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

🍦STATE OF THE MARKET

NFT

• NFT total market cap - $22Billion dollars (44x smaller than the Crypto Market)

• NFT trading volume is up $48 million dollars this week in comparison to last week

• The NFT Blue Chip Index remains relatively stable in comparison to last week - (9106ETH/USD) -

• NFT blue chip index down 39% from All time high in April 2022

• Last 7 days showed more profitable traders than non profitable.

• NFT 'fine art' remains to perform well.

• Global organisations continue to make moves to adopt NFT technology.

Crypto

• Crypto total market cap - $1.03 Trillion (44x larger than the NFT market)

• ETH with even in a bear market is pretty much now a deflationary asset.

• Last week saw rallies across majors + Alt coins

• CZ & SBF - battle it out - causing $FTT token to dump

• ETH is down 5.3% in the last 7 days.

• Trends Narratives to watch - Arbitrum season (Layer 2) on ETH.

• $CHZ & Fan tokens in the lead up to the world cup.

Scoop's take 

• We are hugely bullish on ETH in the medium to long term as an asset class & will dollar cost average in. The NFT markets are being led by Fine Art at the moment as the industry goes through a state of transformation awaiting the next narrative. PFP's won't lead the next bull run.

🍦SCOOPS OF THE WEEK

🍦Binance v FTX

🍦$3.36bn Worth of Bitcoin Seized

🍦Rolex Files Trademarks

🍦Cointelegraph Launch Delayed

🍦World Wide Web Founder Wants Us To Ignore Web3

🍦Meta Expected To Make Large Job Cuts But Reddit Are Expanding

Binance v FTX

It's a war nobody wants to see, the two largest exchanges are having a public feud that is turning into a smear campaign that we would normally see at an Election.

It's not quite a David v Goliath fight but taking the analogy for context, Binance currently does circa 10x more volume than FTX.

So why the dispute?

The CEO of FTX SBF wants to be the top dog and in doing so is trying to win over the regulators in America. He became one of the biggest donors in America and was the 2nd largest donor to the Biden campaign, this was his idea of growing to the top.

So even though Binance is doing 10x more volume, CZ, the CEO of Binance is clearly feeling a potential threat to the exchange pride rock. 

CZ identified that SBF's downfall would be this political involvement with regulators, after all, the de-centralized world was the way it was supposed to be. SBF quickly became under severe scrutiny following proposals on regulation and he received major backlash. 

There was a second potential artillery that CZ had and he was not afraid to use it. CoinDesk recently published a story stating that the majority of Alameda (FTXs Trading Arm) assets ($14.6bn) were in the form of FTT tokens that the company prints itself. CZ realised if he could tank the token price then FTX as an exchange would be at huge risk. 

CZ went public stating that he was liquidating Binance's FTT position citing the LUNA situation as his reason.

Well CZ got what he wants and FTT price has since tanked with the price falling 30% in 3 hours, this has investors all over the world worried that their crypto holdings in FTX may not be retrievable. 

SBF took to Twitter to say that a competitor is coming after them with false rumours and the company is fine as are assets.

Whatever happens now the gloves are off.

Our View

To us as investors, there is no winner. There will no doubt be a widespread lack of confidence in not just these two exchanges but in exchanges generally.

Competition is healthy, it allows us as investors a choice; what suits our needs better whether that be location access, fees etc. 

We just hope the bell rings, it's a draw and we can go forward as a united front.

$3.4bn Worth of Bitcoin Seized

They don't tend to hand out prizes for second place, maybe a silver medal if you're lucky but to athletes second place tends to be first loser.

It's a good job the Department of Justice doesn't view it like a general athlete as they have just recovered the second-largest Bitcoin seizure in their history with an estimated worth of $3.4bn.

This recovery was announced following the guilty plea of wire fraud entered by James Zhong on Friday 4th November.

In case you weren't aware, Zhong was allegedly behind a trading scheme 10 years ago to defraud Silk Road of its Bitcoin without listing or buying anything from their marketplace. This trick triggered over 140 transactions, releasing 50,000 bitcoins into multiple accounts owned by Zhong. 

Our View

We have seen a huge ramp-up of prosecution in relation to Crypto activity so we don't expect this will be the last.

What we really want to know is what are the plans for the recovered funds... to get a rough idea of how much has actually been recouped you could buy 31,192 Bored Apes.

Rolex Files Trademarks

If you watched our latest video you will see we asked if would you rather have a Rolex or a Punk...following this latest development you may be able to have a form of the 2 in 1.

Last week, the arguably most famous watch-makers in the world filed a trademark which included plans for NFTs, NFT-backed media, NFT marketplace, crypto keys, crypto transactions, virtual goods auctions, virtual and cryptocurrency exchanges and transfers.

Our View

The jewellery business is a very strong market that can incorporate NFTs quite easily. There is a global demand for Rolex watches with waiting lists running into the years in terms of time frames. With the introduction of NFTs that could effectively be your ticket in the queue, there is a massive revenue opportunity that we are sure won't be missed.

We witnessed the success of Tiffany's launch which included IRL pieces...watch this space.

Cointelegraph Launch Delayed

Transparency and honesty are fundamentals we want from projects and if that means a mint gets delayed for good reason then so be it.

This is the case for this project's launch, the delay is down to 460,000 patient investors on the watchlist waiting to get their hands on a piece. Cointelegraph felt that due to the demand they would need to provide a fairer launch.

We took a look into the project and we think it's a pretty cool concept. The title is “Historical,” and the NFTs available to mint, own and trade are specific articles the company has written over the years.

We would love to know what story you would love to mint or own...check out our Twitter page for an upcoming poll.

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World Wide Web Founder Wants Us To Ignore Web3

Tim Berners-Lee the genius behind the invention of the World Wide Web has taken a predictable dig at Web3. 

The scientist stated at the Websummit in Lisbon that "It's a real shame in the fact that the actual Web3 name was taken by Ethereum folks for the stuff that they're doing with blockchain. In fact, Web3 is not the web at all."

It didn't take too much research to find where the hate derives from. It turns out Tim has his own proposal for reshaping the internet which he has coined the "True Web 3.0" (different from Web3 as we know it) The project is called "Solid" which aims to give users control of their own data. 

Our View

This won't be the last attack on Web3 or Crypto or NFTs for that matter. Those that have been around for decades making globally changing products are now facing the prospect of new up-and-coming superstars to steal the spotlight.

We file this one under jealousy.

Meta Expected To Make Large Job Cuts But Reddit Are Expanding

Last week we told you that Web3 were sweeping the talent and it didn't just end there, a huge factor in this was large companies having no choice but to streamline their workforce.

Unfortunately for those at Meta, they are next in line under the scope for redundancies. 

With 87,000 employees currently on the books, it's been hinted changes would not be too drastic but the company would be focusing on investments in smaller high-priority growing areas with job cuts expected to be announced this week.

One area that is covered by this is certainly the Metaverse, although Mark Zuckerberg said he expects the metaverse investments to take around 10 years to yield positive results.

What we are seeing though is week after week Web3 companies are continually expanding.

Reddit is the latest to expand its Web3 division, they are looking to hire multiple senior software engineers that have fluency in Solidity and Ethereum smart contract auditing.

Our View

For as long as you turn on the news and see the words recession and inflation job cuts tends to be the third word missing in that sentence.

There are many worse things you can be doing with your time than watching tutorials/seminars on skills that Web3 requires and a goal you set regarding that certain skill may just lead you to an incredible opportunity.

🏆SCOOP'S WEEKLY WINNER 

Fine Art pieces in the NFT markets have typically performed well of late....collections such as Art Blocks in particular.

The project recently launched its latest free airdrop called Friendship Bracelet where any investor who held an Art Blocks piece before the snapshot which took place on the 28th of October was entitled to 2 of the bracelets.

Since the airdrop took place the floor price has gone one way...it's the weekly winner section so you can guess what direction.

From a free mint, the floor at the time of writing currently sits at 0.23 ETH, so those eligible will have had the opportunity for a free 0.46 ETH so all we can say for now is well done, come and get your trophy Art Blocks.

L0rd oF tHe DeGeNS 👑

By L0rd Marlborough: 

It is not about money, it’s about what’s right!...I mean, it’s just 90% about the money, there are also other important factors like....

Royalties. You must hate the word by now. Royalties taking away our hard-earned profit, giving extra money to ruggers to buy their Lambo instead of spending it on the Bored Mutant Eagle Country Club NFT collection you bought that would’ve mooned if only devs had invested in the project! But most importantly, we hate royalties because EVERYBODY can’t stop talking about them. It's been a month NFT Twitter, jeez, get over it!

Yes, this article is about royalties. But as the title suggests it is not all about money! It’s also about other important factors like, and, and let’s not forget… ok it’s only about money. But why is it important? These projects raise millions at times and don’t deliver anything, why should I give my hard-earned profit to these teams? 

I hear you. The answer is, that royalties in an open-source system are one of the best utilities NFTs have. We all know the story about web2 royalties being very low for creators/artists and that the “in-between” is getting a huge cut by providing the service (Apple IOS Store 30% fees, Youtube ADS and creator revenue, music labels. And I’m only citing what are “virtuous” players, don’t get me started on the Facebook 47.5% metaverse fees structure!). 

The power of these web2 platforms is the closed systems and economies they’ve created in which they can charge creators whatever they want, leaving no bargaining power to the small fish. Now, I think that if you provide a service you should be entitled to ask for a fee, but at the same time a majority of the fees out there are absurd. But one of the great things about web3 is that it tears down these imaginary web2 walls and creates interoperability, it creates more competition, it creates an open source system that can supplant any service provider with a closed ecosystem.

This idea of an open system is appealing for many industries, and for many big web2 brands too, but royalties are a huge part of it because they allow the NFT originator to get paid in perpetuity and it changes the way people create things. I know that the NFT projects we have been minting aren’t really an example of virtuous work, and many don’t deserve to receive a penny of the royalties they have and are getting but think for a moment in principle about this. Artists can sell their artwork and still live off their art. Artists can now sell their artwork for free and still profit. The same goes for musicians and all digital creators. This is an incredible change in the way people think about creation. We can now monetize communities providing free value to our users, and we can do this in an ethical way, not asking them to accept cookies and get tracked all over the internet. Ticketing providers can eliminate scams, can finally encourage user-to-user trading of tickets (where they finally get a cut!), and can create richer, more engaging digital experiences, and reward you more. The list goes on. 

Personally, I’m very disappointed by most NFT marketplaces on the royalty front. Sudo, MagicEden, and X2Y2 have done a terrible job at it, and have effectively eliminated royalties for the project. Blur and LooksRare have tried to find in-between solutions, Blur by rewarding more $BLUR tokens users that respect royalties, and LooksRare by sharing $LOOKS rewards with creators. These aren’t perfect solutions, but at least they’re something. OpenSea has been the only marketplace to enforce royalties but the most recent announcements are simply terrible. In a blog post also a TLDR can be found in this Twitter thread  This weekend OpenSea announced that they would be enforcing royalties only for collections that used their tool for royalty enforcement. That doesn’t sound bad until you read that in order to enforce royalties OS requires creators to ban all marketplaces that don’t have royalties enforced. This means that if you want royalties enforced on OS you must ban all of the competitors that don’t enforce them (that means you’re banning everybody else). If you don’t ban all of the other marketplaces then your royalties on OS are set to zero. Furthermore, this applies retroactively, so even older collections need to do this, but this requires a smart contract implementation and most of the older collections didn’t plan for this (rightfully so I’d add!). There is a lot of concern, even between bigger players, about having to migrate or wrap contracts. The bottom line is: it’s technically challenging, it provides for a terrible user experience, and solves nothing. OpenSea created even more confusion and is trying to stifle the competition the wrong way, without actually improving its mediocre offering, and maybe even more importantly, it’s creating that “closed ecosystem” that feels very web2-like.

It’s a messy situation, but if there is one thing you should take from this is that royalties are a must-have for the real-world uses NFTs will have. We always talk about giving power back to the people, if in principle we don’t give it our all as a community to support creators we will never gain mass adoption. One thing is certain: you might hate royalties, but as a space, we will continue talking about them for a long time.

THE REKT SECTION 😡

We asked WTF they were, this project soared to 21 ETH and executed a clever technique with influencers to get the world talking.

Well with fame comes scrutiny and what was uncovered sent shockwaves through the world.

Art Gobblers...Welcome to REKT

Looking at the floor price now of 4.1 ETH compared to this time last week of 21 ETH this is more than an influencers pump and dump.

Well, you would be right. 

Even though many managed to sell for amazing profits, the same we haven't witnessed since Invisible Friends, the FOMO piling into this project should have been hugely concerning.

There were a few triggering points that set off the mass dump.

One is Andr3w who is one of web3's top-followed and well-respected names within the space had his Art Gobblers Twitter account doxxed where he was found to be pretending to be a 13-year-old. Hate quickly followed and some in the Twitter community were throwing allegations of paedophilia. The floor started to dip following this.

Next came Justin Roiland, the community hunted for some of his old work and came across some media which really caused concern. In one of the clips on his website, there was an extremely disturbing story about child abuse, torture and drowning children.

That was it, game over. The floor of Art Gobblers collapsed like a deck of cards.

We feel sorry for those who got in at the top. Losing 17 ETH in under a week is an expensive mistake but we want to reiterate the message of FOMO does not tend to lead you to gold.

The floor has started to level off at around 4 ETH but this could easily go to 0

🔥HOT TRENDS 

• We expect to see a frenzy on 'Meta's' Instagram as soon NFTs become tradable and issuable by users of the app.

• Pro tip* Identify accounts with a large influence/audience on the app. We think music NFTs & Sports NFTs could pop hard once the platform goes live.

• There are multiples more users on Instagram than the total traders in the NFT market, which means should this take off, there should be large volume & hype cycles.

• Instagram users will be initiated to pumps which gives you an edge.

• History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes.

• Watch this space.

🤡 WHOEVER CONTROLS THE MEME CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE 

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.