We Object, Your Honorary!
Sell Shaming. DeGems. And Beeple + Elon Get the Last Laugh.
👋🏽 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.
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🤼 It’s a Billionaires’ World, We’re just Living in it
Elon and Beeple went all out to claim the CT Influencer 👑 this week
In what might be an effort to bolster his legal argument that he isn’t running a pyramid scheme to pump and dump Dogecoin, Elon subbed out Twitter’s bird logo with … the Doge logo. He doubled down with this meme, and in completely unrelated news $DOGE is up 20+% this week
Beeple, meanwhile, paid homage to the culture with an Everyday depicting a degen at the alter of Nakamigos. He too, doubled down by daring traders to get the collection to 1 ETH floor. They surprisingly only managed a brief pump to .8 before a rapid sell-off back down to .4
Riding the momentum, Elon then shot off a nondescript tweet of this 6529 Meme “Seize the Memes of Production,” 10x-ing the floor from .5 to 5 in under 20 min. One brave soul even scooped one up for 8 ETH at the top.
Elon quickly deleted the tweet, but Beeple came to CT’s rescue, cementing the incredibly strange moment in history with this legendary Everyday
So who won Twitter this week? We’ll let Beeple himself be the judge …
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🦧 Notable in NFTs this Week
The age-old debate over influencer shilling reared its head again as a handful of recipients of the 24 Honorary Nakamigos attempted to offload their free PFPs for ~10 ETH
GMoney was the first to list, and several others followed suit, but it was Deadfellaz’ Betty who drew out the sell shaming crowd that relentlessly expects influencers to 💎 🙌🏾 NFTs they never even asked for
We’re thinking this take is pretty accurate and that Nakamigos def missed an opp to snag the ultimate diamond hander, dingaling, who’s been shooting his shot on honoraries for years
Iconic luxury brands Bugatti and Asprey Studio are dropping the most expensive Bitcoin collection, The Asprey Bugatti Egg Collection.
The NFTs are paired to physicals, and with prices ranging rom $20k - $200k+, it’ll run you about the same as a real carton of eggs these days
When Minecraft banned NFT World from its gaming ecosystem last July, it was a death knell for the project, with prices tanking from 16 to <1 ETH
Well call them builders in the bear, because they’re back with the launch of their independent game and client engine, which they say is what Minecraft could have been “if it were more bleeding edge.” Ouch. Market seems to like it, FP has been rising all week, currently hovering around 2 ETH
🏦 So Little Buyers, So Many Markets
There may be only 20 people left trading NFTs, but there’s no shortage of marketplaces vying for their attention. Lots of marketplace updates this week …
With the rebranding of Gem v2 to OpenSea Pro, the largest NFT marketplace is now poised to better cater to a range of user segments, from n00bs to collectors to day traders
Its upgraded aggregator will focus on pro users, with 0% fees, while the OG site will again affix its standard 2.5% marketplace fees
Sorry degens, a token is likely not on its way, but the free Gemesis claim for early users shot up to .08 on day one and OpenSea is teasing additional NFT rewards
Escher’s new spin on marketplaces is a hybrid gallery of sorts, where you can view artist collections across a variety of platforms in a single place. It’s crazy handy, and they’ve got exclusive OE drops from a variety of big name artists
Dew is a new Polygon marketplace in beta; it’s getting buzz, due (or should we say dew) to its incentivized referral-based points system. Polygon NFTs are on the rise lately, with a healthy boost from y00ts and Lens Protocol Profiles.
Art Blocks launched its own pro-artist marketplace to address scams, authenticity + creator royalties; the first curated release was Cargo by Kim Asendorf
Magic Eden is launching its ETH marketplace beta this month w/10 Genesis launch partners, including the fun, self-serve AI art project McPepes
Bespoke marketplaces are proliferating too:
Not Your Bro’s new “No Bullshit/Fair NFT marketplace” collectle.io features women-led / DEI collections and honors full creator royalties
Betty says a Deadfellaz marketplace is inevitable, and Roo Troop’s Morgan Stone says theirs will be ready next week
Bitcoin’s best quarter in 2 years beats all major indexes in Q1 and Elizabeth Warren is still out here saying 💩 like this
Arbitrum Foundation is in hot water with DAO members after its first major proposal was voted down. Members learned the proposal was actually ratification of actions already taken and that the Foundation had already spent some of the money. They apologized, but it’s def not a great look out the gates
CT’s Cobie tweeted an encrypted hash of a rumor reading “Interpol Red Notice for CZ.” Cobie explained the sitch & Binance denied the rumor, but it had already led to a rapid drop in BNB +BTC
Head of Digital Policy at Barclay’s says we haven’t gotten clear crypto policy yet because regulators thought it’d be dead by now
Ethereum validator attacks network, stealing $25 Mil by exploiting MEV bots in low liquidity pools
A US Space Force major calls on the Pentagon to mine bitcoin instead; says competition for bitcoin dominance can help prevent wars
Consumer advocacy group forms ‘Digital Currency Trader’s Alliance’ to stop the SEC from getting in the way of crypto innovation
In spite of China’s anti-crypto stance, Hong Kong reemerges as a major crypto player, actively courting customers in response to the growing war on crypto by the US gov
Survey of institutional investors reveal 48% plan to add crypto-related ETFs to their portfolios this year (54% last year), while a quarter plan to up their exposure (33% last year)
🌐 web3 + NFTs
On the heels of Doodles’ Genesis Boxes reveal, CEO Julian Holguin outlines ambitious plan to bring its avatars to the masses
To commemorate DeGods’ migration to Ethereum, Frank interviewed Blur’s pacman
MetaMask will finally allow users to see their NFTs in its browser extension
Renga files trademarks for a logo mark and a website enabling a slew of features for users
Apes are split on Yuga’s burn mechanics, which some claim are too complicated while others feel it’s the only way to prevent folks from getting rekt
The Block determined dozens of employees have left MoonPay over the past six months; MoonPay denies the cuts as layoffs despite an avg 10-month tenure
DeGods teased a potential upcoming airdrop in a tweet
Serotonin CEO and ConsenSys alum Amanda Cassatt releases “Web3 Marketing” book
Random Character Collective dropped its first new collection since Invisible Friends: Iron Paw Gang by Adam Ape
Pepe Creator Matt Furie’s Chain/Saw will soon drop 100 OE’s over 10 days for .01234 ETH each
📈 Brands + Biz
Gucci and Yuga unveiled the first physical item in its limited edition Yuga collab collection, Otherside Relics: The KodaPendant
Papa Johns is doing all the things w/its first collection: metaverse, pizza-themed NFTs, gamification, digital ingredients, loyalty programs, an IRL launch w/PJ’s UAE
Argentinian airline Flybondi will sell all tickets as NFTs, giving passengers true ownership over their tickets
MLB partners with Candy Digital for player highlight packs, game tickets and challenges
Former Activision COO Daniel Alegra officially began his role as CEO of Yuga Labs
Blockworks is back with the latest Amazon rumors: It’ll be a private, permissioned blockchain with Day One partnerships w/Beeple & creators of Pudgy Penguins and future collabs w/Proof; Twitch to promote gaming and Fabricant involved in Fashion
Starbucks is back with its 2nd paid collection after last month’s Siren drop did half a million in volume on 868 sales; and a sustained FP of $450 a month after minting out at $100 each
🤖 AI + Metaverse
Financial data powerhouse Bloomberg introduced BloombergGPT, purpose-built from scratch + trained on the company’s world-class data; It’ll ‘know’ everything the company knows and perform a variety of functions, including financial analysis 🤯
This year’s Masters golf tourney will feature AI audio commentary from longtime event sponsor IBM on more than 20k video clips
AI photo generation program Midjourney suspends free trials after deep fakes created on free accounts go viral; also bans pic generation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, sparking cries of hypocrisy
FIFA debuts its AI-powered World Cup mobile game developed by Altered State Machine; plans include NFT integration down the road
Jack Butcher teases OpepenAI by snagging the Twitter handle
Carly’s joined by 9GAG CEO and Meme Captain Ray Chan. Ray’s building a web3-focused venture studio on equal parts culture, experience, and memes. He shares valuable takeaways on how to come out on top even if you don’t mint out, the Asian edge in crypto, and the importance of balancing tactics with long-term strategy.
It’s a packed weekly recap as Carly, Zeneca, and Gavin chime in on eveything from Ticketmaster’s new token-gated ticket sales to Yuga Labs’ latest gaming efforts. Entertainment guru Jon Rogers is also back with his take on Disney’s abrupt shut down of its Next-Gen storytelling unit and what it means for web3.
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