GM

Those who say GM back will inherit the earth. It is written.

In today’s edition:

• Time to go All-or-Nothing

• The Top 25 – with 6 minting today!

• 4 new drops

Links for the Top 25 drops are HERE.

Did you know?

We have a premium pass that gives you access to a directory of every drop we cover, complete with detailed information on how to get on every whitelist (including those underrated ones that aren’t already full).

And for those curatooors out there, you can get free NFTs just by finding drops that end up on the Mint or Watch list.

Lastly, hang with me and the MoS team in a private discord with weekly voice chats. The vibes are great.

Would you like to be featured in Mint or Skip like the above ☝️ ?

Time to go All-or-Nothing

NFTs can revolutionize fundraising.

They can give contributors more ownership and direct perks while letting creators raise more money. Happy days could be here for all.

However, Dear Readers, something has to change.

Last week we had two big flops

1. Fewoworld

In April 2022, Fewocious managed to raise $19 million in a single day for Fewoworld, which at the time was little more than an idea.

But last week he could barely raise more than $500k from new sales despite the project being close to the finish line.

They ended up capping supply after getting zero traction at the public mint price.

2. MareBears

This was a drop by RSTLSS with a similar model to Fewoworld (and the same mint date) that giga-flopped with only ~400 sales despite a few flashy brand collabs including Ubisoft and Paris Hilton.

The mint is technically still open but it’s hard to see a turnaround.

–

In both cases, we pointed out how tone-deaf the aggressive pricing and supply felt in this market: Fewoworld had 20k NFTs, MareBears had 15k.

But there’s another, perhaps larger, problem.

NFT fundraising is stuck in 2021

This is still the way people try to raise big money with NFTs:

1. Present a brand story

2. Hype up the marketing

3. Set price/supply based on god-knows-what

4. If your mint flops, proceed as if nothing changes

When a mint underperforms, everyone loses

The market perceives the project as dead (which hurts short-term morale and the floor).

The creator can’t hit internal milestones.

And the collector has to hope the team can find alternative funding or some other magical solution to keep things alive.

Of course, in 99/100 cases, the show simply ends with a slow bankruptcy. And now all those collectors are less likely to buy the next project unless they’re confident that it’ll mint out.

This is called the Keep-What-You-Raise model in the crowdfunding world.

But there’s a better way – and we’ve known this for about a decade now.

All-or-Nothing

You may have heard of Kickstarter, the largest product crowdfunding site on the internet ($7.6 billion raised to date).

Well, part of their success is due to their All-or-Nothing model where contributors actually get refunded if the fundraising goal isn’t met.

Here’s how they explain it:

This mechanic is completely doable onchain.

It might require some changes to how creators launch their NFTs (for example, slow rollouts post-mint are probably less risky than building the entire collection upfront).

But it should entice more people to take a chance and re-enter the market.

Bottom line

I tried pitching this to some creators during the bull run, but I never stood a chance.

And to be honest, I wasn’t surprised. People were raising seven figures with no strings attached just by tossing around a few Fiverr sneak peeks – why rock the boat?

But now it’s a buyer’s market, and we’re seeing people consistently reject large crowdfunding mints unless they come from a huge existing brand (and even then it’s tough).

Maybe it’s time we take a second look.

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

ClickCreate October Drops: Breakthrough

Popular psychedelic doodler Killer Acid will both curate and headline Breakthrough, this month’s ClickCreate drops.

The rest of the roster includes names you might already know, like FEELS, Mr. Melty, Kristen Roos and a mystery artist yet to be revealed.

As usual with ClickCreate drops, SubPass holders should get first dibs on these (potentially) trippy pieces.

ENTROPY by Billy Restey

After Nullish’s 1-minute sellout (and impressive 0.48 BTC 1/1 sale) last Friday, another popular Ordinals artist is jumping on the Gamma.io Prints train as Billy Restey drops ENTROPY.

We still don’t know the price for these 50 pieces, but they’ll likely be accessible like other Prints (which are digital editions).

Secondary trading will require patience, however, as the Prints marketplace is coming soon™️.

Origins: Genesis

Delayed for five months, the Expressions marketplace is finally releasing its free genesis drop, Origins: Genesis, featuring 300 pieces from ten Caribbean artists.

Amberfi created the new platform with the goal of showcasing underrepresented artists and cultures in web3.

Following the drop, plans include more Origins drops and an $AMBR token.

Feral File Exhibition #39: Truth

Two notable art platforms cross paths this month as the co-founder of Tender, Adam Berninger, curates Truth, a Feral File group exhibition exploring the building blocks of the universe (lofty topic innit).

The roster includes 7 emerging generative artists who you might already know from other platforms and drops: Presstube & bzor / Charlotte Dann / Tyler Boswell / HAL09999 / Lisa Orth / Ella Hoeppner / David Seven.

The pieces will be sold in sets of 7 unique works (1 work from each artist), which you can check on the platform one week before the mint.