Last week was record breaking. Okay Bears became the top NFT by volume across all NFTs, markets and chains within 24 hours after their Launchpad mint. DeGods acquired a professional basketball team. And, Magic Eden hit an all-time high record of 300,000 SOL in daily transaction volume. With an average of 50,000 NFTs minted daily, we’re witnessing the rapid growth of Solana’s NFT ecosystem.
On a collection-level:
- Early NFT projects are consistently building and giving back value, setting the stage for a wave of collections focused on providing utility to holders.
- NFT collections are becoming recognizable blue chips (i.e Boryoku Dragonz, DeGods)
- New and high quality projects are flowing into the Solana ecosystem attracting attention and liquidity from other chains.
A week after their wildly successful launch, Okay Bears is the most performing NFT collection on Magic Eden, generating 579,000 SOL in total transaction volume (congrats, 👌🐻). That’s a lot of liquidity! (Top collections usually generate 5 digits in volume). This breakout launch suggests liquidity outside of SOL. It certainly brought more ETH eyes onto Solana. This was the first time a Solana NFT project eclipsed top Ethereum NFT projects. But, as data from Hello Moon shows, most liquidity came within Solana: most wallets owned 5+ NFTs before purchasing an Okay Bears NFT. So, if you ever thought Solana had a liquidity issue, think again. However, ETH folks are curious. But, within the ETH community, there is a perception that Solana NFTs have low-quality art and are full of rugs. On top of that, most traders would have secured a comfortable ETH bag and we are creatures of habit. Compared to ETH NFT projects, many SOL NFT projects have smaller marketcaps and are lesser known in an already niche space. But SOL NFTs present new opportunities to the ETH community and tuning in.
Soon after the Okay Bears mint, DeGods made an announcement: DeDAO acquired a professional basketball team in BIG3’s basketball league. BIG3 is a 3-on-3 basketball league founded by Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz. And DeGods own Killer 3s, one of the league’s 12 teams through NFT ownership. You’ll see a DeGods patch on Killer 3s’ game jerseys and DeGod’s branding integrated within broadcasts and on the scoreboard. More eyes on DeGods equals more minds on DeGods. In a tweet, DeGods said: “We will empower our community to use the IP to build independent revenue streams.” On top of real world utility with additional avenues, this move means new avenues for marketing DeGods and the possibility of tapping into a whole new audience to introduce Solana NFTs. DeGod’s $DUST also powers this ecosystem: tickets, merchandise and part ownership will be offered in $DUST. On route to being a household name?
On a category level, we’ve seen 2.8M SOL total secondary trade volume for games:
- We expect to see many more games come online in the next 6-12 months.
- Over 35 games have chosen to launch their game via Magic Eden’s Launchpad.
- 190,000 SOL total raised Launchpad revenue from gaming projects.
- 105,000 SOL in royalties raised for games via secondary trading.
Move-to-earn is breaking out as a gaming category. ‘Move-to-earn’ is a concept that rewards physical activity. Genopets first introduced it with a gamified alternative to fitness and health. STEPN was first to launch a live version, which included shoe NFTs for different types of activities and a simple, clean mobile interface for trading and storing shoes and tracking activity. They recently reached 1.7M active users in the last 30 days. A project like STEPN has the potential to appeal to the masses because it gives practical real-world applications to NFTs. Utility is easier understood by non-crypto native individuals. And, who wouldn’t want to get paid to exercise?
🪄 What’s happening?
- Did you mint Solspot in $DUST? DeGod’s utility token is our first SPL token integration. There’s more to come!
- New Marketplace Feature: Why settle for less when you can get the best price for your NFTs with Magic Eden’s Self-Service Auctions.
- Watch how DeGods rose from the ranks to a Solana NFT household name.
- We’ve partnered with YGG, IndiGG, Ancient8, Avocado, Cosmic to work closer to bring the best gaming experiences to games, guilds, scholars and player-investors. We’re pumped!