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Links for the Top 25 drops are HERE.

10 NFT drops I’m watching in December

Paradigm

December 1 – @ippsketch 

Last week I wrote about fxhash’s much anticipated Ethereum expansion and how they were putting together a festival of generative art drops to celebrate the launch. 

And as of today, I count a total of 66 collections launching in December, which… is a lot of art. 

Paradigm might be my favorite so far (of the ones that have price/supply listed). 

Technicolor blocks; light and shadow play; grainy 80s logo-core; optical illusions. 

The public Dutch Auction begins at 0.5 ETH and ends at 0.1 ETH, but Tender Pass holders can pre-mint early at 0.1 ETH.

SIMULACRUM

This Week TBD – @XCOPYART

Guys, it’s XCOPY (what else do you want me to say). 

He’s back just one month after dropping the popular Algo Bro collection in October.

This time we’re getting another piece of signature XCOPY glitch art with a gradient-colored cherry on top, sold through 33 numbered editions (42 total supply) priced at 2 ETH. 

SIMULACRUM is a fully token-gated drop for holders, with a raffle that concluded this morning.

Midamerican Fever Dream by Summer Wagner 

December 5 – @bugindreamland

PROOF is on a bit of a roll after selling out the two artist collections released in their Fall/Winter series so far, ZENTRUM and La Potiere Jalouse.

Up next is this photography drop by Summer Wagner. So far the content features a heavy narrative focus that is supported by the artist’s ethereal style, which has attracted notable collectors in the past (like yours truly).

The collection is split into 4 separate mints (waves) over the next 5 months, with this first one featuring a 1/1 auction and a 250-supply limited edition, pricing still unknown.

Noble Gallery Season 2 Finale

December 6 – @noble_gallery

Showing one of the strongest art lineups I’ve seen in recent memory, Noble Gallery ends the year and its second season with a bang.

Some of the top breakout creators of this year, Jack Butcher, batzdu, and die with the most likes, are on there, alongside more established names like Coldie, Tony Babel, and Jake Fried, to name a few.

However, you will need one of Noble’s LET’S PLAY tokens to, well…play, unless you want to gamble on these 550 limited editions reaching the public mint stage (probably depends on how they price these).

Nodemonkes

By December 13 – @nodemonkes 

Maybe the most hyped drop of the month: 10,000 Bitcoin monkeys, fully onchain, with no strings attached, no utility, and some historical provenance. 

The team could’ve made millions on this mint, but instead chose to go the free route. 

How can you get your own monke? The most popular way is by donating directly to charity. 

Covered at length here. 

Blind Spots

December 13 – @shaderism

Blind Spots is the next upcoming Art Blocks Curated drop following the platform’s recent November sellouts, Naïve and Trichro-matic.

It’ll also be both an AB and Ethereum debut for the artist, Arttu Koskela (a.k.a. Shaderism), although he does have a track record of sales on Tezos spanning back to early 2022.

It has a very different feel compared to Curated releases in the last 6 months – featuring sleek, slow-moving animations that focus on texture, perspective, and lighting, with impressively aesthetic results.

This one passes my “wall test” with flying colors (provided one’s wall has an animated display with a good frame rate).

Izanami Islands

December 14 – @richardnadler1

Four months ago, German artist Richard Nadler mixed generative and AI algorithms to create the Japan-inspired Yamabushi's Horizons. The collection was an instant hit and is currently third on Verse’s all-time volume ranking.

Now Nadler is dropping a spiritual sequel, Izanami Islands. Focusing on seascapes, the 128-supply collection showcases the familiar, colorful, threaded style that attracted collectors to Yamabushi.

We still lack pricing details, but this is a follow-up to one of the most beloved collections to ever release on Verse. Art weeaboos, rise up once again.

Overworld: Incarna

December 15 – @overworldplay 

The most anticipated gaming drop of December. 

A multiplayer RPG published by Xterio Games, which raised $55 million in the last 16 months just to make blockchain games. 

There’s a lot going on here: a PFP collection, a token coming in 2024, a mint contract that shares royalties with holders, and governance rights. 

But I do wish they shared more about the game itself. As of today, we still haven’t seen any actual gameplay footage, despite only being 2 weeks out from this PFP mint. 

Alternate

Week of December 11 – @kimasendorf

If you’ve hung around the generative art scene this year, you’ve at one point or another heard of Cargo, one of the most talked about and best-performing Art Blocks in recent market memory.

It’s the work of German artist Kim Asendorf, who, while not new in the space, has gained a much larger audience this year.

This December, he’ll release Alternate, a 200-supply fully onchain collection as part of the AGH 1 exhibition.

Some might say it’s silly to be hyped for art you can’t even perceive yet, but I gather that the market’s (and my) appetite for Asendorf’s onchain artifacts has not been satisfied, especially if it’s of the dynamic kind.

Botto Secret Group Show

Mid-December – @bottoproject 

Botto is an AI bot that creates art, sends it to a DAO that votes on their favorite, and then mints the most popular art pieces as NFTs. 

Try explaining that to your grandpappy. 

This time Botto is joining a yet-to-be-named secret show where it’ll drop a 50-supply collection at an affordable price of 0.05 ETH. 

As a bonus, this’ll be the first time Botto directly selects the final outputs itself.