GM

all the times AI ever made me laugh, a short story:

this time (from today).

--

thx for reading

Links for the Top 25 drops are HERE.

Setting Sail for Solana

Stow your belongings and join the crew topside. We sail with the next breeze. 

The degens are always the first to arrive at the scene, bless them. They land on shore, cut down the weeds, find clean drinking water, and set up trading routes with the natives. 

Then come the aristocrats, artists, and financiers. 

Mint or Skip is setting sail as well, in search of sacred digital artifacts and the creators who make them. 

Solana has been having a moment

$300 million in NFT volume in the last 30 days, nearly surpassing Ethereum. 

Memecults hardening with Mad Lads and Tensorians.

Rising flavors of the month with Frogana.

Local currency (SOL) booming. 

But high culture is still mostly loyal to Ethereum

We went all year without covering Solana drops, and to be honest, it doesn’t feel like we missed a ton outside of a handful of PFPs. 

Top creators are still almost exclusively launching on Ethereum.

Our 38 Best NFTs of 2023 list was also made up of like 90% Ethereum mints. That could just be our own bias, but most feedback I got mentioned other Ethereum drops that should’ve been on there, not Solana. 

This might be changing

Just yesterday, two prominent artists separately announced upcoming Solana mints on Exchange Art, a multichain art platform:

1.  Day 1 by CATH Simard

A beautiful landscape photograph edition showing a canoe floating off into new waters (we’re all on theme today). 

It’s Cath’s first edition on Solana, although she previously released this 1-of-1 which sold for 1,300 SOL in 2022. 

• Launching on January 1st. 

• Price, supply TBD. 

2. Sunset Serenade by John Knopf

Another landscape photograph edition, this one taking place on a colorful sunset on Maui. 

It’s John’s first Solana mint. 

• Launching on December 27 (today) at 4 PM EST

• Price: TBD

• Supply: 200

These are promising signs, although some artists are still in the never-sol camp. 

We arrive on Solana next week 

This will be our third chain added after Ethereum and Bitcoin. 

BTW, we’ve been on these shores before. And we see the wreckage from earlier waves of pioneers. 

The attention pendulum will swing back and forth (often violently), as is tradition. 

But now we’re stronger, wiser, better looking, and more prepared to set up camp. Join us.

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

24 Hours of Art

Roger Dickerman, founder of Artifex, has been reporting on the NFT art market since 2021 and has recently gained a wider audience via his daily 24 Hours of Art threads launched last September.

Now, he’s partnering with development studio Transient Labs to take the series onchain, with a mint tomorrow.

Apart from a 1/1 auction, there will be 366 pieces up for grabs, with each one using ERC-7160 for interactive metadata (the “Doppelgänger” standard) plus granting access to token-gated reports and a show hosted by Dickerman himself.

One to watch for art aficionados.

Batailles by Professor Jun

Pseudonymous artist and critic-turned-creator Professor Jun is back with Batailles, a new art release following last August’s sellout of Threads, his first-ever collection.

It’s a joint release with the Iconic platform, which has itself come off a recent sellout this past month with Monster Soup by Des Lucrece.

Details are scant on this one though, with probably more to come after the new year.

Doors by 0xdgb

Pseudonymous digital artist 0xdgb is set to release another of his recognizable minimalist creations with the 400-supply Doors.

Having been teased for a while, it’s expected that these doors will lead to a generative Rooms collection down the line, although details are slim on this.

A public allowlist raffle is currently open, with collectors of the artist’s previous ETH work automatically allowlisted via a snapshot in January.