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OpeanSea Transaction Volume Shows That NFTs Are Not Slowing, Here Are Some Projects To Consider

We’ve only been in the new year for a few days, and OpenSea is proving to be NFT’s open sea.

On the second day of 2022, the NFT marketplace, which features some of the biggest blockchain-based collectibles from Bored Apes to CryptoPunks, announced $243 million in sales. The figure went up significantly during new year’s eve. The company made $170 million on January 1 and $124 million on December 31.

Opensea Sales Increased 646x In 2021, Cruises Into 2022

OpenSea ended 2021 with a total trading volume of nearly $14 billion. According to data from Token Terminal, the top NFT marketplace witnessed a volume of $21.7 million in 2020, implying that trading surged by a factor of 646 last year.

OpenSea daily cumulative transaction vol. Source: Token Terminal

OpenSea left its competitors in the dust.  According to data from DappRadar, the next largest platform, Rarible, handled $260 million in transactions in 2021.

Only a few niche collectors were aware of the possibilities of NFTs this time last year. OpenSea is now just one of several companies that have tapped into the rapidly expanding market. OpenSea accounted for more than $60 billion ($14 billion) of the $20 billion in NFT revenues recorded in 2021.

Statistics from Dune Analytics, a free blockchain data analytics platform, shows that OpenSea’s daily trade volumes have exceeded $200 million for six of the ten days so far in 2022. In 2022, OpenSea is on the verge of surpassing $2 billion in traded NFTs. Since the beginning of 2022, they have generated over $1.9 billion in trade activity.

ETH/USD plunges further as BTC struggles to recover. Source: TradingView

Bored Ape Yacht Club was the collection that earned OpenSea the most money in 2021. Bored Apes, which debuted in April and is based on the success of the original generative avatars, CryptoPunks, began a new trend of NFT animal avatar projects. BAYC has seen a trading volume of about 280,000 ETH, or around $1.06 billion, since its launch, accounting for 6.3 percent of OpenSea’s total volume.

While these collections are commanding record-breaking prices, data points to the Prime Ape Planet PAPs and the Bored Ape Kennel Club as potential emerging markets. Time will tell if they have staying strength, but in the meantime, they are contributing to a thriving market and some pretty incredible numbers.

Related article | Eminem Buys Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT That Looks Like Him For $452K

Here Are Some Other Projects To Consider On OpenSea
Metawatches

Metawatches is the first NFT watch company of its sort. The first to bring together cutting-edge technology with high-end art. Fully working NFTs with three separate modes for displaying the owner’s current time: Metaverse, Smartwatch, and Clock. The synergies that exist between art and technology are the focus of these functional NFT artworks. They mix the functionality of a smart watch with the luxury that is currently lacking in smart watches.

On January 8th-10th, 2022, “The Analog Summer 2021” was issued with a mint price of 0.8 Eth. On January 10th,  the NFT watch collection was revealed, with a total of 1,234 NFTs. All 1,234 NFTs have distinctive rarity qualities. They all trade on OpenSea.

The company also collaborated with internationally renowned NFT Artist Kenny Schatcher to create an exclusive collection of ten watches, which are only available through the Nagel Draxler Gallery.

The Moon Boyz

The Moon Boyz are a group of 11,111 distinct characters that exist on the Ethereum Blockchain. Each NFT is one-of-a-kind and 3D-designed, and it includes complete membership in an ever-growing community as well as superb utilities.

The Mekaverse

The MekaVerse is a collection of 8,888 generative Mekas inspired by Japan’s Mecha worlds.

Mattey and Matt B, two pals and 3D artists who have gone headfirst into the NFT space, created the MekaVerse project.

The MekaVerse project’s roadmap involves bringing the Mekas to life through high-quality 3D-printed toys. The MekaVerse project is still in progress, with the founders and holders of the characters driving the plan. The project’s goals include streetwear, partnerships with well-known artists, and the possibility of making short films based on the characters.

Related article | a16z, Mark Cuban invest $23 million in NFT platform OpenSea

Featured Image from Shutterstock | Charts by Token Terminal, and TradingView

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Crypto Exchange FTX US Sees Growth: Trading Volume Surged 512% In Q3

Crypto Exchange FTX US reported great growth during 2021 third quarter with an average daily trading volume of approximately $360 billion, a 512% jump from the second quarter.

FTX US’ user count surged 52% quarter-over-quarter, increased its headcount by 30%, and held about 4.5% of the U.S. crypto spot market’s volume by September 30th, a 2% increase compared to the beginning of the quarter. The company has reached a total value of $25 billion.

 Related Reading | Solana, FTX, Lightspeed Ventures To Launch $100M Web3 Gaming Fund

Brett Harrison, President of FTX US, commented during a Yahoo Finance interview:

The trust and support of our user base has allowed FTX US to become the fastest growing and most in-demand crypto exchange in the US, but we have barely scratched the surface. We will continue to improve our existing offerings and rapidly expand into new areas, including derivatives, NFTs, and payment services.

Institutions Make 60% Of FTX US’s Trading Volume

The growth shows a contrast with the Q3 report from crypto exchange giant Coinbase, which showed a 29.2% drop in their trading volume and a transacting user count decrease of 16%, from 8.8 million to 7.4 million quarter-over-quarter.

The main difference between FTX US and Coinbase, Harrison explained, is that the latter sees more retail volume, while 60% of FTX US’s volume comes from institutions like hedge funds, high-frequency and proprietary trading firms.

FTX had great brand exposure and marketing strategy during Q3. Harrison stated that the successful numbers are partially owed to the sports partnerships with distinguished athletes such as Tom Brady -and his wife, Gisele Bündchen-, alliances with Major League Baseball and the Miami Heat, as well as the weight of institutional investors in the platform.

Harrison commented to a news portal: “We’re now really being able to activate those partnerships and use them to advertise for our brand, to run promotions, to run giveaways and get people excited about signing up for our product,”

He also commented on FTX US’s aim to expand into the NFTs ecosystem, having recently launched a Solana-based NFTs marketplace of their own that focuses on providing “simpler, safer and easier tools to remove the barriers (…) to enter the NFT space”.

Their NFT project interconnects with the alliances with the athletes:

Many of our partnerships with these athletes involve NFTs and intellectual property that can be used for NFTs in some way, to really be able to activate those and bring exclusive NFTs to the FTX marketplace that no one else has, we really want to improve our offering there.

 Related Reading | FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Reveals Reason Behind Billions Of Dollars Tether Purchase

FTX US Role On Crypto Regulatory Policies

During the third quarter, attracted by the crypto derivatives trading volume, FTX US acquired LedgerX, now rebranded as FTX US Derivatives.

The acquisition has the purpose of offering retail and investors clients licensed crypto futures and options, as well as utilizing it as a shortcut to not spend “what could have been years” to receive licenses. This brought growth of demand from enthusiastic institutional customers.

Brett Harrison further commented on the subject:

FTX US Derivatives, will enable us to provide licensed crypto futures and options to our retail and institutional customers and has placed us in the unique position to reshape the US derivatives market. To achieve our goals, we will be in constant communication with regulatory agencies and are hoping to play a central role in defining crypto regulatory policy in the US.

Crypto total market cap at $2.8 trillion | Source: TradingView

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Bitcoin Short Squeeze Revives Trading Volume And Volatility

After what seems like a thousand years of stability and a slight downtrend, bitcoin is back. Volatility is wreaking havoc. Trading volume seems to be picking up steam. And, more importantly, the community’s morale is climbing up. In any case, what do the data and the on-chain analysis say? Are the numbers high enough to justify the excitement? Let’s explore them.

BTCUSD price chart for 07/27/2021 - TradingView

BTC price chart for 07/27/2021 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

Trading Volume Is Climbing, But, Is It A Trend?

According to Arcane Research, “On Monday, the daily trading volume in bitcoin reached $9.2 billion, which is the highest daily trading volume in bitcoin recorded since June 22nd.” That could be a good sign of a healthy market making a recovery, but hold your horses. The market had been stagnant for a while, and not only that, before the spike we had “Four consecutive days bellow $3 billion.”

Related Reading | Bitcoin Trading Volume Plunges To Lowest Level Since 2020

Even though $9.2M is a promising number, take into account that “Overall, the 7-day average trading volume remains substantially below its yearly average and trading activity in bitcoin seems to be low so far this summer.” From where we stand, there’s no way of knowing if the market is picking up or if we are witnessing a statistic anomaly. We’ll have to wait and see.

Trading Volume BTC chart

BTC Daily Volume is rising | Source: Arcane Research

Volatility Is Back In Action, But, Is It Here To Stay?

Even though traditional finance is afraid of it, the Bitcoin community thrives on volatility. And, again according to Arcane Research, “Yesterday, the markets moved towards the upside, leading the 7-day volatility to climb above the 30-day volatility.” So, volatility is back, but, are we off to the races? Don’t be so sure.

“Last summer, a similar event occurred when bitcoin was consolidating throughout the summer on declining volatility, before seeing a sudden 11% gain on July 27th, 2020. Then, the market corrected back toward the lower end of the consolidation range quickly thereafter and remained within its consolidation range throughout the summer.”

Are we in the same cycle, though? So far, 2021 has been insane for Bitcoin. All the predictions fell through. All the models seem to be failing. And there’s hope. The bull run might be over, but it also might not. And if we are still in the bull run, there’s no point comparing the situation to last summer. We might be in a whole different ball game.

Volatility BTCUSD chart

BTC/ USD Volatility is wreaking havoc | Source: Arcane Research

The Short Squeeze That Generated This

Everything happened “On Monday, $750 million worth of shorts got liquidated, as bitcoin climbed from $34000 to $39500. This is the largest short squeeze we’ve recorded in bitcoin, surpassing the squeeze amid bitcoin breaking its 2017 ATH on December 16th-17th.” That catastrophic event shifted Bitcoin’s tectonic plates and put volatility, trading volume, and everything in motion. How long will it last, though? That’s the question.

Related Reading | $150 Million In Short Squeeze Liquidated As Bitcoin Scales Above $53,000

About the short squeeze is worth noting that “Binance changed their API following the May 19th crash,” so the numbers might not be precise. In fact, according to Arcane Research, the situation might’ve been “severely underestimated by Bybt. This short squeeze was, therefore, very likely far larger than $750 million.”

Featured Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay - Charts by TradingView