaderboard for the week, and at the same time leaving its mark on the NFT space. Orange PFPs are all over Twitter, and the space is buzzing from the potential of a growing Bitcoin ecosystem that revolves around the new payment token. The creator of
$OXBT, BitGod, has teased the first project building off of the new BRC-20 token called O.R.D, and while not directly connected to the $OXBT team, shows how an ecosystem can bloom once a seed is planted.
- Opepen by Jack Butcher (and a growing stable of artists) continues to pick up traction as people unravel the next-level mechanics of the PFP collection. The project is impossible to explain in just a few sentences but that my friends is exactly why it keeps
picking up steam. Stick a CryptoPunk, Pepe, and incredibly well thought out traits and game theory in a blender and you have a basic understanding of what Opepen is. As collectors unravel the project’s mechanics, they can barely resist taking take a position in an ecosystem that feels it came from the distant future of art collecting. I think you’ll be hearing about this project for a long time to come.
- While not yet in the 7-Day top 10, a new project called The Grapes has done what few new projects have been able to do in months; sell out and then command a 10x floor price. The Grapes minted on OpenSea on 5/30 for just over .03 ETH, and at the time of this writing have a floor price of over .3 ETH. The project
is talking about upcoming plans to partner with Fortnite, though likely by creating assets in Fortnite Creative 2.0 instead of a true partnership. Regardless, it’s fun to see that NFTs have captured collectors’ attention again, and even if only fleeting, have brought back the vibes.
- Nakamigos has had an impressive resurgence, thanks to a shopping spree by ben.eth, the creator of the $BEN and $PSYOP tokens. Ben currently holds over 500 Nakamigos, which
is more than 2.5% of the massive 20k collection. In the short term, he helped rocket the floor price up to over .7 ETH, but the collection has since come down to under .4 ETH. Where it goes from here is anyone’s guess, but their community is strong, and the attention economy rules everything at the moment.
- The NFT community was
gut-punched this week when an artist named hopeexist rugged her fundraising project, Pixel Penguins. Hopeexist was supposedly raising funds for cancer treatments and was somehow able to convince the highly reputable Andrew
Wang to promote her cause. After reeling over 200 ETH worth of NFTs sales, hopeexist deactivated their Twitter account leaving the NFT space reeling and questioning how we keep falling for this.
- 1/1 NFT art
platform Superare is launching a controversial new social reputation system that lets $RARE holders stake their platform tokens to pools that are tied to anonymous wallets for each artist/creator. In theory and over time, this will help
artists build a reputation based on their work without any other factors. Anonymity is important to many, and even if this isn’t the final solution, it’s a major step toward finding that solution.
There’s lots of
green to be seen on the 7-Day NFT Collection Rankings by Sales Volume. A Bitcoin project is still king, but the reigning king of NFTs, BAYC, has had some significant sales this week, as some collectors are securing grails ahead of a
possible entry by Chinese collectors. BAYC, MAYC, Azuki, Opepen, The Captainz, and Nakamigos are showing us that the demand for PFPs is still strong, as they represent Ethereum’s stake in the top 10. DMarket and Gods Unchained represent NFT gaming and occupy the middle of the chart.
The Blockchains by NFT Sales Volume rankings show the battle for the third spot still raging
on, with Solana holding it down at almost $10m in sales volume. Ethereum and Bitcoin are still top dogs, and nobody is expecting that to change anytime soon. NFT Forkast NFTs had a pretty great week by all measures, including the Forkast 500 NFT Index. The NFT market is trading nearly even, up around .3% in the past 7 days. While the NFT ecosystem as a whole saw a very high month of global NFT transactions in May, Ethereum’s transactions (910,700) are actually the lowest recorded since July 2021 when Ethereum had 521,263 transactions. We’re seeing collectors branch out to other blockchains in a sign of an
ecosystem that’s growing outwards, not always upwards. The weekend is here, the sun is shining, so go touch some grass, anon. We’ll hold down the fort and will see you next week with the next edition of On Deck. Have a MEGA GM! |
Game
theory refers to the way choices affect outcomes, and if you’re familiar with NFTs, there’s a lot of game theory out there. From choices to burn tokens, and navigate ecosystems while considering traits, projects turn to game theory to innovate along with set their work apart from others. Opepen, Checks, Pixel Vault’s Inhabitants, CyberKongz, and many more of the biggest NFT projects are full of interesting game theory, so dive into the concept so you’re best prepared to succeed in
NFTs. Happy Researching! Received this from a friend? Sign
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Coming up Next on CryptoSlam Clubhouse
Podcast Yohann chats with Edward Lee, a leading legal expert on NFTs and intellectual property.
He is a professor of law and co-director of Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law’s Center for Design, Law, and Technology, the first U.S. institution devoted to research of creativity, technology, design, and the law.
In his latest book “Creator take control” Edward offers a compelling new theory to explain the meteoric rise of non-fungible tokens
(NFTs) and their impact on art, business, entertainment, and society, and explains how they are revolutionizing our understanding of ownership.
In this interview they discuss:
- Recommendations for collections owners to legally protect their brands.
- How NFT technology and Web3 is
related to the birth of modern art in the 20th century and what lesson it provides for the 21st century.
- The explosion of AI and ChatGPT and how they are complimentary to NFTs.
- The theory of decentralized IP, or De-IP.
- Smart contracts on Ethereum, and lack of smart contracts on Bitcoin.
- How commercial rights for NFTs
and Bitcoin Ordinals compare to each other.
- What Edward’s favourite brand-able NFT IP is.
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