GM

Mint or Skip HQ will be off tomorrow Friday 8/11.

Great opportunity for you to catch up on any lore you may have missed.

Enjoy the weekend ✨

In today’s edition:

• First look: Every NFT launching on Coinbase

• Updated NFT rankings

• Three new drops

Links for the Mint/Watch list drops are HERE.

Did you know?

We have a premium pass that gives you access to a directory of every drop we cover, complete with detailed information on how to get on every whitelist (including those underrated ones that aren’t already full).

And for those curatooors out there, you can get free NFTs just by finding drops that end up on the Mint or Watch list.

Lastly, hang with me and the MoS team in a private discord with weekly voice chats. The vibes are great.

Would you like to be featured in Mint or Skip like the above ☝️ ?

First look: Every NFT launching on Coinbase

Coinbase finally launched Base, their new Ethereum layer 2 network, becoming the first publicly traded company to release a blockchain.

And as their first decree, they hereby proclaim this as the official start of ONCHAIN SUMMER.

Putting aside the fact that this should’ve 100% been called Based Summer and no one has a chance of convincing me otherwise, I enjoy the idea of a multi-week Web3 festival of sorts where people get together for creative art and other onchain shenanigans.

The main event here is a series of NFT mints happening DAILY from August 9th to the 31st.

This includes drops from Coca-Cola, Zora, Manifold, Optimism, Atari, Rainbow, Opensea, Fini and Pixelmon.

The full schedule is now on their website, but here’s a preview of the first three coming up:

Deekay Open Edition

Friends With Benefits is partnering with popular 3D animator Deekay and the prolific crypto art patron Cozomo de Medici for an open edition art drop.

Generally, we view these open editions as the onchain version of buying a poster or laptop sticker from your favorite artist. In this case, it’s a fun collector’s item for fans looking to get their first Deekay piece.

They also tried to pitch this as “the first-ever artwork on Base” originally, but that’s not correct – there are already dozens of low-effort PFPs that beat them to it, as you might expect.

Still waiting to hear the official price.

Parallel Starter Packs

This is the most exciting drop we’ve seen so far from the summer lineup.

This starter pack gives you a deck of 40 cards that can be used in Parallel’s upcoming NFT trading card game.

But more importantly, each pack gets you access to their live beta, which has been one of the most talked about experiences in Web3 gaming recently.

Price is 0.05 ETH per pack, but we’re still waiting to hear supply.

✨ Added to Watch List ✨

Laidback Luke/Boys Noize Open Edition

Music NFTs have been gaining some (modest) popularity in recent months, and anotherblock is the first to bring this genre to Base.

They’re taking a different angle by letting collectors own a “share” of popular songs and actually receive royalties as those songs get played elsewhere.

While I can’t speak to the legalese behind all this (apparently each sale comes with a contract), they’ve been able to attract songs by some well-known artists like MIMS and David Guetta so far.

The upcoming Base drop includes open editions from BOYS NOIZE and an unreleased song by Laidback Luke, of Turbulence fame. Price is $2.

Bottom line

We still don’t know much about the other upcoming drops beyond the one-liners found on their website, but we’ll update our coverage if anything looks interesting.

My guess is that most of these will be light-hearted experiences: commemorative NFTs, product intros, brand integrations, etc.

But it looks like some of the more Web3 native startups are taking it more seriously (like Parallel).

Beyond that, expect a lot more degen-friendly NFTs launching over the next couple of weeks to capture some of the attention that Base is getting.

These are “unofficial” – as in they didn’t partner with Coinbase directly – but we usually see one or two gain traction with every new chain launch.

You can bridge to Base here, but keep in mind that bridging back from Base takes approximately 7 days.

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

Leonardo da Vinci | ElmonX Salvator Mundi

Now this is one you kinda hate to see.

ElmonX, an NFT marketplace, has teamed up with licensing company Bridgeman Images to sell digital editions of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold. Full sale details in this article.

The cheaper editions (£150 or ~0.1 ETH) have a supply of 660 NFTs, whereas the more expensive Artist Proof option (£1,100 or ~0.75 ETH) is more exclusive at only 13 pieces and unlocks a matching physical museum-quality print.

The question is: Why?

Swoops SSN2

Swoops, a basketball strategy simulation game by Manish Sinha, recently announced its season 2 sale starting next week.

I covered their season 1 sale more than 3 months ago, which saw them sell out of 1,500 Swoopsters (in-game characters) at 0.05 ETH each.

They are halving the supply for this next one – there’ll only be 750 possible mints for SSN2.

I'm Feeling Lucky by Maya Man

Mercury Retrograde could affect this drop.

Usually, I’m not much of an astrology man, but the caution seems pertinent given that I’m Feeling Lucky, an upcoming Verse Solo, is a study of horoscope belief systems.

This generative collection is crafted by Maya Man, an artist known for her unique take on internet identity culture – showcased in the 2022 Art Blocks Curated release FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT.

If the prior release resonated with you, chances are this one will too, as the sneak peeks show a similar (yet more fleshed-out) style.

The Mint List

1. Taproot Wizards. OG Bitcoin meme inscribed as ordinals

2. 10KTF PFP. Drop from a team that includes Yuga and Beeple

3. Genesis SFT Pass. Digital anime collectibles from a notable team

4. Shadow Hats. Ordinals drop from the creators of Forgotten Runes

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

6. LUCI: Chapter 5. Follow-up from artist with esteemed collector base

7. Symbiogenesis. Square Enix's upcoming gaming NFT

8. Quasi Dragons. Innovative drop from an Art Blocks veteran

9. Cone Gradient Study. Art drop from a pioneer and museum exhibitor

10. Memeland [TBC]. High-value treasure MVPs minting on BTC