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Back in 2019, it was the threat of high performance ‘nextgen’ blockchains such as TRON and EOS that turned out to be a phantom menace.
Since then, plenty of L1 blockchains have positioned themselves to lesser or greater degrees as ‘Ethereum Killers’, even if that particular term has fallen out of favor, especially since the collapse of Terra, whose rise was partly fuelled by anti-ETH sentiment.
And now it appears to be time for Solana to take another run at breaking out of the following pack.
As ever, many headlines are being driven by fully-paid up purists spouting self-rewarding dogma.
But it’s also true that when it comes to some key metrics, for the first time some Solana-based projects appear to be gaining some traction; notably PFP project Okay Bears which has now done $95 million of lifetime trading volume since it launched in late April.
This makes it the third best performing Solana NFT collection ever and a top 10 collection across any blockchain over the past 30 days.
It’s even spawned a counter-collection on Ethereum called Not Okay Bears — “Bears on eth because we’re not okay on solana” — which suggests it’s hit a nerve somewhere.
More generally, OpenSea’s support for Solana NFTs also appears to driving new visibility for top projects.
I’m sure I’m not the only one taking more notice of the little blue and purple ‘S’s turning up on OpenSea’s stats page.
DeGods — currently with an equivalent 8 ETH floor price — in particular seems to have risen on a combination of its own particular NFT-token burn mechanic combined with new liquidity from OpenSea users.
But despite these projects and the sheer number of blockchain games being developed on Solana (at least 50 titles on the Big List) it’s not clear to me that Solana has gained the sort of irreversible momentum required to be viewed as a true L1 contender.
After all, we first saw this positioning back in late 2021 when the SOL price peaked at $230; now down 78% to $56.
Of course, this isn’t to say the likes of
Irreverent Labs’ mecha cockfighting game MechaFightClub ($40 million raised),
Faraway’s FPS Mini Royale: Nations ($30 million raised) or
Aurory and Star Atlas which between them generated over $300 million via various asset sales
can’t demonstrate how consumer projects running on Solana are taking blockchain gaming to the next level.
It’s just to say they haven’t gotten close to doing it yet. Solana bulls need to be careful they’re not promoting Solana bull.
Funding news
While one Twitch co-founder Justin Kan is building game NFT marketplace Fractal, another — Kevin Lin’s startup Metatheory — has announced a $24 million Series A round.
Based in San Francisco, Metatheory is building a sci-fi themed minting and combat blockchain game called DuskBreakers, which has already launched its Genesis set of NFT — currently rocking a 0.3 ETH floor price.
Pantera Capital, FTX Ventures and a16z co-led the round with involvement from a mix of investors ranging from crypto funds like Sfermion, Dragonfly and guild Merit Circle to more traditional funds such as Recharge Thematic Ventures and Breyer Capital.
Product news
London-based Pixion Games has announced Fableborne, its mobile-first F2P mix of action RPG and base building. The game will include upgradable NFT characters, which can be bought or earned as well as a token.
Pixion plans to launch its NFT presale in Q3 to be followed by a token launch and land NFT sale in Q4 2022. Set up by veterans from Konami, Pixonic, King and Zeptolabs, it announced a $2 million seed round earlier in 2019.
South Korean social network LINE has launched its DOSI wallet — something it calls a ‘social wallet’ for collecting NFTs as well as typical cryptocurrency features. Of course, DOSI wallet supports social media sign-in via Facebook, Google and LINE as well as multiple fiat payment methods.
All features will go live later in 2022 with the launch of the DOSI NFT marketplace, although Korean theme park Lotte World Adventure Busan is already airdropping video NFTs to celebrate its grand opening.