Instagram experimenting with digital collectibles and Art Gobblers drawing in huge volumes has the NFT market making headlines. With platforms pushing to protect users, the space seems to be maturing. Having said that, the market as a whole is struggling. Let’s take a look at the current landscape.
Ethereum NFT Market Sentiment
With Ethereum trading below $1,550, the bears have taken control. It tested the $1,500 support zone and is now correcting losses. A downside break below the $1,500 zone will increase selling pressure and might lead to a further decline toward the $1,420 support zone. A clear break above the $1,580 resistance level and the bearish trend line could set the pace for a decent increase. Interest rates have risen rapidly this year. No one knows how high the rates will go. We are only mere witnesses to its impact on the crypto market.
NFT Market Cap & Volume
While the number of sales over the week declined by 14.54% to 14K, the total sales (USD) increased by 58.05% to $26 million.
The total market volume almost doubled this week. It rose by 77.5% to 93.95K ETH. The market cap declined slightly by 0.68% to 9.66 million ETH.
Blue chip NFTs showed mixed performances this week. The volume of collections like Azuki or CryptoPunks fell by almost 20%. On the other hand, the volumes of Meebits and ArtBlocks nearly doubled. The volumes of BAYC and MAYC remained basically the same this week.
NFT Holders and Traders
The number of traders this week rose slightly by 4.3%. As usual, the number of holders remains almost constant. It grew slightly by 1.15%. The whales hold NFTs worth 1.68 million ETH, occupying 17.41% of the global market cap of 9.66 million ETH. The worth of NFTs held by whales swelled by 0.1 million ETH when the global market cap shrank by 0.06 million ETH.
NFT Users and Transactions on OpenSea
Similar to the prior week, there were 238.64k total transactions in the OPENSEA smart contracts this week. While the volume on OpenSea surged by 31.5% to 39.05K ETH, the balance in the smart contract remained at 12.68 ETH. The number of unique wallet addresses interacting with OpenSea rose by 5.57%.
Solana NFTs
Solana’s price declined rapidly amidst the Fed hike report. If SOL breaches the support level at $30.50, the October lows at $27 will be imminent. SOL needs to trade above the $33 level to invalidate the downtrend.
The Solana market is in dire straits. The volume of all the Solana marketplaces continues to decline. The volume of Magic Eden, the largest marketplace in Solana, almost halved. In addition, the number of traders in the marketplace also plunged to 40K.
Tezos NFTs
$XTZ failed to stay above the $1.43 resistance level and shows an increasing bearish tendency. The token is currently trading at $1.38. XTZ tested the major support level at $1.35 and managed to stay afloat. Next immediate support is at $1.365, and Tezos needs to trade above the support level at $1.40 for a possible upside price action.
Quickfire NFT News Roundup
1) Meta reveals it is testing minting and selling NFTs on Instagram
- In the near future, Instagram will permit creators to mint and sell Polygon NFTs.
- Meta has incorporated Arweave to permanently store NFTs from Instagram.
2) Art Gobblers NFT collection launches with $14 million in sales in just hours
- Art Gobblers is an NFT project co-created by Rick and Morty’s Justin Roiland.
- The initiative aims to create a “decentralized art ecosystem” using NFTs and complex tokenomics.
3) Dapper Labs announces staff reduction
- Dapper Labs, which created the NFT marketplace NBA Top Shot, announced the decision today, citing the “macroeconomic environment.”
- From $224 million in February 2021, NBA Top Shot has dropped to $2.6 million.
4) Exchange.Art, a Solana-based NFT marketplace, creates a standard for royalties protection
- new standard will enforce creator royalties on secondary sales of NFTs that were initially minted on its platform.
5) OpenSea introduces two new NFT theft protection features
- features, one to prevent NFT theft and the other to detect it, are part of the company’s broader initiative to tackle scams and other exploits.
- By proactively scanning URLs, the platform’s new theft prevention tool will stop dangerous links from showing up on phony collection listings.
- The platform will automatically detect and flag potentially stolen or suspiciously transferred NFTs, and then prohibit trading in them using the second theft protection tool that is now being tested.
