Morning Minute | Bitcoin Pumps as ETFs Appear Imminent
TylerD's Market Summary
The coins are soaring as the final countdown to ETF approval begins, and Gary Gensler has seemingly waved the white flag. Plus catch up on big announcements from upcoming BTC NFT drops.
📈 Bitcoin Rallies Ahead of ETF Decision
The final countdown is on.
The Bitcoin ETF approvals or denials are expected by Jan 10 (tomorrow), with more delays seemingly off the table.
Final tweeks and changes are being made by the applicants, and there are signals coming from major players that approval is near.
And the market is liking the signals.
What Happened?
Monday was a busy day for BlackRock, ARK and the other ETF applicants.
In the morning, we saw them race to slash fees with BlackRock offering 0.3% and ARK at 0.25% in a race to 0 to gain market share.
Then Gary Gensler dropped a small thread warning the public about the dangers of investing in crypto.
The market saw that Gary thread as a signal that the ETFs were likely to be approved, and Bitcoin started sending.
Almost immediately following Gary's thread, BTC rallied from $45,000 to $47,000, a smashing new local high.
The applicants were busy Monday evening, making additional last minute changes to their forms, and the consensus view from experts is that approvals remain imminent.
Why It Matters
The thread from Gary Gensler warning the public about investing in crypto seemed like a flag-waving gesture, saying "this is out of my hands now."
The ETFs are coming.
And the race to cut fees shows the level of competitions between these applicants.
That matters because they'll also be racing to acquire AUM (assets under management) to become the BTC ETF leader. That likely equates to larger inflows, sooner.
Expect a big bang on the first day of trading as the race to fill the ETFs begins.
🟠 Big Announcements from Upcoming Ordinals Launches
While Bitcoin remains in the crypto spotlight, its NFT ecosystem continues to rumble along.
Three major projects dropped announcements on Monday, providing an areas of focus for those new to Ordinals and BTC NFTs.
Those events & announcements included:
- Taproot Wizards inscribing a 3,232 supply Ordinals collection of Cats
- Pizza Ninjas introducing their new programmable and upgradeable PFPs (and why they inscribed the Super Nintendo on-chain)
- Shadow Hats explaining how they used parent-child inscriptions to create their 666 Shadow Hats from their 10 original Shadow Wizards
Taproot Wizards remains the leading candidate for BTC "blue chip" but its launch date is still very TBD and doesn't seem soon.
Shadow Hats are launching as soon as this week, and traders are paying 3-5 ETH to try to guarantee WL spots.
Pizza Ninjas drop on the 16th, and their latest announcement is sure to drum up interest (it worked on me).
Expect major attention and demand for these as they hit the market in the near future.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
- ETH trading volume fell to $20.4M on Monday, the lowest total in a week; leaders were mostly red down 1-3%
- Azuki led volume again but continues to lose its weekend gains from token hype, now back at 7.11
- Bitmates led top movers, jumping 90% to 0.1; L3E7 Worlds jumped 5% to a 9.69 ETH floor
- Bitcoin Puppets led trading on Bitcoin, rallying to 0.035 at peak before falling back to 0.026 (+30%); NodeMonkes held at 0.2
- Froganas led trading on Solana but fell another 7% to 7.5 SOL floor; Saga Monkes were top winner, +100% to 4.34; Mad Lads +10% to 180, Tensorians at 99
- Jack Butcher dropped Set 100 "OGO" for the 1-year birthday of the Opepen collection, already 5,200% subscribed
- Upcoming Ordinals project Pizza Ninjas released an 88-page github document describing its interactive and programmable PFPs and why they inscribed an entire Super Nintendo on-chain for holders
- A Grant Yun 1/1 "Overpass" sold for 30 ETH on secondary, and a Seerlight 1/1 sold for 6.6 ETH
- Pixelmon shared more information about its upcoming hyper-casual game "Pixel Pals", including $120k in prizes and ability to farm $MON
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
- Crypto majors saw big green on Monday led by BTC; BTC +4% at $46,700; ETH +1.8% at $2,300; SOL +8.4% at $101.60
- Memecoins on Solana rebounded as Bonk saw more volume than Shiba, jumping 26% to $830M market cap; WIF rebounded 70% to $135M
- Visa unveiled its Web3 Loyalty Engagement Solution, aiming to help web2 brands improve their loyalty programs with web3 tech
- Open Campus announced Open Campus ID, a new decentralized identifier, using data control and new educational experiences to transform web3 education
🚀 NFT Total Volume (ETH)
- Azuki (2,313 ETH, 7.11 ETH Floor)
- BAYC (1,575 ETH, 24.56 ETH)
- Pudgy Penguins (1,473 ETH, 10.83 ETH)
- MAYC (1,394 ETH, 4.81 ETH)
- Beanz (846 ETH, 0.45 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
- Bitmates (92%, 0.11 ETH Floor)
- Caliverse Pioneer (82%, 0.4 ETH)
- Steamboat Willie (64%, 0.23 ETH)
- Kaijukingz (34%, 0.13 ETH)
- Forgotten Souls (33%, 1 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is a slower day of new drops again, mostly focused in the art sector on ETH.
The Moonbirds are launching their updated $TALONS store, with token holders able to buy products.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
- jhekub - Building Blocks (10:00 a.m. ET)
- Kevin Abosch - MOD (12:00 p.m. ET)
- Moonbirds Talons marketplace launch (12:00 p.m. ET)
- Superchief Gallery - Bad Glitches Only (12:00 p.m. ET)
- Delta Sauce - Burn Mint (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.
