Are We Back? A Look at the Weekend’s NFT Pump

Have you checked your bags lately? The NFT collectibles markets have had quite a pump over the weekend and today, with bull-era collectibles like Pudgy Penguins and Sappy Seals leading the way.

Average Pudgy price went from a bit over six ETH floor last Monday to nearly 10 ETH on Sunday, with 287 sales on OpenSea yesterday and nearly 150 already today. Seals, at .47 average last Monday, enjoyed a 25% average price rise by Sunday and are continuing to rise as of this writing.

Other large-cap collections leading the charge include World of Women, which enjoyed a $240,000 floor sweep of over 100 tokens, and Miladys, which have risen from 2.3 to 3.8 ETH in the last week. Comparatively, rises for Bored Apes and CryptoPunks were present but less impressive, with Punks at 57.25 floor today and Apes at a bit over 30.

PixelVault has received renewed interest as its BattlePlan game gears up for launch and the Inhabitants collection returns to MetaHero branding, with a 120% rise over the weekend and some notable grail sales, including a Pixel Vault Core, Atom X, for 24 ETH. “It’s exciting to see the recent return to MetaHero branding and anticipation of the Reboot and BattlePlan! launch, reinvigorate the PixelVault community,” the team told nft now.

What’s going on? There’s general optimism about the entire crypto sector, as SEC Bitcoin ETF approval moves ever closer, with an approval window coming up in January. This optimism coincides with an influx of FOMO back into NFTs, particularly recognizing strong communities and teams that have continued to build during the bear market; PixelVault’s soon to be released, meticulously balanced autobattler is an example, and Pudgy Penguins’ Luca Netz enjoys strong support after a successful launch of their plush toy in WalMart and other community initiatives like an upcoming igloo merch drop teased last week. The holidays could also play a role, with NFTs as gifts for people looking to onboard friends and family into crypto.

“I think it comes down to digital natives feeling rich again,” the editor of NiftyNoon said in an interview. “We have seen so much positive price action across major tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum this year. I think as these crypto-rich people begin to realize some of their gains, they feel a desire to spend their wealth (as a reward and as a flex) on the NFTs that resonate most with them. I think that is why crypto-native collections such as Pudgy Penguins have done so well while less popular collections such as Moonbirds have struggled,” he said.

Blur farming has also had an impact, according to PROOF director of research Sam Gellman. “It’s hard to get away from the massive impact the renewed interest in Blur farming is having on this market. It leads to a lot of momentum-chasing and unfortunately some pump & dump strategies, which can increase volatility in both directions,” he told nft now.

As the space gears up for Art Basel Miami, these trends have not left art NFTs in the cold, with AI artist DeltaSauce enjoying a high-volume few days for his Views, currently sitting at a 1ETH floor, and FlamingoDAO targeting valuable fine-are tokens in popular collections over the weekend. Fans of Dmitri Cherniak celebrated a 22.3 WETH sale of a Ringer that had last sold for 2.4 in February 2021, Other highlights included 61 and 58 ETH Fidenza sales.

While any rally can quickly reverse, DeltaSauce is delighted.

“I’ve been seeing so much amazing art being picked up as the market has turned around, especially after a long bear market. As for my collection, Views, really happy with the overall response regardless of sales. Just hearing what people have to say and the long format conversations is something that is the most enjoyable about being an artist,” he said.