Around the Blockchain: This Week On Solana, Flow, and WAX
It’s a new year and the NFT market continues to be a wild ride. A couple of slight tweaks to the format as 2022 begins, there will be some added emphasis on the tokens behind the blockchains being discussed as well as talk about the upcoming week, rather than purely focusing on the week recap.
As a reminder, this is an Ethereum-free zone. Any and all other chains will be discussed but not any Ethereum-based NFTs or marketplaces.
The Fungibles
This week saw a giant dip in just about every cryptocurrency. Over the past 7 days, per CoinMarketCap, as of this writing $FLOW (-9.17%), $WAXP (-9.44%), $SOL (-17.56%), $ADA (-8.37%), $XTZ (-4.34%) were all impacted by the downswing.
In-game tokens, however, told a different story. On WAX, the native tokens for Dragons Valley, $DMD and $DVG, both saw large increases in value as the game launched additional features and utility for the tokens. $JEWEL, the DeFi Kingdoms main token, also saw large growth as more users continue to flock to the game, sending demand soaring. To learn more about DeFi Kingdoms and JEWEL, refer to our guide, "Everything You Need To Know About DeFi Kingdoms." As new tokens get added to the marketplace and other news impacts all blockchains, it will be interesting to watch how various fungible token prices are affected.
This Week in WAX
As mentioned above, Dragon’s Valley added some new features. Players can now use their tokens to buy a stone egg and hatch a dragon in game, instead of relying solely on the secondary marketplace. Additionally, a "gambling" aspect called blessing was added. Users buy rolls with native currency, and when the rolls are used the player can win in-game tokens or rare eggs. Currently users can purchase one or ten rolls at a time. A user who purchases ten rolls will receive one free additional roll.
Mining Tycoon sold passes to whitelisted collectors eager to play during the alpha testing phase. For $50 USD in WAX, the Miner Pass can also be staked and utilized for exclusive raffles and access to future drops. Originally 500 were minted, but the team announced after the closing of the sale that the remaining 141 would be burned. The current floor Miner Pass floor is 189 $WAXP on Atomic Market. Learn more about this new, upcoming play-to-earn mining and crafting game at https://mining-tycoon.com/.
In terms of volume, popular game Farmer’s World continues to reign supreme. Over the past 7 days a total of 3.36 million $WAXP has been traded in total Farmer’s World NFT volume. The game is not too expensive to get started and test it out, though in order to play, one would need to first purchase an axe, fishing rod, or stone axe NFT. The stone axe is the cheapest available option at present time with a floor price of 22.7 $WAXP at the time of writing.
This Week in FLOW
Although no new packs were dropped this past week, NBA Top Shot continued its trend of offering Series 2 base packs to collectors who successfully complete “Flash Challenges." For those unfamiliar, these challenges consist of a pre-determined stat such as assists or 3-point attempts. That night’s games are then played, and users have roughly 12 hours to compile a showcase using the players who hit the required stat, such as the top player from each game in turnover ratio. Afterward, rewards are given for successful completions.
The first release of the Hustle and Show Series 3 packs was announced, with 155,000 packs slated to drop on Tuesday, January 11. Open to all collectors, these packs will contain five moments for $14 each, and users will be allowed to purchase up to two packs per transaction. A snapshot was also taken and anyone with a complete Series 2 Hustle and Show set in their collection will receive three Series 3 Hustle and Show packs airdropped to them.
On the NFL All Day side of Dapper Labs, a new wave of beta users were ushered into the platform earlier this week. A new pack drop for Week 17 will be forthcoming later today. The expectation is the sale will be similar to past drops, with premium packs (four moments) costing $249 and standard packs costing $49 (three moments).
This Week in Solana
The first Wolf Game clone, Cops Game, launched on Solana on Thursday. Although there had been another attempt at a Wolf Game clone prior to Thursday’s drop, it turned out to either be a rug or just a failed project that the team gave up on and left instead of trying to salvage. With Cops Game already live immediately after mint, over 3,520 robbers and over 540 cops have been staked. Robbers gain 10,000 $LOOT per day of being staked, but give up 20% to cops when claiming. When unstaking, there is a 50% chance the robber is arrested and all his $LOOT confiscated. Robbers can only unstake with a minimum of two days worth of accumulated $LOOT. Read up on the future plans for the game at https://cops.game/ or purchase a cop or robber here. Minted at 1.25 $SOL, the robber floor price is 2.39 $SOL and the cop floor price is 9.99 $SOL at the time of writing.
Another popular and explosive mint that happened on Solana this week was Quantum Traders. Launched by Yawww, a peer-to-peer trading platform, those lucky enough to land a QT during minting for the price of 2 SOL are promised by the team to be airdropped enough $YAW token upon launch to equate to the mint price. Holders will then be able to stake their asset for more $YAW, yielding up to 14k $YAW over the course of 24 months, according to the company’s website. As of now, the floor on Magic Eden for a QT sits at 9.65 SOL.
Another warning when it comes to doing the proper research and being careful in the NFT space:
This screenshot of the official Doodled Dragons account shows the team reneging on their promise to distribute “100% of all profits…to charities protecting animals on the brink of extinction.” A worthy cause, surely some of those who minted did so in order to support the charitable efforts, in addition to the potential for asset appreciation. Instead, what they received was a pure, blatant rug pull. Two minutes after announcing a $30,000 donation to be the first of many, the dev openly acknowledged “my bank account” to be the only institution to benefit from the successful launch. Immediately after this tweet was sent all official Doodled Dragons accounts, including Twitter and Discord, were shut down. The project has been flagged by Magic Eden as a scam and the floor currently sits at 0.04 SOL, after generating over 360 SOL in initial sales volume.
In upcoming NFT news, on Sunday, January 9, The Suites will be launching their initial mint. 4,932 Suites will be available at a cost of 2.222 SOL. These suite NFTs will be actual sports-style suites in the metaverse where friends can get together virtually to attend live events. A gaming aspect will also be launched, with a native $SUITE token available to be earned by playing free games. Check the Lucky Trader schedule to find out more about the drop and the project.
Other Blockchain News
DraftKings continued their series of NFT mystery boxes on Thursday, this time featuring Derek Jeter. 16,600 boxes were sold for $60 each. Holders will be able to open their boxes next week to see what is inside. Visit the official DraftKings marketplace to purchase a box where, as of this writing, the floor is $86.
NFTs continue to make noise in the mainstream media. The Recording Academy and Tezos-based marketplace OneOf announced last month the launching of official Grammys NFTs for the upcoming 64th annual Awards ceremony. The 3-year deal will also include the 65th and 66th GRAMMY Awards as NFTs on the OneOf marketplace. Although it was announced this week that due to Covid concerns the actual ceremony is being postponed, the reveal of the NFT artwork is still expected soon, as it was reported to occur in early January. The website itself lists April 5, 2022 at 7:00 P.M. as the official drop time, but interested collectors can sign up with their phone number for text message updates.
