Bitcoin (Briefly) Passes $68k, Aims for ATH
Bitcoin (Briefly) Passes $68k, Aims for ATH
Plus 5 NFTs sell for over $500,000 in a blockbuseter day for Grails.
GM!
Today's top news:
BTC briefly passes $68k, ATH in sight
ETH rallies past $3,770, NFTs fall 5-10%
Alien CryptoPunk sells for $16M, 5 NFTs move for over $500k
$DEGEN soars 50% as Base & SoFi heat up
Lebron's "The Block" NBA Top Shot moment sells for $30k
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📈 Bitcoin Wants ATH
Crypto Twitter (X) seemingly stopped what it was doing last night and switched to "ATH watch."
It seemed Bitcoin would get there, breaking into the mid-$68,000s (ATH just over $69,000), but ultimately fell short.
The surge was enough to spark rallies in other tokens though.
What Happened?
The price of Bitcoin rocketed yesterday at market open, passing $68,000 at peak (it has since retraced to just below $67,000).
It briefly flipped Silver's $1.38T market cap in the process. Next stop, Gold ($14.3T).
And the headlines supported the price action.
Some bullish headlines from the day:
Monday was the 2nd biggest volume day in the BTC ETF history with $5.5B
That volume included a net $563M inflow, engulfing another $368M outflow from GBTC
BlackRock is set to buy more Bitcoin (via ETFs) for its Strategic Income Opportunities Fund ($36B)
Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy announced a private offering of $600M of convertible senior notes so that he can buy more Bitcoin.
So BlackRock is going to start buying Bitcoin for its fund, and Saylor wants $600M more.
It doesn't seem like the train is stopping here.
For Bitcoin, or broader crypto.
Market Impact
ETH and Memecoins soared on the day following the Bitcoin rally.
ETH outpaced BTC on the day, jumping 7.5% to $3,770 and now less than 10% away from $4k.
But ETH wasn't the only sector outpacing Bitcoin.
Some notable memecoin winners:
DOGE +14% to $26B
Shiba +55% to $24B
PEPE +6% to $3.2B
BONK +12% to $2.4B
WIF +6% to $1.8B
Notably, DOGE and Shiba are now both top-10 crypto tokens by market cap.
And Bloomberg is starting to take notice.
Both PEPE and and Dogwifhat (WIF) were name-dropped in a television segment and a written update from Bloomberg yesterday.
It seems those 5 above have been anointed as the "big 5" in memecoins.
Binance agreed, announcing its listing of WIF spot at 14:00 UTC today.
The memecoin super cycle is just beginning.
💸 The $16M Alien Punk Sale
Many had been calling for a grail Punk to move in the past few weeks.
Signs were there, with some serious bidders increasing their offers.
Yesterday, it finally hit.
What Happened?
Alien CryptoPunk $3100 sold for 4,500 ETH ($16.03M) yesterday.
It was the 2nd highest sale in ETH terms and USD, behind just #5822 (8,000 ETH and $23.7M).
A truly blockbuster sale.
Notably, the floor didn't really rally on the marquee sale, holding steady at 57.38 ETH on just 5 sales.
But it is grinding up in USD terms with the ETH rally, now at $215,000. That's a win.
The Alien Punk wasn't the only grail to move yesterday though.
A Big Day for Grails
Two Fidenzas sold to notable Fidenza whale Kanbas, one for 496 ETH ($1.866M) and one for 290 ETH ($1.09M).
A Diamond-skinned Pudgy Penguin sold for 150 ETH.
And a Gold 1T NodeMonke sold for 9 BTC.
5 NFT sales over $500,000 on the day. The cycle is truly starting to speed up.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
Ethereum led NFT trading volume with $41.5M on the day (on the back of the $16M punk sale); BTC was next with $22.9M and then Solana with $10.3M
The ETH NFT leaders were washed in red after ETH's pump to $3,700; BAYC -10% to 18.45 ETH, Pudgy -3% to 15.5 and MAYC -7% to 3.24
Sotheby's Seedphrase auctions concluded on Monday, with XCOPY's "data_lords" catching the top sale at $330,200 and Pak's "Metarift" going to $152,400
Pacman Blur issued clarifying comments around some outstanding issues with Blast including Points accrual, incentives and Blast gold
OSF released all of the mint details for his upcoming free mint "Professional Degen 5," coming March 11 on Magic Eden
NodeMonkes were the top mover on the day tallying 78.5 BTC in volume, though the floor fell 10% to 0.789 BTC; most leaders fell 5-10%
RSIC was a top winner on BTC, jumping 15% to 0.128 BTC floor and close to ATH
Solana NFTs continued to chop / fall on the day; Mad Lads even at 188 SOL, Tensorians -6% to 52, Parcl -23% to 11
An NBA Top Shot moment featuring Lebron James's "The Block" sold for $30,000 on Monday
Pixelmon's PixelPals game went live with global access and more than $140,000 in prizes available
CyberKongz opened the bridge allowing users to migrate assets from Ethereum to Ronin
Wasabi's Perps market went live on Blast, where traders can earn 4x points on MetaStreet LCT trades for the next 12 hours
💰 Token, Airdrop & Points Tracker
Introducing a brand new section, highlighting any major token or airdrop news from the day.
$DEGEN spiked 50% on the day to a $110M market cap, a welcome gift for those who earned it on Farcaster (can find out at degen.tips)
Users of Shuffle's crypto casino can log in and check their upcoming $SHFL token allocations
$BOTTO jumped 15% to $0.98 and a $47M as the AI art sector continues to heat up
Blast's first hyped memecoin launch Blastoise ($TOISE) opened at $8.7M market cap
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
Crypto majors are mixed this morning; BTC +2.9% at $66,900; ETH +7.5% at $3,770; SOL -1.2% at $132
DOGE jumped 14% to $0.18 and a $26B market cap (and 9th place overall by mc), and Shiba soared 55% to a $24B mc
WIF rallied to a $1.8B market cap after Binance announced its spot listing going live this morning at 9 am ET
🚀 NFT Total Volume
BAYC (2,347 ETH, 18.48 ETH Floor)
NodeMonkes (78.5 BTC, 0.789 BTC floor)
Pudgy Penguins (1,310 ETH, 15.5 ETH)
MAYC (818 ETH, 3.24 ETH)
Lil Pudgy's (738 ETH, 1.29 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
Meta Legends (340%, 0.15 ETH Floor)
Sheboshis (58%, 0.15 ETH)
Shiboshis (35%, 0.3 ETH)
Checks - Originals (28%, 0.25 ETH)
The Grapes (22%, 0.6 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today has a few highlight drops.
BTC Machines is one to watch on Bitcoin, with the OG 777 set holding at 0.159 BTC and the accompanying launch of its BRC-20 token $BVM.
The other highlight of course - WIF's launch on Binance. Will it be a buy or sell the news event? We are finally about to find out.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
BTC Machine Computation (8:00 a.m. ET)
WIF launch on Binance (9:00 a.m. ET)
Dario de Siena - Epoch (9:00 a.m. ET)
Sabet - Relentless (12:00 p.m. ET)
Bangers (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.
🫡🤝