Crypto gaming platform Balthazar projects big NFT sales growth; Pharrell Williams promotes Doodles

22 June 2022

in Meta News

Reading Time: 6 mins read

While the big NFT.NYC event in New York pulls in the (mostly) non-fungible fans, Sydney-based NFT gaming platform Balthazar has today released its latest NFT Marketplace Update.

And the overarching takeaway might be construed like this… the bear market has shown up to the party and asked everyone to turn down the music, but the show will go on, eventually bigger than before.

In fact, based on sales-volume data up to June 19, 2022, Balthazar projects a 239 per cent growth rate for 2022 (more than 3X), ending the year with US$48.43 billion in total sales.

“We’re seeing a softening of NFT sales volume this year, and this is the case across the crypto market,” acknowledged John Stefanidis, co-founder and CEO of Balthazar, adding:

“However, if we look at NFT sales volume last year, 2022 has already surpassed this by almost US$10 billion, with US$23.82 billion in sales this year across the four marketplaces.”

Using data from DappRadar, the Balthazar report analyses four leading NFT marketplaces based on trade volume: OpenSea, Magic Eden, LooksRare and Solanart, as can be seen in the 2022 projected sales volume and monthly sales volume charts below…

Sales volume for the four marketplaces in June 1-19 (US$673 million) is 80 percent down on May 2022 (US$3.40 billion).

Stefanidis said that while weekly sales volume is showing a downward trend (see below), with the average transaction size also dropping, there are still positive signs that more people are getting involved in the NFT space.

“The number of users and number of trades have seen positive growth month-on-month from January to May this year,” said the CEO.

“NFT gaming in particular is moving forward with more games being developed, more investment and activity from NFT holders and gamers. This will be the clear winner in the crypto market this year.”

The Balthazar research notes that the number of trades projected for June is 15.19 million, which will be the highest on record. To date, June has recorded 9.62 million transactions across the four marketplaces, and, according to Balthazar, is expected to see a 21% increase this month.

Perhaps the NFT.NYC event will help bolster that activity…

Doodles creates buzz, teams with Pharrell Williams, gets VC funding

This year’s NFT.NYC conference (June 20-23) is definitely being staged at a difficult time in the market, yet despite that it’s very likely the largest, and most-attended NFT event yet.

More than 15,000 attendees have registered for the conference, up from 5,000 or so last year when markets, and the global economy, were in a somewhat less precarious position.

One “blue chip” project, Doodles, seems to be making some waves at the conference. Check out this queue to get into its event announcing its new collection, Doodles 2…

The @doodles line right now 👀 pic.twitter.com/tXiGLVbYLN

— autopixel 🗽🚕♥️🐀🌭 (@autopixel) June 22, 2022

The Doodles 2 collection will reportedly “span millions of avatars”, according to a Decrypt article – up from 10,000 in the original series – and will include new traits and new functionality.

Doodles 2… coming soon. https://t.co/8gw3OeeQfs pic.twitter.com/c33BB0GLqP

— doodles (@doodles) June 22, 2022

And the further big Doodles-related announcements from the event are twofold – a prominent new “Chief Brand Officer” and some notable VC backing.

The event revealed that well-known US musician and producer Pharrell “Because I’m Happy” Williams is taking on the ambassadorial role, while Alexis Ohanian’s VC firm Seven Seven Six (776) is leading the project’s first round of funding.

Wow! @Pharrell joins Doodles team. pic.twitter.com/6JsxBCDPqF

— iridood (@iridood) June 22, 2022

It seems Williams will be helping the direction of the Doodles project in terms of music, artwork, merch/consumer products, animation and events. Sounds like an intense full-time gig… isn’t he busy enough already?

“I’m a big fan of the brand,” said Williams in a video message played to the event’s crowd. “We’re going to build from the core community outward and bring Doodles to new heights, new levels.”

The star will also be the executive producer on an album of Doodles-inspired music – “Doodles Records: Volume 1,” which will be released through Columbia Records.

The funding from Seven Seven Six, meanwhile is undisclosed, but the firm seems intent on becoming a heavy hitter in various sectors of crypto/Web3, very much including the NFT space. The VC entity also recently invested in Moonbirds, another much-hyped Ethereum-based NFT collection.

Also speaking at the event via recorded message, NFT fan Ohanian said that Seven Seven Six will be working with Doodles to “take all the work they’ve done so far and bring it to another level, scale it even further.”