What's Happening on Bitcoin?
All of the most exciting NFT action is happening on Bitcoin right now. Read on to find out all of the latest news and some key trends to watch.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news includes:
Major NFT action on BTC
New BTC trends appearing
PROOF provides access to Botto
Trump cards fail to move after indictment
Binance shuts down USD deposits
🟠 Bitcoin NFT Summer Heats Up
The orange skies in NYC may have been caused by Canadian wildfires, but it signified much more than that.
It was a sign of the larger Bitcoin NFT movement playing out before our eyes.
In the past 30 days, the Bitcoin blockchain has seen $142M in trading volume (+26% month-over-month).
That puts BTC squarely in 2nd place in NFT volume behind just Ethereum ($414M in same time frame), and over 3x the 3rd place chain in Polygon ($42M).
So what's been happening to drive this volume?
Here are some of the bigger stories and launches from this week, on Bitcoin.
Magic Eden Adds .BTC Domain Inscription
Magic Eden launching ME BTC has been a huge driver of trading volume, as traders now have a trusted marketplace with infrastructure to transact.
Magic Eden's latest? They are jumping on the latest Bitcoin domain craze with their new self-inscription process.
Though still in the experimental phase, users can now inscribe their own domains and trade them, across .sats, .magic, .btc, .xbt, .gm, and more.
To inscribe, users simply Navigate to Wallet -> Inscribe Ordinals -> Start Inscribing.
And as an added bonus, 1.5% of total inscription fees will be donated to the Ordinals Protocol team
Before rushing in here, a few caveats.
Unlike ENS domains, there are no controls stopping two people from inscribing the exact same domain (i.e. tyler.btc), so make sure to DYOR before inscribing.
Additionally, while there is some speculation on .sats and .btc especially seeing markets like ENS, with so many options to choose from, it's hard to see that bubble growing like ENS did.
So be careful out there. But hey, if you want your name as a .btc or .sat and don't care about future value - by all means.
Sqordinals Launch - Will They Flip Squiggles?
One of the more interesting launches of the week on BTC was Sqordinals.
This Squiggles derivative (blatant copy?) is leveraging "100% onchain deterministically infinite art" as its tagline and foundation to make its stamp on Bitcoin.
And so far, it's working. The project team has sold out its supply of 256, with minters able to select their specific Sqordinals in what has seemingly been a fun minting process.
It is now holding a 0.25 BTC floor (~3.57 ETH) with over 3.66 BTC volume, though only 151 of the 256 supply has hit the market so far.
Overall this is a fun project and the outputs are cool to look at - it's just a shame they so explicitly copied Squiggles instead of going in another direction with the art.
My thoughts aside, there is still a decent chance these things flip Squiggles in floor price over the next few weeks (as there's such a lack of any art projects to buy on BTC right now), and I would not bet against that flip (hell, Abstraordinals are at 1 BTC).
General BTC NFT Trends (from an observer)
Let's start by taking a look at the weekly leaderboard on Magic Eden BTC.
Bitcoin Bear Cubs (one of the first 10k PFP sets on BTC) leads top movers with 51 BTC in volume, though the floor is down almost 50% from local highs at 0.0064 (~0.09 ETH).
Three projects have seen major success though, with BTC DeGods ripping to a 1.69 BTC floor, Abstraordinals reaching 1 BTC and ZK Shark's Ordinal Maxi Biz (OMB) reaching a whopping 4.08 BTC floor.
That's some serious price action.
For some perspective on each:
BTC DeGods at 1.69 BTC is 24 ETH, about 2.5x the ETH DeGods floor
Abstraordinals at 1 BTC is 14.3 ETH, higher than all but 5 Art Blocks Curated projects
And OMB at 4.08 BTC is a 58 BTC floor, a higher floor than any ETH PFP collection and below just Autoglyphs and Fidenzas in the notable digital art sector
The Bitcoin bubble - it is blowing up.
A few trends I'm noticing as I start to monitor this ecosystem more closely:
Low supply definitely matters and wins. Abstraordinals is just 100 supply; OMB is just 191 and BTC DeGods are just 535. They are winning, while larger supplies like Bitcoin Bear Cubs already trend to 0.
Influencers matter (just like ETH). ZK Shark is one of the most notable personalities in the BTC NFT space and certainly a driver in OMB's success. BitGod recently saw major success with $OXBT as well. And Frank DeGods, well he's like the leading multi-chain personality.
Rare sats still seem to add a premium, but this is likely one of the least resilient trends in the space. Be careful buying BTC NFTs purely based on the "rare" sats they're inscribed upon.
Overall momentum is building on BTC faster than anywhere else, and given the absolute crickets in the ETH NFT market right now, it makes sense to spend time watching this market.
Just be careful aping in, and know what you're buying (and why).
Interested in the fast-moving world of AI but struggling to keep up?
Check out our new newsletter from AI Authority!
Subscribe now for free to receive weekly updates in your inbox, covering all the top news and access to tools!
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
Trading volume jumped to 18k ETH on Thursday, largely led by massive volume on MAYC (5k+ ETH)
PROOF announced a new collaboration with AI artist Botto, with more details coming next week (PROOF floor +14% on the news)
Trump Digital Trading Cards failed to move after news of the former President being indicted in a classified documents probe broke
Grant Yun introduced a new print collaboration with Avant Arte called "Fall" with registration open
Gutter Cat Gang partnered with PUMA and LaMelo Ball to launch the GutterMelos, pairing physical shoes with a unique NFT, with early access available for GCG and PUMA NFT holders
A Kid Called Beast is teaming up with Kalidor Media Group and Blockchn Media Inc. to create an animated series based on its IP
Lebron's "The Block", the single-biggest play from the 2016 NBA Finals, is coming to NBA Top Shot, with only 23 of the Legendary Anthology Moments made available
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
The crypto market chopped on Thursday; BTC +.5% to $26,630 and ETH even at $1,844
Binance US has shut down USD deposits and USD withdrawals will be closed soon as it will transition into a crypto-only exchange as of June 13; users are encouraged to withdraw all USD ahead of that timeline
Kraken's NFT marketplace has officially launched, introducing more than 250 NFT collections, zero gas fees, multiple payment options, and a partnership with Williams Racing Formula 1 team
🚀 NFT Total Volume
MAYC (5,032 ETH, 9.42 ETH Floor)
BAYC (2,632 ETH, 46.36 ETH)
Azuki (1,513 ETH, 17.54 ETH)
DeGods (477 ETH, 9.75 ETH)
Wrapped Cryptopunks (453 ETH; 51 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase
reepz (80%, 0.09 ETH Floor)
Distortion Genesis (49%, 1.95 ETH)
Celestial (28%, 0.26 ETH)
PROOF (14%, 8.85 ETH)
Forgotten Runes Wizards (14%, 0.8 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is a slow day of new mints with just one notable drop on the radar.
Orange BRC and its accompanying BRC-20 is launching on BTC.
Given the overall slowness in the market, expect a quiet weekend (at least on ETH). Go outside - enjoy summer. We'll catch you up on Monday!
If you want more, see the full list of today's drops from Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
Orange BRC (11:00 a.m. ET); BTC
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.