1. About Ethereum NFT and Bitcoin NFT
Now the avatar NFTs in the Ethereum ecosystem are quite sluggish. Even the former top project Boring Ape has fallen below 12 ETH, not to mention other NFTs (including Goblins).
The only outstanding project is Pudgy Penguins, whose floor price exceeds 12 ETH, surpassing Bored Ape. The reason why it stands out from the crowd is probably mainly because it has boosted its popularity again by promoting off-chain business strategies for some time.
However, whether this off-chain business strategy can continue to feed back and promote new on-chain things such as NFT will take a period of observation and testing. I am more cautious about this.
Because this strategy follows the old path of traditional IP. I always believe that new things still need new marketing methods and strategies to achieve new breakthroughs.
In general, if Ethereum’s avatar NFTs cannot find new ways out and strategies, the overall sluggish trend will probably continue. Even if they can take advantage of the next bull market and move upward again in the future, it will only be a flash in the pan.
In comparison, NFTs in the Bitcoin ecosystem have been much more lively recently.
Various NFTs related to runes have soared recently. Especially Runestone, after the founder announced that there would be three more airdrops in the future, it stimulated an accelerated influx of buying, making its market value exceed that of Bored Ape.
In addition, due to the influence of emotions, the floor price of Bitcoin Puppets has recently briefly surpassed that of Node Monkey, which had previously dominated the top of the list.
These two phenomena indicate that NFTs in the Bitcoin ecosystem are still in their early stages, and their price surges are more driven by short-term sentiments, lacking in value and consensus, and far from being as hard-pressed by the bear market as NFTs in the Ethereum ecosystem. It is very likely that the rankings of these NFTs will change in the coming bull market.
However, in the long run, a more noteworthy concern is that most of these NFTs in the Bitcoin ecosystem are similar to Ethereum’s avatar NFTs or meme coins. Their emotional value is only short-lived. If they cannot find a path for sustainable development, their ultimate fate is not optimistic.
2. What do you think of Merlin’s TVL? Is the risk high?
Not only Merlin, but almost all staking projects, once the TVL reaches a certain threshold, the risk will definitely become higher and higher. Now almost all projects in the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem have gone through countless hacker tests and market baptisms to get to where they are today.
Merlin will also encounter these problems and challenges. In addition, Merlin's way of storing assets is a very traditional multi-signature wallet. Therefore, whether the assets pledged in Merlin are safe depends entirely on the management of the project party.
If managed well, the risks are controllable; but if managed poorly, the risks are hard to predict.
I also participated in its asset mortgage. As a participant, it is difficult for us to judge the management level of the project party. We can only start from ourselves and control the risks ourselves. As I have always emphasized: do not mortgage large amounts of assets, only mortgage assets that you can afford to lose.
3. How about the TAO project?
I am not sure if the TAO here is Bittensor? If so, I have shared this project in my previous series of articles on AI.
It targets a very niche field, is innovative in application scenarios, and makes sense in implementation. More importantly, it does not deliberately use some seemingly grand but insignificant scenes to render the project like many other projects do. So although this project itself has many aspects worth pondering and testing, I still think it is worth continuing to observe and have certain expectations for it.
