Memecoin Speculators Push ZachXBT’s Free NFTs to $12 Million Market Cap

A free NFT released last month by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT to commemorate an investigation into a $243 million crypto scam is now changing hands for 1 ETH ($2,700).

The collection of 3529 NFTs was minted on Zora, a marketplace that operates on its own Ethereum Layer 2 network. In August, Zora introduced ‘onchain secondary markets,’ essentially making new NFTs minted on its platform exchangeable for ERC20 tokens that can be traded on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap.

Consequently, when ZachXBT’s collection was minted out, a liquidity pool was automatically created under the ticker 243M Theft. The token lay dormant until ten days ago, when memecoin speculators seemingly discovered it.

It’s now up nearly ten-fold in the past three days to a market capitalization of $7 million, peaking at $12 million on Oct. 29.

According to Dumpster DAO, ZachXBT has earned more than $15,000 in trading fees as of Oct. 29, showcasing the potential of Zora’s ‘secondary rewards,’ which provide an ongoing source of revenue for creators by directing a portion of trading fees to them.

In contrast to traditional NFTs, which only yield royalties when sold (and usually only if the buyer decides to opt in), creators get a piece of every trade on Uniswap. The initial liquidity pool is seeded with a portion of Zora’s mint fee (0.000111 ETH or $0.30 per NFT) and roughly 10% of the NFT supply. Trading fees are set at 1%, of which 0.75% goes to the creator and the remainder to Zora.

ZachXBT did not respond to The Defiant's request for comment.