Around the Blockchain: New Marketplaces
Another week, another recap. This week features some expansions on the typically covered blockchains. As usual, we’ll do a quick check-in on the cryptocurrency market before diving into the NFT news. Let’s get to it.
The Fungibles
Most crypto tokens dropped significantly over the past week.
$FLOW led the downward charge dropping 20.56% in the past 7 days to $5.88 as of this writing, per coinmarketcap.com. Right behind it was Tezos ($XTZ, $3.47), falling 13.65%, and Solana ($SOL, $86.31), which is down just over 10% over the past week. The only one to avoid the damage, relatively speaking, was Avalanche, whose $AVAX coin experienced only a slight dip of 2.08% to $81.20. Seems like a bumpy ride is ahead and it could be months, if not years, before the highs of 2021 are experienced again. Make sure to not over-leverage or take more risk than tolerable and remember to stay patient and keep building.
This Week in FLOW
NBA Top Shot, UFC Strike, and NFL All Day all dropped new packs. The complete trifecta of Dapper Labs’ current sports projects added to their ecosystems, but the bigger news was the announcement of brand-new marketplace launchings. UFC Strike’s marketplace is now officially live, whereas NFL All Day is allowing its users to test the listing and delisting process, but the actual launch is planned for this upcoming Tuesday, February 22. For anyone who missed out on the first two Strike pack drops, but wanted to get involved, the floor moment is currently a Luke Sanders TKO for $6. It remains to be seen if any will be delisted or otherwise have their floors raised in the next day or so, but on NFL All Day it appears that several moments will be available for $1. With the platform still in closed beta, the marketplace may begin with a little less volume than might otherwise be expected. Currently there is no stated timeline by Dapper for opening the platform up completely, but more users are continuously being onboarded.
This Week in Solana
K-Labs NFTs minted on Magic Eden’s Launchpad for a pre-sale price of 1 $SOL and a public price of 1.8 $SOL. The collection of 1,999 K-Passes (including 88 “Brains”) act as membership passes to the company’s upcoming suite of tools. The K-Labs site touts exclusive alpha chats, price alerts, and individualized portfolio analysis among other benefits for holders. The current floor price on Magic Eden is 1.1 $SOL.
A few weeks ago, Melania Trump launched her own line of NFTs, something covered by this piece. The pinnacle NFT of the collection was a 1/1 that was auctioned off. Earlier this week it came to light that the buyer, who spent 1800 $SOL to win the auction, may have actually been Trump herself, or a close associate. Bloomberg tracked the tokens through multiple wallets and transactions before concluding that someone within the former First Lady’s team was responsible for buying the NFT. No official statement has been made to confirm or deny the accusation as of yet, but it has not prevented her from launching a new 10,000 NFT collection at a price of $50 each.
DeFi Land is once again in the NFT news, as planting and watering of the seeds previously discussed has officially launched. The $DFL token initially saw steep upward movement from just under 7.5 cents $USD to nearly 8 cents but has since tumbled all the way down to 6.9 cents. It remains to be seen how much of that drop is tied to the overall crypto market dropping. It should be noted, tough, that the seeds have also fallen in price to below mint (current floor is 1.95 $SOL), whereas the overall NFT market has not generally been positively correlated with the underlying currency prices.
This Week in WAX
NASCAR announced on their official website their partnership with the WAX blockchain to create what they are calling Digital Collectibles (known colloquially as an NFT). These NFTs were not sold directly, but rather airdropped to the lucky winners. Five limited edition, 100 NFT collections of Daytona 500 commemorative tickets were distributed this past week, after the winners were randomly chosen from the buyers of the actual, physical race. The current floor on Atomic Market is 68 $WAXP.
Harmonia Goya is an upcoming ambitious P2E game launching their initial NFT pre-sale this week. What makes the game unique is that it is a cross chain game and does not require NFT ownership to play. The basic concept is simple; become a farmer, harvest resources, play mini-games, and earn $HmX. Goya is the mouse who acts as the main character. All players control Goya, whereas the NFTs will provide holders with more ways to interact and earn within the game. 4 levels of pre-sale tokens (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum) were sold back in December, and are now trading for a floor of 76 $WAXP on Atomic Market. The project is also conducting a giveaway for some of the initial egg NFTs only available in the launch. Make sure to enter and read the Harmonia Lite paper to find out more about the game.
Other Blockchain News
Avalanche continues to make a name for itself as an up-and-coming blockchain. Although it is mostly being utilized for DeFi, as an extremely efficient, low-gas chain, more and more Avalanche is being looked to for NFTs and Play to Earn in particular. On Thursday and Friday, The Underground minted both pre-sale and public sale. The collection of 12,000 Gen0 Fighter NFTs will be utilized in both “Fight to Earn” and P2E via staking. Staking will earn $BLOOD, which can be used to mint Gen1 NFTs or to purchase other in-game NFTs. By staking and fighting, fighter NFTs will be leveled up, allowing players to earn bonus $BLOOD, leading to the gaining of other accessories, which will in turn provide additional $BLOOD-earning boosts. The NFTs, which minted for 2.7 $AVAX each, are listed on the NFTrade marketplace, with a current floor of 1.88 $AVAX.
