For the Love of the Game (Market Commentary) |
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, and then the best of times again. To say that
crypto in 2024 was a roller coaster would be an understatement. We saw incredible new NFT mints like Bitcoin Puppets and Quantum Cats that represent the future of NFTs, memecoins explode in the spring and fall, Magic Eden matures and becomes the top NFT marketplace in the world, OpenSea and CyberKongz receive Wells Notices from the SEC, and then ended the year with NFTs exploding with Pudgy Penguins and Magic Eden both dropping huge tokens. In between were equally important milestones, none of which were as significant as the birth of AI agents and the election of Donald Trump. These will both be primary drivers of the 2025 crypto and NFT cycle, so let's get into these along with what else we should be on the lookout for next year. Battle of the Marketplaces Magic Eden’s $ME token is now out in the wild, and while they were always known as the Solana marketplace, it has now graduated to the #1 marketplace in the world across chains. Now they’re evolving into a DEX. We’re watching to see
how much magic the team has in their pocket as they morph into the on-chain Binance for trading all digital assets. That includes fungible tokens, and yes, NFTs, which most of us expect to have a massive 2025. OpenSea is in a fight for their life, and it’s a battle on two fronts. We all know they’re battling the SEC’s incoming charges, but now they’re battling for their future against the juggernaut known as Magic Eden. Their token drop should arrive in the first few months of 2025, and if they nail the rewards, they just might
regain their spot as the top marketplace in NFTs. Fake reports circulated this past weekend that suggested their token would not be as rewarding as traders hoped, but co-founder Devin Finzer addressed the FUD and announced that the news was simply not true. Will OpenSea return to form, or will 2025 be no more than hopium? Winter is Coming (and not leaving) You can’t deny that Pudgy Penguins were the king of 2024 with their toys, game
teases, irl events, and $Pengu token drop. In just a few weeks their parent company, Igloo, will be launching Abstract Chain, along with the highly anticipated $ABS token. Pudgy Penguin holders will yet again get a major token stimmy, as will top $Pengu holders. Next up we’re expecting their Pudgy World game to launch, more news about their Mythos Chain game, and possibly even movie/animation announcements. Buckle up. Crypto Goes Mainstream Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs went live earlier this year, and wild demand on the Bitcoin side shows
how hungry tradfi is for crypto. In 2025 we’ll likely see Solana and Ripple ETFs, and possibly even filings for the first ever memecoin ETFs like Dogecoin, Shib, and maybe even a wildcard like Pengu or Pepe.
The Trump administration is the biggest x-factor here, and also one of the primary reasons that crypto will reach the masses next year. It’s expected that he’ll usher in a crypto-friendly regulatory environment. After all, the man has big
bags of crypto, ties to a defi platform (World Liberty Financial), and he promises to make the US the crypto capital of the world. If his promises are realized, it could make 2025 the biggest year for crypto yet. AI Agents Take Over the World We already knew AI would change the world, replace jobs, and basically change the way we
navigate the economy in the future. What we didn’t know is that change would arrive so soon, in the form of basic AI Agents. This fall, AI Agents took over X and captured the attention of crypto traders. Chatting with them was all fun and games, but it's their associated tokens that really got us thinking about some big topics like UBI. Projects like ai16z will distribute their holdings to their token holders on October 25, which means not only will traders get to win as the value of the ai16z
token, but they’ll also possibly win on its treasury too.
Now we have AI Agent launchpads, agents that trade crypto, agents that share alpha, personal assistants who can buy items from online shops like Amazon, and the list goes on. There’s a great chance that we’ll see major innovations in AI in 2025, and unlike OpenAI which is a privately held company, the public can invest in these
AI Agent’s tokens. The game will change in 2025 in a pretty significant way, and there might not be any going back.
NFTs Hit All-Time High 2024 is closing on a decent high note for the NFT market. Ok, maybe we don’t see it in the
numbers this week, but there’s no denying how fast and furious NFTs bounced back in the fall from their 2023 lows. In the end, the NFT market will close with $8.84B in sales, over $130M higher than last year. If you’re plugged into the market and community, you know what we saw this year felt like warm-up to a major NFT run. We have new blockchains like Berachain, Monad, Abstract, and Sonium launching over the next few months, and traders who will be armed with tons of liquidity from airdrops
(OpenSea, Jupiter, etc). We can’t forget how much Bitcoin fuels it all, and with $BTC predicted to hit north of $150k, along with a hot alt/memecoin season, the rotation to NFTs could be extreme. Some like Van Eck and Yat Siu are predicting the NFT market hitting an all-time high in 2025.
“Siu told Cointelegraph in an interview at the Bitcoin MENA event in Abu Dhabi that NFTs will be “even bigger” than during 2021 and 2022. Back then, NFT monthly
volumes ranged from $1 billion to $5 billion, peaking at $6 billion in January 2022, according to data tracker CryptoSlam.” It’s a bold prediction, but if your finger is on the pulse of the market, it might be a prediction that you agree with too. The NFT market finished at a 7-week low, and was down across all categories last week. It’s not the ideal way to end the year, but it’s exactly what the community expected during a holiday. Sales fell to $133.28M, and trade profits fell into the negative, probably due to loss harvesting. Still, the way we ended 2024 should be a sign of what’s to come next year, and it’s hard to not get excited when you realize that the best is yet
to come. - Pudgy Penguins and Azuki continue to be top NFT collections, as hype for their tokens soars. Pudgy Penguins are looking forward to their $ABS (Abstract) token drop, while Azuki’s $Anime token could arrive as soon as January. Pudgy Penguin sales came in at $11.1M, while Azuki saw $9.92M in sales.
- Quantum Cats have come roaring back to life this week after the massive AIXBT agent decided to acquire a Quantum Cats Ordinal, and then wear it as its PFP on X. He was then sent a 2nd cat, along with the Quantum Cats team buying over $1M worth of the $AIXBT token. Quantum Cat sales are up 152.10% on the week to $3.74M thanks to speculation that the main character agent will represent the collection when their new Taproot
Wizards collection launches. We also saw a gold cape Quantum Cat sell for .56 $BTC, which is a serious discount for an NFT that will grant a free Taproot Wizard. Pro Tip - If a gold cape ever appears on your Quantum Cat, that means you also get a Taproot Wizard, which is currently
valued at 1-2 $BTC.
- DMarket saw sales climb +7.38% to $6.33M in a week that also saw major controversy around its primary asset--CounterStrike gaming skins. Coffeezilla has been reporting on underage gambling, which is rampant in the CounterStrike community, and brings big attention to skin secondary markets.
- OMB sales are up +50.13% in the past 7d after news started circulating that… well… news might be coming. That’s all anyone knows at this point, so either this $3M in sales is pure FOMO
for the major collection or is insider trading. Either way, impressive sales nonetheless.
- Ethereum sales are down -61.91% this week to $62.64M, though sellers climbed +26.61%. The top Ethereum NFT
sale was Azuki #3535 which sold for 125 $ETH ($427K).
- Bitcoin sales fell just -0.59% to $30.95M, with buyers climbing +37.82%. The top Bitcoin sale was Bitcoin Shroom #199 which sold for 1.19 $BTC ($118K).
- Mythos Chain sales were up +15.26% to $1.86M with buyers up +5.51%. DMarket sales make up over 99% of the chain’s NFT sales volume this week.
- Solana sales fell -66.01% in the past 7d with volume coming in at $7.77M. Buyers are up +48.61%, outpacing all of the other top 5 blockchains. The top Solana NFT sale on the week was Mad
Lads #831 which sold for 210 $SOL ($40K).
- Pizza Pets Game is the first on-chain virtual pets game to use the Bitcoin blockchain for provenance. The collection was airdropped to holders of Mega Punks, Pizza Ninjas and a few partner collections. As people’s pets die, the remaining living pets are seeing
their floor price increase to its current floor of .014 $BTC,. The collection has $932K in sales on the week, up +82.83% from the prior week.
- Tensorians are the PFP from the Tensor NFT marketplace on Solana and last week they dropped their latest token airdrop for traders collecting on their marketplace. Sales fell -52.22% to $560K,
on a massive down week for the broader Solana ecosystem.
- Rug Radio Genesis NFT sales are up +334.58% on the week to $387K after an announcement that holders will receive a token allocation for the Myriad Markets
prediction market. The OG 2022 NFT collection is now the latest major collection from the last cycle to get in the token game, but it’s a certainty that it won’t be the last.
The CryptoSlam 500 NFT Index is down -2.57% in the past 7d. NFT volume fell for the first time in 5 weeks, while cryptos like Bitcoin fell to a 6 week low of $91K. While Bitcoin had a Santa rally on Christmas day, climbing to $98K, the market
has suffered from loss harvesting, and lower volume. Still, the index is up +3.41% in the past month and +2.19% 60d, reflecting how well the market has actually been performing in the 2nd half of the year.
January is typically one of the NFT market’s hottest months, so
many are expecting an extreme turnaround early in 2025. Will it materialize and are we headed to the best year for the NFT market yet? We’ll check in next week to see how hot of a start we get, and peek at which of our predictions are still on target.
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.
Enjoy your New Year celebration, be safe, and have a MEGA GM! — Yehudah Petscher Ordinal Pizza OG - The Chefs
Date - Dec 31
Blockchain - Bitcoin
Price - .0009 $BTC MOOZ Date - Dec 31 Blockchain - Sei Price - 80 $SEI Magic Eden
- Emmy #02 Date - Dec 31
Blockchain - Base
Price - Free Tokyo Punks - Ugly Kitties
Date - Dec 31
Blockchain -
ApeChain
Price - 33 $APE Pizza Aliens
Date - Dec 31
Blockchain - Bitcoin
Price - .000333 $BTC |
In crypto, liquidity refers to how easily an asset, such as a cryptocurrency or NFT, can be bought or sold in the market without affecting its price. High liquidity means there are plenty of buyers and sellers, resulting in fast and efficient
trades. Liquidity is essential for a healthy market and ensures that traders can quickly convert assets into cash or other assets when needed. Received this from a friend? Sign up for this CryptoSlam VIP newsletter. |
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