NFT MARKET UPDATE
The crypto and NFT industry has not yet exited the bear market, and situations continue to cause havoc. As more projects face liquidation, fears are spreading in the community, causing panic selling of many NFT collections. Let’s have a quick look at what happened this week.
BENDDAO FACES A LIQUIDITY CRISIS
BendDAO, an NFT-collateralized lending platform, is one of the many projects pushed to the brink of insolvency. As of August 18, BendDAO houses 32,267ETH ($59,048,610) worth of NFTs as collateral for its loans. It is considered one of the most significant risks in the market today with 2.8% of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and 1.6% of Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) currently on the platform. As floor prices of these NFTs dropped, liquidators were deterred from locking up their ETH. Many depositors have withdrawn their assets together, draining BendDAO’s reserves to only 5 ETH.
SUDORARE: ANOTHER RUG PULL
Earlier this month, SudoRare, a platform that forked and converged Sudoswap and LooksRare’s protocol features, arrived in the space with seemingly enticing offers such as rewards to stakers of $LOOKS, $WETH, and $XMON on its platform. The company also promised to incorporate an NFT marketplace within it. After just 6 hours from its launch, SudoRare shut down its online presence and disappeared with all the assets from hopeful investors. It is later determined that the total realized theft amounts to $850,000.
YET ANOTHER NFT RELEASE FROM SACRAMENTO KINGS
Sacramento Kings, one of the famed franchises in the National Basketball Association, is set to release its NFT collection “Laidback Lions” on the 31st of August on Magic Eden. The collection will officially be the team’s 2nd release following the 2021 debut of Laidback Lions. The King’s upcoming collection was developed by the Web3 company called ‘Ankr.’ Fans are about to see 8 NFT images of the team’s mascot Slamson. 79 supplies will be made available per image and sold for $500 each. In addition, one Gold NFT will be up for bidding with a starting price of $5,000. Sacramento King’s owner and the team’s chairman Vivek Ranadivé stated that the release was done upon the success of the previous collection. To quote, “Based on the tremendous response to the first release of the Laidback Lions, we are thrilled to expand our collection of NFTs and welcome new owners to The Jungle community.”
TELEGRAM IS DIVING INTO WEB3
Last Monday, Telegram founder Pavel Durov expressed interest in innovating its messaging app further by integrating Web3 enhancements. Durov mentioned on his Telegram channel that the idea sparked after being impressed by an independent project called “TON.” The messaging app’s users may get an update in the future with new web3-based auctions for custom usernames. Historically, Telegram already worked with Telegram Open Network (TON) on a project in 2018 that was later abandoned due to a legal fight with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The app’s founder mentioned that TON would likely be the blockchain of choice for Telegram, considering its familiarity with the technology. The messaging app currently enables users to send and receive TONcoins, and an NFT marketplace is likely to be the next prospect for Web3 integration.
