Morning Minute | Banking Sector Turmoil & BTC DeGods Resurrected
GM!
Tyler is on vacation this week, but no worries, I'm here to fill in and catch you up on all the latest news in web3 and crypto!
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Market Summary
Worries of contagion spreading through a developing banking crisis has shaken depositer confidence in traditional finance and sent crypto prices soaring over the past week, with Bitcoin cresting $28k for the first time since June over the weekend, and Ether eclipsing $1,800 for the first time since August on Saturday.
🏦Credit Suisse and First Republic Bank
The banking crisis that began around two weeks ago with Silvergate, Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank spread more recently to First Republic Bank and Credit Suisse. First Republic was assisted by 11 larger banks, who deposited $30 billion into the regional bank late last week, but FRC's share price sank 30% on Friday, leaving many questioning the bank's future. The rescue effort is ongoing and we'll learn more about FRC's fate in the coming week.
The next institution to be affected by the market turmoil was Credit Suisse, who borrowed $53.7 billion from the Swiss National Bank on Thursday to help shore up its reserves. Over the weekend, chatter of the institution's sale culminated in UBS purchasing Credit Suisse on Sunday for more than $2 billion.
Looking beyond the five institutions mentioned above, the Wall Street Journal on Friday suggested as many as 186 "may be prone to similar risks" as Silicon Valley Bank, according to a report by Social Science Research Network.
All of this uncertainty in the banking sector has pushed many back to Bitcoin, which was originally forged shortly after the 2008 financial crisis as a potential solution for some of the issues facing the traditional finance market. It's hard to predict where things go from here, but it seems reasonable to expect another volatile week ahead in the markets.
🔄 NFT Round Up
👻 DeGods Resurrection
In NFTs, Frank continued to dominate the headlines following Dust Labs' controversial decision to "resurrect" 535 DeGods NFTs on Bitcoin by allowing the public to mint these Ordinal NFTs for 0.333 BTC a pop (initially, the price was set for 0.444 BTC, but that target was lowered prior to the mint after the price of Bitcoin had shot up over the course of the preceding week).
Nevertheless,the project was a success. DeGods sold out their Bitcoin companions within a single block and BTC DeGods dominated Bitcoin NFT trading over the weekend. According to a tweet from the project, BTC DeGods commanded $733k in volume over the 24 hours after it dropped, while all other Ordinals projects combined for only $163k in trading volume over that same period.
Not even Yuga Labs was able to compete with DeGods over the weekend. On Sunday, BTC DeGods surpassed $1m in trading volume and the cheapest sale so far has been Inscription #77578, which sold for 0.5 BTC, well above the 0.333 BTC mint cost. Only time will tell if BTC DeGods are able to keep the momentum as the initial excitement from mint day wears off, but for his part, Frank seems commited to making the project a success.
🦍 "Bored Ape Yacht Club"
If you were on Twitter this weekend, you likely noticed a flood of "Bored Ape Yacht Club" tweets (yes, that's the whole tweet). The trend appears to have been started by Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solano (Garga) and it quickly spread like wildfire across social media. Your favorite NFT news outlet even joined in on the fun. The effort kept Bored Ape Yacht Club trending on Twitter for several hours on Sunday
The Twitter campaign was a nice breath of fresh air for the Yuga Labs ecosystem, which saw two negative headlines late last week. On Thursday, it was revealed that a trait was incorrectly labeled in the company's new HV-MTL collection, causing some buyers to unknowingly purchase Power Sources that didn't have Companions. And on Friday, Yuga's flagship collections, Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club both faced downward pressure in the market with the projects' floor prices down falling around 11% and 9% respectively.
It remains a critical time for Yuga Labs, with the project now 70% of the way through its "MDvMM" roadmap that kicked off with The Trial of Jimmy in December. All eyes will continue to be on Yuga as Mech types are revealed later this month (exact date TBD).
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of the other major headlines from a slower weekend in NFTs:
- Trading volume came in just under 28k ETH on Sunday, mostly in line with recent daily activity levels.
- RTFKT announced forging for Nike Air Force 1 will begin on April 23.
- Zed Run Budweiser Pass holders gain access to exclusive merchandise.
- The next batch of VeeCon speakers was announced on Friday. Included in the list were notable names like Farokh, Luca Netz and Neil Patrick Harris.
- Momoguro revealed a more detailed roadmap, which included a focus on storytelling and IP building.
- gmoney's luxury NFT-powered fashion line 9dcc will drop its next item, IT-03, a luxury baseball hat on March 24.
- @mfigge, the artist behind Yuga Labs' TwelveFold Ordinals project hinted towards future plans for the project, with more info expected next month.
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
- Reports suggest Hong Kong will allow retail investors to invest in "large cap cryptocurrencies" beginning this June.
- Taiwan appointed its Financial Supervisory Commission to oversee and regulate cryptocurrency. NFTs are not yet included in the initiative because they are still new and "it's too early to regulate them." Yes, we are so early.
- Last night, the FDIC announced the former branches of Signature Bank will operate under New York Community Bancorp's Flagstar Bank, beginning today. Notably absent from the announcement was Signature's crypto business. This news comes after the NYDFS pushed back against accusations of the bank being shut down prematurely by regulators due to its crypto exposure.
🚀 NFT Total Volume
- Wrapped CryptoPunks (16,972 ETH, 74.8. ETH Floor)
- Mutant Ape Yacht Club (2,849 ETH, 13.09 ETH Floor)
- Azuki (2,004 ETH, 13.34 ETH Floor)
- Otherdeed for Otherside (1,000 ETH, 1.64 ETH Floor)
- Doodles (944 ETH, 3.79 ETH Floor)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase
- byteGANs (29%, 1.8 ETH Floor)
- Admit One (28%, 2.4 ETH Floor)
- RENGA by DirtyRobot (9%, 1.15 ETH Floor)
- KILLABITS (9%, 0.75 ETH Floor)
- Mocaverse (8.5%, 1 ETH Floor)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
We have a lighter day of mints and reveals on the docket today, headlined by an Art Blocks drop from Loren Bednar. Bednar's previous Art Blocks works include Parade, phase, and Traversals. The latest collection, called "Divergence" is a smaller set with a collection size of 100, and 60/100 currently available to the public. Collectors of Bednar's previous works were given early access to the drop.
OpenSea is hosting "Planetary Scores," which drops at 5:24 PM ET today. This is an "animated, audiovisual, and space-themed NFT collection" designed by Mozart Louis.
This afternoon, DraftKings will host its next TourneyToons drop at 1:00 PM ET. Tourney Toons holders will be entitled to a variety of benefits, including access to DFS contests, DK Dollars bonuses and more.
- Divergence by Loren Bednar (1:00 PM ET), Dutch auction
- Planetary Scores (5:24 PM ET), 0.08 ETH
- Outlanders (6:00 PM ET)
- DraftKings: 2023 Tourney Toons Rare (1:00 PM ET), $54.99
Enjoy this write-up? Follow along with me on Twitter @wmonighe or reach out via email bill@luckytrader.com.
For all volume and floor price data, see Lucky Trader's Project Rankings page.
For all upcoming mints, see Lucky Trader's Project Schedule page.
