Popular NFT brand, Bored Ape Yacht Club, is in talks with venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, to lead a funding round of about $5 billion to raise their valuation, according to the Financial Times. The deal is still a work in progress as no terms have been agreed upon but will surely be one to watch out for.

 

Although BAYC has yet to comment on the negotiations officially, they have previously said they plan to create a strong brand and hand it over to the community. Another source, NFTNick.eth, told his Twitter followers that this would likely be huge for the NFT industry as it will validate the NFT business model if this deal comes to life and the news gets out.

 

Crypto companies generally utilize funding to expand their businesses and scale their operations globally. For example, back in 2013, When Coinbase was valued at $143 million, it received about $20 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz. It is currently valued at $86 billion. Even successful brands like BAYC require external funding to grow faster than what investments from their own profits can achieve. BAYC receiving VC funding will allow the brand to expand its business, and you will expect its valuation to increase in the future as the demand for BAYC NFTs continues to grow.

 

Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of 10,000 uniquely generated cartoon images of ape NFTs, went viral in 2021 even before prominent celebrities like Eminem, Stephen Curry, and Jimmy Fallon, amongst others, bought them. The frenzy does not end with merely acquiring a Bored Ape NFT, as ownership connects you to many celebrities and popular influencers who are members of this club. The number of celebrities ‘aping in’ is increasing every week.

 

Bored Ape NFTs, which were minted on the Ethereum blockchain, has recorded more than 393,000 in trading volume and have at least 6300 owners on OpenSea, with the lowest priced Bored Apes selling for about 18.5 ETH at the time of writing. Yuga labs, the team behind BAYC, has remained committed to growing the BAYC brand even further, and this potential deal with Andreessen Horowitz is a testament to their resolve.

 

 

Who is Andreessen Horowitz?

 

Andreessen Horowitz is an investment company based in Silicon Valley, California, founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz in 2009, commonly known as A16z. The company has more than $28b in assets, with investments spanning from Crypto and Fintech to Healthcare.

 

A16z invests in companies across different stages of growth, from seed to startups, mid and late stages. They boast of a strong track record of having backed highbrow companies like Coinbase, Airbnb, Github, and Slack, transforming the then small businesses into giants.

 

A16z are not newcomers in the crypto space. In June 2021, the company announced a $2.2 billion fund to invest in crypto founders, teams, and networks. In addition, the Financial Times reported on plans by Andreessen Horowitz to raise more than $4.5 billion for crypto investments this year, doubling last year’s figures. A16z has been investing in crypto since 2013 and has shown interest in decentralized finance, Web3, creator funds, and the next-generation payment methods.

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Imagine accidentally selling an NFT worth over $1 million for only $26. That is precisely what has happened to Timothy McKimmy, who owned Bored Ape #3475 from OpenSea’s Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection.

 

Because of this, he is now suing OpenSea—whose legal identity is Ozone Networks—claiming they knew of a glitch that made the sale possible. So what does this mean for NFT buyers and sellers? Let’s take a look.

 

About the OpenSea Lawsuit

 

The claim being made by McKimmy is that OpenSea knew of a bug that allows people to purchase NFTs when they’re unlisted on their platform. De-listing an NFT from OpenSea’s platform with their “transfer” feature doesn’t necessarily remove listings on the blockchain’s back end, making it possible for hackers to purchase tokens for far less than their floor price.

 

Previous Victims

Others have fallen victim to this glitch already, and OpenSea has since added a feature that allows users to see their current listings, including those they may have believed were cancelled. From there, users can fully de-list their NFTs by paying Ethereum gas fees. However, those who have already fallen victim to the bug aren’t at all helped by this.

 

The Damages

McKimmy is demanding that OpenSea either return his Bored Ape NFT—which was shortly after resold for 99 ETH (about a quarter of a million dollars)—or pay him damages of over $1 million. He claims the Ape was worth $1.3 million, comparing it to one of lower rarity bought by Justin Bieber for a similar price.

 

Negligence Charges

McKimmy claims that OpenSea was negligent in that they knew about the vulnerabilities in their code but did nothing to fix it. Instead, they continued sales on their platform rather than pausing to rectify the problem despite knowing this.

 

 

Does McKimmy Have a Case?

 

The claims made do seem to have some weight. It’s true that OpenSea had been in communication with other victims of their platform’s exploit and had even made some settlements (though for less than the tokens in question may have been worth at the time), so it seems reasonable to believe that they were aware of the exploit and had done little to repair it.

 

On the other hand, OpenSea did recently add their “Listings” feature, allowing users to see their current listings, including those that they might have previously believed to have been de-listed. This may prevent future incidents but does not satisfy the damages against McKimmy and others in similar circumstances.

 

There seems to be a good chance that McKimmy’s negligence charges could secure a reward from OpenSea, even if his lawsuit, as it currently stands, has some errors (such as naming OpenSea as defendant instead of Ozone Networks, listing the incorrect address, etc.).

 

 

Lessons and Preventive Measures for NFT Holders

In terms of lessons that can be learned from this case, here are a few preventive measures NFT holders can put into place:

 

1. Know the Platform

It’s generally best to deal with platforms that already have a solid reputation in place. OpenSea has been at the center of multiple controversies in addition to this lawsuit, and that should be a warning to buyers to proceed with caution.

 

2. Keep an Eye on Listings

Just because you use a platform’s tool to de-list something doesn’t mean it’s completely gone. Rarible provides a tool where you can check on all current and previous listings, as does OpenSea with its new “Listings” tab, so it’s easy to keep an eye on what’s actually on the market. You may have to pay a fee to completely de-list your token, but that’s a small price compared to the value of a highly appreciated NFT.

 

3. Get Your Legal Stuff Right

The errors in McKimmy’s lawsuit may not altogether avert his efforts to recover damages, but they can still be an obstacle. Make sure you know which company you’re dealing with (not just the first name that pops up on their platform) and the jurisdiction in which they operate. Having some legal help on your side isn’t a bad idea either.

 

 

Lessons and Preventive Measures for NFT Sellers

 

There are some lessons to be gleaned for sellers as well. Even if you don’t lose a lawsuit, it’s still expensive to resolve it, making the following preventive measures invaluable.

 

1. Know Your Customer

While many value blockchain technology for its potential to protect anonymity, it’s still a good idea to know your customers. Doing so can help you avoid dealing with hackers and keep you more secure against liabilities that might result from exploits or illicit activity.

 

2. Review Your Code

To further shield yourself and your users against exploits, it can be worthwhile to review your code and platform activity every so often. Doing so can reveal potential bugs that could open you up to liability. If you find anything, correct it quickly. It may mean taking your system down, but expensive lawsuits can be far more costly.

 

3. Give Users Visibility

One of the issues with OpenSea appears to be the fact that users didn’t have much visibility over their listings. They used the platform’s “transfer” feature, believing that it would completely de-list their tokens when it, in fact, did not. If they had had more visibility, these errors might not have occurred (or at least wouldn’t have been OpenSea’s responsibility). As such, it’s worthwhile to implement functionality that gives your users plenty of visibility over their assets.

 

The Takeaway

 

It will be interesting to see what happens over the course of this lawsuit. The nature of blockchain technology and the various forces at work, in this case, could present some unique challenges when it comes to presenting the case to a jury, and the courtroom proceedings that follow could well shape the case law for future NFT-related suits. But, for now, it’s advisable to play things on the safe side.

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Who are you and what are you best known for?


My name is Richard, aka Mr. Y, I am best known as an artist, some would say I am an OG. I have been doing NFTs and Crypto art for over 2 years now.  I have been on SuperRare since the beginning. I am varied in my art, doing a lot of different things and trying out different styles.  I am not the typical artist that is stuck to one particular style, I like to hop from one idea to another as they pop into my head. I think some people know me by this. 

 

Are you a collector as well?


Yes, I am a collector, just not a huge collector. I like to support artists that I like if they are in my price range. It’s not like I can spend a lot of money on Crypto Art. I do like to go from project to project and consider myself a smaller collector.   

 

What are you currently working on? 

Currently, I just finished the first part of my Crypto Quartz project. They were 55 handmade 3D Quartz Crystals.  I am also working on a confidential project that I can’t talk about yet. I can say it is very cool and unique and will say more when I am able to. 

 

Crypto Quartz
Crypto Quartz

 

When did you first get involved with Crypto and NFTs? 

 

I got involved with crypto very very early, I bought my first bitcoin back in 2013 when they were like $50 or $60 dollars, but most people would call me spaghetti hands because I sold them two years later when Bitcoin hit $1,000 or $800 dollars I think. I was like haha idiots I made like $10,000 dollars look what I did.  The same thing with Ethereum, I am not a whale, but I was very early into Crypto. I used a lot of different platforms that came up like steem, I was writing articles there and stuff like that. Then in mid-2019, a friend of mine told me about this thing called SuperRare.

In my main job, I am a content creator at an online agency for more than 10 years now so I am used to being creative as a part of my daily business.  I have always wanted to create art, but I am not a physical artist like a painter. I have created a lot of things with photoshop but there was no real market for that back then. My friend showed me SuperRare, and so I applied and was accepted, it was much easier back then. 

 

What is your favorite NFT project to date?

 

That’s a very tough question, I totally love what the Bored Ape Yacht Club did. They created something that had humor, the designs are great, I feel they did a lot of things right. You can see that every time someone copies the concept. You see new 10k avatar projects popping up every day now it seems but none of them seem to be as successful as the Bored Apes, they hit the right spot for a lot of people and did a lot of things right. I think they have to be my favorite project at the moment.

I did the same thing I did with Bitcoin, I minted like 10 of them and then the price went up and I was like Yaaas and sold them too early.  I am very bad at flipping NFTs. If you see me buying something either don’t do it or hold it. The things I hold become worthless and the things that grow I sell them too early.  

 

 

Where do you see yourself in this space over the long term?

 

I hope people know me for the art that I am creating and for my various ideas. There are a lot of things I want to do but have to wait on some of those things because I don’t have the budget to pay developers, maybe one day I will bring those ideas out. I hope to be seen as someone who has been in this space since the beginning and to continue creating a lot of very different things versus being stuck to only one style. Someone said a few months ago that it’s always a surprise when I mint something, never knowing what it will be. 

On my SuperRare profile, my bio says “My mom always said Mr Y Art is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you’re gonna get.” – Forrest Gump  

I hope this is something people will support and say okay, we like that.

Over the next 12 months?


I am working on my website right now and what I want to do there is to be fully transparent with the Eth that I get for my work and to show that I am supporting new artists. For example, if I sell something for 1 Eth I would like to show that .25 Eth went to supporting other artists, and here are the works that I bought. I would also like to have a portion go into a sort of bucket list of things I want to do. Another major goal or target for me is to sell a piece of art for over 10 Eth.  Those are some of the main targets for me right now because I am already doing what I love, I get to create.

 

 

What inspires you as a human?

 

I get creative when I am in the water, if I am swimming or standing in the shower, I can totally relax and get into my mind and focus on things.

I moved out of the city and into the countryside five years ago and I love to go outside next to my house, there are huge woods and mountains there. I love to go out in nature where it’s quiet with my kids. I feel inspired there, ideas come to me from being in places like this. We don’t have an Ocean in Austria as we are in the middle of Europe, but last week I was in Croatia living for 5 days at a beach house. I think every person has to see the ocean at least once in their lives because it’s crazy to stand there and just look out there. 

 

Do you have any personal passion projects or other hobbies?

 

Yes, I am running a small German YouTube channel for 10 years now as a lifestyle vlog. I am also just now starting another YouTube channel that I want to talk more about my art and NFTs

 

If you could have one superpower what would it be?

 

Wow, that’s a cool question, I’ve never really thought about that. I think it would be a really cool superpower to be able to do anything that I need at that moment. For example, if I could sit at a piano and think, I want to play it and I could instantly play it. Or if I wanted to do a cliff dive, I could just go up on a cliff and instantly be able to do a super fancy cliff dive. Something like infinite knowledge or to be instantaneously talented at anything I like at the moment.

 

How to reach Mr. Y

Website coming soon: Mry.art
Twitter: @MrY_Art

DMS are open for questions and connections.

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You probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you that 70 years ago, your government rounded up homeless kids and then started using them for scientific experiments before blasting them off into space. Of course, this never happened, yet it did happen to man’s best friend. Exactly 70 years ago today, the first attempted flight to space carrying two such dogs returned them both safely back to earth, while other launches resulted in canine deaths. Nearly 100 dogs have been to space from different programs, and in 1957, Laika (nicknamed a “Muttnik” in reference to her being mixed-breed and the first spacecraft, Sputnik) became the first living being to die orbiting the earth. Laika’s involuntary act of courage is commemorated today with Cosmic Paws, a generative art collection of NFTs celebrating the illustrious history of dogs in space.

“This is all about the love of two things, art, and space,” says Mike Mongo, astronaut teacher and author of the children’s book, The Astronaut Instruction Manual. “The Muttniks led us to space. They get to be part of our future as well as our past,” Mongo emphasized. An official ambassador of ULA-supported Johnny Appleseed in Space and founder of The Humannaires Initiative, Mongo has owned and trained dogs since he was a child and loves space as a source of inspiration. “Creators are collectors,” he said. “We don’t get to generative NFTs and collectibles without comic books and trading cards,” Mongo reminded us. “I collected comic books and Garbage Pail Kids. I will always collect street art and stickers,” he said.

 

Cosmic Paws
Cosmicpaws.io

 

 

The Cosmic Paws project team consists of Mongo, subtractive, TSStarfish, giovignone, and friends cryptotts (NFTs-for-good), @rogersdev, @buildestroy7, @withaerial, @PurpLeTariat, @kas__vegas, and @QuantumVariant. Inspired by Moebius and Final Space, the creative team spent a lot of time and consideration for the visual aspects, like lines in the background and color differentiation. In addition, the dog’s mouth, teeth, and ears were inspired by Laika herself. “All of who have been working on it, we’ve been working together for over a decade, and well all love each other’s work,” he said.

If randomly generated collectible NFTs were rated by their visual aesthetics alone, Cosmic Paws would certainly vie for Best in Show. Noteworthy differences that separate this project aesthetically from many of the other randomly generated NFT projects are that Muttniks aren’t 8-bit designs; they’re also female. “This is something I haven’t seen much of, which is a very female point of view,” says Kyle Schember. “I think it’s really fun. Let’s hope the art speaks for itself.” Each Muttnik will cost .06Ξ each, and none of them will be gifted or given away; this is an entirely random collection that affords anyone a fair and equal shot at something rare, even if it takes a year to sell all 10,000 of them.

 

Cosmic Paws
cosmicpaws.io

 

Another interesting aspect of this sales process is that each potential collector can perform a REgeneration to discover what their Muttnik will look like in advance of minting the NFT to the blockchain. Until now, collectors typically purchase randomly generated NFT collectibles sight-unseen at the point of minting, or they’re forced to patiently await the NFT reveal date. For Cosmic Paws, you can generate a different Muttnik over and over until you like something. You might generate a Muttnik you lovespin again anyway, and get a Leika you don’t like very much. “When a Muttnik is REgenerated and not claimed, there is practically zero chance that version will be seen again,” Mike Mongo emphasized. You may really like your Leika even if it doesn’t look rare, yet nobody will know if it’s rare until the entire project is revealed. This strategy can captivate collectors as they continue to calculate the supply of rare based on the scarcity of Muttnik attributes that have already been minted. Unknown possibilities present an intriguing gaming aspect for crypto art flippers to become collectible art REgenerators.

But waitwhere’s the utility? “What we do know, is how to write on the blockchain, and we figured out the random generator, which was really, really tough,” says subtractive. To reward its community and cultivate a creative arthouse of space dogs, the first 5,000 Muttnik token holders will begin a voting process to select a remix artist from the community while a “Paws in Space” selection committee of top collectors considers the next project from a list of dog space heroes. The winning community artist is announced and onboarded to use the Muttnik regeneration platform for a Laika V2 Muttnik remix. “We will onboard them to do their own collection, through our platform, then wash, rinse, and repeat again,” says subtractive. “ We can work with artists who don’t know how to do this so artists in our community can be the next in line to produce the next round,” he said. “You have full permission to print, do t-shirts, do whatever you want with it.”

 

Cosmic Paws
cosmicpaws.io

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From revolutionary outsider to an entrenched gatekeeper, Jay-Z enters the NFT space like a whale in a Bodega. Litigation, speculation, and recriminations abound as the 25th anniversary of his breakout album Reasonable Doubt rolls around—the leading players involved in the project attempt to reap the whirlwind that is the NFT market today.

 

There were two NFT offerings slated to celebrate the 25 anniversary of Mr. Carter’s seminal work. Still, earlier this week, a judge halted Damon Dash’s proposed auction of his version of a Commemorative NFT, the specifics of which still remain cloudy. The optics of competing  NFT’s from rival owners of the same intellectual property were enough to set the Twitterverse aflame with wild speculation and lukewarm hot takes.

 

Reasonable Doubt Image from thesource.com

 

HOV is most assuredly a zealous protector of the image and reputation that he’s built up over decades of dominating pop culture. And clearly has no problem using the courts to his advantage. The lessons those of us studying the space are learning by watching the things that he’s been able to block from being minted, and the other moves made in the space are invaluable to us as early adopters.

 

After a lifetime of setting trends, he seems to be playing catchup and overcompensating to the casual observer. Though that belies the fact that with Tidal and Twitter firmly in his corner, Jigga has unparalleled insight into the culture as an aggregate, even if he does seem to be missing some of the finer nuances of the crypto and NFT space as evidenced by changing his avatar to a cryptopunk like this was 2017. Ya gotta get a Bored Ape fam?

 

Jay Z and Jack Dorsey
Greg Allen/Invision/AP (Jay-Z); AP (Dorsey)

 

But I digress. lol, the scope of Jay’s influence on the culture can not be overstated. The millions of people discovering NFT’s and crypto due to Jay-Z minting a one-of-one NFT will only lead to a fresh wave of newly minted crypto enthusiasts and NFT noobs. Without a doubt, it would have been better for those of us native to the space if he would have descended onto one of the platforms that could act as a larger onramp to the space than a Sotheby’s, which is the definition of exclusive, and by design seeks to limit the number of people who participate in their auctions. However, access appears to be a blindspot that executive HOV has, which may have developed from having very few doors closed to him. A recent twitter spaces event held by Jack Dorsey with independent artists featured on the Tidal Platform had a lack of access as a recurring theme, from playlist generation to fan engagements. The problems that up and coming artists are facing today no longer seem to be high on the priority list.

I started writing this before a lot of legal issues went down.  In light of all that has happened since– lookout for a follow-up/update article from me next week.

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With the super hot NFT collectible drop hype cycle going on right now, many in the community are apeing into NFT project after project.  From fucking pickles, bananas, rats, misfits, camels, strawberries, ducks, and now some undead monsters to boot, there is an emerging trend in collectible drops.

We have a large number of NFT drop examples to pick from and many in the community are letting it be known what they don’t want to see more of.

Take this tweet from one of the most vocal on-chain evangelists J1mmy.eth,  founder of NFT42, Nameless, and Avastars

Obviously, there are pros and cons to any line of logic, and J1mmy himself notes that there are some useful reasons to use a delayed reveal mechanic in certain situations, but not in the way we are seeing it used for the sake of pumping the floor price before a reveal.  This is a trend that I agree, we as a community should push back on.

To be contrarian for a moment to J1mmy.eth’s point, instantly revealing when a collectible NFT is minted, whales often have a serious advantage over us mere mortals who would like to participate in certain drops. We must find a solution that keeps things pointed towards a more egalitarian outcome,  in my personal opinion. 

Then there is this rather concise summary of what many in the community are not liking about these recent collectible NFT drops:

I would agree with all of these points.

While I do understand that projects are all working to extract attention from a rather modest NFT-aware userbase, as we slowly creep towards mass adoption. The FOMO mechanics of many of these projects are merely trying to replicate what they have seen work in the past.

If every NFT project team is replicating what they think will sell out the fastest, raise the most funds, or create the most hype and attention then we will keep getting more of the same repeat mechanics in future NFT drops. 

I will not lie and say I don’t fall victim to the collectible hype, but I think we as a community should become more thoughtful in what we vote on supporting with our participation and spending.  In full transparency, I own at least one of each of the NFTs I mentioned earlier( besides a banana).  This is all mostly due to my efforts to diversify which projects I currently own, but low key because I am still butthurt that I didn’t get a few Bored Apes when I had multiple chances to.

For me, bonding curves will keep me out of a project. Anonymous developers just feels like trouble, and no real utility being added to a project just spells a HARD no for me. Now, fun and novelty can be an underestimated utility especially if there is strong community involvement.

 

NFT Collectible Drop by Cake’d Bored Apes
“I Think We Did Too Much” Caked DMT Monster by Cake’d Bored Apes

 

This commentary is mostly referencing these newer NFT collectible drops and not just crypto art that I like or supporting artists that I connect with.  I don’t necessarily buy all NFTs because I think they may be worth more in the future, I will buy something that I really love, if I can afford it at the moment, or if it’s from an artist that is someone I really want to intentionally support because of who they are as people and/or if their work is just really dope.

This would bring me to my next major gripe, especially around Avatar NFT projects. I want to pick what my avatar looks like, and not just randomly receive something I may not like at all. I see the outcome of this quite often when people start dumping avatars they don’t like on Opensea for lower prices than they paid for them. 


Now I understand there are issues with letting everyone just choose what they want, but I am putting it out into the universe. If someone can come up with a novel method that protects the masses from gas wars and whales from just taking over while allowing us to build out avatars that we can love, then I think we would mostly agree: that would be cool!

Perhaps without revealing the rarity of those physical aspects that are ‘choosable’ then we would have a win-win, or if rarity was not tied to only visual attributes but instead non-visual attributes to allow for customization. I know technically this could just be wishful thinking, at least for right now, but if we can send chunks of silicone and metal to Mars I think we can at some point figure out how to let me buy an avatar NFT that I fucking love before it hits the secondary market or I get priced out of what I want.

 

NFT Collectible Drop #6812 by Boring Bananas co.
#6812 by Boring Bananas co.

 

Many projects are thinking in the short to medium term and not thinking about their futures, where new technical possibilities can and will exist. This is where the on-chain gang argument really does shine with merit. Being able to reference things on-chain in the future will be a really powerful asset and boost the longevity of the projects that keep that future-focused mentality. 

I spoke with Michael Keen, founder of NFTcatcher.io, that is building a really fantastic platform that aggregates the most significant upcoming NFT drops in a comprehensive and useful way. I asked him about what he does not like to see in NFT drops because, honesty, he probably participates in and is aware of more drops than any single person that I know. 

Michael echoed many of the similar points listed above with some additional nuance:

He told me “I don’t like to see metadata leaks before a reveal, any issues with the smart contract implementation really scares buyers” and he “doesn’t like to see the developers hiding and not answering questions”

I would like to second the metadata leak issue as there were early rumors that were later confirmed during the Misfit University drop, which can be exploited by the technically gifted over the average user to mint the token ids with the rarest traits.

Crying eyes and duct tape drama debacles aside, a responsive team can work through issues with the community as they arise. I personally watched as NFT Twitter wanted to burn the devs of the Misfit University project at the stake, with the alleged rape culture references, but they were responsive and listened to the community and arrived at a solution that in many ways has saved that project, at least to live or die another day.

If we want to see better NFT Collectible Drops with less of what we don’t want and more of what we do want then we as a community should be having these conversations with the developers and creators of these projects. Above all, we should be putting our crypto where our mouths are and voting with our fungible token spending.

 

NFT Collectible Drop
Image by Strawberry.WTF

 

Main Featured Image Credit: Remix of Slacker Duck & Arabian Camel by Albert Polanco

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The Super Yeti community experienced the long-awaited reveal of their treasured Yetis on June 14th. The remarkable efforts by the team behind the project were well-received by many members of the crypto community at large as well as by the secondary NFT market where sales of Yetis have topped 5 ETH. With an equitable launch of 0.1 ETH for every Yeti, a portion of the proceeds received will go towards cultivating a game and a community while also working to fight human trafficking in Nepal and India.

Photo Credit: @pranksyNFT and Super Yeti

 

 

The Project

The Super Yeti founders go by the names Supercape and Sparq, choosing to retain anonymity. Despite this fact, they have nonetheless made themselves fully present on their Discord server and through discussions on Clubhouse and Twitter, in addition to a podcast. Tirelessly answering questions while displaying their character and ambitions. Supercape has been part of three Silicon Valley startups and lends a jovial, optimistic attitude to the project that is balanced by Sparq’s diligent, data-driven approach. Sparq is an astute and experienced blockchain developer, having worked with solidity to secure multiple De-Fi projects since 2015.

 

Superscape’s vision was to build a “Yetiverse;” a blockchain game and a community of Yetis that would help decide what the fate of that game would look like. The project was essentially crowd-funded with NFTs to deliver a game for those who provided funding or bought a Yeti later. Critically, a social cause was attached to the project, establishing that 5% of all proceeds would go to fighting human trafficking in Nepal and India. 

 

Allocation & Pre-Sale

The Super Yeti company held 240 Yetis to fund future game development and community initiatives, awarded 60 to team members individually, and another 500 Yetis were given to community members as part of a giveaway. The Super Yeti project then started its pre-sale on June 8th at 3 PM EST, in which the remaining 9,200 Yetis went up for sale at 0.1 ETH each. Initially, 24 different traits were defined for each Yeti’s characteristics including their eyes, hands, colour, and background that could form up to 20,000 different combinations of Yetis. Nobody who participated in the presale knew what properties their Yeti would end up having, how rare they would be, or what they would end up looking like, but the community was excited by the vision and the cause, as well as their firm belief in the team’s ability to achieve it.

Super Yeti
Photo Credit: @MrTrapie and Super Yeti team

 

The pre-sale quickly gained traction, and all 10,000 Yetis were sold out only a few days later on June 11th. Due to popular demand, the Super Yeti team brought on additional team members that focused on community management, graphic design, and development. The result of these additional resources was the exponential increase in the number of possible Yetis, and thereby further enhanced the uniqueness of each Yeti. Instead of 24 traits there were now 88, reportedly capable of forming over a million combinations, up from 20,000.

The community was delighted to receive this news on the Super Yeti Discord Server. Furthermore, ahead of the reveal, the Super Yeti team announced their first significant donation of 10 ETH to New Light Kolkata, a public charitable trust based in India with a broad array of social justice programs including educating and caring for the children of sex workers and “untouchables”- a social caste in India placed on the bottom of the social ladder that limits many opportunities.

 

The Reveal

The Super Yetis were revealed on June 15th at 3PM, exactly one week after the pre-sale began. People began to notice their NFTs changing from the question marks overlaying the Yetis to the Yetis they were awarded. Many flocked to Twitter and Clubhouse to show off the designs of their new Yetis, and within a few days some of the rarest ones were selling for 5 ETH. 40 minutes after the reveal, Opensea finally gave the project the verified badge on their site. The reveal had been successful.

Since then, the Discord community has grown both by member count to over 3700 members, and also by breadth of discussion. There now exist many additional channels covering many topics even beyond Yetis. 

 

The Future/The Impact

The Super Yeti community that has assembled over the past two weeks has been united by their belief in the blockchain game that they could build, as well as by the social cause that is inseparable from the project. The Yetis of legend are often placed around the Himalaya Mountains, the same mountain range that separates Nepal from India. It is across these two countries that the Super Yeti project focuses its donations to fight human trafficking. 

 

This is proof of many concepts. First, that a project can be crowdfunded by a community while simultaneously rewarding those that participate. NFTs provide the ideal use case for such a model. Furthermore, it verifies that a social cause attached to an exciting project can truly supercharge the potential for both. As we move to a more socially responsible future, we look to pioneers like the Super Yeti project to exemplify taking advantage of these new technologies to improve the lives of others around the world.

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Arguably the biggest artist in the NFT space and digital art world as a whole, @beeple/ Michael Winkelmann lit Twitter and the Metaverse afire recently when he joined the Meebits army and launched a broadside attack on @danny_p3d/ Daniel Poschinger and the simians from the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Retaliation was swift and brutal with @youngandsick bringing home a Meebits skull as a trophy before cooler heads prevailed and the fighters hugged it out.

 

 

At this point you’re probably wondering wtf I’m talking about, wtf is a Meebit and wtf is The Bored Ape Yacht Club. In the wake of such hugely profitable collectable projects such as Cryptopunks and Crypto Kitties, it was only a matter of time before similar projects and innovations would begin popping up. From bitmap art, to 2D, to 3D art, creators have been searching for the next big thing and how to monetize it.

 

LarvaLabs, the creators of the Cryptopunks, recently  released the Meebits. Unlike their Cryptopunks, which only included 10,000 NFT’s in the collection of algorithmically generated 2D art, the Meebits consist of 20,000 3D voxels characters that owners can use as their avatars in the metaverse. They also have the option to load their Meebits into almost any standard 3D modeling software, and animate their collectables as they see fit. There is also a trustless marketplace built into the smart contract allowing trades of up to 100 Meebits per transaction.

 

The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a project of 10,000 cartoon ape NFT’s programmatically generated and stored as ERC721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Released around the same time as the Meebits, BAYC exploded on the scene during the peak of the NFT boom last month, in early May 2021 with countless remixes and derivative pieces stemming from popular digital artists floating around the interwebs. Bored Ape #8023 recently sold for 49.99 ETH, or more than $132,000 at the time, and the Bored Ape Remix has built an Ape-arel line around the property selling T-shirts, hats and accessories. One stand out artist is Daniel Poschinger @danny_p3d who’s 3D renders have been pushing the already hot secondary  market into new territory.

 

 

Enter @beeple, the level of attention that an artist of his stature brings to these projects can’t be overstated or accurately quantified but for people whose first exposure to either the Meebits or the Bored Ape Yacht Club was through the first of what may prove to be countless digital skirmishes between two distinct camps of crypto enthusiasts.  This serves as a window into a world where creatives are pushing the boundaries of collectibles, monetization, and community building. Hype aside, the popularity and variety of artists associated with these two projects bodes well for their financial viability, and the health of the NFT marketplace overall. I for one can’t wait to see what happens next.

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Just when people were saying that the NFT collectibles market was grinding to a hault, along came the Bored Apes. Over the course of several days, Bored Apes Yacht Club has sold 10,000 NFTs and has grossed over 3,000 ETH and marks the second most liquid generative art collectible on Open Sea to date.  On April 18th, 2021, the Twitter account @Boredapeyachtclub began promoting a new collection of Cartoon Ape NFTs.  Similar to Cryptopunks, the company promoted the fact that each Ape was “unique and programmatically generated from 172 possible traits, stored as ERC721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain” opening up for presales a few days later on April 23rd.

Though it took several days for the pieces to catch on, aside from the unique aesthetic collectors began to be drawn into the drop because of its unique membership ‘club benefits’:

“Your Bored Ape doubles as your Yacht Club membership card and grants access to members-only benefits, the first of which is access to THE BATHROOM, a collaborative graffiti board.” The Bathroom “contains a canvas accessible only to wallets containing at least one ape. Like any good dive bar bathroom, this is the place to draw, scrawl, or write expletives. Each ape-holder will be able to paint a pixel on the bathroom wall every fifteen minutes. Think of it as a collaborative art experiment for the crypto sphere. A members-only canvas for the discerning minds of crypto Twitter.” 

This is just one of the many examples of the unlockable content that come along with these particular NFTs.  Others include the ability to join a private “club,” access to exclusive drops, and (most significantly) the rights to use the images of the apes one buys commercially in perpetuity.  This is quite a rare offer in the NFT space and has been something that many artists have been drawn to, with NFT staples such as JR Artspace, Taylor Wtf, and many others pumping out several popular artistic remixes of their own apes over the past few days.

However the momentum really picked up between the 24th of April and culminating in May first when @Pranksy and @J1mmy.eth collectively bought over 250 apes.  From that moment alone, the Bored Ape Yacht Club went from 500 pieces minted to entirely sold out in less than 10 hours…

According to investor Mike Damazo: “It definitely went crazy when @Pranksy picked up 250 before secondary.  Then Farokh came in at the secondary market. “  From there, “someone tweeted at Gary V which led him to the discord. Then “3LAU held two giveaways in his discord group.” 3LAU doing this giveaway referenced one of his own earliest NFT related stunts.  Several years ago he famously gave away free NFTs at various music festivals by way of a QR code he would have physically with him on his personal cellphone.

But, celebrity associations aside, why did initial investors bite?  According to a conversation we had with @J1mmy.eth: “the pricing was fair and approachable and the narrative of the site and being a part of the club drew me in. The community has been great as the project has started to pick up steam!”  This low and consistent pricing was very important to the Bored Ape Yacht Club team, often cited as calling popular NFT pricing systems such as ‘bonding curves’ quite pointed names such as “Ponzi schemes.” But the incentive to buy went far beyond this. According to @J1mmy.eth: “bored apes make great personal profile pictures.” Jimmy also wished that the collection was “on-chain” but still insists that the apes that he bought “still captured my attention despite that deficiency.”

It seems as if the issue of the apes being minted on open sea, and not an “on-chain” platform, such as Rarible with integrated IPFS, or an equivalent.  Though the Bored Ape Yacht Club did include an IPFS certificate with each ape included in their unlockable content, this still wasn’t enough for many staunch collectors.  To quote an analysis on HackMD: “the company/entity minting is paying Google [for hosting] those server-less functions to service the actual JSON metadata.” Calling this a “huge single point of failure.”

Despite this, all Apes sold out in the primary market We asked @Pranksy about his monumental purchase of Apes and he also mentioned that “They were fairly priced, unlike recent projects using FOMO price curves, and the art for me passed the ‘profile picture’ test.” It is interesting how much collectors both resonated with the stable, and relatively low, initial price; as well as the ‘profile-picture-ability’ of the collection. Similar to Cruptopunks, Cryptokitties, Poklamons, or other popular collectables – most buyers, in the initial market at least, simply seemed drawn to to the Apes they liked the best aesthetically.  Wanting to use them as profile pictures, add them to virtual art galleries, and more. Because they were relatively cheap people could mint many multiples until they got the one they aesthetically liked the most or match their profile. On top of that buying into a club and the promise of all of the unlockable content, this seems to be a major driving factor in the minds of buyers.  However, it would be a shame not to analyse some of those cool features that was released throughout the sale.

Since all of the pieces are now in the secondary market, it’s also worth going through the Bored Ape team’s landmark incentives.  At 20% sold, they released “the Caged Apes tokens held back from the initial sale which [were] airdropped to random Apeholders.”  At 40% sold, BAYC launched “its own YouTube channel, BAYC LoFi Radio.”  At 60% sold, a “Member-Exclusive BAYC Merch Store got unlocked, featuring Limited Edition tees, hoodies, and other goodies.”  At 80% sold, “The clubhouse image [became] interactive and the ‘Mysterious Note’ [became] legible, beginning their treasure hunt.”  According to the Bored Ape Yacht Club team: “The first to solve the mystery will be rewarded 5 ETH and a Bored Ape.” At 90% sold, The Bored Ape team initiated their own liquidity pool.  And finally, when the collection sold out 100%, “The Mutant Ape (NFT Breeding) Arcade Machine gets fixed” thus allowing owners to “cook up new ways to ape with our friends.” At this point all of these incentives have been released, making the secondary market for these pieces quite volatile.

So what is the future of these apes? Well as of today (May 3rd, 2021), one of these Apes has been sold for an incredible 21 ETH ($69,080.76 USD).  According to Kevin Wu, This makes this ape sale on par with some low-priced Cryptopunks, a staple in the NFT collectable community.  Despite this momentous secondary sale, it seems as if things aren’t slowing down, with owners reporting bots constantly attempting to buy their apes!  It will be interesting to see how these collectables continue to grow in the coming days and weeks.

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