Volatility in the broader cryptocurrency market led the news this week and had a notable negative impact on the NFT sector. The latter is reduced in the commercial arena, given that in other aspects there was positive news, as will be seen later. If anything, the sales sector took the brunt of it.
Bitcoin faced strong liquidations that caused continuous slides in the price of the largest cryptocurrency. That led the rest of the market to emulate that behavior. In that sense, the most vulnerable sectors were precisely those of NFT and decentralized finance.
Below is a brief review of the most important news of the last seven days in the area of non-fungible tokens.
Week of Falling Sales in the NFT Sector
The virtual currency market experienced notable corrective pressure amid the bullish trend it is going through. The price of Bitcoin slipped several times well below $66,000 after hitting peaks higher than $73,000 per coin.
These sharp movements sparked a feeling of concern in the NFT sector, as this week’s news indicates. Consequently, sales in this market plummeted by 16.55%, according to data from the Cryptoslam portal.
In total, sales volume represented $358 million from March 9 to 16. Leading these sales was the Ethereum network with $129 million dollars. Thus, NFTs based on that network decreased by 20.98% compared to the immediately previous week.
As for the Bitcoin network, it operated sales of $124 million dollars and its weekly slip was 20.44%, according to the same portal. For its part, sales in Solana only lost 5% and totaled $61.68 million dollars. It is worth mentioning that this network is on an unstoppable rise in terms of trading volume.
Either way, the week did not end well for sales in the NFT sector, major news shows.
SuperRare Expands Beyond Ethereum Borders
The NFT trading platform originating from Ethereum, SuperRare, was one of the positive news of recent days. The marketplace ventures into Bitcoin after announcing the launch of a new collection of Ordinals inscriptions by a renowned artist (Killer Acid).
This platform is one of the oldest and most popular in NFT trading. Its jump to the Bitcoin network can be described as a positive step for the expansion of collectibles trading beyond the Ethereum fiefdom.
For this new stage, SuperRare established an alliance with the Bitcoin Ordinals marketplace, Gamma. The aforementioned collection is planned to launch on April 11, although some basic elements such as its size are not detailed.
Expectations are positive, which is why this project is among the most positive news of the week in the NFT world.
Starbucks Cancels Its Collectible Rewards Program
Beverage giant Starbucks announced the end of its Odyssey beta program, which consisted of rewards in the form of NFTs. However, this does not seem to mean the end of transactional forays into the world of blockchain-based collectibles.
In a frequently asked questions post, the company explains some of the reasons that motivated them to take the platform out of circulation. “Starbucks Odyssey Beta must come to an end to prepare us for what’s to come as we continue to evolve the program,” the post explains.
The publication leaves the door open so that customers can have access to a new rewards program in the future. This seems to close a chapter that would not have met the coffee company’s expectations.
By Audy Castaneda
