marketplace

OpenSea transaction volumes are booming again, a certain influencer was “cancelled” and Madonna might be on the verge of buying a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT.

There is no denying that pop culture has entered the NFT space in full force. The World of Women collection created by Yam Karkai has followed in the footsteps of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) by signing with a big-time Hollywood agent, and Madonna was propositioned to buy a blue chip NFT and she might be giving the offer serious consideration.

Many new entrants are influenced by celebrity endorsements, yet the community proclaimed “OGs” are bullish on “historical NFTs” and are allegedly not swayed by hype. However, when entrepreneur Gary “Vee” Vaynerchuk purchased “CrytptoSkulls,” a resurfaced 2019 “historical NFT” for 100 ETH, the market for pixelated skulls surged.

One of the 1/10 @Crypto_Skulls Skull Lords just sold to @garyvee for 100 ETH pic.twitter.com/PC2TXsFeVo

— medved (@mattmedved) January 15, 2022

The current rise in attention around historical NFTs, begs the question: Is the historical relevance of the NFT/artifact where it derives its value or, is it just the hype around the narrative? 

Some projects and entities make history, others go down with it.

The hype around history lures investors

On January 10, 2022, CryptoSkulls re-surfaced into the ether and quickly became relevant as several investors and influencers ran to the collection to take part in holding a piece of history.

Self-proclaimed NFT archeologists Adam McBride and Leonidas.eth are known for their extensive knowledge and advocacy of "historical" NFTs. These particular collectors are not keen on the notion of short-term flips, but instead see the long-term value in holding a historical NFT.

CryptoSkulls had been at the top of OpenSea in total volume for the last week but has lost its spot within the top 5 on the ranking charts. Nonetheless, the project closed out a total volume of $41.79 million on OpenSea alone.

Leonidas.eth sold the “historical blue-chip”, CryptoPunks, for CryptoSkulls, leaving other collectors wondering if this was some alpha they should get in on. According to CryptoSlam.io, the CryptoSkulls advocate has generated approximately 137 Ether ($444,500) from sales. 

Just sold my punk to buy more skulls.

I'm so proud of the skull community for helping open the door to everything that came before them on the timeline. I'm all in on @Crypto_Skulls and historical NFTs and am not going anywhere.

What is dead may never die! pic.twitter.com/oOcxuz7lGr

— Leonidas.eth (@LeonidasNFT) January 15, 2022

Gary Vee, notably stole the show stating the importance of long-term plays with historical NFTs, suggesting they could be “the next CryptoPunks.”

The niche group of artifact-like NFT collectors warned against “hype,” yet there seems to be an influx of investors into the newly trending “historical NFTs,” especially after notable influencers reiterated their importance.

The question is, will historical NFTs last through the test of time? Or will they only periodically have their time in the spotlight for influencers to profit?

The World of Women effect

There seems to be growing popularity in showcasing female-led projects, especially after the World of Women (WoW) collection signed with Guy Oseary, the manager of Madonna and BAYC. 

We have exciting news to share

@guyoseary is now WoW's manager
We’re updating our IP rights to grant YOU complete ownership of your WoW!

More information on our Discord.

— World of Women (@worldofwomennft) January 12, 2022

WoW entered the mainstream with renewed IP rights and captured the attention and support of celebrities like Reese Witherspoon, Eva Longoria, Gary Vee and Shonda Rimes. 

Investors seem to be drawn by the celebrity line-up and WoW’s mission, as its largest sales occurred within days of each other. Notable sales were a 210 Ether and 260 Ether transaction.

Currently the NFT floor fluctuates between 8.6 Ether to 16.8 Ether and WoW has steadily cemented itself as a “blue chip” contender for NFT collectors.

World of Women has opened up space for other female-led projects such as Boss Beauties, Fame Lady Squad and Women Rise to share its spotlight and band in support. Each mentioned collection has seen a rise in both its unique holders and price. The average number of holders among these projects whose collections range from 8,888 to 10,000 pfps, is 4,800. 

As more owners and co-owners of these women-led projects publicly support the successes of each other, some skeptics believe it's merely a trend in time. However, with each passing milestone, these female projects seem to cement their place for being more than just “alpha” that will prove to be a profitable long-term investment.

Rug Radio aims to pave the way for media in Web3

Social media connoisseur and Rug Radio founder “Farokh” aims to build the first fully decentralized Web3 media company. In launching an NFT collection, Rug Radio whitelisted its members for a membership pass that granted them pre-sale access to the token bearing, RugNFT. 

#RUGFOLLOWRUG https://t.co/2VN6VrzFAo

— Rug Radioᵍᵐ (@RugRadio) January 23, 2022

Rug Radio states it's the “first fully decentralized Web3 media company,” however, BanklessDAO was announced May 4, 2021, and it functions as a “media and culture DAO for crypto.” Integrating “guilds” that represent different areas for individuals to contribute, BanklessDAO has established a structure to properly reward contributors. 

There’s a lack of clarity on the logistics of how Rug Radio will operate, but it has captured the liking of holders in each crowd's favorite collections, including Doodles, CoolCats, DeadFellaz, CyberKongz, and yes, CryptoDickButts.

Pulling in collectors and investors from various projects suggests that RugRadio not only has strong support but could also have many potential perks up its sleeve.

Could the “Queen of Pop” be the next to come “a bored?”

What do Gary Vee, Guy Oseary and Madonna have in common? A shared interest in the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Recently, Bored Ape member Lindsey Byrnes casually tweeted at Madonna regarding her Bored Ape that is very reminiscent of the Pop icon’s “Justify my love” album cover. 

Exactly two weeks after the tweet was sent, Madonna complimented Byrnes's taste and left the ball in her court saying “’...Ape well chosen. Now what?” suggesting a possible sale.

@LindseyByrnes I’m glad you saved it for me.
Ape well chosen. Now what?

— Madonna (@Madonna) January 17, 2022

Despite falling from the top spot several times this week on OpenSea, BAYC's daily average sale price has a 7-day average price being 94.5 Ether closing out over 11.8 Ether in volume roughly $28,626.68 at the current value of Ether. 

It seems propositioning the Queen of Pop and her written consideration was enough to drive the collection up by 8.7% within the 24 hours of her sending out the tweet. Imagine the influence of Madonna rocking an ape, or could it possibly be a top signal?

Beanie was revealed and then canceled 

It would not be crypto Twitter without a bit of controversy. Last week, Twitter account NFT Ethics (@NFTethcs) brought forth a lengthy dossier that sparked awareness of the supposed unscrupulous business practices of a popular Web3 investor and NFT trader known as Beanie. Infamously, known for his contentious attitude, Beanie notably has ruffled a few feathers and apparently scammed others. 

1/ In this thread we will disclose the identity of one of the (currently) most (in)famous NFT influencers. But before we do that, we first explain our (philosophical) justifications and provide some important disclaimers.

— NFT Ethics (@NFTethics) January 17, 2022

Given the nature of the blockchain and maintaining true to the spirit of Web3, NFT Ethics dug through Beanie’s past and the projects he has allegedly invested in. Specifically looking into Monkey Bet DAO by “invariant Labs,” Beanie’s affiliation and investment behavior went from questionable to heightened suspicion as to whether this was the truth. 

Without missing a beat, DAO members noticed Royal Technologies Gaming (RGT) in various Monkey Bet DAO sites leaving members confused since they believed they were working for Invariant Labs.

Raising critical questions and concerns regarding Beanie's association with RGT, ultimately led to him swinging an iron hammer of “Fudder bans”— a tactic used to manipulate the information shared, and according to him, preserve the “vibe.”

16/ Many OG holders asking critical questions about the project were banned from the Discord. And when Beanie was asked whether he knew RGT, he denied ever having heard of it (see screenshots). But, in actual fact, it turns out he is the owner of RGT. pic.twitter.com/rjhvuK8fyC

— NFT Ethics (@NFTethics) January 17, 2022

Upon further inspection, Owlman, the person whose project Beanie decided to invest a “small amount” in, was found to be the general manager of RGT, and not the developer Beanie had proclaimed them to be. 

Further damning details arose when an ENS domain revealed more shady activity, specifically that the address deployed a scam token called CBET. CBET has been associated with various scam projects including TokenPay.

43/ One of the largest and most prominent crypto scams he has been involved in is the case of TokenPay (TPAY), whereby he pretended again to be an investor, but really was suspected to be acting as the CEO behind the screens. He wrote the WP foreword, see: https://t.co/Oe2utTitIz

— NFT Ethics (@NFTethics) January 17, 2022

As more information was revealed, a convoluted picture of deceit and potentially criminal acts was painted. Given Beanie’s infamous track record and history, some investors are rejoicing on what they intuitively suspected, while others are showing remorse. 

Only time will tell what will come of these allegations, but the controversy has shed some light on how much investors have to lose when blindly listening to anonymous influencers. While not all will use their influence to con others, history can teach us that this particular tiger might not change its stripes.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

OpenSea surged as the reigning NFT marketplace in 2021 despite community criticism. Here are five rivals that could potentially top it in 2022.

OpenSea has been the dominant decentralized platform for users looking to mint, buy, sell and trade nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Serving more as an NFT aggregator than a gallery, OpenSea locked in $3.25 billion in volume for December 2021 alone, according to data from Dune Analytics and from December 2020 to December 2021, the total volume increased by a whopping 90,968%.

No stranger to contention and criticism, OpenSea has had its fair share of perils and pitfalls. Most notably, its former head of product, Nate Chastain, found using insider information to front-run and profit from selling the platform’s front page NFTs.

Adding to the overall feeling of distrust, the community felt devalued after newly appointed chief financial officer (CFO) Brian Roberts hinted at going public. However, he quickly reaffirmed that OpenSea has no intention to go public anytime soon.

OpenSea might be the top NFT marketplace by transaction volumes at the moment, but in 2022, there are bound to be a handful of competitors aiming to unseat the giant.

Here are five NFT marketplaces that could potentially shake the top contender from its spot in the coming months ahead. 

Coinbase NFT

Coinbase seems to be leaning on elements of centralization as the primary driver for mass adoption. Tapping into the growing popularity of NFTs, Coinbase rivals OpenSea in launching its NFT marketplace, Coinbase NFT. According to reports, the waitlist has exceeded 1.1 million, which is more than OpenSea’s total active user-base alone. 

Announcing its launch of Coinbase NFT was a signal that captured the increasing value NFTs could capture as digital collectibles continue to go mainstream. Understanding how NFTs bridge culture and commerce, Coinbase NFT is likely to shake up the order of things. Meanwhile, the project has established partnerships with collections like World of Women, DeadFellaz and Lazy Lions. 

While the marketplace has not yet launched, its waitlist alone suggests that many investors are either eager to gain exposure to the technology for the first time or want alternatives to what they already use.

It gives us great pride to announce our partnership with the Kings and Queens of the Lions Den. We love us some @LazyLionsNFT. #ROAR pic.twitter.com/5Od1d77dPm

— Coinbase NFT (@Coinbase_NFT) December 7, 2021

Based on a statement made by Coinbase, Coinbase NFT will be peer-to-peer (P2P) “...with an intuitive design built on top of a decentralized marketplace.” Initially following the ERC-21 and ERC-1155 standards, the product also has plans to support multi-chains in the future. 

Coinbase NFT will primarily function as a marketplace, but the company has hinted that it will also serve as a place to “foster connections.” To date, Coinbase operates in over 100 countries and reports over 73 million active users while Coinbase’s clients quarterly trade $327 billion in volume, proving that there is a decent amount of liquidity in circulation.

More than the amount of volume trading, Coinbase touts its robust user experience (UX) and seamless user interface (UI) design that is streamlined and user-friendly. Even though many take to Twitter and complain about OpenSea’s UX/UI design, many other platforms come with barriers to entry, whereas OpenSea doesn’t. 

FTX NFTs 

Contrary to Coinbase NFT, FTX marketplace launched in October with a small collection of Solana-based NFTs, and it expanded its collection toward those on the Ethereum blockchain. Unlike OpenSea and Coinbase NFT, FTX NFTs is not a P2P platform, meaning it is centralized and custodial, whereby users’ data is recorded and stored on its particular network. This means users and collectors forgo ownership in some sense. 

The implications of it being a centralized platform are that the platform tends to enforce less autonomous perks to its owners and more restrictions and limitations due to securities laws concerns. Unlike OpenSea where users have full autonomy over their digital assets up until the sale, FTX NFTs implements bidding mechanisms. ​​As Brett Harrison, President FTX.US explained in a statement: “By not requiring gas for doing things like bids, we’re going to see a lot more price action and price discovery on the platform, and we hope that in general attracts liquidity,” 

Its law-abiding ways caused such a strong influence across the Solana NFT collections that many had to revoke their formerly promised royalties since FTX NFTs announced it no longer would support projects granting its owners such a perk. 

The consequence came as a result of United States regulatory concerns. Projects on the Ethereum network are also vetted to make sure they are abiding by securities laws and to ensure they are not counterfeit knockoffs. 

As such, OpenSea retains its value as it maintains quite the breadth of NFT collections.

Solana nft devs
Last week: "We need to add royalties to our project"

This week: "No royalties. We need to be on FTX".

— Ayofinance (@Ayofinance1) October 11, 2021

Regardless of its minor hiccups, the marketplace has received attention and undercuts its rival in fee structure. FTX NFTs has a fee structure of 2%, while Coinbase’s is 2.5%. 

The platform also doesn’t seem to be dismissive to users eventually using non-custodial wallets, but its primary focus is value in accessibility.

Rarible 

Long before OpenSea pumped its way to the top, Rarible was putting up monthly trading volumes higher than its counterpart. Despite opening its platform to the community with its governance token RARI — something OpenSea users have persistently been anticipating — Rarible has not been able to sustain the lead it once had over OpenSea. 

In November, the platform’s total value in volume was 4% higher than in October, averaging an estimated $18.2 million. However, its monthly total volume pales in comparison to OpenSea’s, given its daily volume averages at least five times higher.

To Rarible’s benefit, much like FTX NFTs marketplace, it understands the benefit of multi-chain strategic partnering. Rarible has already launched its support of NFTs on the Flow and Tezos blockchain, and there are plans to support Solana and Polygon in the near future. 

With its decentralized ethos and its multi-chain support of NFTs, Rarible could become a serious contender in 2022.

Zora 

Zora presents itself as a champion for Web 3.0 and decentralization as it touts its completely “on-chain” permissionless platform. Since decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) tend to gravitate toward these principles, the platform holds its value in historical purchases like PleasrDAOs $4 million purchase of the original doge-meme NFT. 

web3 means satisfying ≥1 of these criteria:

- majority owned/controlled by users
- permissionlessly accessible/forkable
- censorship resistant@rainbowdotme is open source -> web3
Coinbase wallet is closed -> not web3@ourZORA open NFT auction standards -> web3
OpenSea? nope

— . ∴ (@nir_III) December 15, 2021

Zora has a zero-fee structure and centers most of its efforts on being the cornerstone permissionless protocol. Many crypto pundits are attracted to the idea of artists and creators having more autonomy and ownership over their creations. If these remain pertinent concerns in 2022, it’s possible that Zora could see an influx of new users.

Magic Eden 

Magic Eden is currently the top NFT marketplace on the Solana network and according to DappRadar it is ranked among the top ten NFT marketplaces with $267.14 million since its launch in mid-September 2021. 

The number of unique wallets has rebounded and has been steadily increasing in the last two months making it a strong contender to OpenSea. Although it’s important to note that users are known to hold more than one wallet address, perhaps suggesting that there could be fewer unique active users.

Low transaction fees at 2% give the platform a competitive edge when compared to other marketplaces and, like FTX NFTs, listing is free for users. As shown below, the number of transactions on Magic Eden often doubles or even triples the amount of transactions occurring on OpenSea.

Although Magic Eden had a higher amount of transactions, the amount per transaction is less than on OpenSea. According to DappRadar, Magic Eden has amassed over 4.5 million transactions within the last 30 days while OpenSea has processed less than half that figure at 1.7 million, yet it has a little over five times the total volume of Magic Eden. 

As the pace of NFTs has been set and digital collectibles continue to go mainstream, 2022 could see a larger demographic whose preferences may not align with OpenSea. By valuing accessibility, regulation and a better user experiences, these five NFT marketplaces are strong contenders to take their spot on top.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.