OpenSea: the NFT collections of the Coachella festival 

For the occasion, three unique NFT collections have been launched, which will serve as passes for exclusive access and merchandise.

So far only 29 out of the 1,024 NFTs available on OpenSea have been minted, but the launch happened just yesterday.

It is worth noting that Avalanche has been chosen as the blockchain, so purchases must be paid in AVAX: this could limit demand a bit, since AVAX is a much less used cryptocurrency compared to ETH, for example.

One of the benefits granted to those who purchase these NFTs is exclusive access to the Oasis Lounge. The Oasis Lounge is a new feature introduced only this year at Coachella, and consists of a space that offers exclusive benefits with limited free drinks, shaded lounge areas, and more. Access to the Oasis Lounge will be reserved for holders of these NFTs. 

They will also entitle you to request a VIP Festival Pass for the VIP areas that will host vendors of special foods and beverages, air-conditioned restrooms, shaded lounge areas, and full-service bars without hosts. 

Coachella and NFTs

Already in the 2022 edition, two years ago, Coachella took a similar initiative.

At the time they chose the metaverse, thanks to a collaboration with Absolut.

Absolut is a famous brand that produces vodka, and to celebrate its tenth year as the official partner of the Coachella festival, it created its own space in the metaverse called Absolut Land.

This initiative has never been replicated, perhaps also because the truly curious thing was in its novelty. In fact, this year they opted for another novelty, namely NFTs that entitle to exclusive benefits. 

In reality, they had tried to organize a similar initiative in 2022, for last year’s edition, but they did it in collaboration with FTX. The crypto exchange failed in November 2022, so the initiative fell through.

This year they decided to do it in collaboration with Open Sea, and to wait until the last month to announce it. 

The NFT market

After collapsing during 2022, the NFT market seems to have slightly recovered by the end of 2023. 

Using the monthly trading volumes on OpenSea as a reference point, after reaching a peak of almost 5 billion dollars in January 2022, they had dropped to 2.5 billion in May, and then with the collapse of the crypto markets, the monthly trading volumes on the world’s leading NFT marketplace had plummeted to just 250 million dollars in November of the same year.

The decline continued in 2023, after a small and brief recovery, with the bear-market reaching its lowest point in September below 80 million. 

Starting from October, however, the market has somewhat recovered, but has not yet exceeded 200 million dollars monthly. 

It must be said, however, that in the meantime OpenSea has been surpassed by Blur as the largest NFT marketplace in the world, whose volumes are now four or five times higher.

The overtaking occurred in November 2022, which was the month of FTX’s failure, so the drop in OpenSea in 2023 was largely due to the arrival of Blur.

However, after the initial boom, Blur’s volumes also decreased in the second half of 2023, although they remained much higher than those of OpenSea. 

However, there has been a clear recovery for Blur in October as well, so much so that the bottom of the NFT market now seems to be behind us.