GM

Welcome to the 62 people that joined over the weekend.

I just got back from getting a coffee and was truly amazed at how many people were just going about their business normally, having breakfast, riding their bikes, etc. as if we weren’t releasing our WL today.

In today’s edition:

• Check if you made it on our WL

• A very dumb weekend

• Updated NFT rankings

• Freshly found drops

More info on Mint/Watch lists HERE.

We’re launching our Genesis Pass tomorrow!

Dear Readers, the time has arrived. We’re launching our Genesis Pass tomorrow.

Here’s the timeline:

May 16th, 2023

1. WL Wave 1: 6 AM PT // 9 AM ET

2. WL Wave 2: 9 AM PT // 12 PM ET

3. WL Wave 3: 12 PM PT // 3 PM ET (overallocated)

4. Public sale (if needed): 6 PM PT // 9 PM ET

Anyone from Wave 1 can also mint in Wave 2, and so on. Each wallet can mint up to 2 passes.

Check if you’re on our WL HERE.

Mint page HERE.

We’ll share a separate mint page tomorrow for anyone that earned a Free Pass.

How did we put this WL together?

We used a few methods.

First, we set up a referral system back in March tracking any emails that subscribed to our newsletter using referral links that you all shared.

We kept it simple: anyone who referred at least 5 people would get WL in either Wave 1 or 2, depending on when the original referrer subscribed (anyone who subbed before March 20 got Wave 1). Also, anyone who got at least 20 referrals would earn a free Genesis Pass.

And I mostly think this was a good system. However, as expected, a small number of goofy goobers tried to game the system by flooding us with fake emails and bots. The ensuing drama was documented here.

So we set up an additional rule: we only counted referrals that had opened at least one newsletter email. In other words, anyone with a 0% open rate was not counted since these are most likely to be fakes or bots.

While not perfect, we think this rule is super fair – and we delete subs with a 0% open rate on a recurring schedule so I don't know why that should be rewarded.

Now we could’ve said this from the start, but that would’ve just given the botters the exact specifications for how to get around our defense. That’s just the world we live in unfortunately. Grandpa had WWII, we got bots.

Beyond that, we also gave Wave 1 WL to all Midnight Labs token holders since they’re the OGs that helped craft the product with us before there even was a newsletter. And all other newsletter subscribers were added to Wave 3.

So save the date, check the WL, and feel free to send us a reply here if you think something is off or you’re in the wrong place.

Big day tomorrow.

Pass details

A very dumb weekend

If you have 60 seconds I’d like to share an idea with you. You got a minute?

The name of the memecoin is $PSYOP.

It has no website, no contract, no vision. But the founder has – are you ready for this – over two weeks of memecoin experience. He’s what they call a “veteran”.

Can I put you down for 5 eth?

–

If you haven’t heard about the ben.eth shenanigans, there’s a good overview of the lore here.

The summary goes like this:

1. Ben was a small NFT influencer that joined in 2021.

2. He got attention after launching memecoin $BEN this month.

3. He got even more attention after Bitboy shilled it (Why? Because his name is also Ben. This isn’t the most sophisticated group folks.)

4. Then he “opened a presale” for a second token, $PSYOP. By this I mean, he sent a tweet instructing people to just send as much money as possible to his personal wallet in return for magic tokens later on that he hadn’t even started building.

5. Nothing else was really said other than that these tokens would pump.

6. The presale received about $7 million over the weekend.

It’s a new level of ridiculousness previously thought impossible, and by comparison it makes buying cryptodickbutts seem like purchasing US Treasury Bonds.

But, I’m also seeing people take it too personally. Some are lamenting that they could’ve spent that $7 million on crypto art instead.

I mean, I guess, but I doubt these are your typical art collectors. That line of thinking feels more like walking into a casino and lecturing the blackjack players that they should instead be using that money to support local small businesses, or the town farmer’s market.

It’s good to remember that there are many different groups of people on CT with their own reasons for being here. There’s art museums, there’s casinos, there’s arcades.

Let all tribes co-exist peacefully and unite in minting our Genesis Pass tomorrow.

NOTE: These drops are lightly curated. Our only requirement is that they have recognizable founders. As usual, DYOR. To learn more go here.

Sequels by Joel Meyerowitz

Fellowship's upcoming release with award-winning photographer Joel Meyerowitz features never-before-seen scans of his B&W archives from the 60s and 70s.

They’re going to auction one piece every day for ten years for a total of 3,650 pieces. The first auction is on May 18th.

Patron Pass holders are eligible for a 10% discount.

Quadrature by Darien Brito

Darien Brito, most famous for his 2021 work with Art Blocks, is set to release his next generative art collection with gmDAO this Saturday through a fair auction with rebate.

Quadrature, defined by the artist as a “generator of systems”, has a major focus on collector interactivity, with collectors able to morph each of the 300 pieces via numerous controls.

Quasi Dragons by Harvey Rayner

Harvey Rayner, creator of popular Art Blocks Fontana, is launching on Verse this July with Quasi Dragons, a collection 15 years in the making.

The collection features an innovative concept: composites. This burn mechanic encourages collectors to collaborate and combine multiple NFTs to form new ones. The artist thinks this could be a new class of generative art in and of itself.

✨ Added to Watch List ✨

Mafia Nuts

Popular NFTFi platform nftperp is launching its own NFT collection, Mafia Nuts, rewarding top traders with the bulk of the collection’s 1,500 pieces (this is in addition to the $NFTP fungible token airdrop top users will receive).

While we’re not exactly fans of the PTSD-inducing art, these platforms and their native NFT collections are an interesting area to keep an eye on.

THE MINT LIST

1. Nike Our Force 1. Digital shoe drop from the global consumer brand.

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

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

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

5. 10KFT PFP. Drop from a team that includes Yuga and Beeple.

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

7. BIG INC. New free mint from the goblintown team.

8. Dimensionals - EVE. Free gaming PFP from doxxed studio.

9. Squiggles. Limited auction of the OG gen art collection.

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