A $1,000,000 Digital Art Buying Spree
Okay it was ~$930,000, but still. Catch up on who this buyer was, what they bought and why it matters, plus a new darling in the AI art market.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news:
FlamingoDAO drops 448 ETH across dozens of art projects
Trading volume pops to $28M, Pudgy Penguins eco leads
New AI art mint "Views" delights, runs 10x to 1 ETH
Mad Lads reach new ATH at 180 SOL, though most other SOL NFTs fall
Okay Bears launch merchandise in 1,100 ZARA stores worldwide
🖼 FlamingoDAO Goes Shopping
The NFT market has been hot these past few weeks.
But digital art has been lagging.
Top Art Blocks sets have been even or down, and few new mints have seen much success.
Well FlamingoDAO may have just changed that.
What Happened?
Yesterday, the leading digital art collector in the world FlamingoDAO went on a major buying spree.
They deployed 448 ETH ($937k) across the following pickups:
4 Beeple editions
2 Grifters
2 Elevated Deconstruction
5 Genesis by Claire Silver
7 Fragments of an Infinite Field
3 Life in West America
6 Meridians
3 Genesis by DCA
4 Memories of Qilin
1 Unigrids
2 Gazers
3 Anticyclone
7 Cargo
6 Fake It Til You Make It
15 Zentrum
9 Human Unreadable
2 Archetypes
5 Gumbos
6 Colorspaces
4 Squares
12 Memories of Digital Data
10 Skulptuurs
5 Phase
11 Chimera
4 JPEGs
5 Mazinaws
7 Web
Those pickups span Art Blocks, broader generative art, AI art, Beeple and XCOPY.
Several floors jumped 50-100% or more with these sweeps, including a few notable ones here from NFT Stats:
JPEG by Robert Leegte: 1.55 --> 3.33
Life in West America: 4.9 --> 7.4
Skulptuur by Piter Pasma: 0.4 --> 1.1
CARGO by Kim Asendorf: 1.9 --> 2.7
A huge swing for some previously stagnant sets.
Why It Matters
For one, Flamingo has injected some confidence back into this market.
There are buyers out there. And a few more sweeps like this may be enough to spark another run across these sectors of digital art.
Oh, and Flamingo probably isn't done.
They commented on their X page, following the sweep:
"Today is a good day. This is the beginning of the new phase."
So this is just the beginning? This might get fun.
They also exposed just how thin some of these floors are. Many collections, especially the old Art Blocks, have huge chunks of supply in long-term collectors’ hands.
It only takes 10-20 buys to move these floors sharply up, as FlamingoDAO already evidenced.
Once the broader trading market sees green, more will flock in.
Now we just need some hot new mints to attract new attention. And we may have just gotten one...
🪟 A New Darling in the AI Art Sector
Braindrops is the leading platform for AI art, and their latest curated drop did not disappoint.
Yesterday, "Views" by Deltasauce minted out its 499 supply at 0.1 ETH.
It ran to 0.4 ETH, pulled back to 0.2, then overnight it shot to a whopping 1 ETH floor.
An immediate 10x for minters and 3-5x for early secondary buyers, in less than a day.
Why Is It Happening?
One, the art is great, but it requires viewing the broader collection to see how the overarching theme of "windows being portals, presenting glimpses into various realities" really comes to life.
This is one where the collective is stronger than the individual.
Leading artists like Grant Yun have endorsed it, as have several notable collectors.
And the artist Deltasauce also hid easter eggs alluding to some of his favorite digital artists (Grant Yun, ACK) in various pieces.
Many have compared this set to the recent darling of Braindrops, Life in West America (LIWA) by Roope Rainisto.
LIWA crossed an 11 ETH floor at peak and still holds a 7 ETH floor (after several were picked up by FlamingoDAO yesterday).
So hopes are high for this one...
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the weekend in NFTs:
ETH Trading volume jumped to $27.8M on Thursday, with a mostly green leaderboard
Pudgy Penguins led notable top movers, up another 10% to 7.7 ETH, now +26% on the week; lil Pudgys's (+20% to 0.66) and Pudgy Rogs (+27% to 0.51) also soared
The Grapes fell 30% to 1.7 ETH after it was announced their token would be on BSC, but the floor has since rebounded to 2 ETH
Mad Lads jumped another 7% to a 179 SOL floor, though most of the other SOL leaders fell on the day
Seneca launched 'Perils of Sēsē' yesterday, in partnership with Transient Labs; the BAYC Artist's new dynamic art collection was priced at 0.22 ETH for 2,880 unique story page NFTs and is holding a 0.22 ETH floor
The Pudgy Penguins and Nouns collab is going live next week, dropping toys featuring the iconic Nouns glasses
The Floor App has added support for Bitcoin Ordinals, on top of its existing support for ETH and SOL
Goonz and notable personality/collector/founder Deeze's collab "Burnt Boy" will drop on Magic Eden today at noon ET, and those who mint and burn their art will receive a 4'' vinyl toy that comes with a detachable hood, 3D glasses, and more
Sorare NBA introduced gameplay updates and new features for December, including an NBA Rivals mode, a Knockout Stage for the In-Season Tournament, and new levels & prizes
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
The crypto market jumped on the day; BTC +1.2% at $38,360; ETH +2% at $2,085; SOL -0.2% at $60.70
$BLUR was +2% on the day to $0.50, while $MEME jumped 6% on rumors its staking contract may be live soon
Okay Bears merchandise is now available in more than 1,100 ZARA stores worldwide (floor -3% on the day to 31 SOL)
🚀 NFT Total Volume (ETH)
BAYC (1,691 ETH, 28.76 ETH Floor)
Moonbirds (1,050 ETH, 2.34 ETH)
Azuki (897 ETH, 5.94 ETH)
Pudgy Penguins (747 ETH, 7.69 ETH)
DeGods (725 ETH, 3.28 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
Views by Deltasauce (1,000%, 1 ETH Floor)
Fluf World: Burrows (39%, 0.18 ETH)
Pudgy Rogs (27%, 0.51 ETH Floor)
Moonbirds (22%, 2.34 ETH)
Lil Pudgy's (20%, 0.66 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is a busy day to kick-start December.
The highlight is the launch of fxhash 2.0, which features mints from Sean Elliott, Tyler Boswell, ippsketch, Casey Reas, Studio Yorktown, and Jeff Palmer throughout the day.
There are other drops featuring generative art, memes and ordinals.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
fxhash 2.0 mints (all day)
Piter Pasma - Blokkendoos (9:30 a.m. ET)
Stone Nomads (10:00 a.m. ET)
Nicole Liu - Unigraphs (10:00 a.m. ET)
Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.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.