CryptoPunks hits a three-year low, is the era of Ethereum NFTs coming to an end?

Author: Cookie, BlockBeats

Welcome to today's Rhythm BlockBeats "Rune + NFT Observation." In today's opening, the topic I want to discuss is:

The End of the Ethereum NFT Era?

I believe that you, like me, are a player who loves NFTs and will continue to follow this column. Owning a CryptoPunks was the ultimate dream for many NFT players, including you and me, when we first got into NFTs.

Now, the floor price of CryptoPunks has dropped below 30 ETH, the first time since August 2021.

Another thing that makes me feel quite emotional is that the full set of golden skin BAYC + 2 MAYC + BAKC, which Three Arrows Capital purchased for about 140 ETH in August 2021 and March 2022, will be auctioned at Sotheby's on June 18. At the peak of NFTs, this asset set should have been worth over 1000 ETH. Now, the floor price of BAYC is already below 12 ETH.

According to data from cryptoslam.io, the top 4 networks by real trading volume in the past 30 days are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon. In the past 30 days, the total trading volume of Ethereum NFTs was less than $160 million, while the combined trading volume of Solana and Polygon exceeded $148 million, almost catching up to Ethereum, which was unimaginable in the past. Although Bitcoin NFTs, ranked first in trading volume, only maintained a slight advantage of just over $10 million, since March, the monthly real trading volume of Bitcoin NFTs has been greater than that of Ethereum.

Although cryptoslam.io also counted the trading volume of BRC-20 as inscriptions on-chain, making the trading volume of the Bitcoin NFT ecosystem less "pure," I believe that Bitcoin NFT players are inherently a group that cannot be separated from images, inscriptions, and BRC-20. This is why I still think Bitcoin NFTs are winning at this stage.

I never believe that the golden age of NFTs is gone forever. We will see the results of continuous construction eventually reflected in market performance, just like the NFT value curve chart from Pizza Ninjas founder @TO. We will return, as if we never left.

However, everything will pass; everything will eventually pass. Perhaps the golden age of Ethereum as the absolute center of NFTs has come to an end.

Having finished the discussion, let’s continue with project observations.

New NFT Project Observations

Writ of Passage by The Beacon

The Beacon @TheBeaconGG was once a phenomenal blockchain game on Arbitrum that exploded in popularity at the end of 2022. We also provided a detailed introduction to the project at that time (Related reading: The Beacon: The "Dungeon" Game on Arbitrum and TreasureDAO).

Fast forward a year and a half, The Beacon has recently updated its new event "The New Frontiers," where players can earn points by completing a series of gaming and social tasks to unlock treasure chests, which can yield future The Beacon, $ARB, and game item rewards. One of the rewards is the whitelist for the upcoming new NFT series "Writ of Passage."

Writ of Passage is somewhat like a "battle pass" for The Beacon ecosystem, allowing players to complete tasks to upgrade it for more The Beacon Token airdrops, access to the second and third phases of "The New Frontiers" event, and priority access to future new versions or even new games from The Beacon.

Currently, we do not know the total supply and minting price, but it is known that the series is planned to mint in early July. The way to obtain the whitelist is to participate in "The New Frontiers," with more points increasing the chances of getting the whitelist. Interested friends should act quickly.

Qio

Qio @QioLabs is the first blockchain social application on Apple Vision Pro. The angle is quite avant-garde, so I included it… The project's investor lineup includes Folius Ventures, Merit Circle, The Spartan Group, Animoca Brands, and Galaxy, which is quite strong.

Currently, there is no more known information.

The Sports Meta

The Sports Meta @TheSportsMeta is an Ordinals PFP series with a total supply of 3000, with minting price and time unknown. The project aims to create a Web3 sports community as a foundation for building a gamified social platform "Dot Game" and a fashion brand "DXNK."

Their advisory team includes well-known figures in the NFT and Crypto space, such as @andr3w and DeGods co-founder & artist @jonnydegods.

Scribbles

Scribbles @Scribblesby0xVM is an NFT project from @0xVM_BTC, where 0xVM is a "modular Bitcoin execution layer." Current mentioned partners include Razer, Jump Crypto, Huobi, and Zentry.

From some of the art previews released by the project, I’m not quite sure if this is a PFP series… However, in terms of empowerment, it mentions future Token airdrops, presale priority, and ecosystem partner benefits, so I’ll classify this series as a Pass card for now.

Total supply is 888, Free Mint.

Bitcoin Keys

Bitcoin Keys @keysbitcoin aims to create an Ordinals staking platform that does not require the transfer of NFT assets, allowing Bitcoin NFT holders to stake their small images through snapshots.

Initially, the platform is only open to Bitcoin Keys holders, with a total supply of 1000, and minting price to be determined.

Rune Observations

In previous observation columns, we mentioned REX. Memes are definitely the most important part of the rune ecosystem, but besides memes, I also hope to see some interesting gameplay. Therefore, in this issue, we introduce two interesting runes. However, first, we must note that a free rune airdrop will occur in about 13 hours.

FOR•THE•CHILDREN

Earlier this month, rap legend and Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah changed his PFP to Bitcoin Puppets. Clearly, he is fond of Ordinals, which drives this rune FOR•THE•CHILDREN.

The story of this rune ticker dates back to the 40th Grammy Awards in 1998. Wu-Tang Clan missed the Best Rap Album award that year, and the late Wu-Tang Clan member Ol' Dirty Bastard took the stage to speak into the microphone about the Best Rap Album award while Shawn Colvin accepted the award for Song of the Year, stating that Wu-Tang Clan is the best, leaving behind the classic line "Wu-Tang is for the children," creating a historic classic moment at the Grammys and various music award ceremonies.

If you have a leading Ordinals project, don’t forget to check if you can claim the rune airdrop in about 13 hours. (Link)

NO•ORDINARY•KIND

This is the 120th rune deployed by Seize CTRL @SeizeCTRL. Borrowing the introduction from Dr. Gold Dog, "CTRL positions itself as a Bitcoin-native cultural brand in the post-fiat era." CTRL is definitely an OG playing art on rare sats, like the series below, all engraved on Uncommon sats, with a total of 404, and the floor price is now 0.075 Bitcoin.

Last week, Seize CTRL released a new parkour mini-game "Stack Sats," where playing the game gives you a chance to receive a guaranteed whitelist for the new series "n0k" and a bonus coefficient for the NO•ORDINARY•KIND rune airdrop. It’s worth checking out.

THE•INFINITE•MONEY•GLITCH

Their memes @TheInfiniteXYZ are quite good, to the point where I spent some time confirming whether they are really going to create a Degen game on Bitcoin… In the end, my conclusion is that they will, as the pinned tweet video on their official Twitter mentioned "Game Item Mint" at the end.

This is a Pre-Runes project, meaning it has "mining machines" pre-mined. I won’t introduce the specific corresponding project here; interested viewers can learn more on their own. I am keeping an eye on their gameplay; I haven’t yet figured out what kind of game it will be.