The Real Housewives of Avalanche

(Any views expressed in the below are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions.)

Gm fellow drama enjoyooooors. Hope everyone is having yet another good week. I'm currently larping as a scurvy-afflicted pirate as I recover from COVID and wear an eyepatch from a minor procedure done the other day. I'll leave that beautiful mental image up to you to conceive.

While OE collections and every other project I don't own on ETH continues to rip, we had a relatively quiet week on AVAX (as far as trading goes). Let's take a look.

Market Update

My brothers in Christ, surely you remember that AVAX NFTs still exist, right?

When I say quiet, I mean "A Quiet Place" level of quiet. One transaction may get you killed by a lurking on-chain monstrosity. Weekly USD volume is down >50% from the week prior - what the hell happened?

Based on a few conversations I've had, I think a lot of the OE moon stuff I mentioned has captivated the majority of NFT market participants. Checks VV went absolutely scorched earth with a 200% run-up in about 48 hours to north of 3 ETH, which was pretty fascinating to watch. In Tuesday's Mint Weekly, Wilson touched on a lot of what's been going on there which I think played a large part in cannibalizing attention on AVAX. Attention is the currency of the NFT market, after all.

Project Update

Projects have largely stayed in-line with this trend (read: flat to down). Personally, I think OOPA will freshen up the scene a bit and increase the lack of trading velocity we've seen over the last week or so. Tends to happen with fairly hyped mints. If you recall, Wolfiland kicked off an insane few weeks of UpOnly back in October. What a time to be alive for that, albeit it was short-lived.

Doggerinos is another upcoming mint that I've seen some buzz about. Both Stupifff and Wrathavax have joined their team, which means only the finest doggo enthusiasts will be vetted and allowed into the community. I've been told to keep your notifications on, as discord invites are going out sporadically and only from their Twitter account.

Going forward, I'm going to segment this section between a "blue chip" index, which is entirely my opinion and should make for some juicy debate, and an upcoming mint section. I'm going to highlight only mints that tickle my fancy and may be worth looking into, so don't expect any Kalao-exclusive crap to be highlighted here. Look out for that next week.

Market Musings: Is 2023 the Year of the Dox?

Is 2023 the year where we just reveal who we all are instead of larping?

As someone who became quickly accustomed to associating personalities with various profile pictures, going to Art Basel in December and meeting up with folks at the Pudgy Penguins event completely subverted my philosophy on shrouding my identity. Sure, it has its benefits, but if you're not a bad actor, I personally feel like you miss out on a lot of upside. Many successful projects on other chains have clear figureheads who are doxxed, and I think AVAX could benefit from a similar approach which we're all starting to see.

Enter stage right, Giraffe.

OOPA fudders be like:

Suddenly, I have the urge to empty my AVAX wallet and buy all the Golden Tokens available.

Seems like others are starting to get the idea.

Fish catches my drift. It's one thing to lurk and meme anonymously, but as a builder, I strongly subscribe to the idea that people need to identify with who is steering a certain project / protocol / initiative at a personal level. I think many folks forgot how powerful it is to meet up in-person and have conversations - so much nuance is lost to the plaintext discussions that we're accustomed to on Twitter and Discord. Spaces do help rectify this to some extent and I think they're a powerful tool, but a phone call just doesn't hit the same. That's why I'm really looking forward to NFT NYC and if I can make it, the Avalanche Summit in Barcelona in May.

Wen Chuck dox you ask? I may decide to do so soon, but it's not one of my top priorities. For now, just ask Dom or Jake to rate me between 1 and 10.

Conclusion

I know many were captivated by the season premiere of The Real Housewives of Avalanche last weekend, myself included, and I think we were long overdue for some drama in our neck of the woods.

As much as I'd like to give you an episode recap like this is Page Six, I'm going to refrain from doing so. I don't find it very productive to call people out and harp on mistakes, or give attention to those who seek it in a malicious fashion. I think Dom put it very well in this tweet:

With that in mind, I hope everyone can positively enjoy the rest of the week. Be nice - we're all on the same team.

Cheers,

Chuck