Yes, NFT avatar projects are in a bubble. There’s no sustaining this oversaturated market
Coinhead
Coinhead
The collectible NFT market is looking well and truly saturated, leading to fears that a massive crash is on the horizon.
There’s at least 56 NFT collections launching this week on Solana, and at least 61 on Ethereum, according to a count by Stockhead using online NFT calendars. Most of these collections consist of thousands of images that are generally meant to be used as avatars on social media channels like Twitter.
Today and tomorrow on Solana alone, NFT launches include 5,000 angry chickens; 5000 “crazy and psycho” Shiba dogs; the Cardboard Box Coalition, 5000 strong; 6666 landscapes of planets in Alpha Centura; some 3,500 “bizarre bacteria”; and the 10,000 unique Degen Hamsters.
🚨LESS THAN 24 HOURS UNTIL MINT🚨
Mint price: 2 SOL
Launch date: 18th Oct at 10:00PM UTC!WE’LL BE IMPLEMENTING A PAPER HANDS TAX AND LISTING ON @AlphaArtMarket
Save the date and Join the SCC now: https://t.co/3aVvBczUmP#SolanaNFT #SolanaNFTs #NFTs pic.twitter.com/Rkjacotnga
— Spicy Chicken Club NFTs | Mint Date: Oct. 18 (@spicychickennft) October 17, 2021
Mint prices range from 0.5 to 2 Solana tokens (US$80 to US$320), meaning the developers and artists behind the collections stand to make from US$400,000 to US$3.2 million if their collections sell out. They’ll generally also gain a percentage of royalties from secondary sales.
There’s just as many projects on Ethereum and its sidechain Polygon, including the Party Punks; the Nom Moms (5,555 dumpling NFTs); Retro Punks; the Radioactive Hybrid Shark Frenzy, “a collection of 8,000 unique sharks building a community that supports environmental charities focussed on the world’s oceans”, and the Cyberfantasy fembots — 5,000 of them, “living out their Cyber Fantasy”.
And those are just the avatar projects launching today!
Oh, and please don’t confuse the aforementioned Nom Nom dumpling NFTs with the Dumpling Mafia bosses. Totally different dumpling-related project that minted yesterday.
Meet one of the Bosses of Dumpling Mafia, the dumpling loving Pig Dragon, he is child of a dragon mama 🙋🏻♀️ me and pig baba Jimmy and today is our 15 year anniversary. Perfect day to announce the arrival of our first #dumplingmafianft @foodandwine #nft https://t.co/sammDF00mA
— Shirley Chung 张晴月 (@chfshirleychung) October 8, 2021
New leaks of our 1/1 Nom Noms! These are incredible who’s hyped for the launch?!
Comment down which one is your favorite!#nft #nfts #nftart #nftartist #nftcollector #nftcollectors #nftcommunity #nftthailand #nftdrop #nftdrops #nftgiveaway #NFTproject #NFTprojects pic.twitter.com/Hon6JyX4vi
— Nom Noms (@NomNomsNFT) October 10, 2021
As Stockhead has chronicled, flipping NFTs has been an easy ticket to profit during the last few months. But the number of projects launching has been enormous — this reporter counted 636 collections on the Solana NFT marketplace DigitalEyes alone, most featuring thousands of different JPGs.
The first Solana-based NFT project launched in February, but most of those projects would have hit the market since August, following the runaway success of the Degenerate Ape Academy that month.
Even some NFT bulls are now saying the market looks toppy.
Let’s face it nobody is in NFT for the “art”. All these crazy valuations for NFTs will leave many stuck holding bags. Only whales have the funds to trade. Majority will be left with illiquid jpegs and forced to take massive cuts to exit.
— Brendan Aw (@brendanaw) October 9, 2021
Ask yourselves when have you ever paid this much even for a digital game asset (which at least had utility), much less for a digital pic, a promise for more free jpegs, a Ready Player One like experience and a community.
— Brendan Aw (@brendanaw) October 9, 2021
And let’s also be honest, 99% of NFT players aren’t in it for the community as well. “I am thankful for the communities since I started my NFT journey” majority of the time means “I’m thankful I joined a discord and got others to do research and shill me a project I got lucky on”
— Brendan Aw (@brendanaw) October 9, 2021
Solana NFT market is temporarily saturated and cannot absorb 5-6 10k mints a day. People are losing money on rug pulls and crappy projects or the NFTs are available at a huge discount on the secondary market immediately after mint. Blue chips will separate from the rest soon.
— Skelly Mode (@arpitsheth) October 8, 2021
There are already some signs that people are losing money on NFTs. Stockhead checked a dozen recent mints on Solanart and found that in eight of them, the “floor price” was lower than the mint price.
The Shkary Sharks were selling for a floor price of 0.55 Solana, after a mint over the weekend for 1 SOL; Solsisters were selling for a minimum of 0.49 SOL, after a mint October 15 for 1.19 SOL; and Soldads were selling for 0.95 SOL, after a 1.75 mint over the weekend.
Also, Skyline banner art (for social media header images) was selling for a floor price of 0.99 SOL, just under mint price; Unirexcity dinosaurs were selling for a floor of 1.58 SOL, after a 2 SOL mint; and Solantis Atlantis creatures were selling for a floor of 0.25 SOL, after a 2.5 SOL launch October 9.
Finally, Daring Dragons were selling for 0.39 SOL, after a mint on October 8 at 0.99 SOL; and Wicked Penguin Bone Club penguins for 0.59 SOL after a 1.5 SOL mint on October 11.
Skyline floor price same as mint price. What’s the actual point of minting honestly
— Ripper NFT (@ripperNFT) October 16, 2021
(It is worth noting that the “floor price” refers to the minimum price for any item in the collection. Some items in the collections mentioned above would be changing hands for more than the floor price, particularly if they possessed rare attributes. So not all of these buyers are underwater. But it’s safe to say that no NFT collector wants a floor price below mint.)
On the flip side, the Solyetis were selling for a floor of 1.69 SOL after a 0.99 SOL mint on October 13; the BabyApes were going for a minimum of 8.5 SOL after a 0.69 SOL launch on Friday; Genopet eggs were selling for a minimum of 18.99 SOL after a mint of around 0.8 SOL; and Rogue Sharks for 5.3 SOL, after a mint of between 3 and 4 SOL.
Patriotic Aussies who haven’t had enough or who don’t think the market is saturated could always try their hand at two different NFT projects launching this week – Quokka Empire, “a collection of 9,669 adorable quokkas with different traits and initially priced at only 0.069 ETH” (US$263); and Big Aussie Crocs, a collection of 9,999 crocodiles.