January 8 - 12: This week in NFTs, recapped in one letter

Gm,

This week it finally happened, frens: The SEC approved not one but 11 Spot Bitcoin ETFs (believe it or not, Gary Gensler was the deciding vote)! 

But it’s web3, so things couldn’t be not crazy. On January 11, the day before the deadline, someone hacked the SEC’s X account, sharing fake news about the ETF decision. Needless to say, that caused a cascade of liquidations on the market. Should the SEC look into… the SEC for this negligence??

Nevertheless, all is good now, and the institutions pushed spot BTC ETFs trading volume to $1.74 billion in just the first HOUR of listing. Definitely a historic day for all of crypto.

What does it mean for NFTs, you may ask?

While a lot of NFTs are down bad this week (don’t look at your portfolio), the ETF decision could still potentially provide an extra push for the NFT market, which began recovering a couple of months ago. After all, it's a sign of the maturation of the web3 market. Only this time around, growth might be favoring new collections on different chains, gaming, and art (NFA, I don’t actually know anything).

Speaking of art, we’re asking all emerging creators to submit their work to the ✨Forbes x Rarible Art Contest (no need to tell you how amazing it is—just look at the judges)? You have until January 19th to join and compete for up to 4,000 MATIC in prizes, among other rewards.

• Chiru Labs announced an upcoming Azuki Anime series with director Gorō Taniguchi

• X removed the support for NFT profile pictures. What’s Elon up to?

• Despite a decline in NFT prices and volumes, 2023 saw a 445% increase in sales

Don’t use SMS for two-factor authentication.