GM

Welcome to the 78 new subs from yesterday.

I told myself I'd shut this whole thing down if that number wasn’t at least 77 this time, so cheers to that final sub for keeping the lights on.

In today’s edition:

• How we come up with our rankings

• Newly found projects

• A Major Move

More info on Mint/Watch lists HERE.

How we come up with our rankings

Every morning, we grab some single-origin, free-range, artisanal coffee and settle in for our morning meeting.

I find that vastly overpaying for bean water early in my day gives me just the right amount of cynicism needed to look through some of the nonsense people try to sell with non-fungible tokens.

TBH most of what we see is junk. Completely anon projects, rugpulls, celeb cash grabs, corporate brand cash grabs, ponzis that don’t know they’re ponzis, ponzis that know they’re ponzis.

Then there are creators who mean well but lack talent, vision, or the platform needed to bring any attention to their projects. Not trying to be mean – this is just what happens when you have a permissionless system like NFTs, you get a lot of people who release them just because they can, not because it makes sense or there’s any passion behind it.

But then there are special moments where you’ll come across something innovative, captivating, or having some unfair advantages that could help it hack the attention cycle.

You could call it meme-market-fit.

We then plug these into our rankings. That’s where the debate begins.

And so on and so forth.

Everything we do is relative. We use comparable rankings as opposed to some absolute point system (like rating something a 6/10). I think this makes sense for a couple of reasons:

1. We’re doing previews, not reviews. Previews normally don’t have ratings – think about it, it’d be weird for critics to score an upcoming movie based on a trailer.

2. Intuitively, we find it easier to say that we’re “more excited about X than Y”, rather than saying “X is a 10/10 project”.

So what do these rankings tell you? Let’s say we have a project in rank #4 on our Mint List. What we’re really saying here is simply that we haven’t found more than 3 projects that get us as excited as this one.

That’s really it. We’re not saying it’s a “blue chip”, or a 9/10 project or anything like that. The rank is partially determined by everything else that’s coming out alongside it - it’s relative.

This means that, theoretically, we could have projects on our Mint List that we don’t love but which happen to be better than all the other drops we found.

Is that perfect? I guess not if you’re looking for some absolute scoring system pulled out of thin air. But that seems goofy to me, I can't really give a Pepe meme a 7.25/10 score with a straight face.

One more thing: rankings are updated often.

Announcements happen all the time. Sometimes you’ll see a price cut, or the project is acquired by a huge sneaker brand, or the founder falls into some scandal. We try to reflect these in the rankings as they come.

But up until now, we haven’t really touched on why something might, all of the sudden, jump up or down on our rankings.

So we’re introducing a new segment called Major Moves. We’ll add these whenever we see a big event that changes the story for a drop on our curated list.

And we’re starting today…

ALTS by Adidas

Adidas announced that their upcoming ALTS PFP will be a dynamic NFT. Traits, and maybe even utility, will evolve based on decisions made throughout the story they’re crafting.

We’ve seen multiple projects try this sort of dynamic storytelling in the past – no incredible success stories yet. But we’re still bullish on this medium and Adidas could have the resources to pull it off.

So it’s a step in a more interesting direction, but we’re not calling this a home run yet. More details should be coming later today, hopefully followed by art sneak peeks and a better look into the quality standards they’re setting for their experiences.

Keep in mind that in order to be part of the project’s “Chapter 1”, “Into the Metaverse” holders must mint their ALT before tomorrow. So we’ll probably take it off our list after that window closes.

✨ Moved up to #9 on the Mint List.

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

House of Lee: Genesis

Upcoming film project from web3 studio Shibuya and the Bruce Lee Family Company. A 36-hour open edition period begins today and it’s priced at 0.008 ETH.

If it’s like the studio’s last production, White Rabbit, we expect token holders to have a say in the direction of the show through on-chain interactions.

One for those that fall in the middle of the Venn diagram of animation and Bruce Lee fandom.

Systems Madness by Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton

A collaborative Art Blocks Presents drop from Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton, both of whom have a long track record in the web2 art scene. This is their first NFT release.

The AI-assisted art features romantic tones that expand and contract with a glitched aesthetic.

The mint details on the Art Blocks website differ from those announced in the platform’s Discord. We’re going with the Discord for now: 444 supply Dutch Auction ranging from 4 to 0.1 ETH.

Ape Reunion: Reunion Species

A follow-up collection from PFP project Ape Reunion. These will be available for holders of the original collection to claim as long as they have at least 3 NFTs staked via the project’s platform.

More information on this drop should be coming today, but so far we know that it features art customization through a re-roll mechanic and a trait marketplace.

Fushi No Reality - フシノゲンジツ by Samsy

Previous Art Blocks Curated artist Samsy is going to release the 255 supply generative collection next month at a 0.23 ETH mint price

The art features ethereal-looking interactive animations and comes as a follow-up to Jiometory No Compute.

A calming collection for fans of the artist.

HUXLEY Collector’s Edition NFT & Access Pass

This looks to be the final chapter in the original HUXLEY Comic series, and it will be available to those who burn a full set of comics (Issues 1-6). When burned, participants also will have the chance to claim a limited edition physical copy of a customized Graphic Novel.

Finally, they will also receive the HUXLEY Access Pass, which the team describes as a key to future web3 experiences from the brand.

One for fans of Ben Mauro and those who’ve been following along with the complex ecosystem.

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

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

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

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

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

9. Alts by Adidas. Upcoming drop from the big consumer brand.

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