Author: stella@footprint.network

In November, the crypto landscape buzzed with activity as Bitcoin and Ether prices surged, hinting at a market revival. The NFT sector saw Blur outpace competitors, while the trading volume soared, despite a shrinking pool of buyers. The debut of Blast promised a new era of Ethereum scalability, all against the backdrop of Binance's CEO stepping down, signaling a maturing market ready to embrace regulatory compliance and forge ahead.

Data for this report was obtained from Footprint Analytics’ NFT research page. An easy-to-use dashboard containing the most vital stats and metrics to understand the NFT industry, updated in real-time, you can find all the latest about trades, projects, fundings, and more by clicking here.

Key Points

Crypto Macro Overview

• Bitcoin’s price continued to rise in November, commencing at $34,629 and culminating in a 9.3% increase, with the closing price reaching $37,848. 

• The settlement between United States agencies and Binance is viewed positively, as it reduces systemic risk in the crypto industry and could boost investor confidence.

NFT Market Overview

• The crypto market's resurgence in November extended to NFTs, with trading volume surging by 50.7% to $644.0 million.

• This rise in volume was more attributable to the increased value of the tokens used for pricing NFTs, rather than a substantial resurgence in actual trading activity.

• The Blue Chip Index witnessed an upward trend in November, with an increase of 12.8%.

Chains & Marketplaces for NFTs

• Ethereum dominated the NFT market with $634.2 million in trading volume, representing 98.5% of the total, marking a 50.4% increase from October.

• Blur remains the leading NFT marketplace, commanding a dominant 66.3% market share with a trading volume that hit $427.1 million.

• OpenSea saw a decline in November, with its trading volume falling to $148.9 million. 

• Blur experienced significant user growth, with 43.9K unique users marking a 50.3% increase from the previous month.

NFT Investment & Funding   

• The NFT market saw increased activity in November with two funding rounds totaling $11.5 million.

• Taproot Wizards, a Bitcoin Ordinals project inspired by a classic Bitcoin wizard meme, raised $7.5 million in funding led by Standard Crypto.

What’s New? 

• Yuga Labs and Magic Eden Launching Ethereum NFT Marketplace That Enforces Royalties

• OpenSea Slashes NFT Marketplace Staff by 50%.

• Square Enix Announces Launch Date for Symbiogenesis, its First NFT Game.

• Disney To Launch NFT Platform With Dapper Labs Featuring Pixar and Star Wars.

Crypto Macro Overview

Bitcoin’s price continued to rise in November, commencing at $34,629 and culminating in a 9.3% increase, with the closing price reaching $37,848. Ether opened the month at $1,812 and saw a steady growth of 11.9%, concluding the month at $2,028.

Source: BTC Price & ETH Price

Financial markets demonstrated a tempered response to a spectrum of potential risks. The anticipation surrounding the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF contributed to a bullish sentiment, while encouraging developments in the Middle East conflict alleviated concerns over broader regional instability. Similarly, the United States' Consumer Price Index (CPI) maintained its downward trajectory, fueling optimism for prospective Federal Reserve rate reductions and the possibility of a 'soft landing' for the U.S. economy. 

Changpeng Zhao(CZ) stepped down as CEO of Binance on November 21 as part of a major $4 billion settlement between United States agencies and Binance. This settlement brought closure to extensive investigations by the Department of Justice and other entities into Binance's alleged anti-money laundering and sanctions violations. Bitcoin dipped to $35,800 following news of Binance's settlement but recovered to stabilize in the mid-$36,000s by the next morning. The settlement is viewed positively, as it reduces systemic risk in the crypto industry and could boost investor confidence.

NFT Market Overview 

The crypto market's resurgence in November extended to NFTs, with trading volume surging by 50.7% to $644.0 million, although the transaction count remained flat at 1,070,324. The period did see a 12.9% drop in unique users (wallets), totaling 244,928. 

Source: NFT Market Overview

The NFT market cap experienced growth in November, starting at $4.68 billion and rising by 7.9% to close the month at $5.05 billion.

Source: NFT Market Cap & Volume

During November, the ratio of buyers to sellers in the NFT market was 100.6%, representing a 35.5% decline from October's figures. The month saw 146,877 buyers against 145,956 sellers. This indicates that the number of buyers fell by 21.7% from the month before, whereas the number of sellers rose by 5.9%. 

The NFT market in November experienced a 50.7% increase in trading volume despite having 21.7% fewer buyers, suggesting that the uptick in volume may not necessarily indicate a full market recovery. This rise in volume was more attributable to the increased value of the tokens used for pricing NFTs, rather than a substantial resurgence in actual trading activity.

Source: Daily Buyers & Sellers

The Blue Chip Index witnessed an upward trend in November, with an increase of 12.8%.

Source: BlueChip Index

According to the data from Footprint Analytics, CryptoPunks' floor price rose 18.4% in November, from 46.8 ETH to 55.5 ETH, peaking at 70 ETH on November 14. CryptoPunks led the NFT market with a $1.3 billion market cap and a 19.2% market share. Bored Ape Yacht Club maintained a floor price of 30 ETH, a market cap of $674.4 million, and a 10.3% market share.

Source: Market Cap Distribution in November

Another perspective on the NFT market, the Google Trends data, using the peak interest from January 2022 as a benchmark set at 100, indicates that by the end of November, the public interest for "NFT" (blue line) and "Non-fungible token" (red line) was at a level of 5. This suggests that, despite the market's recovery and growth in trading volume and market cap, the general public's interest in NFTs remains significantly lower than it was during the peak period.

Source: Google Trends

Chains & Marketplaces for NFTs

In November, Ethereum dominated the NFT market with $634.2 million in trading volume, representing 98.5% of the total, marking a 50.4% increase from October.

Source: Monthly Volume by Chain

In November, Ethereum's unique user count rose by 7.6%, reaching 140.4K. Conversely, the BNB Chain saw a 4% decline from October, with 16.8K unique users, marking a significant 73.5% fall from the 63.4K recorded in July. Meanwhile, Polygon experienced a substantial 35.3% reduction in unique users, totaling 92.0K.

Source: Monthly Uniques User by Chain

Regarding NFT marketplaces, Blur remains the leading NFT marketplace, commanding a dominant 66.3% market share with a trading volume that hit $427.1 million. This volume marks a 112.3% surge from October's figures, propelling Blur to its highest market share to date. 

Following its listing on Binance's convert feature and the launch of Blast, $BLUR, the native token for Blur, experienced a price increase. It started at $0.30 on November 21, reached a peak of $0.68 on November 25, and ended the month at $0.50.

Blast, developed by Tieshun Roquerre, the founder of Blur, launched in early access on November 21 after raising $20 million from Paradigm and Standard Crypto. It's positioned as the first Ethereum Layer 2 with a native yield model and quickly amassed a TVL (Total Value Locked) of over $600 million by month's end. Despite its social media buzz, Blast faced criticism over its 3/5 MultiSig escrow contract, initial withdrawal restrictions, and its referral program structure.

Blast

In contrast, OpenSea saw a decline in November, with its trading volume falling to $148.9 million. This represents a 16.8% decrease from October's numbers, and its market share also shrank from 41.4% to 23.1%.

At the start of November, OpenSea announced a significant reduction in its workforce, cutting its staff by nearly 50%. This decision aligns with the company's strategic pivot as it gears up to introduce OpenSea 2.0, a revamped version of its marketplace. Embracing a more streamlined and flatter organizational structure, OpenSea aims to enhance agility and competitiveness in the rapidly changing NFT landscape. This move follows a previous downsizing in July 2022, where OpenSea reduced its workforce by 20%. The recent layoffs are, in part, a response to OpenSea's lagging behind Blur in NFT trading volumes, highlighting the company's efforts to adapt and remain a key player in the market.

X2Y2 experienced a downturn in its market position, with its market share declining to 5.4% in November. This was the lowest level the platform had seen since May 2022.

Source: Monthly Volume by Marketplace - Distribution

During November, there was a mixed performance among NFT marketplaces regarding unique user metrics. OpenSea retained its lead in attracting users, with 204.1K unique users visiting the platform. However, this figure indicates a 16.9% reduction from October's user count. In contrast, Blur experienced significant user growth, with 43.9K unique users marking a 50.3% increase from the previous month.

Source: Monthly Unique Users by Marketplace

NFT Investment & Funding

The NFT market saw increased activity in November with two funding rounds totaling $11.5 million.

Authentick secured $4 million in seed funding from Menyala, a venture-building platform founded by Temasek, to facilitate buying digital collectibles without a Web3 wallet or exchange. They're enabling NFTs to be sold on traditional e-commerce sites, such as Lazada, to help brands reach broader audiences.

Taproot Wizards, a Bitcoin Ordinals project inspired by a classic Bitcoin wizard meme, raised $7.5 million in funding led by Standard Crypto. The project, with a limited mint of 2,121 wizards NFT honoring Bitcoin's 21 million supply limit, has inscribed 99.3% of its total but distributed less than 1%. 

Source: Taproot Wizards - Wizard #0001

Bitcoin-focused Ordinals projects are quite a hype recently. Taproot Wizards co-founder Udi Wertheimer said they are keeping release schedules under wraps to sustain interest over time. “We want to find people on a mission, not those focused on JPEGs”, he said. 

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Data includes: 

• Blockchains: Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Chain, Cronos, Optimism

• Marketplaces: OpenSea, LooksRare, Blur, X2Y2, Cryptopunks, Rarible, SuperRare, Foundation, Decentraland, Aavegotchi, Element, Era7, the Sandbox, Minted 

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