NFTs Are Not Securities...Yet
A viral headline spread panic yesterday that NFTs had been deemed securities. What happened and should we be worried?
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's post includes:
-Dapper's motion to dismiss denied
-Airdrop SZN continues today
-What is Coinbase cooking?
-New Art Blocks and Uniswap functionality
-Google comes to Tezos
+ more!
🏀 Dapper Labs Goes to Court
It was a simple headline.
"Nba Top Shot Moment Nft's Are Securities, Judge Finds: BBG
Bloomberg apparently published it on their terminal, the tier10k account picked it up, and then it was all over NFT and crypto Twitter.
Panic ensued.
Influencers were calling for the end of NFTs as we know them.
Dapper's $FLOW token fell 10% in minutes. NBA Top Shot moments were listed for cents.
But there was just one problem - that headline was incorrect.
What Really Happened?
A judge has not ruled on the case - the judge simply denied Dapper's motion to dismiss the class-action complaint against them.
Dapper is being sued in Federal Court alleging that they violated securities laws by offering NFTs for sale (their Moments) without filing appropriate registration statements (there's more to it, but this is the brief TLDR).
The Dapper team filed to dismiss the claims entirely and not even go to trial, but that attempt was unsuccessful.
This does NOT mean that Top Shot Moments are securities; it means that the judge will hear the case.
Most who are close to the case do not seem worried about Dapper's position here, and the analogy going around is that declaring Moments as securities would be the same as calling baseball cards securities.
So no reason to panic...yet.
But let's watch this case closely.
🎁 Reminder - $COLLAB Airdrop Comes Today
Airdrop SZN continues today, as over 2M will "get paid to collaborate."
The Collab Land team is airdropping their governance token to their Top 100 Discord communities, holders of their NFTs, and more.
Here are the new details from the team:
The claim begins at 6:00 p.m. MT (8:00 p.m. ET)
The claim will ONLY happen on http://wagmi.collab.land
The claim will be open until May 23, 2023
For more information, check out my post from last week which covered all the background for the drop and who is included.
This airdrop feels desperately needed, as most NFT degens have already spent their $BLUR airdrop and already crying out for more.
On a more serious note, expectations are certainly lower for this one, but the token could see a brief run driven by those who missed out on the $BLUR action.
But tread carefully.
🤔 What Is Coinbase Cookin?
Coinbase launched a very cryptic teaser video yesterday.
It simply has today's date, 2.23.23, along with a video of a blue circle coming in and out of focus.
That single tweet led to rampant speculation, with calls for everything from a new app or product coming to a new token dropping on Arbitrum (a very specific guess).
Then later in the day, a new blue circle NFT started gaining traction.
The NFT is simply a blue circle with 02.23.23 inscribed in the middle, but with a description tying it back to Coinbase.
That description reads:
The blue circle represents every Coinbase product and the underlying platform of crypto we build on. It tells the story of how our products work together to make the open, decentralized cryptoeconomy possible. It signals trust, security, and safety. And it evokes our vision of increased economic freedom, everywhere.
NFT Sleuths got to work, and found that several Coinbase employees held this NFT including some notable devs.
That was enough info for NFT degens to fomo in, and this NFT now holds at 5.4 ETH floor and has seen several sales in the 4-5 ETH range.
What even is this NFT? We still have no clue.
But maybe we will find out today.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here are the major headlines from a busy day for NFTs:
Trading volume came in at 74,000 ETH, a new local high, with Blur capturing 84% share; most NFTs slightly red on the day
0n1 Force is officially acquired by a purchasing group including former executives from Binance and Yield Guild Games execs
Art Blocks enters the marketplace wars, adds listing functionality, along with an aggregation feature with royalty adjustment (applying proper royalties to listings from any mp), and 0% marketplace fee
Yuga Labs' "Lick the Toad" game is officially live, and Sewer Pass holders can play Dookey Dash: Toad Mode now at https://dookeydash.com/
Des Lucrece's Defy Mosaics holders can expect monthly "Monster Editions" drops in the near future
PUMA's latest PFP "Super Puma" mints out and debuts at 0.27 ETH floor
Pepe Checks soared this week, now up ~5x from the 0.00469 ETH mint to 0.022, as more and more want those raffle tickets to VVD's new Pepe ecosystem; Pepe Cheques also surged to 2.6 ETH at peak, now 1.8
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
The crypto market continues a slight down trend; BTC -1.7% at $23,800 and ETH -0.5% at $1,640
Uniswap launches functionality to buy any ERC-20 NFT with any crypto currency; for some perspective, Uniswap did just $220k in volume for the week of 2.13, 12th most of any market place
Google Cloud will be a validator on the Tezos network, now their 3rd blockchain network integration behind Ethereum and Solana
LinksDAO is bidding on a golf course in Scotland following a DAO vote in favor of the move
🚀 NFT Total Volume
MAYC (10,330 ETH, 16.15 ETH Floor)
Azuki (5,789 ETH, 15 ETH)
BAYC (5,613 ETH, 76.3 ETH)
Otherdeeds (5,456 ETH, 1.95 ETH)
Opepen Edition (5,135 ETH, 0.63 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase
This Artwork Is Subject To Change (485%, 0.04 ETH Floor)
Potatoz (18%, 1.87 ETH)
Collab.Land Genesis (16%, 28.9 ETH)
Creepz (13%, 2 ETH Floor)
Memeland Captainz (9%, 4.4 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is a slower day of new drops.
The spotlight drop is likely the Marilyn Monroe NFT from Arsonic and the Zeblocks team. The pass will serve as a mint pass for a new generative art ecosystem coming from the Zeblocks crew.
It is certainly not cheap at 0.33 ETH mint, with a 3,333 supply, but some big names are behind it. Will be very interesting to watch.
Tinsel Town Heroes by Ellen Von Unwerth (11:00 a.m. ET); 2 ETH mint
Modern Muse: Marilyn Monroe x Zeblocks (11:00 a.m. ET); 0.33 ETH mint
DraftKings - Minotaur PFPs (4:00 p.m. ET)
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.