• how would some things such as the $mask drop affect the market?
• US federal reserve to increase interest rates to combat inflation?

The Market

If you are familiar with stock trading, sometimes people look at the news and rumour mills and use technical analysis. The NFT market is slightly different but can be affected by many factors outside their projects. Below are just my own opinions, so please use them as insight into your decisions.

I have compiled a shortlist of bull and bear events below. What will happen with the NFT market is how the market will react to this bullish and bearish news.

From these charts, the NFT market volume has gone up significantly since last February and had a tiny increased volume in March and slowed down since.

Looking at the daily chart, it seems to be bottom out. Several good-quality NFT projects are not getting completely minted. In addition, there is FUD in many NFT projects, and the flippers aren't doing so well lately. So it seems it might be coming back soon.

With crypto overall going back down, with BTC going back down from recent highs of USD48K to today's recent lows of USD40K, NFT collectors may be spooked and want to sell their NFTs at a loss to get out of the market.

Bullish news that can pull up the NFT market (late April and Q2)

1. The confirmed Metamask $mask token airdrop. When and what the requirements are still in question. This new liquidity could provide the NFT market a right push upward.
2. Coinbase NFT Marketplace was initially scheduled to launch in 2021 and has been delayed; Q2 will finally launch? With majority of crypto users not into the NFT market, this could easily flood the NFT markets will new liquidity.
3. Opensea incorporates the Solana chain onto their platform.
4. OTHERSIDE: The BAYC Metaverse lands are expected to hit in April.
5. There are still many mints like “MOAR Joan Cornellà” that sold out in seconds at 0.5ETH. Their "diamond hand contract", meaning the NFT could not be tradeable on the secondary market until the NFT reveal is a gamechanger for the NFT space.
6. Massive bullish projects such as “Imaginary Ones” and “Project PXN” & “MINDBLOWON UNIVERSE” are launching soon. These NFT projects could pull many new enthusiasts into the space.
7. New NFTs utilizing OMNICHAIN were a success, such as Tiny Dinos, spreading how useful it is to sell and buy across different chains, bringing more crypto users into the NFT market.
8. Germany and USA officials shut down Hydra Darknet Market and seized more than 25 million in BTC and 34 million altcoins. These assets would be auctioned to institutions. As a result, it can cause more waves into the market.
9. Canada Federal Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre and his current position as Shadow Financial minister openly support Bitcoin and even pay for meals using BTC lightning network. This adds more awareness to the people of Canada that BTC, can be an everyday thing.
10. A chat function was added to Looksrare's NFT marketplace between the seller and buyer, and it works. Maybe add more significant sales to the NFT space
11. A user took out a USD 8 million loan using his 104 "Cryptopunks" as collateral, adding more liquidity to the NFT markets and signaling more bluechip NFT collectors that this is possible.
12. More prominent fashion and jewelry brands are getting into the NFT space. With the recent success of Gucci Grail from 10tkf collaborations and next to the rumored Tiffany Co and Cryptopunks NFT collaboration.
    Hublot partnered with Takashi Murakami to push out watch NFTs.
13. Successful IPs such as DC comics releasing Batman NFTs. In addition, "Teenager Ninja Turtles" and Japanese "Ultraman" NFT have been announced.
14. Exciting news on Adidas NFT (ITM) merch drop and their news on metavers and phase 4 NFTs.

Bearish Updates

1. Due to the US Federal Reserve's hawkish rhetoric, they are likely to increase interest rates after the following inflation report. This time 0.5% increase and decrease in the number of bonds in the market, causing tech stocks and crypto to drop. It might cause panic making more NFT holders sell at a loss to get out of the market. However, with that said, the markets may have already priced this into the pricing. And may not affect HODLers of NFTs.
2. This is controversial, as it could also be bullish news. Moonbirds is an upcoming exciting NFT project, but the high mint price at 2.5 ETH is questionable. Either this will suck the liquidity of the NFT market, or if it doesn't wholly mint out. It could drive the entire NFT market downwards.
3. With the Russia Ukraine war continuing, this adds to inflation in everything, especially oil prices.
4. Wechat banning NFT chat groups. China doesn't need or like crypto but openly said it was okay for the NFT market to operate in China. This is signals signs that China may ban anything related to crypto. However, there are many and new posts on China's RED regarding NFTs, that are bringing in many more China NFT collectors.
5. There are more NFT creator program platforms and launchpads created, such as VISA, and BUENO (from the "Robotoshfts" creator)
6. More scams in the space, scaring away seasoned NFT enthusiasts and beginners alike. There was a series of discord hacks recently in many big bluechip projects, and also, some celebrities are getting scammed out of NFT's value in the millions.

Thank you. Look forward to hearing your own insights and comments.

Cheers,
Eric F

If you want to get in touch about interesting NFT ideas or projects or want to hear about a specific topic, I’m @ericclfung on Twitter.

Thanks to @Parabolic_B & @LiMeRiC & @CISBROS for reviewing this post.

Disclaimer: I am just an NFT dreamer who has some success in this crypto and NFT space. The above does not constitute an offer or solicitation to offer or recommend any investment product.