Is the NFT Bear Market Over?

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It’s the Weekly Rollup.

The place where we bring the heat despite the crypto winter!

Speaking of crypto winter… Is the NFT bear market over?

We’re going to discuss that in today’s issue along with:

• VeeFriends partnering with Macy’s and Toys“R”Us to transform NFTs into toys
• Moonbirds launching a DAO with a $2.6M treasury
• McDonald’s accepting Bitcoin and USDT payments
• Web3 Person of the Month. Hint: he’s the leader of a top NFT project launching a new collection this week. 

And so much more… Let’s just dive into it frens 🚀

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Is the NFT Bear Market Over?

It’s crypto winter. We all know that. But looking at some on-chain data regarding NFTs has brought up the question: Is the bear market over?

Despite dollar-denominated volumes being down about 99% on most NFT marketplaces, the amount of transactions is at an all time high!

But what does this really mean

1. Volumes down = speculative mania is over.
2. Transactions Up = more businesses & people using low cost/free NFTs.

It’s a time when blockchain and NFT tech is serving its true purpose. Speculation is gone and innovation can now thrive. 

We already see this happening at Lens Protocol where NFTs are minted for every single action taken. For example, if you follow an account or make a post, each of these actions becomes an NFT. Starbucks also plans to launch a digital loyalty program in the near future with the help of NFTs. 

So, is the NFT bear market over? Probably not in the sense that everybody’s thinking about… No, we’re not going to see NFTs valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars again—at least anytime soon. 

But we’re seeing web3 tech serve a real-world purpose. And that’s exciting. 🚀

Jay and Kyle cover this topic thoroughly on the podcast so make sure you give it a watch. 👀

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NFTs Become Physical Toys

Gary V’s VeeFriends has partnered with Macy’s and Toys“R”Us to launch a collectable series of figurines and plush toys. Yes, in real life! NFTs are becoming real toys. 🤯

Out of the 283 characters from the VeeFriends collection, Gary V has chosen 6 of them (each having a unique story behind) to be made into toys. These will be available in stores across the US starting with the 17th of October.

The holder benefits include:

• Getting the toys shipped in real life.
• Access to pre-launch events and experiences.
• Eligibility for an exclusive 30-minute token-gated video call with Gary V. 

Each toy will also have a QR code attached to it, providing owners with a digital storytelling experience for each respective VeeFriends character.

VeeFriends is combining a digital and physical experience with this launch, something that’s exciting to watch.

People, and especially the younger generation, are mostly buying digital experiences and goods anyway—for example, in-game sales in Roblox or Fortnite. So if these users can also receive these items in real life, it completely changes the gaming experience developers can offer. 

Not to mention that the outlook on NFTs will completely change. All of a sudden, people will stop looking at them as useless PFPs and instead look at them as toys. 

You can’t hate toys fam! 

The bottom line? Gary V and the VeeFriends project are doubling down on NFTs as marketing and business tools. So far, so good. But what’s the next step?

Could it be a movie? 👀

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Starting a Company With Over 10,000 Owners

There are a couple of interesting to highlight with this move, though: 

1. Moonbirds and CC0: While the Moonbirds art falls under CC0, the trademarked name doesn’t. This means that creators who want to use the Moonbirds name in a game or metaverse, for example, will need approval. And who’ll be in charge of that? The DAO. 

2. Upcoming utility token: Proof recently announced its plans for a utility token, but details are being kept private for now. They plan to share more information in Q1 of 2023. However, Kevin Rose (Proof co-founder) shared that the coin will have real utility and push the envelope of what’s possible. 

3. Proof’s veto power: Moonbirds DAO members will be able to participate in governance. However, Proof will have the power to intervene and veto DAO actions if they believe something endangers the project—similar to the early days of Nouns. 

The Moonbirds DAO creation also opens discussion around projects using mint revenue to fund their DAOs. We can’t be too hard on them since the DAO’s still receiving $2.6m, but with a typical 10 – 50% mint revenue split they could’ve controlled between $7m – $35m. 

Regardless, there are a lot of happy Moonbirds holders out there… Jay included! 

Question… Should NFT projects like Moonbirds, Illuminati, Nouns provide a portion of their mint to a DAO treasury governed by holders?

Let us know by replying to this email with Yes or No.

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McDonald’s Accepts Bitcoin and USDT 

Breaking news emerged from the Swiss town of Lugano after McDonald’s started accepting Bitcoin and USDT as payment options. Now, this isn’t particularly huge news as Lugano only has 63,000 citizens.

But there’s a macro perspective that you should keep in mind:

• Lugano has already adopted Bitcoin as legal tender.
• They’ve partnered with Tether to create two funds worth over $100M to encourage local businesses to follow in McDonalds’ footsteps. 
• Polygon is also involved as an infrastructure partner for stablecoin settlements. Could we see Polygon become the future’s main DeFi chain? 
• Lugano will also host the Bitcoin World Forum conference at the end of October.

All in all, Lugano is living up to its goal of becoming Europe’s crypto haven. 

While it’s still uncertain what this adoption will mean, we’re seeing progress in countries that aren’t forced to adopt crypto because of underdeveloped financial systems. 

It also shows that corporations like McDonald’s are able and willing to accept crypto payments. A common misconception is that big companies don’t want to be associated with web3 and crypto because it’s too volatile, which is completely false. For them, it’s still money because they can instantly convert crypto to fiat currency.

This is how mass adoption begins… Slowly experimenting in countries like El Salvador and small cities like Lugano. All of a sudden, bitcoin burgers will be the norm. 🌊

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Alex Taub: Co-Founder Truth Labs, Illuminati DAO and goblintown.wtf

For this week’s Web3 Person of the Month, we wanted to showcase a serious web3 builder. Someone who isn’t afraid to test his limits, and yes, build in a bear market. 

That’s why our Web3 Person of the Month is none other than Alexander Taub. Alex is co-founder of Truth Labs, the company behind one of the current bear market’s most interesting NFT drops, Goblintown.

Previous to that he launched the Illuminati NFT collection and the Illuminati DAO. But it wasn’t about the DAO in and of itself, it was Alex’s bold choice to share 50% of mint revenue with the DAO that really caught our attention. On top of this 50% of ongoing secondary royalties are also directed to the DAO. 

Sheesh! Not many founders can commit to a deal like that. Alex is doing some serious community building and we’re all for it!

But that’s not the coolest part of being an IlluminatiDAO member right now. A few months ago a DAO member found a smart contract for a PFP project that predates CryptoPunks by three months. 

It was built during a hackathon and is Ethereum’s first known avatar project. Alex and the DAO will revive the project with a free mint for Truth NFT holders. But if you aren’t lucky enough to have one of those, there’s a Premint raffle for 685 WL spots. NFA tho. 

And as an added bonus, original minters of the CryptoFace collection will receive a 3% royalty on every sale in perpetuity. 

Will CryptoFaces reach Goblin and Illuminati heights? Only time will tell. 

But you keep doing you Alex. Giving 50% of your mint revenue to a DAO, resurrecting the oldest PFP project in existence, and sharing perpetual royalties with original minters are some HUGE moves. 

What’s next for Alex? Running for president? We’d vote for him!

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437,365

The amount of newly registered .eth ENS domains throughout the month of September. It’s an all time record. 

2,000,000

That’s the amount of BNB (Binance’s native token) stolen from the BSC bridge. It’s worth $570m, making it one of the biggest hacks in history. The exploit happened on Friday.

$1,260,000

That’s how much Kim Kardashian had to pay the SEC for shilling the Ethereum Max token last year.

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Launches

• LensPort: A new NFT marketplace exclusive for the Lens ecosystem which lets you find all NFTs generated on Lens Protocol. A needed feature since every action you take on Lens is an NFT. Source
  
  👉 If you want to learn more about LensPort, click here, Kyle and Jay will tell you all about it and the implications of the launch 🚀

• Sega has announced its first blockchain game. Source

• Christies, an art and luxury item auction house, launches an NFT art platform. Source

• Dapper Labs sets launch date for LaLiga Golazos NFT marketplace – 27th of October. Source

• Neal Stephenson’s Lamina1 announces Open Metaverse Conference. Source

Fundraising

• Horizon raises $40M in series B, backed by Ubisoft and Take-Two. Want to know what they’re up to?
  Check out How Gaming Will Make Web3 Easy and Fun, our discussion with Horizon’s co-founder Michael Sanders. Source

• MakerDAO plans to invest $500M in US government bonds. Source

• Golden Protocol raises $40M in Series B round led by none other than a16z. Source

Other Web3 News

• Over $500M was stolen through the BSC bridge hack. $100M has already been taken off-chain. Source

• The Azurbala NFT mint has been postponed after the art reveal disappointed investors. Source

• Vayner3 publishes the Enterprise Guide to POAP. Source

• Mythical Games is creating the Mythos Foundation to decentralize web3 gaming. Source

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Take Action & Level Up

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Should NFT projects like Moonbirds or Nouns provide a portion of their mint to a DAO treasury governed by holders?

• Yes
• No

Let us know by replying to this email with your answer! 🔥

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.