22/07/2021 With $2.4 Billion in Transactions, NFT Market Defies Expectations in Second Quarter of 2021

CryptoPunks
LarvaLabs, CryptoPunks Detail, 2021 Courtesy of Sotheby's

The price of Bitcoin is down but, contrary to conventional wisdom, the market for NFTs has not faded. The NFT phenomenon dominated the first quarter of 2021, culminating on March 11th with Beeple’s record price of $69 million at Christie’s. A month later, in mid-April, the price of Bitcoin reached its apex around $63,500. Since then Bitcoin’s dollar price has dropped by more than half. Nevertheless, NFT sales have not just remained on par with the pace of the first quarter of 2021, according to a Dapp Industry Report, but exceeded them in the second quarter. 

DappRadar, which tracks blockchain sales, saw that in the second quarter of 2021 NFTs brought in $2.4 billion, slightly above the first quarter’s $2.3 billion. These numbers don’t even account for off-chain sales, transfers that take place through auction houses, as with the Beeple sale. The same report found that sales spiked 111.46% compared to Q1, with the number of active wallets also jumping 151.89% in the same time period. 

Meanwhile, the NFT marketplace OpenSea is now valued at $1.5 billion, after Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz led another round of funding for the company, raising $100 million. This past June alone OpenSea saw $160 million worth of sales. 

What’s keeping NFTs afloat? It’s not necessarily art. NFTs are now finding a fast growing utility as “keys” for unique access to experiences and also in gameplay, something experts long predicted would be the ultimate value of non-fungible tokens. Bored Ape Yacht Club uses NFTs as a membership card for their digital “Yacht Club” which mainly consists of access to a Discord server, Telegram chat group, and a digital graffiti wall called “THE BATHROOM.” Bored Ape has had $70 million in sales since its launch in May. 

NFTs for gameplay are also doing quite well. For example, Axie Infinity, a play-to-earn game where players breed and sell Pokemon-like “axies”  collected $30 million in fees just this past week, which is more than Ethereum, Bitcoin and every other top ranked DeFi app collected in the same time period. 

 

This isn’t to say that more traditional collectibles aren’t doing well. CryptoPunks, a collection of 10,000 unique “Punks” represented by pixelated faces, remain strong. Two Punks, 5002(2017) and 5690 (2017), sold this past week for $385,000 and $354,000 respectively. Some of the rarest Punks sold in May in the millions, peaking at around $7.5 million on OpenSea. But off chain, NFT sales are stronger. CryptoPunk 7523 (2017) sold for $11.7 million at Christie’s in June. Does that suggest auction houses and galleries might have better luck selling art NFTs than NFT marketplaces? The art world certainly hopes so.

 

Arts

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/nft-market-defies-expectations-second-quarter-2021-1234599372/

Interesting NFTs
Her Mind Had Gone Out For A Stroll & Fallen Down The Rabbit Hole
Her Mind Had Gone Out For A Stroll & Fallen Down The Rabbit Hole' is the first programmable piece of art by Kitty Bast. The owner constructs, modifies & tattoos their very own Doll Lady... Is she falling down a rabbit hole, lost in a sea of cats or gazing into the unknown void? Do you like Pink Ladies or Lilac Ladies? Or do you pick the Wild Card? There's always a wild side to an innocent doll face. Is she obsessed with crypto ponies or crypto kitties? Or does she have an insatiable desire for Mr. Honey Badger. Come inside and have a nice cup of NFTea with the bunnies. Is your lady chained to the blockhain? Does your lady shed Bitcoin tears or ETH tears? Does your doll face don a Rotten Heart? Do you HODL to the Moon to meet the ETH Kitty? Do you have an obsession for cyborgs or Puddin'? Would you like a slice of Death by Pink? Is The Cat's Eye green or golden? Little trolls with mini daggers not included. The cheshire cat might trade you his ears for your goggles. Modifications of the Host. How long is forever? Sometimes, just one second.
The River of Emeralds
Golden conditions at one of my favorite locations in the Rockies. The light, the colors, the textures; what more can you ask for? I just loved the way this river flowed into the sunset and the mountains in the background. It's rare you find a scene as perfect as this one. But when you do, you have to take advantage of it.
OriginalplanÂŽ - Series 1 - Raw Cut Diamond Be@rbrick
The Be@rbrick series is a project around creating unique Be@rbrick designs. Originally it started as a daily project so each design was created on a daily basis. The concept and idea is based on the subcultural phenomenon of collectibles and designer toys. Raw Cut Be@rbrick is made of several hundreds of diamonds and is only availabe as a 1/1 limited edition collectible. Format : 3D Render. File: JPG * size: 5120 × 2880px After purchase a hand signed Glichē print will be sent to the address of your choosing. Limited to: 1/1 digital pieces.
Alex in Wonderland
A figure, Alex, stands mostly naked in the midst of a physical and psychological maelstrom. He is clad only in nostalgic 80’s era socks, on a tenuous island between active waters and a variety of shark denizens. Sharks on the right side of the image are all beached, including a shark with a quartz crystal snout, an orange shark wrapped in a life buoy, and a shark further in the distance wearing an 80’s style shirt with the number “88”. On the left side is the largest shark, wearing bright glossy red lipstick and brandishing prominent teeth with braces. She is cordoned off from the figure by a roped float divider, and within her thought bubble is a warning symbol. Behind the figure, hovering in the air, are Grey aliens emerging from the distance, out of a series of elliptical UFO shaped interdimensional membranes. The Greys take on the visual form of spermazoa ostensibly impregnating the interdimensional thresholds. As is typical, these Greys inhabit a zone just behind the unconscious topology of Alex’s dissociative mind. Though Alex’s bottom half is representative, his top half mutates into a psychological cornucopia. In a manner akin to “Auto-Erotic Sphinx”, a predecessor work, the figure has self suctioned—an act of sensual infatuation, enjoyment, and exploration. Upward exists the figure’s primary conscious eye, adorned with a revolutionary beret emblazoned with a Bitcoin badge. The figure’s summit features the nose of a fighter jet facing off against video game Bullet Bills, one of whom is marked by a communist North Korean star. A cropped section of a UFO observes the contest. Alex’s mind branches both left and right. To the left is more singular embodied consciousness, manifesting two eyes and a Ganesh trunk grasping crayons. The right branch dissociates upward diagonally, emerging into an array of eyes, faces, teeth, tail, a unicorn horn, and much more—all of which participate in expressing his unconscious being; a democracy of psychic factions representing thought impressions and associations. All illumination and darkness– fernal, infernal, high consciousness and corporeal underbelly–reside in this realm. In the distance are relatively languid, light clouds, and against the firmament hovers a colossal distant eye peering over the scene and far beyond. This painting possesses underlying genetic traits with previous works such as “Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys”, “Dionysus”, and “Fuku-Shiva”. The work serves also as a nod to an earlier period of art inspiration during late teens and early twenties— born out of the nakedness, vulnerability, curiosity, and wonder inherent to coming of age and all subsequent psychedelic revelation.
1st in game Grimace Serpent
Heyo! I'm 1st in game Grimace Serpent. I've never told anyone this, but I once kissed a dog. When my owner isn't watching, I steal their brooches and use them for litter paper. I'm not sorry. Purrhaps this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.