FWA Transactions Exceed 17,000 ETH Even After Reward Period Ends

The on-chain non-fungible token (NFT) acquisition protocol Fake World Assets (FWA) by TokenWorks has continued to accumulate over 17,000 ETH in transactions even after the initial reward period ended. This has led to evaluations on whether the NFT experiment, which combines random draws and token rewards, will remain a short-term trend or evolve into a distinct market structure.

William M. Peaster, a senior writer at Bankless, noted in a contribution on the 26th that FWA recorded a cumulative transaction volume of 17,239 ETH and over 162,000 settled draws just a month after Ethereum's (ETH) launch. He disclosed that he is both a user and holder of FWA. It is important to consider that the conclusion of the article reflects a supporter’s perspective.

FWA operates on a structure where depositors place NFTs and Ethereum collateral into a pool, and buyers pay the pool price to receive a random NFT position. Buyers can either hold the NFTs they receive or accept a buyback offer from the depositors.

As of the 29th, FWA Pulse indicated that the total transaction volume for FWA was 17,374.8 ETH, with 164,837 settled draws. There were 5,676 live positions, and the value locked as collateral was 1,133.76 ETH. The initial reward period was marked as 15 days, with 0 days remaining.

These figures serve as indicators of whether on-chain usage continues after the initial reward period ends. Protocols like FWA, which combine rewards and game-like consumption, may see transactions peak during the reward period and then sharply decline afterward. Current indicators show that at least activity did not completely cease immediately after the reward ended.

Protocol fees were also highlighted as a key metric. The Bankless contribution reported that cumulative fees exceeded 1,777 ETH, with approximately 406 ETH used for FWA buybacks and about 138 ETH remaining as reserves. On July 25, FWA temporarily surpassed Tether (USDT) and Circle to become the top app by single gas consumption on the Ethereum mainnet.

However, it is difficult to directly extrapolate this figure to the overall recovery of the NFT market. FWA has a unique structure that combines NFT ownership, collateral, random draws, and buyback offers. The demand for NFT collection, game-like consumption, and token rewards intertwine on the same platform.

While transaction volume and the number of draws indicate activity, they cannot be conclusively equated with the recovery of traditional NFT sales.

External developer participation is also a point of observation. Bankless cited examples such as the alternative front-end FWAAH created by Austin Griffith, the joint draw tool Pull Pool made by on-chain artist ripe, the liquidity vault LFWA created by madame/acc, the shared pool FWAP made by Quit and Jameson, and Gacha Battles created by Eric Conner.

These services are not official features directly created by TokenWorks but are voluntary application services that emerged on top of FWA. The on-chain protocol allows for external front-ends, vaults, and game-like apps to attach based on accessible contracts and data. The sustainability of FWA depends not only on the transactions of the core protocol itself but also on how many surrounding application services remain.

A new issuance method called FWAIR has also emerged. FWAIR is designed for new NFT collections to enter FWA's random draw pool without a separate traditional minting process. The first trial project, FWAIR PFPs, consists of 111 PFPs, with each position backed by 0.25 ETH.

Citing a post-mortem report by Adam, the Bankless contribution stated that 591 wallets attempted to purchase this collection 17,735 times. Typically, NFT issuance occurs when buyers mint a specific collection or purchase it on the secondary market. FWAIR is closer to an experiment that processes initial demand and transaction flow within a single structure by placing the issuance volume into the draw pool.

The second FWAIR project presented is Sterling Crispin's Save ETH. This collection combines 1,000 on-chain NFTs themed around preserving the early history of Ethereum with a card game, requiring 0.05 ETH collateral for each position. TokenWorks later confirmed that the project opened ETH collateral support for whitelisted wallets.

TokenWorks is also reviewing user-specific fund pools and customized pool features. The requirements presented in the contribution include not forcing ETH provision when depositing NFTs, creating independent pools by category like Pokémon pools, blue-chip NFT pools, and new issuance pools, and setting clear withdrawal deadlines. If customized pools are introduced, there could be a shift from a single FWA pool mixing various assets to purpose-specific pools.

It remains difficult to conclude whether FWA will establish itself as a long-term digital collectibles market. What has been confirmed is that cumulative transactions, fees, external developer projects, and FWAIR trial issuances have continued even after the initial reward period ended. The next evaluation of FWA will depend on the sustainability of usage after the reward ends and the actual trading metrics following the introduction of customized pools.