OpenSea Doubles Down on Creators
OpenSea Doubles Down on Creators
OpenSea continues to improve its product as it battles for marketshare, and FriendTech faces serious FUD over security concerns. Read on for more.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news includes:
OpenSea launches OpenSea Studio for creators
Drama in the art market surrounds yesterday's Matt Kane RarePass drop
MoMA launched its "Postcard First 15" exhibit, NFTs not yet tradeable
SEC loses appeal in Ripple case, $XRP +5%
FriendTech faces security FUD, new competition as TVL dips 5%
👩🎨 OpenSea Embraces Creators
Blur sentiment continues to trend down along with its marketshare (now just 53%), and OpenSea sees its chance.
Their strategy - leaning into creators.
Yesterday OpenSea launched its OpenSea Studio, making the process for creators to manage and launch NFT projects directly on its platform as easy as ever.
And with better features to improve the experience.
What Happened?
With the OpenSea Studio, creators can
Mint an NFT into one's own wallet
Build on most OpenSea-compatible blockchains
Let collectors mint using a credit/debit card
Launch with no technical skills required
That last bullet is perhaps the most important - no coding skills required. It's becoming easier and easier to launch new projects.
More functionality is expected to launch in the coming months, including new collection pages with video, image and text modules; better roadmap and FAQ sections; featured NFTs and editions.
As a part of this move, OpenSea is moving away from the previous 'lazy minting' method, transitioning to a more independent and customizable contract system for creators. Existing projects which used the lazy minting technique remain unaffected but will now be uneditable.
Why It Matters
Two things are happening.
1) OpenSea continues to make it easier for those new to NFTs to create and launch. Removing hurdles is important for broader mainstream adoption.
2) They are building products and infrastructure to support creators, something their primary competitor in Blur has not done.
With Blur sentiment near all-time lows (along with its token), NFT marketshare is up for grabs.
Certainly many new art-focused marketplaces have popped up, but a fractured landscape does not align with consumer/user interest. Most want a go-to, one-stop shop.
The more that OpenSea can chip away as Blur's lead by leaning into creators and/or the art market, they set themselves up better and better for the next run (if it comes).
👥 Friend Tech Trend Tracker
Friend Tech saw another day of big sell-offs seemingly related to security concerns, more blind 3,3 breakdowns and perhaps the entry of the notorious Machi Big Brother.
Let's start with the numbers.
Here are some of the core Friend Tech metrics for 10/4 and their day-over-day change:
Return users: 9,189 -> 8,878 (-3%)
Daily Buy volume: $5.9M -> $4.56M (-23%)
Total Volume: $11.6M -> $10.4M (-10%)
TVL: $50.06M -> $47.3M (-5.5%)
Highest key: Vombatus 8.19 -> 8.24 (+1%)
*TVL in ETH terms at 30,220 -> 28,720 ETH (-5%)
Buy volume dropping 23% is the eye-opening stat there, and that coupled with sellers out in force explains the dip in most portfolios.
Sim swaps have moved into social engineering scams, with a major exploit of @diggin4doge playing out last night, leading to folks like 0xQuit telling anyone who signed up with SMS to start over.
There are rumors that a security update is coming from Racer and team this week - it has certainly become priority #1.
The other big news on the day - Machi announcing he's launching on Friend Tech today. It seems he will not be using the CBB tool, so all eyes will be on his launch strategy.
But with Hanwe at 3.969 ETH (7th place) and CBB at 5.74 (2nd place), expectations are high for where Machi could go.
A few other trends and developments we saw:
Updated tool: Bread's frenfren.pro tool added new watchlists for tracking traders, a new profile position and trading analytics
New competition: Avax's StarsArena saw a spike in users over 7,300 on the day, along with notable joiners in Dingaling, Vombatus and several others (TVL at ~$1M)
New cartel: Hanwe is seemingly forming his own cartel of accounts, with dagger and paper (tied to his blur airdrop wallet) seeing big runs yesterday (though no official announcement)
Security is the clear #1 priority now - we will see how soon the team can react and address concerns.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
Trading volume fell 30% to $5.6M (3,400 ETH) on Tuesday, while the leaderboard saw a mix of red and green
Pudgy Penguins and Otherside Vessels led notable top movers (+10% and +13%) respectively, along with Themes and Variations (+20%)
Nike's .SWOOSH announced TINAJ - "This Is Not a JPEG" exclusive for .SWOOSH holders who have purchased and revealed a .SWOOSH OF1 Box
MoMA officially launched its "Postcard First 15" exhibit, which showcases 15 postcards, all of which include elements from each collaborating artist
DraftKings Reignmakers was 2nd on the day in NFT trading volume with $400,000 in sales behind just DMarket and ahead of all ETH NFTs
Memeland ended its Memecoin waitlist code submission form this morning, leading to the next question - wen $MEME?
Axie Infinity rolled out new balancing changes for Origins Season 6 adjusting its game play mechanics
VeeFriends partnered with Gregorys Coffee to introduce “The Jolly Jack-O," a special pumpkin chai latte available in October across 37 locations in the northeast U.S.; the coffee features custom VeeFriends coffee sleeves with QR codes unlocking content and offers
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
The crypto market mostly chopped on Tuesday; BTC even at $27,560; ETH -0.5% at $1,650; SOL -2% at $23.60
The SEC's motion to appeal their loss in the Ripple Case was denied; $XRP +5% on the news
Diesel is collaborating with Fossil Group to introduce Vert, a timepiece blending digital and physical with buyers receiving a linked NFT granting VR world interactions
LayerZero Labs and Conflux Network will partner to introduce omnichain functionalities to China Telecom's BSIM card, enabling the shift of crypto from Conflux mainnet to ETH with more chains coming soon
🚀 NFT Total Volume
BAYC (549 ETH, 26.29 ETH Floor)
DeGods (401 ETH, 3.17 ETH)
Wrapped CryptoPunks (300 ETH, 45 ETH)
Pudgy Penguins (204 ETH, 5.3 ETH)
Milady (202 ETH, 1.97 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase
Cel Mates (59%, 0.12 ETH Floor)
Pudgy Rogs (30%, 0.37 ETH)
Themes and Variations (20%, 3.95 ETH)
RTFKT CryptoKicks (19%, 0.17 ETH)
Valhalla (15%, 0.15 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is another day with drops focused in the art sector, spanning Noble Gallery, Transient Labs and Art Blocks.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
Mannay x Noble Gallery (10:00 a.m. ET)
Billy Restey - Entropy (11:00 a.m. ET)
Hayden Clay x Transient Labs - The Suburbs (12:00 p.m. ET)
Art Blocks Presents - Seasky (1:00 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 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.