GM

What's the best NFT newsletter?

Mint or Skip.

What's the second best? There is no second best.

There is no second best NFT newsletter.

There's an NFT newsletter, it's called Mint or Skip. There is no second best ok?

Links for the Top 25 drops are HERE.

I’ve been accused of something

Writing Mint or Skip comes with its benefits. The fast cars, the adoration of everyone who sees you on the street, the guaranteed table at the opulent Bistro Laurent.

But it also comes with some drawbacks, believe it or not. 

Occasionally, Your Most Honorable Author will get hit with an annoying (but not unexpected) accusation. 

Specifically, from time to time, someone who doesn’t like what we write, or how we write it, will jump up and shout something along the lines of: these guys are grifters, and they’ve been SHILLING NFTs this whole time! 

And we risk a disappointing harvest unless we talk openly about this. 

You see, Mint or Skip resides in a very unusual niche

At a high level, all we’re doing here is showing up to talk about our favorite cultural objects – think art, games, memes, etc – which, from one perspective, is not totally different from a typical music or fashion blog.

But NFTs are financial objects as well. They have liquid markets where people can easily buy and sell them, and potentially make a profit.

This means emotions are often higher. And it leads to suspicions that you wouldn’t otherwise get with any other cultural media. 

For example, if you were to listen to a film podcast, and you heard the speaker making the claim that the recent Martin Scorsese film was the movie of the year, you might disagree with that. 

You might even say something like “this guy is an idiot” or that he “has no taste”. 

But it’d be extremely weird for you to then go on and question the author’s integrity or motivations, wouldn’t it?  

You wouldn’t call them a Scorsese shill that’s getting paid behind the scenes. 

And yet that’s exactly what happens in NFTs. There’s always a slight suspicion that someone is talking about a project only because they’re either:

1. Pumping their own bags or 

2. Doing undisclosed sponsorships 

And the worst part is, these suspicions are often correct. There are indeed grifters and scammers as far as the eye can see, which complicates everything. 

So the question is: Can you ever really trust anyone?

There’s no easy answer, but…

We do a few things to hopefully earn that trust over time, such as:  

1/ Never doing paid NFT reviews or previews. This includes dollars, crypto, pesos, and even WL spots (which is the de facto currency-of-choice for undisclosed promos). 

2/ Giving wallet transparency. The team has had their wallets on the Mint or Skip website since day 1. 

3/ Talking (mostly) about upcoming NFTs. The most honest conversations around an NFT happen in that brief moment in time after the mint has been announced, but before people can actually buy it. 

You’ll find far less bagholder bias compared to discussions around existing projects, although it’s still not perfect. 

4/ Continue doing what we’re doing. Trust is built up over time, and then becomes a nice competitive brand moat. But there are no shortcuts, so expect to see us around for a long time.

xoxo

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

A HISTORY OF CRYPTOART - SECOND WAVE by Panther Xhita

Today, amidst an announcement for her upcoming Christie's debut, digital artist Panther Xhita will be dropping the second edition of A HISTORY OF CRYPTOART on Nifty Gateway, following her 2022 release on the same platform.

It’s a colorful mural-styled piece highlighting 110 notable cryptoartists, so large that it’s split into 3 separate pieces, each $250 to mint. Buy all of them and you’ll be able to burn them to assemble the full mural.

BoDoggos × Courtyard.io: The Modern Collector's Pack

After handing out 400 freebies during their Week of Thanks earlier this month, Pokémon card apostles, Courtyard, are back with The Modern Collector’s Pack, a standard (priced) 1,000-supply pack drop sponsored by Solana PFP project BoDoggos.

It’s far and away their largest mint so far in terms of sales numbers, and some of the cards do look bussin’ fr as the kids say.

Unlike most of their drops so far, this one features an allowlist. A welcome sight after alleged mint botting took place in previous drops (just look at these comments).

Space Nation EFES

We first covered the web3 MMORPG Space Nation in June during their genesis free mint launch, which has been well-received by the market.

Now, after a trailer with IGN and a teaser for a 3,000-supply PFP, which we thought was going to be the next drop, we have the actual follow-up to that first mint: Enforcer Founder Edition Spaceship (EFES for short).

1,155 in-game spaceships which will grant gameplay and token-earning benefits, as well as beta access to the game.

I’m still not convinced by Space Nation’s tokenomics nor their gameplay shown so far, but this seems like a good opportunity to get involved at a reasonable price, so I’ve…

✨ Added to Top 25 ✨

Etcher Pass

Just as I ask if it’s time to seriously consider Bitcoin art, a resounding “Oui” (that’s French for wagmi) comes from the upcoming platform Etcher.

The brainchild of Thesis, a web3 venture studio backed by some of the biggest capital allocators in crypto like a16z and Polychain Capital, Etcher is set to launch their Etcher Pass, a 300-supply free mint offering various benefits, including physical pieces and airdrops.

With their genesis art collection already announced and the ordinals art space still very much ripe for the taking, it’s basically a no-brainer to try and get one of these free passes.

✨ Added to Top 25 ✨