Bear-ly Hanging in There
Battle of the Tech Titans. Google’s Chatbot Goes Rogue. And NFTs are Down Bad.
👋🏽 Hello everyone, gm gm, WELCOME BACK to another edition of the Overpriced JPEGs newsletter, where we’re catching you up on the world of web3, NFTs, and the metaverse.
Thank you to everyone who reached out letting us know how stoked you were on our inaugural OPJ NFT Power Index, where we ranked the Top 10 NFT Projects using qualitative and quantitative analysis. We’re thrilled with the feedback and will be tweaking these monthly, so keep the suggestions coming!
And one more thing before we dig in … Reservations are now open for our Miami event with Doodles CEO Julian Holguin next Thursday, March 30! Visit opjtour.com for details and tickets!! We can’t wait to see you there 🤩
Today’s newsletter is brought to you by OpenSea
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Next week, our friends Mitchell and Michael from the OpenSea Product and Engineering team are giving you a step-by-step walkthrough of how to set up your next drop using their self-serve drop platform. Register now!
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🧸 A Bearish State of Affairs
No, it’s not just you. Save for today’s $ ARB drop (and maybe this person who made 391 ETH flipping punks), the NFT market has been decidedly bearish lately. Volume and trader sentiment are down bad, with prices on a gloomy slide across the board
It doesn’t help that we’re undergoing a banking crisis in an unstable regulatory environment with a presidential administration that overtly loathes crypto - as made painfully clear in Biden’s hot-off-the-press 513-page (🥱) Economic Report
Trade volume and unique buyers are depressingly low; previous 2023 darlings like Jack Butcher’s checks have def seen better days, and floor prices on large caps like Moonbirds and CloneX have dropped below mint price in USD 😰
Yup, it’s hot in the kitchen and some founders are cracking under the pressure:
Psychedelics Anonymous’ Volutura offered to transfer ownership of the once-beloved project to a DAO to “do what they want”
Poopie (now infamously) declared Doodles is “no longer an NFT project,” shortly after telling a holder to “floor it and gtfo”
Yuga even caught some heat after a metadata hiccup this week 😱 The team didn’t skip a beat though, refunding all affected wallets and once again reminding us all why you Never Fade Yuga.
If you’re new here, we welcome you to join 140,434 bright + avid readers by subscribing here:
👑 Tech Titans vie for the Throne
Things are heating up between Google and Microsoft in the battle for emerging tech supremacy, with the latter executing a three-pronged attack:
Plans for a non-custodial, browser-based crypto wallet for Microsoft’s Edge were leaked (Brave + Opera are currently the only browsers with built-in wallets)
Microsoft introduced 365 CoPilot, which integrates AI into its suite of apps, including Word, Outlook, Teams, and Excel
They’re also looking to steal a nice chunk of mobile gaming market share with an Xbox-branded games store next year in anticipation of the EU’s “Digital Markets Act” killing the long-standing Android and iOS duopoly
Google countered by opening public access to its AI chatbot Bard, which tbh doesn’t seem to have improved much since giving an embarrassingly wrong answer in its live debut …
Poor Bard is struggling with simple math and even backstabbed its employer, strongly siding with the Justice Department in Google’s antitrust case
With results like that, we’re thinking Google’s AI efforts might just a decoy for its real goal of
world dominationquantum supremacy
Apple may prove to be the real winner here though, with an anticipated bidding war in the tens of billions of dollars for default search engine rights on Apple products
💻 The Next PicAIsso?
While it’s safe to say Artificial Intelligence can’t fully create art without humans (yet 🥴), some projects sure are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible using automation only
All eyes are on the likes of ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Nvidia (which just unveiled its AI cloud service Picasso), but we’re digging the AI innovation in web3 …
Inspired by OnChain Monkey, AIORBIT is an on-chain animated project dreamt up, created, and continually evolving via AI - specifically, ChatGPT
AIORBIT is self-directed - and it’s doing a pretty damn good job so far - earning 767 ETH in sales and the coveted ‘trending’ spot on OpenSea
AI is even doing double duty as a community manager, actively running AIORBIT’s Twitter account and responding with decidedly more positive replies than Twitter itself 💩
Not to be outdone, decentralized autonomous artist Botto has already raked in 1,245 ETH in SuperRare auction sales and has an active, enthusiastic DAO
Botto creates stunning artworks based on community input, with the top vote-getting pieces ultimately going up for auction. Proceeds are split between the DAO treasury and community participants
We also wanna shout out this 260 ETH sale last week of AI Generated Nude Portrait #7 Frame #110 from a collection with an absolutely incredible back story
Coinbase received a Wells notice, which is typically the first step in an SEC enforcement action. CEO Brian Armstrong reiterates the CEX’s willingness to defend its position in court 💪🏾
Several financial YouTube influencers and a talent agency are being sued for endorsing deals with FTX and conspiring to mislead customers
France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, attends NFT Paris and mints an NFT; hubby Emmanuel said “web3 is an opportunity not to be missed”
US central bank announces a July launch for FedNow, a real-time, 24/7 payments service largely viewed as an effort to supplant digital currencies
Decentralized URLs have made it to Ethereum, although costs are still super prohibitive (1 Gig of on-chain data = roughly $10 million)
Former banking regulator says the false narrative conflating SVB w/crypto woes is “dangerously misleading”
European Parliament passed a Data Act that requires a kill switch in smart contracts
Wyoming’s new law prevents the forced disclosure of private keys in effort to protect privacy and property rights of holders
Excellent Bankless interview w/SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed a law to ban CBDCs
🌐 web3 + NFTs
Following this teaser tweet, Magic Eden confirms its built an audited marketplace on Bitcoin
Goblintown dropped a trailer teasing the Season 2 launch
VeeFriends holds Book Games burn auction for Veecon ticket holders; 3 Chromie Squiggles up for grabs
Smolverse community is revved up by news of the $ARB airdrop; floor jumped 65% and peepz are proudly rockin’ the PFPs again
Server Forge Founder Plum joins OpenSea’s security team (congrats 🎉 !!)
Tezos marketplace objkt is now accepting payments in ETH
OG Ape starts a BAYC Twitter roll call + a look back on some of the greatest NFT memes and copy pastas
DeGods sold out their Ordinals collection in a single block and were #1 in 24-hour volume on Bitcoin
Snoop Dogg and Clay Nation drop “Snoop Dogg, Gin & Juice” 1/1
Zeneca responds to hypocrisy claims; clarifies his role and investment in Blur
Pudgy Penguins filed new trademarks for a variety of printed goods and merch
Carly is fresh off the Game Developers Conference with all the gaming scoops:
ETH L2’s Immutable and Polygon partner to create ‘the new home of gaming’ on Ethereum
CCP Games secures $40 mil (led by a16z) for a new AAA blockchain game set within the EVE Universe
Pirate Nation is migrating to Arbitrum Nova
📈 Brands + Biz
Sony filed a patent that would allow players to trade and transfer NFTs to different consoles and platforms 👀
Reddit CEO revealed plans for an avatar marketplace during interview
Meta is building a decentralized social media app to compete w/Twitter, codenamed P92
Playboy records a $4.9 mil loss from its Rabbitars NFT project
Sherwin-Williams filed a trademark app for NFTs, virtual paints and goods, and an online marketplace
Former Sega Director Yu Suzuki partners w/NFT firm OASYX to release Virtua Fighter NFTs; Sega owns l incense for the IP and doesn’t appear to be involved in the project
Wynn Las Vegas filed trademarks indicating a metaverse-like casino and online marketplace for NFTs
🤖 AI + Metaverse
LinkedIn is increasing its AI-powered offerings to include profile creation and crafting job descriptions
Coca-Cola opens Create Real Magic, an AI-powered art experience; anyone can try it, but artists can compete to have work displayed in Times Square and Piccadilly
AI music steals the spotlight at this year’s SXSW; Labelcoin debuts app that will allow music artists and fans to earn regular dividends on streaming royalties
Insurers urged to prep for metaverse liability in 3 major areas: Data security + privacy, property rights, and user interactions
Insightful read on how AI will transform photography
In case you’re wondering what coins Chat-GPT4 is bullish on, here’s how it would invest $100 in crypto in today’s market
Carly’s joined by Axios’ Chief Financial Correspondent Felix Salmon, who breaks down the recent banking crisis. He says this crisis is different from 2008 and that crypto faces a tough road ahead without the support of the federal government. Tune in to hear his broader economic outlook and his bearish bet on Bitcoin.
Artist & Quantum Co-Founder Justin Aversano joins Carly and Gavin for our weekly recap. Catch his take here on the banking crisis (he had funds in SVB), his aspirations for LACMA, and why he passed on selling his art on Amazon.
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Got something to share with our readers? Connect with me @hawaiianft (sparkitysparkz) on Twitter 🤙🏾