While NFTs are currently in a somewhat bearish cycle, the cryptocurrency market as large has held impressively strong relative to many other public markets. NFTs are no exception. So while many prices slowly seem to slide, there’s also still strong growth in transaction volumes and new users.
In this week’s Nutshell, we’re closing out April on a high note with less corporate dialogue than usual, and more community discussion than we typically dive into. Let’s review the past week of action in all things NFTs.
This Week’s Non-Fungible Token News
A $34M Contract Flaw
Aku Dreams was a highly anticipated NFT project that was expected to hit the market over the course of the past week, but a minor contract flaw ended up having major implications for the project’s release. A fault piece of coding in the contract resulted in $34M worth of locked tokens that were inaccessible to both individuals and the project devs. The NFT community lives and dies by the smart contract; a hard-earned lesson for the comm at large.
The Emergence Of Moonbirds
Moonbirds were a hot topic in last week’s Nutshell, and they remain in the categorical conversation of blue chip NFTs despite simmering down over the past few days. Nonetheless, according to Nansen NFT data at time of publication, Moonbirds are still in the top 5 when sorted by 24 hour ETH volume with a floor still around 30 ETH. Moonbirds rise to success has been unbelievably quick – and unmatched thus far in the space as most major projects took longer to build their status. Will Moonbirds remain towards the top?
Our team at sister network NewsBTC covered a deep-dive, all-you-need-to-know report on Moonbirds.
A Ceiling-Breaking Floor For BAYC As ‘The Otherside’ Hype Builds
Bored Ape Yacht Club started the week with a rough beginning, suffering an Instagram hack that resulted in 4 BAYC NFTs and 7 Mutant Ape NFTs being stolen from their owners. However, by the close of the week, the hype around ‘The Otherside,’ Yuga Lab’s metaverse land play, dominated the conversation – and BAYC NFTs hit a new floor that was a record high (in both USD and ETH). Bored Apes continue to show strong diamond-hand ownership despite broader market sell-offs in both standard traded equities and in the cryptocurrency market at large.
In less than the first hour of trading today, Yuga Labs and Bored Ape Yacht Club sold over $100,000,000 in digital real estate in The Otherside.
Related Reading | NFT Market To Reach $800 Billion In 2 Years, Report Projects
ApeCoin was utilized in today's The Otherside metaverse real estate release from Yuga Labs and BAYC, and now OpenSea is accepting APE as well. It's been a volatile ride for APE holders - a vintage crypto experience. | Source: APE-USD on TradingView.com
New J5 Report
A new report released this week from multi-national ‘Joint Chiefs of Tax Enforcement,’ known as J5, cited several “red flag indicators” that the NFT community should be aware of; while many users that are well-versed in NFTs are likely well-aware of the J5s cited concerns, which include issues around fraud and money laundering. The document is more of a ‘best practices’ tool for potential incoming individuals interested in the NFT space, and less of a scare tactic or warning note to experienced NFT community members.
UK Court Recognizes NFTs As Legal Property
The UK’s High Court has decided a landmark case around NFTs that has deemed them as legal property, according to a new story from The Art Newspaper. Counsel involved in the case, Rachel Muldoon, stated that “for the first time in the world (as far as we are aware), a court of law has recognised that an NFT is property capable of being frozen by way of an injunction.” It’s a massive win for NFT owners that could resonate globally. Muldoon added the following:
“Hacks and theft are increasingly a common problem for NFT holders. Now that the courts have recognised that NFTs are property, holders can rest assured that they will be supported and have recourse in this jurisdiction should their wallet be compromised and their NFTs stolen. Others in jurisdictions, such as the US, do not have this security. In this sense, the courts here are leading the way internationally in protecting crypto-asset holders.”
Related Reading | Web3 Vs. Crypto: Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Bets Big On Web3 Than Crypto
Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com
The writer of this content is not associated or affiliated with any of the parties mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice.