The Ludo Effect Takes Hold on the Internet Computer’s NFT Trading Market

You may have noticed a downward trend in the Internet Computer’s NFT market over the past week. Most floor prices are down (there are a few exceptions), and you might have even snatched up some rare collectibles near the floor price. Why did it seem like everyone was trying to divest themselves of their beloved NFTs? I had a theory, and the wild launch of Pineapple Punks has convinced me it’s true. I’m calling it The Ludo Effect.

We have some incredible artists and designers on the IC. Egido Val, Oli Savage, Studio Ted, Jin Maa, Neel of Drakon Eggs and Puzzle, Mark Sarmel, Terence Hofmann, ShuFan – and I could keep going (so please don’t be offended if I didn’t include you in this short list). But no single artist seems to impact the entire ecosystem as much as when Ludo is launching a new NFT collection.

Pineapple Punks Take Over the Market

First of all, I want to give credit to the rest of the BTC Flower / ETH Flower team as well. Moritz is a top-notch dev in the ecosystem, and cloudedlogic and Lara are great community leaders. It’s obviously a team effort, despite the fact that it seems a lot of the popularity is built around Ludo’s reputation as an artist.

So when people started dumping NFTs a week ago, I was pretty sure I knew what was going on. They were filling their bags to prepare for the hype around the Pineapple Punks launch. The price of ICP began to spike as well. Granted, there was likely some connection to the crypto market as a whole, but ICP beat the rest of the market significantly, signaling a secondary reason for the rapid rise in price, and I suspect the Pineapple Punks collection was that stimulus.

The proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes, and the collection did more than 13k ICP inn volume in its first four hours on the secondary market (despite the NFTs not being revealed yet). The floor price of over 24 ICP is also enough even to have those who got the last few NFTs in the public sale at more than 3x. And those who received the steepest discount for holding ETH Flowers (3.5 ICP) are already nearly at 7x.

In fact, it was enough to propel the Internet Computer into seventh place among blockchains for total NFT sales volume in a 24-hour period. Obviously, sales will continue to pick up on Wednesday when the Punks are revealed, and people can see which traits they received and can hunt for their favorites on the market. This perpetuates the cycle even more. All of the ICP that has flooded into the hands of traders doesn’t just stay with the Pineapple Punks collection. In the weeks following the BTC Flower and ETH Flower launches, when collectors took some profits, it was often used to buy up the floor of other collections.

Will we see a similar cycle in the coming weeks? Only time can tell.

Egido Val Launches a Second Art Collection

This week, IC Bucks creator – Spanish artist Egido Val – announced a 1:1 airdrop for holders of his collection. The new artworks are being teased under the name WAGMI Dystopian Club (WDC). There is very little information about the new collection besides the fact that it is an airdrop. There is a trailer along with a few other videos that give quick glimpses, but we’ll have to wait for more information.

In the meantime, the IC Bucks collection continues its upward trend. The floor price has risen four of the last five weeks, a total of 20%. Remember that the initial mint price ranged from 0.9 ICP to 1.1 ICP, so the current floor price of 2.65 ICP leaves all collectors in really good shape, especially since they are going to receive 1:1 airdrops as well. Keep in mind that Egidoval has a much-awaited collaboration set up with DKLORD89 and InfinitySwap called Infinity Gems, the first of a four-part drop from the Defi powerhouse.

BOX Token Drops Are Imminent

BOX token recently started trading, and its current value is a little over three cents per coin. Boxy Dude and Boxy Girl holders are still awaiting an airdrop of 208 tokens per NFT (see the Boxy Dude discord for the airdrop requirements ). The team also announced smaller drops of 10 tokens to Poked bots, Pet Bots, and Meme Cake holders. Again, the snapshot requirements are in the Boxy Dude discord.

Boxy now joins IC Ghost (GHOST), Dfinity Donkeys (DONGE), the ORIGYN Foundation (OGY), and NNS DAO (NDP) as projects that have launched tokens on the IC. You can also add Ceto (FCE) and Bones Dfinity (BON) if you count F-NFTs.

Yumi Marketplace Announces Art Festival and Teases New VRSTL Studios Collection

Yumi Marketplace announced a series of art-related launches in varying styles and from countries all across the globe during the month of August. I’m pretty excited because art is the main reason I got into NFTs in the first place (both to buy art and to sell my own), so I’m looking forward to seeing what the next few weeks hold as far as new launches.

One of the most notable collections featured in the trailer for the Art Festival has to be the PRP-KIX collection from VRSTL. Jin Maa is certainly a busy man with everything he has planned for holders (not to mention getting strong-armed into making a bomber jacket collection). In fact, on the same day Yumi dropped the news about the PRP-KIX collection, VRSTL tweeted about a super futuristic-looking collection from designer Adahn.

The Look Ahead

That’s the big news for this week! For the coming week, I’m going to be watching what happens with Pineapple Punks and waiting to see if we end up with a trickle-down effect that strengthens the entire market. I’ll also have my eyes peeled for more teasers from Egido Val, VRSTL Studios, and Yumi Marketplace. Finally, I’ll be watching out for more token drops from other collections as they see the early projects receive praise from holders.

Until next week, trade responsibly, everyone!

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