Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, & collectibles

Dear Bankless Nation,

Welcome to another edition of the Metaversal Weekly Roundup, where I dive into the latest happenings and trends in the ever-evolving NFT ecosystem. 

While my previous post got you caught up on the past few months of the NFT frontier, for this recap post I’ll specifically zoom in on the past week’s biggest happenings here per usual.  

Happy reading everyone, and here’s to staying ahead of the curve in the world of NFTs! Have a great weekend 🤝

-WMP

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🧠 The big picture

This week felt pretty slow in the NFT ecosystem, at least relatively speaking, and that general uneventfulness was reflected in the market cap of NFTs, which declined from 8.6 million ETH to 8.57 million ETH ($15.63 billion USD) for a small 0.35% drop on the week. We’ll see if this is the start of a more prolonged NFT crab market! 🦀

📊 This week by the numbers:

For the second week in a row, Wrapped CryptoPunks topped the NFT space’s 7D volume charts with over 49k ETH worth of trades in that span. Per usual BAYC, MAYC, and Otherdeed plots were no surprise in the top 5, so the fresh face this week was Nakamigos, the mysterious Sartoshi-linked collection’s that exploded onto the scene on the heels of its March 23 public mint. 

🔝 7D top collections by volume

🛒 7D NFT marketplace stats

With regard to weekly volume share, OpenSea climbed from 19% to 20% and Blur climbed from 69% to 73% over the past week. In contrast, OpenSea saw the amount of weekly trades it facilitated slightly grow while Blur saw its share of trades slightly shrink. In other words? The $BLUR wars status quo continues on for now. 

📰 General news

• Luca Netz posited the NFT value accrual funnel.

• Magic Edgen is preparing for its Ethereum marketplace beta. 

🏆 Digital collectibles

• Deadfellaz are planning to launch a native marketplace.

🎨 Cryptoart & music

• Art Blocks debuted a native secondary marketplace.

• Kim Asendorf released Cargo as an Art Blocks Curated collection.

• Sound unveiled an updated music listening experience.

🎮 Decentralized gaming

• RON staking is now live, and a series of new gaming studios announced they are building on Ronin, too.  

🌐 Virtual worlds

• Metaverse Fashion Week ran from March 28 through today, March 31, in Decentraland. 

🪙 NFTfi

• Arcade added support for Rare Pepes. 

🎆 Mint spotlight: Nakamigos

Is the collection connected to Larva Labs, or Sartoshi of mfers acclaim? It’s not clear who’s behind Nakamigos yet, but that uncertainty didn’t stop the 20,000-strong pixel art PFP series from undergoing an incredible boom of trading activity over the past week. For example, Nakamigos surpassed BAYC in all-time trade stats within only four days of its March 23 mint, and at the time of writing the floor price was 0.26 ETH per avatar. Will these NFTs have staying power? Only time will tell for now, but their arrival has been nothing short of explosive! 

NFTstatistics.eth @punk9059

Nakamigos have already done more lifetime trades than Bored Ape Yacht Club (36189 vs. 33475)

11:40 AM ∙ Mar 27, 2023

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🔭 Mint watch:

• Boomboxheads v2 — A 3D collection of interoperable VRM CC0 avatars for the metaverse, allowlist is accepting applications via Typeform now!

• The Lost Ghouls — A spinoff collection by the Based Ghouls project, this series will be released on Canto on a TBD date; track the Based Ghouls Twitter to stay up-to-date on further announcements. 

• DenDekaDen — A highly-anticipated PFP mint by Toei Animation; the collection’s upcoming mint phases are currently slated to take place between April 3-5. 

🙇 3 insightful threads weekly to level up your NFT knowledge!

1. fluffbear on the DeGods Ethereum bridging event, starting today:

fluffbear @fluffbearcrypto

Top Solana project @DeGodsNFT is bridging to Ethereum this Friday. How NFT traders & investors can best take advantage of this event: A thread) 🧵

10:07 PM ∙ Mar 30, 2023

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2. Pirate Nation on “Mirroring,” an innovative new scaling technique in web3 gaming:

Pirate Nation @PirateNationNFT

Soon we release ᴍɪʀʀᴏʀɪɴɢ: a paradigm shift for how games are built on the blockchain, giving gamers the best of all world’s across onboarding, gameplay and trading. The power of ᴍɪʀʀᴏʀɪɴɢ: Trade on L1 // Play on L2. A 🧵 on this technical feat, by team @ProofOfPlay.

8:00 PM ∙ Mar 30, 2023

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3. Will Robinson on the possibility of making an onchain version of a game like Food Chain Magnate, great read:

Will Robinson @DangerWillRobin

1/32 ⛓️🎮 Making fully-on chain games is hard. So I’m sourcing design patterns from obscure games for engineers to implementation, saving them from reinventing the wheel. Let’s dive into Food Chain Magnate, which offers a rewarding strategic experience: medium.com/alliancedao/un…

medium.comUnblocking On-Chain Games: Part Four — Food Chain MagnateThis is Part Four of a series exploring constraints at the intersection of blockchains and games. The objects of inquiry are “autonomou…

1:58 PM ∙ Mar 29, 2023

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✨ My NFT tool of the week: Escher

Escher, a new curated platform for editioned fine art that I first wrote about earlier this month, just fully launched. If you’re interested in exploring aggregated NFT editions from iconic cryptoartists all in one place, Escher has you covered!

Escher @escherxyz

1/ Escher is officially live 🔥 Collectors, you can start exploring our curated marketplace and browse, buy & sell the editions shaping the digital art movement. Artists with showrooms are cordially invited to connect and start customizing your collectors’ experience 🧵👇

4:06 PM ∙ Mar 30, 2023

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💥 ENS Name Wrapper is coming…

The ENS Name Wrapper mechanism is on the verge of launching, and it’s going to be a game changer for ENS domain holders. It’s not exactly a simple system to explain, but in short the tech will make it so you can “wrap” ENS subdomains or DNS domains into ERC1155 NFTs. This will pave the way to many new possibilities, e.g. readily airdropping subdomain NFTs to your DAO’s members or to your NFT collection’s holders. Keep your eye on these possibilities going forward!

serenae.eth | 914.eth | 9767.eth @serenae_fansubs

Wrote a big ol’ article all about the #ENS Name Wrapper: • Step-by-step visual walkthrough of the states of a wrapped name • Technical deep-dive • Fuses / Expiry / Approved operators • Use-cases with guidance and suggestions

ens.mirror.xyzA Deep Dive into the ENS Name WrapperThe Name Wrapper wraps an ENS name into a new ERC-1155 NFT. Any ENS name can be wrapped, whether it’s a .eth name or DNS domain or even…

6:39 PM ∙ Mar 28, 2023

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😜 Gamers will come around eventually… right…

In 10 years, we’ll all look back and see game assets as one of the most obvious use cases for NFTs. But there’s no question that there’s still a lot of animosity in many mainstream gaming circles toward non-fungible digital assets. Make it make sense please…

MinisterOfNFTs 🔮 @MinisterOfNFTs

Normies be like:

3:49 PM ∙ Mar 28, 2023

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Action steps

• 🆕 Read How ARB Shifts the Future of Airdrops and Digging Into the Crypto Gaming Sector in Bankless

• 🙇 Catch up on my other write-ups from this week: 

  • ✧ Sound Swap

  • ✧ NFT Review: Q1 2023

  • ✧ How to Fight for Crypto

Author Bio

William M. Peaster is a professional writer and creator of Metaversal—a Bankless newsletter focused on the emergence of NFTs in the cryptoeconomy. He’s also recently been contributing content to Bankless, JPG, and beyond!

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Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.