Today I finally took some time to bridge the gap (or at least take a step in that direction) between ArtBlocks and FxHash.

If you aren’t familiar, ArtBlocks (Ethereum) is a generative art platform that invented generative art on the blockchain. Artists are given access before publishing collections and go through a curation committee. FxHash (Tezos) is an open platform; anyone can code a collection and launch it following FxHash guidelines. Both platforms have particularities, and they are pushing the generative art movement to new levels.

So why are we trying to build a bridge? Well, as they are in different blockchains, it is tough to navigate collections and artists in the same place. Also, sometimes it feels like these communities aren’t very close and could feel like silos. There is a lot to gain from discussions involving both groups. I won’t solve that problem today, but I will take the first step by putting together a market review, including artists that have dropped in both platforms.

Before getting into it, here are a few reminders:

• This isn’t financial advice. NFTs are very volatile, and you should always do your own research.

• This report is purely analytical. I’m not analyzing collections from an artistic point of view. I do that in other articles.

• If this is the first time seeing one of these reports, I recommend you read this first.

There are over 20+ artists who released collections on both platforms. I needed a way to shorten the list for practical reasons, so this isn’t a comprehensive analysis. This time, my process was to include artists I haven’t mentioned (considerably) previously. I don’t want my substack to become an echo chamber (something happening in the space, most likely unintentionally).

Here are the artists I included in this analysis:

• Stefano Contiero

• Melissa Wiederrecht

• Casey Reas

• Piter Pasma

• Michael Connolly

• Sarah Ridgley

• ippsketch

• Hevey

This chart could be misleading as ArtBlocks volume in 2021 was much higher than in 2022, and FxHash volume has been trending upward this year. Again, we are only considering selected artists and collections, not all qualified collections, for practical reasons.

Wash trading needs to be mentioned here as a possible reason why there is such a significant volume on ArtBlocks (compared to FxHash). There is no secret market manipulation has played a factor in Ethereum in the past, but that’s a story for another day. By no means I am pointing fingers at the platforms, artists, or collectors as this usually comes from a small group of bad actors.

This chart is probably the most shocking finding in the whole analysis. Keep in mind we are comparing collections made by the same artists but minted in different blockchains. So why is there such a big difference?

One could think that the collections on ArtBlocks have a higher quality than those on FxHash as a possible explanation. This is a subjective topic, but from my experience, this doesn’t seem to be the reason.

Another shocking stat. Piter’s combined FxHash volume is close to ~$250k across six collections, while his only ArtBlocks collection (Skulptuuer) crossed the $10M volume mark.

Why is there such a big difference in volume, floors, and every metric? Here are some possible reasons:

1. These aren’t all the artists that have released collections on both platforms. Artists like Anna Lucia, William Mapan, Yazid, and Marcelo Soria-Rodriguez were excluded, but they have experienced great success on FxHash. Nevertheless, I don’t think their inclusion would have changed the overall numbers radically, as their stats on ArtBlocks are also quite impressive.

2. ArtBlocks launched in November 2020, while FxHash launched in November 20201. That’s a whole year of volume. Also, ArtBlocks was the first mover.

3. Both crypto coins have suffered significant losses over the past few months. Ethereum dropped to $1.,3k from a ~4,8k peak (73%), while Tezos dropped even more, from ~$9 to $1.3 (-84%). This is an important factor as I calculated the total volume based on the current crypto coin’s value, which looked different in past dates.

4. The total number of active users on Ethereum is over ~1.5M while Tezos has ~85k users

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I understand the concept of Ethereum being a premium blockchain, and collectors and investors are whiling to pay more for pieces minted in that blockchain. Despite that, I still believe such a big difference isn’t justified. Two options come to mind, either ArtBlocks is overvalued or FxHash is undervalued. My personal opinion is the second, I don’t think ArtBlocks is overvalued, while I do believe many collections on FxHash are undervalued. Only time will tell.

As always, crowd intelligence is much more powerful than one individual brain. Did you spot something exciting in the data? Do you have your own theory on why there is such a big gap between both generative platforms? I would love to hear your thoughts below.

Leave a comment

Until next time,

- Kaloh

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