NFT Weekly: 14th May 2021
Synopsis:
Elon & Vitalik rugpull, Christies ‘failed’ punk auction, awesome new P2E documentary, Punks megaverse being developed, NBA negative EV packs & more!
14th May 2021 - Wins and Losses
Elon & Vitalik Rug Pull
Elon tweeted that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin due to the concern about fossil fuels, which instantly tanked the market of BTC and ETH by ~20%.
The fact that 1 tweet has so much influencer on prices is not surprising, but shows how speculative and small the space still is
On the same day, Vitalik was supposedly airdropped $1bn worth of Shiba Inu ($SHIB), which he then transfered over to the India COVID relief fund.
Christies messes up CryptoPunks auction
The much anticipated Christie’s auction completed, with 9 Crypto Punks (including 1 alien) sold for ~$17m
Most consider it a failure, not only did Christie’s do an extremely questionable job at showcasing these Punks (see below LOL), but they also allegedly prevented some DAOs from bidding.
Personally I don’t think traditional auction houses have proven themselves to be useful in elevating prices or attention vs traditional crypto. The Beeple auction was a two legged race between Metakovan and Justin Sun, so I would argue that was an outlier.
Play-to-earn Documentary
Emfarsis, YGG and Delphi releases a documentary called “PLAY-TO-EARN”, which explains how families in the Philippines are making a living from playing Axie Infinity.
This story has been here for a while, and it’s great to see the community being so empowered. Axie / YGG have done a great job of changing real lives!
What’s even cooler is the professionalism of the documentary - opening up the world to the potential of blockchain games! We’re likely to see more and more of this type of content in the future.
CryptoPunks Universe Expanding
RTFKT Studios drop their Punks Project, where anyone with a Punk can redeem epic looking digital sneakers (& more) for 1 ETH.
This followed the LarvaLabs release of Meebits, their 3rd project which sold out for ~$75m within hours.
We’re beginning to see more and more metaverse expansion for the CryptoPunks holders. A very smart move from a business POV since you are automatically gaining favour with the most wealthy and influential people in the world.
I predict we’ll see NFT drops being more and more popular in the future, similar to token airdrops to big users of platforms in order to accelerate community building and gain evangelists for your product
Looks like it’s fundraise season
We’ve seen a LOT of big fundraises being announced in the last few weeks. These aren’t just token sales either, they are legitimate, VC-led fundraising.
Overall a really good signal for the market - VCs are willing to go deep into crypto despite being in the middle of a bull run (arguably you would prefer a bear run valuation which could come within the next year).
Great time to be fundraising, and plenty of upside for investors now that the crypto / NFT thesis looks to be a sure bet. Win win.
Congratulations to:
Animoca raised $88,888,888 at a $1bn valuation!
Genies, the digital avatar company, raises $65m
Sky Mavis (creator of Axie Infinity) raises $7.5m series A
RTFKT, the digital ‘Supreme’, raises $8m
Dapper Labs raised $305m at $2.6bn valuation, and is allegedly raising a NEW round at $7.5bn valuation
NBA Topshot pack profits over?
For the first time, it appears that NBA Topshot packs have begun selling below the market price. Their latest drop was rare packs, where 75,000 were sold at $149 each. Netting Dapper a cool $11.25m.
The interesting thing is that these packs were the first (ever?) to be negative EV (expected value). So you spent $149, but on the secondary market the cards were trading at like $100. Which makes buying bad, and waiting for secondary markets good.
An interesting turning point in the NBA Topshot phase - their previous strategy of keeping packs scarce vs demand has gone well for them in ensuring each pack drop sells out. However, now that this is no longer the case, they will likely have to rethink their pricing and supply strategy.
At the same time, you could argue that this is good for long-term marketplace health, where you remove the ‘habit of scalping’ and true collectors are the only ones who start buying packs.
Gary Vee launches ‘utility’ NFT
Another celebrity launch, although this time it’s done different. Gary Vee launched ‘VeeFriends’, which effectively are cartoon drawing NFT artworks which you can ‘redeem’ for things in real life.
This includes video calls, hang-outs, conferences, gifts, etc. The idea is to add utility to NFTs. The target audience is also very clearly no crypto, but Gary V’s network of fans.
So far there have been ~$19m of auction sales, and in total if the NFTs sell for average 2 ETH each he’s looking at $67m.
Numbers aside, what I find interesting is the work that has been put into this. Regardless of whether it’s worth the money, I think it elevates the standard of celebrity NFT drops and moves the industry in the right direction.
That’s it! Subscribe if you want more updates like this each week :)
Will also write about other interesting thoughts as I come across them, mostly related around NFTs and gaming.