Morning Minute | Blur Blast's Off with $20M in Rewards

TylerD's Market Summary

Today's Morning Minute is brought to you by Arcade, the leading protocol for NFT lending.

Arcade allows users to hold on to their NFTs and still get liquidity when needed via their flexible time-based lending terms.

They changed the game with their Smart Vaults, allowing users to store their NFTs in vaults during the loan process - enabling them to claim airdrops sent to the NFT after paying off the loan.

It's a major unlock.

The protocol has seen an explosion in user growth (+130%) and monthly loans (+300%) over the past 8-9 months as more and more users find the platform.

And of course - users are being rewarded.

Lending and borrowing on the Arcade protocol earns points which convert to $ARCD tokens.

So check Arcade out today, give or take some liquidity and start earning!

🙈 Blur Launches On Blast

"Time for something new. April."

That was the tweet from the Blur account back on Feb 29 that tipped everyone off for the potential launch of Blur on the Blast L2.

On the final day of April, it finally happened.

And it came with some big incentives (and likely implications).

What Happened?

Yesterday Blur officially introduced its platform on Blast.

Highlights from the announcement:

• Users simply toggle a switch at the top of the UI to switch from ETH to Blast
• Depositing to the Blur pool on Blast continues to earn native yield 
• 2M Blast Gold* (~$20M at current prices) will be distributed to Blur traders on Blast (list, bid, trade to earn)
• A new "NFTfi" Blast multiplier was introduced, providing a 2x for using Blur or other NFTfi apps on Blast (like nftperp, Wasabi, etc.)

*The twist with the Blast Gold rewards - no points will be revealed until the end of May.

This means farmers will be flying blind, leading to some likely chaos in the market.

Market Impact

Chaos is probably the correct term for the first few hours of NFT trading on Blast.

Several leading NFTs saw major spikes then full roundtrips as Blast-front runners sold into the pump, and incentivized sellers simply listed and moved on.

OSF's PAC REKT collection is the top winner after day 1, jumping 50% to 0.28 ETH on a whopping 4,000 ETH volume.

Plutocats jumped 10% to 1.5 ETH leading notable floors.

The volume numbers are not to be trusted, as reports of rampant wash trading have been circulating already.

And with no fees and no royalties on trades, and no visible points system to track rewards - expect that to continue.

The impact on ETH NFTs - well none so far.

The large crypto dip pulled down ETH NFTs with them and that impact likely overshadowed any potential impact of this Blast announcement.

Many are calling for ETH projects to bridge to Blast - we'll see if any teams make the move.

Why It Matters

At the highest level, we may be approaching the Blur incentives end game.

Season 3 ends with the Blast launch coming in May, and it's unclear if the standing ETH NFT trading incentives will continue past that point.

That's a major potential impact for the ETH NFT market.

The Blur team will also have to find a way to prop up its token, which has fallen over 50% from local highs to just $0.37 ($590M mc) into the last month of Season 3.

The staking rewards given to BLUR stakers were seemingly outweighed by the Blast Gold farming opps, which in many cases were less risky than holding $BLUR.

As for the next month, it's going to be a chaotic sprint.

NFT Stats has the 66,666 Blast Gold/day as $1.2M in incentives, per day.

That's a big carrot and many feel "behind" in the Blast Gold farm - they will go hard at this.

And the rules are pretty murky with no visible points, leading to the chaos.

Get your popcorn ready for what will be a wild month on Blast.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• ETH led NFT trading volume with $8.5M on the day (-2%); BTC was next with $6.8M (-10%) and then Solana with $2.8M (-10%)
• ETH NFT leaders were mostly red after crypto tumbled; BAYC -7% at 12.55 ETH, MAYC -13% at 2.2, Pudgy -4% to 11
• Azuki was the lone bright spot, jumping 4% to 5.05 ETH after the debut of their new Anime series was received very well
• Runestones led the BTC NFT board with just 8.8 BTC, rallying 20% to 0.02 BTC; new project BLIFSTONE reached 0.015 BTC in debut
• BTC PFP leaders were mostly stable as the Merlin Unlock continues; Bitcoin Puppets -20% at 0.24, NodeMonkes at 0.312, OMB at 0.42 BTC, Quantum Cats at 0.369
• Solana NFTs were mostly red on the day; Mad Lads even at 90 SOL, Tensorians -10% at 12.7, Mall Street -20%
• Blast NFTs saw an explosion in volume after the Blur on Blast debut; PAC REKT is top winner at 0.28 ETH, then Pluto Cats at 1.5
• Yuga announced an Otherside townhall held in The Otherside this Thurs at 6 pm ET;  all ecosystem NFT holders can attend

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors are down bad this morning; BTC -6.4% at $57,555; ETH -4.7% at $2,886; SOL -6% at $121
• Memecoin majors were also mostly red; DOGE -9%, WIF -7%, PEPE 12%, BONK -9%; ELON and BOOMER outperform
• Coinbase added support for Lightning Network on Bitcoin
• Binance founder CZ is getting 4 months in prison as a result of his most recent charges
• Prohibition Art is expanding to Base and launching MOONSHINE - a new community rewards program
• Pirate Nation announced a long-term partnership with Horizen Labs Ventures (known for its help in launching tokens)

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

• $ROCKY (+190%, $16M market cap, Base)
• $ELON (+90%, $21M market cap, ETH)
• $MANEKI (+18%, $94M market cap, Solana)
• $JOE (+17%, $9M market cap, ETH)
• $ROOST (+19%, $18M market cap, Base)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

• Infinigods (46%, 0.19 ETH Floor)
• QQL Mint Pass (29%, 2.97 ETH)
• VeeFriends (20%, 1.22 ETH)
• Kiraverse (13%, 0.18 ETH)
• Meebits (12%, 0.67 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is another big day of token claims and airdrops + mints.

The $NIM token and mainnet go live this morning, and then the Pacmoon Airdrop 3 this afternoon.

Fantasy Top is set to launch its mainnet this morning (pending no more delays).

And artists Sarah Zucker and Patrick Amadon are back with new drops.

See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor. 

• Fantasy Top (10:00 a.m. ET)
• Ether Pillar (10:00 a.m. ET)
• $NIM claim (10:00 a.m. ET)
• Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
• Sarah Zucker - Strabismus (12:00 p.m. ET)
• $PAC Season 3 airdrop (1:00 p.m. ET)
• Patrick Amadon - disobedient (3:00 p.m. ET)

Enjoy this write-up and/or want to sponsor the Morning Minute? Follow along with me on Twitter @tyler_did_it or reach out via email to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.