M6 Labs NFT Weekly

GM, Anon! This week in the world of NFTs has been relatively subdued, with traditional collections showing minor movements or slight retracements. The spotlight is firmly on the Bitcoin ecosystem and inscriptions across different chains, offering intriguing investment opportunities. 

Simultaneously, the crypto gaming sector is evolving rapidly, with frequent partnerships and new launches reshaping the landscape. As players position themselves strategically in this domain, it's an open question who will emerge as the next generation of millionaires in crypto gaming. Let's explore what's unfolding!

Project Updates

• NFT Trader platform hacked.

• Red Bull Formula 1 team drops NFTs after dominant season.

• The NFT fragmentation protocol Flooring Protocol was suspected of being attacked. 14 BAYC and 36 Pudgy Penguins were stolen and sold. 

• Hong Kong Web3 Group Animoca Brands disclosed that as of November 30, 2023, Animoca Brands held a total of $172M in cash and stablecoins, $330M in third-party tokens, including SAND reserves, and $1.6B in off-balance sheet token reserves.  

• 'Gods Unchained' returns to Epic Games store after play-to-earn policy change. 

• Immutable launches interoperable tool across multiple video games and marketplaces.

• Illuvium’s Overworld founder announces compensation plan after their Incarna NFT mint suffered “overallocation, botting attacks, and general misalignment with the first wave of minters”.

• China pledges to boost NFT, decentralized application development despite crypto trading ban

• The Hong Kong unit (CMHK) of China Mobile, China's largest state-owned telecom operator, officially launched the NFT market LinkNFT 

• Ubisoft reveals mint date for free 'Champions Tactics' Ethereum NFTs 

• Axie Infinity NFTs can soon evolve like Pokémon

• Farcana raises $10M for NFT esports shooter that pays out BTC 

• Casio drops virtual G-Shock watches as Ethereum NFTs

Blue Chip and Market Overview

Bitcoin NFTs, particularly collections like Bitcoin Frogs, have gained significant attention, rising to second in volume. Meanwhile, Azuki's collection is experiencing a resurgence, witnessing a notable increase over the past week and ascending to the top spot in volume. Pudgy Penguins have retraced after dominating last week’s charts.

Motodex has dominated the crypto gaming sector recently, bumping Sweat Economy from first place. A new contender is Deperado B218 on Polygon, who catapulted to the top spot in the last few days.

Polygon maintains its lead as the most active ecosystem in terms of user engagement, particularly in the gaming segment. While BNB and Ethereum also host a variety of games with considerable player activity, Polygon's user base for its available games remains notably higher, solidifying its position for the timebeing as the go-to ecosystem for active gaming participants.

In the crypto gambling sector, there's been a noticeable shift in user preference away from Rollbit towards newer platforms. Waxcasino and Doge Casino have emerged as significant players, experiencing rapid growth in the last week. They have been particularly successful in drawing both high volumes and a large number of unique users, time will tell if they can sustain this success.

Bitcoin NFTs have gained dominance, outperforming Ethereum with $426M in sales compared to Ethereum's $80M over 7 days. This surge is attributed to Inscriptions and Ordinals driving Bitcoin fees. BRC-20 tokens, notably SATS, RATS, and MICE, contributed significantly with $200M, Ordinals also performed impressively, generating $40m over the last 30 DAYS.

OKX's NFT marketplace has recently surged ahead of Blur and OpenSea in daily trading volumes, largely driven by the trading of Bitcoin Ordinals NFTs. OKX recorded over $50M in 24-hour trading volume, surpassing both Blur and OpenSea. 

• This rise is attributed to OKX's support for BTC Ordinals NFTs, which other platforms have not yet enabled. The overall NFT trading volume on the Bitcoin network also saw a significant increase, further highlighting the growing market interest in Bitcoin-based NFTs and their impact on trading platforms.

As of mid-December, Solana's NFT market has hit record highs, with a remarkable $80M in trading volume across various marketplaces. This surge represents 24% of the daily NFT trading volume, a significant share in comparison to Ethereum's $330M. This growth highlights Solana's increasing prominence in the NFT space.

The majority of Bitcoin network inscriptions are text-based, often linked to the BRC-20 token standard. Peak daily inscriptions have surpassed 300k, outdoing image-based inscriptions. These inscriptions significantly boost miner fee revenue, at times exceeding the 6.25 BTC block reward. 

• Inscriptions account for about 50% of transactions but only 10-15% of block space, thanks to small file sizes and the SegWit data discount. They contribute 15-30% to miner fee revenue, enhancing miner economics, especially with the upcoming fourth Bitcoin halving.

The Bitcoin inscriptions trend is expanding across various blockchain networks, sparking increased activity and innovation. 

• Metaplex on Solana introduced a new standard for immutable digital assets, allowing full on-chain storage of metadata and media content. 

• Polygon leads in inscriptions among EVM chains with a staggering 161M, far outpacing BNB's 78M. 

• Meanwhile, Arbitrum recently experienced a temporary outage due to a surge in Bitcoin Ordinals-inspired inscriptions, underscoring the growing influence of this trend across multiple blockchains.

• Phantom, initially known for its association with Solana, has now broadened its scope by adding support for Bitcoin, Ordinals, and BRC-20 tokens. This move is a significant step towards enhancing cross-chain interoperability.

Degen Corner

• XAI Games, developed by Offchain Labs (founder of Arbitrum), is a Layer 3 gaming platform. It features XAI Sentry Nodes, and many users are interested in how to run these nodes. This useful guide by @BringMeCoins provides detailed instructions on setting up and monitoring the status of a node on XAI Games, catering to those unfamiliar with the process. 

• MetaStrike is a blockchain-based role-play shooting game offering a collection of weapons and levels for players to complete missions. In-game activities allow players to earn NFTs and the native $MTS tokens. Its market cap is approximately $190,352. For other lucrative gaming related plays be sure to check out this thread by @defiinfant.

• Mojo Melee, a fantasy-themed auto-battler game on the Polygon blockchain, has launched a new season with updated features. The game offers a dynamic arena combat experience with various team-building strategies involving Mojos, Champions, and SpellStones. Despite the delay in NFT minting, players can still enjoy leveling up their Champions in preparation.

• Ronin (RON) has surged by over 95% this past month, and the overall marketcap is trending a hair below $40M. As per Nansen, Ronin saw a remarkable increase in active addresses in November, signaling rising activity.

• Immutable (IMX) marketcap crossed $3M as the token price jumped by 20% this past week.

• Decentralized Social (DESO) has seen substantial growth in its value, with a 19.40% increase in the last 24 hours and a 51.00% rise over the past week, bringing its price to $28.80 and its market capitalization to approximately $304.76M. DESO operates as a Layer 1 blockchain, uniquely designed to decentralize social media for a vast user base.

• Blur (BLUR) has exhibited a positive trend, with its price increasing by 7.5% to around $0.48 following recent token unlocks. Amidst these unlocks, about 49.8M tokens valued at approximately $23.2M were moved to Coinbase Prime.

Unsure on how to track and explore GameFi projects? Dive into this useful M6 Labs thread.

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