GM - this is The Snapshot, edition #107.
This is what I’ve got for you this week:
This Week In NFT World - 500 ETH Raised By AI Artist Claire Silver
Sponsored Post - Lil Nouns Hit ETH Denver with 3 ETH budget
Notable Sales - Node Monke, Ringers, Gazers, Captainz
Investor Focus - $6B FDV Airdrop For Solana Users
For sponsorship enquires, please DM me on Twitter.
Have a great day,
B
This Week In NFT World - Claire Silver raises 500 ETH ($1.17M) by selling out digital fashion drop corpo real at 500 pieces for 1 ETH each
"Claire Silver's corpo | real sold out 500 pieces at 1 ETH. This was a year-long project, an incredible amount of detail and rigor. Multiple top sales, all in the 2.5 - 5 ETH range. The floor has fallen slightly to 0.9 ETH."
Details from @punk9059
"Probably the most brutal set of defaults I've seen. Borrower took out a 98E loan on these a month ago and failed to repay yesterday. Basically got liquidated for ~180E worth of NFTs on a 1 month 98E loan... Ouch"
Details from @CirrusNFT
This collection of Quantum Mice came out on the day that the highly anticipated Quantum Cats mint on BTC was delayed.
Classic derivative pump (although not sure we have ever had a derivative of something which doesn’t even exist yet lol)
Anyway, Quantum Cats mint will now be on Monday and will cost 0.1 BTC (around $4,000).
NFT lending rates on Blend have gone through the roof
The chart shows the average APR for loans in the 75-85% LTV range over the past few days. Degods: 9.7% --> 147% Azuki: 2.2% --> 66.2% MAYC: 2.75% --> 64.1% Pudgys: 16.1% --> 64.1%
Chart and quote from @punk9059
Why has lending become so attractive?
Our best guess is that the incentives to provide loans are not working because the incentive to farm the future $BLUR / $BLAST airdrop is too strong.
Because airdrop farmers can only farm $BLUR / $BLAST points if their loans are NOT taken, and because just two or three lenders have taken over the whole market - and they are not interested in making real loans - they always undercut the live loans with their offers, after which the borrowers refinance for the lower loans. This has broken the ‘real lenders’ because they can never get certainty on their loans, so they have all disappeared - meaning the rates have spiralled.
It’s a complex situation but one we will monitor.
Standard Chartered expects SEC to approve ETH ETFs on May 23
"Standard Chartered Bank expects the SEC to approve spot Ethereum ETFs on May 23. The bank predicts a potential $4,000 target for ETH if it mimics BTC’s pre-approval performance."
From @TheBlock__
A key question we asked this week: if BTC trended aggressively higher in anticipation of BTC ETF approval, will ETH do the same in advance of an ETH ETF approval (whether or not it does indeed happen in May or another time)?
The answer we thought was yes (NFA, DYOR, etc etc etc.) in the absence of any macro action which might screw us.
Tether makes more money than Goldman Sachs last quarter. Tether: $2.85B; Goldman: $2.01B
"Tether holds nearly $100bn which can earn more than 5% risk-free and pay out 0% interest. Complete beast of a business. $2.85bn in profit in the quarter (that's more than Nike made in 4Q)"
More context from @punk9059
The best business of all time is clearly the stablecoin business! Why? Because it’s the only place where you deposit your money and do not expect a yield - you simply expect security - so they can earn the yield risk free.
Sponsored Post - Lil Nouns Hit ETH Denver with 3 ETH budget
Lil Nouns DAO has voted for a 3 ETH proposal to give Lil Nouns a big presence at ETH Denver by sponsoring Pizza DAO’s event and incorporating mobile marketing, POAP and a Lil Pizza giveaway.
What will Lils be doing?
At PizzaDAO's event on February 28 which expects 500 attendees for the main event, Lils will be be incorporating a banner and POAP station at the event entrance and having a raffle prize with physical swag.
In addition, Lils have been working with CityDAO to secure a spot on a moving truck billboard that will be timed to go from the main Eth Denver event area to the PizzaDAO event with a "follow Lil Nouns to PizzaDAO" sign with art created by Borg - pretty fun!
This is just another example of Lil Nouns DAO governance in action, backing positive contributors to the DAO.
If you are curious about contributing to a cutting-edge DAO and getting paid to bring your ideas to life: check out our website.
Notable Sales - Node Monke, Ringers, Gazers, Captainz
Node Monke, Gold Hoodie - 1.8 BTC ($77,310)
Dmitri Cherniak, Ringers - 22.2 ETH ($52,000)
Matt Kane, Gazers - 10 ETH ($22.6k)
Captainz, Alien - 41.69 ETH ($95,000)
Investor Focus - $6B FDV Airdrop For Solana Users
The most popular DEX on Solana, Jupiter, gave its earliest supporters an airdrop this week which is one of the largest airdrops in crypto history.
Out of the gate it rocketed to almost a $7B FDV, and after 24 hours or so it has settled around $6B FDV.
Pretty cool to see this protocol which has been used for more than a year and praised by many voices “go public” creating all of this value.
Who was eligible?
Users of the protocol since its inception. People who used it very recently were not eligible.
Will there be more airdrops?
YES! This is the first of four airdrops.
So using Jupiter over the next year will get you an airdrop in January 2025, as airdrops will take place every January.
Why was their criticism?
There was some criticism however, as some believed that the Jupiter team should not have sold into the buying demand on the day of release. Moreover, they argued it was unclear that they would be doing this selling.
We had a strong take on this on the show:
My take:
1. Let teams make money on products they have spent years on building
2. Read the documents in full for yourself (since all of the information was public, just not fully read/digested by most)
3. The team did not raise before. This appears to be their “raise”. You are not obligated to participate in anyone’s raise if you do not like the terms.
Now the next big question.
What other opportunities are live on Solana?
Bridges
Mayan Finance (powered by Wormhole) - swap.mayan.finance
Exchanges
Jup - https://jup.ag/
Phantom - https://twitter.com/phantom
Backpack - https://twitter.com/xNFT_Backpack
Drift - https://app.drift.trade/ (ref link)
Zeta - https://dex.zeta.markets/trade/SOL-PERP
Provide Liquidity / Borrow
MarginFi - https://app.marginfi.com/ (ref link)
Parcl - referral code: bcheque https://app.parcl.co/
Kamino - https://app.kamino.finance
Have a great day,
B
Disclaimer: The content covered in this newsletter is not to be considered as investment advice. It is for informational and educational purposes only.
I hold some of the NFTs mentioned in these newsletters