One of my passion is reading crypto news from around the world, and it often serves as a basis for composing my articles related to cryptocurrencies. However, many times the news that the media disseminates is not correct, so I always verify the data to make sure of the subject or to have a basis for discussion.
As such, today was no different. I woke up and, as usual, after my daily household chores, I started reading "The Block", a daily crypto newspaper, and one news caught my attention. The news in question was about NFTs on the Bitcoin Blockchain, and once again, a collection minted on this Blockchain had surpassed $7.3 million in trading volume in the last 24 hours. The particular NFT had once again positioned itself at the top of all Blockchains and surpassed even NFTs like Mutant Bored Apes, Azuki, and others on the Ethereum network.
This news caught my attention because a few days before, I had published a similar news article, but the author in question was Bitcoinfrogs, an NFT collection of 10,000 units minted on the Bitcoin Blockchain, which had accumulated a total trading volume of $4.5 million at the time, ranking as the "king" across all Chains. And today, it was the Space Pepes, a collection of 17,400 units that had previously had some trading volume but nothing compared to the values mentioned by "The Block."
I decided to investigate! I delved deeper into the subject and searched for hashtags on Twitter related to Space Pepes, but nothing appeared on the accounts of influencers dedicated to promoting this type of news. After all, they make money from it. Finding nothing on Twitter except for a few sporadic mentions, I turned to Google, and still nothing! That's when I decided to access the official sources of the rankings, and I was amazed.
My surprise arose because I found two reliable sources that track the trading volume of the rankings: CryptoSlam and OrdinalHub. These two tools provide completely different values. CryptoSlam mentions the Space Pepes collection as the largest in terms of volume in the last 24 hours, surpassing major collections on the Ethereum network and even overtaking Bitcoinfrogs, which had its "jump" a few days ago with volumes around $4.5 million, ranking seventh in the global rankings in the last 24 hours.
In OrdinalHub, bitcoinfrog is the largest collection of Bitcoin NFTs, with a volume surpassing 26 BTC (approximately $720,000) in the last 24 hours, relegating Space Pepes to a very low position on the podium, ranking at number 15 with a total trading volume of 0.50 BTC ($13,000). Therefore, something is not right.
It is immediately noticeable that the reporter or journalist who wrote the article in "The Block" did not bother to investigate more and, as soon as he had the news scoop, decided to publish it. Another aspect in "The Block" write-up has to do with the sources (only CryptoSlam was consulted), as I read it and did not come across any indication that the article's author actually consulted any more sources to gather the information. In other words, they simply published it without having evidence that the information was accurate and correct.
Therefore, we can say that it was a mistake to publish the news before confronting the data and ensuring that Space Pepes indeed had that volume in the last 24 hours. However, for a keen observer, it is immediately apparent that something is amiss. Why do I say this? Simply put, upon checking CryptoSlam, a significant disparity in trading values can be noted, where the first volume hovers around $7.3 million, while the subsequent volumes are at $1.3 million and lower.
This should raise concern because the most traded NFTs globally are still those on the Ethereum network, and even when bitcoinfrogs reached a daily volume of $4.5 million, the bored apes were not far behind. Therefore, there may have been a "wash trade" in the Space Pepes collection, in my opinion, which completely skewed the ranking and was not recorded in OrdinalHub, but the big question is verification.
News of this caliber, especially published by major cryptocurrency media companies, should be verified and never shared without authenticity verification. I may be wrong, but I am working with reliable sources and did not trust the news; I sought the truth.
Now, it's up to you to discover the truth based on the sources you have in the article. Is the trading volume of Space Pepes reliable? And if it is, why does ordinalHub have different information in its records? Leave your comment below and have an excellent weekend.
"Remember always verify, don't trust!".
