Degens Drive Huge Weekend on Base
Plus NFT founders are launching community tokens in droves, with some surprising results.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news:
Degen Chain drives $500M+ volume on Base, 4th place by chain
Farcaster finds new ATH in DAU after $DEGEN spikes
Crypto majors cool off after weekend rally
Onchain gaias reach 1.75 ETH, lead NFT action
Capsule House drops $ANIME token as community token meta heats up
Today's Morning Minute is brought to you by MetaStreet, THE best new way to earn yield in NFTfi.
Interested in earning yield via NFT lending? Like points farming, or gaining exposure to Blast? MetaStreet is for you.
MetaStreet solves 3 issues in the current NFT lending market by:
not depending on oracles
offering dynamic interest rates, and
operating permissionlessly via its Automated Tranche Maker (ATM).
Recently they launched their Pudgy Ascend Tower, allowing those interested in lending against Pudgy Penguins to do so with up to 26.7% yield (and major points).
And just yesterday they announced a new open edition mint with Metaverse HQ to celebrate the Blast launch!
New things are happening almost daily with MetaStreet right now, and users are winning.
So deposit now and start earning!
📈 Base SZN Blasts Off
Some expected a quiet few days of trading for Easter weekend.
They were wrong, at least on Base.
A combination of socialfi, memecoins, a new L3 and a soaring NFT led to a busy weekend of action for a blossoming new ecosystem.
And it may have cemented Base's spot in this 2024 crypto rally.
What Happened?
A lot happened, to be clear.
Let's start with the memecoins.
Memecoins Drive Major Base Volume
Base coins exploded over the weekend with many leaders seeing 50-100%+ gains, as Base saw its total trading volume reach $570M (enough for 4th place by chain and just behind Solana at $910M).
Here's a current list of notable leaders (by market cap):
BRETT at $693M
DEGEN at $610M
TOSHI at $195M
mfer at $187M
Normie at $104M
HIGHER at $97M (+70% on the day)
The infrastructure play is winning as well, with Aerodrome's AERO token reaching $1.34B.
From that list, DEGEN stands out the most.
DEGENs are Winning
The de facto Farcaster token soared on the week, driving Farcaster's DAU up with it to ATH over 49,000.
SocialFI is booming on Base.
And 10k $DEGEN tokens are required to tip and claim DEGEN as tips in Warpcast (a primary factor in the token's growth).
Now a new flywheel is in effect as well - the DEGEN L3.
A new memecoin L3 on Base called Degen Chain is powered by $DEGEN and it already has 1M DEGEN tokens locked in it (~$50M).
The new L3 has been living up to its name, being used almost exclusively for memecoin trading for degens.
It uses Arbitrum Orbit Base for settlement.
And it has already seen more volume than other leaders like Blast, Avax, Op and more.
Given that funds can't be bridged off for 7 days, expect more degeneracy (i.e. memecoin trading) to come this week.
NFTs Are Winning on Base Too
Even NFTs are catching a bid on Base.
Onchain gaias soared 80% over the weekend to a 1.75 ETH floor as the mysterious project from Ciniz has taken over mindshare.
Not much is known, though there is speculation around PFPs, art, tokens and more.
But that's not the only NFT action on Base.
NFT Founders Launch Community Tokens
NFT founders are choosing to launch community memecoins tied to their projects on Base.
Sartoshi led the way, with his stealth launch of the $MFER token on Friday to holders of Mfers and a few other NFTs.
The token soared to $300M in early action, printing a few millionaires in the process. It's holding up well through the weekend, at $180M this weekend and consolidating.
It doesn't stop there - Sartoshi seems to have started a community token movement.
On Saturday, Doodles co-founder Poopie launched the $POOP token for Doodles holders.
Then yesterday, Capsule House launched the $ANIME token for holders of several anime projects.
Neither $POOP nor $ANIME has performed well, raising the question of if this new community token meta will have much legs.
But don't expect it to end just yet.
And if anyone is winning with these launches - it's Base. More and more users are claiming and trading tokens on Base and seeing how easy + cheap it is.
Brian Armstrong and Jesse Pollack send their thanks.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the weekend in NFTs:
BTC led NFT trading volume with $9.8M on the day; ETH was next with $9.3M and then Solana with $5.9M
Ink led volume on the BTC NFT board though falling to 0.034 BTC floor; new mint On1 Force: The Fallen also saw 20 BTC volume and holds at 0.025
RSIC was a notable top mover jumping 15% following Rodarmor's update, now at 0.052 BTC
Casey Rodarmor shared an update for the Runes protocol, including the 1st Runes called Uncommon Goods and other minting details for future rune
Pudgy Penguins led volume on ETH though with its floor falling 4% to 13.8 ETH; other leaders saw small green on the day
Deadfellaz were a notable winner, jumping 83% after Betty teased a potential token drop following Sartoshi, Poopie and Capsule House
Solana NFTs were red over the weekend as SOL pumped; Mad Lads -2% at 132 SOL, Tensorians even at 37, Claynos -7% at 19.7
Luca Netz was featured on the cover of Forbes magazine with the title "Plush With Crypto," highlighting the impact the toy launch has had on the NFT collection
💰 Token, Airdrop & Points Tracker
Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the weekend:
The Pacmoon team shared new details for its $PAC airdrop 2 on Sunday, requiring a claim opening today then airdrop on Weds
Mintify teased its Base launch, coming this week
Doodles co-founder Poopie dropped a $POOP token to Doodles holders, which briefly rallied to $60M before falling to $6.5M
Capsule House dropped an $ANIME token to holders of several projects including Capsule House, Azuki, 0n1 Force and more; the token briefly rallied to $30M before falling to $7M
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
Crypto majors are red this morning after a weekend rally; BTC -1% at $69,660; ETH -1.5% at $3,550; SOL +0.3% at $197
Leading memecoins were down more, with WIF -7%, PEPE -7% and Shib -5% (though Doge held up even at $0.2075)
TAO has fallen to $500 ($3.26B mc) after recent fud surfaced
Bitcoin closed its highest ever weekly and monthly candles last night, coming in just over $71,000
Tornado Cash's dev Roman Storm has moved to dismiss his case alleging anti-money laundering and sanctions violations
🚀 NFT Total Volume
Ink ($2M, 0.033 BTC floor)
Runestones ($1.76M, 0.047 BTC floor)
On1 Force: The Fallen ($1.5M, 0.025 BTC floor)
BAYC ($960k, 12.2 ETH floor)
CryptoPunks ($860k, 44.45 ETH floor)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
Sakura Park (125%, 0.19 ETH Floor)
Streets of Milady (103%, 0.17 ETH)
Deadfellaz (83%, 0.17 ETH)
Mooncats (29%, 0.24 ETH)
Seedworld Vanguards (23%, 0.29 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is a slower day of new drops to start the week what is set to be a very busy week of crypto and token action.
$W is coming on Wednesday, kickstarting airdrop month.
Then NFT NYC gets into full swing later this week, with some likely announcements.
And oh ya, expect more NFT community token launches this week.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
Satoshi Degens (9:00 a.m. ET)
Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
Glyphs (1:00 p.m. ET)
Shinsei (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 to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.