The Next Nakamigos

Plus, a project that's 25 years in the making

April 10, 2023

GM

Welcome to the 246 new people that joined this weekend.

You could've been outside touching grass, but instead, you touched our hearts.

In today’s edition:

  • The next Nakamigos

  • All our latest NFT rankings

  • New drops found this weekend

More info on Mint/Watch lists HERE.

THE NEXT NAKAMIGOS

Confession: I almost did an anti-Nakamigos post a few weeks ago. This was right before the mint. I had the outline ready to go but decided against it at the last minute. I’m only telling you this because I feel like we’re homies at this point.

Anyways, good thing I skipped it. To say that post would’ve aged like milk is an understatement.

If you’re not familiar with Nakamigos, here are some highlights since last month’s mint:

Now, why was I going to write that post in the first place?

I have nothing against Nakamigos, I just wasn’t a fan of their approach for the mint. Specifically, their marketing seemed designed to cause speculation.

First, the drop was linked with the artist Sartoshi, suggesting it might be a big deal. Yet we were given no clues as to the point of the project (is there a roadmap, is it a degen PFP, just art and vibes?).

Next, there was the Dutch auction that started at 1 eth, a mechanic that’s fairly odd for a vibes-only PFP and something we’ve often seen used for cash grabs in the past.

And finally, the website alluded to a team that had “created NFT & Digital Art projects for the past five years”, but ultimately decided to stay anonymous. Trust me, I tried to find out but they were immune to my charm.

All this predictably led to speculation after the mint. Nakamigos was made by Larva Labs, no wait it’s Beeple, on second thought it’s clearly Gremplin – actually now that I think about it, the art has Dwayne The Rock Johnson’s fingerprints all over it.

But now none of that matters. The project has evolved well beyond Sartoshi, or whoever the founders were, and is now being guided by the laws of memetics and attention cycles. Where it goes from here is anyone’s guess.

The better question is WHY did it do so well, and how do we find the next Nakamigos?

I got a chance to speak with Mooncat2878, the #1 Nakamigos holder with +300 total NFTs, about why they jumped in so hard in the first place.

They said they had two waves of conviction:

  1. Originally bought simply because of the clean pixel art. Also saw another top collector (Krybharat) buying for the same reasons, so they knew it was clicking for others.

  2. Doubled down when the community rallied after the entire NFT space called it a pump-and-dump. Mooncat found the community reaction powerful given there isn’t a team leading them, or even a discord.

We’ve seen that last bit before. People beat up on a meme, they pray for it to go away, and this ends up making it stronger. Sometimes NFT trading really is just figuring out which collections would piss off the most people if they kept pumping.

This tends to work best when the meme is simple and has a comedic aesthetic. Cryptodickbutts, Cryptoadz, Mfers, Trump Cards, Miladies etc.

Why? Because it’s impossible to look cool while getting worked up about something that looks like a Cryptodickbutt.

New personal rule: if we see a project with simple/cute/funny art, and it’s causing a bunch of influencers to write long passionate threads about why it shouldn’t exist, there might be something there.

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

90 Miles by MCB

Take a skilled photographer that’s famous for capturing moments of crisis around the world, give them the frustration of a 25-year planned project that they’re unable to work on, but then let them use AI tools to recreate that work using pure imagination.

The result is 90 Miles, a 400-supply AI post-photography collection.

This comes from Michael Christopher Brown, a National Geographic Contributor with 500,000 followers on IG, and is based on modern cuban life. It mints for 0.1 ETH this week.

The comments under the announcement post on IG are a war zone thanks to the link to NFTs. This proves the size of the artist’s reach outside of the space, which makes us want to watch this one closely.

Asynchronous Response by Ivona Tau

Featuring a blend of AI and generative art techniques, this upcoming 40-supply collection by Sotheby’s artist Ivona Tau will mint on Verse for $500 per piece (0.269 ETH approx.). The artist is curating the 40 pieces, which means that minters get assigned a random one from the selection.

Coincidentally, this drop will happen on the same day that the artist drops with Proof, with a 1-hour difference between the two.

Asynchronous Response is an experimental collection, but one that should appeal to those who are fans of the artist.

Hollywood: from Golden Age to the first Blockbusters

Remember when you actually had to have a physical camera to take a picture, and couldn’t just type your fever dreams to a superhuman language model to make one?

Focusbloc, a vintage photography platform, is looking to take us back to those times with their coming Hollywood-themed collection that features scenes from famous movies from the 30s through the 80s.

They’re teaming up with Movie Star News for a 333 supply collection minting sometime soon (we expect Q2), at 0.5 ETH per photograph.

Sounds cool in theory but we’re confused about the provenance here. You’re buying a digital copy of an original photograph that’s stored elsewhere and owned by someone else. Is there a big audience for that?

Macroverse Epic NFT Comics - Drop 1

Macroverse is an upcoming entertainment platform centered around digital comics. The team of founders have had careers deeply embedded in the entertainment industry, including TV, film, and gaming.

For their first comics drop (minting sometime Q2), 5,000 comics will be sold at 0.25 ETH each. These will function as “source files” for their coming mobile app, with holders having the ability to stake their NFT to participate in the revenue pool generated by the app.

If we’re honest, “staking for revenue” seems a little outdated in 2023.

THE MINT LIST

  1. Reddit Series 3. Third NFT drop from the massive social site.

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

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

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

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

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

  10. Seaport Subject by Botto. 1st editioned work from an AI artist.