The Ups and Downs of NFTs
🔼 NFTs hit an all time high on Google search
🔽 Daily sales volumes have been decreasing since September
🔼 Massive uptick in daily unique buyers- surpassing 60k count
A report by Delphi Digital attributes the decline to the cool-off seen across NFT collections on secondary markets, and lower average ticket prices as less crypto-native buyers enter the market.
‘NFT’ was also crowned ‘word of the year’ by Collins Dictionary, securing 2021’s place in history as the year of NFTs.
The Down and Up of Hic et Nunc
🔽 Tezos’s leading marketplace, Hic et Nunc (HEN), announced its sudden shutdown mid-November, without providing any explanation.
🔼 Spearheaded by DNS, members of the Tezos community came together to revive the platform, which is shifting to become a community-driven DAO.
The recovery team has described the revival as “one of the largest #web3 coordinated recovery efforts” – something that would not be possible without blockchain technology and the strong community spirit of web3.
On The Rise – NFT Gaming
Are NFTs the future of gaming? All signs point to yes.
✅ Game Developers Think So
Recently, Stratis and Opinium surveyed 197 video game developers across the United States and England:
61% – believe that blockchain leads to innovation and more interesting gameplay
58% – have begun to incorporate blockchain tech into their games
47% – have integrated NFTs into their games
✅ EA’s CEO Thinks So
Electronic Arts is one of the largest gaming companies, known for titles like FIFA and Madden. In the company’s November earnings call, CEO Andrew Wilson described blockchain technology, notably NFTs and play-to-earn capability as “the future of our industry”, but that “it’s still early to figure out how that’s going to work.”
✅ WAX and Binance Think So
WAX, (Worldwide Asset eXchange) is the biggest gaming blockchain, processing 75% of all gaming related transactions. WAX recently announced the launch of its GameFi project, ‘Blockchain Brawlers’, that enables users to transfer in-game NFTs between Binance Smart Chain and WAX blockchain through WAX’s NFT bridge. This represents the largest cross-blockchain ecosystem for NFTs, Gaming, and GameFi.
🔥 Hottest NFT Game in November: Wolf Game 🔥
Wolf Game is a new GameFi concept on the Ethereum blockchain that’s been taking the community by storm, generating over $52 million within the first five days. Wolf Game is now the most traded NFT game behind Axie Infinity and The Sandbox.
What sets them apart from other NFT staking projects is their unique twist to the passive income model. Players’ in-game decisions will directly impact their staking rewards and even the fate of their NFT itself – because the NFTs have the power to steal tokens from other players’ wallets.
Learn more about how Wolf Game works from The Defiant
Notable November NFTs
Chain Runners – A New Blue Chip?
Chain runners seems to be the next big thing in NFTs, with a bunch of big names in tech having snapped them up at launch. The NFT generative art project, with 10,000 32×32 pixel images of cyberpunk inspired characters that live in Mega City, are completely open source, on-chain and decentralized.
The project was created by a few of the developers behind Blitmap, and has liberally permissive licensing. It’s a project to be built upon, an experiment in IP creation with a community that’s capturing imaginations. Find out more with Sarah Guo.
Flurks – Calling Out Censorship
Flurks, a collection of 5k NFTs, sold out in 22 minutes, generating $2 million and reaching 100 ETH in trade volume within hours. Despite the collection’s success, it was delisted by Opensea and Rarible. Stonetoss, a political cartoonist and the project’s creator, has called out the marketplaces for political censorship.
While neither OpenSea nor Rarible have given reasons for the delisting, Stonetoss has speculated it was due to his controversial reputation as a political artist (he’s been accused of being a Nazi sympathizer) and depictions of the confederate flag within the collection.
Little NFTs That Cause Big Trouble
Baby-themed copycats like the Lil Baby Cool Cats and Lil Mutant Apes Club have been all the rage lately. Lil Baby Ape Club, a toddler version of the BAYC collection, attracted 7000 collectors and hit a trading volume of $17.9 million in just seven days. While the obvious copyright infringement of lil NFTs didn’t seem to bother anyone, copycats of the copycats did raise an uproar – with accusations of racism to boot.
Blockchain Beat Drops
Three Bored Apes and their token Mutant have come together to form “Kingship,” the first ever NFT band.
Mike Shinoda, frontman of Linkin Park and an outspoken advocate of NFTs, is launching a new generative, 5,000 set NFT series titled Ziggurats on the Tezos blockchain.
Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle will be a feature of Death Row Records latest seven-piece NFT series, in celebration of Death Row’s 30th Anniversary.
BTS’s parent company HYBE announced plans for a new NFT business that will create collectible trading cards featuring their idols. Surprisingly, fans are not happy.
Pharell Williams and NFT creators have come together to form a DAO to protect the rights of artists. The CXIP DAO will let creators govern and oversee the future of the NFT market.
