GM

I don't look at newsletter open or click-through rates.

I just lay my hand on my PC monitor and feel the cyber-emotional vibrations you're all emitting as you open these emails, and then I tweak accordingly.

This is an ancient kind of Knowing.

Links for the Top 25 drops are HERE.

He’s back

Context

Donald Trump announced the launch of Trump Digital Trading Cards: The Mugshot Edition.

It’s his third set of NFTs in the past 12 months. 

Here’s what we know: 

• It’s already live

• It’s launching on Polygon (like prior series)

• Supply: 100,000

• You need to KYC to purchase directly 

Our take

There’s an old phrase that has lost some popularity in recent decades but would’ve been more commonly heard during Donald Trump’s younger years. 

It’s called “Riding the Gravy Train”, and it means making money, repeatedly, in an easy way.

And I gotta say, if someone were to make a Wiki page for Riding the Gravy Train, it’d be hard to find a better-accompanying image than this: 

Trump surprised everyone when he first launched NFTs in December 2022, but at the same time, it made so much sense.

That first series brought in an astonishing $4.5 million, minus the cost of a few poorly photoshopped images of Trump as an astronaut or riding an elephant. 

So naturally, he ran it back a few months later with series 2 and made another, instant, $4.5 million.

Was there ever any doubt we’d get a third? 

This time he’s going bigger by more than doubling the supply to 100,000 cards, meaning he’d take in $10 million from this mint if it sells out. Although it looks like he keeps less than a quarter of this. 

The mint comes with the usual utility bonuses for anyone who buys larger bundles, like invitations to Mar-a-Lago or physical cards signed by Trump himself. 

But wait – there’s more! 

Since this is the Mugshot edition, he’s also giving a special bonus to anyone who buys more than 47 cards: an actual physical piece of cloth from the suit he wore the day he was arrested. 

In their words: The Most Historically Significant Artifact In United States History

Bottom line  

Whoever’s running the show for Trump understands memetics.

After seeing the over-the-top ridiculousness of it all, it’s hard to imagine any other approach that would’ve worked better. 

My only other thought, from a profit maxi perspective, is that they should’ve waited a couple more months to use the incoming enforceable royalty standards, which could’ve generated an extra seven figures passively. 

But then again who am I kidding, we all know this isn’t the last set. They’ll launch one now, and they’ll launch another when those standards kick in, and then another.  

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

TWL Mystery Box

The self-proclaimed MSCHF of web3 returns after their October trailer drop, which raised more than $50k (covered here).

And what are they back with? Well….see for yourself.

The week-long Sperm Game event starts today, reminiscent of Yuga Labs’s Dookey Dash from earlier this year. Accompanying it is this $7 Mystery Box, which grants you in-game perks and rewards for future TWL releases.

It’s a low entry fee to get involved, and I’m still bullish on the idea of ephemeral on-chain events, so I’ve…

✨ Added to Top 25 ✨

Crush by Andreas Gysin

Two other generative art collections make up the AGH 1 exhibition alongside Kim Asendorf’s Alternate, the first of which is Crush by Andreas Gysin.

This 256-supply release features dynamic ASCII art, showcasing the project’s source code line for line in colorful palettes, some of which feel particularly cyberpunk-ish.

Gysin found a lot of success earlier this year with Materialized, a collaborative Verse exhibition, and I suspect collectors haven’t had enough of his work, so I’ve…

✨ Added to Top 25 ✨

Heatsink by Leander Herzog

The final AGH 1 exhibition drop is Heatsink by Leander Herzog, another busy artist this year with releases on Base’s Onchain Summer and Verse.

A dynamic 370-supply collection, Heatsink aims to go past color palettes in its search for style, focusing more on distinct proportions.

That said, it’s still very colorful, with aesthetic outputs that would fit right in at your local industrial techno rave or art curator’s dinner table.

✨ Added to Top 25 ✨