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Yesterday was a silly day. And this is coming from someone who spends most of his time in the world of cartoon jpegs – trust me, I have become one with The Ridiculous.

But even I was impressed when, in a matter of hours, we got:

• Beeple telling 750k people to pump a degen NFT to 1 eth

• Elon turning Doge into the twitter mascot

• Elon tweeting an image from a 6529 NFT

• Beeple remixing Elon’s NFT tweet

That Elon tweet specifically showed us what happens when this Eye Of Sauron level of attention is aimed at a tiny collection.

Within minutes of the post, that same 6529 NFT, which was trading for just 0.6 eth a couple of hours earlier, began selling for 1 eth, then 2, then 4, and finally 8 eth.

Moral of the story? Buy things you think Elon and Beeple will tweet about, I guess.

“Seaport Subject” by Botto

What We Know

Seaport Subject is a collection of 10 AI art pieces with a fixed price of $2,550 per piece, launching on April 18th.

Our Take

Let’s see how imaginative you are. I want you to picture an artist that creates AI art. Let’s say they use something like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion and then they mint these outputs as NFTs.

Not too crazy, maybe someone like Claire Silver comes to mind.

Now I want you to imagine that this artist is itself an AI Agent – not a human.

Ok, a little weird, but maybe you’re still with me.

Next, for the pièce de résistance, I want you to imagine this AI Agent is controlled by a DAO – a decentralized organization of people who guide its movements and pay the bills.

And perhaps most peculiar of all, I want you to imagine that this combination produces art that is, actually, not bad. In fact people value it highly and often pay upwards of $30-40k for a single piece.

All of this exists today, and its name is Botto.

Botto describes itself as a “decentralized autonomous artist governed by the community”, where people vote to decide what it should make each week, and then mints the most popular weekly image on SuperRare.

In its own words:

Seaport Subject is Botto’s first ever edition (the first non 1/1).

Made in conversation with GPT-3 (wen 4?), the collection features a harbor scene in a quasi post-impressionistic style.

The fact that it’s an edition means it might be the first chance for collectors to get a cheaper entry price, which could help Botto get exposure if this becomes a more frequent drop mechanic.

Given the insane boom in interest around AI in the past couple of months, we could see Botto, or something like it, eventually capture the public’s attention in a big way.

Added to Watch List ✨

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

Degen Arcade Power Pass

If you’ve been to NFT NYC, Art Basel or any other NFT conferences you may have seen Degen Arcade, who usually show up to events with pop up claw machines filled with NFT prizes.

Now they’re launching the Power Pass: 1,269 NFTs at 0.069 eth mint price, with the artwork for the pass made by artist Ness.

Holders get a chance to obtain seasonal art drops from top artists as well as free plays at claw machines during future events.

OCS: Yurudora Collection

OCS is the work of Japanese company A3 and their web3 branch which manufactures and promotes anime character goods in collaboration with official studios.

For their upcoming 4th collection they have teamed up with game developer Clover Lab to sell NFTs based around characters in their Yurudora game, which will start minting on April 17th at a price of 0.005 ETH per character (supply still unknown).

A niche proposition to us at Mint or Skip HQ, seeing as Yurudora is only available in Japanese and doesn’t look to be very popular in our side of the world, but one that should be welcomed by fans and collectors of the franchise.

Augury by LoVid

LoVid previously launched a collection on Art Blocks Curated and is now following up with an AB Presents drop that looks to be a clear evolution of the same style.

Augury will be launching with 270 pieces at a flat price of 0.1 ETH on May 3rd.

If you liked the original Curated drop, then this should be up your alley.

“Social Contracts” by Burak Arikan

The first drop in JPG’s JPG.EXE NFT studio – that’s a lot of acronyms.

“Social Contracts” is a collection of dynamic artworks by multimedia artist Burak Arikan, which will mint through a 120-hour open edition at 0.05 ETH per mint, date still unknown.

When you mint or buy one of these, the artwork immediately morphs to fit your individual wallet’s “shape” as per the blockchain and your wallet’s relationships with other wallets.

More info on Mint/Watch lists HERE.

Simple rule: if you send someone a custom NFT without them asking for it, don't be upset if they end up selling it.

Remember creators aren't just sending these out of the goodness of their hearts – it's marketing spend. They're hoping "influencers" use the honoraries as PFPs, and this attention more than makes up for the time spent making them.

Btw, we just so happen to be looking for new art to adorn the grand halls at Mint or Skip HQ. So if you really want to make sure your next honorary stays in good hands, you know who to call.

THE MINT LIST

1. Reddit Series 3. Third NFT drop from the massive social site.

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

3. Otherside Mara. Upcoming 2D strategy game from Yuga Labs.

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

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

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

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

8. Fellowship Show 1. Curated collection from Rope Rainisto.

9. ZOGZ by Matt Furie. Open Editions from the creator of Pepe.

10. “Waterfalls”. LACMA + Cactoid drop from AB curated artist Rizzolli.

CORRECTION

We highlighted ZOGZ by Matt Furie yesterday and mentioned an incorrect price of 0.1234 ETH. This should actually be 0.01234 ETH per edition.

Mom was right… staring at JPEGs 18 hours a day can ruin your eyes.