Naval and Balaji Bet on Onchain Games
Naval and Balaji Bet on Onchain Games
Money continues to pour into Web3 gaming - find out the latest big VC bet. And catch up on the latest in FriendTech including a massive whale new joiner who's changing the game.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news includes:
Proof of Play raises $33M from Naval, Bali and a16z
Nakamigos-CLOAKS mint out, open at 0.07 ETH on big volume
Frank hints of major changes coming for y00ts & DeGods
Coinbase CLO says token still on the table
FriendTech rocked by Blur farmer whale CBB joining
💸 Proof of Play Raises $33M from Heavy Hitters
NFTs may be hurting, but onchain gaming is not.
Sugartown saw major success with its recent mint, and Parallel has seen its token and NFTs soar in the past month.
The trend has caught the attention of some big investors, much to Proof of Play's benefit.
Proof of Play announced yesterday that they have raised $33 million in a seed round with contributions from a16z, Naval, and Balaji (amongst others), aiming to revolutionize onchain gaming.
The Details
In quick summary:
Major Backers: a16z and Greenoaks led the funding round, joined by renowned individuals Naval Ravikant and Balaji Srinivasan
Visionary Goals: They aspire to create games that morph into self-governing worlds & societies beyond gaming
Board Enrichment: Emmett Shear, Co-founder & former CEO of Twitch, joins the board, adding gaming and content expertise
Debut Game: Pirate Nation, an innovative RPG, is in beta and available free-to-play
The funds and Emmett's addition are poised to drive the company’s vision forward, focusing on user-centric, engaging and easy-to-play games.
Their goal is to keep complex technology behind the scenes, not distracting to the players.
It's a lofty vision - can they pull it off?
Naval at least is betting yes. And by the way, his last big Web3 bet? Memeland.
That one has been a good bet so far.
👥 Friend Tech Trend Tracker
It was a down day in the Friend Tech market, with new user signup and buyers both down big, though the launch of a high-profile new farmer account has added a new twist to the game.
Let's start with the numbers.
Here are some of the core Friend Tech metrics for 9/21 and their day-over-day change:
New user signups: 7,314 -> 5,138 (-30%)
Return users: 10,251 -> 9,328 (-9%)
Daily Buy volume: $4.7M -> $3.5M (-26%)
Total Volume: $10.34M -> $7.76M (-25%)
TVL: $35.65M -> $35.7M* (even)
Highest key: Racer 6.32 -> 6.32 (even)
*14.9% of TVL is from self-buyers per Slice Analytics' new dashboard.
Total users are now over 230,000 and total transaction volume is up to $256M.
Self-buying continues to creep up and now almost 15% of overall TVL.
Sellers again outpaced buyers yesterday by almost $700k yesterday, but the sell-off (anecdotally) seems to have slowed down post-airdrop snapshot (23:59 UTC).
Seems most are in HODL mode now and many leading keys have started to rebound a bit after ~36 hours of down only.
The main event from yesterday was the launch of CBB0FE, the #1 Blur farmer, who made a splashy debut by bridging over 500 ETH.
In his launch:
He botted 81 of his own keys and instantly sold 20 off to avoid more botting
His keys opened around 0.8 ETH, shot to 1.8, dipped to 1.4 and then went up only ever since (now at 2.6 ETH)
CBB has formed a "cabal" of other accounts he's seemingly buying keys of, all of which rose to 0.4-0.5 ETH on the day
He's promising proportional shares of his FT airdrop to his key holders via a $CBB token, with snapshots taken daily
CBB has spent just 20 ETH out of his 500 ETH deposit, so expect all eyes on this major player over the coming days and weeks.
A few other trends and developments we saw:
Bread shared data showing that the "death of 3,3" was greatly over-exaggerated, and 3,3 remains alive and well (and still one of the best strategies)
PostTech TVL dipped ~40% to $530k after seeing highs near $1M, raising questions of the latest FT competitor's longevity
Dingaling keys continue to show strength, now over 3 ETH and up to 10th on the leaderboard
Now all eyes shift to today's airdrop and any major moves from the team (i.e. nerfing self-buying points).
If no major news comes out and points are in line with expectations, it could be a quiet weekend - else things could get volatile.
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 $7.9M (5,000 ETH) on Thursday, while the leaderboard again saw a mix of red and green (most moving in a +/- 5% range)
Nakamigos-CLOAKS minted out in the public sale phase, with the team raising between 200-250 ETH; CLOAKS are at 0.07 ETH while Nakamigos fell 14% to 0.19
CLOAKS did see a notable high sale of 8 ETH on a Ying-Yang, with 7 other sales at 3 ETH or higher
Sugartown shared new details about Oras NFTs, that there are 7 types across 3 rarity tiers and that they will provide access to Sugartown games and "the rewards reserve through jpeganomics"
Pudgy Penguins continued to tease their Brave New World journey, with a new trailer
Opepen Set 21 "Chancellor on Brink" debuted yesterday and quickly subscribed enough to go live
yoots and DeGods are changing, with Frank leaving a discord message stating "we're fixing everything. new everything. none of these projects are going to look the same as they do today. that is certainty."
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
The crypto market chopped on the day in line; BTC -0.7% at $26,600; ETH +0.2% at $1,599
Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal said that Coinbase (Base) is still open to a potential token in an interview with Decrypt
Animoca Brands subsidiary, Blowfish Studios, is launching Phantom Galaxies to the Epic Games Store on Nov. 2
POCLab, in collaboration with Walmart, celebrates Hip-Hop's 50th anniversary with the launch of The Cultureverse, showcasing more than 25 creators and artists in the metaverse,
🚀 NFT Total Volume
BAYC (756 ETH, 23.99 ETH Floor)
Nakamigos-CLOAKS (634 ETH, 0.07 ETH)
MAYC (525 ETH, 4.79 ETH)
DeGods (484 ETH, 3.32 ETH)
Azuki (205 ETH, 3.78 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase
Pirate Nation (85%, 0.09 ETH Floor)
Braindrops (60%, 0.1 ETH)
Velocity Series (40%, 0.98 ETH)
Yogapetz (17%, 0.16 ETH)
AKCB (11%, 0.21 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
It's a slower day of drops headed into the weekend.
For those who want to dive in, see the full list and more detilas from Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
Axis Mundi - Beings (5:00 p.m. ET)
Matteo Mauro "Autumn" (5:30 p.m. ET)
DraftKings Reignmakers packs (6:00 p.m. ET)
y00ts anniversary
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.