NFT Debrief - March 2023

GM! Welcome to our monthly coverage of NFTs and the metaverse. This month:

• Yuga Labs’ first Ordinals collection “Twelvefold” rakes in 735 BTC (~$16M) in revenue from an auction with 3,246 bidders

• 0N1 Force gets acquired by Old Fashioned Research, with fresh funds and a team to revitalize the 0N1 brand and IP

• We dive deeper into Blur’s performance after their first airdrop

🚨 State of the Market

NFT market volume on Ethereum nearly doubled in February, continuing its uptrend from last month with overall volume of $1.8B. This is a level not seen since May 2022. Blur accounted for 75% of February’s total NFT volume, surpassing OpenSea’s 18% share. Blur is now the clear leader in terms of NFT volume, although the volume is likely inflated as a result of token incentives.

Other notable developments:

• Coinbase marked the release of their Ethereum L2 scaling network, Base, in collaboration with Optimism, by giving away a free NFT on February 23rd. This Ethereum NFT, named “Base, Introduced,” was an open edition on the Zora NFT minting platform. A total of 485.1k NFTs were minted, with secondary volume of more than 800 ETH.

• Spotify began its token-gated playlist pilot as they dipped their toes into Web3. Members of specific NFT projects are able to access exclusive playlists by linking their wallets. Overlord and Kingship are two of the chosen projects for the pilot. At present, the feature is only available on Android devices in select countries (United Kingdom, United States, Denmark, Australia, and New Zealand).

• There is speculation that Amazon might launch its NFT marketplace on April 24th, initially featuring 15 collections. The marketplace is expected to be available on Amazon’s website, but only to customers located in the United States. The rumored process for purchasing NFTs involves using an Amazon account and paying with a credit card. The marketplace is also rumored to operate on a private blockchain that will not be compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

Credit: Aaron D.

• Yuga Labs successfully completed the Twelvefold auction on March 6th. The collection, which comprises Yuga Labs’ first-ever Ordinals, is based on a 12×12 grid localized around the Bitcoin network. The collection includes 12 unique pieces inscribed on a satoshi with a satpoint ending in the number 12, each with its own theme. A total of 3,246 bidders participated in the auction, with an average price of 2.55 BTC per Ordinal, resulting in revenue of 735 BTC (~$16M). The highest bid reached 7.1159 BTC, while the last ordinal was sold for 2.25 BTC.
• While the auction was deemed successful, there were critics of the way Yuga ran the auction. Yuga Labs took custody of bidders’ BTC with a promise to send back unsuccessful bids, which set up the potential for scams and phishing attacks.

🔥 Top NFT Collections This Month

The monthly trading volume for the top NFT collections has risen in February, although floor prices are all down.

• On February 22nd, anime side-profile PFP collection 0N1 Force was acquired by Old Fashioned Research, consisting of former executives from Binance and Yield Guild Games, for an undisclosed sum. The new team intends to deploy significant funds toward rebuilding trust with the community and come up with new strategies to revitalize the 0N1 brand and IP. The collection has been a well-known target for acquisition for several months, with Non-Fungible Films, a Web3 entertainment studio, making a public offer in October of last year.

• PROOF Collective has decided to cancel the PROOF Of Conference event this year after weak sales data on conference tickets and feedback from communi