I might have been struck by a little bit of FOMO this week by not owning a certain frog-shaped JPEG.

Opepen —the originally free NFT by Jack Butcher— launched to new heights when it was the main character in an influencer-centered challenge.

But why? What is it? What does it mean? And why was my highest engagement Twitter post in weeks just some Opepen picture (I’m not bitter)?

Here’s a quick rundown— and it’s only a day later than normal. 💅

OPEPEN BEGINNINGS

Jack Butcher is the master marketer who started it all. The former creative director for Fortune 100 brands started a consulting agency called Visualize Value before moving on to creating NFTs.

Checks - VV Edition was an $8 January 2023 mint of simple colored checkmarks that symbolized the ridiculousness of the new Twitter verification process. Butcher started experimenting with changing the metadata (i.e. image) of Checks, and the floor price shot up when burn mechanics were introduced.

His next collection, Opepen Edition, was launched a week after Checks. It was a free mint that lasted for 60 minutes and about 16K were minted. This was a nod to the open edition meta in the NFT space that had a chokehold on us all in late 2022, and of course to the iconic Pepe meme.

After Butcher teased an Opepen PFP (profile picture), people started creating tools to “Opepe-fy” their own PFP and posted the results on Twitter. This means creating a new Opepen-shaped PFP based on colors from their existing one.

This simple and fun expression would become the basis for the entire growing Opepen meta. People also experimented with AI images to reimagine Opepen as other types of objects.

THE NEXT CHAPTER

In April, it was revealed that Opepens would get Edition Sizes within the original 16K supply. There will be 200 collections within the collection — revealing just 80 Opepens at a time — in order to “map an infinite number of combinations of visual consciousness onto a recognizable symbol."

Holders can opt into each “pack drop” based on if they like the art or not. Some holders may have rarer Opepens, but they won’t know it unless they opt into a pack drop and get chosen to be revealed.

So far, there have been 9 drops out of 200, and 720 total have been revealed out of 16K. The floor for revealed Opepens is currently higher than it is for unrevealed.

All of this is driving towards “the idea > the image,” and trying to continuously hold and capture attention in a fast-moving space.

THE INFLUENCER CHALLENGE

This week’s Opepen mania all started when influencer BoredElonMusk offered another influencer ThreadGuy his rare Opepen in exchange for his highly recognizable Mutant Ape.

The reason that BoredElonMusk wanted ThreadGuy to accept is because ThreadGuy is a highly popular NFT Twitter influencer, and BoredElonMusk owns a lot of Opepens. By having ThreadGuy rep an Opepen as his PFP, it would bring a lot of attention to the collection.

ThreadGuy didn’t end up accepting the offer, leaving about $40K on the table. But Jack Butcher stepped into the ongoing discussion to drop a ThreadGuy-themed Opepen picture. ThreadGuy ultimately decided to change his PFP to that instead, a move that surprised many in the space.

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THE THREADITION “FOR THE CULTURE”

After ThreadGuy changed his PFP, Jack Butcher created a special “Opepen Threadition” NFT mint for $2 to celebrate it. At the time of this post, nearly 50K have been minted, so ThreadGuy stands to earn at least $100K from it. It’s unclear when or if the mint will end.

Soon after the mint began, they had a massively attended (~7K people) Twitter Spaces discussion between the two of them, and talked about why Jack decided to create the 1 of 1 for ThreadGuy.

Why are people minting these if there’s an endless supply and no profit in sight?

They want to have a memory in their wallet of this unique moment in time and also want to have that provenance recorded in their wallet on the public blockchain. I minted some to feel something.

…IT SPREADS LIKE WILDFIRE

TLDR: Everyone on NFT Twitter soon after reimagined their own PFP in the style of Opepens. Like… everyone. 

People in the NFT space enjoy when big deals like Jack Butcher acknowledge the efforts of the greater community who show up on a daily basis. It’s a win-win for both ThreadGuy and Opepen brand awareness.

Efforts like these also bring together web3 communities that are normally somewhat competitive with each other.

Some of the web3 participants in the fun:

• OpenSea changed PFP

• Rarible changed PFP

• Flow Blockchain changed PFP

• CoinGecko changed PFP

• Ledger changed PFP

• Axie Infinity changed PFP

• Magic Eden changed PFP

• Beeple created different Everydays featuring the event

As a result of all the attention, the unrevealed Opepen Edition’s floor skyrocketed from 0.5 eth up to 0.85 eth. While it’s come back down to earth a bit, it remains in the 0.7 eth range ahead of the set 010 announcement.

Floor price data: NFTstats.eth

Good news: you haven’t missed out yet on Checks or Opepens, which ultimately celebrate permissionless, distributed creative efforts.

Jack Butcher’s plans for Opepen and Checks are apparently just getting started, so if you want to know what’s next (Infinity Checks?), check out this video from Giancarlo.

I can only hope that this rising tide lifts all for this tough market. But I do love a feel-good story on NFT Twitter that anyone can participate in. It warms my lil frozen heart. 💙

we can only hope it was, tg

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All the excitement about the Apple Vision Pro has everyone thinking about connecting the digital and physical worlds.

But we blockchain nerds have been doing that for years— authenticating ownership of digital assets to enable physical asset ownership as well.

Some web3 brands have gone beyond ownership, expanding their IP to people who have never heard of an NFT.

Here are the latest updates in the web3 digital-meets-physical world.

PS: the horrific word phygital shall not be used in this post; you’re welcome.

TRUNKS: LOUIS VUITTON

Gucci, Tiffany, Hermès, Prada have dabbled in NFTs, and now Louis Vuitton. The iconic luxury fashion brand is releasing hundreds of VIA Treasure Trunk NFTs for a luxury price tag: over $41K each. 😵‍💫

It’s part of a collection called “Via,” the Latin word for road, because it acts as an elite pathway for exclusive products and experiences. The trunk NFTs are soulbound, meaning once they are in a wallet, they can’t be sold or transferred out.

Registered waitlist customers will fill out their details on June 8, and be able to purchase the trunk with crypto or fiat on June 16. Later on, holders will receive a made-to-order physical twin of their trunk. Customers will also get access to additional immersive drops, planned to occur at regular intervals throughout the year.

SWEATERS: CHROMIE SQUIGGLES

Not like I’m biased or anything, but Chromie Squiggles are some of the most well-known collectibles out there. Tribute Brand recently announced a collaboration with the collection and the Waste Yarn Project called ODDS.

Each of the 999 sustainably-made sweaters is derived from the on-chain source code of a Chromie Squiggle. Upon mint, each unique output will generate both digital and physical objects for each collector.

Starting on Thursday, June 8, Squiggle holders can purchase for 0.3 ETH (public is 0.33 ETH the next day). Every sweater is hand-stitched and takes 12 hours to make! They also have NFC chips in each, linking to the digital object.

These awesome sweaters won’t make it with you to Marfa this year, though; the earliest shipping is in December 2023.

RETAIL ENTERTAINMENT: DOODLES x CAMP

Doodles is well-known for fun IRL activations, but they’re taking their mission to new levels. Their latest announcement with CAMP has Disney Store-ish vibes.

CAMP is known for its hybrid shop/play concept and operates locations in major cities like LA, NYC, Dallas, and Atlanta. Each CAMP location also features a rotating theme, like Encanto or The Little Mermaid.

Doodles will have dedicated merchandise, toy stores, immersive experiences, and family-friendly programming in this collaboration, starting this summer.

Through the partnership, they have the opportunity to engage with people in the real world, introducing them to its art and characters, and its digital collector experience The Stoodio.

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NFT COLLECTIONS → PHYSICAL TOYS

It’s not easy to launch and sustain a line of physical toys. But many NFT collections have gone this route, all with different strategies.

• Pudgy Penguins has a line of toys that links to a digital experience, Pudgy World, for non-web3 natives. Included in each toy is a birth certificate that unlocks a unique trait box from season 1 of Pudgy World. You can equip those traits onto your Forever Pudgy Penguin, buy and sell those traits, and play mini-games with your friends.

• Invisible Friends launched physical toys in May, where the NFT could be burned for an 8-inch or 24-inch toy. They were designed by Nguyen Nhut, Markus Magnusson and coinbilly, and each collectible has a unique invisible effect.

• VeeFriends has created toys before, but now they have… toy vending machines. 🤔 Gary Vee’s project is asking interested retail partners to apply to sell 1-inch rubber toys based on VeeFriends characters for 50 cents each. The program is “designed to expand the VeeFriends IP at scale through collectible toys at an affordable price.”

LUGGAGE: RTFKT COLLAB

Hoodies are cool, but what about bougie luggage? Nike-owned RTFKT has teamed up with German luxury luggage brand RIMOWA to reward NFT holders with limited edition real-life luggage.

The description says: “Combining their respective craftsmanship, RTFKT and RIMOWA have come together to create a RTFKT x RIMOWA limited edition Original Cabin Luggage, with only 888 pieces produced – a nod to the luck associated with the number in the web3 world.”

For anyone interested, act fast: the forging event ends today, June 7 at 11:59 CET. Check out the NFTs here— only the luggage tokens are redeemable (current floor 0.9 ETH).

Our beloved jpegs are making their way off of our screens and into our physical worlds.

Digital assets can do more than just be printed and hung on walls. With some of these latest collaborations, we’re exploring new frontiers and discovering more fun use cases.

But please, for the love of god, can we all agree to find a new word to describe the combination of digital and physical? 😖⬇️

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Bitcoin inscriptions keep hanging around my timeline, with their orange backgrounds and marathon Twitter Spaces.

Ordinals, BRC-20 “tokens,” and .sats names are becoming difficult to ignore, as more notable figures in the space get more curious about them and their use cases. Transaction volumes are increasing, with Bitcoin taking the #2 NFT 30-day volume spot behind Ethereum.

Participating hasn’t always been easy. It can be time-consuming to learn what’s up with these and how to get set up to buy. But good news: I learned it for you! 💃

Set yourself up for some Bitcoin-y web3 fun today with a few steps below.

_{Note: Like many other digital assets, these can be highly speculative and risky. Please use caution when transacting.}

1. GET A WALLET

Just like your beloved Metamask or Phantom, first, you’ll need a web-based wallet— Electrum and Sparrow are so three months ago.

Here are the most up-to-date options for wallets that can support Ordinals, BRC-20, .sats names and more. Almost all of them also allow you to inscribe without a Bitcoin node. I have one of each of these because I wanted to try them all 😄

• Ordinals Wallet (note: can’t use this on Magic Eden)

• Hiro (great all-around wallet)

• Unisat (more focused on BRC-20)

• Xverse (has a mobile app)

You’ll get a seed phrase of a string of words when you sign up for one. Don’t lose or share this seed phrase or else you won’t be able to recover your wallet and its contents!

Please note Ledger does support Ordinals and Trezor doesn’t plan to. I’m personally keeping it to web wallets for the time being.

Funding your wallet with BTC can be done in multiple ways, including from Coinbase directly. But beware of the next point…

2. YOU GOTTA KEEP ‘EM SEPARATED 🧍 🧍

Unlike Ethereum where you can co-mingle NFTs and ETH, you’ll need one address for your BTC, and another for your Ordinals.

One is a normal BTC address, the other is called a Taproot address. Taproot is the protocol that Ordinals was born from.

If you mix the two, you risk losing your BTC, your Ordinals, or both. Why? A regular BTC wallet doesn’t have “coin control,” meaning it may accidentally yeet your poor inscription into the darkness, thinking it’s just a regular piece of a Bitcoin. That’s why you need a Taproot address starting with bc1p.

When new Ordinals projects are releasing allowlist info, they’ll normally ask for both of these addresses. Know the difference!

Hiro Wallet screenshot showing the different address types. Don’t ask about a stamp or stacks yet lol

3. KNOW YOUR PROTOCOLS

Everything inscribed on Bitcoin is inscribed in order on the blockchain, hence the word Ordinals. Anyone can see a realtime running list of everything being inscribed: images, video, text, etc. (but beware, you may see something bad!).

In Ethereum, there are various types of NFTs with different use cases. The Bitcoin Ordinals community has been experimenting with developing their own, based on the same naming convention. Here are a few, but more are popping up daily (for real I can’t keep up).

• BRC-20: This super-popular experiment, which aims to create fungible tokens using Ordinals, is what has led to a skyrocketing number of inscriptions. Even though the creator has said they are “worthless,” the market cap has soared past $1 billion, and “tokens” like $OXBT have seen 100x.

  • For a current list of BRC-20 and their market caps, check here.

  • For a step-by-step on how to mint BRC-20s on Unisat (friggen degen), check here.

  • FYI: Anybody can inscribe BRC-20 tokens (up to their max supply) as a JSON text file, so a majority will probably be worthless. The exchanges are done over-the-counter, and liquidity is hard to come by.

• BRC-721: These are more flexible than Ordinals, allowing NFTs to have multiple attributes instead of one. It also adds support for collections; Ordinals currently do not provide a standard way to combine items into collections.

• BRC-721E: This lets you burn ERC-721 Ethereum NFTs and inscribe them to Ordinals. Seems dramatic but ok 😄

• BRC-1155: The idea behind this is to reduce gas for inscribing multiple images by… replacing them with code. Then, a front-end official website with the indexer of BRC-1155 standard will be built for users to see their image inscriptions directly.

Top 5 BRC-20 by Market Cap

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4. EXPLORE THE MARKET

Yes, we’ve graduated from the Google Docs (for the most part). There are several marketplaces where you can buy and sell Ordinal NFTs, .sats names and BRC-20s. These include (in order of market share by volume):

• Magic Eden

• Unisat

• Ordinals Wallet

• Ordswap

• Ordinals Market

• Gamma

While you can check any of these individually, my favorite aggregator to check Bitcoin NFT floor prices and data has been Best In Slot. 

When you purchase a Bitcoin Ordinal NFT, marketplaces use something called a PSBT — a Partially Signed Bitcoin Transaction — to facilitate the trustless trade. There are no smart contracts, no spending gas and failing to mint, and no giving permission to anything. There is also no way to enforce royalties.

Some think that lower inscription numbers matter; others don’t. When it comes to spending your hard-earned BTC, my not-financial-advice is to browse collections and check out their communities on Discord and/or Twitter. If the community isn’t enthusiastic and active, look elsewhere.

5. INSCRIBE A .SATS NAME FOR FUNSIES (it’s like $4)

A .sats name is a text file you inscribe, with similar use cases to ENS names. It’s a way to simplify your BTC wallet address from a string of numbers to something like corporatetrash.sats. 02.sats recently sold on the secondary market for $14K, the highest one so far.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Go to https://unisat.io/inscribe and connect a wallet with ~$5 of BTC in it

2. Click .sats names and type in your preferred name(s)

3. If someone else has already inscribed it first, you’ll see a red box. If not, you’ll see a green box.

4. Click submit and pay invoice. It gives you up to 1 hour to pay.

Many wallets and marketplaces are still implementing .sats names, so stay tuned to their official Twitter for updates.

6. JOIN THE COMMUNITY

The best place to start and find other collectors (and upcoming collections) is to join some of the Discord servers for the various marketplaces or wallets that I listed above.

You can also join some Twitter spaces like The Ordinal Show and start to follow people who speak on the spaces.

There are a couple of communities that celebrate inscription numbers lower than 1k, 10k, and 100k. These are some of the most passionate and active communities, so check them out and verify if you have ownership of an inscription in those ranges.

Now you have no excuse to not at least be minorly curious about NFTs on Bitcorn. 🌽

They may be squarely in their animal PFP phase right now, but people are paying attention to where this all goes, on the biggest blockchain there is.

The top two BRC-20 tokens and the top two Ordinal collections were all free mints. So don’t lose the plot and FOMO in. Having a wallet already set up will prepare you for any interesting opportunity that comes your way.

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It’s no surprise that Ledger is delaying their controversial Recover product after decentralization maxis and degens demanded answers.

But even before all that went down, I was inspired to write about cold wallets from this tweet by Carlini, which made me reflect on how confusing all the crypto wallet things can get.

We’ve all been guilty of connecting our wallets to suspicious sites, and then visiting revoke.cash in a panic. It’s not a fun feeling.

Here are five common cold wallet myths, solved… including me exposing my own misunderstanding. 🤡

MYTH 1: HARDWARE WALLETS=COLD WALLETS, AND THEY’RE AUTOMATICALLY SAFE

We’ve seen the disasters, the scams, the phishing. Somewhere right now, a despondent Bored Ape Yacht Club holder may be saying: “But I used a cold wallet, how could they get me?!”

A hardware device like Ledger stores your private keys offline, which is great to help protect you from online hacks.

BUT— using a hardware wallet only works as a “cold wallet” if you treat it as one. This means no connecting to dApps or smart contracts, including degen mints, and keeping it inactive except for storage and transferring assets to and from it. 🔐

You can actually use a hardware wallet as a “hot wallet” by connecting it recklessly to minting sites and dApps, and FOMO-signing transactions in a hurry. Sure, you’re using your hardware device, but you’re still signing something, and your crypto and NFTs could be at risk. It can’t protect you from social engineering.

MYTH 2: YOUR CRYPTO/NFTS ARE STORED ON THE DEVICE ITSELF

The reason I don’t use Ledger anymore is that my first one malfunctioned so hard with my Mac. I tried some YouTube fix to restart it that was way out of my screwdriver skills comfort zone. I swiftly broke it, and it was ded forever.

But good news! Your crypto and NFTs aren’t stored on the device. It’s not a USB drive. Can you believe?

me having a public revelation 2 years ago

As long as you have your wallet’s seed phrase, it’s no problem if your Ledger dies or you lose it. Simply restore it via seed phrase into any new Ethereum wallet, either browser-based like MetaMask or hardware-based. Your crypto and NFTs are stored on-chain, not on your ded device. ⛓️

So I guess you could wear it around your neck if you wanted to. But for the love of fashion, maybe you just don’t.

MYTH 3: A “SEED PHRASE” IS THE SAME THING AS A “PRIVATE KEY”

Not gonna lie, I thought these were the same thing until semi-recently. Anyone else? But it turns out that your seed phrase (also known as recovery or backup phrase) is simply a way to access your private keys in a different format.

• Seed Phrase: Once a wallet is created, an algorithm randomly selects 12, 18 or 24 words from a list of 2,048 words. This seed phrase is the master key to all of the private keys generated under that seed phrase.

• Private Key: Cryptographically secure 256-bit numbers that unlock access to public keys, and they are generated when the wallet is created.

• Public Key: Public keys are addresses on the blockchain that enable cryptocurrency recipients to receive funds. They are derived from private keys.

Private keys grant access to individual blockchain accounts. Seed phrases grant access to entire blockchain wallets that secure multiple blockchain accounts.

Example of the Seed Phrase/Private Key Relationship

MYTH 4: THERE ARE ONLY TWO HARDWARE WALLET BRANDS

When we think about crypto cold wallets and hardware wallets, most of us think Ledger or Trezor. These are both leaders in the space, and their software features are continually improving. But these are far from the only choices.

Some hardware wallets connect to both desktop and mobile devices, use QR code connectivity, or use a card-like device for portability.

Some are best for crypto, best for NFTs, best for Macs or PCs, or have touchscreens.

It all depends on what you’re looking for. This recent article offers many different hardware wallets and compares their features and prices.

MYTH 5: NEVER USE A HOT WALLET OR AN EXCHANGE

All of this talk about the importance of wallet security in crypto leads some to say: “I’m only going to use hardware wallets.” But that isn’t always right for everybody.

A “hot wallet” (web-based wallet) like MetaMask is more susceptible to online hacks, but it’s extremely convenient for everyday transactions. Be wary of keeping too much crypto or valuable NFTs in these types of wallets, and also while using mobile wallets, but don’t let it shy you away from using them at all (although MM has had their own FUD lately).

As for exchanges (like Coinbase), well… some are better than others. Many web3 people only use exchanges as an “offramp” to convert crypto into fiat. That is what I use them for, but it doesn’t mean millions of people don’t store their crypto on them.

The benefit is that the exchange is responsible for holding your private keys instead of you, so you can’t lose the keys. However, that’s also the risk of the situation— you need to trust the exchange with your funds, and that hasn’t always worked out great.

To exchange or not to exchange?

Understanding the nuances of crypto wallets can be highly challenging for beginners and experts alike.

I personally go by the “four wallet” method to keep different security levels for different types of assets: degen hot, hot, lukewarm, and cold.

To this day, I’m still always learning about best practices for security. Remember to use services like delegate.cash and revoke.cash to better protect your wallets which hold valuable assets.

And never, ever, ever share your seed phrase with anyone— they’ll have immediate access to withdraw your funds and assets, with no way to reverse it. 😪

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Cryptoys are digital collectible toys that live on the Flow blockchain. They have incredible partnerships with some of the biggest brands in the world, including Mattel and Disney.

But most importantly? They’re fun!

The company was founded in 2018 by entrepreneur Will Weinraub. They have since built out a team that is laser-focused on bringing the digital toy experience to as many collectors as possible.

Here’s a deep dive all about Cryptoys, how you can collect, and what’s coming up next.

_{Editor’s note: Today’s issue of business x blockchain is brought to you by Cryptoys, our valued newsletter partner. For sponsorship inquiries, please reply to this email or contact me on Twitter.}

WHAT ARE CRYPTOYS?

Cryptoys are interactive digital toys, wrapped in surprise unboxing experiences, and distributed on the Flow blockchain. Fun, playful, and interactive, Cryptoys blend toys, collectibles, and gaming to unlock a whole new universe of possibilities. Each toy has a limited supply, so collect them while supplies last.

Your Cryptoys are the key to various apps and gaming experiences. Each Cryptoy character is composed of different characteristics that make them truly unique: Series, Tier, Rarity, Edition, Mint, Skin, and Stat-O-Meter Level.

Inspired by his daughter’s obsession with collecting physical surprise pack toys, CEO Will Weinraub co-founded OnChain Studios with CTO Emilio Cueto, CXO Alfonso Martinez, CCO Freddy Oropeza, and COO Jhonathan Torres. Gaming is leaning towards more “social play” than ever, and Cryptoys believes that the blockchain will help enable this.

HOW TO COLLECT

It’s simple to sign up and collect Cryptoys with your debit or credit card. You don’t need to be a blockchain expert to collect, interact, buy, or sell your collectible toys.

All you need is an account and a method of payment. Once purchased, your Cryptoys Cubes will appear in your personal Cryptoys Backpack. From there, you control what to do next:

• Keep your Cryptoys Cubes unopened

• Unbox your Cryptoys Cubes to reveal your blister-packed toy (this is usually how I leave mine!)

• Unwrap your toy and watch as your new friend comes to life on The Block, plus future metaverse and gaming experiences

You can collect Zoo-F-O Escape and Masters of the Universe drops right now, while supplies last.

STAR WARS x CRYPTOYS

Exciting news! On May 24, 15 limited-edition Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Darth Vader collectible digital toys will land in the Cryptoyverse, paired with powerful weapons in a one-of-a-kind immersive experience. You won’t want to miss this epic drop.

Unbox your Holocron to be transported into an immersive experience with many surprises. Unveil the path to the light side or dark side of the force, where you'll discover which blister-packed digital toys and rarity skins you're adding to your collection.

To get involved with all the upcoming events leading up to the Star Wars drop, check out Cryptoys on Twitter and Discord at https://discord.gg/cryptoys.

Cryptoys has been building a unique experience for digital collectors of all ages, all while strengthening its partnerships and community.

Opening a cube is probably one of the most exciting unboxing experiences in web3. The marketplace to sell your collectibles isn’t open quite yet, but in the meantime, come join the Discord, say hi, and start your collection to join the fun.

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It’s been about a minute since I wrote about Ordinals, a new protocol that’s reinvigorated NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain.

In early February, collectors went crazy for low-number inscriptions (Ordinals NFTs), even paying over 10 BTC for some of them. 😵‍💫

But since then, the bear market has reared its ugly head. Are people still building for Bitcoin NFTs? Is the excitement still around? What about the volume? Can people buy & sell without trusting an internet random?

Here’s an update on what you need to know about Ordinals since they flew onto the scene a few months ago.

NEW MARKETPLACES, WALLETS & ANALYTICS

As Ordinals volume has caught on (it’s still down bad in the last 30 days like the rest of the market), marketplaces sprung up which enabled users to do something that was previously impossible: buy and sell their BTC NFT trustlessly, without an escrow, without smart contracts. Can you believe?

• Ordinals Wallet, Magic Eden, and Ordinals Market now have the most volume in terms of market share. They are all battling it out by adding new partnerships and features. Emblem Vault is still popular for those who are familiar with Ethereum but want to experiment with BTC NFTs.

• Hiro, Xverse, Unisat and Ordinals Wallet are the current popular wallets for Ordinals. I feel like I’m in the stone age with my Sparrow and even Electrum wallets, which are so two months ago. I gotta get with the times and migrate some of my Ordinals over.

• As for analytics, Wizord is a new floor-tracking site that takes data from the top Ordinals marketplaces. Ordinals Global tweets about key collection stats, and so do OrdinalHub and HazeOrdinals.

• The top all-time volume projects are TwelveFold, Bitcoin Punks, DeGods III, Ordinal Punks, Bitcoin Rocks, and Bitcoin Apes. But you know there are still Google Docs out there tracking OG projects… so maybe I’m missing a few.

Wizord.io

BRC-20s DRIVING INSCRIPTION VOLUME

“This is just a fun experimental standard demonstrating that you can create off-chain balance states with inscriptions,” the creator said. But these have still contributed massively to setting all-time daily volume records for inscriptions.

BRC-20s are an experiment with token creation on the base layer of Bitcoin. They are inscribed as text JSON data, which stores a script file. These files attribute tokens to Satoshis and then allow them to move from one user to another.

The creator domodata himself warned us:

But you know that’s never stopped degens from trying to create a market. So guess what… these odd little “tokens” now have a marketplace, through UniSat. 😂

That’s even too degen for me, so I’m out. But godspeed (and be extremely cautious). Don’t even get me started on .sats names…

girl i am lost.

YUGA GOES AFTER MARKETPLACES FOR IP

When NFTs pop up on a new blockchain, the first thing we see on it is copypasta NFT collections. They just copy and paste existing art from other blockchains. These are low-effort, but they already have built-in recognition as being important by others in the NFT space, so they can sometimes perform strangely well.

But as we know from their latest lawsuit win, Yuga Labs isn’t playing with their Bored Ape Yacht Club IP.

The company issued requests to popular Ordinals marketplaces to take down collections that copied apes, like Bit Apes and Bitcoin Apes.

Many ask: Why didn’t Yuga also request to take down CryptoPunk copies like Bitcoin Punks? This may be because the Yuga/BAYC logo isn’t shown on any Punks, but it is shown on many Ape clothes and hats.

But the debate rages on about what is enforceable IP and what isn’t, as copypasta collections are now par for the web3 course.

Yuga isn’t having it.

DO LOW-NUMBER INSCRIPTIONS STILL MATTER?

One of the most interesting things that are springing up is the low-number inscription clubs. These have similar vibes to .ENS domain maxis, who put emphasis on low-character number names that sell for a premium.

Early in Ordinals, many speculated by purchasing as many sub-10k inscriptions as they could, regardless of what the NFT art was. The gold rush was on.

There are now many Discord and Twitter communities for sub-100, 1k, 5k, 10k, 100k holders, and more, who connect about Ordinals projects and the latest news. Magic Eden has also launched “low inscription clubs” which help Ordinals collectors find low-inscription NFTs. Low-inscription “collections” still sell at a premium to many others.

But now that Ordinals have blown past 1.75 million (and are adding ~150k more each day), are low inscriptions still important or considered “historical?” Or will Ordinals at any inscription number become more about the art and the community around it? 🤔

Magic Eden’s low-inscription number filter

There may not be as much NFT volume as on other blockchains, but there’s never a dull moment in Ordinals land.

I own a few Ordinals, but once the boom came I couldn’t keep up with all the new projects, marketplaces, and wallet tech. The tight-knit community seems to be continuing to thrive within the nascent protocol, always hosting spaces and chatting about building.

Questions remain to be seen about the long-term popularity of Ordinals. Were Yuga Labs, Bugatti, DeGods & OnChainMonkey just experimenting or are they committed to more?

What I do know is that it’s all weird, strangely technical, and kinda fun to follow along with their journey. So I’ll be here, along with my other 8k total buyers of NFTs right now. 🥲🫂

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In this bearish NFT szn, Jack Butcher is experimenting with mechanisms for the long haul of web3.

The former creative director for Fortune 100 brands started a consulting agency called Visualize Value before moving on to creating NFTs in 2021.

Butcher released the free Checks collection in January 2023, and has also introduced Originals and Opepen Editions. His minimalistic style brings a breath of fresh air to all our timelines. But his latest announcement yesterday has everyone in web3 talking.

Here’s a breakdown of what this Opepen odyssey means, and where it began.

CHECKS: THE ORIGIN STORY

Checks - VV Edition were a free January mint of simple colored checkmarks that symbolized the new Twitter verification process. Before the Elon Musk Twitter era, this verified check mark next to your name was earned. Now, it’s for anyone who can pay for it; hence the fine print: “this account may or may not be notable.”

According to the website, “Checks is an infinite canvas for expression that is designed to challenge the concept of ownership and authorship in the age of the internet.” ☑️

Butcher started experimenting with changing the metadata (image) of the Checks NFT, and the floor price shot up when a burn was introduced. This burn returns a random-trait immutable Checks Originals NFT at a 2:1 ratio (example: burn 2 x 80-grid VV Checks = 40 Checks Originals grid).

The lower the grid number, the more desirable; all the way down to the single black check, which has yet to be revealed. Holders also get to decide which token ID to keep, which is yet another point of experimentation.

Checks went crazy in February and pumped to an over 2 ETH floor. Image: @spenduehh

OPEPEN MANIA

Alongside the Checks mint in January, Butcher also released an NFT collection called Opepen Edition for a mint duration of 60 minutes. This was a nod to the open edition meta in the NFT space that exploded in late 2022, and of course to the iconic Pepe meme (which the internet is still obsessed with).

After Butcher teased an Opepen PFP, people started creating tools to “Opepe-fy” their own PFP and posted the results on Twitter. They took the original canvas and created a new PFP based on colors from their existing one, which was a strangely fun exercise, even for non-holders.

A few weeks later, Butcher created a detailed thread about exploring AI to reimagine the Opepen in different forms, and then changed the metadata to all the same image. The community anxiously awaited his next announcement about the future of Opepens. 👀

Opepen comes in many forms. Image: @jackbutcher

SPONSORED POST: CRYPTOYS

Cryptoys is creating an elevated collector experience like no other– and their latest drop is now live. I personally love their box-opening experience… and deciding whether to unwrap it from the plastic or not.

Collecting Cryptoys is more like collecting physical toys than typical NFT offerings. The Genesis drop contains 10,000 toys each for Corgi, Kitty, and Panda with unique skins for seven rarity levels. The more scarce the rarity skin is, the more powerful it will become.

With 21 possibilities, you’ll want to collect them all!

THE “SUB-EDITION” ANNOUNCEMENT

Yesterday, Butcher tweeted a huge thread about the ambitious future of Opepens. There will be 200 collections within the collection — revealing 80 Opepens at a time — in order to “map an infinite number of combinations of visual consciousness onto a recognizable symbol."

The more low-number Checks Originals one owns, it increases the likelihood of the Opepen being revealed in an earlier, lower number drop. Butcher says this mechanic should allow both collections to live alongside one another without conflict.

The thread also questioned the future of NFT PFPs as we know them, and discusses how the insane growth of AI will result in the commodification of image-making. Therefore, “the idea > the image.” 

Butcher also tweeted that an announcement on Friday would shed some more light on this— perhaps it will be the first sub-edition reveal.

What will it look like? What will it be? What will it do?

At the time of writing this, the floor on Opepen Editions are 0.39 ETH and Checks Originals are at 0.36 ETH.

A blank Opepen canvas.

The web3 space is always evolving and changing. Butcher’s experimental mechanics and stunning visuals are drawing attention from all corners of the NFT space.

His stream-of-consciousness tweet style allows his collectors to see his process for evolving Checks and Opepens in real-time, adding additional transparency and community involvement.

As many of us watch our portfolio values droop day after day, Butcher inspires a good dose of curiosity and wonder— which is what brought many of us together here in the first place.

nft twitter when jack butcher tweets two words:

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This is a fun week already. ETH is flirting with $2k, BTC hit $30k, we had a Reddit avatar journey, and many in Web3 have descended upon the city for NFT NYC.

Let’s zoom out to get some insights about the big picture from one of the biggest web3 VCs in the game: a16z crypto.

Their annual State of Crypto Report just came out, and this year they’ve also added an index to better track trends in the industry.

Here are some interesting learnings from the 60+ page report.

JOB INTEREST REMAINS HIGH

Even with all of the (ahem) interesting news in crypto over the past year, job search interest remains high in the space. I thought that the likes of Celsius and SBF would have turned job seekers off, at least down to 2020 levels.

But with all the technological advances and new opportunities across blockchains, job seekers are still interested. a16z noted that crypto job interest seems to generally correlate with crypto prices. Hey, we have short memories— that tracks.

ACTIVE ADDRESSES STILL GROWING; MOBILE WALLET USERS DECLINING

You love to see this chart of active addresses growing across major blockchains. But there are some challenges here that we also face with NFT buyer data: just because addresses are growing doesn’t necessarily mean unique users are.

It’s simple to have 5, 15, or 500 addresses. We can’t know for sure if more actual people are transacting and adopting crypto.

But since this is the only data we can rely on, I’ll take the good news and keep it moving. 😶‍🌫️ It is interesting, though, that the same report shows mobile wallet users are on the decline. Whoever these addresses are, they aren’t using their phones to transact as much as they used to.

SPONSORED POST: CRYPTOYS

Cryptoys is creating an elevated collector experience like no other– and their latest drop is now live. I personally love their box-opening experience… and deciding whether to unwrap it from the plastic or not.

Collecting Cryptoys is more like collecting physical toys than typical NFT offerings. The Genesis drop contains 10,000 toys each for Corgi, Kitty, and Panda with unique skins for seven rarity levels. The more scarce the rarity skin is, the more powerful it will become.

With 21 possibilities, you’ll want to collect them all!

THE U.S. IS LOSING CRYPTO ADOPTERS

Perhaps Coinbase said it best in their frustrated post about their Wells notice: “Tell us the rules and we will follow them.” 

But the U.S. has not been very clear on the rules. While deciding, they have sometimes banned entire technologies and decentralized software.

There are many proposed regulations and impactful cases to be decided soon, which will shape how the U.S. embraces (or rebuffs) this massive industry. In the meantime, the number of U.S. crypto devs has been dropping, and so has traffic on crypto websites. 🥲

NFTs ARE JUST A TINY PART OF ETH’s $417 BILLION ECONOMY

I was shaken out of my ETH NFT bubble when I saw this tiny dot representing NFTs on Ethereum ($22 billion). I don’t really mess with ERC20 tokens, so I didn’t realize what their gigantic market cap was. $172 billion is no joke.

This is also topical for the moment: Today’s Ethereum Shanghai upgrade means that the $33B of staked ETH (which secures the network) will finally be able to be withdrawn by its stakers (with daily limits). According to some, this could cause some short-term volatility with ETH.

The a16z 2023 State of Crypto report generally shows that interest remains and technology is still advancing, even in a bearish market.

Web3 gaming, zero-knowledge rollups, and real big-brand interest in digital collectibles/NFTs are some of the biggest themes in the report.

There’s so much more info in there, including an active NFT buyers chart showing an increase. But the source for that chart is CryptoSlam, which does something with Blur “wash sales” volume that isn’t fully clear…

In any case, I love a good data set, and the new index will be something I monitor as it updates on a monthly basis.

a16z crypto’s predictions for this year and beyond.

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Yuga Labs shocked the NFT world on Monday by announcing their generative art collection TwelveFold… on Bitcoin. 😱

On the same day, they also had a massive Sewer Pass 1-of-1 key sale— and even got their royalty cut.

Last June, Yuga was valued at $4 billion. In a world of looming crypto regulation and lawsuits, Blur-ry NFT volume data, and projects tightening their purse strings— they continue to be the biggest player in the space.

Here are the stories behind the biggest Yuga Labs sales of 2023.

Weirdly, they nearly all have blue backgrounds…

BAYC 4025 - $609K

j1mmy was the original minter of this robot Ape. The seller thiscat doesn’t have a Twitter account, but they own many other high-end Apes. The sale was made on X2Y2, likely to avoid paying royalties.

The buyer n0b0dy.eth also owns two gold fur Apes, four trippy Apes, eight blue-beam Apes, and many other high-end NFTs. BAYC 4025 was an addition to their 4-trait Ape collection.

BAYC 5840 (& its 2 Mutants) - $804K

This sale wasn’t just for one BAYC— it was for a set of three blue beam Apes. Some grail NFT collectors seek out full sets of Apes, including the BAYC, its M1 mutant, its M2 mutant, and its BAKC dog.

OSF was the original minter of this Ape. You may know him as one of the two who liquidated 71 Apes for $9 million, so he’s doing just fine these days. 💅

The seller was ptm.eth, the founder of Fragment.xyz and the Applied Primate collection.

The buyer was n0b0dy.eth, who was also the buyer of the 4-trait robot. They have been going on an Ape shopping spree in 2023.

BAYC 7090 - $1.3 million

j1mmy was the lucky seller of this solid gold, rainbow grill Ape. It is the 62nd rarest Ape in the collection. The sale took place on X2Y2.

The minter of this Ape is anon, but they own many other Apes that are all currently listed.

“PimpCapital” was the buyer. They own a few Punks and Apes, but also bought a rare DeadGod for $220k.

PUNK 5066 - $1.4 million

PROOF CEO and entrepreneur Kevin Rose sold the zombie Punk he had held onto for 2 years. He purchased it for about $20k, so not a bad ROI. This is one of 88 zombie Punks in the collection.

Who did KRO buy the punk from back in the day? None other than Snowfro, the creator of Art Blocks and the Chromie Squiggle.

The buyer of this Punk with provenance was bitshamed.eth, who now owns two Punks and two Azukis.

SEWER PASS GOLDEN KEY - $1.6 million

This wasn’t just the biggest Yuga Labs sale of the year— this was the biggest NFT sale of the year, period. And we don’t even know what this key even does.

18-year-old professional Fortnite gamer Mongraal Dookey-Dashed his way into the #1 spot for the game out of over 20,000 players. After turning down a 690 ETH offer from Pixel Vault’s UPDAO and a 999 ETH offer from Memeland, he sold it to billionaire Adam Weitsman for 1,000 ETH on Monday.

This key sale also marked the third-highest eSports prize of all time, NFT or otherwise. Congrats to the kid. 🏆

Photo: @royka_eth

Yuga continues to benefit from being a first-mover into the 2021 bull market and embracing its community and its initiatives.

The “Summoning” phase for Sewer Passes starts March 8. Otherside’s next trip is in March. Despite insane Blur farming volume and several lawsuits, Yuga’s collection floor and their community have shown resiliency. By experimenting with Bitcoin Ordinals, the web3 giant is also showing they’re still nimble enough to try new things.

Tell a friend about BxB!

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It’s the wild wild west all over again.

About a week ago, Ordinals (“Bitcoin NFTs”) started spreading across NFT Twitter like wildfire— though some would say more like the plague.

Bitcoin developer Casey Rodarmor created Ordinals and released it to the world on January 21. He has since been making the rounds, educating people about these on-chain digital artifacts in individual satoshis.

Here are five things to know about Ordinals.

CURRENTLY, NO MARKETPLACE

No OpenSea, no Blur, no smart contracts, no nothin’. That’s right: if you’re going to buy something out of whatever Discord you’ve found yourself in, you gotta trust whoever is sending it. OTC (over-the-counter) only. 😵‍💫

To buy, you pay the person the asking price (in ETH or BTC usually), and they (hopefully) send it to your Ordinal-compatible wallet. Jesus take the wheel.

You can bet that people are already working on some creative solutions for this. Devs are looking to build offer-fulfilling systems in order to add some trustlessness.

TOUGH TO TRANSFER

Unless you are running a full Bitcoin node on your computer, it is currently extremely risky to transfer your Ordinal out of your Electrum (more risky) or Sparrow (less risky) wallet to another one.

I have an Ordinal by itself on an Electrum wallet (got it before I knew about Sparrow), and I’m waiting until the tech advances enough to safely transfer or sell it. Ordinal Wallet is also coming soon.

Because of these limitations, many people leave their paid Ordinal with the original inscriber for added liquidity speed. That’s right— people are trusting inscribers to keep it in escrow until a deal is ready, and usually cut them in on the deal a bit for their service. But please be careful out there, because not all are to be trusted.

EARLY INSCRIPTIONS: VALUED HIGHER

There are now well over 14,500 Ordinal inscriptions on Bitcoin. There was a rush to get under the first 10K on Monday, spiking gas fees to wild levels. Anyone can inscribe something on Bitcoin; it doesn’t mean a sale has been associated with it.

Generally, collectors value earlier inscriptions more than others, due to perceived historic value. Bitcoin Rocks were the first project on Ordinals, and have inscription numbers in the first few hundred. Ordinal Punks have numbers under 650.

Will collectors continue to seek out new projects, even if they’re inscribed over the 10K mark? Or will 10K and under remain king?

MANY ARE MAD

A large number of Bitcoin supporters are not happy about this. They argue that Ordinals goes against the original vision that Satoshi had for Bitcoin, and that all the inscribing is running up gas fees and bloating the network (which is also not good for the environment).

Some have referred to Ordinals as graffiti, a spam attack, and have called for a soft fork to fork them off.

However, they are likely here to stay, all thanks to the recent Taproot upgrade on Bitcoin, which removed the size limit of adding data to blocks.

Bitcoin maxi meme

…BUT MANY ARE BUYING

ETH whales and influencers have entered the chat, and they are buying these digital artifacts on Bitcoin.

• An Ordinal Punk sold the night of Feb 7 for an all-time high 2.3 BTC (“mint price” was .01 BTC). That is 31.9 ETH or $53,422… and many others have sold for over 1.5-2 BTC.

• An Inscribed Pepe was auctioned for 1.16 BTC, inscribed within the first 2,500.

• Bitcoin Rocks have sold for around 1 BTC each. Some Ordinal Loops, another sub-1K inscription collection, have gone for ~0.6-1.2 BTC.

Remember, many can’t even safely transfer or sell yet, so there is currently a supply shock. These collections are usually 100 max because of the high cost of inscribing on Bitcoin. This is of course very different than the 10K collections on ETH.

2.3 BTC Ordinal Punk Sale for Inscription 493

So…are we early on this? Or have we all just lost the plot?

Although buying Ordinals is fun, use your best judgment, because the scammers are already en route. 👀 If you want to dip your toes into this world, starting in the Ordinals Discord is the best place to be. For more technical info, dive into the docs.

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It is feeling a little bullish out here, innit?

Volume is cranking, things like "FeetPix" are selling, and there are some exciting mints this week. A rare HyperRainbow Chromie Squiggle even sold for 134 ETH ($171,135) over the weekend. 

Over the past few weeks, I've seen more interest in Squiggles than I have in a long time (and obviously, I own one). These generative art NFTs are the genesis collection of Art Blocks, from founder Snowfro. His second project, Friendship Bracelets, has been near the top of the trading volume charts for the last few days. 

There is more to unpack about these colorful NFTs than you may think. Here are five things you may not know about Chromie Squiggles. 

Photo: @Raylivez1

BEYOND THE TYPES

Squiggle metadata only tells part of the story. This includes Types like Normal, Slinky, Fuzzy, Ribbed, Bold, and more. But Squiggles have a whole other level of what makes up their most desired traits.

Color Spread: The lower, the better. 0.5 is the lowest, and it's reserved for Squiggles which are the most colorful (HyperRainbows). Overall, single-digit Color Spread is more sought after than double-digit. 

Day Zero: These prominent Squigs minted on November 27, 2020 ("Day 0") for a cost of .035 Ethereum each. There are currently 542, and people pay a premium for these. 

Shape: Some like an upward slope at the end, others like a down. Many like dense Squigs, and others like ones with fewer curves. Some enjoy shapes in the form of letters, or bats, or other objects. It's subjective what people think a "clean" Squiggle is-- but you know it when you see it (however, all Squiggles are beautiful 😄).

Harmonic (Ghost): A Ribbed Squiggle whose body blends in perfectly with the background. More specifically, the Ribbed color has to be a value incremented by 25 (0, 25, 50, 75 etc.). There are currently 35 in the collection; their floor price is 150 ETH.

A Ghost, Ribbed, Perfect Spectrum owned by punk6529.

Some of these "invisible traits" were teased by SquiggleDAO to be more visible soon. Stay tuned to their next Town Hall for more info. 

THE GRAILS: PERFECT & FULL SPECTRUMS

The rarest of all Squiggles are Perfect Spectrum (22) and Full Spectrum (42). Most of these are Normal, but some are other Types-- making them even rarer. 

Collector VonMises14 broke it down: Only a single combination of color spread (11), segments (14), and steps between segments (200) will result in a Perfect outcome.

He explains a Full Spectrum below:

Twitter tweet

Of the remaining 266 Squiggles left to mint, there are estimated to be 0 Perfect Spectrums and maybe 1 Full Spectrum left. This makes these existing grails even more exclusive. 

SQUIGS ON DISPLAY

Squiggles are vector graphics that can scale at any size without losing their quality, so they make great pieces to display.

Infinite Objects offers an official display for holders for $299. This is the most "web3" way to put it in your home, since it will be in a digital frame. Don't forget — Squigs move! (If you own one, you can make a high-quality GIF of yours here). 

A more old-school display is fun as well. I recently got mine hand-drawn by Degenerate_Gen on Twitter. For a nominal cost, Squig owners can have theirs drawn and shipped to them securely by this talented artist. I can't wait to frame mine, and it's a really distinctive way to display the art. 

Twitter tweet

LEGENDARY COLLECTORS

There are 2,782 unique holders of Squiggles. Here are some of the most legendary ones:

Punk6529 has one of the most iconic rare Squiggle collections in existence. In a tweet, they said: "Squiggles are the first, iconic and largest [Art Blocks Curated] collection, the most memetic and, initially, quite controversial, 'you paid what for those squiggly lines?'"

VonMises14 (Collector) minted Squiggles and has collected them ever since. His ultra-rare collection can be seen here, which includes two HyperRainbows that he minted.

GMoney (Influencer and Founder) owns hundreds of Squiggles. He recently did a collaboration with founder Snowfro on his connected-wearable IT-02 9dcc collection. 

Twitter tweet

Kevin Rose (Co-founder, PROOF) has 25+ Squiggles. In February 2022, he famously said that in 10 years, each one will be worth $1 million. 🤨

Last but not least, there's the anon collector who_dis. Whoever they are, they minted 1,007 Squiggles, and still hold 1,006 of them... yikes. 

SQUIGS IN THE CULTURE

A few odes to my favorite lil lines: 

• A group of web3 investors called WAGMI United got together and purchased an English Football League Two team, Crawley Town. The Chromie Squiggle is featured on their Adidas jerseys. 

• The tickets for VeeCon 2022 (Gary Vee's web3 conference) were made in the style of Squiggles, in collaboration with Art Blocks and Snowfro.

• Some Moonbirds (by PROOF) have a Chromie Squiggle trait. Same deal with Moonbirds Oddities. They even gave away a Squiggle to a lucky trait holder.

Twitter tweet

Squiggles are still minting -- 9,734 have been minted out of 10K total. 

The remaining lucky minters will be hand-picked by Snowfro over time. If you're interested in learning more and possibly purchasing one of these personality-packed NFTs, SquiggleDAO is a great place to start and connect with other Squig collectors.

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It's a brand new year, and nobody really knows what's going to happen with the monetary value of crypto and NFTs in 2023.

We could go sideways. We could go up. We could still go down. But regardless of the market, when it comes to IRL events, we just can't help ourselves.

Here are a few of the top Web3 conferences for Spring 2023, including ticket details, tips, and when prices go up. Mark your calendars and save your ETH.

After all, we've got neon tracksuits to wear.

NFT PARIS

When: February 24-25, 2023

Where: The Grand Palais Éphémère, Champs de Mars, Paris

Tickets: From €350 (Prices go up Jan 15). Discounts are available for holders of certain NFTs.

This multi-day event in one of the best cities in the world already has an impressive speaker list. Some include: Snowfro (Art Blocks), Tom Sachs, Greg Solano (BAYC), Julian Hoguin (Doodles), Inna Modja (World of Women), Betty (Deadfellaz), Punk6529, Farokh, Josh Hackbarth (WB) & many more.

SXSW

When: March 10-19, 2023

Where: Austin, TX

Tickets: Platinum Badge $1,395 (Prices go up Jan 5). Buy here.

Twitter tweet

Okay, so SXSW isn't technically a Web3 conference. This iconic week celebrates tech, film, music, and culture. But I'm hoping to see even more of a Web3 presence here this year. The tech track takes place earlier in the week, and the music track is later on. A badge is helpful to get into satellite events, but not all require one.

Last year, several NFT projects and communities came together during SXSW. There were speakers on NFTs and the metaverse as well. Cool Cats has announced they're planning to have a presence at SXSW in 2023.

NFT LA

When: March 20-23, 2023

Where: LA Live, Downtown Los Angeles

Tickets: From $249 (Prices go up Jan 15). Buy here.

Twitter tweet

In 2022, the Azuki Garden Party during NFT LA week stunned the crowd with "check your wallets." What will happen this year? Well, I can't promise thousands of dollars in airdrops... but I can promise a lot of fun. Although I didn't go to the actual conference, the side meetups were really great last year.

For those interested in attending the conference, the speaker lineup is looking pretty strong so far.

NFT NYC

When: April 12-14, 2023

Where: Times Square & Hudson Yards

Tickets: From $599 (Prices go up March 1). Buy here.

If you're going to one US-based NFT event, this one may be the most popular. It normally offers many fun satellite events and parties. Just try not to stay in Times Square... it's kind of a nightmare.

Check out my recaps of both 2021 and 2022 NFT NYC. I didn't attend the actual event; just the side events.

Update Jan 5: ApeFest will not be in NFT NYC this year.

It's important to note there has been talk of skipping NFT NYC this year by some collectors in the space, including Betty from Deadfellaz, who is working to organize a different NYC event in June 2023.

PROOF OF CONFERENCE

When: May 11-13, 2023

Where: Skylight Row, Downtown Los Angeles

Tickets: NFT tickets will be released mid January in ETH (Price TBA). Purchased NFT tickets can be freely traded on the secondary market. All NFT ticket transfers will be frozen at the start of the event. PROOF, Moonbirds and Oddities holders are eligible for free or discounted tickets, respectively.

This is a new single-track conference put on by PROOF Collective. It's billed as "a celebration of art, culture, community, and technology."

Food and drinks are included with entry. I'll be going since I already live in LA, and am hopeful there will be some amazing community side events during these days as well.

VEECON

When: May 18-20, 2023

Where: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN

Tickets: VeeCon 2023 Tickets are issued as NFTs and will be released in early 2023 to the holders of VeeFriends Series 1 NFTs. No snapshot has been taken. Any tickets for purchase will be available on secondary markets such as OpenSea.

Twitter tweet

My game plan: Wait to buy a ticket-- I'm aiming to attend this year. The cost of these tickets on OpenSea just before VeeCon 2022 was around 0.2 ETH, and I'm expecting it to be around the same in 2023. You can also check with any friends who hold a VeeFriends Series 1 NFT to see if you can use their ticket.

But don't wait to book accommodations-- VeeCon 2023 is the same weekend and location as the Indy 500 Qualifying Races. Indy's gonna be packed!

Which events are you planning to go to this Spring?

IRL Web3 events are some of the best ways to meet new people in the space, and connect with others who you've met online.

They changed the whole game for me, and I hope you'll be able to attend at least one in 2023-- bear market or not.

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It's been an absolutely unhinged week in crypto.

We thought two billionaires were feuding, but one was actually acquiring the other's company...? Regardless, it sent prices tumbling as panic led to mass withdrawals.

We need something good to look forward to, don't you think?

Let's take a look at what may kick off the next bull run, and which businesses could be a part of it.

INDUSTRY ADOPTION OF L2 CHAINS

Polygon NFTs are having a moment, and Web2 brands are driving their momentum.

• Yesterday, Drifter Shoots sold out 50 $999.99 Polygon NFTs in 10 seconds... on Instagram.

• Reddit created 3 million new wallets for their Polygon digital collectibles and did $10M+ in secondary sales within a few months.

• Starbucks is using Polygon for their web3 loyalty program, Odyssey. 

Layer-2 (L2) solutions get security from their parent blockchain (Ethereum in Polygon's case), while using their own tools to address scalability issues of parent blockchains.

This means Polygon is supremely scalable and lightning-fast. All eyes will be on the adoption and long-term success of these companies leveraging Web3 tech. If it goes well, it could be a catalyst for industry-wide growth.

WEB2 USING WEB3 DATA STORAGE

Remember the company Pied Piper from the hit HBO show Silicon Valley? Part of what they did was match people with spare hard drive space with those who need it to store data.

That's what Arweave does as a decentralized data storage solution. And Meta recently selected them to store NFTs minted on Instagram. 

The more we see Web2 giants coverage adopting Web3 protocols, the more the mainstream may take notice. 👀

FRICTIONLESS ONBOARDING

Let's be honest, being a beginner in crypto and NFTs is intimidating. There are so many considerations: wallet setup and security, mobile wallet setup, fiat-to-crypto onramps, knowing what to buy, finding new projects, and navigating scammers.

83% of the world's population own a smartphone, but only 0.25% of the world has an active MetaMask wallet. While this figure doesn't represent all of NFTs, it's still important to note how much farther we have to go for mass adoption.

Reddit NFTs managed to get ~3 million people to customize avatars while calling them "digital collectibles," though they are in fact NFTs. Their fun, simple setup rebranded wallet to "vault," and was much less technical than the norm.

The tech needs to be so seamless that it's invisible to the user. That's what will take us to the next bull run.

REGULATION CLARITY

Many in the NFT space fear regulation, while many others are begging for clarity on it. The US government has been clear as mud on which existing laws apply to NFTs. There has been minimal guidance on the treatment and classification of digital assets.

Kevin O' Leary (of Shark Tank fame) recently said that getting stablecoin regulations done would have a positive trickle-down effect on the rest of the crypto market.

Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Says There’s One Catalyst That Can Push Bitcoin Above $22,000 - The Daily Hodl

Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary believes there’s one thing preventing Bitcoin (BTC) from getting out of its current trading range.

https://dailyhodl.com/2022/10/08/shark-tanks-kevin-oleary-says-theres-one-catalyst-that-can-push-bitcoin-above-22000/

If there are regulations put in place, at least we will know where we stand, which could make investors more comfortable getting involved. That's why some think that this will spur a bull run.

However, it really depends on what happens. If ETH is suddenly declared to be a security? We've got bigger problems. 😵‍💫

VR/AR FOR METAVERSE & GAMING

Nobody's going to walk around with a whole current-gen Meta Quest on their head all day. When VR/AR hardware catches up with software innovations, "the metaverse" will transform digital communities forever.

NFTs enable authentic ownership of gaming, wearables, and land assets on the blockchain, and can come in the form of transferrable 3D assets. Token-gated communities will unlock unique experiences to holders.

Some simple examples: The Atari NFT sneakers by RTKFT in early 2021, where people could try on their sneakers in AR. Horse-racing game ZED RUN allows you to see your NFT horses right in your own home.

VR/AR tech has a long way to go, but the $300 billion global gaming industry is a perfect place for it to take off. However, many in the gaming industry are still fighting against NFTs. Will they be able to see the light?

SOLVING FOR ARTIST ROYALTIES

The royalties debate rages on, as most NFT marketplaces have eliminated royalties in search of market share. OpenSea has been roasted for making a tentative statement with a mysterious end date of December 8.

Smart contract innovations that solve artist royalty protections will bring more quality artists into the space. They need confidence that their royalties will be protected as they continue to add value to their projects.

Twitter tweet

The Bored Ape Yacht Club team has proposed using an allowlist to shut out zero-royalty marketplaces. Betty from Deadfellaz is working on a coalition, bringing founders together for a solution.

If there is an on-chain innovation to enforce royalties, it may help move us towards a bull run.

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