NiftyNoon: Why Did the Highly Anticipated Ether Mint Flop?
Once regarded as one of 2023’s top mints, Ether is now struggling to even mint out (July 10, 2023)
Nifty Thought
The once highly anticipated Ether mint has gone through a tumultuous week. Although the project managed to mint out most of its allowlist spots, it quickly became clear that secondary market activity would not support the project in minting out a full 10,000 NFT supply. This was following a move pre-mint to cut the mint prices as well. Late last week, Ether attempted to move toward with a public mint of .65 ETH but with secondary market prices for the collection quickly falling below that, the team decided to pause the mint entirely. In other words, despite cutting both its supply and its mint price, Ether has entirely failed to mint out. It is hard to understate how notable this is. Earlier this year, Ether allowlist spots were selling for 1 to 2 ETH and it was positioned to be one of the biggest mints of the entire year.
Ether’s fall demonstrates many truths about the current NFT market. It is apparent that the level of liquidity in NFTs is plunging to new lows with people unwilling to speculate on even highly anticipated mints. This was likely compounded following the Azuki Elementals 2 ETH mint debacle which both took liquidity and confident out of the market. Moreover, Ether’s patience as a team has ultimately proven to be a mistake two-fold. By all accounts, Ether could have been ready to mint earlier this year under more favorable market conditions. Had it minted in early January, it’s very likely it would have minted out a full 10,000 supply with a public mint price of 1 ETH. Furthermore, the team’s decision to wait a week between the allowlist and public mint also cost the team as it gave the secondary market time to push the price below the proposed mint price. Sadly, this is a market that rewards hype and short deadlines.
Take the Azuki Elementals 10-minute minting deadline as an example. Had Chiru Labs followed Ether’s playbook, the collection likely would not have minted out as Elementals are also below their mint price. Because they leveraged fear of missing out, the team netted a $40 million payday (albeit at the cost of their reputation). Ultimately, it is clear that hype and FOMO are still the only tools that work in the NFT space; this suggests that NFT prices across the board still have a long way to fall before they reach their true bottoms.
Highlighted News
Ether Mint paused 45 mins after it went live, with the team evaluating how to proceed:
https://twitter.com/Legendary_NFT/status/1678077946127433728
Losses for everyone who got drained by the Gutter Cat hack are estimated to be over $765k:
Project and Community News
Gemini filed a lawsuit against @DCGco and @BarrySilbert personally in New York court:
https://twitter.com/cameron/status/1677327395869581316?s=46&t=Hb-nBT0zonE82bFfQEj7Cg
SEGA Pulls the Plug on Web3 Gaming:
Nftperp v1 private beta closure and v2 paper trading upcoming launch:
Bored Ape Yacht Club is sinking as floor prices spiral:
https://twitter.com/FortuneMagazine/status/1677869775106584576
The community has voted to not change the background metadata for the Elementals collection:
https://twitter.com/azuki/status/1677801739549048832?s=46&t=Hb-nBT0zonE82bFfQEj7Cg
In times when support matters most, calls upon all Azuki fam to unite as "ONE":
https://twitter.com/lastknighteth/status/1677362990943993856?s=46&t=sZ0f5wydzU9Yk0LBh_-Txw
Pudgy Penguins announce The “Banana Suit” collectible has sold out in 7 seconds on @NTWRKLIVE:
https://twitter.com/pudgypenguins/status/1677848375679434752
Moonbirds team gives details around just how the Oddities sacrifice mechanics work and answer some burning questions:
https://twitter.com/moonbirds/status/1677084772789813249?s=46&t=Hb-nBT0zonE82bFfQEj7Cg
Moonbirds Mythics Exhibition and Celebration taking place July 21st in new IRL location in Los Angeles:
https://twitter.com/moonbirds/status/1677018408246980608?s=46&t=Hb-nBT0zonE82bFfQEj7Cg
Okay Bears announce The Okay Hoodie, their first digital clothing trait to come to life, is now available to order:
https://twitter.com/okaybears/status/1677433893006331904?s=20
Is museum the cultural validation we need for BAYC ?:
https://twitter.com/rahim_mahtab/status/1677317730045685764?s=46&t=Hb-nBT0zonE82bFfQEj7Cg
The HaasF1Team x @RENGA_inc Racing collection brings you closer to the action than ever before:
https://twitter.com/opensea/status/1676561568371445763?s=61&t=ZIlveGmPjJC0-9Nt6g4nkg
Quick Stats:
OpenSea Daily Volume: 1,743 ETH (▲ 8.41%)
Blur Daily Volume: 8,379 ETH (▼ 17.06%)
BTC: $30,163.96 (▼ 0.58%)
ETH: $1,862.49 (▼ 0.76%)
Solana: $20.69 (▼ 4.95%)
Polygon: $0.70 (▼ 0.30%)
NFT Daily Winners:
🧝🏼♀️ DigiDaigaku: 3.30 ETH (▲ 25.00%)
🥔 Potatoz: 1.46 ETH (▲ 1.75%)
🧬 Clone X: 1.85 ETH (▲ 0.64%)
🐧 Pudgy Penguins: 3.91 ETH (▲ 0.39%)
🚬 CryptoPunks: 47.49 ETH (► 0.00%)
🐈⬛ VeeFriends: 1.82 ETH (► 0.00%)
🏳️🌈 Chromie Squiggles: 9.50 ETH (► 0.00%)
🧟 Mutant Ape Yacht Club: 6.62 ETH (► 0.00%)
NFT Daily Losers:
🌈 Doodles: 1.64 ETH (▼ 0.28%)
🏴☠️ Captainz: 5.67 ETH (▼ 0.53%)
🦧 Bored Ape Yacht Club: 33.22 ETH (▼ 0.65%)
⛩️ Azuki: 7.13 ETH (▼ 1.12%)
🦉 Moonbirds: 1.86 ETH (▼ 1.59%)
🥃 Proof Collective: 6.69 ETH (▼ 2.34%)
Notes:
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