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It seems as if the Crypto market is holding onto its recent gains and could be consolidating for another leg up. Meanwhile blue chip NFT collections are in freefall.

Could the blue chip NFT crew be migrating to the crypto majors?

- @nuconomist

Crypto Market Cap: 1.24 Trillion Dollars 🔼 +0.81% (Was 1.23 T)

Bitcoin Dominance: 47.7% 🔽 -0.83% (Was 48.1%)

Ethereum Dominance: 18.7% 🔼 +0.54% (Was 18.6%)

Other Crypto (excl. BTC & ETH): 33.6% 🔼 +0.90% (Was 33.3%)

Nuconomist Notes:

Afte recent sharp moves in both directions, this week saw some relative stability as the ETF news sinks in and buyers/sellers reach somewhat of an equilibrium. All eyes will be on developments related to the applications as they come out in the following weeks and months.

Overall the month closed strong with bitcoin up over 20% from the lows and unless there are hidden dragons, it feels like we could see some bullish continuation into the middle of year.

NFT Market Cap (ETH): Ξ 7.4 Million 🔽 -2.63% (Was Ξ 7.6 Million)

NFT Market Cap (USD): $14.3 Billion 🔽 -0.69% (Was $14.4 Billion)

30 Day NFT Volume (ETH): 511k 🔼 +14.57% (Was 446k)

Nuconomist Notes:

While the NFT market cap is down in both ETH and USD terms this week, the real pain has been felt in the "blue chip" collections from the past couple of years. Floors of some of the most popular projects are down 40-60% in a single week and it's clear that there is some level of capitulation playing out.

1. Azuki

2. Azuki Elemental Beans

3. Bored Ape Yacht Club

4. Azuki Elementals

5. Mutant Ape Yacht Club

Nuconomist Notes:

Two new collections headed straight to the top of the volume charts this week and for all of the wrong reasons. Azuki launched their new Elemental Beans collection which revealed into Azuki Elementals. Holders of the original Azuki collection were shocked when the revealed art for the new collection was strikingly similar to thhe original art for a fraction of the price and mass dumping across all of the collections ensued. It didn't help that there was also a bug during reveal causing some exact duplicates to add to the outrage.

I'm not embedded in the Azuki community, but it appears they held a community call to address the issues and there is a pretty good summary here:

Source

1. Azuki Elemental Beans: 1.169 Ξ Floor ‧ 692 ETH PnL

2. Ether Capsule: 0.6285 Ξ ‧ 384 ETH PnL

3. Pudgy Penguins: 3.75 Floor Ξ ‧ 126 ETH PnL

4. Utility Wen: 0.082 Ξ Floor ‧ 104 ETH PnL

5. Chromie Squiggle: 9.69 Floor Ξ ‧ 384 ETH PnL

Nuconomist Notes:

The vibes were certainly high for Azuki last week coming off their Las Vegas event, however, once again selling an airdrop pre-reveal may have been the best strategy. Either way, as many OGs were airdropped Elemental Beans for free, they still made the top of the profit leaderboard for this week.

Ether Capsule is a new launch that has been hyped for a while. The original intended mint price was 1 ETH, but ultimately they are priced at 0.65 ETH for public sale and available at 0.35 ETH for whitelisted people, or free if they agree to a 10 week lockup. This has been an interesting mechanic as instant flippers can currently pay for an instant almost 2x close to mint price, or choose to hold. this probably gives a good indication of the ratio of people genuinely interested in the launch as well (See Here).

Pudgy Penguins is seeing some profit taking, although at a lower floor price than recent months.

Utility Wen appears to be a reflection on market vibes right now, commemorating rugs, scams, LARPS and influencers full of empty calories.

And last but not least, the popular Chromie Squiggles generative art collection sees a small wave of high value sales relative to the current market.

1. Azuki: 5.79 Ξ Floor ‧ -600 ETH PnL

2. BEANZ Official: 0.3579 Ξ Floor ‧ -373 ETH PnL

3. Bored Ape Yacht Club: 39 Ξ Floor ‧ -1342 ETH PnL

4. Mutant Ape Yacht Club: 7.69 Ξ Floor ‧ -2382 ETH PnL

5. HV-MTL: 0.4499 Ξ Floor ‧ -341 ETH PnL

Nuconomist Notes:

While Yuga assets continue their decline, the show was stolen by the incredible underperformance of Azuki ecosystem this week. The OG Azuki collection fell ~61% in a week from a floor of around 15 ETH to almost 5 ETH. The reasons have already been discussed in the volume section above, but there is definitely an element of a self-propelling downward spiral when a projects price falls so quickly. Sometimes, when there is FUD on the streets, it pays to get out or hedge your bets as early as you can.

In any other week, the Yuga bleed would have been bigger news. The Bored Ape Yacht Club floor has fallen to 27.7 ETH as I write this, MAYC is down to just above 5 and still looks like it is heading towards its mint price in ETH.

Worryingly for the broader market, HV-MTL, Yuga's most recent gaming launch is down ~41% on the week of it's launch. While there hasn't been as much buzz as with their prior Dookey Dash mini-game, this could be a sign that the NFT market doesn't actually want these gaming experiences and really are just in the market for number-go-up trading games. You can review the gameplay here and decide for yourself.

Valkyrie, BlackRock, Bitwise, Invesco and WisdomTree enter the race for an ETF approval - Bitcoin Magazine

Coinbase Will Be Surveillance Partner for Bitcoin ETFs - CoinDesk

UK Crypto, Stablecoin Rules Receive Royal Assent - CoinDesk

Vitalik Buterin declares he is not staking all of his ETH - CoinTelegraph

SEC Calls ETF Applications Inadequate - Decrypt

HV-MTL Forge Beginners Guide - Decrypt

Why People Are Burning CryptoPunks for Ordinals - NFT Now

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