GM

Today's main story is yet another example of "when being terminally online pays off".

Links for the Top 25 drops are HERE.

I’m struggling to care about this

Context:

Ordinals Gang is a sub-1,000 inscription collection minting on Bitcoin next week. 

What we know: 

• Creator: Ordinally 

• Mint date: Feb 1st (exactly one year after being inscribed)

• Supply: 21 inscriptions

• Price: TBD 

Our take

When it comes to collecting, there’s a difference between something that’s historical, and something that’s just old. 

Take Etheria, for example. 

This was the first ever NFT project on Ethereum that had a transfer function (and the second NFT project overall). 

It’s a collection of 457 NFTs, all of which would be considered “sub 1,000 NFTs” if people cared about that on ETH. 

Yet despite being incredibly early to the game, they haven’t accrued value in the way that you might expect. 

The last few Etheria trades have gone for just ~3 ETH on average, which is about 0.15 Bitcoin (this will be relevant in a minute). Now obviously that’s still expensive for a set of jpegs, but I think you’d expect them to be more sought after given their age.

Another project is Curio Cards, which I own. These are arguably the first “art” NFTs on Ethereum, and they even predate Cryptopunks by a couple of months. Yet the floor on these is currently ~$200, which again is surprisingly affordable. 

Now why don’t they get more hype? Well because even though both collections are pretty old, they’re historically insignificant in the grand scheme of things. 

In fact, they were forgotten for a while, only to be “rediscovered” during the 2021 NFT mania, which sort of gives you an idea of how little they mattered. 

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, you have collections like Cryptopunks and Autoglphys. Two historically significant collections drenched with meaning that left a durable imprint on culture and inspired hundreds of other creators. 

And, as you might expect, this influence is reflected in their floor prices (63 ETH for Punks, 255 ETH for Autoglyphs). 

Turns out you have to do something worth remembering to be remembered. 

Low inscription numbers

All of this comes to mind when I look at “historical” inscriptions on Bitcoin. 

The floor price on sub 1,000 inscriptions is currently ~0.5 Bitcoin, which is about 3x the price of a “sub 1,000” NFT on Ethereum. 

But, just like Etheria, the vast majority of these inscriptions are culturally irrelevant. 

It’s even worse, because at least Etheria was a somewhat creative experiment, as opposed to the low-effort derivatives that make up many early inscriptions. 

The truth is that the “historical” narrative gets overwhelming attention today because, by and large, it’s the only game in town.

There’s still very little culture on Bitcoin to speak of, and only a handful of brand-name creators doing anything interesting. 

So someone looking to speculate on the Ordinals movement, ideally with objects that have some predictable durability, won’t find many other options outside of low inscriptions. 

That obviously won’t always be the case. And while low inscriptions could very well keep appreciating in value, we can all agree that they’ll face a lot more narrative competition going forward. 

This brings us to Ordinals Gang

Anyone who tries to argue that they’re buying these for reasons other than low inscription numbers should be forced to walk the plank.

There’s really nothing else here. The AI art is hastily put together and soulless, and the stated mission of broadly helping out the Ordinals space, while honorable, is so incredibly vanilla that it hurts. 

It’s clear that this was just a land grab in the inscription race, and we know this because Ordinally inscribed a second unrelated collection called Ordinals Monkeys just three days after Ordinals Gang (and these are only a couple of the collections that “have been made public” according to their discord). 

And honestly, that’s ok. Props to Ordinally for being early to the scene and taking action. He’ll now be rewarded for simply paying attention, which is what crypto is all about. 

I’m just struggling to feel anything here, but I’ll keep this in the top 25 because sub-1,000 ordinals mints don’t come around every day. 

✨ Top 25 ✨

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

Creating Connections

Sotheby’s took the lead in the Auction House NFT Wars (™️) with their impressive Ordinals sale, but Christie’s is fighting back with today’s Creating Connections auctions.

It’s not as bellicose an endeavor as I’m letting on though, given that this 24-piece sale will benefit UNICEF’s Giga foundation, an initiative aiming to connect every school to the Internet.

The exact amount going to the foundation isn’t stated. Regardless, it’s as good a chance as any to collect art from some of MoS HQ’s favorites like niceaunties, 0xDEAFBEEF and Roope Rainisto.

Dots by r4ven

Generative artist r4ven debuts on the Prohibition platform with Dots, an inclusive edition (a.k.a. an open edition with infinite supply) that serves as the basis for a composable art ecosystem.

The collection is made up of (you guessed it) dots of various colors drawn with uneven brushstrokes, which can be used in onchain experiences to create more intricate pieces.

The first Dot experience launching next week is the Dot Composite builder, requiring the burning of 12 or more dots to mint a larger composition containing all of them.

However, you can also burn the composite you’ve minted to get your original dots back, which is important given the existence of future experiences.

The composability and collector interaction on this one should engage plenty a generative art enthusiast.

Gonesis

Analytics platform NFTGo will soon drop its very own collection with its genesis NFT brand, Gonesis.

As per the platform’s Discord server, this new brand will initially include two NFT collections, Gonesis Ring and Gonesis PFP.

While the PFP’s details are scheduled for Q2 of this year, the Ring should come first and comprises a 2,000-supply pass that grants benefits in NFTGo’s ecosystem, including lifetime Premium access and perks for their upcoming marketplace and L2.

I often use NFTGo when I need to check stats, but there is a wide breadth of consumer options for NFT analytics platforms these days, placing a lot of importance on the pricing of this pass.