With prices tumbling from around the beginning of this May, many observers predicted that NFTs would nuke. But while it’s true that volume is down and a lot of NFTs lost value, there are some existing collections and new drops that have actually (up to now) thrived during these tough market conditions.
A distinguishing characteristic of NFTs is that it’s common for individual collections to move according to their own trends, so it’s more necessary to take projects on their own merits, rather than only talking about the market as a whole.
Bear Market NFT Outperformers
Goblintown
The Goblintown drop has been the breakout phenomenon of the bear market, and what could be more NFT-ish in its vibes than marking crypto’s descent into goblin town with a surprise collection of goblins, actually called Goblintown, that immediately becomes hugely successful?
The Goblintown drop had no apparent marketing, no Discord, no roadmap, was free to mint, and uses CC0 licensing (CC0 seems to be fast becoming a standard distinguishing NFTs from traditional media).
From a free mint on May 19th, the average sales price on OpenSea has soared to 7.6 ETH, correcting to around 6.4 ETH at the time of writing, hype has exploded, and a further side-development, McGoblin Burger, has launched.
What’s become clear is that this project is far from a “low effort pump and dump”. It’s expertly executed, and looks like it’s heading somewhere with intent, prompting heady, unverified speculation that Yuga Labs (or perhaps Beeple, or both Yuga and Beeple) might be behind it, and there has been scrutiny of its distinctively weird smart contracts.
There are also an insane number of copycats and derivatives (it’s CC0, after all), and it’s brought about a general air of mass confusion in the NFT space, as no-one seems to have a clue what is going on in Goblintown. Early BAYC vibes is a cliche, but in this case it makes sense, albeit in a cycle-fittingly goblin-esque way.
Degen Toonz
Degen Toonz has carried a feeling of being special since it launched in February, but has really taken off further during the bear, briefly reaching a floor price of 3 ETH towards the end of May, having before then been trading healthily, but at an average sales price below 1 ETH.
Community might be an overused term in NFTs, but there are a few projects that actually have outstanding, dedicated communities, and Degen Toonz is among them. The project is visually distinctive in its own right, but is unashamed about taking elements of the Bored Ape success story and recycling them for its own purposes.
Toonz holders can now go to the project’s GM/GN site and claim dynamite (one dynamite per NFT, and three regular dynamites can be converted into a mutant dynamite), and these assets will then have further utility. Dynamite is also being traded on OpenSea.
If you’re planning to buy a Toonz NFT in order to claim dynamite, then make sure to first check whether or not the one you’re sizing up has already claimed. You can do this by connecting your wallet to the GM/GN site, clicking on Verify claim, and entering the token ID.
Rektguy
A free mint, CC0, no roadmap (the website just says “lol” in the roadmap section), and some scratchy, flashing artwork, Rektguy is as degen as you could hope for to brighten up the bear. It was created by the artists Alienqueen and OSF (a respected character in the NFT space with an interesting backstory, his real name is Ovie Faruq, he’s a former trader at Barclays, and he co-founded a well-known NFT community called Degenz).
The average sales price of a Rektguy on OpenSea has now dropped from a high of around 1 ETH towards the end of May, to around 0.55 ETH at the time of writing, but that’s still a substantial gain from the free mint, and this is a collection from established creators who are active and influential in the NFT art world.
The Uncanny Country Club
In this current phase of the market cycle it’s more difficult for new collections to mint out, particularly if they’re not operating with a lot of backing and organized hype. Within this context, The Uncanny Country Club sold out a 5,000 piece collection, and then generated a buzz at the end of May, running up average sales prices to almost 0.3 ETH.
The floor price has now dropped to below 0.1 ETH, presenting what could be an attractive entry point for a clean collection that has a unique, spooky vibe, and has shown that it has the potential to build further and perform well.
Yummi Universe
Over on Cardano, the Yummi Universe project, an OG range of NFTs with an enthusiastic community of holders, made the most of the bear market by roughly doubling the floor price of its Naru collection to around 1000 ADA (although it’s now corrected down a little).
This is due in large part to the team’s constant, upbeat building efforts, which have seen the creation of $YUMMI coin, the launch of an NFT staking mechanism, the appearance of further $YUMMI staking opportunities, and ongoing development of a play-to-earn game.
The most valuable NFTs in the Yummi ecosystem are the original Narus, and there are also seasonal Naru collections that can be staked, but which earn less $YUMMI than the originals.
For some other notable projects that have made moves during the bear, Tigerbob, Chimpers, and Okay Bears all performed well and are good quality, but have subsequently corrected down from previous highs, meaning they could be worth picking up. And for any degen goths in the NFT space, there’s We Are all Going to Die, which has run very effectively with the no-roadmap-or-Discord, CC0, Twitter-only, meme-leveraged meta.
