Coinbase Launches L3s, Smart Wallet in Big Week
Oh, and Base has memecoins now. Plus Art Blocks is changing course in a major way.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news:
Coinbase builds on momentum, launches L3s
Art Blocks pauses Curated mints in major shift
David Choi puts up $2M to stop Pudgy loan crisis, floor jumps
BlackRock files to buy more BTC via another fund
NBA Top Shot launches first Legendary Wemby moments in new packs
🔵 Coinbase Is Cooking
It's no secret that crypto is in a major rally and starting to be covered more by mainstream media.
A not-so-surprising winner in this run up?
Coinbase.
And they have been firing on all cylinders.
What Happened?
Coinbase has been delivering major announcements over the past week.
Just yesterday:
Base officially launched its first L3 with Arbitrum Orbit L2 now live, bringing Arbitrum speed to the Base community
Coinbase added its first "sponsored trader" (@AltcoinPsycho) to get more direct feedback from power users on its upcoming new perp and spot trading product
This comes after last Friday's announcement of a new smart wallet solution aimed at easier onboarding and enabling trading of Coinbase assets onchain.
All of their efforts through the bear market are clearly paying off here, and the updates are accelerating.
And the hire of AltcoinPsycho shows their willingness to get real feedback from crypto natives.
It's becoming more clear that Coinbase is trying to be more in touch with crypto and web3 natives than some of its peers (perhaps reflected in the rumors that Brian Armstrong personally reviews all hires now).
Market Response
Coinbase stock has been on an absolute heater.
It's up 20% this week to $242, and up a whopping 83% on the month.
And it's Base ecosystem is finally booming.
Memecoin mania is playing out right now on ETH, Solana and Base.
Some notable Base memecoins (and their market caps):
BRETT at $190M
DEGEN at $79M
TOSHI at $112M
DOGINME at $56M
TYBG at $53M
And its Aerodrome marketplace has reached a $360M mc.
Those tokens are all up 5-10x or more in the past few weeks.
A lesson we've learned from Solana - if there are memecoin games (and gains) to be played, the degens will come.
So Base is delivering strong products + a fun casino. It's a great set up.
Now - when $BASE?
🖼 Art Blocks Changes Course
Big news for the generative art crowd - Art Blocks is making some changes.
Yesterday the team announced a strategic "focused period," pausing new launches while it redefines its approach and enhances the platform.
Key aspects of the update:
More refined project selection for the Curated releases, "significantly" reducing volume and ensuring "highest-caliber" projects
Completing the self-publishing studio enables artist experimentation and casual minting
Continued support for Engine partners and product update communications
This is likely a welcome update for most and even the most hardcore fans, after the latest series of Curated projects have mostly fallen flat.
With market demand at near-all-time-lows, it was time for a change.
And kudos to the team for realizing it and taking action.
It will be very exciting to see the first round of new Curated releases with the new higher standards - and how the market will respond.
🚚 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 $22.4M on the day, BTC was next with $16M and then Solana with $12.6M
The ETH NFT leaders saw big green in a welcome relief rally; Pudgy +9% to 14.7 ETH, MAYC +3% to 2.86, Azuki +4% to 4.2 and Captainz +10% to 5.15
MetaStreet founder David Choi provided $2M in liquidity to help stop the Pudgy Penguin bleeding due to the recent Blend liquidation spiral
Rug Radio founder Farokh teased its content creators (current and past) that something big is coming soon
NodeMonkes led BTC volume on the day tallying 40 BTC and jumping 10% to 0.67 BTC; Bitcoin Puppets also rallied 10% to 0.207 BTC, while other leaders held steady
Ink on Bitcoin announced its mint price at 0.0058 BTC (~$390), with other details still TBD (interested minters should go to the Ink discord and fill out the WL application)
Richard Nadler announced a new mint "Memento Mori" coming to Bitcoin on March 18th in a ranked auction for 206 pieces
Solana NFTs were mixed on the day; Mad Lads even at 195 SOL, Tensorians +12% to 52.7, Parcl -13% to 12.4 and Frogana +33% to 5.9
NBA Top Shot launched its Rookie Revelation packs, with a $1,499 pack with a 1/5 shot to pull a Wemby legendary, along with "Quick Rip" packs priced at $10
CryptoSlam added Blast NFT tracking to its dashboard, with Blast coming in at 10th place on Thursday with $272k volume
💰 Token, Airdrop & Points Tracker
Introducing a brand new section, highlighting any major token or airdrop news from the day.
Kamino announced its Kamino Points Season 1 snapshot will take place on March 31 and its $KMNO TGE for April
NFT Inspect announced a successful testnet launch on Bittensor ($TAO) along with a burn mechanism for $INSP tokens
Portal will be sponsoring the DOTA2 World Invitational, a global esports tournament with millions of fans
Saga announced an airdrop for more than 200k wallets across Avax, Solana, Cosmos, TIA and ETH, with claim live
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
Crypto majors are green this morning; BTC +0.7% at $67,500; ETH +3.7% at $3,940; SOL +6.2% at $149.70
DOGE and SHIBA both jumped 10% leading memecoins; PEPE (+25%), WIF (+25%) and BONK (+15%) all rallied even more
BlackRock has filed to purchase Bitcoin for another fund, now the Global Allocation Fund, as it continues to find paths to accumulate BTC
SOL rallied on the news that Pantera would be buying a large chunk of the FTX estate's holding OTC
IYK launched an activation at the Arnold Palmer Invitational (golf) allowing Mastercard holders to claim a free hat and mint a photo as an NFT that stays with the hat
Bitcoin Ordinals Wallet Oyl announced the close of a $3M pre-seed round led by Arca
🚀 NFT Total Volume
Pudgy Penguins (3,540 ETH, 14.7 ETH Floor)
BAYC (1,290 ETH, 17.5 ETH)
NodeMonkes (40 BTC, 0.665 BTC floor)
MAYC (622 ETH, 2.86 ETH)
Lil Pudgy's (525 ETH, 1.32 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
Asprey Studio (80%, 2.7 ETH Floor)
Mutant Hound Collars (62%, 0.57 ETH)
Wassies (33%, 0.93 ETH)
Terraforms (28%, 1.72 ETH)
Overworld Incarna (21%, 1.26 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is another busy day of new drops as the season picks up.
Blast Sniperz and Mintify are launching on Blast.
And Matt Furie is back with Peplicator, a 0.1 ETH mint along with a series of burns.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
Blast Sniperz (9:00 a.m. ET)
Joona - NeuralFlows (10:00 a.m. ET)
Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
Matt Furie - Peplicator (12:00 p.m. ET)
Mintify - Blast Key (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.