2024 Predictions and Opportunities
From airdrops to Bitcoin ETF approvals, 2024 is forecast to be packed with opportunities for the crypto-curious! Here's my forecast and some fresh opportunities to help navigate the crypto seas!
I’ll use a decade of traditional finance/corporate experience to refine the chaos into bite-sized chunks for you to digest.
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This newsletter consists of three parts:
Market Overview
Headline News
2024 Predictions and Opportunities
Enjoy the journey.
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Markets have rallied hard with both BTC and ETH up 6% this week.
The turn of the new year brings ETF approvals and the Bitcoin halving 114 days away.
SEI seems to have led the market with a 250% return over the past couple of weeks:
Outside of Sei’s carbon-neutral commitments, It is currently the largest crypto in the Binance Launchpool, sharing the ecosystem with notable participants such as Pendle, Klaytn, Beam, and Sui.
NFT activity has also spiked — Seiyans appear to have led the charge as the early flagship project on SEI.
Impending Bitcoin Spot ETF
Could the ETF be priced in already? Perhaps a sell-the-news event?
Sometimes it’s best not to mid-curve it and accept that it’ll likely pump upon approval — The false CoinTelegraph announcement sent the Bitcoin price hurtling until it was proven to be inaccurate, and it subsequently dumped.
We could see a pump, then a dump and a slow grind up over the next 12 months as institutions add to their positions through TWAP — but one thing is for sure there’s a lot more upside over the long term than short.
Several made last-minute amendments by the December 29th deadline. Those in the lineup are as follows:
NFT Market Volume
Ordinals lead the volume this week as NodeMonkes make six-figure sales:
Meanwhile, the early fungible token (Ordi) breaks into the top 50 on CoinMarketCap as it surges 25% in the week.
Daily ETH trading volume dipped to 12K ETH ($28.3M) this week, up from 10k ETH:
Meanwhile, SOL NFT trading volume was 100K SOL ($10M) on the day:
Key Volume Drivers
A) ETH volume has been driven by a large wallet selling 433 MAYC for millions of dollars — the same wallet has accumulated 209 Azukis over the past three weeks.
Speculation around wash trading is rife while many suggest it’s predominantly Blur Season 3 farming.
A $2 mint reached $1K (500X) as the founder of Goblin-town launched Steamboat Willie to commemorate it entering the public domain — turns out it was in the GoblinTown roadmap all along!
Some Singapore traders have since been allocating a $Willie token as they envision a decentralized Disney. If you chaps are in Singapore over the coming weeks, hit me up! I’ll be passing through for a week in Jan.
B) Solana volume has been driven by Tensor farming alongside the Frogana collection which rallied to a 24 SOL floor ($2.5K).
SOL royalties also flipped ETH royalties this week as Solana NFT trading sustained its volume with royalty enforcement at the contract level.
Perhaps Frame (I’m not biased, honest!) will enable projects to earn a revenue stream on ETH once it goes live at the end of the month!
Notable ETH NFT Sales
Fidenzas, an Autoglyph, a Boogle and Punks change hands on ETH.
Not sure what the Punk has around its mouth - Someone’s had a post NY kebab!
Nodemonkes also caught people’s attention on Bitcoin ordinals as the first 10K Bitcoin PFP, with an Alien Nodemonke selling for 3 BTC ($127K).
Active wallets interacting with both ETH and SOL NFTs dipped slightly on prior weeks:
Headline News
New Year Predictions and Fresh Airdrop Opportunities
Other News (h/t Moritz)
Mocaverse announces the next phase in executing on its vision
Rektguy gives equity to its holders as of the December 4th snapshot date, following a similar approach to Pons and the Plague
Blast hits $1.1B TVL
Mittaria_Origin releases new collection 'Mittamita'
Pixelmon launching a new game and hinting at a 'Play 2 Earn' mechanic
Ageofdino supply will be 5,010 with a Dutch Auction between 0.2 and 0.59 ETH
Playaneemate took a snapshot for the upcoming CitizenConflict mint
Play_ember opened up collabs for communities
SkyborneLegacy announces RG Byte, more information will follow on January 6th
OverworldPlay $MNCT Pre-Sale is coming this January
BloodLoopGAME releasing a free mint with an attached token airdrop
PalioAI will release an AI Tamagotchi type of game
Nodemonkes claim went live
TheTreeverse form for the dev build went live
New Year Predictions and Fresh Opportunities
I’ve collated dozens of CT’s 2024 predictions, and formed my own based on observed trends from navigating the market full time for the past few years.
My Predictions
Point systems proliferate the market as market participants chase airdrops to get exposure to token allocations ahead of the bull market — many of these will trend to zero, particularly if no immediate utility is rolled out
Layer 2 narrative evolves as EIP-4844 (Proto Dank-Sharding) rolls out and value accrues at the L2 token level. The market becomes saturated and few L2s will emerge as market leaders — team execution and a strong USP will weed out the weak
Web3 Gaming becomes ‘Gaming’ as we see a couple of blockchain based games gain traction among the traditional gaming market — the stigma takes a while to shake but millions interact with blockchains through games
Artificial Intelligence and deep fakes cause controversy, further validating the need for blockchain
The “Solana Killer” layer 1 threatens (could it be Sei?), but Solana and ETH solidify their positions behind Bitcoin — Saga mobile provides a formidable airdrop mechanism for 20K crypto fanatics, the perfect community
An Equity Meta takes off over the coming months as more projects follow Rektguy and The Plague — regulators take enforcement action. Could this be the beginning of a new dawn for decentralized on-chain governance?
Bitcoin Halving drives a delayed spike in BTC price at the end of the year
Increased hacks & malicious activity return as money flows back into the market
FASB rolls out early adoption of mark-to-market accounting with some big names entering the scene given the added upside
DeFi integrates KYC as institutions submerge themselves within the market
NFT industry adoption will ramp up as ticketing, loyalty rewards and tokenization of the global financial system take hold
Others’ Predictions
Have a peruse of others’ thesis, predictions and polls:
Wale produces a 2024 poll
6529 reinforces his 2030 thesis around NFTs becoming a trillion-dollar market
Ryan Selkis Crypto thesis, via Bankless — very comprehensive
Loopify provides his predictions for blockchain gaming
Miles Deutscher 2024 crypto predictions
Milk Road summarizes A16Z, Coinbase and Bitwise predictions
Kix 2024 web3 gaming predictions
CoinDesk crypto staffers predictions
ChainLink God 2024 predictions around BTC as a dominant assets class, Solana excels in integrated blockchain model and Eigenlayer provides the biggest Airdrop to date — check Swell for Eigenlayer
Easy predicts ETH / BTC will not see a new ATH in 2024
Mert predicts narrative shift with EIP-4844
Luke Belmar suggests that the crypto markets will master Defi this year
Early Opportunities
2024 will bring a raft of opportunities, here are some to kick it off with a bang.
Join 420 (nice) others who recently bookmarked my 7-in-1 airdrop farming guide to make your capital work harder.
Here are some other areas to capitalize on also:
1) Merkly (Layer Zero Boost)
Merkly is an Omnichain NFT (ONFT) minting and bridging platform for Layer Zero (LZ).
This enables you to boost your activity and climb the ranks for the LZ airdrop.
2) Parcl
This platform enables you to take directional bets on the real estate market on the SOL blockchain. Trust the London to be on the up!
For a 5% boost on all your trades into perpetuity, when you sign up.
Click “Referrals” and enter the code “s4mmy” to activate this.
3) MarginFi
Earn 15% on your USDC in MarginFi while accumulating 1 point per $1 deposited and 4 points per $1 borrowed.
Ensure you manage your risk with an appropriate health factor percentage to avoid liquidation!
This SOL-based lending protocol provides an easy-to-use interface and connects with most Solana wallets.
4) Manta
Manta is a layer 2 Ethereum protocol that has a box-earning mechanism. These boxes are earned and minted as NFTs by depositing ETH onto the platform.
If you’d like to continue supporting me in writing this free newsletter I’d be grateful for you to use my FCFS referral codes if you’re looking to enter: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
5) Layerbank (Manta “Stone” Re-Staking)
You receive an equivalent “Stone” for ETH deposited that can be re-staked to earn a yield through the likes of Layerbank — double points are available for two more weeks.
6) Blast
Blast has almost an identical reward mechanism to Manta (Coincidence?). This is Pacman’s layer 2 and following the success of Blur, it’s enabled him to amass more than $1.1B in TVL.
Once again if you’d like to support me, my referral link is here for those wanting to join my squad. I’ll provide an open-door service for queries to anyone who uses my code.
7) Scroll
This application boasts a range of domain name services and is due to drop the $SNS token today! The ENS airdrop in 2021 made some people six figures.
Check your eligibility, bridge some ETH from Mainnet to Scroll chain and then mint a scroll domain name!
8) Drift (Solana Perp)
Drift is a perpetual exchange on Solana. It has a seamless user experience and is a great way to learn how going long/short on assets works.
I’ve personally added a small bag of SOL to play around with — there’s also the upside of an airdrop if they were to launch a token and a weekly prize draw.
Stay tuned for many more opportunities as I dig deeper into emerging protocols throughout 2024!
That’s a wrap for issue 53 of S4mmy’s Snippets. I hope you enjoyed it.
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Disclaimer: The content covered in this newsletter is not to be considered investment or financial advice. It is for informational and educational purposes only.
I hold some of the assets mentioned in this newsletter.
Thanks for keeping us up to date Sammy. Happy new year!
Thanks for your predictions but also the linked ones. Another great newsletter!