Around the Blockchain: Coachella NFTs
In "Around the Blockchain" each week we recap the NFT ecosystems of competing non-ETH blockchains, mostly focusing on the WAX, Solana, and FLOW blockchains. However, we will also touch on Harmony, Tezos, and any others as news comes up. If it’s not Ethereum or an Ethereum-based L2, it is fair game for Around the Blockchain. Here’s what you may have missed this week.
The Fungibles
Is the bear market over? Just a week ago the markets were trading mostly sideways and it started out as a slow start to this week. Eventually things picked up and the week ended with some very bullish movements. Overall, according to coinmarketcap.com, in the past seven days the biggest winner was SOL, which rocketed up 21 percent to $114.75, while the only real loser was FLOW, down 1.69 percent over the past week as of this writing to $6.94.
Other weekly winners included AVAX (10.63%), XTZ (20.3%), and WAXP (13.55%). Despite the gains, nearly all tokens are still far away from reaching their all-time highs.
This Week on Solana
The biggest news of the week was the Coachella NFT drop on Friday in conjunction with the NFT marketplace and crypto exchange FTX. There were two editions dropped, the 10,001 Sights and Sounds Collection for $60 (current floor is $61), and the 1,000 Desert Reflection Collection for $180 (current floor is $380). The NFTs sold out within minutes and are now trading on the FTX marketplace. Additionally, there are 10 Coachella “key” NFTs that are up for auction. Although the entirety of the project is redeemable for something in real life (specifics can be found on Coachella’s NFT site), the 10 keys allow the holder lifetime access to virtual events and an in-person festive weekend every April. Bidding takes place on FTX as well. The bidding floor is currently $25,000 for Keys #3, #6, #7, #8, and #9. The highest bid floor is for Key #2, Key to the Safari, with less than 6 days left for the 7-day long auction.
Popular gamified DeFi and upcoming P2E game site DeFi Land announced their long-awaiting initial NFT drop, “seeds”. In a Medium article posted on Monday, details of the 7,500 NFT mint were provided. For anyone playing (or who played) during the ongoing public beta, the top 1,000 players by XP at the time of the snapshot were automatically provided whitelist for the 2 $SOL drop. Once seeds have been minted it is up to the player to “plant” the seed for 30 days and then “water” them daily with $DFL for them to grow. After the 30 days are up, players will be able to “harvest” new NFTs, with better rewards for the P2E section of the game to those who watered the most. Check your whitelist status here.
This Week on WAX
Krypton: Dawn of Machine launched the off-chain version of their game on Wednesday and have been very active in adding new features ever since. An adventure game, the idea is to conquer alien worlds and gain rewards in the process. The game will include different factions of players and is expected to have 3 total phases. Packs are still available for $59.90 (in $WAXP) directly on AtomicHub.
Spacecraftx flopped in its newest drop this week. A P2E space exploration game that claimed to have “a perfect economic model," saw a steep decline after a botched planet drop on Wednesday. What was supposed to be a smooth drop on AtomicHub turned into a nightmare as the drop ended with hardly any packs being purchased. The atmosphere in the Discord was extreme displeasure, and the team didn’t do much to assuage concerns other than “everything will be fine." Meanwhile, the in-game token values have plummeted. It remains to be seen if or how the team and the game will recover.
As the Blockchain Brawlers continue on, the newest pack drops for whitelisted only members will be on Tuesday and Thursday of this week. However, even if you missed your chance at a Brawler or Gear Pack, there are lots more auctions ongoing and upcoming for the collection. This past week the team announced the newest member, Ric Flair, as an addition to the collection. There is still time to sign up for the whitelist giveaway, as the Ric Flair drop will only have 100 packs, each containing a Legendary Ric Flair NFT.
This Week on FLOW
Unfortunately for Dapper Labs, this week saw multiple mishaps, both surrounding the same core issue. First, the newest project UFC Strike contained a randomization error for the initial pack drop. Then, to make matters worse, the special KD Certified Pack Elite drop on NBA Top Shot, limited to users with a Collector Score of 10,000+, was not randomized as expected. More details can be read here but the most important part is that all of the packs containing rare and then holo moments were not actually randomized but sold in consecutive order. This means that those who made it to buy packs at the very end of the drop received all the holo moments, and the collectors purchasing at the beginning received none, whether they bought 1 or 5 packs. Everyone who purchased at least one pack was given $49 in Dapper credit, the price of one pack. The Standard version of the drop was then pushed back from immediately after the end of the Elite drop to this upcoming Monday.
NFL All Day had a mostly smooth drop, at least compared to the other Dapper projects. Although no announcement or explanation was provided, Friday’s Conference Championship pack drop was paused multiple times and the drop ended up lasting several hours. Thankfully, randomization was not an issue and for those collectors who made it through the queue were rewarded with a 3-moment pack for $49 containing all playoff moments, and one guaranteed to be from the Conference Championship games.
Other Blockchain News
For anyone interested in DeFi, there is a lot happening right now outside of the Ethereum network. Specifically on Avalanche ($AVAX) and Fantom ($FTM), both extremely efficient, low gas chains, there are opportunities to be had with staking, liquidity providing, and creating nodes. These are high risk high reward options, so make sure to be careful when investing in these types of assets. Learn the basics of Decentralized Finance and then decide if it is the right investment for your personal portfolio and risk tolerance.
Disclaimer: Lucky Trader is not a registered investment advisor. You understand that the service is furnished for your personal noncommercial, information, purpose only. No mention of an NFT in the service constitutes as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold that or any other NFT. Nothing within the service shall, or is intended to, constitute financial, legal, accounting, or tax advice. Any decision that you make to buy, sell, or hold an NFT should be based on an assessment of your risks in consultation with your personal advisers.
