GM - this is The Snapshot, edition #103.
This is what I’ve got for you this week:
This Week In NFT World - Market nukes on questionable investor report
Sponsored Post - Lil Nouns Implement Dynamic Quorum For Governance?
Notable Sales - ACK, Hobbs, Node Monkes, Gazers
Investor Focus - Eigenlayer hits $1.45B TVL - Why?
For sponsorship enquires, please DM me on Twitter.
Have a great day,
B
This Week In NFT World - Market nukes on questionable investor report
Crypto flash crashed this week on January 3 with the publication of a bearish investor report which suggested the BTC ETFs would not be approved.
What was strange was the report which was published ONE DAY BEFORE by the same company on January 2:
The explanation from the analyst, Markus Thielen:
“I changed my view.” (lol)
You can see Bitcoin has already begun its recovery after what was clearly a nonsensical reason for the market to nuke.
It was just the report’s OPINION that the SEC would reject the BTC ETF applications - no evidence was given. But that was enough to wipe out the leverage in the ecosystem, which had got too bullish coming into the potential confirmation of ETF news.
We nailed it on the morning show while the crash was happening live to understand that this was not a “justified” crash.
Node Monkes pass 750 BTC ($33M) volume and pass 0.25 BTC ($11k) floor
Node Monkes seem to be cementing themselves as the premier NFT collection on Bitcoin.
Founder of Yuga Labs, Gordon Goner, who often sends projects into meteoric (sometimes temporary) rises, bought the above NFT and the monkes have kept rising since.
The volume has been astounding and some serious buyers have stepped in.
"some big $BTC wallets stepping into the Ordinals arena. this guy just logged on and bought $400,000 of monkes in the last hour, including 4 aliens."
Mickey Mouse Steamboat Willie NFT goes from $2 to $1000 and back down to $250
The founder of Goblin Town created this $2 Mickey Mouse mint "to commentate the moment in time that Streamboat Willie entered public domain."
It ran to a floor price as high as $1,000, but has since sunk to a $250 floor price.
"Yes. I made it $2 a piece so it didn’t get botted and 0% royalty. Just to commentate the moment in time that Streamboat Willie entered public domain. Now a group of degens launched $willie and are on their way to being the new Disney."
Founder of Plague hiring for "NFT Founder in Training"
Pons, who runs the NFT Project, The Plague, this week announced he was looking for an "NFT Founder in Training".
"They will NOT be taking over The Plague. But if successful in this position, we will help them launch their own project in 2025. What can you expect to get out of this position?
Mentoring on how to run a business first and an NFT project second.
Support from the best NFT community in the industry.
Pay while in position. Variable like the rest of the team.
An NFT project of your own (not The Plague) to run when you are done. Your idea (if it is good) for a project, or ours if you don't have a good idea."
This is a pretty unique proposition.
The NFT Founder is notoriously seen as a thankless task: building in public on steroids, where you have to face your stakeholders every day on Twitter.
My thoughts:
I'm not sure that you can teach the entrepreneurial spirit to make it as a founder in this space.
But, if you have that spirit, I can see how being around other founders who are succeeding could really push you forward.
Mentorship > Training.
Sponsored Post - Lil Nouns Implement Dynamic Quorum For Governance
Lil Nouns DAO is voting on a proposal to implement dynamic quorum for enhanced governance. Now what does that mean?
Dynamic quorum enhances governance by requiring varying levels of support for proposals based on their content.
For example, controversial proposals typically lead to higher voter turnout. As such, adjusting dynamic quorum parameters can incentivize greater participation and delegation, thereby improving the health of the DAO.
What does that mean in practice?
This proposal advocates setting the Maximum Quorum at 15% (to ensure a majority can decide the outcome of contentious proposals) and reducing the Minimum Quorum to 5% (making it easier for uncontroversial proposals to pass).
This is just another example of Lil Nouns DAO seeking to innovate in the realm of on-chain governance.
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 - ACK, Hobbs, Node Monkes, Gazers
ACK, Tiger Lily - 16 ETH ($35,000)
Tyler Hobbs, Fidenza - 69.9 ETH ($166,000)
Hoodie Node Monke - 3 BTC ($127,000)
Matt Kane, Gazers - 45 ETH ($108,000)
Investor Focus - Eigenlayer hits $1.45B TVL - Why?
Eigenlayer has a TVL of 613k ETH ($1.45B).
It is widely considered to be one of the best airdrop opportunities in 2024.
Here is the lowdown on staking and restaking.
What is Eigenlayer?
From @eigenlayer:
EigenLayer is a protocol built on Ethereum that introduces restaking, a new primitive in cryptoeconomic security. This primitive enables the reuse of ETH on the consensus layer. Users that stake ETH natively or with a liquid staking token (LST) can opt-in to EigenLayer smart contracts to restake their ETH or LST and extend cryptoeconomic security to additional applications on the network to earn additional rewards.
How can I get exposure?
All LST deposits are now on pause because they just hit the cap.
However you can still enter in different ways:
1. Native Restaking: you need 32 ETH for this and can enter from here https://app.eigenlayer.xyz/token/ETH
2. You can also enter via protocols who restake your staked ETH to Eigenlayer for you
i) @ether_fi - You can stake ETH with EtherFi (by minting eETH) and automatically have your ETH restaked to Eigenlayer
"We will be remitting 100% of these [Eigenlayer] points received to our eETH holders from day 1, and are displaying their allocation of the EigenLayer points in their dashboard."
Airdrop potential: eETH holders will earn EtherFI Loyalty Points + EigenLayer points (2 birds with one stone)
ii) @KelpDAO - You can restake stETH and ETHx with KelpDAO. You could have earned Eigenlayer points + Kelp Miles by restaking with KelpDAO, but now that Eigenlayer deposits are paused you can only get Kelp Miles by depositing ETHx with Kelp (they will restake with Eigenlayer so you can earn those points too when the caps are raised again but not sure when that will be yet).
Airdrop potential: Immediately you can start getting Kelp Miles; when caps are raised again you can get Eigenlayer points too
iii) @swellnetworkio - Swell is a version of staked ETH. You can mint swETH with your ETH.
It just became the "second-largest LST on EigenLayer, with ~$270M worth of restaked liquid ETH collateral representing ~25% of restaked assets".
You can't actually deposit this directly into Eigenlayer right now because the cap has been hit. But I mention it because they are running their own Pearl points system for staking your ETH (not to be confused with the restaking above).
Airdrop potential: Immediately you can start earning Pearls by staking your ETH (you will receive swETH)
What are the risks?
Risks include but are not limited to smart contract risks, key management risks, regulatory risks and financial losses. DYOR to understand fully.
Conclusions
All things being equal it looks like @ether_fi is the only place you can get BOTH native loyalty points AS WELL AS Eigenlayer points right now.
Nevertheless, I have exposure across these protocols.
If you'd like to participate here are some referral links to get started in each:
1. EtherFi
2. Kelp (not ref)
3. Swell
4. Eigenlayer (not ref)
Good luck!
Let me know if I've missed anything or should be looking at anything else.
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