NiftyNoon: Regular Regulation

For October 12, 2022

Nifty Analysis

• The SEC’s investigation into Yuga Labs has the potential to be groundbreaking. If the U.S. regulator determines that NFTs such as Bored Ape Yacht Club and Otherdeeds are securities, the implications for the entire NFT market will be supremely negative. The issuance of securities is heavily regulated and, oftentimes, restricted. Under such a scenario, many of the hype-driven profile pictures, collector passes, and metaverse land NFTs are likely to be most negatively impacted whereas 1/1 collectibles and generative art will possibly remain unscathed. Many speculate that this SEC interest is due to either the $ape ERC20 token airdrop or the Otherdeed metaverse land sale.

• This is concerning as many popular projects such as GutterCatGang, Moonbirds, and Azuki have indicated similar plans for ERC20 tokens as well. While not as many projects seem to have metaverse land sales planned (with Moonbirds seemingly scrapping plans to make Project Highrise an NFT), they may now lose the option to do so entirely. Much of this situation hinges on the Howey Test, a test that determines whether something is a security that ironically originated from a Supreme Court case over the sale of physical land plots (SEC vs. W.J. Howey Co). A victory for Yuga Labs here is absolutely a victory for the NFT space as a whole. Nonetheless, any level of clarity on regulation in this space will likely be beneficial in the long run as it may attract tentative investors and builders to finally enter the industry.

Project News

• Bloomberg reports that SEC is investigating Yuga Labs to determine whether NFTs are securities:

  Techmeme @Techmeme

  Source: the SEC is investigating whether Yuga Labs, creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, violated securities laws by selling its NFTs and ApeCoins (@robinsonmatt / Bloomberg) bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

  

  techmeme.comSource: the US SEC is investigating whether Yuga Labs, the creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, violated securities laws by selling its NF…By Matt Robinson / Bloomberg. View the full context on Techmeme.

• CryptoPunks announces marketplace restoration project in coordination with key CryptoPunk community members:

  CryptoPunks @cryptopunksnfts

  Work has begun on the CryptoPunks.App Restoration Project. 👇🧵

  

  cryptopunks.appCryptoPunks10,000 unique collectible characters with proof of ownership stored on the Ethereum blockchain.

• Google and Coinbase announce partnership to expand Coinbase Cloud’s crypto offerings:

  Brian Armstrong @brian_armstrong

  Excited to share that Google Cloud has selected Coinbase to expand their crypto offerings! Today, I presented at #GoogleCloudNext alongside @ThomasOrTK to introduce Coinbase’s integration with Google Cloud.

• Vault by CNN NFT project announces termination of project and is met by heavy community backlash:

  Vault by CNN @vaultbycnn

  News of our own to share

  

Community News

• Lead artist for DeGods announces departure from the team to focus on 1/1 artwork:

  SCUM @SCUMSOL

  An end of an Era. I have officially left the @DeGodsNFT and @y00tsNFT team as of last Friday, October 7th.

  

• Mango Markets drained for over $100M:

  OtterSec @osec_io

  @mangomarkets was just drained for over $100M. trade.mango.markets/account?pubkey… 🧵

  

  Alex Dai @parallelo_piped

  The hacker has spoken app.realms.today/dao/DPiH3H3c7t…

  

• Spirit Butterfly Azuki sells for 130 ETH to Pixelmon CEO:

  AZUKI Sales Bot @azuki_sales

  AZUKI #3946 sold for 130.0 ETH (166,660$) on X2Y2 🔗opensea.io/assets/0xed5af… 🧾etherscan.io/tx/0xb15e1e0b6…

  

Quick Stats:

• OpenSea USD Daily Volume: $9.63M (▲ 2.68%)

• OpenSea ETH Daily Volume: 7,509 ETH (▲ 5.43%)

• BTC: $19,072.93 (▼ 0.72%)

• ETH: $1,293.51 (▲ 1.33%)

• Solana: $31.06 (▼ 1.44%)

NFT Daily Winners:

• Moonbirds: 9.93 ETH (▲ 1.85%)

• DigiDaigaku 12.50 ETH (▲ 1.13%)

• Proof Collective: 44.00 ETH (► 0.00%)

NFT Daily Losers:

• Clone X: 8.55 ETH (▼ 7.07%)

• Bored Ape Yacht Club: 73.00 ETH (▼ 2.67%)

• Doodles: 7.79 ETH (▼ 2.62%)

• Mutant Ape Yacht Club: 13.88 ETH (▼ 2.25%)

• VeeFriends: 5.10 ETH (▼ 1.92%)

• Azuki: 10.20 ETH (▼ 0.97%)

• Chromie Squiggles: 10.88 ETH (▼ 0.18%)

• CryptoPunks: 66.49 ETH (▼ 0.17%)

Notes:

• If you find bite-sized daily NFT updates helpful, please feel free to subscribe:

• Created by @AxuETH, @jpegprez, @SSPxLEO, and @SpeedyGonzale87