Yuga Founder Reignites NFT Market with Buying Spree
Gordon Goner has spent $1.66M on NFTs in the past 3 days, and the market hasn't felt this alive in months. Find out what's happening, along with the latest from Binance and SocialFI.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news includes:
Gordon Goner ignites NFTs with $1.66M buying spree
Trading volume hits new local high over $20M, green everywhere
Punks pass $100k threshold, now at 53.4 ETH
Art Blocks Curated drop Trichro-matic soars 150% on secondary
Binance rolls out new Web3 Wallet
💸 Gordon Goes Gangbusters on NFTs
The hero we didn't know we needed, or deserved.
Gordon Goner.
The co-founder of the Bored Ape Yacht Club became the face of the cult project, before having to step down to deal with some serious health battles.
Gordon has been fairly silent and behind-the-scenes while Yuga's new "corporate" heads have taken over.
Well that silence was broken this week, much to the benefit of the NFT market.
What Happened?
Gordon has gone on a $1.66M PFP shopping spree this week.
He made a major splash on Monday buying a Zombie CryptoPunk for 600 ETH, but he didn't stop there.
He's since gone on to accumulate NFTs from the following collections (find his wallet here):
Zombie CryptoPunk (600 ETH)
Spirit Azuki (89 ETH)
Cat Doodles (69 ETH)
Skeleton Meebit (42.069 ETH)
Gold Pudgy Penguin (38.69 ETH)
DeGod (8 ETH)
Cool Cat (6 ETH)
CrypToadz (4.9 ETH)
G Tag (3.5 ETH)
Deadfellaz (2.99 ETH)
Sappy Seal (2.15 ETH)
Rektguy (1.5 ETH)
Adam Bomb Squad (1 ETH)
Chimpers (0.97 ETH)
goblintown (0.6 ETH)
In total he's spent 870 ETH ($1.66M). Now that's a shopping spree.
Why It Matters
Many of those buys sparked rallies in the prices of those sets, and even if the prices haven't budged much - sentiment has.
Spirits are up.
People are feeling good about NFTs again.
Gordon fixed the vibes.
He commented on the purchasing spree (amidst several now-deleted tweets and dildo-related jokes):
"In all seriousness, I had always wanted to join more communities across the web3 space but felt I had a responsibility to restrict myself from doing so while still working at Yuga. I know my haters will say there’s some ulterior motive behind this or whatever, but I just missed everyone. It’s really that simple. Here for the NFTs, the love, and the shitposting. That’s all. See you tomorrow fam."
And he's not done yet.
He's got 2-3 buys left to make. In his words "Four more grails tomorrow then I’m done (for now.) All four are non-Yuga projects I 100% believe in."
He couldn't wait and picked up the Spirit Azuki last night, and was gifted a Mutant Hounds grail which he said was on his list. So we'll see how many more NFTs are left on his list and what he will buy.
My bet with no insight or research - World of Women, Forgotten Runes Wizards, and CloneX.
We will find out soon...
💰Binance Launches Web3 Wallet
The crypto wallet market is getting more crowded.
Yesterday blockchain giant Binance announced the launch of its new "Web3 Wallet" at its Blockchain Week conference in Instanbul.
The wallet is touted as a user-friendly portal to Web3, providing secure, simplified access to dApps and financial opportunities without the usual complexities associated with self-custodial wallets.
The Details
The key aspects of this new Web3 Wallet include:
Simplified access: Self-custodial wallet integrated within the Binance app allowing for creation and activation in seconds
All-in-one convenience: Unlock a suite of yield, DeFi services & dApps directly in-wallet
Seamless swaps: Thousands of tokens, various networks, competitive prices
Enhanced security: MPC technology, no seed phrases needed
It's pretty clear that Binance’s strategy with the Web3 Wallet is to simplify the user experience significantly.
The wallet allows for quick swaps of thousands of tokens across diverse networks, all the while ensuring competitive pricing due to Binance’s liquidity pools.
It also caters to users looking to put their idle crypto to work by providing integrated yield-generating opportunities.
Changpeng Zhao ('CZ'), CEO and Founder of Binance weighed in:
"Web3 wallets represent more than just storing digital assets; they are an integral part of the Web3 framework, empowering individuals with the ability for self-sovereign finance."
Why It Matters
More and more competitors are pouring into the crypto wallet market segment.
And competition drives innovation.
MetaMask, Phantom, Rainbow and others will have to continue to drive new features or lose market share.
Given Binance's broad reach and user base, they will likely find success early.
Now we'll see how many users they can pull away from the incumbents.
👥 Friend Tech Trend Tracker
Friend Tech volume spiked another 55% to a 2-week high after the CBB Bank launch and TVL continues to notch up.
Here are some of the core Friend Tech metrics for 11/8 and their day-over-day change:
Return users: 2,813 -> 3,284 (+17%)
Daily Buy volume: $0.79M -> $1.33M (+68%)
Total Volume: $1.5M -> $2.32M (+55%)
TVL: $42.48M -> $43.72M (+3%)
Highest key: CBB 6.24 -> 6.2 (-1%)
*TVL in ETH terms 22,532 -> 22,837 ETH (+1%)
Buyers once again outweighed sellers by a healthy margin leading to some nice green on the board.
The CBB Bank launch was a smash success, seeing over 600 ETH ($1.2M) in volume in the first 15 minutes, with the key landing this morning at 2.32 ETH.
We will see when CBB starts deploying that 100 ETH he promised from the Bank, which may drive some portfolios up a bit higher ahead of this week's points drop.
Fairly quiet in other areas of SocialFI, but if you're interested in learning more about Jason Desimone's takeover of Stars Arena, catch my interview with him today at 10:30 am ET (or catch the replay).
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the weekend in NFTs:
Trading volume jumped to $21.1M on Wednesday, the 3rd day in a row finding a new 3-month high; the leaderboard was washed in green led by BAYC, MAYC, Punks and Art Blocks
Leading PFPs rallied again, with CryptoPunks +6% to 53.4 ETH ($102k), BAYC +6% to 32.2 ETH, Azuki + 7% to 6.36 ETH, and Captainz +12% to 4.23
Yesterday's Art Blocks Curated mint "Trichro-matic" minted out at 0.82 ETH and rallied through the evening to a 2.09 ETH floor, with Bob Loukas calling it the gen art mint of the year
Forgotten Runes "Watcher's Rings" ran from its 0.015 ETH mint to a 0.29 ETH floor, a quick 19x for those who minted
RTFKT teased "The Offering," where unforged holders can make a decision regarding the future of their RTFKT Nike Dunk Genesis
Claynosaurz now has over 429,000 views on its official trailer shared on YouTube only 8 days ago, showing some incredible reach for the Solana NFT project
Sorare announced a major product update for Sorare Football, including a $500,000 Premier League Tournament and more
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
The crypto market rallied on Wednesday; BTC +4% to $36,800; ETH +1.6% to $1,913; SOL +8.7% at $47.36
$PEPE rallied 10% to a $532M marketcap, & $MEME jumped 15% to $0.02 (bringing Captainz up with it)
The Optimism Foundation is giving away 1,000,000 $OP ($1.5M+) to on-chain creators as part of its new "We Love The Art" initiative
Baby Shark creator Pinkfong is partnering with Tiny Tap (an Animoca Brands subsidiary) to develop early learning products in web3
🚀 NFT Total Volume
BAYC (4,185 ETH, 32.2 ETH Floor)
CryptoPunks (1,811 ETH, 53.44 ETH)
MAYC (1,549 ETH, 5.99 ETH)
Azuki (1,054 ETH, 6.36 ETH)
Trichro-matic (873 ETH, 2.09 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase
Trichro-matic (154%, 2.09 ETH Floor)
Keepers v2 (118%, 0.12 ETH)
Adam Bomb Squad (55%, 0.06 ETH)
God Hates NFTees (49%, 0.19 ETH)
goblintown (36%, 0.32 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is a slower day after a very busy Wednesday with 2 mints soaring.
The highlight is likely Matt DesLauriers on Verse with "Hachure," but it's just a 25 supply project.
Expect most focus on the crypto market, the NFT pump and whatever Gordon's final 2-3 picks are.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
Mocaverse - Moca ID (3:00 a.m. ET)
Dirty Robot x Audio Galleries - Joker Smoker (9:30 a.m. ET)
Matt DesLauriers x Verse "Hachure" (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.