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NFT market held back by oversupply, greed and bad projects: Gary Vee

The number of celebrities, brands and artists that hopped on the NFT bandwagon was bound to cause supply and demand issues, said the Vee Friends creator.

Popular entrepreneur and NFT proponent Gary Vaynerchuck — also known as Gary Vee — has argued that oversupply, greed and subpar projects are the main reasons the NFT market fell so hard over the past year.

On Dec.12, Vaynerchuck highlighted his latest blog post via Twitter which explores the NFT sector's current issues and where he thinks it's headed next year.

Commenting on the state of the market, Vaynerchuck emphasized that there has been a significant amount of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) from the media and users of social media this year, who have generally highlighted issues such as dwindling trading volumes and floor prices.

“The truth is, if you’ve been paying attention, you know what’s really happening here – and if you’re like me, you’re not surprised," argued Vaynerchuck.

He pointed back to a prediction he made a year prior in which he argued that “98-99% of NFT projects” that gained traction during the NFT boom in 2021 will end up being bad investments or “go to zero.”

Problems with NFTs

Explaining this prediction, Vaynerchuck highlighted three major issues holding back the market — oversupply, short-term greed and poor operators.

In terms of oversupply, Vaynerchuck argued that the large number of “celebrities, influencers, sports leagues, big brands and individual artists” that jumped on the bandwagon last year was bound to cause supply and demand issues.

“Some have been amazing projects led by true operators who are focused on delivering value to their communities – most are not,” he wrote, adding that:

“The demand has not and will not be able to keep up with that extraordinary level of supply, and any time that happens, there’s a bubble waiting to burst.”

In regards to short-term greed, Vaynerchuck argued that the industry has been hampered by too many people rushing to make a quick buck from launching projects or trading NFTs, resulting in losses to scams and projects with poor fundamentals imploding.

“Everyone’s way too selfish, way too fast, and lacking thoughtfulness. This is a marathon, but everyone’s treating it like a micro sprint and a gold rush, and that’s why most will lose,” he wrote.

In June, blockchain monitoring software company DEXterlab polled more than 1,300 people on Twitter about their NFT buying habits from late May to early June. It found that while 64.3% of its respondents said they bought NFTs "to make money," less than 42% had made a profit at the time of the poll.

Meanwhile, on the subject of bad projects, he suggested that as anyone can simply launch an NFT project “there’s now a huge number of people with no real knowledge of things like business, long-term community building, culture, day-to-day operating of a staff, and creating demand.”

Where are NFTs going in 2023

Looking forward into 2023, Vaynerchuck argued that there's unlikely to be another market boom like that of 2021, particularly as he doesn’t see the “macroeconomic landscape” turning bullish anytime soon.

Additionally, Vaynerchuck likened the crypto and NFT sector to the internet boom of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, in which a countless number of companies crumbled while the strongest rose to dominance.

“Due to a ridiculous amount of supply, many projects will crash and go to zero like Pets.com, but there will be some – that 1-3% of projects – that will become the Amazons and the eBays. The key is… how many of you are willing to do the homework it takes to make smart investments?”

Vaynerchuck jumped into NFTs back in early 2021 and went on to launch his debut project VeeFriends in May that year, and has invested in a number of projects since then. According to data from CryptoSlam, VeeFriends is the twentieth ranked NFT collection in terms of all time sales volume at $241.8 million.

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3 reasons why the FTX fiasco is bullish for Bitcoin

The FTX fiasco is nothing new for Bitcoin as it survived multiple exchange collapses, bear markets and even outright bans in its decade-plus existence.

The "Bitcoin-is-dead" gang is back and at it again. The fall of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange has resurrected these infamous critics that are once again blaming a robbery on the money that was stolen, and not the robber.

"We need regulation! Why did the government allow this to happen?" they scream.  

For instance, Chetan Bhagat, a renowned author from India, wrote a detailed "crypto" obituary, comparing the cryptocurrency sector to communism that promised decentralization but ended up with authoritarianism.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, his column conveniently used a melting Bitcoin (BTC) logo as its featured image.

Bhagat should have picked a more accurate image for his op-ed (melting FTX (FTT) Token?), particularly after looking at Bitcoin's decade-plus history that has seen it surviving even nationwide bans. This includes 465 466 obituaries since its debut in 2009 when it traded for a few cents.

Bitcoin performance since debut. Source: TradingView

The FTX/Alameda's collapse is similar to previous bearish trigger events like Mt. Gox in 2014. Therefore, this failure of centralization will once again underline what makes Bitcoin special, and why FTX is the opposite of Bitcoin and decentralization. 

Moreover, the incident should also boost growth and development of in, non-custodial exchanges for Bitcoin that will help reduce dependency on trust. 

FTX may have had zero Bitcoin in custody

Traders responded to FTX's shocking collapse by pulling their BTC from custodial exchanges. Notably, the total amount of Bitcoin held by all exchanges dropped to 2.07 million BTC on Nov. 17 from 2.29 million BTC at the beginning of the month.

United States-based exchanges saw the biggest outflows, in particular, with users withdrawing over $1.5 billion in BTC in the past week alone. 

Bitcoin reserves across all exchanges. Source: CryptoQuant

On Nov. 9, FTX halted withdrawals of all cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, raising suspicions that the exchange did not have adequate reserves to meet the demand.

That was further evident in a leaked FTX balance sheet that showed the exchange having zero Bitcoin against its $1.4 billion liabilities in BTC. In other words, FTX enabled fractional-reserve Bitcoin trading. 

"This is, on the one hand, bad for you as you will only find out if they have been swimming naked once the exchange implodes, accompanied by you losing all your funds," Jan Wüstenfeld, writes independent market analyst. He adds:

"On the other hand, this artificially increases the bitcoin supply in the short-run, suppressing the price and preventing actual price discovery [...] Yes, I know these are not real bitcoin, but as long as the exchanges issuing fake paper, Bitcoin remains operational, the effect is there."

Thus, FTX's little-to-negligible exposure to Bitcoin potentially reduces Its likelihood of selling any remaining funds to raise liquidity. 

The incident is also likely to produce a new cohort of Bitcoin hodlers by forcing people to not keep their funds on risky exchanges and practice self-custody. While a decreasing amount of BTC on exchanges means fewer coins available to sell.

Sam Bankman-Fried was anti-Bitcoin

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was the Democrats' second biggest donor after George Soros for the midterm elections, giving nearly $45 million to lobby for crypto regulations that would allegedly benefit his firm.

Related: US crypto exchanges lead Bitcoin exodus: Over $1.5B in BTC withdrawn in one week

But speculations are large that SBF attempted to tarnish Bitcoin's growth through the U.S. lawmakers,  as well as news articles, where he downplayed Bitcoin as an efficient payment system.

Other commentators have also pointed out a connection between SBF and anti-crypto U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, noting the former's father, Joseph Bankman, helped the politician draft tax legislation in 2016. 

SBF's influence among U.S. lawmakers is now gone with him facing potential criminal charges for illegally using customer funds for FTX trades. 

Press "F" to flush 

Past cryptocurrency market downturns have roots in the failure of centralized players as well as "altcoins" that ultimately ended up being a money-grab. 

FTX's token FTT is just the latest example. Other failed projects that triggered a market downturn just this year include the Defi lending platform Celsius Network (CEL) and Terra (LUNA). 

Created and operated by centralized entities, the supply of these tokens, and therefore price, becomes vulnerable to manipulation: undisclosed pre-mine allocations, insider VC deals, small float vs. total supply, you name it.

It is exposure to such (crap) tokens, particularly in the form of collateral, that ultimately drove crypto hedge funds Three Arrow Capital, FTX's sister firm Alameda Research, and many others to the ground.

"In our view, the bubble in crypto that popped this year was in the atmosphere of tokens being created just for speculative purposes," noted BOOX Research, adding:

"While we can debate which cryptos are 'bad money driving out the good', FTT and LUNA are just two examples everyone can agree should not have existed."

Therefore, a market flush of altcoins that should not have ever existed, FTT included, may further strengthen investors' trust in Bitcoin. Early data is showing the same, with CoinShares reporting an inflow uptick into Bitcoin-based investment funds. 

Notably, Bitcoin-based investment vehicles attracted $18.8 million to their coffers in the week ending Nov. 11, bringing its year-to-date inflows to $316.50 million.

Flow by asset. Source: Bloomberg/CoinShares

"The inflows began later in the week on the back of extreme price weakness prompted by the FTX/Alameda collapse," noted James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, adding:

"It suggests that investors see this price weakness as an opportunity, differentiating between 'trusted' third parties and an inherently trustless system."

Meanwhile, Bitcoin is not witnessing a collapse in demand in the current bear market compared to 2018, on-chain data reveals.

The number of non-zero Bitcoin addresses has continued to climb despite the price downtrend, hitting a record high of 43.14 million as of Nov. 16.

Bitcoin addresses count with a non-zero BTC balance. Source: Glassnode

In comparison, the 2018 bear market saw a substantial drop in the number of non-zero Bitcoin addresses, suggesting traders have become relatively more confident about a price recovery, especially as the FTX domino effect clears out the dead wood.

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.

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