NFT
This week, former U.S. President Donald Trump tried to outdo his first bizarre foray into Web3, this time with a non-fungible token (NFT) collection with even more ridiculous art than the original. But it appears traders have grown tired of Trump’s digital trading cards, and volumes for both collections have plummeted on the secondary market. (Sad.)
Meanwhile, auction house Sotheby’s (BID) plans to sell a collection of high-value NFTs seized by liquidators of bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, putting rare CryptoPunks and Chromie Squiggles up for auction for the first time since the asset portfolio was compiled in 2021.
This Week’s Alpha
Trump NFTs, take two: In case you missed out on the first round of outlandish NFTs featuring the former president in various costumes and poses, Trump’s digital trading cards are back for a second series. Although both collections sold out within a day of launch, the first series had greater success in terms of secondary sales. At the time of writing, Trump’s second collection had a floor price on OpenSea of 0.049 ETH – or about $97, which is less than its mint price of $99. Currently, the best offer for a non-fungible token in the collection is 0.0469 ether (ETH), or about $91, highlighting its shrinking perceived value among buyers.
Sales slump: According to data from OpenSea, the project’s trading volume began to slide the day after mint, and it has continued to flatline.
First series flump: Data also indicates that interest in the first collection has diminished among collectors, with its floor price dramatically dropping and losing about half its value after the second collection’s release.
No love for even rare Trumps: Even the rare 1/1s in the new collection aren’t attracting high bids. The highest sale for a Series 2 NFT to date was for 4.69 ETH (roughly $9,000) and features Trump as a wrestling champ. Contrast that with the 37 ETH sale (which was about $43,000 at the time of sale) of this tuxedoed Trump 1/1 from the first drop.
Bulls-eye for Three Arrows’ liquidators: Teneo, the firm tasked with liquidating bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, is teaming up with Sotheby’s to sell an impressive collection of seized NFTs worth millions of dollars. The auction house said the Grails collection includes “some of the most significant digital artworks ever assembled,” including rare pieces from Dmitri Cherniak’s “Ringers,” Snowfro’s “Chromie Squiggle,” Tyler Hobbs’ “Fidenza,” CryptoPunks and more. The first sales from the collection will take place during Sotheby’s marquee sale week this May in New York.
Right on target: Three Arrows Capital filed for bankruptcy protection in July and reportedly estimated its assets at around $1 billion, including NFTs worth about $22 million. The auction of these high-value digital assets will help Teneo quickly recoup some losses.
Developers stay hot during crypto winter: According to data from Web3 developer back-end company Alchemy, Ethereum developers have continued to build decentralized applications despite frigid crypto conditions. About nine times more Ethereum wallet software developer kits have been deployed since the first quarter of last year – an all-time high for installing wallet infrastructure.
NFT trading was up 126% since the fourth quarter of 2022.
Developers across the Polygon, Arbitrum and Optimism blockchains deployed 160% more smart contracts year over year.
Projects on the Rise
Our Force 1Who: Nike (NKE) via .SwooshWhat: Following in the footsteps of competitor Adidas, global sportswear brand Nike will soon release its first NFT collection through its recently launched .Swoosh platform.
The virtual sneaker, called Our Force 1, or OF1, is a play on the brand’s iconic Air Force 1 design. Collectors will have a choice of two digital boxes – the “Classic Remix” and the “New Wave” box – with each box type corresponding to different possible designs, including a design co-created by four Nike fans in January.
Each box is priced at $19.82, a tribute to the year the Air Force 1 sneaker was first released. Holders of the OF1 boxes will be able to open them at a later date.
How: To start, Nike began airdropping “posters” to random .Swoosh users, granting them early access to the NFT sale taking place on May 8. On May 10, the entire .Swoosh community will be able to purchase the digital goods through its marketplace.
In Other News
Mad for Madlads: The demand for a new NFT minting on Solana was so high it broke the internet infrastructure behind it. The mint of Madlads “xNFTs” was delayed to Friday night.Wolf of Wagmi: To commemorate the Oscar Award-nominated film’s 10-year anniversary, Web3 business development firm Aventus is releasing a series of NFTs based on “The Wolf of Wall Street,” offering fans access to behind-the-scenes footage, never-before-seen content and an invitation to an invite-only event.The chronicles of NFT.NYC: While the annual NFT.NYC conference was toned down compared to last year, the side events and concurrent market movements that happened in New York and online defined the tone of the city’s flagship NFT event.Bucharest on the blockchain: Romania’s National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics, or ICI, is releasing a state-backed NFT marketplace on layer 1 MultiversX, which was previously Elrond.
Non-Fungible Toolkit
Top brands in Web3, NFTs and the Metaverse
Many Web2 companies are still investing in and announcing plans for Web3 growth. And while some initiatives have been labeled by critics as clever PR stunts, other projects have achieved widespread success and brought blockchain technology closer to mainstream adoption.
From Adidas to Budweiser to Dolce & Gabbana, several companies have pushed the boundaries of their current product offerings and found new ways to engage with their audiences.
Here are some of the brands already making big waves – and big money – in Web3.
