NFT Update

2022–01–05

Summary

Post-holidays lethargic action continues in crypto market despite traditional markets seeing decent performance to start the year

• BTC is currently trading at $45.5–48k range, with good offers on FTX vs. bid on Bitfinex
• Alts outperforming — BTC dominance now below 40% (Source: CoinMarketCap), lowest since 2018; ETHBTC strong bounce from 0.078 support zone to current level of 0.082
• L1 szn continues, but this time the meta is FOAN (FTM, ONE, ATOM, NEAR) as market participants rush to frontrun developments and on the back of supportive social media
• Seeing good bids on Web3 infrastructure plays as well (LINK, FIL, THETA, XTZ, HNT, GRT, BTT, CHZ)

On the NFT side,

• OpenSea volume is breaking out (Chart 1, 2) once more after having consolidated for the past couple of months; Monday’s daily volumes hit ~$255mio, highest it has been since the peaks of Aug’21, and not that far from ATH of ~$322mio on 8/29/2021. Number of trades have (Chart 3) also picked up significantly, as it hit ~79k on Monday (ATH was 86,240 on 10/4/2021)
• Prices are also picking up significantly across the NFT complex (Chart 4, 5, 6)
• It’s also worth noting that Solana NFTs have been gaining popularity as evidenced by continued increase in volume on Magic Eden ever since its launch on Sep’21.
• In terms of fungible token prices, alternative NFT marketplaces plays are getting bid (XTZ, CHZ, FLOW) last couple of days, taking shine away from gaming/metaverse names (SAND, AXS, ILV)

Chart 1: OpenSea Daily Transaction Volume (Blue, Bar) and 7dma (Orange, Line) in US$

Chart 2: OpenSea Monthly Transaction Volume in US$

Chart 3: OpenSea Daily Transaction Count (Blue, Bar) and 7dma (Orange, Line)

Chart 4: Floor Price of Selected NFT Projects in ETH

Chart 5: Number of NFT Projects (from Zeneca) with Increased ETH Value (Orange) and Decreased ETH Value (Blue)

Chart 6: Net* Number of Projects With Increasing ETH Value

1. NFT Project Updates

OpenSea announces $300mio Series C raise at $13.3bn valuation, led by Paradigm and Coatue Management

• What’s the deal: Founded in 2017, OpenSea previously raised >$100mio. OpenSea has also recently come under fire for just being a blockchain company, but disregarding Web3 ethos, as its new CFO hinted on potential IPO in the future

Axie Infinity teases Project K

• What is it: Axie Infinity provided roadmap for Project K, comprising of 3 Phases, that would allow all types of gamers to enjoy the game, and eventually enjoy interrelated gaming experience. Most notably, users can now buy land (floor price 3 eth) in Axie Marketplace.
• Phase 1: simulation and land management (production, resource gathering, building, and trading)
• Phase 2: additional management gameplay elements (such as skill trees, jobs, and social/cooperative activities)
• Phase 3: group strategic gameplay (defend, battle, conquer)
• Outlook for blockchain games: Well, there is too many of them. The sector as a whole has raised some ungodly amount of money (blockchain gaming sector raised $28bn in ’21, excluding IDOs; Top fundraises include Forte $910mio in ’21, Mythical Games raising $225mio in ‘21), and there is estimated 169 blockchain games, with the number growing everyday. Furthermore, the question of who the Play-to-Earn games are earning from has not been answered in earnest. Many of us have spent thousands of hours playing games, whether it be on the phone, PC, gaming consoles (xbox, playstation, gameboy, or in the arcades)
• Highlighting competition for Axie Infinity: Axie Infinity has been suffering from fall in revenue (Chart 7), and token price of AXS has dropped >40% from ATH of 165 (SLP down 94%). Thetan Arena, which launched in Nov’21 by Vietnamese game studio, are claiming that they have amassed 2x as many users as Axie (probably fake news according to on-chain data by DappRadar, but this could just mean that a lot of players don’t interact with blockchain and the game is actually very fun?! Thetan Arena supposedly achieved #1 on App Store in 11 countries, and #2 on the App Store in all categories), and its governance token THG currently boasts market cap of ~$400mio (but of course, many events in crypto are buy the rumour, sell the fact, and THG token price has fallen from ATH of ~$20 on 11/26 to current price of $5.85)

Chart 7: Axie Infinity Revenue (Green, bar) vs. FDV (Blue, Line)

BAYC crosses $1bn in total sales

• What’s the deal: We don’t wanna sound like a broken record, but BAYC in fierce battle with CryptoPunks in terms of floor price and community
• Other things: BAYC was also accused of racist origins during Twitter space (spearheaded by erm, of course, Cryptopunks holder) because it’s ape (true epitome of being a snowflake?)… Yuga Labs came forward and released several statements to clear the air

NFT-focused Metaversal raises $50 million in Series A funding led by CoinFund and Foxhaven Asset, and with participation from Dapper Labs, Rarible, DCG, Collab+Currency, Franklin Templeton, Galaxy Vision Hill, etc.

• What is Metaversal: an investment firm and venture studio focused on non-fungible tokens (NFTs); the funding will be used to bolster NFT-related business strategies such as acquiring digital collectibles, funding NFT projects and partnering with others in the NFT industry, e.g. Rarible, Flow

Missing Frontier announces partnership with Ubisoft in Discord

• Floor price has not changed much (hint, hint), although number of sales have picked up

2. NFT Integrations

Shopify now allows merchants to create and sell NFTs

• What’s the deal: Shopify has partnered with GigiLabs to allow merchants to mint and sell NFTs on the Flow Blockchain without any prior development or blockchain experience. 2 companies: Infinite Objects (video collection), and BreakingT (sports), are testing the app

Samsung to introduce NFT platform within its new smart TVs

• What’s the deal: Samsung announced that its new smart TVs will feature an NFT platform, which allows users to discover, purchase, and trade NFTs. Samsung’s venture unit, Samsung Next, has already invested in several NFT startups, including Axie Infinity, Dapper Labs, Forte, Nifty’s, The Sandbox, and SuperRare, amongst others

South Korea’s presidential candidate announces NFT fundraise

• What’s the deal: Lee Jae-myung, the leading candidate for the South Korean presidency has announced a NFT fundraiser, in which he will be giving NFTs to donors in his campaign. In the poltiical sphere, Melania Trump recently launched an NFT platform, with the first offering a tokenised watercolor of Donald Trump’s eyes

Square Nix to invest more in blockchain gaming in 2022

• What is Square Nix: Japanese entertainment conglomerate and video game company best known for its Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts role-playing video game franchises. Square Enix previously partnered with Double Jump Tokyo to introduce NFTs in one of their games
• What’s the message: Square Enix to incorporate “decentralized games”, and this to be a major strategic theme for them starting 2022.