Morning Minute | Yuga Acquires Moonbirds in Blockbuster Acquisition
TylerD's Market Summary
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🐵 Yuga Acquires PROOF, Moonbirds
Rumors had swirled for a few months about a potential PROOF and Moonbirds acquisition.
It was no secret that Kevin Rose wanted out.
But we had no idea it would be a buyer this big. And that the move would send ripples through the entire ETH NFT ecosystem.
What Happened?
On Friday afternoon, Yuga broke the news that it had acquired PROOF, including all the NFTs (PROOF Pass, Moonbirds, Oddities, Mythics and Grails).
Key details:
- The acquisition included all staff, IP, art portfolio and (most importantly) the treasury
- Kevin Rose will become an advisor
- Yuga plans to start by bringing Moonbirds into the Otherside
It was a shocking announcement. And the market shook in response.
Market Response
Moonbirds saw the most volatile price action of any of the impact sets.
The floor ran from 1.5 ETH to 2.5 ETH at peak before retracing entirely, running back up to 2, dipping again and then rebounding to 1.9 ETH this AM.
A true rollercoaster example of price action.
PROOF jumped 45% to 2.45 ETH, Oddities +67% to 0.09 and Mythics actually fell 15% to 0.14 ETH.
As for the Yuga sets, it's a bit worse.
- BAYC at 21.8 ETH (-4.5%)
- MAYC at 3.91 ETH (-6%)
- BAKC at 1.13 ETH (-1%)
- Otherdeeds at 0.38 ETH (-13%)
But it's not due to a lack of caring.
Over 11,000 people tuned in to Saturday morning's special "Coffee with Captain" show to react to the news.
And then Saturday night, the Yuga team held a token-gated call with Bored Ape holders which over 700 people attended.
So how are people feeling about the takeover? Did it make sense?
The Bull Case
While the deal specifics haven't been released, it's believed the Yuga got Moonbirds treasury ($20-$40M) and now gets access to the high-end art market.
They get an influx of cash without having to raise at a lowered valuation. And they get access to some high-caliber web3 employees with PROOF's staff (although not NFT Stats, who announced Friday that he was partying ways with the company).
It makes a lot of sense from a business perspective.
Some believe they are positioning themselves as the "Disney of Web3" by acquiring brands like this and opening up new sectors (i.e. art).
Others disagree.
The Bear Case
Yuga just acquired another 26,000+ NFTs to manage and provide value for, in an ecosystem whose holders already believe they've been diluted enough.
- Otherdeeds are at 0.38 ETH and basically down only since mint.
- ApeCoin is at $1.75 ($1B market cap), which is -69% on the year and not pumping alongside everything else in this crypto market.
- Bored Apes were (briefly) flipped by Pudgy Penguins in floor price on Saturday as they continue a down-only trend since Mando and OSF sold early last year.
- And Mutants, well they've been flipped by several projects now.
That list doesn't even include Meebits which are holding at 1.1 ETH (1/50 of a Punk) and seemingly neglected.
And while PROOF's GRAILS is widely adored in web3, it's no secret that art is in a bad bear market right now (just ask Squiggles holders), so betting on Yuga becoming an art powerhouse isn't moving the needle any time soon.
Conclusion
One thing is certain - the NFT landscape has seen another massive change.
Yuga continues to flex its powerhouse status, amidst its NFTs losing value in ETH terms by the week.
We'll see if the PROOF assets and/or community will be able to turn that around.
📈 NFT Market Long Weekend Recap
NFTs are booming across chains, and the Yuga acquisition didn't interrupt the rally.
Leaders are in the spotlight on Bitcoin and Solana, but it's the feisty mid-caps leading the way on ETH.
ETH NFT Market
There were 2 major storylines this weekend:
The flappening, where Pudgy's briefly flipped Bored Apes in floor price on Saturday morning before retracing, which came about in the PROOF-acquisition fall out
Mid-tier PFP and web3 gaming surge, with 10 notable projects seeing 25%+ gains on the week.
Here's the quick PFP list:
- Moonbirds +69% to 1.9 ETH
- Rektguy +64% to 0.8 ETH
- Sappy Seals +57% to 1.13 ETH
- World of Women +31% to 1.17 ETH
- Kanpai Pandas +26% to 2.6 ETH
In web3 gaming:
- Parallel Avatars +54% to 1.23 ETH
- Farm Land by Pixels +40% to 1.72 ETH
- PX Quest +38% to 0.39 ETH
- My Pet Hooligan +35% to 0.91 ETH
- Skyborne Nexian Gems +27% to 1.03 ETH
PFPs and gaming NFTs continue to dominate on ETH and the trend doesn't seem to be slowing down.
It's a similar story on Bitcoin.
Bitcoin NFT Market
This weekend's theme - ETH whales are coming for your Ordinals.
And it looks like 3 projects primarily benefitted.
- Quantum Cats to 0.244 BTC (+30%)
- NodeMonkes to 0.188 BTC (+30%)
- Bitcoin Puppets to 0.068 BTC (+20%)
It seems clear right now that those are the top 3 PFP collections that ETH natives are going after.
And while OMB remains the leader by floor price at 0.74 BTC, it doesn't seem to get the same attention (or volume).
Solana NFT Market
It's Mad Lads time to shine.
Mad Lads are the clear and sole leader right now on SOL, jumping to a 207 SOL floor over the weekend.
Next up is likely Tensorians (holding steady at 80), and then Kanpai Pandas at 65 (though it's a cross-chain project) and Claynos at 35.
All of the other recent movers saw big red, once again showing how fleeting the NFT pumps are on Solana outside of the very top collections.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the weekend in NFTs:
- Ethereum led NFT trading volume with $22.1M on the day; Solana saw $8.3M and Bitcoin was next with $8.2M
- rektguy and Sappy Seals were notable top movers on ETH, jumping 28% and 24% respectively; Pebbles popped 23% to 2.65 ETH in the art sector
- A set of 10 Autoglyphs sold for $14.5M on Monday in a brokered deal, one of the biggest NFT transactions of all time (the buyer paid $1.43M for them in Feb 2021)
- Blast announced that its Big Bang competition winners will be revealed on Friday, February 23
- Quantum Cats led action on BTC tallying 14 BTC on the day and jumping to 0.244 BTC; Nodes up to 0.188, RSIC held at 0.074, and Puppets dipped to 0.065
- Magic Eden teased the ability to trade runes natively on their market place in the future
- Solana NFTs mostly chopped on the day with Mad Lads -1% at 207 SOL and Tensorians even at 81; everything else was red
- NBA Top Shot "Freshman Gems" packs have been selling for 7x the mint price in the latest sign of rebounding demand
💰 Token, Airdrop & Points Tracker
Introducing a brand new section, highlighting any major token or airdrop news from the day.
- $STRK token claiming went live this morning for those eligible for the airdrop
- Syncus DAO announced an airdrop for holders of the following NFT collections: Pudgy Penguins & Lils, BAYC + MAYC, Sappy Seals and rektguy
- $PIXEL went live for trading on Monday and opened at a $440M market cap ($2.87B FDV)
- $PORTAL went live on Whales pre-market and saw trades as high as $1 over the weekend
- MetaStreet's newly launched ASCEND program has reached $10M in deposits across 2,700 users
- Arcade completed its snapshot for its Clash of Claims, with whitelist details for the $ARCD claim to be published today at 1 pm ET
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
- Crypto majors are mixed this morning; BTC -0.2% at $52,300; ETH +0.8% at $2,933; SOL -2.3% at $110
- Filecoin jumped 18% on the day to $7.85 ($4B market cap) leading notable top movers
- MOG briefly reached a $100M mc yesterday before retracing to $82M, leading memecoins on ETH; WIF held at $389M on Solana, BONK at $823M
- The first web3 game has made it to the Xbox store, as Gunzilla Games (a free multi-player shooter game which leveraged Avax for its Gunz test network) is set. to go live soon
🚀 NFT Total Volume (ETH)
- Pudgy Penguins (1,987 ETH, 20.75 ETH Floor)
- BAYC (1,218 ETH, 21.79 ETH)
- MAYC (934 ETH, 3.9 ETH Floor)
- Moonbirds (868 ETH, 1.9 ETH)
- Lil Pudgy's (426 ETH, 2.18 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
- rektguy (28%, 0.8 ETH Floor)
- CyberKongz Genkai (27%, 0.15 ETH)
- World of Women (26%, 1.18 ETH)
- Sappy Seals (24%, 1.14 ETH)
- Pebbles (23%, 2.65 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is a slower day of new NFT drops, mostly focused in art.
The highlight today is likely the Starknet $STRK token claim for those who are eligible, so make sure not to miss that.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
- $STRK claim (7:00 a.m. ET)
- Screensavers (9:00 a.m. ET)
- tjo - diaries of compulsive obsession (12:00 p.m. ET)
- cfw - palette (6:00 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
