In brief

Solana NFT trading activity has skyrocketed today, currently up 170% over the past 24 hours.

It comes on the back of the rollout of y00ts, an anticipated NFT project that delayed its full launch after a September mint.

Sales of NFTs on the Solana blockchain fell by 50% in October following a strong September, which had been aided by the initial launch of buzzy profile picture (PFP) project, y00ts. But November could see a return to fervent activity if today’s early trading is any indication, following the delayed reveal of the y00ts artwork.

Trading volume for NFTs minted on Solana has jumped 170% over the past 24 hours compared to the previous span, per data from Tiexo, up to about 229,000 SOL across the market. That’s over $7.5 million worth.

The vast majority of that trading revolves around y00ts, the successor to the popular DeGods project on Solana. The y00ts collection spans 15,000 unique profile pictures, each featuring a different mix of design traits. The project minted its NFTs—called y00ts mint t00bs—in early September following a hyped allowlist campaign that drew in celebrities and influencers.

Each t00b NFT can be burned (or permanently destroyed) in exchange for the actual PFP NFT. That process was originally slated to begin soon after the September mint, but creator DeLabs—led by pseudonymous DeGods creator Frank—opted to scrap all of the existing artwork and start fresh, yielding a nearly two month delay.

Finally, this morning, y00ts opened up the process to swap t00bs for y00ts NFTs, revealing the artwork and sending secondary trading volume soaring in the process. Both the unrevealed t00bs and y00ts avatars are seeing soaring demand right now, based on data tracked by top Solana marketplace, Magic Eden.

Secondary sales of the y00ts mint t00bs have jumped 496% over the past 24 hours, with 74,000 SOL (about $2.46 million) worth of trades thus far. The cheapest-available mint t00b NFT available on the marketplace is listed at nearly 100 SOL, or about $3,300.

Meanwhile, the revealed y00ts profile pictures have surpassed the t00bs in collective trading volume today, with about 78,000 SOL ($2.6 million) transacted so far since this morning’s rollout. The cheapest available y00ts NFT is listed at 72 SOL (about $2,400).

An NFT is a blockchain token that represents ownership in a unique item—in this case, a one-of-a-kind profile picture with distinctive visual elements. Other NFT use cases include artwork, collectibles, event tickets and mementos, and interactive video game items.

NFT artwork from the Solana-based project, y00ts. Image: DeLabs

Solana NFT Sales Surge 170% as y00ts Completes Delayed Rollout

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Solana NFT Sales Surge 170% as y00ts Completes Delayed Rollout

The much-anticipated NFT project from the creators of DeGods has jolted Solana trading today following an October slump.

Andrew Hayward

By Andrew Hayward

Nov 5, 2022

4 min read

NFT artwork from the Solana-based project, y00ts. Image: DeLabs

NFT artwork from the Solana-based project, y00ts. Image: DeLabs

In brief

Solana NFT trading activity has skyrocketed today, currently up 170% over the past 24 hours.

It comes on the back of the rollout of y00ts, an anticipated NFT project that delayed its full launch after a September mint.

Sales of NFTs on the Solana blockchain fell by 50% in October following a strong September, which had been aided by the initial launch of buzzy profile picture (PFP) project, y00ts. But November could see a return to fervent activity if today’s early trading is any indication, following the delayed reveal of the y00ts artwork.

Trading volume for NFTs minted on Solana has jumped 170% over the past 24 hours compared to the previous span, per data from Tiexo, up to about 229,000 SOL across the market. That’s over $7.5 million worth.

The vast majority of that trading revolves around y00ts, the successor to the popular DeGods project on Solana. The y00ts collection spans 15,000 unique profile pictures, each featuring a different mix of design traits. The project minted its NFTs—called y00ts mint t00bs—in early September following a hyped allowlist campaign that drew in celebrities and influencers.

Artwork from y00ts, a Solana NFT project. Image: y00ts

Solana NFT Startup Dust Labs Raises $7M as y00ts Tops NFT Charts

Solana NFT project y00ts is off to a hot start since launching last night, topping secondary markets as the NFTs sell for a significant premium over the mint price. And amid the hype over the ...

News

NFTs

4 min read

Andrew Hayward

Sep 7, 2022

Each t00b NFT can be burned (or permanently destroyed) in exchange for the actual PFP NFT. That process was originally slated to begin soon after the September mint, but creator DeLabs—led by pseudonymous DeGods creator Frank—opted to scrap all of the existing artwork and start fresh, yielding a nearly two month delay.

Finally, this morning, y00ts opened up the process to swap t00bs for y00ts NFTs, revealing the artwork and sending secondary trading volume soaring in the process. Both the unrevealed t00bs and y00ts avatars are seeing soaring demand right now, based on data tracked by top Solana marketplace, Magic Eden.

Secondary sales of the y00ts mint t00bs have jumped 496% over the past 24 hours, with 74,000 SOL (about $2.46 million) worth of trades thus far. The cheapest-available mint t00b NFT available on the marketplace is listed at nearly 100 SOL, or about $3,300.

Meanwhile, the revealed y00ts profile pictures have surpassed the t00bs in collective trading volume today, with about 78,000 SOL ($2.6 million) transacted so far since this morning’s rollout. The cheapest available y00ts NFT is listed at 72 SOL (about $2,400).

An NFT is a blockchain token that represents ownership in a unique item—in this case, a one-of-a-kind profile picture with distinctive visual elements. Other NFT use cases include artwork, collectibles, event tickets and mementos, and interactive video game items.

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Overall Solana NFT trading fell hard in October according to data from DappRadar, which reported $67 million worth of organic trades compared to $134 million the month prior. It’s worth noting that DappRadar figures remove any wash trading—that is, trades done between a user’s own wallets at exaggerated prices to manipulate marketplace data.

Beyond slumping activity after September’s y00ts mint and potential rising competition from NFTs on new blockchain platform Aptos, sentiment around the Solana space also appeared to dip in October as marketplaces rejected creator royalties—either ignoring them outright or making them optional for traders to pay.

Magic Eden initially resisted the move, but changed course after its market share plummeted due to royalties-shunning rivals. Creators typically set a fee between 5% and 10% of the sale price on NFT resales. Since its royalties flip-flop, Magic Eden has recaptured its former market share: the marketplace handled about 93% of Solana trading volume over the last 24 hours, per Tiexo.

Amid those marketplace moves last month, DeLabs slashed the creator royalty on both DeGods and y00ts mint t00bs NFTs to zero, with plans to do the same for the final y00ts NFTs. The team suggested that there was no point in setting royalties if they couldn’t be enforced on-chain, and called it the “next experiment” for the oft-pivoting projects.

Ultimately, however, DeLabs changed course for y00ts: the NFTs have a 3.33% creator royalty attached. But the studio suggested that it will not attempt to punish or limit buyers in some way for buying from marketplaces that do not honor royalties—an idea that Frank previously discussed.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today hit four people with charges for allegedly swindling investors out of nearly $300 million in a “fraudulent crypto Ponzi scheme.”

In a Friday announcement, the SEC said Trade Coin Club raised 82,000 in Bitcoin—worth $295 million at the time—from over 100,000 investors worldwide between 2016 to 2018. 

Trade Coin Club promised investors “minimum returns of 0.35% daily” from a “crypto asset trading bot,” but it wasn’t true—and instead functioned as a Ponzi scheme, the SEC alleged. 

The government body hit Douver Torres Braga, Joff Paradise, Keleionalani Akana Taylor, and Jonathan Tetreault for their alleged involvement in the “multi-level marketing program.”

“We allege that Braga used Trade Coin Club to steal hundreds of millions from investors around the world and enrich himself by exploiting their interest in investing in digital assets,” Chief of the Enforcement Division’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit David Hirsch said Friday. 

“To ensure our markets are fair and safe, we will continue to use blockchain tracing and analytical tools to aid us in the pursuit of individuals who perpetrate securities fraud,” he said.

Braga personally received at least $55 million in Bitcoin, while Paradise pocketed $1.4 million, Taylor $2.6 million, and Tetreault got around $625,000, the SEC claimed—all in the form of Bitcoin. 

The charges include violation of the anti-fraud and securities registration provisions, as well as violation of broker-dealer registration provisions of the federal securities laws and asks the four to return the cash raised. 

Tetreault agreed to settle the SEC’s charges without admitting or denying the allegations, the statement added. 

But to Robby Yung, CEO of metaverse investment firm and game publisher Animoca Brands, one fact is inescapable.

"There is no metaverse without Web3, because you need to have that transaction layer so that you have interoperability between content and you can bring it from place to place," he said in a panel discussion at Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.

"We as an industry are working on setting standards for that," he added. "We've set up some various consortiums to try to address those issues."

Animoca Brands is one of the founding members of the Open Metaverse Alliance, an industry group launched this month that is pushing for interoperability standards in the metaverse. Those standards would enable NFT content purchased on one metaverse platform to seamlessly integrate with another, so that an NFT bought on Decentraland could be used in The Sandbox, for example.

But one key player in the Web3 space has yet to commit to joining the Open Metaverse Alliance: Bored Ape Yacht Club owners Yuga Labs, which this week revealed that it's hard at work on its own open metaverse NFT standards.