Weekly NFT Report: Acquisition Spree

Summary

Crypto market’s been rather rangebound, following recovery last week. Next few weeks we expect further volatility as we approach SEC deadlines on Grayscale GBTC spot conversion proposal (July 6th) as well as month-end/quarter-end rebalancing.

Top performers in Top 100 are: MATIC (+26%), AVAX (+9%), FLOW (+11%), APE (+14%), SAND (+19%), USTC (+984%), STX (+14%), GMT (+16%), ENJ (+13%), KAVA (+14%), EVMOS (+32%).

Top underperformers in the Top 100: FTT (-6%), LINK (-7%), BCH (-12%), HBAR (-10%), EGLD (-11%), BSV (-10%), AAVE (-8%), ZEC (-10%), SNX (-17%), WAVES (-22%).

In the NFT space, OpenSea volume and transaction counts (Chart 1,2,3) continue to be deflated. In terms of the prices, both blue-chip NFT and broader market prices (Chart 6) have picked up. However, newsflows have been rather active, with several acquisitions (by Uniswap and eBay) and raises (Magic Eden, Astaira).

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

Chart 2: OpenSea Monthly Transaction Volume (US$)

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

Chart 4: Number of NFT Projects (from Zeneca) with Increased ETH Value (Orange) and Decreased ETH Value (Blue)

Chart 5: Net* Number of Projects With Increasing ETH Value

Chart 6: CryptoPunks vs. BAYC Floor Price

Deep Dive

eBay acquires KnownOrigin for an undisclosed amount

What’s the deal: Web2 companies continue to acquire Web3 companies in this bear market. eBay began allowing users to buy and sell NFTs in May’21, and the move signals eBay’s continued interests in expanding into Web3. On the NFT marketplace front, OpenSea has been consolidating its monopoly, and other marketplaces, such as KnownOrigin, are looking for ways to cash out.

Uniswap acquires Genie

What’s the deal: Uniswap, a DEX protocol, acquired Genie, an NFT marketplace aggregator for an undisclosed amount in a bid to support NFT trading. Genie is the first-ever NFT marketplace aggregator. Its main competitor, Gem, has been acquired by OpenSea recently. Uniswap also announced that it would be conducting a USDC airdrop to historical Genie users.

Christiano Ronaldo x Binance

• A series of NFT collections will be available exclusively on Binance’s official NFT platform, and registered Binance users will be able to purchase the collections using Binance Pay
• First collection is slated to launch later this year. Binance already has partnerships with a several sports clubs, for whom it facilitated IEO (initial exchange offering) for fan tokens.

Time x Sandbox

• Times Square will be reimagined in The Sandbox as a virtual hub for art and commerce curated by TIMEPieces — this would be TIME’s first-ever destination in the metaverse. However, TIME has been rather active in the Web3/NFT space, starting with launching its signature magazines’ front-pages in the NFT auctions

Following

Big Money Raises, and Entrants

• Magic Eden, the leading NFT marketplace on Solana, raises $130mio at $1.6bn valuation
• Astaria, an NFT liquidity and lending protocol founded by Sushiswap’s ex-CTO, raises $8m seed
• Stella Fantasy, a web3 game protocol, raises $5m, with participation from Animoca Brands, DeFiance Capital, etc.
• Azuro, a DAO focused on betting, raises $4m from Arrington Capital, Delphi Digital, Merit Circle, etc.