#71 | Asian Powers Embracing NFTs

Estimated Read Time: 7 minutes

Hey friends,

Great to have you joining us today. In this specially curated edition, we aim to answer the question "are NFTs back??" by taking a look at some metrics from January's NFT market as well as progressive stories from two Asian superpowers. Let's jump into it!

Steaming Headlines ♨️

Japanese Prime Minister Endorses NFTs

This isn't the first time the Japanese government has appeared in our limelight. The progressive country previously announced tax incentives for use of Web3 as well as rewarding Mayors with NFT POAPs; however, a recent House of Representatives meeting has furthered Japan’s positive take on NFTs and Web3. Speaking to the house, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has publicly promoted his views on the “various possibilities for using Web3” and how the blockchain can revitalize several aspects of Japan’s private and public sectors.

Leader of the government's Web3 task force Masaaki Taira stated “I think that these types of blockchain technology and technology using Web3 are effective in solving the various problems we have”, with the Prime Minister adding “If you consider DAOs, people who are interested in the same social issues can form a new community. NFTs can also be used to diversify the income of creators and maintain highly loyal fans”.

Yes, you heard that correctly. The Japanese Prime Minister may be a secret degen himself, judging by the way he strung together 'DAOs', 'community' and 'NFTs' in quick succession to one another. Being the birthplace and one of the world's leading manufacturers in anime, manga and popular global IP, Japan is probably one of the places most suited to apply NFT technology not only into collectibles, but also its embedded communities as well.

These topics of discussion also come in an effort to promote ‘Cool Japan’, a national strategy to showcase Japan’s technological advancements to the rest of the world; the Japanese government seems confident that Web3 and NFTs can play a crucial part in this. In the often dividing world of NFTs, the leader of a global superpower recognizing and promoting Web3 is an all-around positive outlook that hopefully, other countries can follow suit with.

Chinese Alcohol Giant Releases NFT-Linked Bottles

We may not be familiar with Kweichow Moutai in the west. Still, they produce China's “National Liqueur” and is the world's most valuable liquor brand by commercial value and one of the largest Chinese companies by market capitalization. Now, this goliath has just embraced NFTs. Launched this week, Moutai has started issuing 113,960 NFTs themed around “Lichun”, the first of China’s traditional 24 solar period calendar, moving forward they intend to release NFTs for every solar term.

This NFT collection is linked to limited-edition physical liquor counterparts, where customers can only acquire the right to buy the bottles after earning the NFTs through in-game tasks at Xunfeng Digital World, a mobile app that contains a digital replica of Moutai’s winery. Although 113,960 NFTs may seem like a ridiculously high amount, Xunfeng Digital World has already accumulated over 2.4 million registered users by the end of January. This puts into scope the significance of this story where potentially millions of people can now be onboarded into Web3 with not only gamified access to digital collectibles, but real-world utility through token-gated access to limited edition physical bottles, a perfect showcase for both NFTs and Web3.

China had a rocky start with crypto when the central bank banned all crypto transactions in 2021, but they haven't shared this view with NFTs where not only did the court of law state NFTs are protected by law as virtual property, but they also launched a government-regulated NFT marketplace. So it shouldn't come as a surprise to see this state-owned enterprise also embrace NFTs, and allude to yet another global superpower recognising and promoting Web3 as a pinnacle technology of the future.

January Shows Promise Of NFT Comeback

We may finally be seeing the calm after the storm with January showing yet another third consecutive month with substantial increases in NFT sales over the month prior, with an impressive 42% increase in NFT sales compared to December 2022. According to our analytics favorite DappRadar, NFTs hit a massive $945 million in sales over January which is the highest in over 7 months, with an accompanying impressive 38% increase in volume.

OpenSea still dominated with 58% of the NFT market totaling a staggering $495 million and a 66.5% increase in trading volume over December, but recent player Blur (launched in October 2022) has already reached 20% of the NFT market cap bringing in $187 million to the new platform. What makes this metric from Blur even more impressive is how $325 million or 34% of January's entire total NFT trading volume was from Yuga Labs' NFT collections with the launch of the Sewer Pass, of which Blur was blacklisted from trading due to the red hot royalty debate. Is Blur going to be the one to dethrone OpenSea?

Although it's definitely too early to be counting our chickens, the graph above no doubt shows positive signs for our industry, and when pairing this with progressive news from the likes of Japan and China it's fair to say 2023 is eyeing up to be a nice year for Web3, let's see what happens next.

Big thanks for joining in on this edition, we hope you have a great couple of days while we curate the next round-up, take care!

What's the NFTea? 🍵

Did you fade the Chungo, anon?

At first glance, Chungos... is not the most aesthetically pleasing NFT collection. Okay I'll say it — they're ugly.

That being said, they've cultivated a rabid group of memelords who not only are extremely active right now, but have created an entire sub-culture dedicated to promoting the Chungos brand.

This free mint NFT collection took less than a week to go from literally zero to... well, Top 10 on OpenSea's homepage, with an all-time high of 0.24 ETH floor price and a thick floor at 0.2; very well done for something that was trading at less than 0.01 ETH a few days ago!

We might be seeing a full-blown meme season upon us, with collections such as The Memes by 6529, Checks & Pepe derivatives as well as Chungos coming to the forefront of the space at different points of 2023. Because while you can quantify utility, you can't quantify culture, can you?

NFTs are fun.

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Twitter: @MorningNFTeaOur Team: @BuckyGang | @Wickyy.eth | @subvertDiscord: Morning NFTea

DISCLAIMER:

None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.