GM

Welcome to the 23 people who joined yesterday.

We don’t ask for much, just that you open all our emails, read every word, share it with your friends and co-workers, post about it on Twitter, and invite us to your summer BBQs.

In today’s edition:

• This is great news

• Updated rankings

• New drops that we found

More info on Mint/Watch lists HERE.

This is great news

As part of my duties as the humble caretaker of this newsletter, I spend much of my days keeping up with the latest news, drama, and announcements from the magical world of Non-Fungible Tokens.

And lately, this has been more painful than you might think.

You see there’s been no shortage of bad news over the last few months. Crypto Twitter has mostly devolved into an 80s montage consisting of scams, pointless turf wars, and overall pessimism. It’s like walking through Gotham City while Batman takes Paid Time Off.

But today is different. It warms my heart to see some genuinely, objectively, great news:

Yesterday, Apple agreed to let an NFT game launch on their App Store.

Specifically, Axie Infinity: Origins will now be available across several countries throughout Latin America and Southeast Asia. The news came after a year of working with Apple on getting their review approved, according to The Block.

Jeff Zirlin, one of Axie’s co-founders, said that they “believe this is the first time that Apple has agreed to make an externally-purchased NFT usable on the App Store.”

That’s a big deal

Apple has historically been unfriendly towards NFTs and crypto. This culminated in December when Apple blocked Coinbase’s wallet app for not disabling NFT transactions.

Why the hate? Well, on one hand you could say they’re simply being cautious due to regulatory concerns and potential crypto scams that could live on their App Store.

BUT…you could also say that NFTs represent a very real threat to one of Apple’s core businesses: the App Store.

In 2021, the App Store generated $70-85 billion in revenue for Apple, and the vast majority of this came from taxing every dollar that goes through their platform – often between 15-30%. It’s a massive business.

NFTs disrupt this because a lot of the activity happens on-chain, outside of Apple’s payment rails. So far, most NFT volume has come from peer-to-peer trading, which Apple wouldn’t get a cut from.

And as we’ve seen, if you don’t pay your tribute to Tim Cook, like Epic Games refused to, you might end up locked out with a black eye. This seems healthy!

But there’s hope

The Axie news might indicate that Apple is changing their position.

Maybe they think there’s other ways they could profit from an NFT boom. Maybe their upcoming AR Headset launch has them warming up to the idea of an open “metaverse”.

Or maybe it’s recent court rulings claiming that Apple can’t ban creators from selling digital goods outside of the App store. Hard to tell, but we’re heading in the right direction.

There’s still more that needs to happen. Axie Origins is being forced to launch with some limitations. For example, players won’t be able to claim SLP (Axie’s token) in-app, and won’t be able to use crafting recipes that require the token either. Plus, it’s still not available worldwide.

Baby steps. For now, it’s a moment that’ll have most web3 devs popping bottles. 

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

Cornerstone - Noza Crystals

We previously wrote about Cornerstone, but since then, the metaverse project by Finnish animation studio ZOAN has gone through many mint restructures. While it’s still a bit unclear how things will play out, this coming mint should mark the project’s first step.

Noza Crystals are a 200-supply, fully-allowlisted free mint that serve as the genesis and most premium pieces of the Cornerstone ecosystem. These will provide holders with an airdrop of the Cornerstone Companions PFPs shortly after mint.

Assembly by Tezumie

Tezumie, an American artist with a long track record on Tezos, is launching his first Art Blocks Presents collection Assembly on July 26th.

The experimental collection will have 300 pieces minting for 0.08 ETH each. Check out the sansa page for output examples.

Backwards by Asaf Slook

Previous gmDAO artist Asaf Slook recently announced his debut Art Blocks Presents release, Backwards, a 300-supply collection priced at 0.1 ETH each.

The work showcases animated paint strokes of different shapes that gradually converge to form vibrant abstract compositions.

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. Symbiogenesis. Square Enix's upcoming gaming NFT.

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

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.