The Bitcoin Runes Run Begins
Find out who's winning and why it's happening, plus catch up on another busy day of news.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news:
Crypto majors rebound, BTC back at $61,150
Uniswap introduces Unichain as new L2
SEC charges Cumberland as unregistered securities dealer
TON passes 100M holders after gaming explosion
Runes volume surges, market caps soar
📈 Runes SZN Begins
Memecoins are hot right now.
Majors like PEPE, WIF and POPCAT have outperformed most leading altcoins over the past month across ETH and Solana.
Volume is pumping, prices are pumping, and cults are forming.
Now - that action is spreading to Bitcoin.
What Happened?
Volume on Bitcoin Runes has doubled in the past week according to data from Magic Eden.
And that spike in volume has had a major impact on prices (weekly change below):
DOG +54% to $516M
PUPS +216% to $194M
BILLION DOLLAR CAT +104% to $86M
RSIC +33% to $88M
And there are multiple downstream runes up anywhere from 50-200% on the week.
Now there are even daily runners popping up, with RBF running up 17x yesterday from mint.
So there's big action up top, and in the trenches.
Business is booming on Bitcoin.
This is happening while the UX for Runes trading is still pretty poor, with "packages" of Runes bought similar to NFTs (or their predecessor BRC-20s).
It's light years behind the Solana trading experience.
But that is changing soon.
What's Next
For one, Magic Eden has promised Swaps, where traders can swap from 1 Rune to another (without settling to Bitcoin in between).
This is a major upgrade and time saver, as anyone who trades on Bitcoin knows that transactions can take 10-30 minutes to process.
So that will help the UX.
But the big milestone to watch for near-term - CEX listings.
Binance teased several Runes during their run up last year but didn't list.
If the spike in volume and price is enough to convince them to list some Runes leaders, we could see a real explosion.
Many are positioning for that move now.
To understand why that matters, look at daily volume.
The top 10 Runes did about $16M in daily volume yesterday.
The top 10 Solana memes saw about $180M.
The top 10 ETH memes saw about $114M.
Bitcoin is seeing ~10% of the volume of the other leading chains.
When that figure starts grinding up - buckle up. The Runes rocket is about to take off.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
Ethereum led NFT trading volume with $3.2M on the day; Bitcoin was next with $1.75M, and then Solana with $1.7M
ETH NFT leaders mostly chopped; Punks even at 27.8 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 9.33, BAYC even at 11.14, Azuki even at 5.18
Mog Auras (+40%) and Auntieverse (+24%) were notable top movers
BTC NFT leaders were mixed; NodeMonkes -2% at 0.158 BTC, Puppets +2% at 0.145 BTC, OMB -2% at 0.162, Quantum Cats -1% at 0.234; Billy Cats and FTW jumped 150% each
The Runes leaders were mostly green; DOG +5% at $392M mc, PUPS +7% at $167M, RSIC -2% at $75M mc, BDC +23% to $81M
Magic Eden teased that its Runes Swaps are coming soon, while also noting that Runes volume doubled this past week
Solana NFTs were mixed; Mad Lads -2% at 45.5 SOL, SMB Gen 2 -3% at 20.4, DeGods +9% at 16.2 SOL
Yuga Labs sold off 10KTF, which was acquired by Possible to form a new company Kagami
Ubisoft is launching its first web3 game "Champions Tactics" on Oct 23, featuring NFTs that players can collect as they battle other players
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
Here's a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:
Trump’s World Liberty Financial is reportedly raising $300M at a $1.5B valuation for its Aave-based DeFi protocol; there will be an initial sale of tokens next week, though the token will be non-transferable for 12 months
Uniswap introduced Unichain as its own L2, offering a faster and more interoperable version of its product giving more utility to its $UNI token
Abstract announced a partnership with Dune Analytics to offer real-time analytics
ArtRun announced its new platform powered by Base and Zora for creating "artcoins," teased as a combination of memecoins and NFTs
In raise news, crypto gaming developer PiP World raised $10M to launch a blockchain-based game just months after acquiring a Roblox stock simulator, and Yala raised $8M for a Bitcoin-backed yield-earning stablecoin
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
Crypto majors are slightly green up 1-2%; BTC even at $61,150; ETH +1% at $2,420,, SOL +2% at $142; TIA is the top alt mover up 8% to $1.1B
Memecoin majors were also green up 2-6%; DOGE +2%, SHIBA even, PEPE +2%, WIF +7%, BONK +4%, POPCAT +6%, and MOG +8%
A recent Schwab survey showed that crypto was the #2 most likely asset class for ETF investors to participate in, and the #1 asset class for millennial investors
The SEC sued Cumberland for allegedly operating as an unregistered securities dealer tied to its crypto sales and promotions
Justin Sun was elected as prime minister of a small crypto-focused micronation called Liberland
Over 100M wallets now hold TON amidst the gaming boom on Telegram this year, up from 4M at the beginning of year
Sonic X has launched as a tap-to-earn game on TikTok thanks to Solana's Sonic SVM tech
🚀 Memecoin Movers
$GOAT (+14,000% to $7.5M market cap, SOL)
$MIHARU (+470% to $14M market cap, SOL)
$morud (+400% to $7M market cap, SOL)
$MSTR (+485% to $17M market cap, ETH)
$USA (+35% to $34M market cap, SOL)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
raw pass (70%, 0.03 ETH)
mog auras (46%, 0.26 ETH)
Mittaria (24%, 0.17 ETH)
Nobody (22%, 0.08 ETH Floor)
Fluf (1%, 0.27 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming Mints and Events
Today is a slower day of mints following a busy week.
Today is the final day for Beeple prints for THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE, and Zigor is the meme card artist.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
PPI (8:30 a.m. ET)
Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
taprootmaxibiz (12:00 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.d.warner@gmail.com.