This week, half-giddy, half-cautious optimism spread about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin rose above $37,000 excitement about the approval for the first time in 18 months spot Bitcoin ETFand Ethereum pumped past $2,100 on similar news about an ongoing ETH ETF filing from BlackRock.
There is clearly an emerging hope within crypto that the bottom –Finally– is inside. But for those who protest that there can never be a true bull market without obscenely expensive, seemingly pointless JPEGs exchanging hands, there’s now reason to be happy on that front, too.
On Friday, two separate images of illustrated rocks – one hosted on Ethereum as an NFT, the other inscribed on Bitcoin as an Ordinal – sold for six figures respectively on secondary markets.
An NFT from the EtherRocks collection, EtherRock #95, was traded this morning for 100 ETH, or just over $209,000. Just hours earlier, an Ordinal from the visually identical Bitcoin Rock collection sold for 2.99 BTC, worth just over $111,000 at the time of writing.
Bought EtherRock 95 for 100 ETH ($209,990)
1 hour and 55 minutes ago (10 Nov 2023 16:13:35 +UTC)
Txn: https://t.co/VXLXAVWkP7#EtherRock #EtherRocks pic.twitter.com/tkZjJOt3aO
— EtherRock (@EtherRock) November 10, 2023
The JPEGs don’t come with any affiliate memberships or benefits, or anything out of the ordinary. They are simply lightly illustrated images of virtually indistinguishable gray boulders without even a background.
Bitcoin Rock #75 sold for 3btc on the secondary market.
Congratulations @Scobra9000 on the sale.
A warm welcome to @GrantWSchneider, already a legendary collector in the ordinals community, who has now taken it to the highest level. pic.twitter.com/wkqkk8Kbn9
— BITCOIN ROCKS ◉ (@ordrocks) November 10, 2023
Dumb as rocks?
EtherReeds first launched in 2017 to little fanfare. It wasn’t until the height of the NFT bull run in late 2021 that the 100-piece collection caught fire — largely as a means to poke fun at the absurdity of value and the crypto market. Individual EtherRocks were sold regularly at the time hundreds of thousands of dollars each; one sold for the equivalent of $1.3 million.
“The monetary value of art is all an illusion,” wrote one EtherRocks buyer at the time. “The pet rocks provide the perfect shock value, it’s so stupid it’s perfect. Fate loves irony.”
Ethereum Pet Rock NFTs are selling for over $100,000
Apparently one in January not connected User ordinal numbers signed up a set of 100 images virtually identical to the EtherRocks on small denominations of Bitcoin, creating a new collection: Bitcoin Rocks. While this Ordinals collection hasn’t enjoyed the same success as its Ethereum predecessor, it has generated revenue five-figure sales on the secondary market in the past months.
However, in the context of recent market trends, Friday’s sales appear to be playing out differently. Countless Twitter users saw the news as a harbinger of the return of the kind of obscenity, absurdity, and blatant financial folly that defined the previous crypto bull run.
Lol, that scam again.
We will be right back— Dr.M₳ryJ⚡I buy Shitcoins, I have ₿itcoin ❤₳d₳ᴺᶠᵀ𓊽 (@mary_el83) November 10, 2023
Members of the crypto community seem divided on whether that’s a good or a bad thing.
This space continues to amaze me
— sugarspicysauce (@sugarspicysauce) November 10, 2023
But despite the return of the bull market antics, crypto activity is nowhere near the levels it was when EtherRocks last emerged. Although trading Bitcoin Ordinals is indeed a six months high earlier this week, NFT trading volume published its value best figures since Augustthese numbers still pale in comparison to the kind of volume seen during the 2021/2022 NFT bull run.
Last week’s seemingly encouraging NFT numbers, for example, marked a 93% drop in trading volume from the market’s peak in April 2022. But at the very least, these expensive purchases of digital bricks indicate a desire for the same kind of frothy, crazy excitement that defined that. earlier era.
Edited by Andrew Hayward