Quick take:
- A newly created NFT wallet bought Bored Ape #6588 for 770 ETH (~$1.1 million).
- The selling wallet is also new, created two days prior to the sale.
- The BAYC median price soared to a new 2-month high of 440.51 ETH on Thursday.
NFT prices have been falling for the greater part of the last four months. Yet, the market is not short of surprises. Two weeks ago, renowned NFT whale Vis.ETH bought the gold fur Bored Ape #5383 for 777 ETH (~$1.5 million at the time).
The BAYC median price spiked sharply before pulling back in the subsequent weeks. It has again rocketed to 440.51 ETH, setting a new 2-month high.
The latest spike coincidentally comes at the back of a bizarre transaction involving two wallets.
On Wednesday, the Bored Ape #6588 was purchased by a newly created wallet for 770 ETH (~$1.1 million) from a 2-day-old wallet.
Buyer wallet: 0xec7e5A49Ee8E95a89A1a881BBf1aaE2EC854d790
Seller wallet: 0x29e2FFcbECE02e9b9D0470afa7A7C0b9C81923ff
We tried to gain some insight into what’s really happening here by reaching out to Dune Analytics researcher and dashboard builder, @sealaunch.
Dune Analytics is a crypto data and insights platform that allows researchers to create graphical representations of on-chain data related to NFTs, DeFi and other marketplace tokens.
“Exploring the on-chain data on this transaction it seems that a wallet without historic transactions received capital (99ETH) on August 30 from an exchange, bought BAYC #6588 2 minutes later and then sold it the next day to an also newly created wallet for 769ETH,” he commented.
“At first glance, it seems this may be a wash trade since BAYC was transacted between two new wallets for a price very above average price. But in the NFT market, you can never exclude that this may mean something else,” he added.
Wash trading is the practice of buying and selling assets at exorbitant prices with the view of driving transaction volume high. Under such circumstances, the medium price of the underlying asset class, in this case, the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection is bound to experience a spike in the median price.
This won’t be the oddest assumption given the crypto winter. High median prices for NFT collections signal a potential return in market optimism, which is why researchers like @sealaunch go the extra mile to find out what the data says.
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