GM

Welcome to the 249 people who joined this weekend.

Weekend subs are everywhere. Just think, whenever you're out at the bars, or an NBA game, or Coachella, and you see someone looking down at their phone — they're probably reading about upcoming NFT drops!

Go say hi and start immediately shilling your favorite collections before they get a word in. That's how you make friends.

In today’s edition:

• Did Reddit flop?

• All our latest rankings

• New drops found over the weekend

More info on Mint/Watch lists HERE.

Was Reddit a Huge Fail?

I was enjoying a delightful coffee this morning while reading mail from some of our Beloved Readers when I came across a spicy take.

One subscriber wrote:

Quick refresher: Reddit Gen 3 was an official Reddit avatar mint that happened last week. They partnered with dozens of indie artists, and it was their biggest and most hyped launch to date.

Now we don’t typically revisit past drops here at Mint or Skip HQ, but we can make an exception given that Reddit Gen 3 was #1 on our mint list for a couple of weeks.

So back to the claim – was Reddit Gen 3 actually a huge fail? Let’s take a look.

The Bad

Reddit underestimated the immediate demand their mint would get, and it broke things.

Specifically, we saw two major technical issues:

1. Bots ran rampant in the first few minutes. Reddit says the bots were only 1% of volume – so around 1,000ish NFTs – but this included many of the most anticipated avatars.

2. Some avatars were overminted, meaning people were paying for avatars that were already sold out. One in particular was sold 288 times despite having a supply of 125. It seems like some people are still waiting for refunds.

These are embarrassing mistakes for such a large, internet-native company. Nothing here seems impossible to fix though, so it’s likely they learn and improve the drop mechanics going forward.

The Good

Reddit sold A LOT of avatars – more than ever before. So far, Reddit has sold 117,000 Gen 3 avatars, surpassing the 87,000 sold in Gen 1 and Gen 2 combined.

Now at this stage, I can imagine our Gentle Replier who sent the email above might say something like:

So let’s address that. It’s true that even though Reddit sold 117,000 avatars, this number is still only 31% of the available supply. In other words there are still 250k more avatars to go.

And as we hear often in the world of NFTs, if you don’t sell out immediately you probably messed up somewhere.

But Reddit actually isn’t trying to sell out immediately. Their goal is to convert new buyers, not make existing traders (many of the day 1 buyers) wealthy on secondary.

This is why supply rose from 43,000 in Gen 2 to 373,000 in Gen 3 – that’s an insane jump and it’s by design.

Consider the alternative. Let’s say Reddit went with 40k NFTs again. It sells out within hours, mostly to degens from NFT twitter.

You go on Opensea after buying and see a nice 30% increase on the floor price – LFG! You flip it for a quick W, and then you go back to twitter to find the next drop.

And everyone else (99.9% of Reddit users)? They’ll find a store that is once again completely sold out, with no simple way to buy on secondary. Keep in mind the store has already been empty for months given that Gen 2 sold out in 24 hours.

How does Reddit win in that scenario? What’s the point of making short term gains for a few collectors if they never grow their base?

The prize is building a long-term ecosystem. Value accrues over time as a culture gets built around these items.

This weekend we saw a massive trade in Counterstrike – one of the oldest gaming franchises on the internet. Specifically, someone bought this skin and a knife for $500,000.

Now this recent spike is probably unsustainable in the short term, but it points to how a long-term ecosystem can create some of the most valuable digital assets in the world. Look at how these Counterstrike items slowly gained value across a period of 6 years.

Anyways, back to Reddit Gen 3. Outside of technical issues, which do need to be addressed, it’s hard to call it a flop for anyone other than traders who were hoping for more immediate speculative action.

Artists sold more avatars than ever before, many collectors are enjoying them and using them in the app, and the store finally has some stock available for new collectors to jump in in the coming weeks.

What’s next?

Reddit continues to grow at a fast pace. They’ve picked up another 250,000 new collectors in the last 30 days, and they’ll likely end up selling 7 figures worth of avatars from Gen 3.

Now hopefully we see them kick it up a notch in the coming months.

Here are a few things we expect:

1. An in-app marketplace. This has already been announced and could include trading and a custom minting platform.

2. Subreddit PFPs. There are 250 subreddits with over 1M members, and many of these have distinct sub-cultures that could work well with PFPs. See WSB.

3. Branded PFPs. Eventually Reddit will partner with a brand like Star Wars or Harry Potter and launch a wildly popular collection. Remember so far they’ve been mostly indie artists.

We’ll keep you in the loop.

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

CyberBrokers: Genesis Mechs

This week, after a year-long process, CyberBroker holders will finally be able to assemble their mechs using the parts they hold.

These mechs will be customizable and metaverse-ready, with the project already partnering with Mona for a showroom of the collection.

Bowie x Gala Music

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of David Bowie’s Let’s Dance, Gala Music will be releasing a music collectible featuring a never-before-heard version of the track.

It will launch with pay-what-you-wish pricing and then lead into a raffle for those who donate. The proceeds of the sale will go to the music charity MusiCares.

Cornerstone: Companions

A metaverse project built on Unreal Engine 5 by Finnish animation studio ZOAN, which will have their first mint later this month with Companions, a 5,000 supply 3D PFP that will mint for free.

In addition to being a PFP, Companions will be fully rigged avatars usable in Cornerstone and provide future whitelist access to The Dreamers, a second collection by Cornerstone (10,000 supply, 3D PFP) coming later this year.

The project also has an ongoing application-only land sale, accessible through their Discord.

Mastercard Music Pass

Mastercard launched its Artist Accelerator program last week, which makes its debut with their NFT Music Pass, a 3-week open edition that can be minted for free on their website.

The pass will give holders a closer look at the brand-building process of five emerging artists (named on the website) and access to educational content and AI-powered music tools.

Mastercard has also teamed up with WarpSound (music tooling) and Polygon (infrastructure).

Superlotl

Semi-permanent tattoo company Inkbox is launching their first collection, Superlotl, later this quarter (5,000 supply, 3D PFPs).

Holders will get access to exclusive Inkbox drops, discounts and (for the more artsy type) the chance to submit their own tattoo designs to the company.

THE MINT LIST

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. 10KFT PFP. Drop from a team that includes Yuga and Beeple.

8. Starbucks First Store Collection. Next drop from the big brand.

9. Wildcard Genesis. Gaming drop from an experienced team.

10. Proof Diamond. Curated drop with art from Beeple and other artists.