We asked a pro for their NFT picks

GM

Oh look, another weekend where markets teetered on the verge of collapse.

Yikes — we have to get the vibes back before jumping into another Mint or Skip. 

Here, take a few deep breaths and stare at this Cryptopunk-in-the-form-of-a-loaf-of-bread for a little while.

Deep in. Deep out. 

Works every time. 

This week’s update:

  • Five artists that are UP NEXT

  • An unfortunate truth about NFTs

  • Huge update on Symbiogenesis

More info on the Mint/Watch lists here. 

5 UPCOMING ARTISTS TO WATCH

Honestly everyone should be paying closer attention to what’s happening in crypto art right now. It’s been the most vibrant part of the NFT market all year and that doesn’t look like it’s changing anytime soon. 

This is why I’m excited to have Kaloh join us as our first ever guest curator on Mint or Skip. 

Kaloh has an amazing weekly newsletter covering trends in generative and AI art. Highly recommend it, he’s super plugged into what’s happening.

Today he’s going to give us five crypto artists he thinks are on the rise. 

Take it away Kaloh.

---

Hello everyone!

I'm excited to share emerging & established artists I've been watching in the generative (coded) and AI art space with great potential. I included notable works, and when possible, their upcoming releases. 

In no particular order:

Thomas Noya

Thomas has been exploring the combination of AI and coded art. He usually trains his models with custom data sets and incorporates a second step where he uses different algorithms to modify the outputs before the final artworks are presented.

Notable works:

RedruM

RedruM has been releasing mesmerizing artwork under his trademark red hue. It is easy to identify his pieces and style, which can take artists years to develop, especially in AI, given the vast options available. Most of his works are released via Foundation or SuperRare.

Notable works:

Sasha Styles

Sasha is a poet or "metapoet" and an AI researcher who has been exploring the combination of poetry and AI for a long time. She is a SuperRare artist whose work has been auctioned at Christie's prestigious auction house. 

Notable works:

Jenni Pasanen

Jenni developed a massive audience of art fans and collectors by being one of the first to use AI to create out-of-this-world scenes and creatures. You can read more about her work in this interview I made last year, where she tells us about her process and how her life changed thanks to digital art and NFTs.

Notable works:

Kim Asendorf

Arguably one of the most underrated generative artists, Kim is known for his pixel-sorting algorithms, which he has been developing for over a decade. Most of his work has been minted on Tezos, although he has minted pieces on Foundation and two collections on OpenSea. He is a featured artist in the upcoming Bright Moments Tokyo collection.

Notable works:

Thanks everyone, 

– Kaloh

AN UNFORTUNATE TRUTH ABOUT NFTs

This is what NFT prices looked like on Saturday morning: 

RED everywhere. The reason?

  1. On Friday a regional bank in California collapsed 

  2. Then Circle, the company behind USDC, got caught in the mix 

  3. USDC tumbled as people feared the worst 

And at the end of all this, it somehow led to collectors no longer wanting to buy a Cryptodickbutt.

Uh what? 

Keep in mind these high-finance shenanigans likely had no impact on how many people bought Fortnite skins this weekend. Or Robux, the virtual currency in Roblox. 

And yet they always seem to deeply shake up NFTs and leave people running for cover.

This points to a very unfortunate truth: NFT collectors still have an annoyingly high overlap with crypto speculators. This means the space remains hyper-sensitive to the kinds of events that impact these traders. 

It’s getting exhausting. Just in the last year we’ve had: 

  • May 2022: Luna collapse

  • July 2022: 3AC collapse

  • November 2022: FTX fraud

  • March 2023: USDC tumble 

Not to mention a million other minor episodes along the way.

This has lasting effects. The mood is once again sour, which means project announcements get delayed until things clear up. New drops might also think about pausing so that they don’t have to compete for attention during a potential financial crisis. All of this hurts confidence. 

The faster NFTs decouple from crypto trading, the better. 

It’s true that it’s an interconnected economy and you can’t ever truly separate yourself from the broader space. 

But creatives should not have to keep track of interest rates, or bond mismatches, or audited exchange financials. 

And this moment might be closer than people think. The answer is simply… having better NFTs. 

“Duh great analysis guys, very glad I subscribe for this kind of alpha.”

But seriously, the only reason crypto whales have such a huge influence is because the total size of the market is still tiny. NFTs aren’t currently attracting consumers that actually want digital assets for reasons other than pure speculation.

This means a large percentage of the people left are unfortunately still treating NFTs as “shitcoins with pictures”. 

Better NFTs mean more consumers (not traders). This means crypto whales go from being outnumbered 100 to 1 today (making this up), to something like 100,000 to 1. 

This will come, maybe as early as this year. With large-scale projects like Reddit and Starbucks ramping up, we have a better shot of reaching millions of actual consumers than ever before. 

In the meantime, keep your seatbelts fastened. 

FINALLY... SOME DETAILS ON SYMBIOGENESIS

Square Enix finally opened up about their upcoming NFT experience and put out a ton of info about the launch. 

I covered this in detail here. The key thing to point out is that they’re opening up their whitelist this week for the first round of NFTs. If you’re interested, follow them on twitter and try your luck at their quizzes. 

Hey, we’re not fans of puzzles and grinding either, but what are you gonna do? 

One complaint I’ve heard is that the game seems too complex. It’s true, on the surface there is a lot to read. 

But we think this could get resolved through clever in-game tutorials. Many popular games seem overwhelming if squeezed into a dry handbook with a bunch of rules and game theory logic. 

The main thing we’re watching now is the marketing. As I noted in my twitter thread, they haven’t been promoting this from their main accounts as much as you would think. 

However, based on their roadmap outlined here it seems like they have a marketing campaign starting in late March. 

We’ll keep you in the loop! 

Added to: Mint List Rank #6 ✨

THE MINT LIST

Coming Soon: deep dives on www.mintorskip.com. 

  1. Sewer Passes. Yuga Labs' next mystery drop.

  2. Project Animus. RTFKT's biggest launch since Clone-x.

  3. FewoWorld. New PFP by Fewocious, a rising star in the art world.

  4. Ether. Anime PFP collection by viii, an artist with a cult following.  

  5. Moonbirds Mythics. The fourth collection in the Proof ecosystem.

  6. Symbiogenesis. Square Enix's upcoming gaming NFT.

  7. Tokyo AI Collection. The first AI drop from Bright Moments.

  8. Fellowship Patron Pass. Season pass for AI photography drops.

  9. Iron Paw Gang. New PFP from Adam Ape and RCC.

  10. Garbage Friends. New PFP from the creator of Invisible Friends