The NFT Demand Boom

Huge ape Punk bids, huge Art Blocks sales, huge OpenSea raise, oh my!

Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, & collectibles

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Dear Bankless Nation,

A buyer’s market happens when supply exceeds demand, as buyers can easily have their pick of things.

On the flip side, a seller’s market happens when demand exceeds supply. We’re seeing precisely this sort of dynamic in the NFT economy lately as more and more people are starting to seriously value the choicest NFTs.

niftynaut @niftynaut

Hate to break it to you. It is not a buyers market.

My takeaway? Of course speculation is a factor, but zooming out it seems clear there’s a steadily growing consensus that extraordinary NFTs are indeed extraordinary, and I think there’s something magical about that.

That’s my two gwei, anyways. Thanks kindly for reading everyone, and as always I hope you have a great weekend!

-WMP

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🏆 Digital Collectibles

• Things are getting apey! At the moment ape CryptoPunks #2924 and #5314 have standing bids of 1,194 ETH and 950 ETH respectively 🦍

CryptoPunks Bot @cryptopunksbot

Punk 2924 has a new bid of 1,194 ETH ($2,410,900.98 USD) placed by 0x28ca88. larvalabs.com/cryptopunks/de… #cryptopunks #ethereum

🎨 Cryptoart

• To celebrate the coming activation of EIP-1559, the EIP-1559 NFT Series was introduced via Mirror. The pieces, designed by artist @_kitteh, sold out in short order and most proceeds were earmarked for EIP-1559 contributors!

• Tyler Hobbs’s Fidenza 938 just sold for 100 ETH, a new all-time high sale price for an Art Blocks work 🎉 

Zeneca_33 🍌 @Zeneca_33

BOOM there it is - 100 ETH Fidenza sale, and (I believe) the first three figure eth @artblocks_io sale!

opensea.ioFidenza #938 - Art Blocks Curated | OpenSeaFidenza is by far my most versatile algorithm to date. Although the program stays focused on structured curves and blocks, the varieties of scale, organization, texture, and color usage it can employ create a wide array of generat

• Dmitri Cherniak’s The Eternal Pump #10 sold for 55 ETH.

• Art Blocks community members created artblocks.wiki, an info site for tracking all things Art Blocks!

• Contemporary American artist Tom Sachs unveiled Rocket Factory, a “trans-dimensional manufacturing plant [that] uses NFTs to build new NFTs.”

• DJ Steve Aoki now has his own custom NFT minting contract courtesy of manifold.xyz!

Steve Aoki @steveaoki

I've got some exciting news coming in the next 24 hours! Been in the works for months which is why we've been a little quiet lately ... btw have u ever seen a smart contract that was someone's face/likeness? @manifoldxyz etherscan.io/address/0x01ba…

🕹️ NFT Games

• The Axie Infinity team released a block explorer service for the popular NFT game’s bespoke Ronin sidechain. 

• Polygon unveiled Polygon Studios, a new NFT gaming arm that’s aiming to become a Web2-to-Web3 bridge.  

🌐 Virtual Worlds

• This summer Mark Zuckerberg told employees that Facebook would be shifting into a “metaverse company” 😨

Claire Silver @ClaireSilver12

1) In 2014, Facebook acquired Oculus VR. 2) In 2020, Facebook released a beta for "Facebook Horizon," a "world creation system" for Oculus. 2) In 2021, Facebook says they are transitioning into a "metaverse company." Like or hate Zuckerburg, it's easy to spot what comes next.

mDAO Ⓜ️ @metaverseDAO

Facebook becoming a metaverse company. Interesting. https://t.co/NxvgYcKkaU

• Cryptovoxels is moving toward a new overhauled chat system that will greatly improve the virtual world’s chat UX. 

Cryptovoxels @cryptovoxels

BROADCAST IS DEAD. LONG LIVE WORLD CHAT. This has to go through review n shit - but the plan is: * Multiple chat channels * Island channels * Unread notification * World is new default chat channel * Browser remembers your chat channel * Switch to local and it stays on local

🛒 NFT News & Platforms

• A new NFT royalty standard, EIP-2981, has been introduced. 

• Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea announced a $100 million Series B raise at a $1.5 billion valuation 🌊

• Immutable X, a layer-two scaling solution for NFTs, just unveiled its upcoming $IMX governance token. 

• Crypto investment firm CoinFund launched a new $83 million venture fund that’s going to focus on the company’s bread and butter, DeFi and NFTs. 

💎 DeFi x NFTs

• NFT liquidity protocol NFTX rolled out of beta, thus activating rewards for the project’s liquidity providers. 

NFTX 🦧🕳 @NFTX_

NFTX V2 is now officially out of Beta, enabling rewards for all liquidity providers staking their LP positions on v2.nftx.org 🔥🦧 Get started earning yield on your NFT positions by following the release post below: blog.nftx.org/staking-reward…

blog.nftx.orgStaking Rewards now live on NFTX V2!Earn yield on your NFTs by supplying liquidity for any of the V2 Vaults.

• To commemorate the launch of its next-gen “Trident” AMM, Sushi released the trident-themed NFT Bad Trip as a fractionalized ERC20 via the project’s MISO token launchpad. 

SushiChef @SushiSwap

To celebrate the Trident announcement, we have given away our Sushi ETHCC presentation attendees a Sushi ETH card with the key to our "Bad Trip" NFT. The fractionalized and tokenized version of Bad Trip or $LSD is up for auction now on miso.sushi.com

• The PieDAO community is discussing rebalancing the NFT-centric $PLAY index token.

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Action steps

• 📰 Read “How to make money with Axie Infinity” in Bankless!

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Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

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Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.