GM Scoop Family. You've been missed. Now let's dive in

⚡️STATE OF THE MARKET

Over the past 30 days $ETH has been ranging around the $1300 mark, nothing too exciting from a price action perspective. But on that note, we welcome the bearish crabby market and you should too. You have time to learn & if you feel like it.. accumulate $ETH over a long-term period. We are big believers in of course the long-term trajectory of $ETH, but also the Dollar cost average investment strategy. It's sustainable, manageable, and often stress-free.

$ETH is also nearing deflationary status and that's in a bear market! The more the network is used the more $ETH is burned. Can you imagine what this will look like in a Bull run?!? 1000s of new projects launching, with droves of new & dormant users flooding back to the market for a piece of the action. Basic economics, supply & demand. As supply goes down, demand goes up. Bullish.

As far as the NFT markets go, a number of metrics are down including overall market volume, though what we are seeing is the number of profitable traders outweighs those in a loss over a 30-day period. What is great to see is the emergence of new assets, including Reddit NFTs. We dive into these below, the bigger picture is that it opens up a large bull case for NFTs as a whole.

🍦SCOOPS OF THE WEEK

🍦Azuki Raise $2.5m

🍦Is A Twitter Crypto Wallet On The Way

🍦New Prime Minister for the UK

🍦Opensea Insider Trading Case Update

🍦NFTs Can Be Considered Property

Azuki Raise $2.5m

The Blue-chip project that we here at Scoop have been Bullish on is making a real stamp on the Newsletter recently.

In case you missed it Azuki welcomed $30m of fundraising sending the floor to above 11 ETH. Also last week, we informed you of The rollout of the PBT standard that will be used by Azuki in the release of 9 X 24-carat plated golden skateboards.

The Auction has since taken place and the total sum raised from the skateboard sale was $2.5m from 145 bids.

The highest bid was $460,000 and the lowest was $260,000.

Our View

We remain very Bullish on all things Azuki. The merging of digital and physical utilities is to be admired and can arguably be the benchmark for other projects who wish to create a balance between the two or on the other hand for brands looking to evolve into Web3.

Is A Twitter Crypto Wallet On The Way

It has been revealed that Twitter is exploring the concept of a wallet prototype that supports Crypto deposits and withdrawals.

Not many details are known as of yet but as always, there are a lot of questions in relation to this, especially regarding fees, privacy, security, and practicality.

We can't fault companies looking at ways to expand our Crypto/Web3 experiences however we just have to be cautious we as investors will actually benefit.

New Prime Minister for the UK

You would be right to assume that It feels like there have been more leaders of the UK recently than we here at Scoop have had hot dinners.

The latest to take up the hot seat at No 10 is none other than the previous runner-up, ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Now why is this featuring in a NFT Related Newsletter.

Good question, the reason being is Rishi's Stance on NFTs and all things Crypto.

Whilst Chancellor back in April, the now Prime Minister asked the Royal Mint to create an NFT in an attempt to show Britain is at the cutting edge for new technologies

Unfortunately, this NFT never came to light, but at least the mindset was in the right place.

However, Sunak has made it very clear he wants to turn Britain into a "Crypto Hub".

Our View

As far as forward thinkers go in terms of the economy and adaption to Web3 there isn't anyone better for the job right now.

We do however have one outstanding concern regarding potential regulation if a wider adoption of Crypto is to be introduced.

Opensea Insider Trading Case Update

Bit of a throwback this one, to the initial story breaking anyway.

In case you weren't a subscriber (darker times we know) here is a swift reminder:

The prosecutors of New York’s Southern district arrested Nathaniel Chastain, former head of product for Opensea in June. The ex-employee was charged on two counts. One count for money laundering to commit insider trading and one count for wire fraud.

It is alleged that Chastain was “using confidential information about what NFTs are going to be featured on Opensea homepage for his personal financial gain.”

So what has happened since?

On Friday 21st October, it was decided by a Judge in the case that the matter can proceed. This was following Chastain filing a motion to dismiss the charges arguing the Government did not have enough evidence to support a money-laundering charge. Further, he was unable to be charged with insider trading due to NFTs being neither securities nor commodities under the relevant part of the law.

Our View

It's a legal matter and a very serious accusation so we need to keep the majority of our thoughts to ourselves on this one.

What we will say is, guilty or not, there is a responsibility on websites/projects to ensure that we as investors feel safe. Common sense does also apply to us as investors, however, so please ensure you continue to navigate this wonderful world in the safest way possible.

NFTs Can Be Considered Property

This is according to the Singapore High Court in it's ruling regarding none other than a matter involving a Bored Ape NFT where the NFT was used as security against a loan.

Justice Lee Seiu Kin ruled that NFTs meet certain legal requirements to be considered property, such as being distinguishable from other similar assets and having an owner who can be recognized by third parties.

Our View

It's a very sensitive subject, one one hand when you have that diamond gem in your possession you want to ensure it's ultimately protected, potentially by law and safe from being taken from you.

On the other hand, there needs to be a fine balance between the regulated and unregulated territories of our world. It shouldn't just come down to the value, there needs to be a blanket applied regarding NFTs and it is up to us an investors to ensure we take every measure we can to be able to cope in a decentralized fashion.

🏆SCOOP'S WEEKLY WINNER

It's very rare something receives winner status in back to back newsletters. In fact it's pretty much unheard of.

However, following on from them topping the chart for the most wallets in the space, we went on to say the following:

"As Reddit is a social media platform they have a strong non-nft related community, 50 million daily users to be precise. Their revenue doubled from $170m in 2020 to circa $350m in 2022. As the uptake has been strong so far, we expect more bullish movements in its web3 adaption"

That last sentence couldn't have been timed better as on the 21st of October, Reddit launched their 2nd generation of collectable Avatars which was 40,000 pieces.

All 40,000 sold out within 24 hours ranging from $10 to $100. Compare this to the 1st launch which took weeks to sell out.

Now why does this mean it's a winner?

The answer, items minted are already selling at 40 to 50x the initial mint price on Opensea.

Despite volume being fairly low (the mint did start at $10 in fairness) what this launch has done is onboard over 3 million users (remember the news last week that took them to the top of the chart)

The only issue we can see is the potential flooding of the market but we can wait and see if this actually comes to fruition.

THE REKT SECTION 😡

Double agents, bribes, Crypto...this seems like a James Bond sort of film but set in 2035.

To our amazement, it's right now and it's fairly serious.

Two Chinese intelligence officers have been charged with obstruction of justice in attempting to bribe a double agent, working on behalf of the FBI, with a $61k payment in the form of Bitcoin so they could steal information regarding an ongoing investigation and prosecution of a Chinese Based Company.

One of the main issues regarding this breaking story is probably the hammering of regulation that could be demanded due to the payment method suggested... decentralized what?

Another thing that has always been associated with our wonderful world is the potential of associated crime, a measure of untraceable actions... we'd like to point out it's not all milk and honey IRL.

Overall, trying to bribe a double agent with Bitcoin that obstructs the course of justice, can't be anything other than REKT.

🔥HOT TRENDS

Reddit NFTs and beyond..

Reddit has successfully onboarded 3 million users into Web3 & NFTs without anyone knowing & with 52 Million total users, there is plenty more where that came from. In fact, they recently overtook the number of active traders on Opensea. This is a glimpse into what mass adoption feels like, it's smooth, it happens fast & goes viral right in plain sight.

Back in July The Scoop NFT reported on the release of Reddit crypto collectibles. If you were paying attention or already an avid Reddit user the chances are you either ended up buying some of the Gen1 avatars or were airdropped avatars from Reddit for being an active user on their platform.

Just a few days ago, Gen 2 collection was released. Both Gen1 & Gen2 are selling on Opensea for 40-50X their original sale price. The creator collection was designed by independent creators in collaboration with Reddit, the avatars could be bought directly on Reddit for the price of $9.99 to $100. Reddit NFTs or (Reddit Collectible Avatars) have now started to gain serious momentum with strong secondary sales markets developing. Yup.. Number Go Up.

But why?

Reddit cleverly hid all the crypto / NFT terminology which would put off the regular non-Web3 native user. To purchase a Reddit NFT users were tasked to open a Vault, A.K.A a crypto wallet & secondly to pay for the NFTs you need to card payments that everyone is used to it. Reddit clearly stated the benefits & utility of the NFTs (Reddit Collectible Avatars), e.g, Standing out in the comments / You own the Avatar / they are collectible & can be transferred.

Reddit then began airdropping active users with avatar NFTs, and users then started using them as profile pictures, popularity grew & pay-for-collections then started selling out. Demand then surged and created large demand on secondary markets on Opensea. #1 Midas just sold for 18ETH and was purchased for $100 just 3 days ago!

When there are large profits to be made, degens will follow. Reddit users & now the wider NFT community are eagerly waiting for more collections to come on sale in the Reddit Avatar Shop.

But where do we go from here? This kinda feels like the NFT 2021 bull run. Expect new collections to drop and moon in price from new creators in the coming weeks as well as individual customizable traits. The Reddit collectible market is in a near-euphoric phase now so you can also expect volatility in price action. In order to 'Mint' or purchase new avatars that are released you will need to have a Reddit account and then navigate to the 'Shop'. You can get here by clicking on your Reddit profile picture and then selecting Style Avatar > Shop.

What's interesting is that Reddit users for a while were quite 'Anti NFTs and were quite happy to bash the crypto & NFT markets They then get shown a product that has benefits to them as users without the terminology 'NFTs' or 'Crypto' and they are quickly adopted and go vital.

Ultimately this is very bullish for the NFT industry. In the case of Reddit, Web2 users have just been onboarded into Web3 seamlessly, with no use of the world crypto or NFT. It is now clear that normies and not just Degens clearly value online identity & personalization. Outside of Reddit, there are tonnes of Web2 platforms that have millions of users who can follow the path of Reddit and again onboard millions into Web3. With new users, comes more volume, with more volume you can expect more volatility & opportunities to arise. For us, the obvious next mover is online gaming, where users will be able to create, own, buy & sell In-game skins and assets. This will likely also open a huge market for independent creators to develop, design & sell in-game assets.

You can read more about Reddit Collectible Avatars here.

L0rd oF tHe DeGeNS 🙏

Welcome L0rd Marlborough to The NFT Scoop Team 🍦

A bit from L0rd...

I joined the NFT space in Oct 2021 and have been in love since. I actively trade collect JPEGs & try to help build dope products that can bring web3 to the masses and disrupt our digital experience. I am pumped to join The NFT Scoop team to deliver you analysis on tools & projects with a sprinkle of Alpha. You can follow me on Twitter here!

Let's dive into L0rd's first article

A spectre is haunting NFT marketplaces: the spectre of Blur

If you haven’t been living under a rock, you should know by now that there is a new marketplace in town. It feels more like a listings aggregator with advanced analytics, the comparison with the popular NFT trading platform “NFT Nerds” comes naturally, but it serves traders and collectors equally well. Blur has joined the game and it’s here to stay.

This past Wednesday, Blur launched its open beta and announced plans for future airdrops and rewards for bear market traders. Anybody that has traded NFTs in the past 6 months is eligible to claim Blur Care Packages, that in January will be swappable for BLUR tokens. If you aren’t a true degen, and preferred sunbathing at the beach instead of making weird goblin noises in Twitter Spaces, don’t worry. Blur announced a second round of Care Packages for anyone that lists and sweeps active collections on their platform. More details on both airdrops can be found here:

I was fortunate enough to be a beta tester for Blur (shoutout to Metaverse HQ for being the first NFT community to be onboarded) and have had access since June. I must say I was skeptical at the beginning: another NFT marketplace, backed by VCs, what good could it bring to the space? But in the last couple of months, I’ve completely fallen in love with it. Blur is the Bloomberg Terminal for NFTs, and just by looking at it, with its neon orange design, it reminds me so much of the premier trading tool of finance. The marketplace that just launched has 0% fees, it is 10x faster than competitors in detecting new listings, and in its closed beta it became the aggregator with the second-highest ETH volume traded. Trust me, you feel all of this and more when you trade on Blur: listings pop up instantly (try listing from your collection and see for yourself!), buying is fast and easy, you have gas presets you can play with and their floor depth display is really well done. The information is concise and well distributed in the interface, everything fits in and you don’t have to endlessly scroll to find what you’re looking for. As mentioned earlier, Blur has also thought about collectors, and the 4 different ways to display NFTs, ranging from small listings to large images reflect that. One of my favourite features and something Blur has nailed, is the sweep function, which is incredibly fast and allows you to skip NFTs with pending transactions. Any trader understands how game-changing that is. But I think that the real reason I love this platform so much is the responsiveness from the team. I have had several DM exchanges with Pacman - the Blur founder, trying to give suggestions and contributions. I had never spoken to him before, but I found a person that genuinely cared about his users’ experience and that was interested in my suggestions (some of which are going to be implemented). This collaborative aspect is what we need to create better marketplaces, better tools, and a better, more inclusive space for everyone. Hope to see you trading on Blur!

Website: Blue.io

Twitter: blur_io

Disclaimer

The NFT Scoop newsletter or podcast is not financial advice, it is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only.

NFT’s can be highly illiquid markets, causing sharp drops in prices due to changes in narratives and trends.