today, 68% of runes are in the red from their launch. that sounds like a great way to RUNE your life, amirite?

on the whole, I see the development of runes as important. but the Runes protocol really just made me interested in Bitcoin’s more nonfungible options instead…as that’s what I care about more being the writer of an NFT newsletter after all.

so what are Bitcoin ordinals and inscriptions? and does their rise over the last year mean Ethereum NFTs are toast? 🍞

alpha ⚓

let’s start with the obvious: Bitcoin is culturally and financially the best crypto asset. there’s an argument to be made that it’s the best asset full stop.

for that reason, there are far more “Bitcoin maxis” than there are Ethereum ones.

that doesn’t mean that Ethereum has no culture or staying power, however. it just means that people care more about Bitcoin than they do any other chain (mostly) .

ordinals and inscriptions pose a big threat to Ethereum NFTs, for that reason.

but much like how Ethereum propped itself on the shoulders of Bitcoin and called itself a blue chip crypto asset, Bitcoin is now doing the same with NFTs.

inscriptions are a powerful mechanism because of their power to be on-chain and to be created in the more successful of the two assets.

but let’s not dismiss ETH NFTs here…

beta ⚓

the EVM (the Ethereum Virtual Machine) and its contract builders have done a lot of legwork in troubleshooting issues with putting JPGs onto the blockchain over the last few years…not to mention the culture they have already put on-chain too.

I dare you to find an Ordinals collection that is as half as recognizable as CryptoPunks or even Bored Apes.

that being said, Sats (more on these in a bit) and Ordinals do have the potential to be more historically relevant…which puts them in another tier of “digital collectibles”.

Ethereum NFTs still have the belt now in my opinion…but Bitcoin “NFTs” pose the biggest threat to their supremacy. Ethereum has all the history of NFTs currently, but if the chain cannot remain relevant, then their collectibles will suffer a similar fate to chain.

no one will care.

why do I think that Bitcoin is primed for a takeover? Sats show me why Bitcoin collectibles has incredible legs…

oh la la…

Sats if you don’t know are basically like collecting rare serial numbered dollar bills on Bitcoin. people want to collect them simply because of the technology they’re printed upon (much like US history buffs like to collect rare fiat currency).

what NBA Top Shot was for trading cards, Sats can be for coin collecting. it’s like buying rare and historically significant pennies on the blockchain. whether they have a JPG attached to them or not, they are in a unique position.

they can be the default collectible of the digital age.

gamma ⚓

the thing I imagine stopping Ordinals from completely running wild?

price.

the normal collector doesn’t have the money to crack into Ordinals or even Sats yet. projects rarely have the resources to incur the enormous inscription costs to put something on Bitcoin.

yet, people are still doing it. the Bitcoin Ordinals and Sats market are frothy.but

but at the end of the day, it’s all just speculation (all over again).

there are palindromes Sats for sale, which is how you know that people are speculating right now. remember when that ENS category was hot?

ultimately, there will be a market for these Sats and Ordinals and I feel it will settle at prices much less than they are now.

Ordinals and Sats are in their infancy and not unlike the NFT bull run of 2021, you (the layman NFT investor) do not have enough to spread across the entire Ordinals ecosystem to pick the winners. they’re just too dang expensive…even more so than ETH NFTs were gas was running wild!

delta ⚓

we constantly hear how the future is multichain.

there’s a world where many NFTs become recognized and chain truly doesn’t matter.

but as we speculate on what those entities are, it seems much safer to bet on Bitcoin than even Ethereum.

it’s why the Sats and Ordinals market has been going crazy lately. it makes sense to Bitcoin maxis (who are driving these markets) and it’s been aided by Bitcoin coming back and hitting ATHs.

marketplaces like MagicEden are making the buying and selling of Ordinals and Runes easier and the liquidity is moving almost entirely to Bitcoin.

the question then becomes…do ETH NFTs have the legs to compete with Ordinals and Sats in the long-term? or is Ethereum doomed to always be the little brother of Bitcoin?

I’m just as surprised as you that I was invited on this! come and support if you can.

I’ll be chatting about using my Cool Cats IP for my newsletter and my book 👀

more on what digital identity will look like in the Web3 future here ⤵️

alpha ⚓

Yuga Labs made the decision last week to sell off their gaming division to Faraway Studio. with it, Faraway acquires HV-MTL and Legends of the Mara as well as the game DookieDash that was a success for the brand over a year ago.

but they’ve decided to punt on NFT gaming (for now).

despite there being an obvious market for NFT gaming, the truth is, it’s a bad business to be in. it costs a lot to make a game like the Otherside. it’s even harder to do when you experience the bear market and the declining floor price that the Bored Ape collections have had.

I was being facetious, but on Twitter, I called this move smart, because NFT gaming is dumb.

what I really meant was, why should Yuga continue to dump money and resources into NFT gaming, when it’s never been their strength?

the old regime ousted the CEO and smartly realized that they needed to get back to basics. like many NFTs collections, they got caught riding the wave of the moment.

and soon, they were too far out from shore. to get back, a lot of NFT brands will have to readjust their focus.

beta ⚓

let’s face it…NFTs as media entities are becoming obsolete.

projects promised to deliver a lot with their IP…games, movies, TV, and comics. some followed through on those promises, while almost every NFT other project did not.

I was sad to discover that Robotos is now a dead project, even after having inked a deal with TIME to produce a TV show in 2022.

it’s a cruel game and behind the scenes there’s too much going on that we don’t know about. so while the projects founder can see the vision, it’s usually an illusion. the people signing the checks for these big games, movies deals, etc. often don’t see a path to profitability.

so if media and hoodie sweatshirt sales aren’t the future of NFTs, then we’re left wondering…what is?

gamma ⚓

my bet? digital identity. we saw Bored Apes going all-in on this before gaming took their focus away from it.

but MoonPay was snatching up Apes for celebrities like Justin Bieber. Timbaland was using his Bored Ape to promote new music. Universal Music Group was starting a Bored Apes band. Jenkins the Valet wrote a book as a Bored Ape too before trying to release their own PFP project.

it’s actually why I’ve always been bullish on NFTs for this long.

much like how owning a domain and website is a sort of “digital real estate” you can build a business upon, NFTs are digital real estate (sometimes quite literally) that you can build an entire identity on.

I’m a small example, but just look at me. instead of having my mug on the inside cover of my book, I opted to use my Cool Cat instead.

and my Cool Cat didn’t just have to write a book! it could have done anything online. it could have built an app, it could have had a podcast, or organized an online petition to abolish NFTs.

which leads me to my next point…

delta ⚓

while I’m obviously not an official member of the Cool Cats team, I am put in a unique position of representing them online...all because I randomly chose to buy one 3 years ago.

I’ve been rocking my Cool Cat for so long, that like or not, they’re stuck with me.

what I say, do, and write could be reflected onto the Cool Cats community and onto the brand at large.

if I were to do something bad in the likeness of Cool Cats, they have no recourse to take my Cool Cat away from me even. if I was immune to community pressure, I could in theory continue to rock my Cool Cat and say hateful things, for example.

(don’t worry I won’t…and I’m obviously not advocating for this kind of FUD)

conversely, if I go viral, my Cool Cat does too. and Cool Cats could, in theory, benefit from that small marketing bump. if anyone asks themselves, “hey what is this cat in profile picture?”, I send a potential new customer their way.

you saw this in the early days of NFTs a lot more often. personalities acquiring Bored Apes through MoonPay helped elevate the profile of the project in general.

my theory is this: with Bored Apes officially out of gaming, just watch…there will come a time again when celebrities we know start buying Bored Apes again.

and this time…we will now know why.

Luca’s Substack

The Future of Culture is Tokenized

A year ago, I started rethinking my stance on NFTs. Amidst the market downturn, the notion of utility felt futile. The idea of assigning value from X to Y seemed destined to fail. Steeped in a mindset centered around utility, I began questioning the purpose of my endeavors. That was until I had an epiphany, NFTs are culture, nothing more and nothing les…

Read more

2 years ago · 29 likes · 10 comments · Luca Schnetzler

new Luca Netz dropped 🐧

last week, the owner of Pudgy Penguins wrote a Substack titled “The Future of Culture is Tokenized”. in it, he uses terms like ‘veblen goods’ and ‘-EV’ to let everyone know that yes…he did indeed take an economics class in college.

and also yes…he successfully runs of one of the most expensive NFT projects in the space.

in the post, Luca is advocating for more “culture is on-chain”. Luca uses that phrase twice; I talk around it a few times in my book, The NFT Survival Guide too (more shamelessly plugging in a bit).

“culture on-chain” is exactly what it sounds like…framing NFTs and memecoins more as movements, and less as technology. it doesn’t really mean anything.

but what Luca subtly is getting at here is that the ultimate goal of memecoins and NFT projects is to take the culture of the Web3 (created by others) and viciously monetize it (to pad the pockets of those who know how tech and business works).

it’s what Luca’s Pudgy Penguins have gotten really good at doing.

think of Bad Luck Brian and the stock image of the guy looking back at the other girl. the number of times their likeness has been used far outweighs what they’ve been paid, I’m sure.

no, it’s not that we WANT culture on-chain.

it's that we realized a few years ago that these dumb memecoins and JPGs on the Internet were means of making money from simply being in-the-know about Internet culture.

the future Luca strives for is one where the purveyors of Internet culture are paid handsomely for that knowledge.

me? I fall into the camp of those who participate in the culture, but don’t know a lick about tech or business.

for that reason, I’ve fell victim to many NFT projects, unfortunately.

I’ve been apart of communities where I felt as though I was somehow a stakeholder. because I owned a few of their NFTs, and I could in theory make a profit from them down the road…so I shilled.

admit it. we’ve all been in it for the “flip” every now and again. we all starting drinking the Kool Aid at one point or another. I bet you’ve truly started believing that NFTs could change not only to your personal finances, but also the global economy.

that’s because it’s happened before.

on the backs of a culture their community created, Yuga Labs became a billion-dollar company. their holders didn’t though. now we feel that more ever.

the founding members of Yuga and their now-ousted CEO are the only ones who really saw that life-changing money. the rest either gambled and won (yay) or gambled and lost (oops).

I don’t think it’s sensationalist to think that NFTs and memecoins are actually the future. we’ve seen firsthand how a group of degens on the Internet can radically change the financial system (see Wall Street Bets) and the people involved in those communities.

it’s just that "culture on-chain" gives hope to millions of us gamblers that we can collectively make things better for ourselves by connecting with a global network of degens.

when in actuality, it’s probably only a select few and the project owners who see the +EV (did I use that right?)

Pudgy Penguins have become inevitable. whatever opinion you hold of them, there is no denying their status in the NFT space right now. they are printing money and headlines.

they’ve always been controversial. I’m beginning to think they always will be. I, for one, cannot buy into them…as much as I try.

but reading what Luca says about the future of culture makes me think he’ll one day be a very rich man. even more so than he is now, I’m sure.

on the flipside though, I can’t say the same for his Pudgy Penguins holders.

see you next week.

in the comments, we do a little more shameless plugging:

that means it’s time to get to work 😤

for me, that meant building out a minimal viable website for The NFT Survival Guide.

what are you going to get learning about or working on in Q2?

here are a few things I’m getting educated about for this quarter in NFTs ⤵️

ALPHA ⚓

ERC-404

ERC-404 is an experimental standard for NFTs.

essentially, it blends standard ERC-20 and ERC-721 creating a kind of hybrid between coin and NFT.

(or so I’ve been told)

after I do my research, I’d like to see what projects are building on ERC-404 already. hybrid NFTs have been a thing for a while, but with ERC-404, on paper, I could see a run on them. I can already see people tweeting about the TECHNOLOGY!

plus, it’s a cool way to inject some much-needed juice into a stale NFT projects.

something to keep an eye on…

BETA ⚓

NFT Lending

degens love leverage.

I learned from the last cycle that there is not a debt a mfer won’t take on to buy an NFT or ape in to the latest memecoin.

it also feels that NFT lending has gotten more sophisticated over the last few years.

NFTfi seems to be “industry standard” right now, so I’ll be diving into its competitors and NFTfi’s UI to see if it’s user-friendly.

if it is, I might be putting up some collateral or lending out some ETH to get a head start on foolz 👀

DELTA ⚓

Base & Memecoins

I think it would be fun to create my own memecoin to get in on the craze. $BIV? I’m liking the sounds of it…

jokes aside, BASE seems here to stay. it’s been in vogue with artists and degens alike. if memecoins remain a thing too, there will be a need right now for people who understand everything BASE.

if the craze continues, you could stand to make a few bucks by learning about BASE and the culture behind its “memecoins”.

GAMMA ⚓

Farcaster (aka the Purple App)

last but not least is the Farcaster, a new Twitter/X alternative that’s popped up and gained some traction with the Web3 crowd.

what makes it better than your other Twitter copies out there, you ask? (I’m looking at you Threads and Bluesky).

it’s on the blockchain and even has its own $DEGEN token. on the app (called Warpcast in the Apple App Store), you can tip people in their native currency and you can trade it like you would any other token.

this financial incentive to creating content on Farcaster gives it some legs.

in fact, it’s made quite a few people rich already…and you just need to pay $5 to cover your blockchain transactions for the year.

I would love for us to be one of those people that gets rich from NFTs this quarter. what else did I miss that you think will be popular?

liquidity is spread thin right now across a lot of different chains.

and I won’t lie…this is bad for NFTs.

it’s hard to build community and build a project when there is so much distraction. I’m feeling like Dug from Disney’s ‘Up’. every time I try to think long term, it’s…SQUIRREL.

(where the squirrel is the latest memecoin pumping 📈)

so what should we focus on right now if we’re thinking long-term on NFTs? I have a rough list for you:

-Solana Art NFTs
-Bitcoin Ordinals
-ENS domains
-Creating

ALPHA ⚓

Solana NFTs

$WIF and $BOME have made many Solana millionaires over the past few weeks.

and if I’ve learned anything from NFTs, is that this money will come pouring back into the ecosystem - one way or the other.

Pomp wrote last week that we are becoming a gambling nation. I tend to agree.

and it’s like how lottery winners tend to go bankrupt. when you’ve made a lot from memecoins, you will naturally want to MORE from memecoins. it doesn’t just stop with the jackpot.

I know this because it happened to me with NFTs. I roundtripped because the greed got the best of me.

and while I want to be optimistic for these memecoin millions, I know that a portion of their wealth will certainly cycle back into NFTs.

my bet is much like the Ethereum NFT craze, there will soon be a run on “art” in the Solana world too.

when you become too high-minded for PFPs, you eventually start becoming an art snob.

(again, take it from me)

the same will happen on Solana that happened with 6529’s Memes and Artblocks on Ethereum. some giant curator will come along and start selling everyone on the importance of art on the Solana blockchain. how it’s the best long-term play. and degens will pour thousands into.

rinse. repeat.

BETA ⚓

Ordinals

I’ll give you this: Ordinals are fuckin’ expensive.

I don’t have the money have to get even half of one.

I also don’t have the mind to wrap my head around them.

their ecosystem and technology is naturally a bit more complicated than your standard Ethereum NFTs.

but these barriers are what make Ordinals such an interesting play in my mind.

the longer that Bitcoin is the crypto standard and the only one on the horizon that stands to be around a really long time, the more I am intrigued by Ordinals as the ultimate collector’s items.

why wouldn’t someone want to own a piece of history’s greatest financial innovation?

Bitcoin maxis (of which there are many, to be clear) will probably not be able to resist that pitch.

though things like CryptoPunks clearly came first, Ordinals stand to be around longer simply by existing on a more important chain (respectfully).

to be fair, the Ordinals ecosystem seems funky right now. I can’t guarantee that Bitcoin Puppets and NodeMonkes can keep this kind of momentum. if they can, and Bitcoin can continue its meteoric rise in the culture though?

that’s a lot of dough to be had.

GAMMA ⚓

ENS domains

when did we start hating ENS?

10K Club is seemingly dead and no one trusts the DAO anymore.

from the sidelines, this doesn’t make much sense to me…I’m not going to lie.

normies got a taste of ENS when they announced their partnership with GoDaddy last month. there’s buzz around an ENS L2 that will make transactions easier and cheaper.

yet now we’re jumping ship?

I get it…ENS screwed up royally when people were dumping massive amounts into the grails, the 3-digit domains and the 10K club. I just renewed a 3-letter domain and it nearly set my family back an entire generation.

but let’s not forget that they launched $ENS smoothly and efficiently before airdrops were cool. ENS has largely been a blue chip NFT because it also hits all the benchmarks of a strong project - it’s historical, has strong community, and has utility.

in these markets, you could do a lot worse than an ENS investment imo.

DELTA ⚓

Creating…

of course, if taking your hard-earned crypto to the NFT casino isn’t your style, I completely get it.

it’s exhausting keeping up with all this stuff on a daily basis, which is largely why I’ve punted on being an NFT “news” channel.

instead, it’s time to put my head down and get to work.

I’ve been promoting my book and looking at ways I can get it into the right hands. I want to help people get educated about NFTs (again) and want to make sure they do so safely. I don’t have time for the latest meta anymore.

I’m building, bro.

if we, like these NFTs, stand any chance of being around for a long time, we have to take it slow and focus.

creating a life and forming your own personal NFT journey is all that you really need to do right now. NFTs are due for their time in the sun one day again. I don’t know when that will be, but don’t feel like you need to go all in right now with whatever is in vogue.

just relax.

the answer might surprise you…

no, it wasn’t people making a fortune on Solana and memecoins.

no, it wasn’t surging Bitcoin and Ethereum prices or Ordinals.

it was something much dumber…Disney Pinnacle ⤵️

ALPHA ⚓

what is Disney Pin Trading?

Disney Pinnacle is a new app from Dapper Labs. Dapper Labs you may remember from NBA Top Shot and Doodles 2.

this time they’re linking up with another giant…Disney…in order to recreate the magic of Disney Pin Trading with NFTs. think the aforementioned NBA Top Shot, but instead of trading cards, it’s pins that you would put on your daughter’s backpack.

you may not know it, but Disney pins are big business.

just go on eBay and look around. if you have the means, go to the theme parks and see collectors with binders full of pins. it’s one of the most thriving collector ecosystems out there.

I live in the shadow of Disney and was a pin collector myself when I was a kid. I liked collecting the Disney California Adventure pins (see below). so I’ve always been a fan.

BETA ⚓

what is Disney Pinnacle?

when Disney announced this in November 2023, I was excited.

however, I was alone in that. not only was it the doldrums of the NFT bear market (so even NFT people didn’t care about it), but from the other side of the aisle, there was a lot of anti-NFT sentiment floating around too.

no one asked for this, but Disney and Dapper Labs were going to give it to us anyway.

not surprisingly, the word NFT is nowhere to be found in the marketing or the app itself. I imagine this is because Disney doesn’t want the backlash.

Disney Pinnacle operates a lot like IRL Disney Pin trading. there are pins available for sale at all times. then, there are rarer ones available via drops which are limited edition.

the app itself is barebones. right now, you can buy pins and rip pin capsules. you can display your pins in a virtual binder of sorts. you can’t trade Disney Pinnacle pins with other users, but I imagine that will become a feature later on…as that is an essential part of the traditional Disney pin trading experience.

however, it’s getting the job done. what attracted me to Disney Pinnacle is simple: I have always liked Disney pins, and I think it’s a perfect use case for Disney and NFTs.

fake IRL pins run rampant on eBay. you can head the Disney pin trading Reddit to see many people trying to verify that their pins are authentic.

by putting Disney Pinnacle on the blockchain we no longer have to deal with this issue. we can collect pins and know they are real and what their mint count is without having to do any research online. it’s all in the app.

GAMMA⚓

the $50 “pin”…

Disney Pinnacle sent me an email that they were dropping an “Up” collection (I’m a big fan of the film and Pixar in general).

I knew this was a chance to elevate my Disney Pinnacle collection, but with a $50 sticker price, I had my reservations. but I had to do it for YOU…my dedicated subscribers and my insatiable gambling habit.

I entered the drop a bit late (I’d say 15 minutes or so).

it didn’t appear to matter. I was able to jump right to the purchase page, which shows me that the demand for these might not be that hot.

you can check my unboxing here. I pulled a Russell. even though I was hoping for Dug or even the rarest Balloon House…I was satisfied with my pin.

it honestly looks great and the collection itself is cohesive and eye-catching. I now have certified myself as a Disney Pinnacle super collector with this purchase (by my own designation).

now, is it worth $50? that remains to be seen. my initial guess is NO. as I’ve mentioned, I don’t see much buzz around Disney Pinnacle so the resale value on this will be low if anything at all.

that won’t stop me from continuing to collect these digital pins though. yes, I guess I’m still a degen at heart.

DELTA⚓

why I’m bullish

jokes aside, there is potential here for Disney Pinnacle to be something more.

I can see a world where Disney Pinnacle will have real-world redemption stations at their theme parks (for example, I’m only able to buy a certain Star Wars pin inside the Star Wars Trading Post in Downtown Disney). I can see pins trading becoming popular when challenges are implemented (like in NBA Top Shot).

and while, it’s not hot right now, Disney collectibles have a longtail typically. though the company is trending towards being washed, I’ve always been excited for them to get into NFTs. that’s because their collectibles tend to be “blue chips. from BivNFT 2022:

“That’s because their brand has a global and diehard following. But it took a recent trip to Disney’s California Adventure for me to realize how ravenous Disney-heads (what I’m calling them) are for anything that has the famous Mickey ears on it. From pins to lithographs, to merch, there has always been a great demand for the mouse memorabilia.”

if Disney really commits to this, it could truly be the future of Disney Pin Trading, which has already proven to be a great vertical for collectors. however, we are in a time where Disney is cutting budgets and scraping films. I’m not sure they have the stomach to grit it out with NFTs, especially considering the toxic conversation around them currently.

if Disney Pinnacle can survive though…it might just be a way to gain some mainstream adoption of NFTs.

I was about to finish college. I had no ambition and no path to a good-paying job…majoring in something I didn’t even want to do for a career.

(I admit that these are the sort of #FirstWorldProblems you only get on in your late teens and early 20s)

to make matters worse, I was hanging out with my parents in Las Vegas. in the City of Sin, I was poolside reading a book.

luckily, that book happened to change my life.

a good book can do that…here are 3 that have done that for me:

ALPHA⚓

Choose Yourself by James Altucher

as many of you know, I just self-published my first book.

I couldn’t have done that without James Altucher’s Choose Yourself.

this is the book that inspired me to self-publish, start this newsletter, and also quit my job in the fall of 2017.

(the latter didn’t work out so well…but it lead me all to here)

Choose Yourself is a self-help book written from the perspective of a self-loathing and independent man (so you can see why I relate).

it’s prophetic in that it saw the gig economy on the rise in 2013 and urged people to take action with their skills.

if they had no skills, James Altucher urged people to go find them…and fast.

in the NFT world, I see people all the time “choosing themselves”, whether it’s starting their own NFT project, podcast, or Discord channel.

I know that my fellow degens would love reading this book (if they haven’t already).

BETA ⚓

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

what kind of “modern man” would I be if this were not on the list?

every optimization and productivity nerd on YouTube is singing this book’s praises.

I regret to inform you that they’re 100% right though. this book will change how you view your work.

Tim Ferriss is the OG podcaster and productivity hacker. he’s teetering on being a robot now, but his most prolific book still has a lot of life and a lot of great advice.

like Choose Yourself, it has a bent towards self-realization. take control of your career, it urges you. tell your boss what you bring to the table, what you’ve done, and let him know that you’ll walk if your demands are not met.

it’s about knowing your worth, which I know artists in the NFT space could relate to.

(you may notice that the cover of The NFT Survival Guide is very inspired by The 4-Hour Workweek)

GAMMA ⚓

IV by Chuck Klosterman

cut back to me by the pool in Vegas.

as I sat by the pool, I was reading IV by Chuck Klosterman. in it, he was writing about his experience as a music critic in the early aughts and also about how he decided to eat McDonald’s chicken nuggets every day for a month.

this is the book that taught me you could write about anything.

better yet, writing about some weird stuff could be an actual career.

from that read on, I was no longer going to be an accountant (my grades had already told everyone else that).

I didn’t know what I was going to write about yet, but I was going to be a writer dammit.

DELTA ⚓

The NFT Survival Guide by Nic Bivens

(yes, that’s me)

then, NFTs came along.

I’m not sure anything inspired me more to write than the vibes that came from Discords and Twitter in 2022.

every day, there was something new and exciting. the technology was emerging…and it was an absolute game-changer.

many on the outside didn’t understand NFTs, but I thought I did.

so I wrote…

…and kept writing.

soon, after writing about 1000 words per day, I had more than enough to publish my first book.

my dream of being an published author had come true. and it’s all thanks to Chuck Klosterman, James Altucher, and Tim Ferriss.

yes, I can see your wallet transactions and what you’ve dropped on NFTs over the years…

that was a bit of an overpay, don’t you think? 👀

ALPHA ⚓

my debut book, The NFT Survival Guide is out today!

nftsurvival.guide ⬅️ click this link to be taken to the Amazon page for it.

I’m very anxious about its release. not only is it the first book I’ve ever written, it’s also self-published.

(and if you remember, I’m prone to typos in this newsletter)

everything was written by yours truly. AI only helped me edit it, get facts, and remember certain dates.

it took me over a year and a lot of my own money to write this bad boy, and I’m super proud of it.

BETA ⚓

PLEASE consider buying it.

again, I know what you’ve spent on dumb NFTs over the years…

this book wasn’t written for marketing reasons. it’s not a lead funnel; you don’t have to give your email or phone number to get it.

you just need to click ‘buy now’ for $4.99 on Amazon.

it would mean a lot to me if instead of splurging for a coffee this morning, you bought my book instead.

GAMMA ⚓

I don’t even care if you read it, to be quite honest.

but I’d love if you did. I wrote about the highs and (mostly) lows of NFTs. I put in personal anecdotes, NFT history, and personal finance lessons I’ve learned from the space.

it’s not just a book about NFTs…as the title suggests, it’s a survival guide. it shows you how to shift your perspective, how to change your relationship with NFTs, and (maybe) how to improve your life.

though if you learn nothing from the book, I still think you’ll enjoy the crazy stories I’ve included featuring some of the biggest projects in NFTs, including:

• CryptoPunks

• Bored Ape Yacht Club

• Pudgy Penguins

• Azuki

• Moonbirds

• NBA Top Shot

• Cool Cats (of course)

• …and many more!

DELTA ⚓

like many, I had all the time in the world during covid to write a book. I didn’t.

despite my dream of being an author and having ample time to get it started, the global pandemic came and went. I sat inside my house, played video games, and Zoom’ed with friends instead of starting my book.

my newsletter and your kind words about my writing finally gave me the motivation I needed to finish and publish my own book.

this is a BIG accomplishment for me. so I will always appreciate you because of this.

• if you can’t buy the book, I’ll send it to you for FREE. just reply to this email.

• if you do read it, please review it on Amazon.

• if you want nothing to do with this book, do me a favor and share it on social media so everyone can roast me (there is no such thing as bad publicity!).

over the next few weeks, I’ll begin sending out excerpts from The NFT Survival Guide and will continue to promote however I can. do be warned.

but that’s because I’m proud of this book…and I hope you will be too.

they bled me dry of my energy, my time, and my money.

enough was enough…it was time to break up.

ALPHA ⚓

I watched people smarter than me and more financially savvy lose their shirts with NFTs. when guys like Franklin went down, I should have known that I stood no chance.

yet I continued to try. the next trade would finally be the one that gained me generational wealth. I could feel it.

I wanted to believe.

as what comes before any breakup, you try to look at the positive and look back on the good times you had together.

“they make me feel good. and they have a great family.”

the mental gymnastics are wild.

I lived a lot and learned a lot from NFTs. I made friends online. I had a real sense of community on Twitter. I put myself outside my comfort zone and was rewarded for it sometimes.

and for a while, that was enough. but something had changed…and now NFTs were toxic for my well-being ⚠️

BETA ⚓

to be clear again, it was my fault…not NFTs.

I hate when people don’t take accountability for things.

every decision I made in NFTs was my own: I signed those transactions in my wallet. I held that NFT for too long. I sold that other NFT too soon.

it didn’t make living with my actions any easier though.

every day I had to look in the mirror. I had to tell my wife that I lost another hundred bucks gambling on the latest meta.

slowly, I realized that NFTs stopped bringing me joy. that’s because I had tied my self-worth to how successful I was as an NFT trader and a writer.

…and my newsletter was not where I wanted it to be.

GAMMA ⚓

300 subscribers? pathetic!

I had been “building” my subscriber list for 2 years and I had only that many?

I knew people who built lists with thousands of subscribers in just a few weeks!

here I was hacking away, writing every day for 2 years. and all I had was a little over 300 subscribers to show for it.

you know what they say…comparison is the thief of joy.

now I look at my same subscriber list and am so grateful that 300+ people wanted to read what I had to say!

even after I didn’t send an email for almost 1 year, my newsletter from last tuesday only resulted in a couple of unsubscribes! people still wanted to hear what I had to say…even after I abandoned them.

it seems crazy that I felt BivNFT was this huge failure, but that’s how low my self-worth was at the time.

(appreciate all of you who are still subscribed and still reading)

DELTA ⚓

one day in April, I finally gathered up the courage to do it. I broke up with NFTs cold turkey. no Twitter, no trades, no listings. I blocked them and deleted their number from my phone.

it was just be for a few weeks I told myself. me and NFTs were “on a break”

I went and touched grass. I took my daughter to the park (being unemployed has its perks).

the nice thing about a breakup is that it gives you space to work on yourself again.

I realized I was always attracted to the digital marketing aspect of NFTs.

I had experience in that space, but learned I also had some hard skills there too. I reworked my CV and started applying for digital marketing jobs.

on the side, I started working on building a business of my own. my mother-in-law and a friend of mine needed new websites. so I built them some.

for the first time in two years, I was motivated by something other than NFTs. I was inspired helping people improve their online footprint.

I soon found an actual paying job as a digital marketer. then, I got my first paying client for my digital marketing agency. things were (finally) looking up.

but man…NFTs sure were fun back then. maybe I should text them and see how they’re doing?

to be continued…

do you remember me?

probably not.

My name is Biv, and I used to write about NFTs a lot. I used to have a daily newsletter where I tried to keep up with the innovation (but mostly the drama) of the NFT space.

I’d breakdown the news into 4 sections: ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA, and DELTA…so here we go again!

ALPHA ⚓

🎶this is not my beautiful wife🎶

I was going to lose it all…the wife, the kid, the house…if I didn’t stop.

last year, I lost my job and that radically reevaluated my relationships with NFTs.

I had to stop obsessing over NFTs or I risked losing everything. so I quit the only way I knew how: cold turkey.

I stopped going on Twitter (which I hear is called X now and seems super chill these days) and stopped keeping up with the NFT world.

in doing so, I cut off my friends…many of who I had talked to on a daily basis for the past year.

I capitulated.

I recognize the deep irony that my last (2) posts before this decisions were both about how I would absolutely not capitulate.

but one day during my unemployment, I looked up from my red, illiquid wallet and asked myself, “how did I get here?”

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BETA ⚓

🎶 letting the days go by 🎶

there wasn’t really a rock bottom for me.

one day I just woke up out of time, out of energy, and out of money.

much like NFT price floors over the past year, I found myself just a little bit worse each day.

I loved NFTs. I wanted them to work so bad. but after attending NFT LA in 2023, I knew what was coming…

the writing was on the wall and this was last dance for me and NFTs.

(at least my current relationship with them)

I had tried to make a career out of writing about NFTs, but there was nothing on the horizon. I had to surrender. I had to grow up and give up.

to be clear, none of this was the NFT’s fault.

no…it turns out that as a life long collector of things, I just sucked at being able to know when it was time to move on from them.

there were too many emotions and feelings there.

but the facts were simple…

I looked up after 2 years in the NFT space to find that I had no hard skills and I had no more money to keep dumping into my friend’s projects.

it was over and time for me to move on.

GAMMA ⚓

🎶into the blue again🎶

so that’s what I did. slowly, I found a life again.

I got a new job and have pivoted into a new career.

I am back on social media (slightly).

I really like what TikTok has to offer. I’ve been posting about NFTs again there.

I literally have 0 followers…but it feels fantastic.

I don’t plan on going on X/Twitter much anymore (not even to check DMs). I no longer feel the desire to keep up with the every day workings of the NFT world on that toxic app.

• I know that Yuga bought Proof.

• I know that Clon is the CEO of Cool Cats.

• I know that the Pengus are absolutely rippin’.

I don’t really care.

I’m unbothered. moisturized. happy in my lane.

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DELTA ⚓

🎶my god what have I done?🎶

is this my return?

maybe. for the first time in a year I’m feeling drawn to NFTs again.

but now my approach to them now is very long-tailed. I think in terms of years now instead of minutes like I used to as a NFT “trader”.

I am in it more for the collecting again. I want to focus on the aspects of NFTs that make me happy still.

just last week, I renewed my biv.eth ENS domain.

I have an NFT book in the tank that is in the final stages of being self-published (my subscribers will get it for FREE, don’t worry).

I’m ready to get back to work if y’all will still have me.

but I also want to do it on my terms this time. I’m not trading NFTs. I’m not “analyzing” them anymore. hell, I’m not even going to follow the NFT news that closely.

instead, I’m going to write about them like I always wanted to…but didn’t know how.

yes, BivNFT will hit your inbox occasionally.

I expect this email will be met with massive unsubscribe numbers, but if you want to reply to this email, please do! I would love to hear from y’all.

hope you’ve all been holding up better than me 😅

I wrote last week about capitulation…

and it seems that somehow…against all odds…I was for once ahead of the curve.

that’s because Jimmy listing a lot of his Bored Apes has caused *some* panic. are more big players leaving the space?

and while the Ape price floor hasn’t budged too much, there is a sense of unease in the space right.

so what should you be doing with all this uncertainty? I have a list of 4 NFT types you can use to pass the time right now ⤵

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ALPHA ⚓

established gaming

remember Axie Infinity? how about Wolf Game?

while their popularity has certainly waned in recent years, there are still hundreds of thousands of active users on Axie Infinity alone.

Wolf Game doesn’t nearly have that kind of base, but it still has thousands of die-hard, passionate fans (which is all you can still ask for at this point).

even more important though, both teams behind those games continue to build. this is important because as every capitulates, it’s nice to know that you’ll be able to play an *active* P2E game.

and from the NFT side of things, in-game utility is better than none at all. there are a lot of worse things you could be spending your ETH (or in Axie’s case Ronin) on right now.

so instead of getting in on the 5th PFP project that’s pumping this week due to influencer hype (looking at your Outlaws and Nakamigos), you could instead try your hand at NFT games.

Axie, Wolf Game, and countless other games have proven they still *might* be around once the dust settles.

BETA ⚓

NBA Top Shot / NFL All Day

perhaps, I’m really bored, but I regret to inform you I’m once again looking at digital trading cards.

I recently found myself in a conversation with a friend of mine. as a hobby, he’s taken up ripping packs of baseball cards. and suddenly, with his admission, all the good memories of me buying packs from NBA Top Shot came flooding back to me.

so I was stoked to discover that ripping NFT packs is *much* easier these days. on NFL All Day (the football equivalent of NBA Top Shot), I was able to go on the site, not wait in a queue, and snag a pack containing some of their S2 moments.

gone are the days where you would plan your whole day around a pack drop, only for it to be delayed, and then you ended up not even having the chance to buy one.

with the market in bad shape, I find myself going back to these kinds of “low stakes” NFTs. I just want to kick back, relax, and see if I can pull some cool cards.

I’m done trying to make generational wealth from a single trade of the hottest new PFP project.

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GAMMA ⚓

Reddit Avatars

as a *certain someone* drives Twitter into the ground, I have found myself spending more time on Reddit as of late.

(what a shocking turn of events for me)

and NFT lovers will be excited to hear that Reddit Avatars are indeed a thing there. in fact, they’ve just dropped a Gen 3 of Collectible Avatars with some artists you may have heard of (Nyan Cat!) and some you may not have.

either way, they’re cool ways to differentiate yourself on Reddit. I could see it being a big part of the communities there.

even better, these fall into the category of “low stakes” NFTs like NBA Top Shot. they cost as low as $5 and are really only used to style your Reddit avatar so you can flex while you’re shitposting there.

but as we’ve learned over the years with NFTs, sometimes a flex is the best thing you can buy…because it causes FOMO.

DELTA ⚓

IP

it goes without saying that *art* is likely the best investment long-term with NFTs. but speculating on art and collecting what you love are two separate things.

(it’s why I believe I’m particularly bad at trading NFTs)

if you want to flip art for a profit, you have to find out what is cool and what resonates with the most people. and at the intersection of what is “cool” and what “resonates” is that elusive term: IP.

IP…short for intellectual property…is what Mickey Mouse is for Disney.

the problem is that a lot of Web3 projects *do* have great IP, but it’s extremely hard to predict what will “hit” mainstream culture. and even if it does go mainstream, projects like Doodles have found it better to monetize in Web2, where the paths to profitability are more straightforward.

(and where they don’t have to drop a token and be privy to SEC guidelines)

so my advice is don’t buy for IP quite yet. Web3 is a few years away from producing a true “breakout” hit. so for now…just buy what you like. that way when you’re stuck with the bag, you’ll be able to cope better.

see you Thursday.

would you look at that? CryptoPunks have flipped Bored Apes again. the constant battle rages on…

but why is this happening? you’ll find out after a quick little rant by me ⤵️

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ALPHA ⚓️

who’s active rn?!

over the last year, I have poured my heart and soul into the NFT space and this newsletter in particular. and if this is sounding to you like I’m going to sign off today and never return…you’re wrong.

but in recent weeks, I have found myself accidentally taking a detox from NFT Twitter.

in the process, I’ve been in a better headspace than ever and my relationship with NFTs is thriving. I’m suddenly thinking more long-term and not getting caught up in the FOMO of the moment.

sure, the dopamine hits aren’t the same (buying groceries just doesn’t do it like sweeping the floor does). but I’ve found myself asking myself: “Nakamigos? Naka-who-gives-a-crap.”

is taking a step back from Web3…in particular from NFT Twitter…the most obvious play right now?

BETA ⚓️

Franklin

piggybacking off my rant…for every person like me, there are 100 others that sign off from NFT Twitter and never return. their reasons vary, but I usually *understand* them all.

some have gotten sick of the toxicity in the space (for which there is plenty). others have lost too much money to ever look at an NFT again. and then, there are the more well-adjusted folks…the ones that leave the space because they have found better things to do with their time.

(these are the ones I envy)

on Thursday, Franklin…the famous Ape flipper…fell into one of these groups. he revealed that his wallet had run dry and that in order to pay off BendDAO loans…he would be selling most of his Apes.

(additionally, he’d be removing himself from the NFT world for a while)

it’s a sad end for someone who seemed immune to the market’s volatility. that being said, he worked on the margins and made plenty of mistakes in his day. we can’t be too surprised by this news.

but as Franklin dumped his Apes, the Bored Apes floor jumped down to ~50 ETH floor as I write this. and with no Machi and no Franklin to come in and sweep, it uncharacteristically did not bounce back. now *that* is what is surprising.

while I will miss Franklin’s flips for 0.06, I now realize that stepping away for a bit probably is best for me. I’m not nearly as smart as Franklin, and if he can get liquidated…then there is little to no hope for a casual flipper like me.

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GAMMA ⚓️

NFT100 controversy

as if the space needed any more unnecessary drama, the NFT100 list was revealed by NFTnow this week. on it, you’ll see familiar faces (which I’ll get into in the DELTA section).

however, one face you will not see is that of Nicole Behnam. after she was caught “dumping” on her followers, they have since redacted the award from her.

(they did however leave her name on the list, for some reason, with links to her Instagram and Twitter)

now I’m not going to defend Nicole here, but I would say roughly 50% of this list is *probably* guilty of the same malfeasance. she just committed the act too close to the reveal of this list…and since our collective memories only last 2 days around here, NFTnow was left with no choice but to remove her.

DELTA ⚓️

🚩🚩🚩

so back to my original thesis…should we be taking a step back right now?

I don’t want to guide you any certain way on your NFT journey.

but that being said, I will say that a great reshaking of the snow globe *may* be in order.

the NFT Twitter ecosystem has characters in it that have risen to power (as evident with the NFT100 list) that are certainly loud…

but are they good?

we are finding that people we’ve listened to and (maybe) respected over the past two years are just as flawed, broke, or malicious as the rest of us.

as I’ve stepped back, I see firsthand just how intoxicating and damaging their personas can be. it’s always “buy, buy, buy”.

it’s yell, yell, yell…never sell, sell, sell.

so what would happen if we cut off the eyeballs, earholes, and attention we are giving them? I can’t say that a lot of the NFT100 would still be institutions of the NFT space (with their short-term, prisoner-of-the-moment thinking)…with the exception of a few.

and I’m not saying I’m any better than them and that you should be listening to me instead…

(trust me, I’m not in it for the clout, my follower count and subscriber list prove that)

I just want us all to WAGMI (still)…and I’m worried that NFT Twitter isn’t helping anymore.

see you Tuesday.

some interesting news rolled across my timeline this AM regarding Cool Cats and Futureverse.

yes…they officially have a “strategic partnership”.

my reaction even though I wrote about this last month ⤵️

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ALPHA ⚓️

BivNFT ⚓

⚓️ Cool Cats & acquisition rumors

gm. who is Ken Cron? no really…I’m asking. the mysterious investor has loomed large over the Web3 world…but no more so than within the Cool Cats community (which you may have heard I have an affinity for). he’s operated mostly as a silent partner to the Cool Cats brand and team thus far, but this week his name has been more prominent…as rumors swirl that C…

Read more

3 years ago · 2 likes · biv.eth

there will only be an ALPHA section today in BivNFT (I’m giving BETA, GAMMA, and DELTA the day off). that’s because I want you to go read my post from March.

in it, I wrote about the rumors swirling around Cool Cats and Futureverse. and apparently, where there’s smoke, there’s fire…because today, they announced they indeed do have a “strategic partnership”.

(you can read the official press release here)

that’s code for equity and money has been exchanged, and the two companies are now *financially* incentivized to succeed together.

granted…I got a lot wrong in my initial post about the rumors swirling around Cool Cats and Futureverse. mainly, Ken Cron is not *nearly* as important to Futureverse as I made him out to be.

but considering I am an amateur journalist, I think I did damn good.

*pats self on the back*

of course, only time will tell how right I was about the structure of the partnership. I’m sure more will develop over the next few months and we will know for certain if I’m actually a fraud.

(odds are, I should stick to reporting the news…not trying to break it)

but as it stands, I stand by my initial claim in that post from March that this could be a fruitful partnership. Futureverse fills gaps that Cool Cats has when it comes to long-term vision, and Cool Cats fills gaps that Futureverse has with IP and notoriety.

whatever comes of this partnership, I will of course be there to continue covering their stories. if you’ve been along for my NFT journey, you know how much love I have for Cool Cats…and I can only hope this partnership is for the betterment of my favorite Web3 brand.

see you on Thursday.

Elon continues to mess with Twitter (to make it profitable, I guess?) and today, he’s somehow managed to make it affect my newsletter.

apparently, Substack integration of tweets is disabled, so I’ll have to use *screenshots* of tweets, instead of having them actually embedded in the newsletter.

this is going so well.

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ALPHA ⚓️

OpenSea Pro

https://twitter.com/Tyler_Did_It/status/1643316326037848065?s=20

we have all been asking about $MASK, and *perhaps* we are a little bit closer to a big Web3 company giving us an airdrop than we previously thought.

on Tuesday, OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, revealed that Gem has been rebranded to OpenSea Pro. if you recall, Gem was a marketplace aggregator and “floor sweeping” tool that was acquired by OS in April of last year.

in celebration of the launch, Gem users got hooked up with an exclusive NFT called the Gemesis token. it’s currently sitting at a 0.035 price floor and has a supply of 80K as I write this.

an area in the OpenSea Pro dashboard has led people to speculate that OpenSea possibly is prepping a token of their own soon. in a move that sounds *a lot* like what their big competitor Blur did, they are saying that activity is being tracked on the platform.

while that would be awesome if there was some kind of $OS token, I can’t help but feel that a drop would be too much of a headache for a company like OpenSea…which never really has hidden the fact that they’re operating much more like a Web2 startup than a Web3 company.

though it doesn’t hurt to be a wishful thinker…I’d say don’t get your hopes up that using OpenSea Pro will lead to any kind of coins.

BETA ⚓️

cash grabs are back bb

https://twitter.com/souljaboy/status/1643697593384599554?s=20

gone are the days of celebrity cash grabs…or are they?

what’s that in the sky? it’s a bird! no, it’s a plane. no it’s…

SUPERMAN that hooooo!

yes, Soulja Boy has come to save celebrities’ pockets once again…by launching his own 3D NFT on Wednesday.

it’s called Soulja Boy 3D NFT (how creative).

to his credit, they are limited to only 500 so it’s not too egregious. what is though is that Soulja claims that he’s the first celebrity to have a 3D NFT of himself (Kevin Hart would like a word).

I can’t tell if this means that celebrities are finding a way to make money in Web3 again…with a gaming slant this time…or if Soulja Boy is just wild.

either way, you know BivNFT newsletter will be keeping a close eye on celebrity projects as we’ve always done. they tend to indicate a strong resale market and potentially new people entering the space.

what can I say, I have positively no life.

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GAMMA ⚓️

Koda decoupling and Vessel claims are live

https://twitter.com/OthersideMeta/status/1643781848017911808?s=20

while the market wanes, Yuga keeps fighting the good fight. they’re moving forward with the next phase of their lore building, the Legends of Mara.

this involves Koda decoupling (meaning your Koda pet can be a standalone NFT) and Vessel claiming (which means you can get your Yuga pet rock).

the orange pet rocks (aka the Hunter Vessels) sit on the floor right now as the most common pet rock, and you can grab one on secondary for 0.37 ETH as I writ ethis.

for a Yuga asset, you could do a lot worse than that. a sub 1 ETH token from them usually ages pretty well…just look at the Sewer Passes.

DELTA ⚓️

Checks VV

speaking of sub 1 ETH buys, I don’t think I told y’all…I’m a Checks holder finally!

if launching a derivative project was any indication, I’m a big fan of them now.

though I didn’t get one in time to attend their NFT LA event, it made a lot of sense to me to buy now…as when you look at their floor price (0.39 ETH for an Original and .69 ETH for an Edition), they *appear* undervalued.

that’s because Opepen Editions are 0.43 ETH…and they are essentially the check collector’s PFP. to own an Original Checks (with a supply of 6K right now and a max of 14K total) for less than that seems crazy to me, but then again, truly what do I know? I’m really bad at this stuff.

but as it stands, it’s my first halfway decent “trade” in a while and I have to start proving to everyone (but most especially myself) that I’m capable of good trades again.

I don’t plan on selling my Check anytime soon, but if I did it’d be for a profit. what are profits again?

let me know what you think of buying Checks this late in the game and see you Tuesday.

I have just returned from a bachelor party in Nashville. I’m now sick and tired, but…in honor of all the country music I listened to…I’m excited to get back up on the NFT horse (so to speak).

yeehaw.

let’s see what I missed over the NFT world this weekend ⤵️

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ALPHA ⚓️

all about nakamigos

the hottest new collection is Nakamigos.

yes, even in the pits of a bad market for NFTs, there have been some success stories…

but what are Nakamigos? simply put, it’s a collection capitalizing on good pixel art and the mysterious team behind them.

minted out on 3/23/2023, they’ve had a strong come up…getting close to a 1 ETH price floor on Monday after Beeple tweeted one of his dailies about the project (above).

there has been some speculation on what HiFo Labs is…with some speculating it was LarvaLab’s (the creators of CryptoPunks) newest endeavor. this certainly hasn’t hurt their price floor.

but ultimately their rise is what can only be described as “influencer built”. there has been a diehard fanbase brewing for a few weeks now and by convincing the right people to speculate on Nakamigos with them, we have one of those run-ups that *seems* too good to be true.

and with people missing out on generational wealth once again and getting salty about it…what could possibly go wrong?

BETA ⚓️

Nakamigos honoraries

along with the discussion of influencers, speculation, insider trading, and blah, blah, blah, Nakamigos has even had a “honoraries” controversy.

for those that don’t know, it’s often a marketing tactic of new projects to airdrop special tokens into the wallets of famous people in the space.

but while usually, this is a *separate* collection, the Nakamigos honoraries live inside the 20K supply of the rest of Nakamigos genesis collection. this makes them special 1/1’s which always go for a nice premium when a collection is pumping.

so influencers and co-founders who got one have decided to cash in. Betty from Deadfellaz, Steve Aoki, and Borovik among others have all decided to list their branded Nakamigos for 10 ETH.

since they were airdropped to them for the celebrity, it’s their right to sell them to the general public for whatever prices they see fit…but it’s sparked a conversation on what “dumping on your followers” looks like.

most have to get extremely lucky to find a 10 ETH sale under the couch cushion, so it’s hard not to feel a little jealous here. however, at the same time, it only makes sense that they’d sell as they have no connection to the project whatsoever, and it’s an easy way to stay liquid in tough economic times.

we can, of course, continue to argue amongst each other though. because that’s really what we need right now…

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GAMMA ⚓️

on Tuesday morning, Metamask revealed an update that would allow us to view our NFTs within the wallet.

will you continue to use OpenSea to view your NFTs? I know personally, I’m sick of opening up and searching for my wallet on OpenSea or using Rainbow wallet to look at my mistakes.

while progress is progress, Phantom has had this feature for *a while* now. while it’s nice to see Metamask catching up with the competition, we once again simply ask for $MASK.

DELTA ⚓️

you may have noticed that there were not a lot of graphs or charts in this edition of BivNFT. that’s because my favorite analytics tool, Curio.Tools, has shut down.

for that reason, I’ve been left dataless. and that’s where you come in.

what tools are you using for analytics? preferably, I’m looking for something that has a freemium model and where I can easily download the charts. I’d like to keep them clean and easy to understand for my readers.

I don’t need anything fancy…just price floors over time, sales volumes, etc.

as always my readers are the best, so I have no doubt that you will have the best recommendations for me! thanks in advance and see you Thursday!

I have updated the metadata of my project Cheeks to reflect the new meta (more on that later).

can you guess what it’s a riff of?

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ALPHA ⚓️

$mask rumor squashed

I wrote on Tuesday about how the Arbitrum airdrop resulted in a collective shrug from the market.

however, it apparently did give people that feeling again of getting “free” money (just don’t tell Uncle Sam). and now we’re starting to search for that extra ETH hidden under the sofa cushion.

rumors started swirling this week that MetaMask…everyone’s favorite browser wallet…was prepping its own airdrop…and you could *feel* the market start to heat up again.

it has been long speculated that $MASK would drop and in doing so, inject a lot of liquidity into the market. unfortunately for everyone though, MetaMask quickly denied the drop would be happening on March 31 as what was speculated.

(so you’re telling me there’s still a chance?)

they do bring up a good point that it can lead to phishers and scams that *could* result in people losing everything. and for that reason, I’m siding with Metamask here and saying we should be patient and wait for the official word from the team.

and to reward my patience…*Mona Lisa Saperstein voice* give me my free money, please!!

BETA ⚓️

blur delay

speaking of free money, Blur season 2 has promised another huge airdrop of $BLUR tokens for users of their platform.

in an attempt to squash their biggest competitor, OpenSea, they urged users over the last two months to delist from the enemy platform and continue making bids and creating listings on Blur.

this gamification has led big players to go all-in on farming points on Blur (including Machi who got burned a few weeks ago with the OSF & Mando Bored Ape dump).

in fact, many are blaming Blur’s tactics for torpedoing the NFT market in the first place…as it has led to a lot of volume, but has *maybe* contributed to tanking price floors.

so when they announced on Tuesday, that they’d be delaying the end of Season 2 until May 1st, the cries from the NFT community to end Blur’s reign only became louder.

oh, how quickly they turn.

that’s because now they string along those competing on the leaderboard, which will inevitably lead to more bid farming…which isn’t exactly great for sustained and *organic* growth in the NFT space.

also, has anyone checked on Machi lately? it seems like he’s losing a lot of money from Blur farming.

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GAMMA ⚓️

ticketmaster NFT integration

wake up, babe. some new NFT adoption just dropped.

Ticketmaster rolled out their new token-gated NFT integration on Monday and it’s pretty cool.

(I can say this now because after NFT LA I’m now a music NFT evangelist).

how it will work is both simple and effective.

NFT holders will get access to the pre-sale of their favorite artists. just connect your wallet to verify your fandom on the Ticketmaster website and buy a ticket before anyone else.

the band Avenge Sevenfold will kick off the NFT program and with some success, hopefully, it will help bring new people into the space by providing some *actual* utility to NFT holders.

one can only hope.

DELTA ⚓️

speaking of number-fold (what a transition, right?), I updated the Cheeks metadata again last week. did you guess that it was an homage to TwelveFold…the Yuga Ordinals?

while the conversation has predictably died down on Ordinals…I don’t think it’s a good idea to move to the next shiny thing in the NFT space.

as clunky as they are right now, my groundwork at NFT LA has given me a look into those building and committed to “Bitcoin NFTs”.

and there’s already a lot of passion and intelligence there. because let’s face it…Bitcoin maxis aren’t going away anytime soon. while they’ve given us crap for buying our cartoon JPGs, there is now an opportunity to participate in this crazy world with us.

at some point, fans of Bitcoin will probably want some “artifacts” of Bitcoin to prove their allegiance.

enter Ordinals.

if NFTs on Ethereum (and Solana) have taught us anything it’s that the technology will come. there aren’t Ordinal marketplaces now, for example…but with time, projects will find ways to easily facilitate the tech-illiterate (like me) into joining their world.

right now, the buying and selling of Ordinals is hilariously complicated. I won’t pretend to know the details, but I know it involves brokers, escrow, and long blockchain verification times.

with most tech, I see that process becoming easier and easier. now, what will the time frame be for that advancement? no idea. but we’re all speculating here, so it’s probably worth it to take a swing on Ordinals at some point here in the near future.

see you Tuesday.

what if I wrote today’s newsletter…and just didn’t cover Yuga news?

would anyone read it? I guess we’re about to find out 🤭⤵️

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ALPHA ⚓️

Arbitrum airdrop

there was a day when an airdrop like ARB would have set the NFT world on fire. those days are *apparently* no longer.

on the Thursday I got back from NFT LA and I got word that a substantial airdrop was about to hit my wallet.

the L2 known as Arbitrum was launching its own coin ($ARB) and to reward people that had used that ecosystem…they were airdropping over 1 billion tokens to those same users.

I was luckily one of them, as I once wrote a piece on their NFTs when you could start trading them on OpenSea.

and from buying some Government Toucans valued at $20 each at the time of purchase, I for some reason was gifted ~$800 in ARB. I immediately swapped it for Arbitrum Ethereum and bridged that mfer to the mainnet.

(should I write a tutorial on how to do this?)

I can’t be the only one who did this…yet it certainly felt like I was. that’s because there wasn’t much action on Ethereum NFTs on an account of this airdrop. granted…bridging the Ethereum is certainly more complicated and can take up to 9 days if you use the official Arbitrum bridge.

however, if I was able to get my ETH in less than 30 minutes and I didn’t buy a single NFT with it yet…then surely we are all doomed.

BETA ⚓️

The Plague enforces royalties

on a (slightly) lighter note, remember the conversation back to 0% royalties? it was a speed run to thanks to Blur and others…but luckily there are projects finding a way around this…for now.

The Plague is a project that I’ve been eyeing for a while now…partly because they have the WAGMI Report, which is what I want BivNFT to be one day.

Pons…the founder of the Plague…has been very vocal and opinionated on the subject of royalties (and NFTs in general). however, he appears to be one of the first to *actually* do something about it.

if you search The Plague on OpenSea right now, you will not find it. that’s because come Monday, the tokens will resurface with a new contract…one that *enforces* royalties.

it’s a pretty interesting play. we will see if others will try to recreate it, or if they will simply accept our new no-royalty overlords and get rid of the thing that was attracting artists to NFTs in the first place…

GAMMA ⚓️

BivNFT once again provided the alpha…yet you probably got bored reading about my time at NFT LA.

Frank and Dust Labs has announced the date on which y00ts will be taken to Polygon…March 27.

(yes, that’s today)

so just days before the Q1 deadline was set to expire, Frank gets a project off of Solana and onto its next phase.

if nothing else, he knows how the NFT space works and what sticklers we are for deadlines.

DELTA ⚓️

fine so I just buried the Yuga stuff *way* below the fold.

but it felt like it would have been negligence to *not* cover it when your newsletter is namely about NFT news.

so here’s the TLDR: your Otherdeed plots are not completely useless after all. instead of waiting until the game to drop, Yuga announced you’ll get a cute Koda PFP in the meantime.

with the second journey into the Otherside this weekend, Yuga announced another mini-game… the Legends of the Mara.

(luckily, this one doesn’t have any buttholes)

and with the game, every plot-owner will get their very own “Kodamara” to play with…meaning there will be a 100K-supply Yuga PFP set to hit the market soon.

the companions have inevitably caused a craze…with the price floor of Otherdeeds popping up 25% over the last 24 hours and once again getting everyone talking (and writing) about Yuga.

see you Thursday.

I am back from NFT LA (fine, I just drove an hour back to my house).

it was a fun conference for me. however, I can see how others would have seen it as a disappointment…especially when you compare it to last year’s.

while it seems like the vast majority decided to skip it this year, I attended and will give you the cliff notes and sentiments from NFT LA 2023 ⤵️

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ALPHA ⚓️

mental health/burnout

if I had to choose one phrase to describe NFT LA this year it would be “scaling back”.

projects, influencers, founders, and even the event itself were feeling the effects of a bad market. what last year took up multiple halls at the LA Convention Center…this year was limited to just one.

not only that but last year (allegedly) there were also loads of afterparties, huge stages for speakers, and big headliners to keep the buzz of the conference going for all 4 days.

this year? there was definitely no Azuki “check your wallets” moment. I didn’t really have to stand in line or fight crowds anywhere I went (though the rain didn’t help).

big projects, including the aforementioned Azuki, seemed to punt on LA entirely.

Hassbula showed up briefly and Checks had a big party…but that’s about as *noteworthy* as anything got.

that being said? it was an awesome time for introverts like me. the small pond led to quality interactions and a more relaxed environment.

often times, the MCs and panelists would applaud us simply for showing up; it apparently meant we were in it for the right reasons.

me? I just didn’t have anything else to do…

BETA ⚓️

AI and media

so what were panels talking about?

as mentioned in my Tuesday newsletter, I expected to hear a lot about “Hollywood” and also AI. in a rare BivNFT moment, I absolutely nailed that prediction.

but while they both were hot topics of discussion at almost every panel, they really produced some of the worst content of the week (besides my newsletter, of course).

with AI, no one had anything more to offer on it other than it will become a great “tool” for artists and creators.

with media, at one point a moderator applauded giant companies like Warner Brothers and CBS for being “brave” and experimenting with NFTs. they also flashed the Game of Thrones NFTs on the screen without a hint of irony.

however, I did find unexpected insight from panels on Web3 music.

yes, surprisingly, fans of music NFTs had the most to offer at the conference. here’s what I learned:

• the music industry is once again ripe for disruption

• Web3 offers music artists authentic and organic ways to build an audience

• the technology gives them a way to offer fans new experiences while earning more than they’d make from Spotify. a win-win all around

even better, most speakers were completely realistic on the panels. they weren’t saying abolish Spotify. in fact, they value the music giant’s contribution to “saving” them years ago from torrents and Pirate Bay.

but now things have evolved to a point where Spotify is a necessary evil.

only the Taylor Swifts of the world are making anything from it, and Web3 offers an avenue for artists with much smaller bases to still make a living from making music.

so I’m sold on music NFTs…as that concept is really at the core of what we’re trying to do here.

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GAMMA ⚓️

DeGods and Ordinals

in the circles I ran in during the conference, there was very little “alpha” dispensed. but I was unable to escape a lot of discussion around Ordinals.

you know…the Bitcoin NFTs.

Frank from DeGods kicked off the conference by discussing his DeGods on Bitcoin experiment, which netted him a cool $2 million and sold out in a few seconds.

his logic for why Ordinals would succeed was simple yet compelling: the Bitcoin community is still thriving, and he finds it hard to believe that people won’t want to collect Bitcoin artifacts.

I can’t argue it, and slowly over the week, I became more convinced that I needed to get off my lazy butt and finally learn what was going on with Ordinals. while the price to experiment with Bitcoin NFTs is still too expensive for me, I can see the technology getting to a point where a layman like myself can still be “early” to them.

also? Frank seemed to heavily imply that the merge of his DeGods and y00ts projects would merge to Ethereum and Polygon respectfully will happen by the EOM…so he’ll still hit that Q1 deadline.

there’s the only little bit of alpha I can offer you.

DELTA ⚓️

sorry for the late newsletter this week

on a personal level, NFT LA was a huge success.

I loitered around my friend Jeremy Fisher’s Lucky Ducky booth for 2 days and got to meet other cool people that came by.

I pushed myself outside my comfort zone. I got a picture with Gabe Weis.

I went to afterparties. I said hi to KMoney on my way to the parking garage and he shook my hand.

I had way too much caffeine. I didn’t have too much alcohol.

maybe conferences aren’t so bad after all. I definitely learned some things…and I think I’d like to attend more of them.

that’s right: Biv coming to an NFT event near you (but I’d still prefer that you keep it in Southern California so I can drive).

see you Tuesday.

if you liked this newsletter, you’ll also like my friends:

• business x blockchain by corporate trash

• ENS HQ by tjlarkin.eth

*this newsletter was made for informational purposes ONLY and does not constitute financial or legal advice*

I decided that when NFTs are floundering and the macroeconomic climate looks dire, it would be an excellent time to attend my first NFT conference.

while the vibes may not be as euphoric as they once were at NFT events of the past, I am excited to meet some “real ones” this week who have stuck around through it all.

but mostly, I’m stoked to be having a new experience. my agenda (and mind) are open for the first time in a while…and I’m looking forward to learning more about NFTs.

I’ll dive into the topics I’m particularly interested in more below ⤵

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ALPHA ⚓

it’s Hollywood baby…

when I first heard about NFTs, I was bullish on the idea that IP could come *before* films and television shows.

my thesis was this…brands and storytellers could market test characters and ideas in the NFT market *before* taking them to the big screen (or Netflix).

much like a early sketch of Mickey Mouse, NFTs offered a way modern companies (like Yuga Labs) to test out if people would even like their Ape creation in the first place before going all in (spoiler: they did).

on paper, it made a lot of sense to test it this way…as it allowed brand-building to become more cost effective. instead of getting a greenlight from a major studio with a $5 million budget, a company could launch an NFT project for far less.

it was essentially MVP testing for Web3 companies…which IPs stuck and which didn’t?

what I didn’t anticipate was a struggling streaming industry and an antiquated Hollywood system where it takes years (if not decades) to get things off the ground. NFTs have had huge, uphill battles to get their animations made…let alone penetrate any sort of mainstream media market.

since NFTs took off in 2021, we’ve only had people like Seth Green, Time Magazine, and others *tease* their shows…but outside of those we’ve really only seen rugs and the occasional failed YouTube series.

at NFT LA, I’d like to hear more about these struggles and what I can reasonably expect to see on the horizon for NFTs and mainstream media.

(I’ll definitely be attending the Animation panel with friend of the newsletter Jeremy Fisher speaking on his experience as a stop motion animator and NFT founder)

BETA ⚓

ah yes, AI

AI is all that anyone can talk about right now.

so I would find it hard to believe that it doesn’t come up at *some point* during a panel I attend this week at NFT LA…especially when so many digital artists will be in attendance.

(I have it at -1000 that it’s mentioned at a dozen separate panels)

with AI, you’re starting to see what happened with NFTs, crypto, and VR before that…in that everyone from your Forbes tech blogger to your dad is saying it’s the future.

and with those expectations, the gold rush and AI race is on…with every big company under the sun trying to get into the craze.

the same can be said for this conference, who ultimately needs butts in the seats. why NFT LA changed their name to Outer Edge I’ll never know (it’s a horrible name for a conference), but I imagine it’s partly so they could open up to this newer, larger audience who is interested in AI art.

(it certainly doesn’t hurt that they also got away from the (now) toxic stink that comes with the term “NFT”)

oddly enough, NFTs have been seated at the front row of the AI revolution this entire time. Art Blocks and other generative art projects have been experimenting with it for years now.

so I imagine that this conference will be a kind of perfect storm for the discussion on the future of AI and it’s relationship to art.

however, I’m already cringing at the fact that we’ll keep having the same questions asked across every panel about AI. and everyone will give the same canned answer about it…”either adapt or die”.

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GAMMA ⚓

keeping an open mind

if you’ve been following my NFT journey this year, a lot has revolved around me pushing myself *outside* my comfort zone.

and I plan on continuing to do that.

this week, I hope to attend at least one panel about something completely out of my element (the panel above about Web3 biology and science seems perfect for that sort of thing).

maybe I come back finally understanding music NFTs…something I’ve never been able to quite wrap my head around. there seems to be a lot of panels on the future of music and its relationship to Web3 and NFTs.

or maybe it’s a panel that turns me on to a project I’ve never heard of or a founder I vibe with.

one thing is for sure: if I paid over $200 for this ticket, I better come home having learned *something* new by the end of the week.

if not, I think it’ll be a bad look that someone who’s currently unemployed went to a conference where he could have networked but instead he drank beer from a shoe…

DELTA ⚓

BivNFT meet-up?

speaking of beer, I would love to have grab a brew with my readers or literally anyone who will show up and chat with me.

I’m thinking about posting up at a brewery in the LA area on Tuesday or Wednesday and doing an impromptu BivNFT meet-up. are you down?

debating between Angel City Brewing, BoomTown Brewery, or something closer to where I’m staying in Glendale. I have no real events on my agenda, so I decided it might be best to just throw my own party. if no one shows up, that’s fine as I have no problem grabbing a drink just to sit there and do nothing.

after all, I am attending a conference this week…where I imagine I’ll be doing a lot of sitting and a whole lot of nothing.

see you Thursday for my NFT LA recap.

welcome to madness.

yes…it’s that time of year again when companies, podcasts, and media outlets get together and create their *own* version of March Madness brackets.

(they do things like a bracket for the best fast-food restaurants, for example)

and here at BivNFT, I am a follower and not a leader. so I too will be ripping off this concept.

but because I’m also lazy, I will not be creating an *entire* bracket today (ain’t nobody got time for that). instead, I’m pitting some of the projects with the highest sales volumes over the last 30 days against each other.

the regions will be broken down by price floors. let’s gooooo.

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ALPHA ⚓️

under 15 ETH: azuki vs. mutant

in the first region, we have two ‘behemoths' of the space…Azuki vs. Mutants.

they need no introductions for those who know NFTs well. one is the companion collection of the Bored Apes, and the other is possibly one of the *coolest* projects (or so people tell me).

now as it goes with most March Madness picks, they are usually done soley off *vibes* with little to no research. and you are damn sure I’ll be doing it the same way.

ultimately, you can’t go wrong with either. they are iconic and a flex in their own unique ways. both represent a very *particular* type of person on Twitter too. Mutants love being in Twitter Spaces and acting like they know it all.

well actually, now come to think of it….so do Azukis.

so what this decision comes down to is essentially this: do you believe in Yuga, or do you want to fade them?

while Azuki seems to be on a historic rise (I once theorized the gap between them and Apes would get very narrow at some point this year), it is getting hard to bet against “institutions”.

and with Yuga, that’s exactly what they’re becoming with NFTs. they can do no wrong…and people will always bail them out.

the first round goes to Mutants.

BETA ⚓️

under 5 ETH: doodles vs Clone X

the next region is named ‘distressed assets’.

Doodles once were as cool as it got. their IP remains strong, but their partnerships with Pharrell and CEOs from major music companies don’t look as cool when their price floor goes below 4 ETH (which is true right now as I write this).

the same could be said from Clone X. the Nike NFT once was rumored to be recruiting Lebron James. it seemed like a no-brainer to bet on the Swoosh to bring NFTs to the masses…until they created a super confusing ecosystem that didn’t resonate with outsiders (and didn’t really seem to reward its holders that much either).

for me, my choice changes with the wind, but I’ve always trusted the Doodles IP more, for some reason. though I think Clones are clean, I’ve wanted a Doodle forever (and that has to count for something).

the round 2 winner is Doodles.

GAMMA ⚓️

under 5 ETH: Moonbirds vs Pudgy Penguins

region #3 is simply called ‘birds’.

but it goes a lot deeper than that, for sure. Pudgy Penguins and Moonbirds have two well-known leaders but represent two completely different trajectories in the NFT space.

Moonbirds minted at 2 ETH when Ethereum was worth almost $4000. that means that they currently sit at a dollar amount that is *less* than their mint price. ouch.

a lot of that initial hype was thanks to Kevin Rose whose Web2 background had a lot of us excited about the project’s future. but unfortunately, they can’t seem to get out of their way these days, and Moonbirds is starting to look more like the Digg of Web3 every day (sorry for the low-blow KRO).

Pudgy Penguins meanwhile experienced a meteoric rise from humble(ish) beginnings. but after a highly publicized fall…Pudgy Penguins like so many others became a reclamation project. but unlike most fallen NFT projects, they have, against all odds, risen from the ashes…with the help of Luca Netz.

Pudgy Penguins are trending up and though I have my doubts (still), I have no choice but to buy into the *new* hype surrounding them.

that being said, something keeps drawing me to Moonbirds. while they’ve been stumbling, how much worse could their 2023 go *really*? their new shift to focusing on art is promising too, for sure.

but I’d be dumb to buy into their dip.

Pudgy Penguins make it out of round 3.

DELTA ⚓️

under 2 ETH: Checks Editions vs Otherdeeds

the next region is called: ‘Biv, why are you reaching?’

(look there are only so many fair matchups I can come up with at this point)

Checks VV - Editions a few weeks ago were at a 2 ETH floor. for Otherdeeds, you once needed that amount in gas fees just to have a *chance* to mint one.

however, once again, they were chosen for this matchup for a reason:

• Otherdeeds represent the NFT space’s shift to gaming, which seems to be gaining a lot of traction lately.

• Checks, on the other hand, are simply digital art. Jack Butcher, his story, and the burn mechanisms are awesome and novel, but at their core, they represent digital art as NFTs.

Yuga has made a choice to gamify everything…and Otherdeeds are supposed to be your ticket into NFT’s next *big* chapter.

however, is it crazy for me to want to stay for a bit? I don’t want to go there quite yet…because I feel a lot more work needs to be done to convince artists (of all kinds) that NFTs are the future still. and for that reason, my choice is Checks.

see you next week.

if you liked this newsletter, you’ll also like my friends:

• business x blockchain by corporate trash

• ENS HQ by tjlarkin.eth

*this newsletter was made for informational purposes ONLY and does not constitute financial or legal advice*