GM

Welcome to our 8 new subscribers.

Well, it happened. We officially entered the "final hurrah" stage for NFTs.

I will be hurrah-ing all weekend out of respect.

It was nice knowing you all, please remember me as I was: a static portrait of a Renaissance-era art critic. (see you Monday)

In today’s edition:

• Last call for this hyped NFT

• Updated rankings

• Five new drops

More info on Mint/Watch lists HERE.

Last call for this hyped NFT

Context

Garbage Friends, the highly anticipated 3D collection from artist Markus Magnusson, finally announced details this week for their upcoming mint.

Here’s what we know:

• Supply: 6,500

• Price: 0.05 ETH for WL 1, 0.1 ETH for WL 2

• Mint date: July 17th

Our take

February 2022 was a silly time in NFTs. Prices were at an all time high, tattoo artists around the world were reluctantly drawing PFPs on people’s bodies, and Friday nights meant solving sudokus in a random discord to get WL for god-knows-what.

In the midst of these shenanigans, Garbage Friends was announced. The timing was perfect given that Markus had just come off of his immensely popular Invisible Friends collection, and it picked up steam immediately.

Now, 16 months later, it’s finally launching – in a much different world.

The PFP genre has lost momentum. In most cases (not all), the most hyped drops we see today are from projects that were announced over a year ago, like Ether and Garbage Friends.

Even in cases where these drops mint out, it’s tough to convince whales to join the party – they’d much rather spend their millions on abstract Goose art.

But Markus Magnusson is still around. And he’s one of those rare bull-run artists that still has a deep following. Invisible Friends is still well above its mint price, although part of that is due to the NFTs giving WL spots to Garbage Friends.

In the last year, Markus:

1. Branched away from Random Character Collective

2. Started his own studio called Typical Friends

3. Launched Ooze Friend Tries the Guitar 

4. Partnered with Tony Babel for his upcoming drop 

All while finishing up work on Garbage Friends. This is a big effort by any standard: 6,500 unique 3D animations with 44 frames each.

The sneak peeks have all been extremely polished. Whether trait variety can hold at 6,500 supply without getting stale is TBD – but sentiment around IF art was generally positive, so I’d give Markus the benefit of the doubt.

And the art is really what you’re buying here – mostly. There’s no roadmap per se, but we do know that Markus wants to turn Typical Friends into one of the premier studios in the space, and he has consistently used prior collections as entry points into new drops.

So if you’re bullish on Markus and his studio, you could view this as a ticket for whatever comes next.

Is it too late for Garbage Friends? Depends on what you mean, I guess.

Does it have the hype it had last year? No, most projects don’t, but it still has some of the highest engagement we’re seeing from any upcoming drop.

People just seem to genuinely like the art. And the price seems fair given the hype (most GFs will be sold at the 0.05 ETH range). TBH I don’t see this having problems minting out.

HOW THE DROP WORKS

Apparently, the mint on July 17th is just the beginning. Instead of getting a Garbage Friend immediately, people will be minting “garbage bags”.

You then go through a merry-go-round of four Burn and Stake experiences where you continuously upgrade your NFT until, in the end, you receive your Garbage Friend.

I wouldn’t really call this a game. It’s more like waiting and clicking a few buttons every few days, which, to be honest, is what most NFT “experiences” tend to look like.

We also don’t really know how long each phase is since these are still left blank in their thread. Theoretically, we could still be several months away from the final Garbage Friends reveal.

Finally, everyone has one last chance to get in on the 0.1 ETH WL by signing up to their garbage university platform and attending their “classes” beginning next week.

I’m not in the mood for summer school personally, but let me know how it is if you join.

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

EigenLayer World Builders

EigenLayer is a protocol introducing the concept of ETH restaking, enabling staked ETH to be used to validate new protocols.

To celebrate their mainnet launch, the project has released World Builders, a free 4-day open edition on Zora made by pseudonymous artist untitledxyz, which started 2 days ago (mea culpa, dearest reader).

The minted artwork changes every 24 hours to showcase various aspects of the protocol, resulting in a total of 4 different artworks in this single open edition.

Rocky Horror Show NFTs

Rocky Horror Show, a cult-classic musical celebration of self expression, makes its way to the blockchain with TimeWarp, a collection of 50 1/1 art pieces releasing on OpenSea on June 19th.

Celebrating the show’s 50th anniversary, the mint starts off with a single NFT priced at 0.1 ETH, while the remaining 49 are released as surprise drops over the following two weeks.

It remains to be seen if Online Blockchain plc, the company behind the drop, can deliver a unique approach, as such media releases often lack meaningful follow-up.

Starbucks Open Edition Stamp Collection

The Starbucks Odyssey web3 journey hits a new milestone on June 22nd with its first-ever open edition.

For 48 hours, three unique avatar stamps with in-app benefits will be available for $25 each (~0.015 ETH). Additionally, a fourth avatar stamp (which completes this collection’s set) is available separately by completing an in-app mission.

And remember, all Starbucks web3 offerings are currently only available to residents of the U.S. of A.

Station3 Patron NFT

Station3, a web3 coworking space in New York founded by renowned trader and art collector Bob Loukas, will launch its Patron NFT on July 11th.

While the token’s primary purpose is to support web3’s development, something that Studio3 prides itself on, some additional holder benefits may include exclusive art drops, art raffles, whitelist opportunities and token-gated events.

An interesting proposition that I’ll be watching for more mint details.

Subtle by William Stallwood

Philadelphia-based designer and game developer William Stallwood will be making his Art Blocks debut on August 9th with the remarkably sleek Subtle.

This AB Presents collection draws on the artist's 15 years of experimentation. It features smooth 3D artistry of abstract liquid shapes in whites and grays, occasionally accentuated by vibrant neon lights and pleasing color palettes. Try clicking and dragging, it moves.

This collection feels a bit differentiated from the plethora of generative art available.

THE MINT LIST

1. Taproot Wizards. OG Bitcoin meme inscribed as ordinals

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

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

4. Symbiogenesis. Square Enix's upcoming gaming NFT

5. Garbage Friends. New PFP from the creator of Invisible Friends

6. 10KTF PFP. Drop from a team that includes Yuga and Beeple

7. Dimensionals - EVE. Free gaming PFP from doxxed studio

8. Tony Babel x Typical Friends. Limited edition from the popular artist

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

10. World Flag by Gerrard. AB x Pace drop featuring an established artist