Page One #22
Bear Market Bears. May 11 - May 17
Announcements and such:
Happy Tuesday - I hope everyone is still kicking after a hell of a week. In case you missed it, Moon has made it to the big leagues with an FTX sponsorship, tolks rounded up the week of death and Boffin chatted 3D collagist Bezmiar.
Things were slower than usual this week so we’ve got a few updates and previews of projects that may not have been super in the news. I was going to swap the Market Overview for what will probably be a bi-weekly section dedicated to me rambling but think we’ll start that next week. Let me know what you think, how your day was or anything else on Twitter or in The One - hit the button below to join.
TLDR:
11 Captains Club brings NFT utility to a world-famous nightclub
Augminted Labs Scientists are the start of the Kaiju P2E game
Azuki drama continues to unfold, Cobie gets declined
Chain Runners XR ditches the Dutch for their Friday, May 20 mint
CPG Pop minted and revealed over the weekend, falls to ~2Ξ
Cool Cats release an updated roadmap
DEGEN TOONZ reward holders with… rewards, of some kind
Dooplicators were claimed last week and will reveal after NFT NYC
DuskBreakers parent company Metatheory raise $24M in Series A
FVCK_AVATARS and CRYSTALS will give holders exclusive benefits in LVCIDIA
GENE_SIS brings female-focused anime and a team with diverse skillsets
Okay Bears have ETH maxis figuring our how to make a Phantom wallet (or buying Not Okay Bears)
The Otherside gives us some more mysterious details and a short demo video
Phantom Network decides not to pay homage to famous anime characters
Webaverse wants you to make your own metaverse (and play in theirs)
News and Notes:
Azuki drama continues. While the floor continued to fall early in the week, relief came after Zagabond announced all funds had been returned to the Phunks and Zunks communities and all Tendies minters were refunded. The floor hit a low of around 7Ξ and currently sits at 14Ξ. There has been continued discussion around the situation with many outspoken critics on both sides. Jack Burt at Flip.xyz provided a good synopsis of the entire situation. The situation is likely not quite over, as the Azuki team has stated they intend to release a longer, more put together announcement with their thoughts and action steps. The team also turned down an acquisition offer from Cobie, who may or may not have been kidding about turning the whole collection into Miladies.
Cool Cats released an updated roadmap on the 13th. Highlights include a new merch store, interactive experiences at NFT NYC, Boss Quests in Cooltopia, and the Coolverse, a 3D multiplayer world that will expand Cooltopia to new heights. The Cats have been trending downwards over the past month and while the entire market has taken a tumble, Cool Cats in particular seem to be struggling to re-establish themselves after a few rough months to start the year. Cooltopia has been running smoothly and the team should soon announce a new CEO, so there is still plenty for the Cats to be optimistic about.
DEGEN TOONZ saw their floor nearly double over the past week as they introduced the Minter Rewards airdrop. One Minter Rewards pass was claimable for each TOONZ held, but multiple passes can be burned to create an upgraded version. The team has not yet revealed what the Minter Rewards pass will be used for, but they certainly appear to be preparing for something. Since minting a few months ago, the project has completed their limited-edition TOONZ giveaways, held Toon Talk Twitter Spaces on a regular basis and recently passed 10,000Ξ in volume traded.
DuskBreakers, the science fiction universe co-founded by Twitch founder Kevin Lin, announced the completion of their $24M Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The DuskBreakers universe is set to unfold across a series of NFTs, comics and games. Since minting in December, the team has released two playable mini-games and is preparing to launch their Play-and-Earn game sometime in Q3. The funds from the Series A round will allow the team to expand their game, art and content teams. The press release teases a number of things in the coming weeks and months, including a webcomic, 3D PFP NFTs and more.
FVCK_AVATARS and CRYSTALS will grant holders exclusive access to the planet ROGUE in LVCIDIA. This is amongst a host of other benefits for holders, including early multiplayer access, premium rewards, and exclusive merch and IRL events. LVCIDIA has been live as a web experience for a bit but will officially mint on May 25. Details regarding the new universe are a bit scarce, but expect more info over the next few weeks and check out the LVCIDIA roadmap here.
0.25Ξ floor | 12,969 total supply | 0.469e public mint | minted 3-22-22
Okay Bears have captured the attention of jpeg collectors across chains as seemingly every day a well-known Ethereum collector makes their way to Solana in search of a Bear that looks okay. They’ve generated enough buzz to earn a copycat collection on Ethereum (all publicity is good publicity?) and played a significant role in pushing volume and users on Magic Eden above OpenSea’s numbers for last week - more on that below. While they’ve drawn some questions for stylistic similarities to Bored Apes, they’ve garnered one of the only things a good NFT needs - a strong and fervent community. They intend to deliver to that community and have laid out their plans in the Blueprint, a seven-part plan to foster a physical and digital home for all Bears. Besides, their “We Are Gonna Be Okay” slogan is quite fitting for the current market.
243◎ floor | 10,000 supply | 1.5◎ mint | minted 4-26-22
Magic Eden | Twitter | Discord | Website
The Otherside revealed The Voyager’s Journey, a vague and dateless roadmap, alongside the first snippet of in-game demo footage (seen below) last Wednesday. The Voyager’s Journey lays out the next steps Voyagers (Otherdeed holders) can expect: the first tech demo will come first, followed by the release of The Codex, a document that will detail how to link Otherside lands and more. Next comes The Decoupling, an opportunity for Voyages to separate their Kodas and artifacts from the lands they came on. The Voyager’s Journey includes a few more items, such as the release of the remaining supply of land and the ability to change and build on your land, but lacks dates or further details. Check it out under the Obelisk tab on the Otherside website.
Recent Launches:
Augminted Labs Scientists launched Monday evening and will remain open until the 18th at 7PM EST. The Scientists kick off an expanded Kaiju Kingz ecosystem with new P2E mechanics and will be needed to play their new monster battle, Monster x Monster. Scientists are free to mint but can be upgraded by “injecting” a minimum of 0.06666Ξ to receive P2E perks such as acquiring $SCALES and stealing DNA. This is one of the first free mints with a supply cap, something the Kaiju team has acknowledged, so it will be interesting to see how their P2E game develops. Read the details of the mint process here and the details of the P2E mechanics here.
CPG Pop minted on Saturday and saw a few early sales above 5Ξ before dropping to around 2Ξ after the reveal on Sunday evening. The collection brings pop-art style visuals to everyday goods like calculators, cameras and floppy discs. The core collection is done by Errorgardener and ten artists with Bobby Hundreds and Moonbirds COO Justin Mezzell each creating a 1/1. Last night they teased an upcoming announcement of Project Tin Can, one of their primary incubation projects, and will likely continue rolling information out of the coming weeks.
Dooplicators were claimed by Doodle holders on Friday and have ranged around 3.5Ξ since hitting the market. Holders can claim their Dooplicator until June 21 and a trailer will be released on June 22 at NFT NYC. Dooplicators will reveal on June 23 - until then, what’s inside will remain a mystery. Doodles may indeed have some big things coming considering their recent hiring of former Billboard president Julian Holguin.
GENE_SIS: The Girls of Armament is the first generative collection from Gharliera, a cyberpunk artist with experience working on Cyberpunk 2077, League of Legends and other video game concept and promotional art. Mommyson, leader of K-Pop label Beautiful Noise, is also on the team. Plans for the collection include music from Genshis on the Beautiful Noise label, action figures, clothing and merchandise and other virtual assets like v-tuber models and in-game skins and models.
Phantom Network revealed early on Saturday and immediately faced some questions regarding a number of rare pieces themed after popular anime characters. Project founder Rei addressed the concerns in a Medium piece; the controversial pieces were removed from the collection and replaced with original images. Besides those updates, there hasn’t been much other info released since the reveal. Watch for their announcements regarding the web platform and white boxes.
Upcoming Launches:
11 Captain’s Club is the first NFT offering from Miami nightclub E11EVEN, who have previously made headlines for accepting cryptocurrency and purchasing Bored Ape #11. The Captain’s Club consists of 1,111 generative hats that will grant holders priority access to IRL events at E11EVEN as well as exclusive Captain’s events. At a cost of 3Ξ, it certainly isn’t a cheap hat, but it’s rather easy to imagine getting your money’s worth out of it. The public mint will be held on the 25th. While the typical NFT degen is likely uninterested, this could prove to be an important milestone for NFTs integrating into the real world.
Chain Runners XR mints later this week on May 20. In light of recent market conditions, they’ve moved from a Dutch auction to a flat price of 0.1Ξ. The XR collection brings Chain Runners into 3D form, accompanied by virtual experiences, 3D avatars usable inside and outside the Chain Runners ecosystem, customizable equipment, and unique AR filters. Customuse is assisting in creation of the 3D models, which are under the CC0 license. Chain Runners holders receive a free XR of their Runner, while 10,000 new XRs will be sold to the public.
Webaverse hopes not to build the next big Metaverse, but to give individuals and communities the tools to build their own. Webaverse itself is an open-source metaverse creation tool: anyone can use their code to create immersive online experiences in 2D, 3D or VR. They will be creating their own MMO called Upstreet but are also focused on partnering with NFT projects to help them create metaverses for their communities. Minters will be purchasing a seasons pass to Upstreet, which will grant holders access to land parcels. They’ve got a lot going on but provide a great overview in this thread and fellow The Oner wen-sen provides further commentary in this thread. Although mint details haven’t been announced yet, the Webaverse team has been working for months and expect to release sometime soon - safe to assume over the next few weeks or months. One to keep on the radar.
NFT Market Overview
We all know things are a bit testy right now, but I come baring a glass half full. While volume is down, it’s not as low as we saw in parts of October and November ‘21 (yet). Weekly total traders (regardless of marketplace) have more than doubled over the past nine months from around 88,000 in mid-August to over 200,000 in April and May. There are a lot more people buying Ethereum NFTs right now then at any time that isn’t Q1 2022. These people are continuing to transact at an increasing rate with last week (and much of November) being notable exceptions.
Regardless, there is an air of uncertainty surrounding nearly everything in the crypto space at the moment as traders and collectors cautiously watch orange coin, the stock market and everything else going on. Some projects will be entering their final hurrah while others may be had at prices we’ll never see again. The key (that no one has) is distinguishing which is which. Glhf.
Other Happenings
Boss Beauties announce publishing deal for stories written by holders
Gem adds Sweep Data to highlight what’s trending
Genie integrates UpShot NFT appraisals to show buyers what is underpriced
icy.tools was acquired by Web3 analytics company QuickNode
Madonna and Beeple collaborate on motherly triptych; one sells for 170.5Ξ
McLaren launches their first NFT collection, a set of generative McLarens
MetaHero announces they will be changing there name
Metroverse Mini minted last week, preparing the city to move into PVP
Soulbound NFTs and Decentralized Society take center stage in new research paper from Vitalik et al.
Metaversal newsletter discussing the implications