Ethereum and Solana NFT traders will already know this – the best projects to buy are “blue chips” . But what exactly is a blue chip NFT, and how do you find it? It may be too late to buy into ETH or SOL blue chips because of the high price point – but what about the newly launched Elrond NFTs? Read on to find out.
What is a “blue chip”?
I suppose the best way to describe it is in terms of investment risk vs reward. Blue chips are the least risky project and the most likely to stick around and do well. So by holding blue chip’s you can be reasonably confident that your investment won’t go to zero overnight.
Creators have caught onto this and try to brand their collections blue chip prematurely, and admittedly it has become quite hard to spot true blue chips. We’ve written about determining strength of an NFT project in detail, but in essence you are looking for:
- Bustling community in Twitter and Discord
- Solid (unique) art
- Proven and maybe even doxxed founders
A few examples of blue chip projects on ETH would be CryptoPunks, BAYC, Doodles. While on SOL one could argue for SolanaMonkeyBiz, ThugBirdz and Degen Ape Academy. This doesnt mean that the projects listed cannot go to zero. It also doesn’t mean they won’t be replaced by new projects.And this is not financial advice either, just how I perceive things.
So where are the Elrond blue chip projects?
The Elrond NFT ecosystem is young. If NFTs on ETH are in a full-on sprint, SOL has just learned how to walk and Elrond has just about managed to sit up.
In other words, there are no established blue chip projects (yet). But obviously this is about to change once the scene gains tractions and the ranks are established. I think that a lot of blue chips establish themselves in the early phases – and this is exactly where we are now.
Very similar to SOL in early days, we have three market places:
- DeadRare
- Trust Market
- eMoon
I have only used DeadRare to trade so far – the others seem a bit slow and clunky. What’s really insane is that I have made on purchase on DeadRare with mobile. My first ever mobile NFT trade. And it may even be a good one.
The trade was for an Elrond Ape – I have since then bought a couple because the more i dug into the Elrond projects I could find on the above market places it was the first one that interested me. Here’s why.
It sold out in 45 mins
Despite technical difficulties, 10,000 apes sold in 45 mins at a price of 0.8 EGLD. This was when EGLD was around $210 USD.
The fact they sold out when other projects are forced to close mint after trying for a few weeks – I think this is bullish.
Additionally, the team effectively raised over USD2m. They have more than enough money to execute on whatever they promise. Now it’s up to them to deliver.
An ape project
I know it sounds cliche, but look around. BAYC, MAYC, Solana Monkey Business, Stoned Ape Club, Degen Ape Academy. Could it actually be this simple?
On a more personal note, I passed on Solana Monkey Business when I was fresh into Solana NFTs while they were 6 SOL and something told me not to make the same mistake again.
Every chain seems to start off with an ape project which ends up being a blue chip.
Discord is buzzing
For a scene so young, their discord is flourishing. With now over 16k members and a very nice setup including one of the best sales bots and nice KPIs such as total volume and floor price.
There are a lot of friendly and fun people in the discord. First server I’m seeing in a while where there is no FUD – could be the honeymoon phase of course. But I think that there are some promising signs, such as high engagement and helpfulness.
My only wish is that the devs would make more announcements of their roadmap progress. I believe once they get going with some of their plans, including a DAO and the ability to stake apes and earn LKMEX.
BAYC owners tweets
Aside from that, there is a lot of Twitter chatter about Elrond Apes – check it out here.
Metrics
Finally, the numbers. The metrics for this project are on fire.
Floor price has only gone up so far. At the time of writing it is now over 6 EGLD. So almost a 10x from mint in just under two weeks.
The volume is picking up too – the collection has generated almost 18k EGLD to date. That’s the equivalent of about 1k ETH. Not bad for a collection on a new chain with multiple markets in MVP state.
ATH sale is 159 EGLD – at the time of writing this is around 9 ETH. A sign of good things to come?
3076 owners. A week ago this number was more like 2000. I’m like the number of holding wallets going up.
Number of listed apes. At the time of writing, just over 1300 apes are for sale. That’s 15% of the collection and staking has not even started yet. You do the maths, anon.
Conclusion
I may be horribly wrong on this call, but Elrond Apes have show potential that I haven’t seen in a while. By all means, I probably missed more than I hit – but this is the nature of NFT investing.
During the last couple of months I have been covering the rise of Elrond and in particular the Maiar wallet and the Maiar exchange. I will now switch my attention to Elrond NFTs and try to update you on happenings there. Until then, I will enjoy the rise of the Elrond Apes.
Let me know what you think about the project and Elrond NFTs as a whole. Do you think they will reach blue chip status?