GM

Masquerade Suite plays elegantly in the background as I lust over sacred jpegs while my ancestors weep from above. Another Tuesday.

Links for the Top 25 drops are HERE.

Ordinals are about to hit a new phase

Today we do a little Crystal Balling 🔮

I like to think of Ordinals as having two phases so far, with a third right around the corner.

These are highly simplified and there is crossover, but it goes roughly like this:

Phase 1.0 – Copycat collections 

Examples: Bitcoin Punks, Bitcoin Rocks 

Getting to market first means taking shortcuts. That’s why the first popular inscriptions were more-or-less ripped off from Ethereum. 

This was a normal response given the race to claim low inscription numbers, which in the end made all these objects ultra-valuable regardless of their derivative nature. 

This phase ended once we moved beyond the inscription race, and people started to desire Ordinals with an original vision instead.

Phase 2.0 – New PFPs

Examples: OMB, Bitcoin Frogs, Nodemonkes 

Mostly static jpegs, built around community and vibes. 

This phase is still fairly derivative since it’s just a copy-paste from Ethereum’s 10k PFP meta, but at least we got some fresh memes.

It’s also where most of the action has been so far: Nodemonkes and Bitcoin Frogs alone have $100 million in combined trading volume since release.

But we’re now likely hitting the limits. Creators are finding that the cost to bring a new 10k collection to Bitcoin is prohibitively expensive (can be $1 million in fees), with buyers often being asked to pay a ~$100 inscription fee on top of whatever the stated price is. 

This means a huge slowdown in new entrants, with existing PFPs acting like a time capsule from the quaint days of affordable inscriptions. 

Therefore, the next phase will likely be driven by…

Phase 3.0 – Blockchain art/Dynamic artifacts 

Examples: OCM, Quantum Cats

There’s a good chance Quantum Cats will be the highest-selling Bitcoin mint of all time when it launches on January 24. 

This is partly due to its novel use of “Evolving Inscriptions”, a technical achievement that opens up a new genre of delayed-reveal inscriptions (also seen in Fomojis). 

And as usual, success breeds imitation. 

We’ll likely see an entire cohort launching Evolving Inscriptions, which allows for living, breathing art where a buyer joins the creator on a curated journey – one that could last years, decades, or longer, all permanently and immutably onchain. 

It’s one of many recent developments that keeps expanding the canvas on Bitcoin. Others include fully onchain gen art using recursion, as well as reinscriptions, where collectors are given voluntary art upgrades by adding new media to an existing satoshi (both explained here). 

This will lead to collections with fewer but denser objects, packed with the creative magic unique to Bitcoin, which could really distinguish them from narratives on other chains. 

Bottom line

Hard to believe that just 12 months ago people were trading Ordinals in google spreadsheets, and now we have “recursive, teleburned cursed inscriptions reinscribed on a Block 9 sat with parent-child provenance”. 

What will this year bring? 

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

Meditation by Pixelord

Spooky season comes early (or late?) this year with this set of free Solana mints from pseudonymous artist Pixelord.

The first one, Meditation, dropped yesterday (still minting today), and coincided with the artist’s swift sellout of a separate Ordinals collection, Nodemojis, meaning the lord’s running a bit hot right now.

Two more free mints are set to release on Wednesday and Friday, with minters of all three getting another art piece airdropped for free.

Don’t look at a gift horse in the mouth, etc.

SMILE by Roope Rainisto

AI art is on its way to Solana with Roope Rainisto’s 5,000-supply SMILE.

It’s his first-ever PFP collection (not counting those who PFP’ed LIWA) and uses the human smile as its muse. But don’t think this is a 100% cheery, happy-go-lucky vibe, as some of these can be quite creepy, even grotesque.

Requiring 1,000 SOL to mint out, it could be one of the biggest Solana art drops ever, in terms of primary sales. To put it into context, if it sold on Exchange.art this sale alone would put Rainisto in the top 40 all-time sales on that platform.

It’s a tall order, but he’s last year’s #1 breakout AI artist for a reason, and I’m excited to see how it plays out.

Ridge Regression by Pierre Casadebaig

Ridge Regression is a 128-supply collection by French artist Pierre Casadebaig, his third release on verse, following sellouts in late 2022 and early 2023.

Using real elevation data of French mountains, the artist’s algorithms visualize the peaks and valleys in their rawest form, preferring the simplicity of black and white.

The result? A set of undeniably aesthetic works that pass my wall test and should also appeal to fans of minimalism, nature, and ink wash painting, which seems to be an inspiration.

And you won’t have much trouble hanging it on your wall, as each winning bid comes with a physical A5 plot, shipping cost included (nice touch).

✨ Added to Top 25 ✨