GM

I am the one who mints (and/or skips)

…is how I introduce myself at parties these days.

Links for the Top 25 drops are HERE.

Pepe is back (officially)

Context

Matt Furie, the original Pepe the Frog creator, is releasing a new collection on Ethereum called Peplicator. 

We still don’t know supply or mint date, so we can’t really give anything close to a final verdict. 

But we do know price, which includes discounts for anyone who bought his other recent drops: 

Our take

I hope you’ve been enjoying meme szn 2024. 

Utility and roadmaps are out, having fun with your online friends is in. 

Pepe (CT’s favorite mascot) has already been leading the parade on the memecoin side, but now we’re getting brand new official Pepe NFTs with a Stamp of MF Authenticity from the original hands that created him.

From the sneak peeks, it looks like a PFP collection dedicated solely to Pepe the Frog – maybe Matt’s take on the Punks format – including generative traits, which is a break from the usual hand-crafted individual works that Matt puts out. 

I’m happy they went with a scuffed aesthetic with misshapen lines, giving it that nostalgic zine look from the early Matt Furie days. It’s almost like the Steamboat Willy version of Pepe 1.0. 

But at the same time, Matt is also leaning into Pepe’s internet side in a way we haven’t really seen before by using the classic “feels good man/feels bad man” meme template that made him popular in the first place. 

Bottom line 

This is terminally-online Walt Disney releasing a Mickey PFP collection. 

Of course I’m excited about it…in theory. 

But I’m also a bit worried that the generative trait format could lead to an obnoxiously large supply (they revealed the price before telling us how many there are, which is uncommon). 

Matt’s last big drop, Zogz, annoyed some collectors with a convoluted ecosystem that ballooned beyond the demand at the time. 

Hoping this one keeps things simple.

✨ Added to Top 25 ✨

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

EarlyGANs by FAR

AI art practices of old see the light of day as new Bitcoin inscriptions in EarlyGANs, an upcoming collection by artist Francisco Alarcon, a.k.a. FAR.

Following the recent success of FLARES (originally covered here), FAR digs into his personal archive for this one, unearthing generative AI works from 2018-2019 created using a GAN trained on historical paintings.

While there’s no shortage of similarly-styled ETH works minted from this time period (DeepBlack comes to mind), that’s not the case on BTC. Perhaps more important, it’s a chance to collect ancient works from one of the chain’s most prominent artists.

Metamorphosis I by Darien Brito

FingerprintsDAO curates endlessly customizable art loops in Metamorphosis I by creative coder Darien Brito, a previous exhibitor on other art platforms like Art Blocks and gmDAO.

At its core, the collection presents blocky 3D landscapes that continually assemble, morph, and disassemble in infinite ways, initially presented to minters with a host of customization options, including one that allows a piece to sync with Ethereum’s network traffic.

The end result is an impressive set of colorful and aesthetic animations that probably pass your wall test, especially if you’re a landscaping aficionado, Minecraft enjoyer, or pinscreen toy rememberer.

OMB Orange Eyes

The top Ordinal PFP at the moment, Ordinal Maxi Biz (OMB), is launching a new set of CryptoPunk-inspired characters with this orange eyes collection.

They posted a cryptic image yesterday, possibly indicating the mint date and pricing, but things are too secretive to call right now.

We initially covered OMB last June on the eve of their green eyes collection, which ended up passing the test presented in that post by minting out relatively easily (and is currently sitting at multiples above its mint price).

The cult has gone up only since then (undeniably aided by the very green BTC price chart, like all Ordinals). And while it’s still a little funny that the top BTC PFP is a punk derivative, there’s a culture here that you really can't ignore at this point.

✨ Added to Top 25 ✨