Morning Minute | Crypto Majors Dip As Big Week Looms

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!

🗓 Crypto FUD As Big Week Looms

This is arguably the most important week of the year for the crypto space.

The biggest potential airdrop in crypto history is now rumored to come, along with several other major protocol token drops.

But it comes against one of the most unstable regulatory backdrops in a long time.

What Happened?

Let's start with the bad news.

On Friday, news spread that MetamMask parent company Consensys was suing the SEC after it was revealed the SEC had sent them a Wells Notice earlier in the month.

Wells Notices typically come before enforcement actions, like the ones the SEC has filed against Coinbase, Binance, etc.

For Consensys, the SEC alleges that they violated securities laws via MetaMask Swaps and Staking.

Later in the day, the DTCC filed a change to its Collateral Hairucts mandating that Bitcoin and other crypto should be marked down to 0 collateral value for loans.

Not great, although the DTCC headline seems to have less substance than the SEC one.

This all went down Friday as the Japanese Yen fell to its lowest value against the USD after BOJ decided to keep its interest rates unchanged.

Combined these headlines made for a shaky Friday night.

And really bad timing as the crypto market prepares for a massive week of token launches.

Airdrops SZN Heats Up

Here is the list of tokens expected to come this week:

• $DRIFT on Apr 29 
• $FRIEND on Apr 29 
• $RENZO on Apr 30 
• $KMNO on Apr 30
• NFTFI on Apr 30*
• $EIGEN on May 1**

*NFTFI will be claimable but not tradeable for 41 days

**Eigen is not yet confirmed, just speculated

The wildcard on that list if Eigenlayer which has $15B+ in TVL for the leading ETH restaking protocol.

If it does indeed airdrop this week, it could very well be the biggest one in crypto history. And many pointed to the ETH pump from Saturday as insider's buying ahead of that airdrop.

FriendTech v2 officially launches today with its $FRIEND expected to come as well (though also not confirmed). Given all of the influencers with big point totals, expect a ton of chatter around this one today (especially with Fantasy Top delaying).

And Solana sees a few major protocol airdrops this week with Drift and Kamino dropping their tokens, with Kamino likely to garner more attention.

It's a huge week with a massive potential influx of capital - if macro markets can cooperate behind the scenes.

Buckle up. It may be a bumpy ride...

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

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

• BTC led NFT trading volume with $7.2M on the day (-17%); ETH was next with $7M (+31%) and then Solana with $4.4M (-20%)
• Prometheans led the BTC NFT board with 43 BTC volume but falling ~70% after the runes snapshot
• RSIC pumped 15% to 0.048 BTC after its genesis RUNECOIN was listed on OKX Jumpstart
• Udi announced the OP_CAT proposal will go live on Bitcoin's "signet" this week, an upgrade that will enable a bigger crypto economy on BTC
• Ink announced its new INKUBATOR for builders (NFTs at 0.02)
• BTC PFP leaders dipped 5-10% on low volume; NodeMonkes at 0.34, OMB at 0.4 BTC, Quantum Cats at 0.4, Bitcoin Puppets at 0.28
• ETH NFT leaders were mixed with BAYC even at 15.2 ETH, Pudgy -6% to 11.4, Azuki +7% to 4.6 and MAYC -4% at 2.66; most closed the week up 15-25% still
• Mintify Genesis and Mocaverse were notable winners, jumping 19% and 9% respectively
• Solana NFTs were mostly green on the day; Mad Lads even at 90 SOL, Tensorians +10% at 14.8, Mall Street +19%, Saku +15%
• Blast NFTs were led by Skellie at 0.059 ETH, Blastopians jumping to 0.18 ETH & BAC Genesis Runner at 0.24
• 0xMaki launched the Hero Glyphs whitepaper along with a cross-chain scavenger hunt to mint the NFTs
• Yuga announced broad layoffs on Friday as the company looks to go back to its roots

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

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

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

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

• Crypto majors are red this morning; BTC -1.9% at $62,370; ETH -3.5% at $3,170; SOL -4.7% at $135
• Memecoin majors were also mostly red; DOGE -5%, WIF even%, PEPE -6%, BONK -4%; MICHI and USA outperform
• Coolman's Universe debuted its $COOL token on Solana at $32M mc
• The SEC sent a Wells Notice to Consensys saying that it violated securities laws through MetaMask Swaps and Staking
• The DTCC declared that Bitcoin ETF collateral should be marked down to 0 in its latest Collateral Haircuts notice

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

• $COOL (+700%, $33M market cap, Solana)
• $MICHI (+55%, $55M market cap, Solana)
• $USA (+39%, $70M market cap, Solana)
• $PAC (+22%, $18.5M market cap, Blast)
• $KEYCAT (+17%, $39M market cap, Base)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

• Cecu Cube (35%, 0.32 ETH Floor)
• Mintify Genesis (19%, 0.12 ETH)
• Honey Comb (10%, 0.33 ETH)
• Mocaverse (9%, 4.08 ETH)
• Yogapetz (8%, 0.43 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is a huge day of events to kickstart the week.

Friend Tech v2 is set to launch (and potentially airdrop $FRIEND) along with the $DRIFT airdrop.

Prometheans is airdropping and launching its DECENTRALIZED runes today.

And new mints are picking back up across Bitcoin (gas fees are going back to normal) and Base (with artist Resaang highlighting).

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

• BitLads (7:00 a.m. ET)
• Ultiverse (8:00 a.m. ET)
• Petopia airdrop (10:00 a.m. ET)
• Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
• Resaang - Kintsugi (3:00 p.m. ET)
• Prometheans - DECENTRALIZED airdrop (TBD)
• Friend Tech v2 (TBD)
• $DRIFT airdrop (TBD)

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.