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GM
Welcome to the 20 people who subbed yesterday.
One day, decades from now, you’ll look back on this moment fondly and tell your grandkids:
“Ah Mint or Skip…that was absolutely, without a doubt, one of the newsletters in the world.”
In today’s edition:
Huge announcement (and a secret)
Latest NFT rankings
Freshly found drops
I have a dark secret
O Dearly Beloved
I’m a man of simple tastes. A little racquetball on the weekends, a little doom-scrolling on Twitter with a dead look in my eyes, maybe a nice Chianti, and 8 hours of deep sleep whenever possible.
But over the past couple of months I’ve had a guilty conscience eating away at my inner peace. And now it’s affecting that precious sleep, which might lead to wrinkles and god knows what else.
So anyways, no choice but to come clean:
I haven’t been writing this newsletter. We’ve had a ghostwriter since the beginning, and it’s time for him to get a little credit.
Meet Yung Cicero
Starting tomorrow you’ll see him listed as the author for this esteemed newsletter, and he’ll show up in other ways down the road as well.
But why?
Ok – breaking the fourth wall for a bit here, but it probably makes sense to explain why we’re introducing Yung Cicero in the first place.
Two reasons:
It’s fun
Having an alter ego is going to let us take creative leaps with our brand that we might have otherwise approached with caution.
I run around in a space full of apes, cats, and anime vampires while basically rocking a linkedin default skin. That often puts subtle limitations on how I express myself, and maybe it shouldn’t be that way, but any degree of brand separation will probably let us get a bit more weird and loose.
There’s also just more you can do with a character. Yes, we’re only a newsletter (for now) but we also spend most of our time in one of the fastest-growing creative movements the world has ever seen. Shit is wild – and we want to participate.
And that leads us to the next point.
AI will change everything
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re in the middle of an AI boom that’s on the verge of fundamentally changing the internet.
As a small sample, we’re seeing tools that let you:
add insane filters on livestreams
train voice models to sound like anyone in history
create endless high-quality variations from a single design
And we’re just in the first inning. Over the next couple of years we’ll see these and other apps improve exponentially, and then combine together in mind-blowing ways.
Fast forward to, I don’t know, 2026, and you’ll likely see a world where the things you can do with a character are only limited by your imagination. Perfect avatar models, 24/7 v-tubing, chatbots with long memories, fully generated long-form podcasts, etc.
So the plan is simple…
Yung Cicero will be our way of exploring this frontier – we’re gonna yeet him straight into the unknown. And hopefully you come along for the ride.
NOTE: These drops are lightly curated. Our only requirement is that they have recognizable founders. As usual, DYOR. To learn more go here.
UMK by Fernando Jerez
An upcoming Art Blocks Presents collection minting next week through a 24-hour open edition at 0.03 ETH per piece.
The artist, Fernando Jerez, has already released two Art Blocks Presents collections, Stations and Metropixeland.
Like his previous works, UMK (Ultra Mechanika) explores the theme of human interaction with technology, but this time he focuses on the evolution of machines.
Hanabi by ykxotkx x SUNTORY
Another part of the Bright Moments: Japanese Contemporary Collection, Hanabi is a generative art collection by pseudonymous Japanese artist ykxotkx.
It features festive arrangements of colorful strokes, appropriate for the Bright Moments Tokyo event happening in a few weeks.
Done in collaboration with Japanese beverage company Suntory, this collection will grant holders access to a private lounge with world-class bartenders at the IRL event in May.
It’s an interesting intersection between generative art and IRL access benefits that we don’t see often.
Build Your Own Fighter with Thug Rose
Lympo.io, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, recently announced an upcoming collection in collaboration with former UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas. It opens for mint on May 26th.
The collection will feature a tiered lootbox mechanic with stickers that can be used to build a customizable fighter avatar, as well as physical collectibles.
SK8PES
An upcoming street culture brand founded by pro skater and DGK founder Stevie Williams.
We don’t know much yet, but the art looks clean and some of the IRL events they’ve thrown seem engaging.
Some of you are probably thinking that anime PFPs with a street culture angle have been done to death. Yes, but we’re still interested in seeing how a founder with 20+ years of experience in this genre will do.
Trame x CPG: William Mapan
French design brand TRAME have teased that a generative art collection by William Mapan is coming soon to their website.
The drop will be part of their Craft Nouveau initiative done in collaboration with web3 studio CPG, whereby the platforms combine generative art and traditional crafts. This collection will be a follow-up to their first one Navette by Alexis Andre.
One for the many fans of the French artist.
THE MINT LIST
Nike Our Force 1. Digital shoe drop from the global consumer brand.
Project Animus. RTFKT's biggest launch since Clone-X.
FewoWorld. New PFP by Fewocious, a rising star in the art world.
Symbiogenesis. Square Enix's upcoming gaming NFT.
Ether. Anime PFP collection by viii, an artist with a cult following.
10KFT PFP. Drop from a team that includes Yuga and Beeple.
ZOGZ by Matt Furie. Open Editions from the creator of Pepe.
Proof Diamond. Curated drop with art from Beeple and other artists.
Garbage Friends. New PFP from the creator of Invisible Friends.
Life in Japan 2 by Grant Yun. New drop from the minimalist artist.
