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Morning Minute | Don't Let The Institutions Steal Your Memecoins
Tyler Warner

TylerD's Market Summary

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🤯 The Institutions Are Coming...For Memecoins

The highlight of Q1 for many active in the crypto trading space was the explosion of memecoins.

Solana led the action, with tokens like BONK and WIF soaring to multiple-billion dollar market caps with a wave of tokens following in their wake.

But then the rally got overheated (see Bome's opening weekend), Solana got congested and attention shifted to Runes on Bitcoin.

Well, attention is coming back to Solana.

And institutions are watching.

What Happened?

A Bloomberg post from yesterday hinted that some serious institutional investors are looking at memecoins.

Hedge funds like Stratos (with limited partners like Marc Andreesen and Chris Dixon) along with Brevan Howard and Pantera Capital have either written about memecoins or already made investments in the sector.

Pantera went as far to write that "memecoins are here to stay" and that "memecoin trading creates gigantic" opportunies.

Thanks for confirming what we already knew, Pantera.

There are signs of serious whale and/or institution investment in memecoins already happening.

Mando posted a wallet which has accumulated $12M of BODEN, $6M of WIF and added $250k of HARAMBE in one clip yesterday.

While not confirmed, he alludes to that being a sign of institutional buying vs retail.

Mando goes on to warn memecoin holders "the institutions are here and they are coming for your memes."

Don't let the institutions steal your memecoins!

Market Impact

Let's just say, yesterday was a green wave.

PEPE went live on Coinbase Advanced and soared 18% to a $3.3B market cap kicking things off.

Then the Solana coins took over.

Some notable gainers from the day:

  • WIF +22% to $3.46B mc
  • BONK +37% to $2.6B mc
  • MEW +28% to $590M mc
  • BODEN +35% to $540M mc
  • POPCAT +24% to $460M mc
  • PUPS +25% to $450M* (on BTC and SOL)
  • MANEKI +62% to $150M mc
  • NUB +38% to $88M
  • SC +70% to $79M
  • HARAMBE +120% to $39M mc

It's the biggest day that I can remember, across the board.

Why It Matters

Even after the monster Q1 for memecoins, many had their doubts on the sector's staying power.

And many still do.

But the longer these tokens see sustained gains, the more durable this sector becomes - and the more capital it will attract.

Clearly the institutions are paying attention, and some are even investing.

And with other notable protocols making negative headlines like Renzo depegging (after releasing bad tokenomics and perhaps misleading its community) and Worldcoin inflating their $WLD supply - no wonder some participants simply opt for memecoins this cycle.

No execution risk, no inflation risk - just memes.

And guess what - they're here to stay...

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

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

  • ETH led NFT trading volume with $7.7M on the day (even); BTC was next with $6M (-20%) and then Solana with $5.3M (even)
  • ETH NFT leaders were mixed with BAYC -1% to 12.7 ETH, Pudgy +3% to 11.4, Milady +6% to 5.2 and MAYC -3% at 2.2
  • Art Gobblers and Schizoposters were notable winners, jumping 72% and 56% respectively 
  • Squiggles were swept up to 7 ETH, a 40% gain on the day
  • Runestone led the BTC NFT board again with just 28 BTC volume, dipping to 0.023 BTC; Prometheans fell to 0.045 as well as Runes interest wanes
  • BTC PFP leaders took a big hit with most falling 20%; OMB at 0.41 BTC, Quantum Cats at 0.385, Bitcoin Puppets at 0.345, NodeMonkes at 0.32
  • Magic Eden has facilitated more than $6M in Runes trading volume in the past 1.5 days since launch, though most Runes are down
  • Solana NFTs were mixed on the day; Mad Lads -5% at 89 SOL, Tensorians -8% at 13.5
  • NBA Top Shot announced its Playoff Pack sales deadlines and the respective probabilities of Rare or Legendary Moments for every NBA Playoff team
  • Own the Doge acquired the first-ever exclusive license for the famous Doge image

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:

  • Stars Arena v2 is set to launch today at 12 pm ET (TBD on token launch)
  • Fantasy Top has reached $45M+ in TVL ahead of its mainnet launch as SocialFi on Blast takes off (likely tied to their receiving 733k Blast Gold)
  • Blastr crossed $2M in TVL in its first 7 days post-launch
  • A new decentralized P2P sportsbook BetBase is coming to Base and launching its $BET token today
  • Arcade released its "Level 2" - a points program update with points multipliers based on activity
  • NFTfi recorded a whopping 34 CryptoPunk loans in the past week with the standard being 30-day, 9% APR for 90,000 USDC
  • FEHU saw tremendous mint pressure as traders vied for the final supply of the $2.25B rune leader, driving up fees
  • ANARCHO CATBUS led Runes jumping 300%; Satoshi jumped 16% as well, while RSIC fell another 16%

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

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

  • Crypto majors are slightly green this morning; BTC +0.3% at $66,400; ETH +2.8% at $3,270; SOL +1.7% at $158
  • Memecoin majors were very green on the day after PEPE futures went live on Coinbase; DOGE +2%, WIF +20%, PEPE +15%, BONK +33%; SC (+75%), BODEN (+35%), & MANEKI (+30%) outperformed
  • Renzo ezETH depegged after its tokenomics release led to a wave of FUD over some misrepresentation of data and lack of community rewards (has since re-peggeD)
  • Jupiter announced its Jupiter Mobile Initiative where they advertise trading "any token, anywhere, with 1 click and 0 fees," with Beta coming in May
  • Safe introduced Safe{Pass} to actively reward users for being safe while participating on-chain with its smart accounts

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

  • $HARAMBE (+120%, $40M market cap, Solana)
  • $SC (+70%, $80M market cap, Solana)
  • $MANEKI (+62%, $145M market cap, Solana)
  • $NUB (+38%, $88M market cap, Solana)
  • $BONK (+37%, $2.6B market cap, Solana)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

  • Art Gobblers (72%, 0.13 ETH Floor)
  • SchizoPosters (53%, 0.53 ETH)
  • Infinigods (48%, 0.15 ETH)
  • CryptoPhunks (44%, 0.15 ETH)
  • Remnants (27%, 7.5 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is another slower day of new mints and events.

Laurent Castellani is the meme card artist today, and Casey Reas is back with a team for "Wet and Saturated Process."

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

  • Calamity (10:00 a.m. ET)
  • Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
  • Casey Reas - Wet and Saturated Proceess (1:00 p.m. ET)
  • Froogle (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 to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.

Morning Minute | Don't Let The Institutions Steal Your Memecoins
Morning Minute | Magic Eden Re-Shapes Runes Trading on BTC
Tyler Warner

TylerD's Market Summary

Today's Morning Minute is brought to you by Arcade, the leading protocol for NFT lending.

Arcade allows users to hold on to their NFTs and still get liquidity when needed via their flexible time-based lending terms.

They changed the game with their Smart Vaults, allowing users to store their NFTs in vaults during the loan process - enabling them to claim airdrops sent to the NFT after paying off the loan.

It's a major unlock.

The protocol has seen an explosion in user growth (+130%) and monthly loans (+300%) over the past 8-9 months as more and more users find the platform.

And of course - users are being rewarded.

Lending and borrowing on the Arcade protocol earns points which convert to $ARCD tokens.

So check Arcade out today, give or take some liquidity and start earning!

🟠 Runes Infrastructure Is Arriving

Some of the most common feedback around the hyped Runes launch was around the user experience.

It sucked, in short.

And it wasn't much better than the previous BRC-20 trading experience many already knew.

So where was the upgrade?

Well it may be arriving.

What Happened?

We knew infrastructure was coming for Runes, and yesterday we got the first glimpse.

Magic Eden made the blockbuster announcement that its Runes Marketplace was live yesterday afternoon.

And the user experience is pretty slick:

  • Navigate to the Runes tab on ME Bitcoin
  • Select a Rune from the drop down and a new Runes Table View pops up
  • Use a sliding bar to buy as many as you'd like (and see the price + network fees) and then buy

It's just a handful of clicks, and in some ways, it's even easier than buying (sweeping) Ordinals on Magic Eden.

The fomo concept is still in play from the Ordinals experience, where users can see which Runes buys are still pending.

And the team has alluded to new features like a "Swaps View" coming soon, so this is not the final product.

You can read more about the team that built it in this feature from CNBC about Magic Eden's "hacker house."

But There's More

Magic Eden wasn't alone.

Xverse also launched its Runes Mint App, allowing users to mint or etch their own runes directly from the wallet.

And then likely the most important headline of them all - Taproot Wizards founder Udi Wertheimer introduced BIP-420.

BIP-420 is a formal "Bitcoin Improvement Proposal" tied to the OP_CAT proposal the team has been pushing forward for months now.

The premise is to better enable a crypto economy on Bitcoin via:

  • covenants
  • smart contracts
  • secure bridges
  • onchain trading
  • zk proof verification

More key ETH features, on Bitcoin. And more usable than they are in current state (onchain trading is available now but admittedly clunky).

It's a grand vision, and if Udi and team are able to pull it off, it may go down as one of the most important proposals / implementations in Bitcoin history.

Why It Matters

There are several reasons why this matters and is a hugely important proposal for Bitcoin.

But dialing in to Runes, the topic of this newsletter - we are early.

Ordinals launched about a year before they really took off, largely due to improvements in UX and more meaningful project launches that took time to rollout.

There's a good chance the same happens with Runes.

Runes infrastructure is getting better already, and Magic Eden made a big jump with its debut yesterday.

But we still have a long way to go to come anywhere close to the trading experience on ETH or Solana.

The BIP-420 proposal will help Bitcoin get there - but it will take time.

Now is the time to pay attention to Runes, but also to be patient - it will get better.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

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

  • ETH led NFT trading volume with $7.6M on the day (+5%); BTC was next with $7.4M (-37%) and then Solana with $5.3M (-7%)
  • ETH NFT leaders were very mostly green with BAYC +4% to 12.8 ETH, Pudgy +6% to 10.9 and MAYC even at 2.3
  • DeGods jumped 18% after Frank DeGods showed a screenshot touting "bridge success" back to Solana
  • My Pet Hooligan NFTs fell 35% after its KARRAT token debuted at a $100M mc and $800M FDV (hit $1B+ at peak)
  • A Skulls of Luci sold for 85 ETH to Kanbas and a Hoodie CryptoPunk sold for 195 ETH, leading notable sales on the day
  • Runestone led the BTC NFT board again with 39 BTC volume as volume and attention shifted to the Runes launch on Magic Eden; most leaders fell 10%
  • OMB is the PFP leader at 0.487 BTC, then Quantum Cats at 0.44, Puppets at 0.4 and NodeMonkes at 0.385
  • Solana NFTs were mostly red on the day; Mad Lads -8% at 93 SOL, Tensorians -even at 15, SMB Gen 2 -12% at 40; Exiled Degods jumped 234% after the news of DeGods bridging back to Solana
  • NFT Stats announced his first ever NFT collection of 200 "gm" photos from around the world, to launch via Blastr on Blast, a new protocol offering full refunds for minters who are not satisfied 

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:

  • Portal's first launchpad token sale, $SOMO from Somo Games, will take place this Thursday, Apr. 25 at 11:00 a.m. ET.
     
  • Runestone's $DOG debuted on Whales Market as $0.005 which equates to a $500M mc (and would mean a $4500 airdrop per NFT)
  • Maneki launched on Monday and saw $130M volume in just a few hours
  • Arcade facilitated a $250,000 USDC loan against a collection of six Pudgy Penguins, including a Gold Body
  • Fren Pet announced it will launch a new version this Friday with improved mechanics and new games
  • Fantasy Top introduced Fantasy Stars, providing users with a points-for-prizes system based on deposits

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

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

  • Crypto majors are slightly green this morning; BTC +0.3% at $66,300; ETH -1% at $3,180; SOL +0.7% at $155
  • Memecoin majors were mixed on the day with a notable move of PEPE flipping WIF; DOGE -1%, WIF -4%, PEPE +4%; GUMMY and POPCAT outperformed on Solana, up 75% and 40%
  • Maneki launched and reached $110M market cap in less than a day; POPCAT also outperformed, jumping 26% to $375M
  • TN100x jumped 55% after its new tipping mechanism circulated on X
  • Runes saw a mixed day as ZZFEHU soared 75% to $2.37B but prior leaders RSIC (-18%) and Satoshi (-33%) both fell
  • Unisat confirmed reports that some users had Runes burned during transactions on its mp, saying it has since fixed the issue and it is now safe to trade Runes on UniSat marketplace
  • Udi Wertheimer introduced BIP-420 as a formal proposal for Op_Cat which enables covenants, allows for smart contracts, secure bridges, on-chain trading, zk proof verification, and more
  • Two SEC lawyers resigned after being sanctioned by a judge for "gross abuse" of power in a crypto case against DEBT Box
  • Animoca Brands Japan will help with global marketing for the Square Enix game "Symbiogenesis"

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

  • $MANEKI (+18000%, $100M market cap, Solana)
  • $TN100X (+55%, $45M market cap, Base)
  • $KEYCAT (+52%, $45M market cap, Base)
  • $BIAO (+50%, $21M market cap, Solana)
  • $POPCAT (+26%, $375M market cap, Solana)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

  • Coolmans Universe (90%, 0.11 ETH Floor)
  • Yogurt Verse (53%, 1.15 ETH)
  • Lasogette (32%, 0.83 ETH)
  • Dooplicator (21%, 0.13 ETH)
  • DeGods (18%, 1.65 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is another slower day of drops, mostly focused in PFPs and art across chain.

Post Photographic Perspectives III is likely the highlight, as the AI art group releases its 3rd body of projects.

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

  • Evolution of Curis (9:00 a.m. ET)
  • PunkAApepen (12:00 p.m. ET)
  • The Paper Crane x Rich Pool - IsoMetro (1:00 p.m. ET)
  • Post Photographic Perspectives III (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 to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.

Morning Minute | Magic Eden Re-Shapes Runes Trading on BTC
Morning Minute | Runes Are Here - Now What?
Tyler Warner

TylerD's Market Summary

Today's Morning Minute is brought to you by nftperp, your gateway to the future of NFT derivatives trading!

Are you ready to dive into the world of NFT trading but hesitant due to high entry barriers? Look no further than nftperp.

nftperp allows traders to go long or short NFTs with the click of a few buttons. 

And now it is officially live on Blast L2, providing a lower fee environment for traders along with:

  • New "Degen Draw" raffle game

  • Punks, Penguins and Milady's live for trading

  • 100% of their Blast airdrop being shared with the community

  • Additional $VNFTP rewards for traders

So start trading today.

🟠 Runes Debut with Mixed Reactions

This was arguably the most hyped Bitcoin halving to date.

The ETFs have brought new attention and money into the ecosystem, and of course Casey Rodarmor's highly anticipated Runes protocol going live with the halving.

But was it overhyped compared to what was delivered?

What Happened?

On Friday night around 8:15 pm ET, the Bitcoin halving took place and Runes launched.

Teams raced to etch the first 10 (and then the first 100) and some saw surprising success.

Some notable top runes that were etched:

  • Runes 0: Uncommon Goods
  • Rune 1: Z...FEHU...Z
  • Rune 2: Decentralized (Prometheans)
  • Rune 3: Dog Go To The Moon
  • Rune 4: The Runix Token
  • Rune 8: RSIC Genesis Rune
  • Rune 13: Pups World Peace
  • Rune 17: Magic Internet Money (WZRD)
  • Rune 21: RSIC Season Two

So the CyberKongz team came in with the #2 runes in a big surprise. Leonidas and team got #3 for Runestones. And the RSIC team secured #8 (seemingly on purpose for the Asian tie-in) along with #21.

There is still a lot of mystery around some of the early runes including #1.

They also minted in different styles, with some operating as free mints and some having huge pre-mines. But given fee spikes, none of the mints were truly "free" and many minted at market caps between $6M and $30M.

Those who minted and sold early still saw some nice profits, and being in the trenches Friday night was the right place to be.

Market Response

A few clear winners have already seemingly been named.

  • RSIC Genesis Rune has the top market cap at $305M (on $1.8M volume)
  • Satoshi Nakamoto has seen the most volume with $40M+ on Gate.io, but fell 34% on Sunday to $103M mc
  • Wanko Manko Runes is next up at $36M mc and then Meme Economics is the only other Rune over a $10M mc (at $11.8M)

You can track some of the leaders at OKX Runes Marketplace and trade them there or on Unisat.

Apparently the launch of a new 9-figure coin and some nice ROI on early mints wasn't enough for many who called the runes launch a "bust."

Those funding mostly point to lack of improvement over existing BRC-20 tech, lack of infrastructure and the high Bitcoin fees making for a bad trading experience.

And to be frank, that's mostly true. Right now.

But Runes are 2 days old and virtually none of the expected infrastructure has arrived yet. And it's still coming.

So likely best to be patient, and curious, for those who still view runes as a viable investment sector.

NFT Impact

The Ordinal PFP leaders had a great weekend, and a new "big 4" has separated from the pack:

  • OMB at 0.52 BTC
  • Quantum Cats at 0.469 BTC
  • NodeMonkes at 0.412 BTC
  • Bitcoin Puppets at 0.404 BTC

These 4 have been leading and jostling for position, and it seems that jostling will continue (especially given their varying supplies).

But the good news for holders is all those floors are up from weekend lows as many are already moving on from Runes and back to Ordinals (or perhaps cycling early gains back to Ordinals).

The pre-runes Ordinals had more of a rocky ride.

  • Runestone dipped from 0.07 BTC to 0.035 after last night's snapshot for the $DOG airdrop (not a surprise, in fact it's holding up quite strong)
  • RSIC dipped to 0.042 after its lotto happened at the halving (but also holding up strong due to Season 2)
  • Rune Pups fell to 0.09 BTC as the PUPS token fell over the weekend
  • Prometheans emerged as a new leader at 0.065 BTC after securing the #2 runes, though there are still open questions on when those runes will be delivered

So expect more volatility with this group.

RSIC was the first to complete its airdrop and reportedly spent at least 6 BTC doing so.

Do the other teams have this kind of money to execute the airdrop? We will see.

The other wild card for pre-runes and runes right now - Binance.

Last night they hinted at some new Bitcoin (i.e. runes) listings in a cryptic tweet.

Many interpreted it as a nod to the PUPS token being listed first, briefly sending PUPS as high as $60 (back to $45 now).

And that leads to a key next step for the runes and pre-runes leaders.

What Next?

For runes, the launch hype is starting to wear off and not many new mints are reaching escape velocity.

Interest is already dwindling and focus is likely to revert back to the existing leaders.

What will propel and cement early leaders?

CEX listings, and Binance is clearly ready to make a move.

Whatever gets listed first on Binance likely takes the early lead. It's just clear that the masses (and liquidity) want an easier trading experience that what currently exists for runes.

As that experience improves, expect more attention and perhaps more winners to emerge.

I expect the winning runes to outperform while many go to 0, which is not different from how the memecoin games goes on other blockchains.

I also expect rotation to Ordinals to happen this week and to continue, driving the next leg up.

Many were wondering if runes would take liquidity away from Ordinals, at least in the short term, and the answer seems to be "no" on that question.

With 4 clear winners, and a few feisty newcomers in Prometheans and Runemilios, expect more fireworks on Ordinals than Runes in the weeks to come.

But the runes leaders will have their day - that day may just be down the line.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

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

  • Bitcoin led NFT trading volume with $11.6M on the day (+65%); ETH was next with $6.9M (+16%) and then Solana with $5.9M (+20%)
  • Runestone led the BTC NFT board again with 189 BTC volume but fell 50% to 0.035 BTC post-snapshot; most Ordinals leaders were green
  • OMB was the top notable winner, jumping to a 0.52 BTC floor and leading the PFPs; Quantum Cats next at 0.469, then Nodes at 0.412, Pups at 0.4
  • Runemilio was the top gainer on the day, rallying 500% to 0.05 BTC
  • RSIC held at 0.044 BTC after its Season 2 was confirmed, meaning the NFts will continue mining runes
  • ETH NFT leaders were very mixed with BAYC -2%, Pudgy even, MAYC +15%, Milady -2% and DeGods +5%
  • Sappy Seals and Pandora led top movers jumping 18% each
  • An XCOPY "Last Selfie" edition of 10 sold for 277 ETH ($849,000) marking a new ATH for that edition
  • Solana NFTs were red on the day; Mad Lads -3% at 100 SOL, Tensorians -1% at 15, SMB Gen 2 -13% at 46

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the weekend:

  • Blast released its latest Blast Gold distributions on Friday along with a blog post explaining that active NFT and token communities may be rewarded next
  • $PAC rebounded 25% after that Blast blog post, reaching nearly $0.09 at peak (now at 0.085)
  • The Runestone snapshot for the $DOG runes airdrop happened on Sunday, though there is at least 1 more airdrop coming for holders
  • Friend Tech announced its v2 will launch on April 29
  • Arcade teased its upcoming Bitcoin integration again on Saturday

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

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

  • Crypto majors are green this morning after a weekend rally; BTC +1.5% at $66,080; ETH +1.3% at $3,210; SOL +2% at $154
  • Memecoin majors were mixed on the day; DOGE -1%, WIF -4%, PEPE +6%; GUMMY and POPCAT outperformed on Solana, up 75% and 40%
  • Binance hinted at Bitcoin Runes being listed, using a face that many interpreted as a Bitcoin Puppet; PUPS soared XX%
  • ethOS launched their version of the blockchain phone for ETH, which can be minted and redeemed on Base

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

  • $GUMMY (+75%, $175M market cap, Solana)
  • $FUNGI (+43%, $16M market cap, Base)
  • $POPCAT (+40%, $300M market cap, Solana)
  • $TOOKER (+33%, $80M market cap, Solana)
  • $EPIK (+23%, $28M market cap, Solana)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

  • Sappy Seals (18%, 0.78 ETH Floor)
  • Pandora (16%, 2.54 ETH)
  • MAYC (15%, 2.33 ETH)
  • BAKC (14%, 0.5 ETH)
  • Imaginary Ones (10%, 1.15 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is a slow day of drops to start the week.

Expect Bitcoin drops to be slow for a bit until fees and runes hype settle down.

ETH has another art drop and a new meme card from Cemhah, and then a new PFP launching on Blast in Exo Spirits.

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

  • Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
  • Wubbushi x Verse - Past Forward (2:00 p.m. ET)
  • 0xfff - Honest Work (3:00 p.m. ET)
  • Exo Spirits (3:00 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 to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.

Morning Minute | Runes Are Here - Now What?
Morning Minute | Bitcoin Rebounds 10% Into Tonight's Halving
Tyler Warner

TylerD's Market Summary

Today's Morning Minute is brought to you by Arcade, the leading protocol for NFT lending.

Arcade allows users to hold on to their NFTs and still get liquidity when needed via their flexible time-based lending terms.

They changed the game with their Smart Vaults, allowing users to store their NFTs in vaults during the loan process - enabling them to claim airdrops sent to the NFT after paying off the loan.

It's a major unlock.

The protocol has seen an explosion in user growth (+130%) and monthly loans (+300%) over the past 8-9 months as more and more users find the platform.

And of course - users are being rewarded.

Lending and borrowing on the Arcade protocol earns points which convert to $ARCD tokens.

So check Arcade out today, give or take some liquidity and start earning!

🟠 The Bitcoin Halving Is Here

The final countdown is on.

Current projections show the Bitcoin halving (where miner rewards cut in half, also meaning miner sell pressure reduces by 50%) will happen at 6:30 pm ET tonight.

So the billion dollar question - what happens after the halving?

What happens to Bitcoin?

Historically - nothing. At least for the first 5 months.

Based on this analysis which looked at the average returns from the prior cycles, movement in BTC price in the first 0-5 months post-halving is very slow.

It speeds up in months 6-8 and then rockets after month 8.

So if this cycle plays out like the average of prior ones, Q4 is when the action begins.

And fireworks in Q1 2025.

Feels like forever away, but a fun plan nonetheless.

Now that's just analysis based on past cycles. This cycle may be totally different with the ETFs now playing a major factor, along with a very volatile geo-political backdrop.

But the concept should apply. Reduction in daily sell pressure does not lead to an instant spike.

It makes a larger difference over time, not right away - which makes sense.

So plan accordingly.

What Happens with Runes?

The entire timeline has been nonstop Runes talk for the past few weeks.

So are they overhyped?

Perhaps, but attention is also incredibly important in the memecoin / utility coin streets.

And Runes have attention.

Here are my pre-runes power rankings headed into the halving:

  1. RSIC
  2. PUPS
  3. WZRD
  4. Runestone
  5. Prometheans

One of the big open questions with the Runes launch is - will the UX be much of an improvement over the current BRC-20 UX?

Some think it won't be and are bearish for that reason.

I'll take the opposite side.

Infrastructure will be ready.

  • Magic Eden is launching Runes trading support starting April 23
  • OKX is launching an OKX Runes Market
  • Ordinals lending protocol Liquidium will have Runes support

And that's not even factoring in any major CEX's (cough, Binance) listing one or more of the most hyped Runes.

Attention + more liquidity + a better trading experience seems like a winning formula for me.

Sure some of these leaders have already run to mid-9-figure market caps - but there is still room to run.

I'm long.

The other wildcard is infrastructure plays.

Runevo just launched NFTs that convert to runes and are tied to their mobile-first Runes product - plays like that could do very well pending adoption of their product.

So watch for those that spring up over the coming days and weeks.

What Happens with Ordinals?

Runes are certainly in the spotlight, but people still love flexing PFPs.

Ordinals are the most obvious rotation play for anyone making huge gains in Runes but still wants to play in the ecosystem (behind just going spot BTC of course).

And Institutions keep posting about Ordinals.

Franklin Templeton first, now Fidelity.

Attention is here and more is likely coming.

The wildcard - it's becoming prohibitively expensive to launch new 10k collections.

Yesterday Danny (OCM founder and well respected BTC thought leader) shared that it would cost $3.3M to inscribe a new 10k collection in the current gas environment.

And gas is expected to go up post-halving.

What does it mean? Less dilution.

And the current leaders are primed to be the recipients of any major rotations.

My Ordinals power rankings headed into the halving:

  1. NodeMonkes
  2. Bitcoin Puppets
  3. Quantum Cats
  4. OMB
  5. Pizza Ninjas

I do think one or more winners on this list could level up (2x or more) over the coming weeks pending success of runes.

What's also notable about that list is there are no real projects in the 0-0.1 BTC range, meaning the market is ripe for a microcap(s) rally.

Conclusion

None of us know what will happen but it's fun to speculate.

In the scenario where Bitcoin chops / consolidates for the next few months, Runes and Ordinals likely both win.

At least that's my bet and I'm positioned accordingly.

It's going to be fun to watch. Good luck out there, and see you on the otherside of the halving.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

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

  • Bitcoin led NFT trading volume with $19.7M on the day (+46%); ETH was next with $7.8M (+10%) and then Solana with $6.1M (+30%)
  • Runestone led the BTC NFT board again though falling 25% to 0.068 BTC after Leonidas did a fundraise to go after runes 1-10; Pups and Nodes held eve
  • RSIC was a winner in the Runestone fallout, jumping to 0.078 BTC with just 12 hours of mining left; Prometheans held strong at 0.03 BTC
  • Bitcoin Wizards jumped to 0.395 BTC after Ansem touted WZRD and it surged 50% to $12 ($257M mc)
  • ETH NFT leaders were mixed with BAYC (-1%) and MAYC (-4%) but Pudgy +3%, Azuki +3% and Milady +2%
  • Mintify Genesis was a notable winner, jumping 117% to 0.15 ETH
  • Solana NFTs were very red on the day; Mad Lads -14% at 105 SOL, Tensorians -4% at 16; free mint Theory of Gravity runs to 1.5
  • XCOPY's "$LAVE" sold for 315 ETH ($967,000) to notable collector BatSoup
  • ACK's "but wait...my bags!" sold for 28.69 ETH to another notable collector Bharat Krymo

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

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

  • Crypto majors are very green this morning after Bloomberg reported the Israel Iran conflict may be over; BTC +3.7% at $65,000; ETH +1.8% at $3,100; SOL +7% at $145
  • Memecoin majors were green with WIF and BODEN outperforming; DOGE +3%, WIF +17%, PEPE +4%, BODEN +25%; several Solana memes up 25%
  • Coinbase will add WIF perp futures to its International and Advanced exchanges starting April 25

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

  • $APED (+450%, $15M market cap, Base)
  • $MICHI (+95%, $18M market cap, Solana)
  • $HARAMBE (+56%, $21M market cap, Solana)
  • $DEGEN (+28%, $1.2BM FDV, Base)
  • $SC (+32%, $110M market cap, Solana)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

  • Mintify (117%, 0.15 ETH Floor)
  • Beeple Spring Collection (65%, 6.69 ETH)
  • Proof of Narnia (53%, 0.69 ETH)
  • Mittaria (21%, 0.2 ETH)
  • Persona (20%, 0.22 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is a huge day with the halving coming around 6:30 pm ET and the potential launch of Runes immediately after.

The last slate of Ordinals are minting ahead of a likely pause in the coming days (due to gas spikes), with The Ones a likely highlight today.

Bold Leonidas is the Memes card artist so expect some extra demand on that one.

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

  • Ordinal x Tribes (10:00 a.m. ET)
  • The Ones (10:00 a.m. ET)
  • Karmastone (10:00 a.m. ET)
  • Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
  • Halvinals (11:00 a.m. ET)
  • Based Bits (1:00 p.m. ET)
  • The Halving (6:30 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 to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.

Morning Minute | Bitcoin Rebounds 10% Into Tonight's Halving
Morning Minute | Victor Wembanyama 1/1 Sells for $145,000
Staff Writer

TylerD's Market Summary

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🏀 NBA Top Shot Sets New Record with Victor Wembanyama

Victor Wembanyama has been setting records on the court throughout his star-studded rookie season in the NBA.

Now he's setting them off the court.

With help from NBA Top Shot.

What Happened?

Yesterday NBA Top Shot announced that the Victor Wembyama 1/1 (the Ultimate Rookie Pack) sold for $145,000.

It marked a new ATH sale for a Wemby digital collectible, following the Sorare 1/1 card sale of $110,333 back in December 2023.

The sale is also the 5th highest all-time for NBA Top Shot, and the highest sale for any non-Lebron Moment.

It's a pretty big deal.

And the sale is generating momentum at a great time as Top Shot plans for the Playoffs.

What's Next

NBA Top Shot has big plans in store for the NBA Playoffs this year.

Plans include:

  • Bringing back Redemptions (each team will have 3), gamifying the playoff collecting experience
  • Launching Rare packs ($149) with a shot at a new 1/1 Moment for Dereck Lively II (and earning Ultimate Chaser Packs down the line)
  • Giving new rewards for predicting the playoff winners and collecting all the playoff Moments from the NBA Champ
  • Providing NBA Finals Tickets for a few lucky winners of pack purchase raffles

Overall, Top Shot is making the collecting experience fun, gamifying it with the Redemptions twist, and giving out cool new prizes (1/1s and Finals Tickets) along the way.

What's not to like?

Learn more when Jacob Eisenberg joins our X spaces The Lucky Lead today at 10 am ET.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

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

  • Bitcoin led NFT trading volume with $12.9M on the day (-25%); ETH was next with $7.13M (-3%) and then Solana with $4.9M (eve)
  • Runestone led the BTC NFT board again and jumped 10% to a new ATH of 0.089 BTC; most of the other leaders chopped on the day
  • RSIC briefly spiked to 0.075 BTC after Memeland CEO 9gag swept 21 (now back to 0.064)
  • CyberKongz airdropped Prometheans to its holders and random Ordidals holders, with Prometheans reaching a 0.028 BTC floor on 82 BTC volume
  • ETH NFT leaders were very green led by BAYC (+9%) and MAYC (+15%)
  • Yuga Labs dropped the bombshell that it sold the HV-MTL and LOTM assets to Faraway, who will carry the IP forward
  • v1 Punks led top movers jumping 50% to 2.14 ETH; Hashmasks, DeFi Aes and Animus Eggs all saw solid green as well
  • Solana NFTs were slightly red on the day; Mad Lads -2% at 122 SOL, Tensorians -3% at 17, Jeo Bodens -23% to 4.6 SOL
  • Jack Butcher's Oviator sunglasses claim went live for NFT holders at oviators.com
  • Art Blocks announced its Marfa Weekend dates as November 14-17

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:

  • Nim Network released a new wallet claim checker, indicating wallets could see as much as a 20% boost in $NIM
  • Pulsr announced a $PULSR airdrop for Mad Lads and Backpack users
  • $ARCD rebounded 80% on the day to a $3.2M market cap, briefly soaring as high as +200% before dipping
  • CyberKongz airdropped its Pre-runes NFT Prometheans to holders, reaching 0.028 BTC ($1,730)
  • STFX recorded its biggest volume to date, reaching $190M lifetime volume & spiking after its $2M Battle Royale trading competition went live
  • Binance introduced Binance Megadrop, as a new token launch platform which allows users to stake BNB and complete web3 quests for airdrops

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

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

  • Crypto majors are slightly red this morning but up big from yesterday's dip; BTC -0.5% at $62,700; ETH -0.5% at $3,050; SOL -1% at $136
  • Memecoin majors fell on the day; DOGE -5%, WIF -3%, PEPE -4%; PONKE outperformed on Solana (+47%), Normilio on Base (+37%)
  • Worldcoin announced an EVM-based World Chain as "a blockchain designed for humans," meaning verified humans will get priority over bots, launching summer 2024
  • Kraken released a new multi-chain wallet, including support for Bitcoin, Solana, ETH and Polygon (at a minimum) across NFTs and DeFi
  • Ernst & Young announced plans to use Polygon PoS and zk proofs to manage its business contracts

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

  • $PONKE (+47%, $88M market cap, Solana)
  • $NORMILIO (+38%, $18M market cap, Base)
  • $GOAT (+37%, $20M market cap, Solana)
  • $FUNGI (+29%, $450M market cap, Base)
  • $BOME (+12%, $638M market cap, Solana)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

  • merge (89%, 0.07 ETH Floor)
  • RumbleKongLeague (56%, 0.34 ETH)
  • v1 Punks (50%, 2.14 ETH)
  • Hashmasks (40%, 0.09 ETH)
  • Otherdeed (23%, 0.19 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is another busy day of drops mostly focused on Bitcoin as teams do a final push to drop their collections ahead of the halving.

The highlight elsewhere is likely Oh Baby Games opening up their beta for broader game play.

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

  • Genki (7:00 a.m. ET)
  • Everyday Satoshis (9:00 a.m. ET)
  • Kitsune (9:00 a.m. ET)
  • Whitters - ordAR (11:00 a.m. ET)
  • Oh Baby Games - Open beta (12:00 p.m. ET)
  • Nathaniel Stern - forevery (12:00 p.m. ET)
  • Kodamara Fusion (4:00 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 to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.

Morning Minute | Victor Wembanyama 1/1 Sells for $145,000
Morning Minute | Arcade Drops First NFTfi Token
Tyler Warner

TylerD's Market Summary

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💰 Arcade Launches Token, Begin Decentralization Journey

Airdrop April has been steamrolling along, with 3 airdrops landing yesterday from Parcl, Sharkyfi and Arcade.

While all 3 saw sell pressure on launch and dips as airdrop claimers sold, one has rebounded over 100% off the local bottom.

Arcade.

Let's look at why that may be happening.

What Happened?

Yesterday Arcade DAO's proposal to make its token $ARCD transferable passed and the token went live for trading.

This market the beginning of the decentralization journey for the Arcade protocol.

The team gamified the launch and included several rewards:

  • $ARCD rewards for dApp users
  • Time-locked variable staking rewards for holders who locked their airdrops for 30, 60 or 150 days
  • LP staking reward for those contributing ARCD/WETH to the pool

They announced that Level 2 "Hidden Level" points are live and borrowers are actively earning them, with 9 more total levels to come.

And they also teased a new Clash of Claims game coming for Base ecosystem participants.

Rewards in spades, primarily for core Arcade users but also for strong adjacent communities.

With the launch, the Arcade protocol is formally in the hands of the DAO.

ArcadeDAO will govern key functions via the $ARCD governance token such as:

  • Future distribution of $ARCD

  • Management of the Arcade Treasury

  • Supporting new collections

  • Critical protocol functions and parameters

  • Evolving the DAO and its governance powers

Tokenomics

For those interested in going a level deeper on the tokenomics:

  • Total supply: 100M
  • Community: 50.5M (50.5%), split across the DAO treasury (25.5%), airdrop and rewards (15%) and Arcade Foundation (10%)
  • Arcade Development team: 16.6M (16.6%)
  • Advisors and Backers: 32.9M (32.9%)

Regarding the airdrop, qualifying actions included basic NFT lending activities such as listing NFTs, creating Smart Vaults, borrowing, lending, and placing bids.

Eligible users can claim their tokens here.

Why It Matters

Arcade is the first marquee NFT lending protocol to officially decentralize and launch a token.

They've done over $200M in lifetime loan volume and have seen their active user count and weekly loan count grow consistently over time.

Their smart vault technology is a key differentiator of theirs, allowing users to store their NFTs in a vault and be able to claim any airdrops that register while their NFT is locked in a loan - a huge feature in this airdrop meta.

They have active plans to expand from ETH mainnet to other EVM chains (i.e. Base) and are actively building towards an Ordinals launch on Bitcoin.

In summary, they are one of the most innovative NFT lending protocols in the entire space.

And now they've decentralized, meaning anyone can help govern and shape the future of the protocol.

It's a big deal. 

So jump in and have your voice be heard as this new journey begins.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

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

  • Bitcoin led NFT trading volume with $17M on the day (-5%); ETH was next with $7.3M (+3%) and then Solana with $4.8M (+20%)
  • Runestone led the BTC NFT board again and jumped 5% to 0.082 BTC; Rune Pups jumped 15% to 0.14 and new project Ailu soared to 0.04
  • most Ordinals leaders fell 10-15%
  • Bitcoin Wizards were a winner on the day following soaring $WZRD, briefly reaching 0.36 BTC before retracing to 0.3
  • Memeland announced Runecoin as its first premiere Stakeland project, enabling users to go on quests to earn tokens; RSIC jumped 30% to 0.078 on the news
  • Runevo minted out and announced it will release mobile-first runes tooling, will announce its prior investors soon and will convert the NFTs into Runes tokens post-halving (NFTs +150% from mint to 0.0077)
  • Magic Eden added collection offers to Ordinals, a new feature for Bitcoin NFT trading
  • ETH NFT leaders were mixed with BAYC and MAYC up 1% but Milady (-3%) and Pudgy (-1%) down
  • Treeverse and alignDRAW were notable winners, each jumping 35%
  • Yuga Labs gaming announced Kodamara fusion will begin on Thursday, April 18, along with cementing Ape Fest dates as Oct 18-20 in Lisbon
  • Solana NFTs were mostly red on the day; Mad Lads -3% at 125 SOL, Tensorians -1% at 17, Jeo Bodens -14% to 6 SOL
  • Deca launched "Leaderboards," allowing artists to easily highlight their top 250 collectors and partnering with Grant Yun on launch

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

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

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

  • $SC (+55%, $85M market cap, Base)
  • $TOOKER (+34%, $77M market cap, Solana)
  • $BODEN (+24%, $440M market cap, Solana)
  • $PUPS (+24%, $450M market cap, BTC)
  • $DEGEN (+20%, $350M market cap, Base)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

  • Supreme Kong (52%, 0.38 ETH Floor)
  • Treeverse (37%, 0.4 ETH)
  • alignDRAW (35%, 1.6 ETH)
  • DeFi Apes (30%, 0.39 ETH)
  • Defimons (25%, 0.3 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is another busy day of drops and token launches. 

OMNI is launching this morning, going live for trading on Binance at 8 am ET.

Ordinals have another laundry list of drops today, likely highlighted by Gumbo World - but with many to choose from.

And a few Base launches as well, including Base Boomers.

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

  • $OMNI (8:00 a.m. ET)
  • Ordinal Rugs (9:30 a.m. ET)
  • Bitdogs (10:00 a.m. ET)
  • Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
  • Gumbo World (11:00 a.m. ET)
  • Base Boomers (1:00 p.m. ET)
  • Travis Leroy - The Revenant (5:30 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 to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.

Morning Minute | Arcade Drops First NFTfi Token
Morning Minute | The Institutions Are Coming...For Runes
Tyler Warner

TylerD's Market Summary

Today's Morning Minute is brought to you by nftperp, your gateway to the future of NFT derivatives trading!

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nftperp allows traders to go long or short NFTs with the click of a few buttons. 

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  • New "Degen Draw" raffle game

  • Punks, Penguins and Milady's live for trading

  • 100% of their Blast airdrop being shared with the community

  • Additional $VNFTP rewards for traders

So start trading today (and use our code "LUCKYTRADER" to get access).

🟠 Franklin Templeton Bull Posts Runes

The halving is sneaking up on us, currently scheduled for Friday at 3 pm ET.

With the halving comes the launch of Bitcoin's new fungible token standard, the Runes protocol.

And it's finally caught the attention of some major institutions.

What Happened?

Yesterday Franklin Templeton's Digital Assets account posted a quick 2-pager explaining the evolution of Ordinals on Bitcoin, the launch of Runes, what it solves and the potential opportunity.

It's a very concise, well written post and I highly recommend giving it a quick read for those who want to learn more about Runes.

Here's what stood out to me from their post:

  • The explosion in Bitcoin's NFT market cap to $2B after the launch of Ordinals (though it took ~12 months to really take off)
  • The problems Runes solve (avoiding junk UXTOs, lower fees & lightning network compatibility)
  • The comparison between fungible token market caps on ETH ($499B), Solana ($37B) and Bitcoin ($0.6B)

The simple data referenced in the paper really do tell a convincing story.

Why It Matters

Ordinals have proven that there is demand for an economy on Bitcoin.

Collectibles, art and utility NFTs have thrived on Bitcoin this year and have greatly outperformed their peers on ETH and Solana.

It's not a stretch to think that fungible tokens could see similar success.

Bitcoin does have BRC-20s, but those trade like non-fungible tokens more than fungible ones.

There is some debate over how much the trading experience with Runes will improve vs the current state with BRC-20s.

But if the experience does improve, with factors like more fungible trading (ability to sell 1 token as easily as 100) and better UX, it should attract more participants.

The discrepancy between the fungible token markets on ETH and Solana vs Bitcoin is striking, especially with the most wealth on Bitcoin.

Let's check back in on that chart in 6 months - I'm willing to bet Bitcoin has made up a lot of ground,

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

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

  • Bitcoin led NFT trading volume with $17.7M on the day (-12%); ETH was next with $7.7M (even) and then Solana with $4M (+54%)
  • Runestone led the BTC NFT board again and held at 0.078 BTC; most Ordinals leaders fell 10-15%
  • Pizza Ninjas were a winner, reaching 0.175 BTC (0.2 at peak), up 150% on the week as the team has leaned into more education
  • Magisat launched the first ever memepool marketplace for Ordinals to help avoid mempool sniping (or at least level the playing field)
  • ETH NFT leaders were mixed with BAYC and Pudgy up 7% and 3% respectively, but Azuki -8% and Captains -3%
  • Remilio's were a notable winner, up 16% to 1.83 ETH; Ceden Keystone Beavers were up 30% to 0.22 ETH as well
  • Solana NFTs were mostly red on the day; Mad Lads -2% at 128 SOL, Tensorians even at 18, Jeo Bodens -16% to 7 SOL
  • Arcade teased a Base integration again yesterday in a cryptic post
  • NBA Top Shot launched Stress Test packs for $1 each
  • Punk6529 introduced subscription minting for his Memes by 6529, allowing users to pay without gas fees and receive he 3x-weekly mints

💰 Token, Airdrop & Points Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

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

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

  • $RWA (+220%, $12M market cap, Base)
  • $EPIK (+60%, $45M market cap, Solana)
  • $RAIL (+48%, $69M market cap, ETH)
  • $ANDY (+46%, $90M market cap, ETH)
  • $SHARK (+20%, $64M market cap, Solana)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

  • Co-Museum (40%, 0.14 ETH Floor)
  • CEDEN Keystone Beavers (34%, 0.22 ETH)
  • The Grapes (31%, 0.32 ETH)
  • Remilio (16%, 1.78 ETH)
  • Honey Comb (11%, 0.33 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is a very busy day of drops and token launches. 

PARCL and SHARK debut this morning on Solana in (hopefully) a nice stimmy for those who heavily used (farmed) those protocols.

Then there is a laundry list of drops on Bitcoin today, as teams race to launch pre-halving.

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

  • $SHARK (7:00 a.m. ET)
  • $PARCL (9:00 a.m. ET)
  • Ordzaar (10:00 A.m. ET)
  • ExtraOrdinals (10:00 a.m. ET)
  • Runes Heroes (1:00 p.m. ET)
  • Sabet - Tokyo Punks (1:00 p.m. ET)
  • We Are So Ducked (2:00 p.m. ET)
  • Marco Mori - Based Creeptures (3:00 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 to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.

 Morning Minute | The Institutions Are Coming...For Runes
Morning Minute | Crypto Sinks on War Concerns, Rebounds
Tyler Warner

TylerD's Market Summary

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📉 Crypto Volatility

It turns out Bitcoin is not yet viewed as a hedge in times of geopolitical adversity.

At least according to this weekend's price action.

But a crypto legend and Hong Kong may have stepped in just at the right time to save crypto.

What Happened?

Crypto started tanking on Friday as markets closed, dropping from $71k to $66k.

Then on Saturday, news broke that Iran was firing missiles at Israel.

Bitcoin immediately fell another ~8% close to $61k. ETH fell to $2,800, SO to $120 and alts + memecoins sunk 30-50%.

Not great.

But then legendary trader GCR stepped in with a bull post:

"If you've been sidelined, believe this is a good opportunity to scale into high conviction tokens..."

Coincidentally or not, nearly immediately after news spread that 1) Israel had intercepted the missiles and 2) that Iran would not make further attacks.

Markets immediately rebounded.

Bitcoin jumped back over $64,000, ETH back over $3,000 and SOL back to $140.

Memecoins like WIF rebounded nearly 30-50% off the lows.

Then even better news came overnight Sunday.

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission approved Bitcoin and ETH spot ETFs for leading institutions including China Asset Management, Bosera Capital, and HashKey Capital Limited.

Each of the majors jumped another 5-8% on that news.

And now stock futures are opening green this morning as war concerns seem to have subsided.

What a roller coaster of a weekend.

NFT Impact

Ordinals survived surprisingly strongly.

ETH NFTs - well that's a different story.

Leading and notable ordinals (and 7-day change):

  • NodeMonkes at 0.474 BTC (-20%)
  • Bitcoin Puppets at 0.464 BTC (+15%)
  • OMB at 0.45 BTC (+10%)
  • Quantum Cats at 0.377 BTC (+30%)
  • Runestone at 0.08 BTC (even)
  • RSIC at 0.063 BTC (even)

So basically everything green or even besides the NodeMonkes.

Puppets briefly flipped Nodes over the weekend but have since fallen behind, though they remain very close.

Bitcoin Wizards were a huge winner, jumping 50% to 0.287 BTC (perhaps following the success of the $WZRD token), and Lil Pups were a big winner on the low end jumping over 100% to 0.015 BTC.

Over on ETH, the bleeding continues.

Notable leaders (and 7-day change):

  • Punks at 41 ETH (even)
  • BAYC at 10.22 ETH (-12%)
  • Pudgy Penguins at 10.3 ETH (-17%)
  • Milady at 4.6 ETH (-7%)
  • Azuki at 4.03 ETH (-1%)
  • Captainz at 3.2 ETH (-1%)
  • MAYC at 1.8 ETH (-7%)

So more bleeding with no major winners on the week.

And once again, it remains difficult to see the near-term catalyst to reverse this trend with focus mostly on 1) Ordinals 2) memecoins 3) new mints on Base and 4) Blast farming.

Expect the dip to keep dipping.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

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

  • Bitcoin led NFT trading volume with $19.9M on the day (-30%); ETH was next with $8M (-0.5%) and then Solana with $3.25M (-9%)
  • Runestone led the BTC NFT board with 52 BTC volume and reached 0.079 BTC; Bitcoin Wizards jumped to 0.287 and Quantum Cats to 0.377
  • NodeMonkes re-flipped Puppets, with floors at 0.474 BTC and 0.464 respectively
  • ETH NFT leaders were mostly red with BAYC -3% to 10.23 ETH, Pudgy -6% to 10.33, Milady -1% to 4.55 and MAYC -4% to 1.79
  • Webbland and CryptoPhunks were winners on the day, each jumping 34%
  • Solana NFTs were mixed on the day; Mad Lads -3% 132 SOL, Tensorians -14% at 18, SMB Gen 2 +3% to 38
  • New mint "The Jeo Bodens" soared to a 9 SOL floor following the success of the cult meme 
  • XCOPY's "All Time High in the City" was bought by Cozomo de'Medici on Friday for an undisclosed sum
  • CyberKongz announced its pre-runes collection Prometheans as a 21k supply free mint coming this week

💰 Token, Airdrop & Points Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:

  • $WZRD (BRC-20) jumped another 60% on Sunday to $8, providing 13x returns for those who bought just 7 days ago
  • $PUPS briefly hit a new ATH over $90 on Friday evening after Ansem shared the token with Arthur Hayes, now back at $67 (still +170% on week)
  • $OMNI is trading at $45 pre-launch on Aevo, with NFT collections like the Pudgy Penguins getting 36 tokens (~$1,600)

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

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

🚀 Memecoin Movers (new section!)

  • $MEW (+90%, $469M market cap, Solana)
  • $HOBBES (+90%, $17M mc, Solana)
  • $EPIK (+70%, $28M market cap, Solana)
  • $WZRD (+60%, $166M market cap, Bitcoin)
  • $WEN (+30%, $180M market cap, Solana)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

  • Webbland (34%, 0.24 ETH Floor)
  • CryptoPhunks v2 (34%, 0.18 ETH)
  • Pixelady Maker (26%, 0.17 ETH)
  • Peplicator (22%, 0.06 ETH)
  • AlignDRAW (16%, 1.39 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is a slower day of drops to kick off a major week.

The highlights are on Bitcoin with a Mutant Hounds launch, Runevo and then Rare Scrilla's "The Ones" minting this afternoon (Dutch auction from 1 BTC down to 0.1).

With the halving now set to happen this Friday, expect a volatile and busy week for the biggest chain.

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

  • Mutant Hounds (8:00 a.m. ET)
  • Blastr (10:00 a.m. ET)
  • Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
  • Runevo (2:00 p.m. ET)
  • The Ones (4:00 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 to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.

Morning Minute | Crypto Sinks on War Concerns, Rebounds
Morning Minute | Bitcoin Puppets Dominate NFT and Memecoin Market
Staff Writer

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🟠 Bitcoin Puppets Take Over

It's rare to see an NFT project make major headlines these days.

Most have been slowly chopping or bleeding over the past several months.

But there is one clear exception.

The Bitcoin Puppets.

What Happened?

Last night saw major moves for all 4 of the Bitcoin Puppet related assets:

  • Bitcoin Puppets pumped 15% to 0.46 BTC
  • O.P.I.U.M (the OG set) jumped +25% to 0.63 BTC
  • Rune Pups (getting runes at the halving) soared 50% to 0.147 BTC
  • $PUPS (the BRC20 which converts to runes) rocketed 60% to $77 ($600M mc)

The Puppets have nearly flipped NodeMonkes after this leg up, now 0.48 BTC to 0.46.

O.P.I.U.M is now the leading PFP by floor price on Bitcoin.

Serious momentum is building here, at a time when not many Ordinals are catching momentum that aren't runes related.

Of course, that is the twist.

Why Is It Happening?

The success of the $PUPS BRC-20 token is likely a major propellant of this recent action.

Ansem made a splash, "calling" the PUPS token last Friday on his stream, which briefly sent the token to $140 on Solana* before settling around $20-$25.

*The PUPS team opened a bridge allowing the BRC-20 to be bridged to Solana, opening up a 2nd blockchain market (a move that will go down in history for the token)

He has since doubled down over the past week, calling it the first and best memecoin "on the world's oldest blockchain."

And PUPS has been up only this week, now at $77 (halfway to filling the "Ansem wick") and at a $600M market cap.

The success of the token is intertwined with the success of the NFT and the meme though.

And the meme / NFT is winning because it's spreading.

More and more puppet PFPs are popping up all over Crypto and NFT Twitter (X). Not many other collections are spreading like that right now.

The fun-loving, whacky yet degen cult is becoming a movement. 

Predictions

So have they topped?

No.

The keys are dilution (or lack there of) and high signal holders.

On high signal, more and more high signal folks in the crypto circle are repping or at least talking about Puppets consistently now.

On dilution - the reason tokens and NFTs on Bitcoin are winning is because there simply aren't many.

It's NodeMonkes, Puppets, Quantum Cats and OMB up top the NFT leaderboard on Bitcoin. There aren't many options and more and more traders want exposure. It's simple supply and demand.

For runes, it's Runestone, RSIC and PUPS. And only PUPS is a true memecoin on that list.

PUPS is set up to be THE winning memecoin on Bitcoin. And if a memecoin market actually springs up post-runes launch, it's hard to see PUPS not grinding higher in the future.

And the more that PUPS win, the more that the Puppets will win. It's an incredible fly wheel.

So I'm not calling top anytime soon.

My only hope is that NodeMonkes and OMB battle Bitcoin Puppets all the way up, so we have some friendly competition.

It's going to be a fun spring.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

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

  • Bitcoin led NFT trading volume with $31M on the day (+20%); ETH was next with $22M (-1%) and then Solana with $10.8M (-11%)
  • Runestone led the BTC NFT board again though falling 12% to 0.08 BTC; Rune Pups were the big winner jumping 50% to 0.149
  • The flipping draws nearer as Bitcoin Puppets reached a 0.46 BTC floor with NodeMonkes at just 0.48
  • Rune Nodes reached 0.04 BTC in their first full day of trading ($28.3M market cap) after it was announced they would get an even split of the $NODE tokens 
  • The Block debuted on Bitcoin from the Runestone artist, jumping out early to a 0.1 BTC floor with several sales as high as 0.3 BTC before settling at 0.055
  • ETH NFT leaders were mostly red with BAYC -3.5% to 11.7 ETH, Pudgy -3% to 11.4 and Milady -6% to 4.98
  • Lasogette was a notable winner, jumping 56% to 0.71 ETH floor following Bitcoin Puppets success; OnChainMonkey +20%
  • Solana NFTs were very green on the day; Mad Lads +2% at 141 SOL, Tensorians +26% at 23, Mutantmon +31% to 3.1 and ABC +87% to 2.5
  • Azuki announced its Enter the Garden episode one will launch on April 30
  • nftperp did over $750k volume just in Milady longs and shorts on Thursday
  • Arcade completed the largest ever Nodemonke loan after Cirrus lent 1.25 BTC against a gold hoodie Node (using Emblem Vault)
  • LooksRare teased "we're working on something big" related to a Bitcoin announcement
  • Mintify has crossed $1M in volume through its Base NFT orderbook in the past week

💰 Token, Airdrop & Points Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:

  • Coinbase announced perp futures for $PEPE coming on April 18
  • Omni announced its $OMNI token, including an $OMNI airdrop for Eigenlayer restakers and select NFT holders (snapshot taken on April 3)
  • $PUPS soared 60% to a new ATH of $77 on Thursday ($600M mc)
  • Pac Finance exploited its users by changing the LTV ratio and liquidation threshold parameters, liquidating several of its ezETH leverage users
  • Liquidium announced its support for rune lending and borrowing coming "redacted"
  • CyberKongz teased a runes announcement coming soon

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

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

  • Crypto majors are mixed this morning; BTC +0.3% at $70,800; ETH -1% at $3,530; SOL even at $172
  • Memecoin majors were mostly red in another down day; DOGE +1%, WIF -7%, PEPE +2%, BODEN -14%
  • Hong Kong is set to approve spot Bitcoin ETFs this coming Monday according to Bloomberg
  • Binance & crypto.com both added support for Bittensor's $TAO token yesterday, briefly sending $TAO up to $750 (now $618)
  • 9dcc saw its luxury streetwear brand featured in Forbes in an article discussing their merger of fashion and blockchain tech
  • Spencer Ventures has incubated a new digital / physical game design studio named Ocapgames aimed at "bringing IP to life"

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

  • $RB (+200%, $15M market cap, ETH)
  • $LONG (+88%, $21M market cap, Base)
  • $PUPS (+60%, $600M market cap, Bitcoin)
  • $CHEX (+35%, $35M market cap, Solana)
  • $MICHI (+33%, $135M market cap, Solana)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

  • Lasogette (68%, 0.71 ETH Floor)
  • Kart Party (39%, 0.86 ETH)
  • OnChainMonkey (23%, 1.43 ETH)
  • Velocity Series (60%, 0.83 ETH)
  • My Pet Hooligan (11%, 0.88 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is another busy day of drops, spanning BTC, Base and ETH.

The highlight is likely Velocity Pass S2, launching 2,000 passes with 900 on sale at 10 am ET today. The team is introducing a new DN-404 fractional NFT protocol into this year's mix, so look out for that.

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

  • The Skellies (9:00 a.m. ET)
  • Rudinalz (9:00 a.m. ET)
  • Velocity Pass S2 (10:00 a.m. ET)
  • Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
  • Tristan Rettich - Based Pixels (10:00 a.m. ET)
  • Gruff - Doppelgangers (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 to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.

Morning Minute | Bitcoin Puppets Dominate NFT and Memecoin Market
Morning Minute | The SEC Is Suing Uniswap
Tyler Warner

TylerD's Market Summary

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🚨 The SEC Comes for DeFi

Gary Gensler just can't get enough.

After largely failing in recent pursuits and getting chastised by U.S. Congress, his cohorts at the SEC are back on the offensive.

And this time, Uniswap is in the crosshairs.

What Happened?

Yesterday the leading decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) Uniswap received notice from the SEC that they will be pursuing an enforcement action.

According to Uniswap's COO and Chief Legal Officer, the content of the Wells notice received was focused on it acting as an unregistered securities broker and unregistered securities exchange.

While it's unclear that Uniswap's token $UNI is tied in to the notice, the market was understandably shaken with $UNI dropping 16% to $9.24 ($5.5B market cap).

What Are They Saying?

Uniswap's Chief Legal Officer Marvin Ammori doesn't seem too worried.

He stated that Uniswap doesn't meet the SEC's definition of an exchange and pointed to a recent ruling in the SEC's case against Coinbase where a judge ruled that Coinbase Wallet is not a broker as a good sign.

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams also took to X, confirming the news that they had received a Wells notices from the SEC.

His reaction - "just annoyed, disappointed, and ready to fight.”

He went on to say:

“I am confident that the products we offer are legal and that our work is on the right side of history. But it’s been clear for a while that rather than working to create clear, informed rules, the SEC has decided to focus on attacking long-time good actors like Uniswap and Coinbase. All while letting bad actors like FTX slip by."

A Uniswap blog post went even further, calling the SEC's actions "the latest political effort to target even the best actors building technology on blockchains.”

Why It Matters

For broader crypto, it probably doesn't.

The SEC has a terrible track record in these cases and it seems there is already historical precedent on Uniswap's side.

The market reaction to broader crypto prices is a signal that most arne't worried about a broad impact to crypto (all majors are green other than Uniswap).

Several centralized exchanges received enforcement actions in the past 1-2 years, including Binance, without major impact to broader crypto.

Other than builders fleeing the U.S.

That's the big impact. The current political regime is actively trying to force crypto innovation offshore.

All while its biggest institutions are piling into crypto via the BTC ETFs.

It's such a strange dichotomy.

Here's hoping the political winds will shift and crypto builders can feel comfortable in the U.S.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

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

  • Bitcoin led NFT trading volume with $26M on the day (+36%); ETH was next with $22.5M (+24%) and then Solana with $12M (-2%)
  • Runestone led the BTC NFT board again and jumped 10% 0.091 BTC; Rune Pups were next up reaching 0.095 and then Blob up another 30% to 0.066
  • The NODE BRC-20 team airdropped Rune Nodes to all NodeMonkes holders, opening at 0.039 BTC floor (not formally affiliated with the team)
  • The RSIC team launched a new dashboard at runecoin.io allowing users to track surplus rewards and tokens mined, while endorsing the Runes Collective for lottery ticket pooling
  • ETH NFT leaders were mostly red with BAYC -1% to 12.14 ETH, Pudgy -4% to 11.8, MAYC -1% to 1.94 and Captains -3% to 3.34
  • Mintify Genesis was a notable winner, jumping 73% to 0.16 ETH floor as they prepare to expand to Base; Milady popped 10% as well
  • The CryptoPunks floor has fallen below 40 ETH (39.99) for the first time in months
  • Solana NFTs were mostly green on the day; Mad Lads +8% at 138 SOL, Tensorians -2% at 18, Mutantmon +53% to 2.4 and Parcl +22% to 13.6
  • Grant Yun announced a new edition of 250 NFTs to launch Solana art marketplace Exchange Art next week
  • Bybit and Oracle Red Bull Racing are back with Velocity Pass 2.0, launching 900 Passes for sale on Friday at 10:00 a.m. ET
  • Zora added a new feature allowing users to buy Mints with credit card or Apple Pay
  • FeistyDAO acquired the "Keyboard Cat" 1/1 for 36 ETH ($126K) via Foundation, following the Dogwifhat 1/1 which sold for $4.3M

💰 Token, Airdrop & Points Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

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

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

  • $CCC (+340%, $33M market cap, Base)
  • $NODE (+100%, $27M market cap, Bitcoin)
  • $TOOKER (+94%, $51M market cap, Solana)
  • $SC (+50%, $135M market cap, Solana)
  • $NUB (+45%, $75M market cap, Solana)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

  • Kawamii Teams (173%, 0.08 ETH Floor)
  • Mintify Genesis (88%, 0.17 ETH)
  • Milady Aura (43%, 0.17 ETH)
  • Onlybots (34%, 0.12 ETH)
  • Schizoposters (27%, 0.44 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is a very busy day of drop spanning several chains.

My personal highlight is Killer Acid making his Bitcoin debut with No Brainers, a selection of curated 1/1s of PFP characters in classic Killer Acid trippy style (priced at 0.1 BTC).

Runestone artist Leo Caillard is dropping The Block on Bitcoin too (0.015 BTC).

The Dew pass provides access to Polygon's top aggregator (Circle invested).

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

  • $BLOCK (8:00 a.m. ET)
  • Dew Origin Pass (10:00 a.m. ET)
  • The Block (12:00 p.m. ET)
  • Broken Printer (1:00 p.m. ET)
  • Floor Icons Szn 2 Drop 10 (1:00 p.m. ET)
  • Filigree (3:00 p.m. ET)
  • No Brainers (3:00 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 to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.

Morning Minute | The SEC Is Suing Uniswap