NFTs are seeing a lull, at least on Ethereum. More attention has shifted toward the Runes and BTC-oriented non-fungibles, with popular ETH NFT collections like BAYC, Azuki, and more at lows not seen in years. Yuga Labs, the company behind BAYC even laid off a significant amount of staff and even got some bad rap for alleged connections to the WEF. Despite a lack of momentum, it may be worth keeping up with what’s going on in the ETH NFT space, especially if this proves to be the bottom.
Blasts offerings pertaining to NFTs are definitely worth watching especially considering that the team behind Blast first developed Blur and Blend, the dominant forces when it comes to NFT trading and lending, respectively. From NFT collections to perps, lending & more, it’s well worth watching how the NFT & SocialFi ecosystem on Blast plays out. This is especially true as the Blur team is expected to make an announcement today regarding new offerings, which could include derivatives trading for NFTs on Blur, among other possibilities.
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NFTFi
NFTs, or at least many top NFT collections, are shifting back into gear after a prolonged bear market. Interest in and demand for NFTs is increasing. Some NFTs have found new ATHs, while some popular projects like BAYC (Bored Ape Yacht Club), Azuki’s, and more have not found their footing or recovered meaningfully from social backlash from holders and outsiders alike. There aren’t very many teams building in the NFTFi space, especially compared to the more mature markets that have developed providing DEXs, perps and derivatives, lending and borrowing etc. This is true across chains, which brings up another point in that NFTs and their liquidity is even more fragmented than the fungible token markets. Creating ‘wrapped’ versions of NFTs that can be bridged is much more difficult with non-fungibles, and more NFTs include their native chain as a significant contributing factor to their perceived identity.
Perhaps the first hint of change in NFT markets began with the NFT royalties debate. NFT communities can seem much less mercenary and more supportive of the teams and artists behind collections, so there was pushback from many when it came to marketplaces not enforcing royalty payouts on NFT sales to the teams behind them. Nonetheless, the Blur team opted to not enforce royalties and ultimately made NFT markets more efficient because of this, as well as the marketplace’s inherent mechanics and incentive schemes.
Whether you’re looking for leverage, trying to short popular projects, or wanting to go delta neutral on certain NFTs to potentially receive airdrops, there’s a lot of optionally made possible in the NFTFi space. This was not the case just a couple of years ago when NFTs first became established as more than just a rotational trend within crypto.
Blasts offerings pertaining to NFTs are definitely worth watching especially considering that the team behind Blast first developed Blur and Blend, the dominant forces when it comes to NFT trading and lending, respectively, which are the current main utilities for NFTs. There’s a lot of room for growth in the NFT derivatives sector. Magic Edgen, which was the predominant marketplace for Solana NFTs, found a new audience and a resurgence in volume by allocating a lot of focus into the trading of Ordinals and BRC-20s. This is just one example of teams spinning up services to facilitate new growth in the NFT space. The incentives present on Blast, as well as the team’s experience in NFTFi and high-touch approach with Blast-native teams bode well for new protocols to develop, especially as the NFT market itself recovers and grows further into this cycle.
Wasabi
Wasabi is a decentralized protocol offering NFT leverage trading live on both Ethereum Mainnet and now Blast. Users can access peer-to-peer, asset-backed covered NFT options as well as perps. This platform provides a system for users to leverage NFT assets through perpetual contracts, options trading, and a unique terminal experience with the 404 Terminal, all enhanced by Wasabi’s liquidity aggregation engine.
It should be noted that Wasabi’s offerings on Etheruem mainnet and Blast vary quite a bit, as NFTs are not nearly as interoperable as fungible tokens, and most of the top NFT projects in the EVM ecosystem are on Ethereum mainnet. The primary usecase of Wasabi on Blast is perps trading of fungible Blast tokens; $YIELD, JUICE, PAC, and YES, as well as a fungible token that represents cryptopunks (wmwstETH-WPUNKS:40). This being said, trading altcoins and providing liquidity in $WETH and $USDB has outpaced the initial NFT trading offerings of Wasabi, with Blast now far eclipsing Ethereum mainnet when it comes to TVL.
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