GM

all of a sudden my phone's been blowing up

Links for the Top 25 drops are HERE.

Something’s not right here

Let me begin with this morning’s Tweet from TylerD that sums up the euphoric moment we’re going through:

But something still doesn’t feel right. And I think it has something to do with this chart: 

As you can see, we’re only slightly higher than the absolute lowest point from October – which is still down massively from June 2022, which is down massively from June 2021, etc. 

The increased NFT volume you’re seeing is, in my opinion, a direct result of rising crypto prices (which we predicted here). But the truth is…

No one new is entering the space today

That includes enthusiasts and creators. I spend a lot of time looking at upcoming NFT mints, and I can tell you that the vast majority of drops come from existing artists, many of whom first joined in 2021. 

So, as I was walking through the local piazza, with all of this bouncing around in my head, here’s what happened next…

I opened up my Notes app, and started pouring out stream-of-consciousness gibberish. 

And today, instead of creating a shell of eloquent prose, I decided to just copy-paste those notes (bold/italics added for readability).

Raw and unfiltered, maybe a little nonsensical.

enjoy ✨

A skeleton essay on today’s market

problem 

traders still dominate the market

think: altcoins w pictures

as a result, creators optimize for traders

instead of optimizing for something that could be cherished for intrinsic value 

this is bad 

it means we keep getting bad faith projects 

it means good faith projects keep getting bad communities 

it means we keep talking about the wrong things 

it means we keep attracting the wrong people and creators 

this will never change if we keep going like this

why is this happening?

it's partly a result of fully decentralized standards that don't enforce any fees or royalties, which means non fungibility is attacked.

i love ERC-721, but it’s flawed

solution --> enforcing tax/fee/royalties on trading 

it’s coming. creators WILL choose to enforce royalties, and i suspect this will trend higher than what we've seen so far (10-20% becoming standard)  

what does this do?

it pushes away traders who view this as short term investments --> good that's not what this is, it won't grow if it remains this way

it forces creators to think about long term holders, less short term hype --> good, that's what they should be doing 

it attracts more creators, because royalties are actually an insane profit channel --> good, make the market bigger

it attracts real users, because there are more high quality creators building things people actually want --> good, make the market more sustainable 

what do NFTs look like in 2024?

two markets: 

1) premium collections using centralized contracts with enforced royalties 

2)  mostly free low-quality, high frequency "shitcoin" jpegs. lightweight memes, ponzis, etc, on decentralized contracts with 0 royalties

BUT MUH ERC721!! 

we can come up with creative solutions

for example: NFTs that decentralize over time. e.g. a token that uses a centralized royalty enforcing contract for X months/years, before then unlocking an ERC-721 token that is fully owned 

feeling bullish: this is almost here, yuga drops their new marketplace this month 

Thx for coming to my TED talk

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

SAGAWORLD

Renowned Irish illustrator Matt Griffin, cover artist for the Dune book series, puts on his curator’s hat in SAGAWORLD, an upcoming Foundation World release.

While the theme is still unknown, the lineup features eleven creators so far, including Christie’s-exhibitioned artist goldcat and Pascal Blanché, art director for Behaviour Interactive (makers of the hugely popular Dead by Daylight videogame series).

For the 1/1 art connoisseurs.

Immaterial by Bjørn Staal

You might have seen this video on Twitter recently. With nearly 10 million views, it’s one of the rare instances when an NFT creator went viral in a positive light.

It’s the work of Norwegian artist Bjørn Staal, and while there’s no mint for the specific creation in that video (although he did put out a Cicero-approved troll mint), he does have an upcoming Art Blocks Presents release.

Immaterial is a 280-supply animated collection blending organic and digital systems, featuring maze-like structures that oscillate as if they were alive and breathing.

Passes my wall test 👍

Shishi Builder

If you've ventured into Twitter's network spirituality realm recently, a.k.a. the Milady corner (shudders), you might have seen these derivative PFPs.

They’re from Oh… I see, a collection of commissioned 1/1s by pseudonymous artist @shiro57102, which have gotten popular enough that people actually buy these customs on the secondary market.

Now, shiro is launching a pfp collection in a similar art style and rolling out a character creation tool that lets you explore the traits.

We don’t have mint details or even the exact collection name, but if you are into the anime-schizo-deep-fried style like I am, then these should be right up your alley.