Crypto Blood Bath
The crypto market fell off a cliff last night, with BTC and ETH down almost 10%. Why did it happen?
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news includes:
Crypto falls hard
Starbucks NFTs break Nifty Gateway
Pixel Vault shares major update
Machi owns 29.4% of Gitcoin
Animoca partners with Planet Hollywood for Web3 Soho House
📉 Coins Fall Hard
A run on the bank (literally).
ETH is a security (allegedly).
The U.S. Government is selling its Bitcoin (maybe).
And now, blood in the streets.
A slew of terrible headlines drove the crypto market off a cliff in late Thursday trading.
Here's a quick look at some notable Crypto prices:
BTC: $19,700 (-9.1%)
ETH: $1,380 (-10%)
MATIC: $0.96 (-11%)
SOL: $16.40 (-12%)
APE: $3.88 (-11%)
BLUR: $0.45 (-21%)
Not great, Bob.
What's driving the price action?
This week has had a laundry list of bad news for the crypto industry, along with some straight-up FUD.
Much of it seems to fall out from the U.S. Government's ongoing crypto crackdown and efforts to prop up the traditional banking system.
Some notable headlines from this week, likely impacting the coin prices:
There are increasing concerns of a "run on the bank" at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) after SVB sold off $21B in bonds at a loss, leading notable VC's to tell investors to pull funds
The NYAG is suing Kucoin and alleging that Ether is a security
Crypto-friendly bank Silvergate liquidates its assets and shuts down operations
The U.S. Dept of Justice moved $1B worth of previously seized Bitcoin, leading to fears of an incoming sell
The Fed continues to hint at more interest rate hikes, hurting risk assets across the board
It's a lot to unpack and too much for this post (and I'm no macro crypto expert).
But those seem to be the primary drivers, along with the general equity markets also falling.
Time will tell if these headlines are mostly FUD or indeed serious concerns and risks for the crypto industry.
How were NFTs impacted?
Typically, Crypto 📉 = NFTs 📉
And indeed that is the case this morning.
The Blur top collections board is a sea of red, with most high-volume NFTs down 5%-10%.
Some notable price action:
BAYC: 67.3 ETH floor (-3%)
Azuki: 13.9 ETH (-5%)
Moonbirds: 6.6 ETH (+10%) - (ummm what?!?)
Otherdeed: 1.78 ETH (-7%)
Punks: 65.3 ETH (even)
Pudgy Penguins: 5.2 ETH (-10%)
Opepen: 0.58 ETH (-11%)
Mocaverse: 1.25 ETH (-20%)
In summary, the major blue chips were impacted the least (so far).
Newer projects, like Jack Butcher's ecosystem and Mocaverse, were hit harder, down 10%-20% as investors generally have less-long term conviction.
Moonbirds were the surprise winner up 10%, likely due to their latest collab drop Defy Birds with artist Des Lucrece.
In general, NFTs always dip when ETH is volatile in either direction (some call NFTs a call option on ETH stability).
If ETH does stablize here soon at lower levels, the major NFTs likely rebound; but if the bleeding continues, we're likely in for more pain.
☕️ Starbucks NFTs Break Nifty Gateway
Starbucks is becoming a major player in the NFT space.
This news was somewhat lost in the crypto doom and gloom yesterday, but their Odyssey program needs to be paid attention to at this point.
Their first limited-edition mint yesterday for their Siren Collection broke Nifty Gateway with most eligible minters unable to get the site to load or get through.
Bull market things.
And as usual, an impossible primary mint leads to big secondary demand.
The Siren stamps are now at a $384 floor, a cool 4x for those able to mint for $100.
By the Numbers:
Here is a quick snapshot of the Starbucks NFT ecosystem:
Holiday Cheer Edition 1 Stamp (the genesis NFT): 5,000 supply; $1,750 floor
Siren Collection Stamp: 2,000 supply; $384 floor
Coffee Heritage Journey Stamp: 5,000 supply; $99 floor
Doing Good Journey Stamp: 30,000 supply; $95 floor
The Bean to Cup Journey Stamp: 5,000 supply; $89
Overall, the Starbucks Odyssey program now contains 47,000 NFTs and has seen over $550,000 in secondary volume (without any Blur farming).
The Odyssey program market cap is up to $13.3M (using a basic floor price calculation).
They are seemingly having more success with NFTs than most other major brands that have entered the space.
And with this latest 4x mint, expect major demand on the next one.
It is time to add Starbucks to your NFT watch list.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of the other major headlines from a slower day in NFTs:
Trading volume came in just over 38k ETH, with most NFTs down 5%-10% on the day (as described above)
Pixel Vault shared a major new update regarding its plans to begin "innovating in public" in response to community feedback
Alpha Centauri Kid (ACK) became the 2nd Meme artist to drop a Meme Labs card with his "The Great Restoration," a sequel to his "DALL-E's Revenge" Meme Card
Machi now owns an insane 2,711 Gitcoin Presents NFTs ("the Vitalik NFT"), a whopping 29.4% of the collection; the floor is down 35% on the day at 0.3 ETH
Knights of Degen bring march madness to Polygon with their "Degen Brackets"
Parallel provided more details on its upcoming Terminals and their role in gameplay
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
The crypto market was down big on the day; BTC -9% at $19,700, ETH -10% at $1,380
Planet Hollywood partners with Animoca to build a "Soho House for Web3" product in CLUB 3
Tensor, a new "pro-trader" NFT marketplace on Solana, has raised $3M aiming to be the Blur of Solana
Web3 music platform Audius adds a new token-gated feature allowing artists to provide specific content to NFT holders
🚀 NFT Total Volume
Azuki (3,264 ETH, 13.9 ETH Floor)
BAYC (3,164 ETH, 67.3 ETH)
Moonbirds (2,833 ETH, 6.64 ETH)
Otherdeed (2,529 ETH, 1.75 ETH)
Gitcoin Presents (2,408 ETH, 0.29 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase
Starbucks - Siren Stamps (287%, $387 Floor)
Circle of Frens (225%, 0.35 ETH)
Circle of Frens 2 (201%, 0.03 ETH)
SchizoPosters (17%, 0.22 ETH)
Moonbirds (10%, 0.6.64 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is going to be a volatile day in the NFT markets after this crypto dip.
It likely means a rough environment for new NFTs to launch, especially those with higher price tags.
William Mapan's "Strands of Solitude" is likely the mint of the day, as the Art Blocks Curated artist's Anticyclone project holds a 6.25 ETH floor.
But with a 2 ETH resting price for 400 NFTs, it certainly will not be cheap (and is likely to mint out above that resting price).
Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET); 0.06529 ETH mint
Dented Goonz (12:00 p.m. ET)
Helix Records Genesis Pass (12:00 p.m. ET); 0.03 ETH mint
Strands of Solitude by William Mapan (1:00 p.m. ET); Dutch auction
Contrast Agent (1:00 p.m. ET); Dutch auction
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.