When it comes to The Merge, many are predicting it will be bullish for Ethereum. But could this simply be a case of buying the rumor and selling the news? This uncertainty is never good for the NFT ecosystem. NFTs perform best when there is ample liquidity, good vibes, and crypto Twitter is in a happy place. Shilling is usually at a high and those in the game can often get good opportunities to sell into the hype. However, times are different at the moment. Energy and freshness is hard to find as well as liquidity. Most blue-chip projects are in the red, and anyone looking long-term could benefit.
NFT Market Cap & Volume
Across the last seven days, there is little movement in market capital. It has stabilized around the $22.6 billion mark. Volume, on the other hand, continues to bleed. We are seeing week-on-week decreases at a pretty substantial rate. Last week’s volume was just over $99 million USD. This week’s volume has dropped more than 20% and is under $85 million USD.
Holder & Traders
Looking at the holders and traders chart, it is not good reading. The holders are holding strong. Barely any change from last week. There is a reason for this. Traders are down, as are buyers and sellers. With moves around 20% to the downside, it is a bit of wonder what is actually keeping the market capital up.
Zooming out to a weekly view, we can see that the traders are still there. The movement is less drastic and the actual trader numbers are standing still. This would suggest that the value of the NFT collections themselves has gone down. This is in line with volume count and reinforces that there are bargains to be had.
Users Continue to Grow Within Solana NFT Marketplaces
Last week was a great week for the Solana NFT scene. This week is much of the same. The user base is up from 90k to 109k. This is significant when Ethereum-based NFTs continue to struggle. The week-on-week numbers are up more than 20%. Even better is the volume. Last week on Magic Eden, we saw a seven-day volume of over $19 million USD. That is nearly doubled this week. Amazing considering macro market conditions.
However, there could be an explanation for this explosive growth. The much anticipated Y00ts NFT collection dropped this week. Founded by the same team behind DeGods, Y00ts is looking to take second place in the Solana NFT charts. Frank, the founder of Degods and Y00ts, was on the Proof podcast talking about the challenges, experimentation, and bringing people over from the Ethereum NFT space over to Solana. He promised them they could have fun with NFTs again. The Solana week-on-week user growth and volume do suggest that some liquidity is coming into Solana NFTs.
Quickfire NFT News Roundup
- The National Basketball Association (NBA) partnered with the European NFT platform Sorare to develop a fantasy basketball game.
- Indre Viltrakyte, the co-founder of the Robert Kalinkin Fashion House, is celebrating the win of a landmark censorship case. The Rebels NFT project has been launched in an effort to ensure the liberty of creative expression in the blockchain space.
- Ethereum Name Service (ENS) overtook the massively popular Bored Ape Yacht Club as the top NFT collection on OPENSEA in terms of seven-day volume.
- STEPN announced plans it will a Hong Kong-based office. STEPN is one of the main move-to-earn platforms.
- final auction for the Queen Elizabeth II Ethereum NFT Tribute Project is taking place. The long-reigning monarch passed away yesterday at the age of 96.
