Page One #37
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TLDR:
Azuki welcomes you to The Alley in new website experience
Bored Ape Yoga Club makes the Twitter timeline NSFW
Castaways shoot upwards after tweet reference
Cats is an experiment in community-governed IP
Clone X debuts line of exclusive merch for holders
CryptoSimeji introduces the Japanese app to Web3
DigiDaigaku creators LimitBreak announce $200M funding
Kingship partners with M&Ms to offer collectible candies
Probably Nothing & Warner Records to create music studio
QQL mints on September 28th in Dutch auction
RENGA mints final Boxes, reveal date remains a mystery
y00ts mint September 2, more details coming today
News and Notes:
Azuki welcomes you to The Alley in new website experience
Powered by speculation, Azuki seems to have found a local bottom last week. They released a website update on the 23rd, allowing visitors to explore The Alley and find a few hidden clues. Two days later, a tweet reading “An open anime universe for the world” got holders excited about possible meanings. Shortly after, Adrian Cheng, son of Chinese billionaire Henry Cheng and current CEO of their family business, New World Development, revealed he has accumulated 101 Azukis and intends to “carve out a unique space in the Web3 world.” These cryptic developments have many excited about what may come next from the top anime brand in the space - although apparently there is some competition for that title.
Castaways shoot upwards after tweet reference
After releasing their 100-piece genesis collection as a free mint two weeks ago, Castaways went hyperbolic today after Gabriel Leydon, CEO of LimitBreak, referenced the project in a few tweets and mentioned he has invested in some capacity. Castaways is an island survival sandbox game from Branch that raised $12M before their initial release. They’ve got a rather bare-bones alpha running which anyone can play here. Owning a raft grants players an island in the future - potentially sometime soon.
Clone X debuts line of exclusive merch for holders
RTFKT announced a new line of phygital wearables on Monday. The collection is split between Genesis items, which every Clone X holder can mint, and DNA-based items specific to each Clone. They include shirts, shoes, socks, hats and hoodies, although items vary for each DNA type. Holders can mint two of each item, although only the Genesis shirt is free - other items cost between 0.04Ξ (socks) and 0.38Ξ (Murakami Drip Air Force 1s). Each item, besides the shoes which remain digital-only for the time being, can be used as a digital wearable or redeemed in the forge for IRL goods. The mint opens on Wednesday and will be live until September 7th.
DigiDaigaku creators LimitBreak announce $200M funding
Yesterday LimitBreak, the game developer founded by Gabriel Leydon and Halbert Nakagawa, announced they have raised $200M over two rounds from investors including Paradigm, Josh Buckley and FTX. They’ve coined a new buzzword for their cryptogames as well - Free to Own. F2O is focused on using genesis NFTs as “factories” to produce in-game assets that other players purchase and use in seasons. The announcement sent the already-rolling collection into a frenzy, seeing the floor shoot up more than 6Ξ in a few hours. With an airdrop coming to holders this Friday, the swift ascension of these new anime waifus may not stop here.
Kingship partners with M&Ms to offer collectible candies
Kingship, the musical band of Bored Apes, revealed a partnership with M&Ms last week in a new video. The two launched a set of collectible candies as well - 100 Gold Gift Boxes ($100), 3,900 Celebratory Gift Boxes ($60), and 6,000 Gift Jars ($40). While we’ve seen brand collaborations before, this one felt significant - not only are M&Ms selling candies with Bored Apes on them, but they are canonically involved in the Kingship story, implying there may be more in store for the partnership. The fact that two international corporations - Universal Music Group and Mars - are creating collaborations based around Bored Apes seems substantial.
Probably Nothing & Warner Records to create music studio
Founded by chef and entrepreneur Jeremy Fall, Probably Nothing intends to do a bit of everything - clothing, content, TV shows and more. They made a big step last week by announcing their partnership with Warner Records to create Probably A Label, a new music label that intends to use Web3 and NFTs to create a new model for music creation and distribution. Details are scarce for the time being, but given Fall’s affiliation with Roc A Fella Records, it will be something to watch.
Recent Launches:
Bored Ape Yoga Club makes the Twitter timeline NSFW
Meme-maker extraordinaire Mike Three is no stranger to controversy - he’s been an outspoken critic of Yuga Labs along with friend Ryder Ripps. His latest joke takes the form of a 10,000 piece collection of “Bored Apes practicing throat yoga.” Originally, Mike drew five apes in the position and posted them on Twitter, but demand from the degens spurred him to recreate the entire set, each matching their associated Bored Ape. The sale was rather unique: instead of a simple free mint, the yoga apes were sold in auctions starting at 0Ξ to prevent gas wars. You may see these floating around Twitter - apologies if the poster didn’t mark the photo NSFW.
Cats is an experiment in community-governed IP
On Friday night, Treasure founder Jon Patten quoted a tweet from a new project announcing its launch on sudoswap. Cats is a personal project from Patten meant to be a case study for a new method of IP usage and ownership. The mechanics of the collection are explained in this Medium article, but it basically works like this: Cat holders can keep their Cat and own the IP or they can deposit their Cats into the DAO vault in exchange for 21 Catcoins and one Soulbound token. Catcoins are ERC721 tokens that feature the associated Cat’s artwork.
500 Cats were initially sold on sudoswap, 100 Cats will be deposited into the DAO vault to create a Catcoin-ETH pool on sudoswap, and the 300 remaining cats will be deposited into the Cat-ETH sudo pool. The Catcoin pool and conversion feature will go live sometime this week.
CryptoSimeji introduces the Japanese app to Web3
Simeji, a Japanese keyboard and emote app popular with Gen Z users, released the first NFT collection for free on Sunday evening. The collection of pixelated mushroom avatars serves to start their goal of becoming “the best meme community.” While current benefits include potential airdrops and whitelists, they intend to allow users to use and display their avatars in-app, introduce VIP keyboard features and create “type-to-earn” benefits for holders.
RENGA mints final Boxes, reveal date remains a mystery
The world-building avatar project from artist DirtyRobot has finished minting more than two months after 7,500 Boxes were airdropped to The Art of Seasons holders. Demand increased after the sale ended, seeing the floor move from the low 0.5Ξ region to above 0.8Ξ. The project’s mysterious operations have stirred a bit of unrest in some holders, as the team prefers to communicate through comics rather than announcements.
Notably, RENGA has opted to reveal rarities before art. While we’ve seen this with 1/1s before, it’s the first time (in my memory) a high-profile project has done so for the entire collection. Holders are hopeful that a reveal could come some time soon - follow along in the Discord for more info as it’s released.
Upcoming Launches:
QQL mints on September 28th in Dutch auction format
The new project from Fidenza creator Tyler Hobbs and Dandelion Wist will launch their website on September 19th, giving prospective minters over a week to play around with their algorithm. The Dutch auction will start at 50Ξ and last one hour, with the price dropping every minute at varied rates until it sells out or reaches the bottom limit of 2Ξ (yeah right). Regardless of bid amount, everyone will pay the lowest price.
y00ts mint September 2, more details coming today
With Scholarship applications freshly closed, y00ts are nearly prepared for mint day. DeGods founder Frank has mentioned that more information on the mint process and y00tility will be revealed today. A range of stars have been accepted to the y00tlist including Wayne Rooney, Lil Baby and Howie Mandel. Concurrently, the price of DeGods’ native token DUST has risen steadily from ~$1.60 a week ago to ~$3.40 today as applicants and list members prepare for mint day. Look out for more info from Frank at some point today.
NFT Market Overview:
The past week has seen a slight uptick in Blue Chip collections across the board, although some have recovered more than others. The Great Ape Liquidation threat came and went - and with it the risk of a cascade of high-profile tokens hitting the market. While collections like DigiDaigaku and Castaways have seen great success over the past week, it shouldn’t yet be taken as a sign that our NFT antics are here to stay, as we saw a similar recovery a few weeks ago that proved to be short-lived. Still, their rapid rise, along with the success of collections like Cats and CryptoSimeji, show that there are still plenty of opportunities in the market - if you pick your spots right.
Other Stuff Happened/ing
NFTs:
Art Blocks announces Art Blocks Engine
EZU introduces cross-chain minting and Wear2Earn clothing
Goblintown is moving to its own marketplace
Hello Kitty released their NFT collection with RECUR this week
Pudgy Penguins will release children’s book
Trove launches L1 marketplace
General News:
Andrew Wang, Vinnie Hagar sign with UTA
Eminem and Snoop Dogg perform as their Bored Apes at VMAs
Facebook and Instagram users can share NFTs across platforms
Gem integrates purchases from sudoswap pools
X2Y2 allows buyers to choose how much they want to pay in royalties
Keep up the goods!