For the Love of the Game (Market Commentary) |
In the blink of an eye, the conversation around NFTs has gone from “what could have been” to “what’s
coming”. NFTs are so hot right now. You might not see it reflected in global sales yet, but if you dive a bit deeper into what’s selling, you’ll see all of the leading indicators of an NFT market that’s ready to explode. Big CryptoPunk sales, pricey art, and some grails from 2021/22 are on the move. And yes, some are asking again, “Are NFTs back?”.
Let’s get into the top stories from the past week, which include NFTs, AI, crypto policy, and so
much more. The Pudgy Penguins Make NFT History. The Pudgy Penguins are officially the first NFTs to be included in an ETF, thanks to a surprise announcement from Luca Netz and Igloo Inc. While it’s a major step for NFTs, the filing is just the first step in the ETF process, which could take all of 2025 to play out. - Canary Capital filed for the historic ETF, which will see the Pudgy Penguins $PENGU token combined with Pudgy Penguins NFTs in a single ETF wrapper.
- The ETF will see an 85% $PENGU and 15% Pudgy Penguin NFT split.
- The CEO of Yuga Labs posted a cryptic message that may be hinting at a future Bored Ape Yacht Club
ETF.
NFTs - Big Sales and Hot Mints Signs are flashing everywhere that an NFT season is heating up again. Big sales in the iconic CryptoPunks collection, along with big art sales, are usually a leading indicator that it’s NFTs’ time in the spotlight again. Big NFT mints are also coming over the next few weeks, and that might bring more profits to keep
traders liquid. - A rare zombie CryptoPunk #2967 sold for 420 ETH ($842,511.59), and saw the seller make a cool 180 ETH
and $274,202.69 profit in just 7 months.
- XCOPY’s T H I N K sold for 318 ETH ($592,645.36). This
major sale comes just 6 months after a 150 ETH loan for the piece was defaulted on by 888crypto (an infamous 2021 collector).
- 4 Mega Mutants from Yuga Labs MAYC collection sold as a bundle for an undisclosed amount, but rumors
suggest that the sale was around $2M for the set.
- The Taproot Wizards mint kicks off today with the primary sale expected to make the team over $ 35M. This is the biggest mint in NFTs since Azuki’s Elementals in summer 2023, and with mint prices ranging from .1 BTC to .2 BTC ($17K), Taproot Wizards will be one of the biggest mints in NFT history.
- Mibera and Steady Teddys on Berachain will teach us if the new degen chain is ready for primetime, while Finalbosu on Abstract looks to continue the anime meta on a new blockchain.
Crypto continues to see major wins across the industry on the regulatory front, and last week we saw some major news break that will Ripple (sorry, not sorry) across the industry for years to come. - Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced that the SEC will end their litigation against
XRP.
- The SEC provides guidance for Bitcoin miners, saying that BTC and proof-of-work mining are not
securities.
- The SEC hosted their first crypto roundtables and agreed that Bitcoin is not a
security.
- Reports are emerging that the SEC may declare NFTs exempt from securities regulations, including NFTs that are used to
fundraise.
- Donald Trump spoke at the Digital Asset Summit and urged Congress to pass stablecoin legislation
(GENIUS Act).
- USAID may be reborn using the blockchain to secure and trace all aid
distributions.
AI tokens saw a resurgence this week as the broader crypto market saw a recovery. Fartcoin led the charge, seeing its market cap increase by +80.96% on the week to $579.66M. - Virtuals revealed more details about their 2 new ACP swarms, including the Autonomous Hedge Fund
& Trading DAO, which will include SLAMai’s The SWARMai.
- Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR blockchain, spoke at NVIDIA’s GTC AI conference about
decentralized AI compute.
- Mira announces strategic partnership with ElizaOS to reduce AI
hallucination.
- Details emerge about Virtuals’ VPN (Virtuals Partners Network), which will help guide founders
through building AI products, offer funding, and support.
- Hey Anon AI Agent, now convert your worthless Solana memecoins (dust) into SOL.
- Courtyard continues to cook with their vending machine card sales (physical
sports and Pokemon cards backed by NFTs), and this week was the #1 collection with $15.36M in sales. Buyers are up +62.71% to 6,593.
- CryptoPunks had a massive week of sales with $4.83M traded, even with buyers down -17.24% to 24.
- Good Vibes Club sales fell -44.96% to $1.96M, and buyers fell -65.77% to 765. Many collectors are watching this collection to
see how it performs as the market heats up.
- Panini America sales are up +18.54% to $1.58M this week as collectible sports NFTs continue to cook. Buyers climbed 3.90% to
879.
- Quantum Cats sales fell 67.79% to $1.56M ahead of the Taproot Wizards mint. Over 1600 cats are now locked in a vault until after the mint, and traders
are wondering if we’ll see a large percentage of them hit the market once unlocked.
- Ethereum NFT sales fell -15.55% to $28.09M while buyers climbed +41.41% to 47,668.
- Polygon sales are up +34.04% to $17.48M, with buyers up +53.25% to 43,268.
- Mythos Chain sales are up +0.58% to $15.44M with buyers up +32.02% to 48,614.
The NFT market found a bit of stability this week with collectors enjoying non-Web3-native products like Courtyard, DMarket, Panini, and Sorare (rank 1, 2, 8, and 11, respectively). These collections tokenize sports collectibles and gaming skins
and appeal to a different audience than traditional PFPs. Their low prices and broad appeal are reflected in both the week’s high transaction volume and low average sale price. - Total transactions climbed to their highest level in 22 weeks, with projects like Courtyard seeing over 131k transactions on its own, while the average sale price for NFTs fell to just $65, a 20-week low.
- NFT sales hit another 2025 low, though missed beating last week by around just $300K.
- Trade profits, while still negative, are up for the 4th consecutive week.
- Unique buyers have declined for the 4th week in a row.
The CryptoSlam 500 NFT Index is finally in the green, up +0.93% and breaking an 8-week streak of declining value. The market is boosted by rising crypto prices along with floor prices as traders plan for a hopeful NFT run.
ETH NFT Composite - 585.99 (+0.35%)
SOL NFT Composite - 514.84 (-0.20%)
POL NFT Composite - 4.48 (-6.67%)
CAR NFT Composite - 519.18 (-5.03%) Were the past few weeks in crypto a bear trap, or is this most recent pump a dead cat bounce? We’re of course hoping for the former. The FOMC last week, as of now, appears to have marked the bottom of a volatile period for
crypto.
Still, tariffs will control what way this market moves. That is, until we have a meaningful policy around crypto implemented. The GENIUS Act should be up for a vote within 120 days, and if approved, could be the catalyst to send Bitcoin to new all-time highs.
Top Gainers 7d
BONK - $0.00001406 (+26.1%)
HYPE - $16.56 (+23.0%)
S - $0.5984 (+19.0%)
BERA - $7.85 (+18.8%)
CRO - $0.09915 (+16.2%) Top Losers 7d
PI - $0.9416 (-29.5%)
FLR - $0.01469 (-4.1%)
MOVE - $0.4349 (-3.3%)
OM - $6.84 (-2.1%)
BCH - $332.29 (-1.8%)
Be smart and keep your finger on the pulse of this market, by keeping your eyes on CryptoSlam and the indexes. You can stay plugged in by fixing your vision on our new daily Web3 live show called Chain Reactor.
Have a MEGA GM!
— Yehudah Petscher |
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) is a way to make AI smarter by letting it look things up before giving you an answer. Instead of only using what it already knows, the AI searches through
trusted sources or documents to find the most relevant information, and then uses that to respond. It’s kind of like if you asked a question and the AI quickly Googled it and explained it in its own words, giving you a much more accurate and useful answer. Received this from a friend? Sign up for this CryptoSlam VIP newsletter. |
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