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In today’s edition:

• Ether: The moment of truth

• Our latest NFT rankings

• New drops we found

More info on Mint/Watch lists HERE.

Ether: The Moment of Truth

Back in October, I asked people on Twitter what they thought would be the most hyped NFT drop through the end of 2022.

One of the most common replies was “Ether”.

This looks funny in retrospect, given that Ether didn’t launch in 2022 – in fact the art was only just finished, in April 2023. But it points to how long people have been hyped for this one.

Ether has been in development for more than a year. It represents the most ambitious creative endeavor by its founder and artist viii, who previously worked with RTFKT, Treeverse, and Faze Clan.

Yet we still don’t know much…at all. Ether has gone with the full on mysterious, IYKYK, don’t call us we’ll call you, style of marketing. Here’s a few examples:

• Closed, invite-only discord

• Viii deletes tweets immediately

• WL gets sent out through surprise DMs

• No giveaways, podcasts or “traditional” marketing

All we’ve gotten so far are some art sneak peeks, which people generally have liked, and some hints that the project will be built into something like a lifestyle brand that combines art, fashion, jewelry etc.

Not everyone loves this approach. This kind of marketing can often seem like inactivity – which many consider to be a deadly sin in the NFT space – or like it’s designed to cause artificial hype. They’ve definitely picked up doubters along the way.

Then, there’s the price. They announced in December that the public mint would include 8,000 NFTs priced at 1 ETH.

That’s 8,000 ETH, not including the WL portion, which would come out to over $14 million given today’s prices. Pretty sure I just heard some audible gasps from our readers.

This seemed wild when it was announced last year, but it’s even more of a stretch today given how downbad the market has been recently.

Now, to be fair, the team claims that 70% of the sale will go towards the project’s treasury (and viii says he’ll donate 2/3rds of his own share to charity), but you can see how this rubbed some people the wrong way.

The moment of truth is finally here.

Over the next 60 days, viii and his co-founder CV will make the case for Ether.

This begins with the website launching in May, which should reveal more details on the roadmap and general concept behind the project. Sneak peeks look polished.

Then we’ll get the official Ether trailer. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, except for the fact that they’ve spent an astonishing $400,000 on this animated trailer – which is more than most PFPs make in total from their mint.

Marketing should keep ramping up until we get to the official mint which is now scheduled for June.

We still have many questions:

• Can this PFP model still work in mid-2023?

• Can they justify 1 ETH in this market?

• Or will they lower the price?

• And what do they even plan to do with $10M in the bank?

For now, Ether is like the Schrodinger's cat of our mint list. It’s simultaneously in and out of the top 10, depending on what's inside the box.

But we’ve given the benefit of the doubt so far given the apparent scale of what they hope to build and the cult following that viii has picked up over the years.

We’ll keep you updated on this one.

BTW, for those who are interested, there’s a game launching in their Discord in the next couple of days for WL spots.

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

Dark Gravity by Dave Krugman

Photographer Dave Krugman (recently named one of Coindesk’s most influential artists of 2022) is releasing an exclusive edition via Escher this Thursday.

We don’t know the mint the details yet, but we’re keeping an eye out for updates because Escher has not had trouble selling out past exclusives.

Re-placement by Verse

An upcoming concept exhibition from verse in collaboration with artist collectives and curators fakewhale and Nighttimestory.

14 different pieces from various artists will be sold through verse at various price points between the 27th and the 30th.

The idea is “to challenge the very concept of physicality regarding the work through the sale of NFTs” by asking ”Can an image of a work replace the work?”

One for those deep into experimental art.

Life in Japan 2 by Grant Yun

Popular minimalist artist Grant Yun is back with a new drop this Thursday on Nifty Gateway.

It’s a conceptual follow-up to the very successful Life in Japan editions with two components:

1. The Road Ahead is an edition with a 1299 supply, priced at $299 each. Collectors of the original Life in Japan can mint 10 minutes before the public mint phase.

2. School, Apartments, and The Road Ahead: A piece that is only available by burning The Road Ahead and School & Apartments from the original Life in Japan. The burn window lasts 24 hours.

Metalands by Daniel Greenwood

BrainDrops is back with another AI art release this Saturday with Metalands, a 500-supply collection minting for 0.2 ETH each.

This time they’re partnering with photographer turned AI artist Daniel Greenwood.

Using his past experience as a landscape photographer, Greenwood uses AI tools to craft mystical dream-like scenes.

ekos

Marvel Studios founder David Maisel is entering the web3 space with ekos, an art collaboration with Marvel artists Michael Turner and Peter Steigerwald.

The collection showcases the late Turner's original artwork, which Steigerwald has colorized.

995 pieces will be sold through a Dutch Auction, with prices ranging from 10 ETH to 0.2 ETH.

Further gamification is also at play. A pre-deposit period will allow participants to bid upwards of 10 ETH to get a bonus piece, with the highest bids getting priority.

Given that this art style has been emulated by several NFT projects over the past few years, we’ll be curious to see how the market values originals.

THE MINT LIST

1. Nike Our Force 1. Digital shoe drop from the global consumer brand.

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

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

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

10. Bright Moments Tokyo Contemporary. Next drop from BM.