NFT Weekly Recap - June Week4

Hello guys,

Hope you all had a great weekend. Welcome to this week's NFT market recap, covering basic stats and notable news with my observations. If there is anything else you'd like to see in the recap, please let me know. DMs are open.

Basic Stats

As usual, let's begin with numbers.

Trading volume is trending downwards once again. Daily volume was at or below $30 million everyday this week. On a weekly basis, volume is down 15.23%. Volume, in fact, has been down every week in June. This month will very likely experience NFT market's lowest transaction volume since July 2021.

On the bright side, the weekly number of active traders remains relatively flat. It increased by 0.98% week over week. It is remarkable that traders are sticking around despite the significant decrease in trading volume.

In terms of floor price, most blue-chips enjoyed green arrows. This shows that liquidity continues getting concentrated into the top projects. Although BAYC did not move much, MAYC went up by 4.07% and Otherdeed went up by a whopping 19.24%. Doodles was up 9.64%, Azuki was up 12.95%, and Moonbirds was up 13.51%. The most prominent art NFT project, Chromie Squiggle by Snowfro, outperformed the market once again and increased by 20.79%.

Notable Events

Uniswap Labs Acquired Genie

Uniswap Labs announced on June 21 that they had acquired Genie, the first NFT marketplace aggregator. Genie spearheaded the effort to allow NFT flippers to batch buy NFTs to save gas fees. Gem built a similar product and was acquired by OpenSea earlier this year.

According to Uniswap's announcement, they will integrate Genie into its existing platform. Users will be able to purchase and sell NFTs from various marketplaces on the Uniswap web app directly this fall. NFTs will also be integrated into Uniswap developer APIs and widgets, making Uniswap a comprehensive platform for users and builders in web3, including both ERC-20 tokens and NFTs.

It is interesting to note that Uniswap decided to acquire an NFT marketplace aggregator, not a marketplace like LooksRare or x2y2. A marketplace like LooksRare will bring better returns to Uniswap in terms of transactions fees. It is difficult to generate revenue from a marketplace aggregator directly, for example, Genie and Gem do not charge additional transaction fees. However, an NFT marketplace aggregator provides better user experience to Uniswap users, because they will be able to transact on OpenSea, which remains the largest and most liquid NFT marketplace. LooksRare and x2y2 have both issued tokens already, which may have also decreased their attractiveness as acquisition targets.

Uniswap also plans to reward anyone who used Genie before April 15 or holds a Genie:Gem NFT. This time, Uniswap prepares to airdrop $USDC. This is the first time that a major protocol conducts airdrops in stablecoins instead of its native token. It has become common sense that it is best to sell airdrops as soon as you receive them, because their price tends to decrease over time. But with a stablecoin airdrop, there is no need to sell anymore. It avoids unnecessary problems associated with a decreasing token price. This is good practice that should be followed by others who plan airdrops in the future.

Doodles 2

Doodles announced its secondary collection, Doodles 2, during NFT NYC.

Doodles claims that Doodles 2 is intended to be a Doodle for everyone. Anyone can mint a base-level doodle, choose generic traits like skin tone and hair color, and then customize your doodle with wearable that will have varying tiers of rarity. It is unclear whether "wearable" will be stand-alone on-chain NFTs.

Doodles 2 will be a dynamic NFT where its look can be changed at will. It could either be a full body or just a profile picture, and/or animated with original music. The idea of a dynamic NFT is very innovative, as most PFPs in the market today are still images that will never change their appearances.

Doodles also announced that it has raised its first round of funding led by Seven Seven Six, although the funding amount was not disclosed. In addition, Doodles announced that musician and producer Pharrell Williams will join the project as Chief Brand Officer.

Doodles states that its vision is "to be one of the world’s leading producers of media and entertainment." It seems that Doodles is trying to become the Disney in web3. However, Disney characters are shaped by powerful stories. Doodles only have characters at the moment and need to develop strong narratives to fit its characters in, which is not an easy task by any means. It will be exciting to watch how Doodles' journey unfolds.

Other News

Some other news you might be interested in learning more:

• Cyan, the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) service for NFTs, announced it has raised $2 million in a seed round of funding led by gumi Cryptos Capital and Animoca Brands.
• EyesFi, an NFT value discovery platform, announced its $2 million funding led by Multicoin Capital.
• Yuga Labs issued an official letter in response to internet allegations.
• Binance announced a partnership with Cristiano Ronaldo to release NFT collections.

Closing Thoughts

NFT NYC parties were not enough to improve the negative sentiment in the market. What's worse, this could just be the beginning of a long, cold winter.