M6 Labs NFT Weekly

Greetings, Anon! The resilience of the NFT space has defied expectations, proving its survival through the bear market. The industry is abuzz with a flurry of partnerships, and developers remain committed to their projects regardless of market fluctuations. 

Despite months of downward trends in NFT metrics, a resurgence is underway. NFT-associated tokens are experiencing remarkable price surges, popular NFT games are drawing in substantial player communities, and platforms like Magic Eden are gearing up for the forthcoming bull market and an influx of users. Let's dive right into it!

Project Updates 

• ReadON and MOBOX announce strategic partnership with the aim of unifying the Web3 gaming community.

• Ubisoft's 'Champions Tactics' NFT Game Is Coming to Animoca's 'Mocaverse'.

• Japanese giant SquareEnix to launch NFT auction for new Web3 game built on Ethereum and Polygon.

• Azuki DAO rebrands to ‘Bean' and abandons lawsuit against founder Zagabond.

• Pudgy Pendguins release an exclusive Walmart product titled ‘Influencer Box’.

• Game studio behind Matr1x Fire raises $10M for NFT mobile shooter.

• Magic Eden has introduced a wallet that will support Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon. Users can apply for the waiting list via a link posted on their Twitter. 

• According to CoinGecko research, 2,127 Web3 games failed in the past five years, accounting for 75.5% of the total, with an average failure rate of 80.8%.

• Blast, the new L2 built by Pacman, founder of Blur, has seen its TVL reach $600M in10 days. 

Social activity for numerous projects continues to be putting in higher highs. Blur is expected, but the addition of Floki, Naka, and VRA are noteworthy.

Blue Chip Overview

NFT trading volumes continue to rise, indicating a persistent interest among users in traditional NFTs. Despite concerns that the bear market would negatively impact NFTs, their popularity remains strong, with users recognizing the value of these digital collectibles. 

It is likely that established blue-chip NFT collections will maintain their importance and value in the future. Notably, despite Crypto Punks dominating the highest sales in the last 7 days, this original blue-chip collection has either dropped out of the top ranks or moved toward the lower end. Additionally, Ordinals are experiencing significant trading volume on marketplaces like those launched by OKX, suggesting this trend is becoming a permanent feature of the BTC ecosystem.

Solana's NFT ecosystem is on a remarkable growth trajectory, solidifying its position as a strong alternative to Ethereum and Layer 2 solutions. Among the vibrant Solana NFT collections, Mad Lads has emerged as the top-tier blue-chip collection, boasting impressive volume and a substantial user base that outshines its counterparts.

Blur continues to lead in NFT trading volume, surpassing OpenSea and demonstrating that a well-thought-out incentive structure can overcome the advantage of being a first mover in the space.

However, users should be aware that Blur has been flagged for a higher degree of wash trading. The recent launch of OKX’s NFT marketplace has seen a successful launch with a major increase in trading volume, most of this trading volume has been from BTC Ordinals. Meanwhile, Magic Eden has solidified itself as the goto marketplace for NFTs on Solana. 

Ethereum mainnet remains the primary hub for NFT trading, with many users showing a preference for trading on the mainnet. Despite the growth of successful NFT platforms on Layer 2 solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism, NFT trading on these networks has yet to gain significant traction. Interestingly, even with the increasing volume and liquidity in Arbitrum's ecosystem, NFTs appear to be a lower priority for Arbitrum traders, while Polygon continues to be the L2 favorite for NFTs.

Gaming Activity: In recent weeks, the blockchain gaming landscape has witnessed a significant shift, with the majority of activity moving away from Polygon. Surprisingly, games like MotoDex and Sweat Economy have managed to surpass Alien Worlds in popularity. This is likely due to their play-to-earn mechanics. 

Additionally, blockchain gaming has seen a surge in players using chains such as Flow, Near, Ronin, and Wax, indicating a dynamic and evolving gaming ecosystem across multiple platforms. 

Degen Corner

• DeFimons continues to make significant progress. The game is currently free to play and there is significant blockchain integration coming. Try it out here. 

• Capsule Heroes is a PvP brawler game with an Overwatch-like style. While playtests have been conducted and more are on the way, the game's chain and NFT implementation have not been announced yet, so further details are expected in the future.

• Illuvium Beta 3 will introduce Arena PvP, marking the first player-versus-player content in the auto-battler game. The release coincides with Illuvium's addition to the Epic Games store.

• Pixels is a casual farming game gaining popularity on the Ronin chain within the Axie Infinity ecosystem. The game's concept revolves around resource gathering, farming, and building your homestead while encouraging others to join. Check it out here.

• Cambria is a new duel-type blockchain game that is played on Base. The game has gained attention with some players dueling for higher stakes, up to 3 eth. Try it out here.

• Gala Games is migrating its Treasure Chest feature to GalaChain, renaming it as "inventory." Players can now mint tokens and items from their inventory onto GalaChain for free.

• Duel Arena is a 1v1 duelling game for ETH prizes, integrated into Cambria. The game is currently live and has gained significant traction, with over $1M USD worth of ETH staked in its duels.

• Kamigotchi is an on-chain pet RPG game originally developed on Canto and now set to launch on the Optimism Layer 2 (L2). While there isn't an exact release date, it is expected to be available in the first half of 2024. Keep an eye out for this one. 

• Gaming related tokens have seen noticeable gains in the last week: $MAGIC(+16%), $ILV (+8.3%), $RON(+28.2%), $WILD(+32.9%), $RARE(76.4%), TLM(16.9%) and $GENE(48.1%).

• Major leaders in the NFT space such as $IMX(-9.3%) and $BLUR(-2.3%) have pulled back after making recent gains. 

Enjoyed this article?

1. Subscribe to Crypto Pragmatist by M6 Labs newsletter for crypto-native industry insights and research read by 30k+ subscribers

2. Follow us on Twitter for Tweets providing top-notch insights and bridging the gap between users, builders, and leaders in the crypto space