Citi Bets Big On Blockchain
Citigroup just rolled out a new blockchain solution for payments and trade finance in a major step forward. But is it a threat for crypto? And catch up on the latest Friend Tech news and trends.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news includes:
Citi rolls out new blockchain token service
Friend Tech volume and TVL grind up
VVD explains Nopepen, calls NFT space a casino
DraftKings Reignmakers sees big growth week 1 to week 2
Optimism completes $27M airdrop, more to come
💸 Citi Launches Blockchain-Based Token Services
The big banks continue to rapidly adopt blockchain.
Yesterday Citigroup made the major announcement that they have rolled out "Citi Token Services", a blockchain solution tailored for institutional cross-border payments and liquidity.
The primary products used so far have been cash management and trade finance.
Using a private blockchain, the service combines tokenized deposits and smart contracts, aiming to streamline transactions and reduce delays.
Those smart contracts act effectively as bank guarantees and letters of credit.
Two successful pilots have been carried out, one with Maersk, significantly cutting down transaction processing times, and another focused on global liquidity transfers.
Why It Matters
Tokenization of assets is coming.
Citi in fact forecasted that tokenization of securities would be a $4T-$5T market by 2030.
That's a positive for the crypto space.
But this also represents some competition, as Citi specifically has previously taken part in a proof-of-concept for the Regulated Liability Network which aims to be an alternative to "non-sovereign money" (crypto).
One thing is clear - digital money is coming. The battle between sovereign and non-sovereign though may be just beginning...
👥 Friend Tech Trend Tracker
The week got off to a fast start in Friend Tech world with transaction volume booming and TVL continuing to rise, though the leaderboard took another hit.
Let's start with the numbers.
Here are some of the core Friend Tech metrics for 9/18 and their day-over-day change:
New users: 8,350 -> 8,365 (even)
Return users: 9,555 -> 10,949 (+15%)
Daily Buy volume: $6.26M -> $6.5M (+4%)
Total Volume: $9.77M -> $11.7M (+20%)
TVL: $35.9M -> $37.56M* (+5%)
Highest key: Racer 7.61 -> 7.14 (-6%)
*12.5% of TVL is from self-buyers per Slice Analytics' new dashboard.
Total users are now over 206,000 and total transaction volume is up to $230M.
Buyers outpaced sellers on the day $6.5M to $5.2M and those in the "Aligned 3,3" model seemed to benefit the most (Aligned 3,3 meaning buying active accounts providing value and showing sustainability who also do 3,3).
The leaderboard continues to get hit the hardest, with Racer down another 6% to 7.14. There are now just 2 keys over 5 ETH and 4 over 4 ETH.
The drivers of this leaderboard downtrend - narrative changes, less immediate expectation of funds coming to blindly buy the leaderboard, and more value in the mid-tier 3,3 world.
A few other trends and developments we saw:
New feature: Watchlists, allowing users to "keep an eye on your friends before you buy their keys"
BLAU went on ThreadGuys's FT mega-spaces show last night (over 2,800 live attendees) and explained his rationale for leaving FT, praising the app but saying specific legal risk for his brand and the AMM (bonding curve) was the issue
Several new leaderboard members (13 in total) have less than 25 key holders, indicating the trend of self-buying and farming is growing
Some big winners on the day included Anonymoux and Otto Suwen (both at 1.4), who both joined the leaderboard, and Mando and Moondogg who marched up to 1.12 ETH & 1 ETH respectively
A notable new joiner on the day was Yat Sui who joined with Manifold, reaching 0.8 ETH on big early buy volume (now 0.97); Animoca's keys briefly rallied in an adjacent run
If you like this content, catch our morning Friend Tech show at 10 am ET.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
Trading volume was up slightly to $7M (4,200 ETH) on Monday though still in a clear downtrend
NFTs mostly chopped or dipped on the day, with Sugartown taking a 10% hit (0.34 ETH), while Metakeys DAO and Parallel Avatars led top movers
Vincent Van Dough released a post explaining his Nopepen reveal, calling the NFT space a casino in current state where "Participants chase unrevealed drop after unrevealed drop until most are left with nothing"; the floor fell to 0.55 ETH afterwards
Meanwhile Jack Butcher debuted Opepen Set 20 "Synopepen," already 4,500% subscribed and will reveal later today (along with Set 19 "Prompt")
DraftKings Reignmakers saw steady growth in their Reignmakers fantasy contest entries, jumping 44% at the Core level week-over-week, 33% at Rare and 11-12% at Elite and Legendary
Parallel introduced a new feature called Echo Replication where players use both $PRIME tokens and Renown—an in-game experience metric—to create Echo cards; Parallel Avatars jumped 30% on the day to 0.3 ETH
Vinnie Hager's Diary Collection will initiate a one-week physical claim process for all artworks minted from the 'Diary' series at 2:00 p.m. ET today
Deafbeef's HASHMARKS debuted and caught 2.5 ETH bids on all 50 NFTs with the bidding window still open
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
The crypto market chopped on the day; BTC even at $27,180; ETH even at $1,650; SOL +2.8% at $20.17
Optimism completed a 19.4M token airdrop yesterday ($27M), with 570M tokens still available for future drops
FTX has sued Sam Bankman Fried's parents to "recover millions of dollars in fraudulently transferred and misappropriated funds," per a Monday court filing;
Oak Grove Ventures has started a new $60M fund focusing on the intersection of Web3, artificial intelligence and biotech; features alumni from Sino Global, Coinbase and Libra
🚀 NFT Total Volume
DeGods (538 ETH, 3.62 ETH Floor)
BAYC (522 ETH, 24.5 ETH)
MAYC (365 ETH, 4.93 ETH)
Sugartown Oras (223 ETH, 0.34 ETH)
Captainz (172 ETH, 3.07 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase
MetaKeys DAO (55%, 0.27 ETH Floor)
Parallel Avatars (30%, 0.3 ETH)
World of Women (13%, 0.79 ETH)
RTFKT Animus Eggs (11%, 0.31 ETH)
Kanpai Pandas (10%, 0.72 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Another day with art in focus for new drops.
The highlight is Matt Kane kicking off his Anons auctions today, as he releases 25 new pieces for bids. The pieces seemingly come in clusters of 9, though each is unique, and this is just Wave I of more to come.
Dig into those drops and see the full list of today's drops from Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
Victor Duarte x Noble Gallery "Low Tide" (11:00 a.m. ET)
Matt Kane - Anons (12:00 p.m. ET)
Reavers (2:00 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.
For all volume and floor price data, see Lucky Trader's Project Rankings page.
For all upcoming mints, see Lucky Trader's NFT Calendar page.