gm NFTs March 25 | XCOPY Breaks the Internet With 'Max Pain' Open Edition

Thursday was a huge day in the NFT world, as overall OpenSea volume almost touched $100mm ($98.6mm), Azukis went on a tear, "rug pullers" are facing prosecution (see "Frosties"), a Fidenza sold for 320 ETH, and infamous crypto artist XCOPY smashed everyone's expectations during his "MAX PAIN" open edition. The market feels primed for a big weekend, headlined by World of Women's new drop "WoW Galaxy" coming tomorrow.

Top news for today:

• Market movers and weekly macro
• XCOPY's MAX PAIN Brings Pleasure
• World of Women Galaxy Anticipation

Market Movers and Weekly Macro

Trading volume was up for the third day in a row on Thursday, and the top PFP collections floor prices are showing it, as 10 of the top 12 projects were in the green over the past 24 hours.

The numbers look even better when zooming out slightly, as 16 of the top 20 projects were up on the 7 day view with an average gain in the 20%-40% range.

Thursday's $98.6mm in volume rounded out a $646mm week, meaning a $92.4mm daily average which is nearly a 50% increase over the prior week. 

The top winner from Thursday was resoundingly Azukis, which traded over 3,800 ETH and saw the floor rip all the way to high 17 ETH range before retracing to 16.9 ETH over night. This is nearly a 70% jump for Azukis over the last week, and the drivers seem to be a combination of speculation ahead of the Azuki Garden Party on March 30 (featuring a Zagabond announcement), hype over an alluded airdrop and new project, and some rotation of liquidity from the Yuga ecosystem.

Other notable movers from Thursday include:

• BAYC/MAYC combining for 4500 ETH and holding 103 ETH / 23.2 ETH floors ($APE at $13.2)
• Doodles up 8% to 14 ETH
• CloneX up 5% to 15 ETH
• World of Women up 4.5% to 13 ETH

XCOPY's MAX PAIN Brings Pleasure

There was significant anticipation leading up to XCOPY's open edition "MAX PAIN" on Nifty Gateway Thursday afternoon.

Early predictions were expecting any where from 3000 to 5000 editions to be minted for the 1 ETH mint price ($3100) in just a ten minute window. 

Those predictions were all smashed, as 7394 editions were sold in the 10 minute window, netting XCOPY around $23MM in total sales. The king XCOPY had this to say after the sale:

Market sentiment seemed to be resoundingly positive, as MAX PAIN Twitter PFPs began to sprout up and the "I guess art's not dead" posts started raining in.

Surely hundreds of owners gained their first XCOPY (and maybe first digital art piece) through this primary sale. And the secondary market has been firing as well, with 357 ETH traded on the collection on OpenSea in the first 12 hours, holding a 1.13 ETH floor price.

Did XCOPY just save the digital art market? We will find out...

World of Women Galaxy Anticipation

Leading female PFP project World of Women (WoW) is launching its first "companion" project on Saturday, WoW Galaxy, in what is likely the most anticipated drop of the weekend.

This new collection will be 22,222 supply, featuring new art from famed artist Yam Karkai.

Full details for the launch can be found in a medium post linked from the tweet below, but in quick summary:

• 10,000 NFTs will be allotted to current WoW NFT holders, Price = Free + gas, Time: Saturday at 2 pm EST
• 10,000 NFTs will be available in a dutch auction, Starting Price TBD (hinted at 2.5 ETH),  Time: Saturday at 4 pm EST
• 2,222 NFTS will be available for Allowlist, Price = 0.3 ETH, Time:  opening up after the dutch auction completes

Given a relative lack of quality new mints in the past few weeks, expectations are that this will be a large liquidity event, especially given ties between the WoW ecosystem and BAYC through Guy O'Seary. Expect this to be the big event of the weekend in NFTs.

Enjoy your weekend everyone, and stay safe out there!