Page One #33
I don’t think the Recent Launches section has ever been as barren as it is this week, a telling signal of the NFT market at large. While existing projects continue pushing out announcements and there’s no shortage of corporate activity in the space, volume has been left behind, leaving the market feeling a bit boring despite its non-stop pace. Hopefully the new month brings with it a bit more entertainment.
As always, thanks for reading, subscribe above, come hang out below and let me know what I missed on Twitter.
TLDR:
Care Bears Forever mints August 4th
Chimpers begin training in the Dojo
The Currency physical redemption window closes
Goblintown welcomes Master Baiters (what’s new)
The Island is a game of Survivor full of on-chain antics
The Potatoz run after stake-to-win details begin surfacing
QQL makes collectors into collaborators this September
Tiffany & Co. makes audacious debut with NFTiff pendants
Treeverse releases first in-game combat trailer
Stickmen Toys are Warner Records web3 debut
Subway Rats explore New York City’s underground
Webaverse lets anyone build their metaverse starting 8/6
News and Notes:
Chimpers begin training in the Dojo
The Dojo is meant to be an engaging and low-cost gamified staking system and a launchpad for The Boring Ape Chronicles Series 2, which will expand the Chimpers story. Chimpers can begin training, which earns them XP and increases their Bandana level. Over the next few months, the Dojo will introduce battling and adventuring, both of which will grant XP as well as mysterious rewards. Timbers and team have made their name on underpromising and overdelivering while rewarding loyal holders, something they plan to continue with Chimpers.
The Currency physical redemption window closes
Holders of Damien Hirst’s first NFT The Currency have had one year to decide whether they would keep the NFT or redeem it for the physical painting. When the redemption window closed on the 27th, 5,149 pieces were redeemed for physical counterparts, while 4,851 - including all 1,000 held by Hirst - were kept in digital form.
The 10,000 piece collection was painted in 2016 and each was given a title generated by a machine learning program. Only one edition of each piece will exist, meaning 4,851 physical paintings are going to be put to the fire. Their destruction will take place during an exhibition titled The Currency at Newport Street Gallery in London starting September 9th. Pieces will be burnt at a specified time each day at the gallery.
Goblintown welcomes Master Baiters
Nearly two months after releasing McGoblin Burgers, holders can finally put them to use. Goblintown’s baiting mechanic went live last Friday alongside an updated website featuring art just as disgustingly detailed as usual. Using the burger as bait burns the token and replaces it with a new one, known as grumpls. The grumpls collection art - a cage with the amount of burned burgers inside - doesn’t provide many hints for what might come next, but the team has posted some potential teases on Twitter. Holders can redeem their burgers for grumpls until August 19th.
The Potatoz run after stake-to-win details begin surfacing
Memeland’s introductory collection is proving its worth. They’ve begun releasing more details on the upcoming stake-to-win feature, which is being named via a community poll. Staking a Potato enters holders into weekly prize draws with a pool that includes Memelist spots for Memeland and Potatoz NFTs. It also includes an MVP, the top token in their ecosystem which grants holders mints for Memeland. MVP has seen more trading volume over the past week than it has since it was released in mid-June, seeing the floor, currently 34Ξ, more than triple since the start of July.
Treeverse releases first in-game combat trailer
Treeverse, the top-down mobile MMORPG in development by Loopify and the team at Endless Clouds, released the first in-game combat trailer on the 30th. It’s been relatively slow going for Treeverse over the past year, as they’ve kept expectations low and promises to a minimum. Their new website provides our first look at the full team, which includes 40+ employees who have contributed to games like League of Legends, Dark Souls 3, and Rainbow 6 Siege to name a few. Check out their monthly update blog - which should have a fresh July post soon - for more info.
Recent Launches:
Stickmen Toys are Warner Records web3 debut
Created in partnership with Bose, Stickmen Toys is the first NFT collection from Warner Records, the Los Angeles-based music studio and subsidiary of Warner Music Group. Stickmen holders own their own IP and will be able to vote on what avenues the project pursues next, in addition to gaining access to events, collaborations and collectibles. 50 tokens feature Bose traits and can be redeemed for an exclusive edition of Bose headphones. While they may not be the best looking collection around, Warner’s free launch shows they’ve placed creating a community over extracting profit.
Subway Rats explore New York City’s underground
Beneath New York City, a collection of rats move from location to location participating in games and events (of unknown content). As rats change locations, the background of their token shifts to represent wherever it is they end up. Each location across the city is an NFT and rats must pay a small fee of 0.001Ξ to the owner of each place they pass through. The first locations will be airdropped to random rat owners, while the remaining ones will be auctioned at a future date. While the concept is creative and potentially unique, its success depends upon incentivizing rats to traverse the city. Subway Rats reveal on August 4th.
Upcoming Launches:
Care Bears Forever mints August 4th
Following the success of Nickelodeon’s launch a few weeks ago, RECUR is assisting another legacy IP with their entrance the NFT space. Care Bears Forever has an impressive amount of depth for a children’s cartoon collection. Each minter will receive a Care Chest which they can choose to open, revealing their bear, or not. Then they can participate in a series of challenges, the first of which requires sharing your bear - giving it away forever. For this, sharers will receive a Mystery Chest. 3,000 bears will be available to RECUR pass holders on August 4th at 1PM EDT, with 1,750 going on sale to the public an hour later.
The Island is a game of Survivor full of on-chain antics
1,000 tokens walk in, one walks out. That’s the concept behind The Island, a recently announced NFT experiment from Solidity developer Shegenerates. Once every day, holders can vote to sacrifice one item in the collection, with the last holder standing taking home the total revenue from the collection. Although details are still being determined, there are no rules governing the participants. Form teams, betray your team, use flash loans to control the vote, use MEV to react before votes are calculated - if you can pull it off, it’s fair game. Follow Shegen on Twitter for more info.
QQL makes collectors into collaborators this September
Fidenza creator Tyler Hobbs and Dandelion Wist have worked to craft their upcoming generative art project, QQL, since November of 2021. The project is “an experiment in generative collaboration” that places their algorithm, along with the tools to explore it, in the hands of the community. In September, mint passes for QQL will be auctioned on Archipelago. The mint pass has no expiration and will surely be one of the hottest tickets in generative art this year. Join Tyler’s Discord below for more info as its released.
Tiffany & Co. makes audacious debut with NFTiff pendants
World-renowned jeweler Tiffany & Co. made waves on Sunday when they announced their first NFT project, NFTiff, would be limited to a supply of 250 at a cost of 30Ξ each. CryptoPunk holders can redeem an NFTiff for a custom-designed pendant of their Punk meticulously crafted with at least 30 gemstones on an 18k gold chain. While anyone may purchase an NFTiff, they can only be redeemed by Punk holders. The sale opens on August 5th at 10AM EST and the redemption window for pendants closes on August 12th. Read more details here.
Webaverse lets anyone build their metaverse starting 8/6
After years of development and over a year of open alpha, Webaverse is debuting its full toolkit, as well as their curated world known as Upstreet, in a series of drops over the next week. A raffle for remaining allowlist spots will open on the 3rd and close on the 5th. The allowlist mint will then open on the 6th and close on the 8th.
The remaining supply will be sold in a forward auction via Metadrop on the 9th. The auction, which lasts between 22 and 24 hours, starts at 0.25Ξ and is capped at 2Ξ. Read more details on Webaverse, the raffle, and the auction here.
NFT Market Overview:
Pack it up, touch some grass, find a girlfriend, learn to trade coins, play a video game, do something because there’s not much to see here.
Total NFT volume in the month of July finished at around $825M - about 5% of total volume in January. There have been singular days with more volume. While I’m optimistic things will return - albeit whether we ever reach the roaring velocities previously seen is anyone’s guess - continued disinterest from projects and traders alike has pushed volume lower and lower in recent weeks. Keep paying attention and watching the market, but there’s certainly no need to fomo into random mints right now.
Other Stuff Happened/ing
NFTs:
Clone.Tools gives Clone X holders easy access to 3D models
Meebits tease new IP agreement, increase royalty
Miami partners with Time, Mastercard, Salesforce for NFT collection
Okay Bears announces Bear Drops, digital collectibles redeemable for gold
RENGA publishes comics leading up to reveal at unknown date
VeeFriends completes $50M investment round led by a16z
Wassies by Wassies Boutique goes live
General News:
Animoca Brands launches DAO to develop metaverse standards
BAYC Founder Gordon Goner acknowledges “alt-write” ties in new interview
Center, NFT indexing company, raises $11M seed round
Revoke.cash launches new browser extension
Yuga Labs is being sued over the Hollywood Bored Ape Complex
Tervo, I'm long-time subscriber and appreciate the newsletter.
But the description of that BAYC Founder article is way off -- did you read it? It spends all its time darkly insinuating and fails to reference any sources.
Start with the label "alt-write" and look how often it appears on the site (twice in reference to a podcast about...the publishing industry): https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fexpatpress.com%2F+%22alt-write%22
As far as I can tell, it's a joke about "grammar Nazis" and not about politics.
Further, if ExPat Press is an extremist publisher, why is the founder favorably reviewed on "indie" literature community sites as recently as 2020? https://litreactor.com/interviews/manuel-marerro-on-expat-press-and-pushing-the-indie-envelope