Your average trader may not be buying non-fungible tokens (NFTs) right now, but there’s one class of trader that is feasting. It’s the whales. 

NFT trading volume is down, and floor prices are tumbling along with it, but those with deep pockets are acquiring major art grails. Fidenzas, Ringers, Chromie Squiggles, and rare Archetypes; if it sounds like I’m speaking another language, you’re right. This is the language of whales and art collectors.

Here are some of the high-priced generative art grails they’ve been buying in the past week.

  • Fidenza #158 sold for US$370,000
  • XCOPY’s Five Eyes sold for US$238,000
  • Fidenza #646 sold for US$225,000
  • Fidenza #454 sold for US$132,000
  • Fidenza #25 sold for US$129,000
  • Fidenza #577 sold for US$123,000
  • Chromie Squiggle #10 sold for US$91,000
  • 13 Chromie Squiggles sold for roughly US$20,000

Capping off the mega art week was Sotheby’s auction of NFT art grails, all coming from Three Arrows Capital’s previous holdings. With the auction now completed, we must take a moment to appreciate a BIG HONKIN’ SALE. 

Ringers #879 (last sold for 1,800 Ether, worth US$5.4 million at the time ) was the grail of the entire lot and now may become world-famous for being the second highest-priced generative art sale ever in U.S. dollar value, but possibly the highest in ETH value at 3,233 ETH. 

Known as ‘The Goose’ this stand-out output in Dmitri Cherniak’s highly regarded Ringers collection of generative art perfectly highlights the randomness of generative art, and how randomized parameters and code can sometimes form an unexpected image that is unique, beautiful, and iconic. 

Noteworthy Happenings

Nike NFTs seem to be coming to Fortnite as soon as next week. Nike’s official Twitter account just teased the ultimate sneaker hunt as Fortnite x Nike Air Max coming on June 20.

Two Rolex watches are being used as collateral for loans after being tokenized as NFTs. This is significant because it’s an obvious use case for NFTs, with the NFT acting as a COA and proof of ownership at the same time.

A mysterious anon wallet has been on a shopping spree lately, buying over 2,600 ETH worth of Bored Ape Yacht Club, and over 1,500 ETH in other collections including Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Azuki, DeGods, Doodles, Moonbirds, and Pudgy Penguins.

Snoop Dogg has just delivered possibly the best music-related NFT to date. His new NFT called Passport will give holders a behind-the-scenes look at his current tour (updated at each event), free art for holders by Coldie, Terrell Jones, and Alien Queen, and early access to tickets. Think of this as the evolution of a fan club, and priced just like it, at just US$45.

Donald Trump’s Trump Digital Trading Cards has begun to accept the collection’s rare “Win Trump Prizes” NFTs to be redeemed and burned in exchange for the prize. Prizes include signed books, gift cards, golf tickets, zoom calls, and even a gala dinner at Trump’s home Mara Lago.

On Chain Monkeys completed their mint of 300 Dimensions NFTs as Bitcoin ordinals, and we’re already seeing some significant secondary sales that are north of 1 BTC each. 

OCM Dimensions
Source: Gamma

BoringPunks, while not majorly expensive, saw plenty of money trading hands. The CryptoPunks derivative project minted at 0.01 ETH and found itself quickly reaching a floor price of over 0.16 ETH. Quite the feat in such a down market, with over US$1.7 million in secondary action trading hands. 

Peep the charts 

CryptoSlam NFT rankings

It has been almost an entirely red week in the top 10 but Ordinals still benefit from being the meta right now, and this is where degens are focusing their time.

My prediction that DMarket would shine as the rest of the space fizzles seems to be coming true. Gamers will buy skins, independent of speculation, so it just makes sense for them to be a stable top performer.

BoringPunks are the new kid on the block, entering the top 10 with weekly sales that almost mirror real CryptoPunks. But CryptoPunks only needed 17 transactions to do the same sales volume that it took BoringPunks 22,000 to reach.

Blockchain NFTs by sales volume

Sales across Ethereum and Bitcoin continue to lose steam, and it’s hard to say when this could turn around due to uncertainty with regulations and legal matters up in the air.

Polygon is up almost 10% this week as it’s propelled by DraftKings’ Golf and Reignmakers UFC.

Binance’s LBT liquidity positions as NFTs pushed them into the green, up over 22% in seven days.

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