7-Day Market Moves

📉 NFT Market Overview: In the recent NFT market’s turbulence, the Forkast 500 NFT index took a 2.73% dip week-over-week. On the brighter side, the Solana and Cardano NFT markets showcased increases, underlining some measure of stability in the otherwise dynamic scene.

🦍 Ape Collections Lead the Pack: Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) took the lead in the race with its trading volumes soaring by 19.85% to hit $3.49 million. Hot on its heels were the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and Azuki.

💸 Liquidity Issues and Blur's Struggle: Despite the appeal of low prices, a liquidity crunch seems to be keeping investors at bay, marking a cautious approach towards capitalizing on the current low rates across blockchains. Concurrently, NFT marketplace Blur's recent efforts to attract traders—like a 50% cut in gas fees and a new "trait bidding" feature—haven't quite hit the bullseye, with a drop in total value locked post the launch of its V2 platform. The prevailing market sentiment suggests that platforms need to bring more to the table to entice traders amid these challenging times.

Top Blockchain Games (7 Days)

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Top NFT Marketplaces By Sales Volume (7 Days)

Top  NFT Collections By Sales Volume

Cardano Tops NFT Market, Outdoing Major Blockchains

TL: DR

• Despite fewer NFT buyers, Cardano outperformed larger chains in June.
• Cardano's potential is highlighted by successful NFT launches like MulgaKongz.
• Cardano's higher average NFT sale price shows strong demand.
• Despite market liquidity issues, Cardano remains focused on infrastructure development.

With its decline in NFT traders, the Cardano blockchain has been nicknamed, "ghost chain". However, the drop isn't a full depiction of the state of affairs. According to Forkast Labs' data, Cardano's NFT market demonstrated stronger performance in June than several big names in the industry. CryptoSlam recorded a decrease in monthly unique NFT buyers on Cardano, dropping 10.12% from May to 13,559 in June. Meanwhile, the Forkast CAR NFT Composite, an index tracking Cardano's NFT market, slipped 3.84% to 982.01, indicating smaller losses for Cardano traders compared to those on other major networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon.

Despite being a market heavyweight as the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap ($10.4 billion) and ranking sixth in all-time NFT trading volume ($597 million), Cardano's NFT ecosystem is often deemed lifeless on social media. The fall in buyers hasn't halted creators from dropping NFT collections on Cardano either. Australian digital artist Joel Moore (aka Mulga) sold out his MulgaKongz NFT collection, featuring 5,555 gorilla NFTs, within 48 hours of its Cardano launch.

Despite fewer unique buyers than Solana, Cardano's higher average NFT sale price points to strong demand. Experts credit Cardano's appeal to its user-friendliness and low transaction fees, despite liquidity issues affecting the wider NFT market. Amidst these challenges, the Cardano community remains optimistic, emphasizing the importance of building solid infrastructure.  

In other news,

• Bored Ape floor price drops under 30 ETH as Ethereum NFT royalties reach a two-year trough. Read more.
• Cronos partners with Protocol Labs to boost Web 3 adoption. Read more.

Twitter Enables NFT Purchases via Inspect's Browser Extension

TL: DR

• NFT Inspect and MoonPay team up to make buying crypto and NFTs easy with a browser tool.
• This helps more people use crypto and connects it with regular ways to pay.
• NFT Inspect, now under new leadership, and MoonPay, who recently joined forces with Mastercard, continue to make big moves.

NFT Inspect, a beloved tool for NFT analysis and community building, is teaming up with MoonPay, a leading Web3 infrastructure provider. This union will allow users to buy NFTs and cryptocurrencies directly on Twitter via a Chrome extension.

Launched last month, the extension from NFT Inspect delivers real-time data on coveted NFT collections commonly donned as Twitter profile pictures. The feature lets users navigate the various ways an NFT appears on Twitter and deep-dive into blockchain details about the collection. The recent partnership with MoonPay injects a fresh capability, allowing NFT enthusiasts to purchase a wide array of cryptocurrencies - the gateway to NFT acquisitions. MoonPay accepts a range of payment methods, such as debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and various local bank transfer options.

This collaboration is a testament to the shared vision of MoonPay and NFT Inspect to boost crypto adoption and build an inclusive digital payments ecosystem, says Ivan Soto-Wright, MoonPay's CEO. After rising from the ashes in March under new ownership, NFT Inspect continues to innovate its toolbox to assist NFT traders in staying ahead of market trends. The company recently partnered with Polygon Labs to fuel adoption. MoonPay, not to be left behind, extended its alliances, collaborating with Mastercard in June 2022, thus facilitating direct NFT purchases across several marketplaces like LooksRare and Magic Eden without needing to buy cryptocurrency first.

In other news,

• Second rarest Bored Ape sells for 200 ETH. Read more.
• Coca-Cola Serbia partners with Solana-based NFT marketplace SolSea. Read more.
• Tom Brady's NFT startup Autograph makes a strategy pivot. Read more.

Blur's Founder Responds to NFT Market Dip Criticisms

TL: DR

• Pacman, Blur's founder, denies his platform causes NFT price drops, attributing fluctuations to liquidity.
• Notable NFT collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club have hit 18-month lows.
• Some industry figures blame Blur for market volatility, but Pacman rejects this.
• Despite major sell-offs, the wider NFT market maintains its year-long trend.

Tieshun Roquerre, the founder of OpenSea competitor, Blur, defends his platform amidst accusations of being a market killer during a prolonged dip in NFT prices. The blame game began on Twitter, with some users pointing fingers at Blur for the decrease in the floor prices of prominent collections, including Yuga Labs' Bored Ape Yacht Club and Azuki.

Roquerre, a.k.a Pacman, argued that market movements are more related to liquidity than to individual platforms. He cited Blur's airdrop as a time when the platform added liquidity, causing an increase in floor prices. Conversely, he noted that a $40 million liquidity removal, following Azuki's botched NFT launch, led to a decrease. Some critics, however, attribute the recent Azuki sell-off to Blur's lending platform, claiming it's negatively influencing the trading mindset of large-scale NFT holders.

While it may seem easy to point fingers at the new player in town, the available data might say otherwise. Despite the slump in high-profile collections, the broader market appears to be faring as it has for the past year. The data considers the total value of the top 20 NFT collections, based on floor price and supply. As Roquerre put it, "When asset prices are up, people don't talk about the root cause... but when they are down, the pitchforks come out." In short, blame is easy to assign but harder to substantiate.

In other news,

• Web3 Apps gained users in June despite regulatory challenges. Read more.

SEGA Quits Blockchain Gaming

TL: DR

• Sega is stepping back from developing its own blockchain games, citing gameplay concerns.
• The company will still allow third parties to create blockchain games.
• Sega remains involved in the crypto world through its investment in the IVC crypto fund.

The gaming giant Sega is tapping out of the blockchain-based games and GameFi arena. Shuji Utsumi, Sega's co-Chief Operating Officer, expressed doubts about the trajectory of the technology in the gaming industry.

Utsumi criticized the play-to-earn model, citing a lack of engaging gameplay as a significant drawback. He questioned the value of these games if they fail to entertain, asserting that Sega would withdraw from the sector if it appeared to be merely a cash-grabbing venture.

Despite Sega's reservations, the company still intends to allow third-party developers to create blockchain games. It has already partnered with Double Jump Tokyo to develop games based on some of Sega's lesser-known IPs. Furthermore, Sega's investment in Asia-based crypto fund IVC demonstrates its ongoing interest in GameFi projects.

In other news,

• Animoca eyes metaverse fund License, still bullish on blockchain games. Read more.
• A pool game is coming to Web 3. Read more.