ApeCoin Holders Pre-stake $34M Ahead Of Rewards Launch

Crypto markets might be fretting over Fed meetings and FTX contagion, but that didn’t stop NFT degens from having a good time.

By all accounts, Art Basel, the recently concluded NFT conference in Miami, was a smash, and we’ve seen a slew of updates from popular NFT projects over the last two weeks.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) unveiled a collaboration with Timex, the storied watchmaker founded in 1854. A collection of 500 bespoke timepieces will be created for BAYC and Mutant Ape holders, who will be able to customize the case, strap and ‘etchings’.

The mint passes for the collection, called Timepiece Forge Passes, are available for sale at 2 ETH ($2,500) apiece. Anyone can mint the passes but a BAYC or MAYC NFT will be required to redeem the watch.

Apecoin (APE) staking rewards are expected to go live on Dec. 12 and the Ape Foundation opened up the staking interface on Dec. 5 to give token holders time to pre-stake their coins. As of Dec. 6, more than 8.3M APE worth $34M has been staked.

Pudgy Penguins Waddle To ATH in ETH

The turnaround is well underway at Pudgy Penguins, the NFT project that was taken over by entrepreneur Luca Netz early this year after holders staged a popular revolt against the founding team.

Pudgy Penguin #7214

The floor price of the collection hit 4.5 ETH on Dec. 6, a new record in ETH terms. Holders of DeGods, a popular NFT collection on Solana, have reportedly been buying into the huddle.

Blur Airdrop 2

NFT marketplace Blur has airdropped a second round of ‘Care Packages’ to active users of its platform. Eligible users need to place a bid on any listed collection within two weeks in order to claim their airdrops.

Touted as “10x larger” than the first airdrop, which rewarded active NFT traders on most major platforms, many users were disappointed this time around, as Blur’s anti-sybil filters disqualified a number of legitimate traders.

The marketplace said it is updating its ‘overly agressive’ filters and will likely reinstate airdrops for affected users. The care packages contain varying amounts of BLUR tokens based on rarity, and the token is expected to launch in January.

RTFKT Unveils Futuristic Sneakers

Remember the sneakers worn by Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future 2?

Nike-backed NFT studio RTFKT is releasing a collection of 19,000 physical sneakers that will feature “auto-lacing, enhanced lighting, haptic feedback, gesture control, walk detection, app connectivity, AI/ML algorithms and wireless charging via the RTFKT Powerdeck.”

Registration for the public sale is open until Dec. 11. Note that the sneakers can only be shipped within the United States – a restriction that has irked some RFTKT community members.

‘Decoherence’

Holders of SuperRare’s RarePass have received their first monthly airdrop.

‘Decoherence’ by Pindar Van Arman is a collection of 250 1/1 pieces and currently commands a floor price of 4 ETH ($5,000).

Meanwhile, the RarePasses have more than doubled in value from their mint price of 17.25 ETH.

State Of The Market

Secondary sales volumes continue to trend lower with just $86M traded in the week ending Dec. 5.

Source: Dune Analytics

State Of The Market

• Bored Ape Yacht Club – Flat at 66 ETH
• CryptoPunks – Flat at 64 ETH
• Otherdeeds – Flat at 1.2 ETH
• Pudgy Penguins – Up 37% to 4.3 ETH
• Azuki – Up 11% to 11.5 ETH
• Moonbirds – Up 3.5% to 8.6 ETH.
• Clone X – Down 25% to 6.2 ETH