Morning Minute | Digital Art on Bitcoin Takes Off

TylerD's Market Summary

The newest NFT meta is here - art, on Bitcoin. Find out what's been happening, plus catch up on all the weekend's news.

📝 Art NFTs Explode on Bitcoin

When Ordinals launched and NFTs on Bitcoin entered the conversation, most feedback against them was related to slow and expensive transactions, limiting high-volume activity.

That would make most NFTs as we knew them at the time (PFPs, Utility tokens, gaming, etc.) a bad fit.

But it would be a good potential fit for high-end luxury digital art.

That theory was tested for the first time when Yuga Labs dropped their first Ordinals collection "Twelvefold" on Bitcoin back in March 2023 (which pulled in 735 BTC).

The set saw some strong early interest but fizzled out fairly quickly, and the art NFT scene on Bitcoin has been fairly quiet since.

Until these past few weeks, and especially this past weekend.

What Happened?

Several art NFT collections on Bitcoin soared over the weekend.

A few that stand out:

• Sats by Harto: 0.47 BTC floor ($20,900 or 9.37 ETH)
• Swarm_ by ripcache at 0.27 BTC floor ($12,000 or 5.38 ETH)
• The Golden Ratio by Harto: 0.16 BTC floor ($7,100 or 3.18 ETH)
• Rising Echoes by Medusa: 0.07 BTC floor ($3,100 or 1.39 ETH)
• Metablends: 0.04 BTC floor ($1,780 or 0.8 ETH)
• BitGlyphs: 0.029 BTC floor ($1,290 or 0.58 ETH)

Even Twelvefold caught some love in the run, seeing 2 sales at 0.69 and 0.7 BTC and bringing the floor up to 0.75 (the average mint was 2.55 BTC so minters are still down bad).

But those who got into the Vivid curated collections early (Sats, Golden Ratio, Rising Echoes) certainly aren't down. They're up big.

And the price action has drawn the attention of several notable ETH-native art collectors, who are seemingly starting their Ordinals art collections with The Golden Ratio.

The Golden Ratio led volume of any art projects on Bitcoin this week seeing 18 BTC volume, with high sales of 0.5 and 0.4 BTC. Swarm was next up in volume, with 17 BTC traded.

Why Is It Happening?

If NFTs make sense at all on Bitcoin, art NFTs make sense there. They are collectibles that can simply exist and don't need/require the ability to transact easily.

The "Sattribute" factor adds a bonus, providing a nicer "canvas" for the art NFTs if the artist chooses rare ones.

With BTC ETFs coming this week (most likely), people are starting to bet on more attention coming to Bitcoin. And when the wealth effect sets in, richer holders will likely turn to NFTs (and art).

At least that's the theory.

Also, it seems that the wild run NodeMonkes had last week (1,000 BTC volume in 8 days) may have kicked off the start of a larger NFT season on Bitcoin, one where art will play a major factor.

Overall, it's a small sample size and too soon to put a lot of weight on these early movers - but this sector of the Bitcoin NFT market is certainly one to start paying attention to for active participants.

My bet is we are just getting started. 

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 (even)
• CryptoPunks: 53.99 ETH (-3%)
• Ringers: 35 ETH (+30%)
• BAYC: 25.35 ETH (-4%)
• Pudgy Penguins: 10.86 ETH (+1%)
• Gazers: 10 ETH (-5%)
• Grifters: 8.8 ETH (even)
• Chromie Squiggle: 8 ETH (-4%)
• Azuki: 7.3 ETH (+18%)
• Winds of Yawanawa: 6.66 ETH (-1%)
• MAYC: 4.9 ETH (-2%)
• Captainz: 4.05 ETH (-1%)
• Otherside Koda: 4.07 ETH (-1%)
• DeGods: 3.15 (-1%)
• Milady: 2.44 ETH (-5%)
• PROOF: 2.3 ETH (+13%)

So it was mostly a chop week with a majority of collections trading within a +/- 5% range.

Ringers outperformed to the upside up 30% at 35 ETH, though Squiggles and most other leading Art Blocks sets continued their downtrend.

Azuki led PFPs, up 18% on the week at 7.3, mostly on the back of their weekend run powered by token rumors (more below).

PROOF also rebounded 13% to 2.3 ETH as rumors have started to swirl regarding a big announcement coming in February (perhaps a leadership change?).

Chop and decline feels like the new norm for ETH NFTs - we will see if that trend continues this week.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

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

• ETH trading volume jumped to $29.8M on Saturday and $27.8M on Sunday, the 2nd highest 2-day stretch in several months; leaders were mostly slightly red though
• Azuki led top action on ETH over the weekend after the Azuki account retweeted a post from the Weeb3 Foundation, which many assumed was an $ANIME token teaser; Azuki +18% to 7.3 ETH, Beanz +42% to 0.58, Elementals +27% to 0.66
• NodeMonkes crossed the 1,000 BTC mark in trading volume, with the floor settling at 0.235 BTC (after reaching 0.3 at peak)
• Saga phone owners got surprise-airdropped an NFT called Saga Monkes which led volume on Saturday and opening at 4+ SOL before tailing off (now 2.1 SOL)
• Solana NFTs were broadly red after SOL dipped 12% to $90; Mad Lads -3% at 164, Tensorians +6% at 97, Claynos -8% at 35
• Polygon NFT volume soared 208% on the week to $36.9M as new project Gas Heroes takes 4 of top 10 slots on the CryptoSlam board
• TinFun raised over $40M in pre-sale raffle entries for its NFT collection, with losers expected to get refunds

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

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

• Crypto majors are moving this morning after a Sunday pullback; BTC +2% at $44,950; ETH +1% at $2,260; SOL -1% at $93.30; alts were down high-single to double digits
• BTC ETF applicants are slashing their fees, with BlackRock at 0.3% and ARK at 0.25% ahead of formal approval expected this week
• A Solana Ponzi called Mango Farm drained users' wallets just a day after ex-NFL star Antonio Brown shilled the project on his X page
• Manta L2 announced it will end deposits on Jan 16th as it prepares to wrap up its Phase 2

🚀 NFT Total Volume (ETH)

• MAYC (2,677 ETH, 4.91 ETH Floor)
• Azuki (1,751 ETH, 7.3 ETH)
• BAYC (1,704 ETH, 25.35 ETH)
• Pudgy Penguins (1,384 ETH, 10.86 ETH)
• DeGods (871 ETH, 3.15 ETH)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

• Sofa Maker (50%, 0.15 ETH Floor)
• Fluf (39%, 1.19 ETH)
• Fluf World: Burrows (35%, 0.24 ETH)
• OnChainMonkey (30%, 1.55 ETH)
• PROOF (16%, 2.3 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is a slower day of new mints to start the week.

Martin Kozlowski is the Memes Card artist and there are a few art drops.

The other highlight is a new collab between Forbes Web3 and Rarible. It was teased on Jan 5th and not many details are known - we should find out today.

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

• redlion x Brainpast (10:00 a.m. ET)
• Forbes x Rarible (10:00 a.m. ET)
• Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
• 0xfff.eth - You Are Here (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.co