THE ETHEREUM MERGE AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU ⚡ + HOW TO SCOOP YOUR WAY INTO THE PROOF COLLECTIVE ECOSYSTEM 🦉
State of the market ⚡
The last 7 days have lit the ignition underneath Ethereum, we’ve seen the price rally a whopping 30% to a price of $1467 at the time of writing. If you are an avid reader of the Scoop you will know we have been a long-term advocate of dollar cost averaging throughout turbulent times as a means to acquire Ethereum during more turbulent times than we have seen recently.
If you missed it, you can read what it means to Dollar cost average here
Whilst NFT Scoop focuses on NFTs, it is important to understand the upcoming Ethereum ‘Merge’, given it is the Network that our beloved NFTs run on, which well may be a catalyst for $ETH price action. In simple terms, the protocol is migrating from ‘proof of work’ to ‘proof of stake’. But what does that mean? Well… A lot, but let’s break down the topline points and what it means for you as a holder.
$ETH currently runs on Proof of work, where nodes ‘Miners’ provide hash power / Energy to earn the right to update the blockchain.
Proof of stake - ‘Validators’ stake $ETH instead.
The Beaconchain ‘a proof of stake’ network has been running in parallel to ETH for 595 days meaning it’s already live.
Eth is currently validated by Proof of work - The Merge migrates ETH to Proof of Stake and turns off proof of work.
Proof of Work currently pays at 15,000 ETH / day to Miners
Miners market sell 90% of this ($22,000,000) a day to cover business costs
That’s $8 Billion a year in market dumps
Equivalent buy pressure is needed to come in, in order to maintain the price of $ETH
If the price of $ETH increases the market dumping in $ value also increases.
Proof of stake should alleviate some daily sell pressure by default ($22,000,000)
This mechanism should lead to the positive price action of $ETH
Lead to a positive narrative forming - further upward momentum in price action up.
Will it speed up transactions or make them cheaper? No - That comes later
As a regular user will you need to upgrade your wallet? No! Anything asking you to do that is a scam.
Will it reduce $ETH energy consumption by 90%+ - Most likely yes! if not more.
Will $ETH become deflationary? - ETH issuance will decrease over the coming months and years - it depends on a few factors but $ETH should turn deflationary in the very near future.
What we can expect?
With the current Merge narrative on its way & with $ETH well and truly in a relief rally we expect to see more liquidity come into the crypto markets at least in the short to mid-term, with liquidity spilling into the NFT Markets. Please be aware, that this may well be just a relief rally with more bearish times to come for $ETH. If $ETH rallies harder we may see Floor prices drop as individuals migrate back into $ETH.
However, it could be too early to tell at this point, we are still in unchartered waters. What we can say for certain, we are bullish on the Merge and what it means for the $ETH token itself. People may be overegging what the Merge means for the price of $ETH in the short term, But are probably underestimating what it means in the next 3-5 years. Number go up 📈
Scoops of the Week 🍦
🍦Otherside launches extended Demo as Otherdeeds sales pass $1bn
🍦Dutch central bank fines Binance €3.3m
🍦Celsius Outlines Position
A wallet has made a bid on ENS domain - amazon.eth
a few scoop letters ago, we mentioned that opportunity lies in ENS domains. Somebody just yesterday made a bid of $1,000,000 on amazon.eth! Bezos won’t be happy.
What ENS can you think of that could be the next big hitter?
You can search & purchase ENS domains here.
Otherside launches extended Demo as Otherdeeds sales pass $1bn
The biggest “demo” to date took place on Saturday with over 4300 users participating in what was a first-look at the platform……no better way to avoid the heatwave.
All players were introduced to the functions of the game as well as a contribution opportunity to the platform’s construction and shape….that’s a lot of opinions.
Having a dive into reactions, the demo was a complete hit with many users describing the demo as giving them chills.
We attach a link here for you to watch and as you can see, the graphics look epic!
We are unsure when the full and final version of the game will be launched, but what we do know is that a total of over $1bn Dollars has now been traded on Otherdeeds…. what bear?
Dutch central bank fines Binance €3.3m
No better way to build relations than handing down a €3.3m fine.
Well, today the Dutch Central Bank did just that stating Binance breached the Country’s rules which require digital asset companies to register in order to offer services.
Binance don’t seem surprised by this fine……. if anything they took steps to lower the fine by applying for regulation.
The future of Binance seems a fair distance from the initial de-centralised platform by pledging to establish a formal headquarters and regularize its corporate structure after operating for several years with a more “decentralised” structure with staff & locations spanning worldwide.
A drop in the ocean you may say for this fine however the prospect of total regulation looms…..take cover.
Celsius outlines position
As we advised in our previous newsletter that Celcius filed for bankruptcy…….well today the insolvent crypto lender has said that it will give customers an option of staying "long crypto" or receiving a discounted cash settlement.
As the rest of us bask in the sunshine……the company is preparing for it’s scheduled appearance in front of a bankruptcy judge due to take place Monday 18th July at 2 p.m. ET.
This one will be a messy one to sort out, grab a Cornetto, sit back and let us breakdown the details once known.
Scoop’s Weekly Winner 🏆
A generative arts platform for artists, by artists…. this week’s winner is Factura by Mathias Isaksen. Brought to you by GM Studio. Factura is the fourth collection to be featured on the generative art platform GM Studio.
The project was released on the 17th July and the 999 item collection very quickly minted out at the price of 0.15 ETH.
The project has since soared with 2.5k ETH being traded and the floor price currently sitting at 2.35 ETH.
What is even more impressive is that the project currently sits at number 2 on Opensea’s rankings.
It’s not just the crayon’s that can sweep up the weekly winner.
The Whales have also been buying up this one. 25 whales have collectively acquired 100 of these in the last 7 days.
REKT SECTION 😡
Coinbase NFT…..welcome to REKT
Following questionable roll-outs and some worrying statistics, we would like to welcome Coinbase NFT to REKT.
The marketplace seemed to have a last roll of the dice with the latest drop - Bill Murray in which only 81 of the 1000 piece collection has dropped so far.
In what is an extremely competitive market you must do all you can to remain top dawgs!….. Unfortunately for Coinbase they haven’t as The GameStop NFT marketplace surpassed Coinbase NFT’s lifetime volume in less than 48 hours.
Coinbase is going to have to pull out all the stops so they can get back in the game to gain back some market share.
Where would we blow 5-10ETH this week?
MoonBird Oddities are Hatching! Announced by Kevin Rose himself on Twitter..
By scanning the Opensea Oddities feed you can see sneak peeks of the Oddities hatching into what does look like some sort of Bird / Creature. What a teaser…
The much anticipated Moonbirds Oddities are set to reveal this Wednesday, 20th July 2022, whilst the above may look trivial and childlike, we are very bullish on the Moonbirds & Proof ecosystems, so no doubt come Wednesday, these little guys are going to cause of frenzy on NFT Twitter.
The floor once stood at 5 ETH but don’t let the small dip put you off, the Oddities provide the lowest barrier entry to the Moonbirds / Proof collective eco-system which is currently at 3.32 ETH
With the reveal set to take place this Wednesday, there is no doubt potential for a moon boy profit to be made if you were to pick up rare traits pre-reveal. It’s a roll of the dice. It is also very likely you will have the chance to scoop up an Oddities cheaper than the current Floor price due to a classic post reveal dump. We expect the floor to drop to around the 1.5-2.3 ETH region.
If you do not want to risk the pre-reveal purchase, sniping on the secondary market could be you way forward.
How to go about this? Let's dive in.
During reveals there is an increase in activity, and mistakes are made. You can capitalize.
Unaware investors are going to dump rares for cheap
Careless Investors may dump commons for rock bottom prices way below the floor.
When the reveal takes place try and quickly assess rarer traits under the ‘Properties’ section of the NFTs
Open up Opensea and select Oddities
Select Activity and underneath event type select ‘Listings’
You now have a live feed of the latest listed Oddities NFTs
Once you have identified certain rare traits
Watch for those rare traits to get listed on the market in real-time
They may be above the Floor price at the time
But that gives you an advantage, the majority of the market won’t see them listed
You may get lucky and snipe a super rare off the Floor.
Happy Sniping!
There is huge potential with this one……. just like Cameron Smith on the 18th at St Andrew’s during the 150th Open last week …..take it!
Disclaimer
The NFT Scoop newsletter or podcast is not financial advice, it is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only.
NFT’s can be highly illiquid markets, causing sharp drops in prices due to changes in narratives and trends.
We would love to get to know you and maybe grab a sundae one day 🍨🍨