Morning Minute | A Christmas Break Recap for NFTs and Crypto

TylerD's Market Summary

Were you out touching grass and spending time with family this past few weeks? Catch up on all the major news you may have missed here.

📝 NFT and Crypto Recap

The market was anything but slow over the holiday break, and 2024 has been off to an incredibly fast start.

We've had airdrops, new PFP success stories across chains, a new up-and-coming NFT market, new trends and more to catch up on.

Dig in below.

2024 Is Airdrop SZN

Saga phone owners aren't the only crypto users getting airdrops in 2024.

In fact, just about everyone is.

The year got off to a fast start on Jan 1 with $LFG (LessFnGas) airdropping tokens to ETH users based on amount spent on gas. The kicker? The claim was on Solana, in an effort to convert users. The token ran past $100M at peak and still holds at $60M as the team begins prep for airdrop 2.

Then on Jan 2, Dymensions announced a token claim for users across blockchains and protocols (Celestia, Cosmos, ETH L2s, and Solana mainly), with select NFT owners also rewarded (Pudgy Penguins, Mad Lads, Tensorians, Bad Kids).

We knew big airdrops would be coming soon (Jupiter, Tensor, Celestia eco, Blast) - but not this soon!

Now the question on every degen's mind - what airdrops will be announced today?

Crypto Pumps As ETFs Near

The crypto leaders mostly chopped through late December on lower volume, but on New Year's Day, things turned around.

BTC pumped 7% well past $45k, leading a very green board.

SOL jumped 8% to $110, ETH soared past $2,400, and several other L1s saw big green (SEI the most notable up 20% to $0.75).

People seem excited about a potential ETF approval coming by Jan 10, with rumors it may happen this week.

And while the consensus view has heavily become that it will be a "sell the news" event, when everyone believes the same thing, the opposite seems more likely to occur.

So here's to a "buy the news" ETF approval event.

Oh, and Vitalik also released an updated roadmap for Ethereum outlining all the future plans including the Surge, the Scourge, the Verge, the Purge and the Splurge.

He's tired of ETH's under-performance...

Ordinals Heat Up

NFTs on Bitcoin were one of the biggest surprise trends of 2024. And it doesn't seem like they were just a flash in the pan.

The NodeMonkes minted on Dec 22 and revealed/began trading on Dec 29. The team caught some fud for changing from a free mint to a Dutch auction, which ended at 0.03 BTC.

Well the market shook off that fud pretty quick, sending the Nodes to a 0.21 BTC floor at peak (now 0.188). They have seen 594 BTC in the past 5 days ($25M) and lead all NFTs in volume on the week by over 2x.

Artist ripcache capitalized on the momentum, stealth-releasing a 64 supply set "Swarm" on Jan 1, which minted out at 0.16 BTC and ran as high as 0.3 before retracing (netting the artist $460k).

Whether NodeMonkes are the hot new BTC NFT or not, it seems Ordinals are likely here to stay.

A New Solana Leader

The Solana ecosystem cooled off over the holiday as memecoin mania (and 7k token launches per day) took over.

But a new project has captured market attention - Froganas.

The project seems to have found support with the BAYC community from ETH, and that cohort is rallying around the Frogs. And they sent them to a 24 SOL floor at peak (still at 16), and the number one volume spot all week on SOL (#2 across blockchains behind just NodeMonkes).

SEI NFTs Are Shiny New Object

While Solana and Bitcoin NFTs have stolen attention, another blockchain is quietly seeing big gains for its NFTs.

Sei.

Leading SEI NFTs exploded this past week, along with the surge in $SEI up to $0.75.

There are big barriers to entry and the infrastructure is incredibly immature (Pallet users report 45 min to 3-hour wait times to transact) - a perfect setup for NFT degens to capitalize on.

The leading NFT is an ant PFP called The Colony, which reached a 2800 SEI floor ($2200) at peak, with Seiyans and WeBump in 2nd and 3rd near 1k SEI.

Now the question becomes - is this pump like the early days of SOL NFTs? Or Canto?

ETH NFTs Cool Off

The bullish tailwinds of the Blur airdrop and Blast announcement seem well behind us.

The ETH NFT leaderboard basically held even on the past 1-2 weeks with little notable movement.

Daily trading volume held at the $20M/day level, but the market seems heavily farmer-dominated.

PFPs most chopped, gaming NFTs mostly chopped, and leading art NFTs saw red.

It's hard to see this trend changing in the near term with over $1.1B locked on Blast until at least February - but pending that unlock, and any other surprise airdrops, we may see a turn-around.

NFTs Turn Into Equity

While the ETH NFT market has been boring, one fun new trend has emerged.

Founders are rewarding NFT owners with equity stakes in their companies.

First, Pons from The Plague did a surprise announcement for holders that they would be gifted equity in Making Coffee (legal because it's a gift and not purchased).

Then just a few days later, OSF announced that rektguy holders would be getting equity in Rekt Brands, which controls the contract, the logo, IP, and goodwill, along with company ventures (first being rektdrinks).

It will be very interesting to see which founders may follow in their footsteps...

ETH NFT Market Overview

Now for a quick look at broader price action.

Here is a quick rundown of the notable floors (on ETH) and their 7-day price changes:

• Fidenza: 73.8 ETH (+34%)
• CryptoPunks: 55.6 ETH (even)
• Ringers: 28 ETH (-18%)
• BAYC: 26.9 ETH (-3%)
• Gazers: 10.49 ETH (even)
• Pudgy Penguins: 11.37 ETH (+9%)
• Grifters: 8.8 ETH (-9%)
• Chromie Squiggle: 8.3 ETH (-7%)
• Winds of Yawanawa: 6.69 ETH (-4%)
• Azuki: 6.29 ETH (+7%)
• MAYC: 5.1 ETH (-5%)
• Captainz: 4.09 ETH (-10%)
• Otherside Koda: 4.15 ETH (+15%)
• DeGods: 3.2 (even)
• Milady: 2.52 ETH (+5%)
• PROOF: 2.04 ETH (-6%)

So it was a pretty mixed board.

Fidenza, Pudgy's and Azuki outperformed, while most of the rest are in red.

Art Blocks continue their downtrend, with Squiggles at 8.3 and at 6-month lows. It seems clear that art continues to be in a bear market, and until the wealth effect really sets in (if it does) and supply continues to be pumped out, it's hard to see that trend stopping.

As for PFPs, they are mostly a farmer's game right now. It's hard to get excited about any pumps or dumps.

Leaders on SOL also fell over the holiday, with Mad Lads at 149 SOL (down from 220) and Tensorians at 94 (down from 130). With 50+ new projects set to drop in the near future, there's a big open question around if the "old" guard will remain relevant in 2024.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

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

• ETH trading volume jumped to $25.3M on Tuesday, the highest total since Dec 11; leaders were mostly green, up 2-4%
• Pudgy Penguins led notable top movers, +4% to 11.17 ETH; Steamboat Willie jumped 133% to 0.24, and World of Women +35% to 1.29
• Gordon Goner went on another NFT buying spree across blockchains, picking up a NodeMonke, a Frogana, a Mooncat, Quirkies and mfer 
• NodeMonkes jumped 35% to 0.189 BTC floor on a whopping 142 BTC volume ($6.3M) following Gordon's buy; a whale picked up 3 Aliens as well for a total of 6.38 BTC ($284k)
• Froganas led SOL volume once again, up 13% to 15.7 SOL floor; other leaders were up slightly, with Tensorians +6% to 96 and Mad Lads +2.5% to 153
• Wasabi announced a new perps market now live to the public, leveraging connections to Flooring Protocol and other NFT marketplaces, along with a new Points system
• ByWassies is launching a unique studio initiative, redefining its approach to NFTs and blockchain projects, which will include a memecoin "Pump It Loomdart" or PILL) on the unlaunched Blast L2
• Sorare launched Manager ID, a new feature allowing players to showcase their journey and achievements in a personalized way

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

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

• Crypto majors fell hard this morning as an analyst predicted ETF rejection; BTC -6.7% at $42,350; ETH -8% at $2,220; SOL -17% at $94.50
• BONK fell 14% on the day to $750M market cap, while WIF fell even further -37% to $98M as memecoins on SOL continue downtrend
• Eigenlayer reached its 500k ETH restaking cap, putting new deposits on pause for the latest ETH farm
• MKR announced a 1:24,000 token split involving a new token NGT, briefly sending it +10% to $1,880 before falling this morning to $1,733
• Etherscan has added Solscan to their team, to help execute their vision of "providing credibly neutral and equitable access to blockchain data"
• Binance released a 2023 year-end report highlighting its work in Web3, including expanding to 40M new users, its Binance Web3 wallet, stronger compliance and more

🚀 NFT Total Volume (ETH)

• Pudgy Penguins (3,142 ETH, 11.17 ETH Floor)
• Azuki (2,344 ETH, 6.35 ETH)
• MAYC (1,702 ETH, 5.05 ETH)
• BAYC (1,282 ETH, 26.75 ETH)
• DeGods (1,112 ETH, 3.36 ETH)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

• Steamboat Willie (133%, 0.24 ETH Floor)
• Party Bears (35%, 0.24 ETH)
• World of Women (35%, 1.29 ETH)
• Mooncats (18%, 0.24 ETH)
• Pudgy Rogs (11%, 0.57 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is a slower day of new mints with just a few on the list.

Atmo is the Memes Card artist and Counterfeit Culture is dropping on Bitcoin.

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

• Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
• Counterfeit Culture (1:00 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 tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.