🚀 The NFT Market is Back! (no, not really)
🚀 The NFT Market is Back! (no, not really)
Featuring another Q&A with Roham, Ugly Season 2 Sorare Cards, and questions about Series 5 on TS.
Yesterday I woke up to this tweet.
Yes, that’s legendary NFT whale Dingaling, a person who started his whale career by spending $2M on Top Shot moments way way back in May 2021 and has since spent like an insane amount of money on other NFTs, claiming that NFTs are back.
Ding was commenting on the slight rise in NFT floor prices Thursday night, which was followed by an even larger rise Friday morning after the SEC dropped its lawsuit against Ripple.
The charts looked like through most of Friday, as top NFT collections saw highs not seen in months.
Does this mean we back?
Nope. Not even close. NFTs are still deader than ever - especially if you zoom out and look at the combined volume across marketplaces these last 3 months. Hardly a blip.
It’s even worse the further out you go:
The reality is that the macro conditions are still pretty bad (inflation, high rates, war) and there’s no end in sight. And with bad macro conditions comes little appetite for risky assets like NFTs.
But in this absolutely brutal market, it’s nice to see even the smallest bump. It means there’s still money out there somewhere to be spent on NFTs, and a good reminder that patience is key in this timeline.
Thanks for the brief little pump Dingaling. But we’ll be waiting a lot longer to truly be back.
Now onto the top stories of the week.
Ever dream of managing your own Football club?
Metaverse Football League (MFL) has announced a new exclusive drop. It includes special packs for new users and a brand new league Division ⚽️
This is your chance to grab a club AND players, and to start building your football legacy 🏆
To celebrate their Megadrop on Tuesday October 24th at 5PM EST/2PM PST, they are giving every TFM reader a FREE pack:
Claim and open your FREE Mystery pack.
If there's a player in there, congrats! You're now a player Agent and can start your MFL adventure.
If not, collect lottery tickets and keep a keen eye on the final draw, where you may win exciting prizes!
🏈 NFL ALL DAY chat with Roham
Remember last month when I had a 1v1 chat with Roham, CEO of Dapper Labs, to celebrate NFT Day?
Well we’re doing it again, and this time its to discuss updates to NFL ALL DAY and address concerns from the community.
Despite the excellent content partnership between The First Mint and NFL ALL DAY and a cool new form of NFTs in Dynamic Moments, community sentiment has wavered on the platform this season. TJ Laessig from Own The Moment summed up the concerns in his thread here.
Keen to have a question asked (and answered)?
Post them below as a response to Roham’s tweet about the session.
📦 Sorare Debuts Series 2 (and they UGLY)
You guys know me. I try to keep it real on TFM and not lean too favourably towards any of these products (aside from our partners).
I’ve never hesitated to give Sorare their flowers, and even did so just this past week when I praised their marketing team for involving community members in the S2 launch.
But beautiful roses often come with razor sharp thorns.
And Season 2 has got a real thick one right nestled below the beautiful rose of marketing and scarcity.
I’m talking about THESE CARDS:
I have so many questions like:
What the hell are these?
Why is there no headroom at all above them?
Why are they smiling like this its picture day at École Publique Gabrielle Roy**??
Compared to Season 1, I consider these a massive (yet irrelevant) step back.
Even crazier is that it seems the community is actually divided on this issue. As in half of you think these look good. What??
Anyway, the S2 cards are up for auction and already pulling in some pretty massive sales on the #1 serials.
And in a nod to the culture, the first 1/1 Unique card released for the 23-24 season is this all-time great photo of Jimmy Butler from his press day look.
**yes thats the inner city elementary school that Phil and I went to.
🧊 Where is Top Shot Series 5?
Earlier this week we put out this poll asking our Twitter community which NBA project they are most excited for this year:
The last one was a joke of course - that LaMeloverse project is long dead. In fact, I’d argue it was never even alive.
But with just a few days left until the season begins, and Sorare having already put out tons of material (including a 60-minute pre-recorded clip hosted by World Wide Wob), many are asking what the plan might be for TS5.
And we here at TFM have been asking these questions for months. Or rather, we’ve been asking what adjustments should be made.
Now of course, it’s hard to say what could “save” Top Shot at this point. Or if the app is actually in need of saving.
If you erase the past and look at just objective facts, Top Shot does quite well for an NFT project:
Sells out every drop (and does them often).
Fully functional mobile app.
5-10k active buyers, and probably double that in active users.
Licensed NBA IP with a deep store of money to keep building.
Compared to most NFT projects, that’s pretty good!
But it won’t be able to escape the “how are you bringing more NBA fans onboard” narrative any time soon. Not until it either accomplishes that exact feat, or pivots to a new groove.
In the meantime, we’ll just have to keep our eyes peeled for more supply and hope for more innovative programs like Playoff Redemptions.
**This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter, podcast, or publication should be considered financial or trading advice of any kind. Please do your own thorough research and make your own trading decisions. This is not advice.”
About The First Mint
A web3 sports community. Collectibles, NFTs, and Metaverse.
Tweets and Newsletters are not endorsements.