Binance Moved Billions Through CZ?
Discover more from Morning Minute
Binance Moved Billions Through CZ?
Catch up on the latest SEC allegations against Binance, along with the results of 3 major NFT art project mints from yesterday.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news includes:
New allegations against Binance
2 NFT art drops disappoint, 1 wins
Opepen R005 reveals, holds at 3.75 ETH
Yuga shares new teaser vid
Warner Bros launching Superman NFTs
🚩 SEC Says Binance Commingled Billions
The SEC headlines keep pouring in this week.
The latest - more allegations against Binance, alleging that Binance moved billions of dollars of customer funds through CZ's holding company accounts.
This comes on the back of Binance US delisting dozens of crypto tokens, including those alleged as securities, sending the crypto market down in its wake.
What Happened?
Here's the quick summary of the situation:
SEC accuses Binance of moving $12B of customer funds through a holding company called "Key Vision Development Limited" to CZ's firm Merit Peak
The accusations stem from an SEC accountant Sachin Verma via forensic analysis of the Binance bank statements
This evidence will be used in the SEC's efforts to freeze Binance US's accounts
Binance has denied the allegations
This news comes after an update from Binance US that it would be removing dozens of trading pairs on June 8 at 12 p.m. ET.
Those removed tokens include NFT-native APE, MANA and RARE, along with other notable tokens such as AAVE, MKR, FLOW, CRV, and SUSHI.
Market Reaction
The future of these NFT tokens specifically feels as murky as ever, and the market is reflecting that.
APE is at $2.90, effectively it's 1-year low. It's trajectory has been straight down since a local peak on January 27 at $6.27 (-54%).
The uncertainty is hitting the broader crypto market as well, which was red on the day.
BTC fell 0.5% to $26,460 and ETH fell 0.7% to $1,844, while other top 10 tokens BNB (-3.5%) and SOL (-5.5%) fell more.
Memecoin PEPE gave back most of its recent gains as well, down to a $430M marketcap.
Buckle up, it feels like volatility is going to be the norm this summer...
🖼 A Trio of Art Mints
Wednesday was a huge day of art drops in the generative art sector, spanning a major brand (Mercedes), Art Blocks Curated and a top Curated artist in Emily Xie.
The secondary market results have not been great for 2 of the 3, highlighting the lack of liquidity in this art market.
Let's quickly walk through each of the three.
Mercedes NXT Launches Genesis Mint "Maschine"
Mercedes recently formed a Web3 program called NXT and came out swinging with its first NFT mint in "Maschine" from artist Harm van den Dorpel (from Mutant Garden Seeder) in partnership with FingerPrintsDAO.
The 1,000 NFTs sold out in a rebate Dutch auction at the final price of 0.24 ETH, resulting in a 240 ETH raise for the team.
The market quickly rallied over 50% to a 0.4 ETH floor before falling 20% below mint price at 0.2 ETH.
Apparently the combination of a strong artist, a competent launch partner (and very smooth mint process), and a big-named brand’s genesis mint was not enough to move the needle on this one.
It raises the question - how exactly should a big brand launch an NFT project?
Art Blocks Curated "Neural Sediments"
The Art Blocks Curated drop Neural Sediments performed even worse than Maschine.
After minting out at the 0.9 ETH level, it quickly fell almost 50% to 0.5 ETH on secondary, briefly rallied back to 0.75 on the back of 2 top-end sales of 4.27 ETH and 6 ETH, but fell back to the 0.48 ETH level overnight.
The market action on this one points to it having minted out at too high of a level, likely on the back of the success of the last Curated drop "Human Unreadable" as more flippers entered this one (143 of the 300 supply is listed for a sale, an extreme 48%).
Emily Xie Outperforms with "Interwoven"
At least we ended the day with some good news.
Emily Xie's Interwoven minted for 0.5 ETH (whitelist only) and is holding a 4.2 ETH floor on secondary this morning.
So far 91 of the total 100 NFTs have been minted, in this LACMA x Cactoid Labs partnership from Emily.
Collectors have been applauding the aesthetics of this one, shown in the secondary action (though it's seen just 15 ETH of secondary sales).
The most interesting metric here - just 12 of the 91 NFTs are listed for sale. That means the people who minted actually want to keep the art.
Imagine that.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
Trading volume fell back to 12k ETH on Wednesday, largely tied to a reduction in trading volume on BAYC
Blur announced updates to bidding points to reward risk-takers, saying tactics of transferring NFTs, wash trading and spoofing bids will no longer work
Opepen Release 005 revealed on Wednesday, saw several sales in the 3-5 ETH range, and is holding a 3.75 ETH floor
Yuga dropped a new teaser video involving HV-MTL and BAKC along with the announcement that their HV viewer is now live at garage.hv-mtl.com
RTFKT signed with talent agency CAA in an effort to expand their IP into film and TV
Notable BAYC trader and Blur farmer Franklin joined the NFT Inspect Council, now alongside other notable PFP community members in Elenaa and Wale
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
The crypto market fell on Wednesday as uncertainty grows; BTC fell 0.5% to $26,460 and ETH fell 0.7% to $1,844
Warner Bros. Web3 Movieverse is launching Superman NFTs on June 8 on the Eluvio blockchain at prices of $30 and $100
Louis Vuitton shared requirements for its Treasure Trunks allowlist mint, requiring applicants to hold prior LVMH NFTs, NFTs from other major fashion brands, or at least $200k in total NFT portfolio value
🚀 NFT Total Volume
BAYC (4,724 ETH, 46.06 ETH Floor)
Azuki (1,370 ETH, 17.57 ETH)
MAYC (697 ETH, 9.86 ETH)
BAKC (502 ETH, 4.16 ETH)
Captainz (373 ETH; 9.35 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase
0xMahjong (60%, 0.56 ETH Floor)
Mutant Hounds (40%, 0.26 ETH)
On the Edge of Oblivion (36%, 2.44 ETH)
Bored & Dangerous (34%, 0.14 ETH)
KaijuKingz (17%, 0.19 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is a slower day of new mints after a hectic day yesterday.
BTC NFTs have been hot, with Sqordinals minting over the past few days, and KUKA is looking to capitalize on that today.
Then we have a pair of free mints from Arkpia and NFTperp which are worth checking out (always love the ROI on free).
If you want more, see the full list of today's drops from Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
Arkpia Mint Pass (10:00 a.m. ET); free
Whyland KUKA (11:00 a.m. ET); BTC
NFT Perp - Mafia Nuts (1:00 p.m. ET); free
Enjoy this write-up? Follow along with me on Twitter @tyler_did_it or reach out via email tyler.warner@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.