It feels like just yesterday we forked Bitcoin and officially launched the JTC token. And while we were setting big goals for the year ahead, no one could have anticipated the severity of the market collapse and its impact on the Web3 space. But yet, here we are, 365 days later, still standing (even if it feels like we’ve been through a storm).
Despite the ups and downs, the crypto community has proven once again that it’s a resilient group. So let’s take a moment to reflect on all that we’ve accomplished as both a company and community over the past 12 months by highlighting some major events.
For Jurat, our team created a secure, court-connected token for individuals to use in on-chain transactions. This involved developing technology that would provide legal remedies for Web3, DAOs, and traditional commerce by connecting blockchain nodes with state and federal courts. After launching the JTC token on January 8, 2022, Jurat began sharing the technology publicly and grew from a team of 5 to a community of 4000 in just three months. We also soft launched our latest product — Zabbo, an escrow-based app with built-in dispute resolution to protect Web3 users and allow them to make payments, swap NFTs, and sell tokens easily with an intuitive UI design. And while we are still in the early ages of our development, we are excited to officially launch in a couple months.
While January 2022 was a momentous time for our team, it also marked the start of a downward spiral and sideways action for all the markets, especially in crypto and Web3.
DeFi led the collapse with various liquidation crises unraveling over a couple weeks. Projects such as Wonderland Time and other prominent platforms boasted unsustainably high APRs that, well, were unsustainable and led to panic once sellers released their inflationary supply. As prices plummeted and users sold tokens, the cult-like following of their heroes such as Daniele Esta fell apart just as quickly. Furthering the cause was “Sifu snafu,” where it was discovered that the co-founder of Wonderland was involved in the infamous QuadrigaCX scandal, sparking calls from people to dox Web3 leaders amongst mistrust in the industry — officially starting the infamous doxxing wars.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/osc-quadriga-gerald-cotten-1.5607990
However, liquidity crunches weren’t the only setback for DeFi. As we moved into February, hackers began to uncover faulty code and attack platforms. For example, the Wormhole hack, where a small batch of defective code allowed nearly $325 Million worth of ETH to be siphoned off the bridge.
And if things were bad in DeFi, they were arguably worse in NFTs. Any active user can’t forget about Kevin! The infamous digital green blob part of the Pixelmon project which generated over $70 million dollars in revenue while being deemed one of the worst NFT projects of the year. Minters paid 3 ETH ($8,000) for “high quality” art but ended up with this pixelated guy… but hey, some say he has a good personality!
https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/pixelmon-nft-project-kevin-meme/
https://twitter.com/zachxbt/status/1497370216690503687?s=20&t=fIj-5t76k2Dbguq1fbDzFg
Despite the setback early in the year, markets seemed to pick up in March with rallies in Layer 1’s such as Solana, Ethereum, and Bitcoin which retraced recent highs up to 44k. However, that rally was a precursor to the biggest smackdown of the year as prices dropped another 50% with the collapse of major exchanges such as Terra Luna, Celsius, and FTX later that summer.
But while crypto and DeFi were collapsing, NFT project founders were pivoting behind the scenes coming up with new ways to raise funds and value art. Most who couldn’t brave the markets were out and those still standing were here to party.
In April, Kevin Rose, Founder of Proof Collective launched the Moonbirds Project, a 10K PFP NFT drop that captured attention due to his previous success with the Proof pass. After a high demand launch, Moonbirds skyrocketed in price with many sales averaging over $50,000 USD, which at the time was huge with the tight liquidity and constant failure of projects to mint out.
But wait… do you hear that?
GOBLINNNNNns wekm ta goblintown yoo sniksnakr DEJEN RATS dis a NEFTEEE O GOBBLINGS on da BLOaKCHIN wat?!!
Yeah if you had no clue what that means, neither did most people. Taking the top spot for one of the weirdest NFT projects to gain stardom, Goblintown solved the liquidity issue by pivoting the entire market to free mints. When NFT prices were down 95% across the board, project founders began hosting first mints and profiting heavily from secondary sales. In the case of Goblintown, their strange images and Twitter spaces where they would “only speak goblin”, led to a floor price that skyrocketed over 10 ETH and perfectly encapsulated the strange era of free mint NFTs.
Riding this weird energy and having nothing left to lose, the Web3 community really let loose at NFT NYC in the middle of June. The week-long event went off without a hitch as projects and founders got together to celebrate their strong investment performance. Projects such as DeadFellaz, Alien Frens, Moonbirds, 3Landers, and the Nanoverse threw packed ragers across the city, and upcoming projects such as Deca debuted advancements in ways we share digital art. There seemed to be an event for everyone, and even if you left NYC with new friends, an appreciation for art, or a hangover…everyone left with COVID.
While markets remind sideways, creators were finding new ways to capture the market. This was perfectly executed by Frank and DeGods with the launch of the y00t list.
The y00ts NFT collection emerged on the Solana blockchain as an application-only mint that favored Web3 influencers, project founders, and celebrities. This exclusive feature generated hype and drove Y00ts to be the biggest project to launch in Fall 2022.
And if hyped up NFT projects weren’t enough — previous cryptocurrency critic, and the former president, Donald Trump, couldn’t help but get into the game with his self-glorified trading card collection on Polygon. All 45,000 cards sold out in a matter of 12 hours and raised over $5 million. Their momentum however has dried up and is down anywhere from 70–80%…. the perfect end to a crazy year.
https://www.cnet.com/culture/donald-trumps-nft-trading-cards-sell-out-raise-over-5m/
https://beincrypto.com/donald-trump-nfts-lose-momentum-declines-80-in-14-days/
With that, we want to thank you all for sticking with us through our 1 year review! Looking forward, markets seem to be slowly picking up, but regardless if a bull run is near or it’s another year of sideways action, the Jurat team will continue to build products that make Web3 a safer place for everyone to transact in crypto.
If you want to keep up with our journey and be the first to know our latest developments we suggest joining our Discord and following us on Twitter: https://linktr.ee/jurat
