Monthly NFT volume is down 3.13%, and market cap slips another 4.59%. It might sound terrible for many, yet we often forget the NFT market cap is up 950% in a year! 

That means even in the worst of times, the NFT space can be unreal and uncorrelated. It is not necessarily true for Bitcoin and Altcoins. Why? Because the valuation is not derived from inherent value. Please do not feel confused. Let me explain.

We invest in Bitcoin because of its appeal as a quality asset that has high liquidity, trust, and history. The speculative nature is commonplace, and we need not worry about that, at least for now. But NFTs are artworks that communicate to specific sections of society. It gives the owner prestige, joy, purpose, and a sense of ownership.

Since the downturn in May, sales volume seems to have found an equilibrium. It has almost flattened since mid-June ranging between $21 billion - $23 billion. Nevertheless, August year-on-year figures are not so rosy. Because August 2021 was the peak month for NFTs. Anything that looked cool was sold for an ETH pretty effortlessly. But, let us face the truth, we are nowhere near those highs, and it is unlikely that such volume can come in anytime soon. 

The Holders v/s Traders chart does not induce confidence. In the last seven days, traders' numbers are down nearly 24%. For the sake of volume, let us hope they are on holiday. 

Buyers are down too, but that connects with the market conditions. Sellers are desperate for liquidity amidst many collections turning illiquid. Desperate sales call for YOLO buys. Yes, it is an excellent opportunity to accumulate projects you missed the last time. $ETH and $SOL are cheap too, adding a cherry to the top.

We already know that Ethereum NFT volume dwarfs Solana by a margin. Magic Eden’s weekly volume of nearly $33 million is inconsequential compared to OpenSea. But what interests me is the user count. The week-on-week Solana NFTs users are steadily growing. A 20% increase from the last week is impressive, especially in harsh market conditions. Presently, Magic Eden has 108K users, and a 20% uplift means 21K additional users. I think the active user count is a good metric to gauge the health of Solana NFT space rather than its volume. Volume does matter, and ImmutableX has overtaken Solana in terms of volume.

Does ImmutableX threaten Solana's cheap NFTs image? It just might!

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection is trading at 79ETH. Otherside is at 1.8ETH, with Moonbirds and Doodles at 12ETH and 7ETH each. 

These blue chips are down 50 to 75% from all-time highs a few months ago. Logically speaking, only a strong catalyst can push them back to respective all-time highs and beyond.

1. The upcoming ETH merge could be such an event. Firstly, it can fetch attention to Ethereum, and secondly to Layer-2s. Layer 2s are much scalable and cheaper than Ethereum. 

2. Another catalyst could be a web3 platform like OpenSea or MetaMask releasing a token. It can pump some free money into the community.

3. Institutional interest is another potential catalyst that can pump all NFTs. However, this is unlikely to occur anytime soon.

Unique Network has acquired CryptoPunk #3042 to make the original NFT collection accessible to everyone. It is a signature move and also revolutionary. Unique wants to project blockchain interoperability and universal accessibility. I will go deep into these topics some other day. 

Back to the topic, the best thing is you can sign up for a share of Punk #3042 for FREE. 

Visit https://unique.network/punk/ and connect your Metamask wallet. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the registration.

Interestingly, once addresses claim a fraction of Punk #3042, there will be significantly more owners of the single Punk on Polkadot than the entire 10,000 original Punks on Ethereum. Fascinating is the word to describe the possibilities of NFT fractionalization. 

Also, Unique Network plans to fractionalize the ownership of one of its flagship projects - Substrapunk NFTs. Inspired by CryptoPunks, Subtrapunks are the first NFTs on the Polkadot blockchain. 

That's a wrap for this week!

Monthly NFT volume is down 3.13%, and market cap slips another 4.59%. It might sound terrible for many, yet we often forget the NFT market cap is up 950% in a year! 

That means even in the worst of times, the NFT space can be unreal and uncorrelated. It is not necessarily true for Bitcoin and Altcoins. Why? Because the valuation is not derived from inherent value. Please do not feel confused. Let me explain.

We invest in Bitcoin because of its appeal as a quality asset that has high liquidity, trust, and history. The speculative nature is commonplace, and we need not worry about that, at least for now. But NFTs are artworks that communicate to specific sections of society. It gives the owner prestige, joy, purpose, and a sense of ownership.

Since the downturn in May, sales volume seems to have found an equilibrium. It has almost flattened since mid-June ranging between $21 billion - $23 billion. Nevertheless, August year-on-year figures are not so rosy. Because August 2021 was the peak month for NFTs. Anything that looked cool was sold for an ETH pretty effortlessly. But, let us face the truth, we are nowhere near those highs, and it is unlikely that such volume can come in anytime soon. 

The Holders v/s Traders chart does not induce confidence. In the last seven days, traders' numbers are down nearly 24%. For the sake of volume, let us hope they are on holiday. 

Buyers are down too, but that connects with the market conditions. Sellers are desperate for liquidity amidst many collections turning illiquid. Desperate sales call for YOLO buys. Yes, it is an excellent opportunity to accumulate projects you missed the last time. $ETH and $SOL are cheap too, adding a cherry to the top.

We already know that Ethereum NFT volume dwarfs Solana by a margin. Magic Eden’s weekly volume of nearly $33 million is inconsequential compared to OpenSea. But what interests me is the user count. The week-on-week Solana NFTs users are steadily growing. A 20% increase from the last week is impressive, especially in harsh market conditions. Presently, Magic Eden has 108K users, and a 20% uplift means 21K additional users. I think the active user count is a good metric to gauge the health of Solana NFT space rather than its volume. Volume does matter, and ImmutableX has overtaken Solana in terms of volume.

Does ImmutableX threaten Solana's cheap NFTs image? It just might!

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection is trading at 79ETH. Otherside is at 1.8ETH, with Moonbirds and Doodles at 12ETH and 7ETH each. 

These blue chips are down 50 to 75% from all-time highs a few months ago. Logically speaking, only a strong catalyst can push them back to respective all-time highs and beyond.

1. The upcoming ETH merge could be such an event. Firstly, it can fetch attention to Ethereum, and secondly to Layer-2s. Layer 2s are much scalable and cheaper than Ethereum. 

2. Another catalyst could be a web3 platform like OpenSea or MetaMask releasing a token. It can pump some free money into the community.

3. Institutional interest is another potential catalyst that can pump all NFTs. However, this is unlikely to occur anytime soon.

Unique Network has acquired CryptoPunk #3042 to make the original NFT collection accessible to everyone. It is a signature move and also revolutionary. Unique wants to project blockchain interoperability and universal accessibility. I will go deep into these topics some other day. 

Back to the topic, the best thing is you can sign up for a share of Punk #3042 for FREE. 

Visit https://unique.network/punk/ and connect your Metamask wallet. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the registration.

Interestingly, once addresses claim a fraction of Punk #3042, there will be significantly more owners of the single Punk on Polkadot than the entire 10,000 original Punks on Ethereum. Fascinating is the word to describe the possibilities of NFT fractionalization. 

Also, Unique Network plans to fractionalize the ownership of one of its flagship projects - Substrapunk NFTs. Inspired by CryptoPunks, Subtrapunks are the first NFTs on the Polkadot blockchain. 

That's a wrap for this week!