Market Updates

Weekly NFT Volume

NFT Volume sees a 30% dip in the past 2 weeks as we hit similar levels to January 2021, 8 months before we saw the peak of the NFT market.

Blur loses a bit of dominance, taking 69% of volume this week. Opensea + Opensea Pro takes about 22%, leaving 9% for the other marketplaces. A good sign for the other marketplaces as they seem to be gaining market share.

This is also because of incentives from LooksRare which brings the question of sustainability of volume when the incentives end.

Similar concerns of sustainability of Blur continues to loom on Twitter.

Weekly Active NFT Traders

Active trader count this week sees a 1 year low as floor prices continue to stagnate.

Despite the anticipated mint of Ether, demand did not increase which is another sign of wash trading on Ether collection - unique traders not increasing, but volume on Ether was at a good amount.

Large Cap PFP Index

Large Cap PFPs continue to remain volatile as general NFT sentiments remain shaky.

CryptoPunks breaks away as the top PFP in the market, holding nicely above 500,000 ETH Market Cap.

The biggest pumps this week sees CryptoPunks and Captainz rising more than 10% each, with Punks rising 10.92% and Captainz rising 13.23% on the back of yet another sweep by Orlando Ho.

Azuki sees a sharp fall of 7.61% as Memeland flips Azuki as the top anime project. A win for Asia considering all the other projects on the list are out of the West.

We might have to move CloneX down to Mid Caps category soon.

Mid Cap PFP Index

Mid Cap PFPs stay choppy as usual, falling further away from the 40,000 ETH Market Cap.

Beanz continue to see a huge fall as confidence of the Azuki ecosystem gets low. This might unfortunately mean that Beanz will be kicked out of the Mid Cap category very soon.

Memeland ecosystem remains strong as Potatoz see a huge pump of 22.02%.

Milady and VeeFriends show resilience, maintaining a strong floor despite a bleeding NFT market.

Beanz take a huge hit of 16.8%, falling below the 10,000 ETH Market Cap.

Trending NFT Projects of the Week

A weird week as no notable collections trend. Aside from Ether Capsules, which minted a week ago, the rest are "degen projects".

Fatzuki, a derivative of the original Azuki, takes top spot for number of trades but at a noticeably low volume. Fatzuki dropped from an ATH of 0.08 ETH to its current price of 0.009 ETH post reveal.

Ether Capsules, the most notable of the 5 projects, sees consistent sweeps on Monday night after NFT whale Dingaling swept 29 of them.

Spotlights

Ether launches with mixed feelings

Highly anticipated project, Ether, has finally launched, minting out on 12 July 2023 with a collection size of 5,555. But the NFT Community had mixed opinions about it. Some deeming it as a failure while some commending Ether for the quality of the artwork.

Regardless, let us walk through the process pre-mint, during mint and post-mint.

What happened Pre-mint?
The story of Ether officially started on the 8th July 2022 with Ether’s first official tweet. Ether carried out their community curation and whitelist process through various methods such as RNG games, fan art, constructive criticism etc.

Hachi, Ether’s whitelist allocation twitter page, would DM people when the team deems one fitting for a whitelist spot and in some instances, Hachi would give multiple spots as they were stackable.

After a few months of marketing, Vii announced Ether would be postponed to 2023 due to unfavourable market conditions.

The minting structure was announced in December including supply and mint price.

Mint Structure:
> 10,000 supply
> 8,000 for public, 1,750 for allowlist, and 250 for treasury
> Public mint price will be ~1 ETH
> WL mint price will be 50% of public mint with an option for a free mint with a time lock

As 2023 went on, Ether began to ramp up their marketing again and on the 1st of June announced a revised mint structure with market conditions being the main reason for the revision.

Revised Mint Structure
> 10,000 supply
> 8,000 for public, 1,750 for allowlist, and 250 for treasury
> Public mint price will be 0.65 ETH
> WL mint price will be 0.35ETH or FREE with 10 weeks lock up
> Royalties set at 5%

The official Ether website was launched on 12 June and the official trailer was launched 27 June.

What happened during mint?
Ether's WL phase began on 30 June, giving whitelisted members a week to mint.

But with poor reception from the community and reports of wash trading coming from Nansen, Ether was struggling to mint out.

On 2 July, Ether announced that they will be reducing supply to 5,555 instead. The founders, CV and Vii also announced that they will not be taking a percentage of the mint funds and would take an industry standard salary.

On 9 July, the public mint for Ether began but failed to mint out, which led to more restructuring.

Restructure:
> Airdrop 1 free Ether to every holder before the announcement
> Remaining supply will be sold through a Fair Dutch Auction (FDA)
> Royalties will be increased to 7.5% to ensure enough funding

Ether sold out within 30 minutes of the Fair Dutch Auction and the art reveal began with Ether choosing a manual reveal style (optional reveal).

What happened after the mint?
The art received a lot of reviews and opinions, mostly positive with people praising the details of the artwork.

There were pockets of FUD regarding the art, with some looking weird such as the offhand weapon cutting through the neck. But it seemed to die down pretty quickly.

Upon receiving feedback from the community, Ether then reduced their royalties to 3.5% on 14 July.

What does this mean?
Ether is a project that has had its fair share of ups and downs with floor prices running to slightly above 1 ETH, tumbling down to below its mint price and now back up above mint price. The team has shown that they are willing to change plans and pivot drastically when they believe it's for the best interest of the community and the project's longevity.

Ether aims to be a high end fashion brand but whether they can weather the storm and prove it's value, only time can tell.

With that quality of art and a sick trailer, we're rooting for their success.

Relevant Links:
Ether Opensea: https://opensea.io/collection/ether-avatar-2
Ether Website: https://ether.site/
Ether Twitter: https://twitter.com/ether
CV Twitter: https://twitter.com/CValley_
Vii Twitter: https://twitter.com/visionofviii

Cool Cats expands into Web3 gaming with three new titles

Blue-chip NFT project, Cool Cats, is leveraging their IP to develop games that will introduce the brand to a broader global audience while also providing immersive gaming entertainment to holders.

In collaboration with the renowned gaming publishers nWay, iCandy, and Sync Studios, Cool Cats is set to release the three games by early 2024.

nWay and iCandy are both owned by Animoca Brands.

What we know so far:
> nWay is creating a competitive multiplayer arcade game
> iCandy is developing a browser-based endless runner game
> Sync Studios is building a mobile match-3 game (similar to Candy Crush)

More details on the titles will be announced soon.

What does this mean?
We're seeing more projects pivoting towards the IP route as a means for monetisation. Pudgy Penguins, Doodles, and Beanz have already started working towards animations, visuals and physical experiences.

While this might seem like a logical play, most of these projects launched at the peak of the NFT bull. We can somewhat say that these weren't part of their initial plans. But as the market calls for sustainability among NFT projects, IP monetisation seems like the lowest hanging fruit for most, especially the cute PFP projects.

It also makes sense for NFT projects since they already have a core community to support their efforts.

The next question is, "what does this mean for holders?" Most projects have not worked that out and mainly due to regulations regarding dividend payouts. While this is a huge roadblock, holders receiving clarity on this will be a big demand push for any NFT project, assuming the incentives are good.

This will be an exciting development for these particular NFT projects and broadly, the entire NFT space.

We foresee competition amongst similar NFT projects fighting for market share though. Ultimately it all boils down to who has the best storylines, quality of physical goods, and experience of IRL installations.

Relevant Links:
Opensea: https://opensea.io/collection/cool-cats-nft
Website: https://coolcatsnft.com
Cool Cats Twitter: https://twitter.com/coolcats

Google allows Android Play Store Games and Apps to offer NFTs

For several months now, Google has been drafting out a clear policy in regards to blockchain games and use of NFTs in-app as many saw in-app NFTs as a clever way of avoiding Googles' fees on purchases. To the surprise of many, Google brought out a new relaxed policy towards blockchain games and NFTs in-app.

Here are the main points to note:
> Apps must be transparent with users about tokenised digital assets
> Developers may not promote or glamorise any potential earning from playing or trading activities (Basically no in-app WAGMI shilling)
> Apps that have not met gambling eligibility requirements cannot accept money for a chance to win assets of unknown real-world monetary value, including NFTs.
> Google takes the success of app and game developers very seriously and consulted with blockchain gaming developers before making this revised policy.

Companies with blockchain apps on the play store have moved positively to this development. John Linden, CEO of Mythical games, stated, "We really appreciate Google's partnership in this collaborative effort to bring about innovation in this space and move these new economies forward. We think these new policies are steps forward for both players and developers alike and will positively impact the adoption of new technology while also protecting consumers."

What does this mean?
Google’s move is warmly welcomed considering the google play store has over 2.5 billion active users and that kind of exposure for any Web3 game coming out or already in existence is game changing.

The development doesn't stop there. Google will also allow NFTs to unlock in-app content regardless of where the user purchased the NFT.

They mentioned, “As a next step, we’re talking to industry partners about further improving our support of blockchain-based app experiences, including in areas such as secondary markets.” which means that assets trading on Opensea as an example can be traded and are allowed to be interoperable in-game.

A huge W for Web3. It will certainly be exciting to see what new innovations come out of this, considering there is now a new medium for the launch of NFTs!

Relevant Links:
Google Blog Website: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2023/07/new-blockchain-based-content-opportunities-google-play.html

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JPEG Casino Weekly Ride #005

Welcome to JPEG Casino Weekly Ride #005, hop on board as we cover the statistics of the week, Ether's mint, Cool Cats releasing 3 games, and Google allowing Android Play Store Games and Apps to offer NFTs.

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