Magic Eden's $700M Airdrop Is Here
Find out everything you need to know for today's massive airdrop.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news:
Crypto majors fall as $1.4B liquidated; BTC at $97,100
Saylor & MSTR acquire another $2.1B of BTC
Meme likened after United Healthcare CEO suspect LUIGI dominated Solana volume
Magic Eden CEO calls it "onchain Binance" ahead of today's airdrop
ACT 1 introduces AI Agent ad market called Act Swap
🎁 Magic Eden Airdrop Is Today
We used to pray for times like this.
Back in the depths of the bear market, when there were few signs of hope, some looked forward to the next big wave of NFT and Crypto airdrops. And they seemed so, so far away.
Well, airdrop SZN is here.
And Magic Eden is starting the party.
What Happened?
Magic Eden is officially set to launch its $ME token this morning at 9 am ET.
And they are coming out firing on launch day:
CEO Jack Lu likens Magic Eden to "an on-chain Binance"
Binance announces a day 1 listing
The ME token soared 45% to $5.80 on Whales pre-market with $4.75M in volume on the day
I'll get to the tokenomics and money part in a bit.
But this Binance comparison is the key here.
The Magic Eden vision is to trade all assets on all chains on their app.
They have effectively pulled this off for Bitcoin (with Ordinals and Runes trading available), but haven't touched the token side of chains like ETH or Solana.
That is a huge market to tap into, and with their $ME token incentives for app usage, they will have one big lever to pull to get new users.
Tokenomics
For a quick overview of the ME tokenomics:
1B total tokens
125M for airdrop 1
225M for future airdrops
262M for contributors (with majority locked for 18 months)
236M for strategic participants with a 12 month min lock
Eligible recipients are those who have accumulated diamonds on the Magic Eden market place and followed the claim instructions provided last week.
So with the token trading at $5.80, that means this is a $700M airdrop (and ME will trade at $5.8B FDV).
Of course, we all need to take pre-market prices with a grain of salt and they have been historically high by 30-40% or more.
But the MOVE token launched on Binance yesterday and opened at $10B FDV - so 11 figure launches are happening in this market.
Why It Matters
Magic Eden is not without its issues.
The runes trading experience is clunky. They don't have much ETH NFT market share at all. And their airdrop rollout rubbed about half of market participants the long way.
But per Jack Lu's note yesterday "Growth solves all problems."
If Magic Eden can pull off their vision, and/or if the token can pump similar to other recent launches - all problems will be forgiven.
We will find out soon.
Good luck today!
🚚 What is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
Ethereum led NFT trading volume with $20M on the day; Bitcoin was next with $3.5M and then Solana with $2.9M
ETH NFT leaders were mixed again with Pudgy leading; Punks even at 39 ETH, Pudgy +3% at 22.9, BAYC -4% at 19 ETH, Azuki -4% at 6.8; Milady -1% at 5.15
Realiti (+80%) and Creepz (+30%) led notable top movers
BTC NFT leaders were mostly green; Bitcoin Puppets -4% at 0.18 BTC, NodeMonkes +3% at 0.147, OMB +2% at 0.143, Quantum Cats even at 0.2
The Runes leaders were mostly red; DOG -5% at $820M mc, PUPS -9% at $235M, BDC even at $118M, GIZMO -10% at $33M, CYPHER -20% at $17M
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
Here's a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:
Magic Eden's ME token goes live for trading at 9 am ET this morning (trading at $5.80 on pre-market)
MOVE went live for trading on Monday and opened at a $7.5B FDV before running to $10B
Jupiter's Jupuary vote passed and $860M in tokens will be given to the community in the next airdrop
Bitcoin Lending platform Lava announced a Series A led by Khosla and Peter Theil's Founders Fund
🤖 AI x Crypto
New section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:
Overall market cap drops 5% to $7.68B as most leaders in red
ai16z jumps 17% to $590M pulling close to GOAT (-12% to $620M)
Big winners of the day include MIKO (+14,000%), OTTO (+530%), Aimonica (+97%), SERCY (+90%) and GRIFFAIN (+80%)
Griffain rolled out Saga Genesis Token as the first souldbound NFT for AI Agents, also teases onchain e-commerce with payment available in GRIFFAIN tokens
Act 1 introduced its AI Agent KOL market called Act Swap allowing buyers to provide a prompt and pay a fee to see their Agent publish on X in a new-age AI ad structure
Animoca Chair Yat Sui posted the AImonica Brands token, causing it to 4x from $3M to $12M
Binance listed perps for the VIRTUALS token (+10% to $1.70)
🌎 Macro Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
Crypto majors are red this morning after a massive night of liquidations; BTC -1% at $97,600, ETH -3% at $3,740, SOL -5% at $216, XRP -8% at $2.20; MOVE & VIRTUALS were top alt movers
The Crypto market saw $1.4B in liquidations after yesterday's dip, the largest since 2021
Memecoin majors are very red; DOGE -5% at $0.408, SHIBA -10%, PEPE +1%, WIF -13%, BONK -12%, MOG -9%
A memecoin tied to Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the shooting of the United Healthcare CEO, was the runner of the day on Solana yesterday, reaching $50M on $150M+ volume (now $20M)
Saylor and MSTR acquired another $2.1B in Bitcoin at an average price of $98,783
Riot announced a $575B convertible bond issuance to buy more Bitcoin
🚀 Memecoin Movers
$LUIGI (+24,000% to $24M market cap, SOL)
$MIKO (+13,000% to $75M market cap, SOL)
$GRIFFAIN (+130% to $174M market cap, SOL)
$AIMONICA (+85% to $10M market cap, SOL)
$TSOTCHKE (+80% to $23M market cap, SOL)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
Wrapped Cryptocats (140%, 1.9 ETH Floor)
Realiti (80%, 1.8 ETH Floor)
Synthetic Dreams (65%, 3.95 ETH)
HV MTL (60%, 0.04 ETH)
Creepz (27%, 2.35 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming Mints and Events
Folks - my source for daily mints and events has shut down operations.
Given the general lack of interest in new mints on a daily basis, I'll be discontinuing this section of the newsletter, at least for now.
If I can find a good source for daily events, I will look at turning it back on.
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