Daily NFT Transactions Spike On Solana After y00ts NFT Mint

🌅 Welcome!

Ethereum’s Merge was a resounding success, with the Merge block proposed in Slot #4700013 and finalized in epoch #146876 at 06:46:47 AM UTC. The most frequent graffiti since is “🐠Welcome to the New Beginning”.

FTX is looking to raise capital, Solana’s NFT ecosystem records a spike, and our Research team brings you the latest on ApeDAO.

This is the Delphi Daily. Welcome to the new beginning.

🚨 In Case You Missed It

• The Merge is finally complete.
• Coinbase announces crypto sentiment scorecards for members of congress based on publicly available statements.
• Opera‘s web3 focused browser integrates MetaMask.
• FTX is raising capital as it considers a retail-focused acquisition deal.

📊 Daily NFT Transactions Spike On Solana After y00ts NFT Mint

• Solana experienced a 372% increase in NFT volume on September 6th and 279% increase in NFT transaction count on September 7th.
• The network recorded NFT volume of 344k SOL, the highest daily volume since the previous all-time high set in May. This massive spike occurred just as the ‘y00ts: mint t00bs’ NFT collection was released.
• The y00ts NFT collection’s total volume has reached 340k SOL, which represents 20% of the network’s NFT volume since the collection was launched.
• Over the last 30 days, the y00ts collection ranks first in volume on Magic Eden, followed by other popular collections on Solana – Abracadabra (ABC) and DeGods. ABC also ranks second in transaction count at 42k, just behind GMers at 47k.
• Looking past the recent surge in activity, Solana’s NFT ecosystem appears to be maturing and has started seeing increasing interest since August.
• For more on Solana’s NFT ecosystem, Delphi members can read our NFT Insights report here.

⚡ ApeCoin DAO & The Imminent Launch of $APE Staking

• ApeCoin DAO was established to fairly and inclusively steward the Bored Ape ecosystem’s growth and development. It was launched to much fanfare six months ago with an airdrop of $APE tokens to Bored Ape NFT holders (BAYC, MAYC, Kennel Club).
• Today, it is worth revisiting ApeCoin DAO because of two upcoming events:
  • A major token unlock on 16 September
  • The imminent launch of $APE staking
• Let’s quickly revisit the tokenomics for $APE. The total supply of $APE is 1 billion.
  • 62% to the ecosystem fund, including the initial airdrop (the fund unlocks 7.3m tokens per month)
  • 16% to Yuga Labs & charity (12 months initial lock-up — unlock starts 17 March 2023)
  • 8% to BAYC founders (12 months initial lock-up — unlock starts 17 March 2023)
  • 14% to launch contributors (Various schedules)
• Currently, the circulating supply of $APE is ~314m tokens (31% of supply). Approximately 150m+ is in the DAO treasury, while the remaining 160m is circulating among users today.
• The first major unlock for $APE outside the ecosystem fund will occur on September 17th when 25m $APE tokens will be released to launch contributors. This represents ~8% of circulating supply.
• No information has been released on the “launch contributors” but it is reasonable to deduce that it includes investors such as a16z, Animoca Brands and FTX.
• The million-dollar question is whether these launch contributors will sell their tokens once released. This will lead to significant sell pressure on $APE.
• No one knows, but we can postulate that if they are long-term investors in Yuga Labs, there is a reasonable chance they will hold on to most of the unlocked tokens.
• For more on ApeDAO, Delphi members can read our NFT Insights report here.

🐣 Notable Tweets

Rebuttals to Common Criticisms of Ethereum

Happy Merge Day 🐼

It’s been a long journey to get here.

And there have been a lot of critics over the years.

Here are 15 of the WORST takes that we’ve heard with rebuttals from @drakefjustin

🧵

— bankless.eth (@BanklessHQ) Sept 15, 2022

Difficulty, Forks and More During the Merge

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Merge

or, everything you need to know for the next 24 hours

difficulty, forks, exchanges, protecting your nfts and more 🧵

— foobar (@0xfoobar) Sept 14, 2022