Market UpdateNFT Market Update - Week 13, 2023
DeLabs' Migration: A Significant Moment in NFT History
NFT Market Update - Week 13, 2023
**This Market Report is Not Financial Advice, This is my Personal Opinion of the current conditions and you should Always Do Your Own Research**
Welcome to this week's market report, where we provide you with the most recent updates on the stock market, cryptocurrency, and the world of NFTs.
As we close the first quarter of 2023, investors in various markets have experienced a mixed bag of news. The stock market has had a volatile but overall positive start, with tech companies performing strongly and consumer discretionary shifting from a neutral to overweight position.
The crypto market has faced regulatory crackdowns, but has shown resilience with Bitcoin and Ethereum trading above $28k USD and $1,800 USD respectively. Despite some ups and downs, the NFT market has also experienced new partnerships that are helping to shape the future of the space.
Finally, DeLabs has begun the migration of DeGods and y00ts to Ethereum and Polygon respectively, marking a significant and historical moment in the world of NFTs. Let's take a closer look at the latest news and updates from these markets.
Stock Market Update
The first quarter of 2023 was volatile but positive for the markets. The tech sector's strength offset the weakness in banks, which were hit by turmoil. Confidence has increased that the peak in bond yields is behind us. The decline in yields helped prop up the S&P 500, which managed to eke out a small gain in March. The Nasdaq 100 logged its best quarter since 2020, up now 22% from its December lows. Consumer discretionary has moved from neutral to overweight. The financial-stability concerns likely pulled forward the end of the Fed's tightening campaign, and we see the 10-year yield ending the year between 3.0% - 3.5%. Overall, the markets are holding up well despite the challenges faced, and we will be looking for a more sustainable rebound in equities in the second half of the year.
Crypto Update
The past week in the crypto market saw the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) file a lawsuit against Binance, accusing the exchange of illegally offering derivatives to US persons. Despite this, Bitcoin and Ether showed resilience and ended the week trading above $28k USD and $1,800 USD respectively. The CFTC's move against Binance is part of a wider regulatory offensive, with the SEC issuing a Wells notice to Coinbase and suing Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, for unregistered sales. Ethereum is also in the news, with the upcoming Shapella upgrades set for April 12, 2023, which could help it gain ground on Bitcoin. Additionally, the CFTC chairman reiterated that ETH is a commodity, which is positive news for the cryptocurrency.
NFT Market Update
With the close of first quarter of 2023, OpenSea experienced a considerable decline in sales volume for Ethereum and Polygon-based NFTs. This drop in sales is attributed to a decrease in NFTs sold in the month of March and OpenSea's waning dominance in the market. Competing NFT marketplace Blur has gained significant traction since its launch in October 2022 and has accounted for a substantial portion of the total NFT sales volume during the first quarter. A new partnership between Blur and DeGods, which is considered a Bluechip NFT collection, is a very possible step towards the adoption of NFTs, and encouraging further collaboration in the space. Additionally, Magic Eden, a Solana-based NFT marketplace, has emerged as a new leader in the emerging Ordinals market, with plans to become the ultimate destination for NFTs on all chains through its newly announced ETH Launchpad and partnerships with leading projects in the Ethereum ecosystem. As the crypto space undergoes renewal, these developments offer promising possibilities for the NFT market.
Project Of The Week
Nakamigos is a highly successful NFT project that has gained popularity among the NFT community. The project consists of 20,000 NFTs featuring 24x24 pixelated characters representing crypto investors. These NFTs come with commercial rights similar to CryptoPunks. The project has surpassed the Bored Ape Yacht Club in all-time trades and generated a lot of buzz, with 61,681 transactions on secondary markets and a trading volume of 11,551 ETH or about $20.7 million as of now.
The creator of Nakamigos is anonymous, which has led to speculation on Crypto Twitter about who it might be. Some have speculated that it could be Sartoshi, the NFT influencer and artist behind the Mfers collection, while others point to the aesthetic similarities between Nakamigos and CryptoPunks and its licensing agreement. However, Larva Labs, the company behind CryptoPunks, has denied any links to the project.
Despite the mystery surrounding its origins, Nakamigos has created a perfect storm in the NFT space, with wild speculation and a strong community driving its success. The buzz around the project is slowly fading, and it currently sits at a floor price of 0.43 ETH.
News Of The Week
DeLabs, Degods, & Y00ts
DeLabs, the Los Angeles-based startup behind DeGods and y00ts, announced in December that it will be ending its relationship with Solana and moving DeGods to Ethereum and Y00ts to Polygon. The migration has been helped by a $3 million grant provided by Polygon, and both DeGods and y00ts have begun their migration process this week. While token holders technically have a choice to migrate, they are strongly incentivized to do so, with early DeGod migration offering a BTC DeGod giveaway and a 33.3% royalty fee imposed on all trades for the Solana collection. DeGods is now available for buying and selling on Blur and Opensea. The migration is expected to drain around $200 million from the Solana blockchain. Y00ts has also successfully migrated to Polygon, generating over $3,084,990 of secondary sales volume, and holding a current floor price of 2 Eth. Despite mixed sentiment around leaving Solana, DeLabs and their projects are performing well and could take a serious flight.
Yuga Labs - Otherside
The latest news from Yuga Labs includes the successful hosting of its Second Trip event in the Otherside metaverse world, with thousands of players attending the event and giving positive feedback. Yuga Labs plans to host more Trips ahead of the platform's official launch and is focused on building out an ecosystem that will eventually be accessible at all times to token-holders. Yuga Labs also signed a multi-year partnership with Gucci, which is expected to help cement the importance of web3 and NFTs in the broader crypto ecosystem. Additionally, Yuga Labs announced Legends of the Mara, a 2D strategy game that explores the lore of The Otherside ecosystem, and it will be fueled by ApeCoin, and each Otherdeed holder will receive one “Vessel” NFT. The announcement of Legends of the Mara helped Otherdeeds holders experience a nice bounce in Volume.
Tweet of The Week
Magic Eden, a leading NFT platform on Solana and Bitcoin, is expanding to become a contender in the marketplace industry. As part of their growth plan, they will be launching an ETH marketplace beta in April, allowing users to buy and sell ETH NFTs directly on their platform. They plan to partner with over 10 ETH Genesis partners to launch throughout the month.
Magic Eden aims to be the only marketplace where users can mint, collect, and sell NFTs across Solana, Polygon, Bitcoin, and ETH. To attract NFT creators to their ETH Launchpad, they plan to offer a limited time promotion of a 2% transaction fee for 6 months and respect royalties on native listings.
Their success in the BTC Ordinal market has largely been influenced by BTC DeGods, a collection of inscriptions from the creators of the former most valuable Solana NFT project. They have committed over 100,000 media assets to the blockchain through Bitcoin NFTs in just two weeks.
Although lagging behind Ordinals Wallet in total daily transactions, Magic Eden is catching up with higher-value Ordinals sales. As the popularity of Bitcoin-based NFTs increases, platforms like Magic Eden will likely continue to rise in demand.
Yesterday, Magic Eden played an April Fool's joke on their Twitter followers by teasing that they added a fifth blockchain to their marketplace, Cardano. However, they later clarified that it was just a joke. This could be a glimpse into their future plans as they aim to be more competitive, especially after losing their top 2 projects to other chains.
Web3 Uncovered YouTube Release
Conclusion
Thank you for taking the time to read our market report for this week! As we enter the second quarter of 2023, we can observe significant changes occurring in the investment landscape. Although there are still challenges such as regulatory crackdowns in the crypto market and decreasing NFT sales volumes, there are also encouraging developments, including the emergence of new players and collaborations that are shaping the future of these areas. With the stock market indicating positive trends, and many investors actively seeking opportunities, it will be fascinating to observe how these markets develop in the coming months. In the meantime, we will continue to keep a close eye on the latest news and updates and offer insights into this ever-evolving investment landscape.
Disclaimer Investing in anything, whether it's stocks, crypto, or NFTs, always carries some level of risk. In fact, it's been estimated that about 99% of all NFT projects will go to zero at some point. Yikes, right? That's why it's so important to always do your own research and invest wisely.
And here are a couple of key points to keep in mind:
Not your keys, not your crypto or NFTs: This is a reminder to keep your holdings in a secure wallet if you're not actively trading. You don't want to lose access to your assets because you didn't hold the keys!
If you buy stocks, you're an investor. If you buy crypto or NFTs, you're a customer: It's important to understand the difference between these two roles, as they come with different levels of risk and potential rewards.
Finally, just a friendly reminder that my reports are for informational purposes only. They're not financial advice, and you should always do your own research and make investment decisions based on your own goals and risk tolerance.
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