Page One #28
A day late, but we are back to review the week in the big city. There was plenty to do and plenty announced, some of which I’m sure I missed. Hit the button below to come hang out, subscribe above for more news and look out for the June recap coming on Friday. As always, thanks for reading 🫡
TLDR:
Aiko Virtual blends future tech and anime into “Cyber Cute”
Bored Apes top volume charts, ApeFest brings out stars
Doodles make headlines with slew of announcements
Doodles Genesis Boxes sold in auction starting tonight
Gossamer Seeds reveal and their world begins taking shape
Karma Monkey sees OCM eat their desserts today
Ledger Market Pass is more than just a hardware wallet
Moonrunners find success with a double-derivative
NFT NYC brings announcements, parties and POAPs
The Otherside tails Bored Apes atop volume charts
RENGA airdrops Black Boxes, kicking off the wait for reveal
Treeverse prepares website reveal, shares alpha footage
News and Notes:
Bored Apes top volume charts, ApeFest brings out stars
ApeFest, held during NFT NYC last week, attracted star guests (including Beeple and Jimmy Fallon) to see stars perform. Following Future’s performance the night before, Eminem and Snoop Dogg took the stage to debut a new song and video featuring their Apes, which had an accompanying merch drop.
Yuga Labs and its founders also addressed re-emerging rumors that BAYC is a Nazi tribute in disguise, which has been perpetuated for months by Ryder Ripps. Yuga is suing Ripps, creator of the copycat collection RR/BAYC. My friend Wave Ninja wrote up a good piece discussing (and debunking) Ripps’ allegations - read it here.
Doodles make headlines with slew of announcements
While we knew news regarding the Dooplicators was coming at NFT NYC, the Doodles team had more in store. On the business side, they announced their first fundraising round will be lead by 776 Ventures. Pharrelll Williams will join the team as Chief Brand Officer and will lead production of Doodle Records: Volume 1.
On the jpeg side, they revealed Doodles 2 will be a free, uncapped mint that will allow holders to customize and change their Doodle’s appearance using a selection of basic traits. Dooplicators will be used to bring rarer traits from the original collection to Doodles 2, all of which can be traded. They also released the first Genesis Boxes, which contain exclusive wearables for D2s, in person in NYC. The remaining 20,000 will be auctioned tonight - more on that below.
Gossamer Seeds reveal and their world begins taking shape
The mysterious Gossamer World has become a bit less opaque over the past week, but details are still scarce. The new universe includes a TV series produced (at least in part) by Lois Lowry and a P2E game created using Unreal Engine. A since-deleted tweet from BRON Studios mentioned a “production technology partnership” with Epic Games. The seeds revealed into fireflies on Monday.
NFT NYC brings announcements, parties and POAPs
The NFT market is nearly dead compared to a few months ago, but that didn’t damper too many spirits in New York last week. Some highlights:
Azuki held an event of impressive scale, transforming Pier 59 into The Alley, where holders grabbed Bean plushies, saw musical performances and saw Zagabond head on stage to officially dox.
Cooltopia brought the Cool Cats to life with an interactive exhibit including an obstacle course, games and an upside-down room for the upside-down cat.
goblintown handed out burgers across the city, including outside of their late-night party where Steve Aoki debuted a new goblin-themed song.
Moonbirds and the PROOF Collective held multiple events highlighted by performances by David Blane and Tame Impala (and they get some POAPs).
NFT NYC - the actual conference - featured too many speakers to count (and disappointed at least one of them), but gave many a chance to meet friends and hear talks on a broad range of topics.
Rug Radio was live in-person in NYC throughout the week, featuring speakers like Farokh, FEWOCiOUS, OSF, Drifter and many others.
And too many other things to list.
The Otherside tails Bored Apes atop volume charts
After dipping below 2Ξ floor price a few weeks ago, over 10,000Ξ of volume led Otherdeeds back over 3Ξ this weekend. Although they haven’t provided more news since the release of the Obelisk roadmap weeks ago, the First Trip - our first peek at a real tech demo - has a confirmed date of July 16. The Codex, a living document detailing how to link lands, and The Decoupling are up after the tech demo.
Treeverse prepares website reveal, shares alpha footage
Nearly a year after launching Treeverse, founder Loopify and the team at Endless Clouds are about ready to show off what they’ve been working on. Their website will launch in the next few days, giving the team and world a proper introduction. They shared a short clip of alpha gameplay yesterday and mentioned that there is something in store in July as well.
Recent Launches:
Aiko Virtual blends future tech and anime into “Cyber Cute”
Founders Kyo and Vinne bring a myriad of design experience to Aiko, from fashion to logos to cover art all inspired by various Japanese styles. Mixing some familiar traits with unique aesthetics and an inventive angle, the team hopes to create a style that is recognizable from its appearance alone. Future plans include airdropping exclusive Foundation art pieces to holders and creating an official line of merch. Aiko reveals on Thursday.
Moonrunners find success with a double-derivative formula
Drawing artistic inspiration from Moonbirds and storytelling lessons from goblintown, Moonrunners struck a cord with traders in an otherwise quiet market. As we’ve seen more than once in the past few weeks, giving the community a chance to interact with the narrative through Twitter drives discussion and increases engagement. Moonrunners took things one step further last night, warning holders of an upcoming battle between the tribes before changing the metadata on each token to have a background of a full moon. This story is likely not over yet.
RENGA airdrops Black Boxes, kicking off the wait for reveal
A surprise tweet late on the 21st encouraged The Art of Seasons holders to check their wallets, where they found a Black Box. Dirty Robot and the RENGA team have been tight-lipped about the project since its beginnings and their unannounced airdrop continued that trend. Besides the plain black box, there are four other traits, presumably holding different types of RENGA. Look out for more info about when these boxes open up - but don’t be surprised if it comes without notice.
Upcoming Launches:
Doodles Genesis Boxes sold in auction starting tonight
The Genesis Box holds the first wearables compatible with the upcoming Doodles 2 collection. Rare apparel and accessories “never to be sold again” can be expected and will act as the starting point for the wearables economy. The first 4,000 boxes were minted by holders in NYC for $123. The remaining 20,000 boxes will be sold in an auction format starting tonight at 7PM EST and running for 24 hours. The format is similar to some MetaDrop auctions: place your bid, track the auction and increase your bid if needed and desired. The auction will take place on their website.
Karma Monkey sees OCM eat their desserts today
Nine months after OnChainMonkey was created in one transaction, they eat dessert. The project, founded by venture capitalist and entrepreneur Bill Tai and team, has fostered a devoted community, which it is looking to expand with 20,000 new monkeys - this time with a bit more artistic detail. Pairing an OCM with a Dessert creates a Karma, but 9,000 tokens will be sold to the public at 0.5Ξ this afternoon at 4PM EST. Their release kicks off the next chapter for OCM, which includes the Banana fungible token, Monkey Missions and more to be announced.
Ledger Market Pass is more than a hardware wallet
After five years securing digital assets on their hardware wallets, Ledger is creating some of their own. The Ledger Market Pass is the key to the their ecosystem, granting holders access to exclusive collaborations, limited edition hardware (including an already announced black Nano X) and more. Some collaborations are already planned, including RTFKT, Tag Heuer, and Deadfellaz, among others. Details are still being announced, but you can enter an allowlist raffle for their mint - which takes place some time in July - on Premint here.
NFT Market Overview:
Volume is still down worse than the Mutant asking for a date on a Times Square billboard. Users have been slipping for a few weeks now, which could become worrisome if the trend continues. Transactions remain around the same range as usual, bouncing about week-to-week.
Nansen’s NFT500 Index looks to have found a rather comfy local bottom two weeks ago, around the 17th. Blue chips have carried it down and have since carried it back up. Clone X hit 7Ξ somewhere around that time and Moonbirds were down around ~15Ξ and now sit at 10.5Ξ and 20Ξ, respectively. While the real world (and the bitcorn) are both still questionable, this seems like an okay place to be optimistic.
Other Stuff Happened/ing
NFTs:
BAPE FUTURES released last week, expanding the brand’s web3 footprint
Clone X announces 3D files for every Clone are coming soon
Milady Maker sees floor double over NFT NYC week
WAGMI United aims to bring Crawley Town to the Premier League
General News:
Binance and Cristiano Ronaldo announce NFT partnership
eBay acquired art-focused marketplace Known Origin
LooksRare launches conditional listings
Magic Eden raises $130M at $1.6B valuation
MoonPay announces new NFT platform HyperMint alongside Fox and Universal
NHL partnering with Sweet to create digital collectibles
Shopify allows merchants to create NFT-gated options
Solana announces crypto-intergrated smartphone
SuperRare launches the Gucci Vault