Andy Warhol prophesied it: the NFTs will save us.
The Everchanging World Of Crypto Art And Its Evolution
When someone tries to buy all the world’s supply of a scarce asset, the more they buy the higher the price goes. At some point, it gets too expensive for them to buy any more.
Satoshi Nakamoto
What is the difference between the classical art we know and the evolving art of the digital world? While the work is unique in classical art and lives its original and inimitable life over time, digital art has an entirely different path.
Andy Warhol was the first to create an option for everyone that referred to the ownership and, therefore, the purchase of valuable artwork, creating prints in the screen printing stage, as exact copies that could be seen and used by anyone, whatever their background or social status. This social philosophy of art saw the widespread emergence of many movements that played along these lines. Being the owner of a work of genius and to which collectors attribute value can be an experience for everyone.
Today, however, the virtual experience of art brings us to a possible replication that is no longer one-dimensional but reproducible in multiple parts and with a much higher definition of detail. We currently live in an "everchanging" world where it is possible to enjoy an object in an identical way without affecting the original through the conversion of files related to digital works of art that have cleared a new perception of it.
A work created by an artist will thus have the opportunity to be reproduced in an indefinite number of copies, developing in a different and more modern way the concept of having the possibility to own an original work already created by Warhol without making a unique individualism linked to collecting. In the real world, we know that buying an artwork, an object in infinite copies, is practically impossible, and even if it were so, it would automatically lose the value and credibility of the author, while in a digital context, the opposite happens.
Therefore, an artwork can be purchased in its originality through a unique certification that makes the owner personalized. The consequence will be that the artwork in the digital world will not run any risk in defining its value when it will be reproduced. The evaluation that we can currently make about the technical feedback on this new media exposure of art in the digital dimension is undoubtedly partial because the data are in continuous definition and allow us to observe, through a series of hypotheses, what scenario could be foreshadowed.
What is happening in these last summer weeks of 2021 will be remembered as a new life and a renewed rediscovery of NFTs. And only now is a value starting to be given, not only to the realization of the artwork but above all to what matters most: the importance of the buyer's ownership. The same fate is also for gaming and collectible cards. In particular, Rare Pepe and Spells of Genesis have still held a value even though many had almost totally forgotten their existence. On this, we will have the opportunity to observe even more closely the trend of a phenomenon that can only continue to surprise us.
Decentralized Finance
Despite the slowdown in Total Value Locked, which in the last week has registered a retreat of about $3 billion from last week's highs, with a value that has come close to the historical records of last May, the activity of Decentralized Finance nevertheless remains effervescent.
A platform developed on Paradigm, an investment company on cryptographic projects, has raised in a Series A funding round over $8 million, indicating that there is more and more interest from the institutional world. That is also confirmed by the Metamask project, which in recent weeks has seen an increasing interest from institutions in the use of decentralized wallets that allow for alternative financial activity.
In a recent call, those involved in the planning and developing the Metamask protocol have repeatedly indicated that work is being carried out to optimize the Layer 2 (L2) solutions. So this is a reorganization with scaling projects on Optimism (A scaling solution for the Ethereum), which will improve speed and reduce fees related to payments on the Ethereum network first.
In addition to a decrease in locked assets across the entire ecosystem of decentralized finance projects, the week also saw a reduction in trades on exchanges with a slide in trading volumes of over 15% and a total volume of $15 billion over the last seven days.
Despite this slowdown in weekly volumes, the month of August, with over $86 billion traded, remains the second-highest volume by month ever (compared to May's all-time high of $173 billion).
However, the benefit of all this apparent immobility leads to a reflection of what is happening in the NFT space.
The DEX leader is still Uniswap, with $10.7 billion traded in the last week and occupying 70% of the market share.
It is followed at a distance by Sushiswap with 1.9 billion USD equal to 12% and
Curve with 830 million USD equal to 5%.
EPNS - Protocol for blockchain based Notifications
Blockchain technology is growing at a crazy speed, and it reminds us of the Internet at the beginning. Leading this dimension is undoubtedly Ethereum, the most known and used blockchain at the moment. That is possible thanks to various dApps, i.e., platforms, services, and smart contracts such as Aave, Compound, Maker, Pool Together, or Idle Finance.
This growth is bound to continue, but before reaching mass adoption, some problems must be solved. One of them is definitely the UI/UX of the different dApps created on the Ethereum blockchain. At the moment, it's inconvenient to use DeFi or NFT platforms since there are no push notifications that alert us in case something noteworthy happens in our wallet.
For example: if you use AAVE, Compound, or other DeFi protocols and you are about to be liquidated, you will have to do a manual check as there are currently no push notifications. And this can prove to be a problem for those who use such platforms as a hobby and cannot monitor the performance of their wallets 24/7. Another problem could be the expiration of the ENS domain (which lasts for one year) or executing a trade on the various DEXs.
All these critical points can be solved with the EPNS project - Ethereum Push Notification Service. EPSN is a new standard, supported by Ethereum Foundation, Vitalik Buterin, and several DeFi dApps, that can solve all these problems and save you time by sending PUSH notifications to your Ethereum wallet (like Metamask, TrustWallet).
If until now you were forced to follow the telegram, discord, or Twitter groups of all the projects in which you are token holder, with the arrival of EPNS MainNet, you can start saving a lot of time by relying on this new technology that will surely be indispensable if the blockchain continues to rise at this speed.
Projects will use EPNS on many occasions to communicate with their token holders, sending notifications if there is something new in governance or the event of hacks and/or exploits to present essential news or launch contests. The use cases of EPNS are infinite, and sooner or later, the moment will come when no one will be able to stay without it.
That's why we're sure that EPNS' governance token, called PUSH, is a token you should keep in your portfolio to diversify any cryptocurrency investment. Like 99% of cryptocurrency projects, EPNS runs entirely on its governance token PUSH. The max supply of the token is 100 million units, while the circulating supply is currently less than 9M tokens.
With today's price of $4.3, the market cap is $36M, while the fully diluted valuation exceeds $432M. Suffice it to say that until a few weeks ago, the PUSH token was available at just 67 cents (on July 20, 2021) due to the sharp cryptocurrency correction caused by the bitcoin price dump. Previously, push had gone as high as $8.73 in April 2021. Although the price is now closer to the All-Time High than the All-Time Low, sooner or later, the use of EPNS will soar, and as a result, the price will skyrocket.
Among the investors of the project, there is also Binance Labs, so soon, we will be able to see the listing of PUSH on the Binance exchange. At the moment, you can buy the token on Uniswap, WazirX, and many other first-class exchanges. To learn more about the team and the project itself, visit the official EPNS.io website!
And while you're holding, and waiting for the big jump, check out the staking page at incentives.epns.io, where you can stake your token to get new ones weekly in a unique 100-week program.
Paribus - A Cross-chain protocol powered by the Cardano Blockchain.
The project that is capturing our attention the most right now is undoubtedly Paribus.
Paribus could be described as a decentralized finance Cross-chain, which can procure liquidity for various conventional and unconventional digital assets by allowing them to be traded.
Paribus litepaper opens with a catchy phrase arguing that if an asset can be verified, it can be sold. If an asset can be sold, it means it has value, and if it has value, it can also be leveraged to trade.
Paribus is the DeFi protocol that offers investors and holders the ability to achieve their desired digital asset and position on countless amounts of different products and tokens.
In Paribus, we can find many different types of products unlimitedly different, but also certain professionalism among all the network users involved in creating, developing, and improving virtual economies and markets in a short time at a pace that is increasing faster, previously unimaginable.
One of the fundamental objectives for Paribus, at this moment, is to explore financial instruments and products for NFT - Non Fungible Tokens - of whatever nature they are. The sensational news is that the platform would allow users to provide liquidity and capital by simply locking their assets as collateral, with the aim of offering as a service to users the opportunity to generate returns and earnings, both as traders and as liquidity providers, on a vast range of very different products.
We would thus see the creation of a true digital finance revolution compared to the traditional one, giving the possibility to trade NFT, liquidity positions, and tokens, thus offering its customers the opportunity to truly capitalize on the value of their assets.
Built and developed on the Cardano Blockchain mainly, Paribus also offers the opportunity to support other networks such as Ethereum, BSC, and Tron and the possibility to integrate assets such as NFTs of a Virtual Land or Decentraland artwork. In fact, the cross-chain service seems to expand to 360 degrees.
As mentioned above, all of the products will be integrated into the PBX token that will enable profit sharing for liquidity providers and stakers and secure DAO governance. The NFT market, which continues to grow exponentially although still asymmetrically, will undoubtedly find a space in the Defi market. The lending and leasing markets will provide opportunities for NFT owners to trade and generate new opportunities.
Paribus' strong point is to believe in time and that NFT markets will find a fair market value and become as liquid as most cryptocurrencies tradable today. The project seems very interesting and well underway; integration and cross-chains offer a decent level of standardization in terms of tokens and boast a large amount of liquidity. For now, the token has been launched on Cardstarter, but it will probably be one of the best projects developed on the Cardano blockchain.
Non Fungible Token
The month of August is drawing to a close with the confirmation of a decidedly exciting period as far as the NFT sector is concerned.
The last week of August records a return of the glory of the first NFTs and CryptoPunks with an increase of 800% over the previous seven days equal to a traded volume that touches over $400 million, generated by "only" 1,330 transactions. On Saturday, August 28 alone, CryptoPunks traded a counter value of $143.6 million, making it the day with the highest trading volume on these low-resolution digital images.
However, this explosion on CryptoPunks was driven by the entry of VISA, who earlier in the week, purchased Crypto Punk #7610 for a counter value of $150,000. It is one of 3,840 female punks images, which caught the attention of even the most institutional entities and those who work and operate in related sectors.
Thus VISA's Head of Crypto, Cuy Sheffield, stated:
"We felt that CryptoPunks would be a great addition to our collection of artifacts that can chart and celebrate the past, present, and future of commerce."
Art Blocks also continues to increase its volumes, growing 150% in the last week for a trading value of $285 million.
Third position for Axie Infinity that after weeks of dominance gives up the throne dropping to the third position with only $158 million generated by more than 400,000 transactions with a decrease of 22% on a weekly basis, together with Parallel Alpha, the only projects that record a contraction of weekly volumes in the top ten projects related to NFT. In contrast, all the others record only triple-digit increases.
The Curio Cards project, an online art exhibition for digital artists and collectors, certainly stands out. That is the first Non-Fungible-Token art show built on the Ethereum network. Curio Cards has created a new form of art without any commission and with the ability for users to access becoming owners of a unique collectible.
In the Top5 of the highest NFT auctions, CryptoPunks #7252 went for 1,600 Ethereum equaling a counter value of $4.5 million.
In addition to leaving us more and more amazed, however, these numbers make us understand how the industry is sometimes unpredictable and even difficult to understand in some of its dynamics, often complex and continuously able to surprise us in its unpredictability.
The Fun Token sports this week see the growth and the explosion of the token of Manchester City that gains 220% in seven days, a volume traded of $522 million, falls instead in second position Paris Saint Germain with $389 million and both are reflected positively on the value of the token on a weekly basis. Third Atletico Madrid with $95 million.
In the last 48 hours, the news of the purchase by Steph Curry (among the top five NBA players) of an NFT of one of the primates belonging to the collection of 10,000 of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has bounced on Twitter driving the value of this new and growing entity to ever-higher levels.
On September 2, Sotheby's will auction off some of the many monkeys.
We will just have to watch the upcoming trend of this market that continues to go up.
5 hottest DeFi news of the week
Square wants to create a decentralized exchange for Bitcoin
Cream Finance DeFi platform loses $19M in a flash loan hack
Celsius becomes first CeFi or DeFi platform to cross $20B AUM
Solana, Boosted by Move Into NFTs, Enters List of Top 10 Cryptocurrencies by Market Cap
CryptoPunks blasts past $1 billion in lifetime sales as NFT speculation surges
Technical Analysis
Bitcoin (BTC)
The monthly expiration of derivatives conditioned the weekly trend with the rise that pushed the price above 50,000 USD (1) lasted, however, a few hours, in fact, the defense of the strike with the most traded Open Interest of the last month has immediately rejected the attempt to lengthen. However, throughout the week, the price has oscillated below the psychological threshold of 50,000 USD (1).
Technically, the structure remains bullish, and the price rebound from the minimum of July 20 (2) sees prices recover over 60%, confirming the holding of 47,000 USD (3), a level that coincides with the 50% Fibonacci retracement.
At the cyclical level, instead, it will be necessary to understand in the coming days if the minimum of August 19 (3) will be the starting point of the new monthly cycle.
BTC levels to be monitored for the week:
On the upside: the technical and psychological threshold of 50,000 USD (1) remains the reference threshold, which with an eventual break or rise, will have to find the support of buying volumes, contrary to what happened last week.
On the downside: the holding of 44,000 USD with the double minimum of August 12-19 (3) is the level to monitor in the coming days to understand the continuation of the bullish trend of the current quarterly cycle that began with the lows of July 20 (2). An eventual break to the downside should not extend below 40,000 USD (4) in order not to compromise the bullish structure.
BTC Options
With the expiration of the monthly options, the strategy of the traders is reshaped by continuing to opt for the strike of 50,000 USD as the operational threshold, unlike last week where Call options prevailed clearly with over 99%, in the previous few hours there has been an increase in Put options, and this means that the possibility of new rises is beginning to be evaluated. Note of interest: The Open Interest increase for the strike of 100.000 USD as technical data to be followed until the end of the current year.
Ethereum (ETH)
The growing use of the Ethereum network has pushed the Ethereum hashrate to 649 THash/s, a new all-time high, slightly higher than the previous level of last May, indicating how the Ethereum network is giving more and more confirmation of its solidity through the support of the community. That is reflected in the price that, despite a sideways trend in the last seven days and a slightly negative weekly closing, records quotations above 3,100 USD (1); this crucial level is to be considered. A few days from the end of the month the performance exceeds 25%, the best result since last April.
If the setting of the monthly cycle that began with the minimum of August 19 (2) is correct, the next few days will be necessary for evaluating the trend that will accompany the movement in the second part of its direct sub-cycle (15/20 days).
ETH levels to monitor for the week:
On the upside: 3350 USD crucial level to follow in the coming days, level subjected twice to breakage on August 14 and 23 with negative outcomes due to the lack of adequate buying volumes and for this, we can say that a possible third attempt should find safe support or interest in new purchases.
On the downside: the lack of a real ascent could cause several attempts of speculation to the downside that would be realized with the break of 2900 USD. An eventual slide below this level could cause an increase in volatility with ample room for price movement up to 2500 USD, a level that coincides with the 50% Fibonacci retracement and that takes as reference the lows and highs of the last forty days.
ETH Options
Professional operators continue to consider the threshold of 5000 USD as an important barrier to overcome. More than 90,000 Calls are still open for this strike, more than 30% of the most animated ones, relative to 10,000 USD.
However, before reaching the test of 5000 USD, it is necessary to overcome the 3900 USD barrier.
In the event of a reversal of the trend from bullish to bearish, we have a strike of 3200 USD, a level on which the price has been fluctuating for over twenty days; the next barrier of protection will move to around 2500 USD, a level that coincides with the technical analysis above.