Otherside’s First Trip Demo & Gen Art Part II
(gm.studio & GEN.ART)
Retail · JUL 20TH, 2022
Teng Yan
BAYC
NFT
NFT Insights
OpenSea
Disclosure: Members of our team may own NFTs or tokens related to the projects
mentioned here and may participate in the upcoming mints. This statement is
intended to disclose any conflict of interest and should not be misconstrued as a
recommendation to purchase any token or participate in any mint. This content is
for informational purposes only and you should not make decisions based solely
on it. This is not investment advice. Please exercise extreme caution if you intend
to participate in these opportunities.
State of the Market
Trading volumes on NFT marketplaces have been hovering around their lows for
the year. This week is no exception. Low transaction volumes directly impact the
revenue generated by marketplaces. This week OpenSea let go of 20% of its
employees in preparation for various “crypto winter” scenarios, one of which
includes remaining at the current trading volumes for the next 5 years. This is
surprising news as OS had been highly profitable, generating over $1B in revenue
in 2021. We could see similar measures by other marketplaces if conditions do
not improve.
LooksRare continues to build through the current downturn. The number of daily
users has fallen significantly since earlier in the year. However, transaction
volumes (filtered for wash trading) are significantly higher than in Jan-Feb 2022,
showing that it is starting to gain meaningful adoption among NFT traders.
It is worth noting that $LOOKS tokens from the private sale unlocked this week.
Since the unlock, approximately 50% of unlocked private sale tokens have been
staked, and less than 10% have been sold on a DEX. This suggests that private
sale investors are generally still bullish on LooksRare.
Despite the market downtrend, the number of NFT buyers remains relatively
steady on most days. The number of first-time buyers fluctuates between 5,000 –
10,000 daily. Overall, this is a healthy sign that there is still buying demand for
NFTs. Since total transaction volume has fallen while users remain relatively
constant, we can infer that the average transaction size & volume per user has
also fallen.
Top NFT Collections This Week
We like the Punks. There have been huge volumes of trading in
CryptoPunks this week with no obvious catalyst. The differential in floor
price between Punks & Apes is now <10 ETH, and we could see the Punks
overtake the Apes again quite soon.
Yuga Labs successfully completed its First Trip metaverse tech demo over
the weekend. Reviews from participants were generally positive, with the
spotlight falling on Improbable Studios, the maker behind it. It was quite
impressive (and chaotic) to have 4,500 people connected to the same
world simultaneously. This leverages Improbable’s M2 technology and is not
exclusive to Yuga Labs nor built from scratch. It will likely take years to build
out the metaverse & gameplay. This realization may be why Bored Ape
ecosystem assets have fallen slightly.
@OthersideMeta put on an amazing metaverse experience with the
First Trip. This is a breakdown of the event and what Voyagers could
experience during the demo. #OthersideMeta #firsttrip #otherside
@BoredApeYC crew came through! pic.twitter.com/sTZX9c4E31
— Curveline.eth (@CurvelineFilms) July 17, 2022
The Otherside also released its litepaper. A quick TL;DR on it:
Phase 1 of development, Voyager’s Journey, will be a narrative
gameplay experience in which only Otherdeed holders can
participate.
The release of an Otherside Development Kit will allow users to create
interoperable content based on their Open Object Standards.
Yuga will be launching an NFT marketplace for trading items in
Otherside’s economy.
Gmoney launches his fashion brand, 9dcc. It is a crypto-native luxury house
and lifestyle platform that bridges NFTs and clothes. The first drop is
expected to be a collection of black T-shirts in August.
Check out the world premiere of @gmoneynft discussing the launch
of @9dccxyz at 10 am EDT. This special episode of Admit One with
gmoney features a candid discussion around this revolutionary luxury
fashion and lifestyle brand launch.https://t.co/fz2YjLodEY
— Admit One (@Admit0001) July 15, 2022
PSA: Be extra careful with your wallets and “stealth mints”. Yuga Labs put
out a warning about a coordinated attack on the NFT community. Shortly
after, Zeneca33’s Twitter account was compromised, and a scam link was
posted to his community.
Our security team has been tracking a persistent threat group that
targets the NFT community. We believe that they may soon be
launching a coordinated attack targeting multiple communities via
compromised social media accounts. Please be vigilant and stay
safe.
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) July 18, 2022
Aku gets featured in Time’s magazine Into The Metaverse issue.
Notable Upcoming Mints
Please note that this is purely for informational purposes only. This is not
investment advice and does not represent an endorsement of any particular
project. Minting of new projects is high-risk. The projects chosen below are
subjective and determined by the author based on the ones they find most
interesting and/or have sparked early interest from other NFT participants. We do
stress to DYOR, given the risk associated with any new NFT drop.
I want to reiterate that in the current state of the NFT market, minting new
projects or buying them on secondary markets is extremely risky. Buy only
projects you love.
Katatonik is a web3 entertainment brand built for the metaverse, based on a
series of cool “Kats”. The creative direction is led by 2 animation directors (Liron
Topaz & JP Sans) at Dreamworks Animation, one of Hollywood’s biggest studios
responsible for animated movies like Kung Fu Panda. The art looks polished and
clean. Each NFT is individually rendered based on a proprietary algorithm inside
the Maya 3D software engine and is brought to life by a team of over 100 artists &
developers. The team plans to begin with a star-quality character that will lead
into a full-feature film and game, which you can glimpse on their website.
Meanwhile, they are building partnerships — namely with Metakicks (a sneaker
community to do physical sneaker drops) and Xbo (a crypto exchange,
potentially featuring Kats in its commercials).
Katatonik
[Ledger] Market is the new marketplace that will be launched by a well-known
hardware key provider. It aims to be the most secure platform for artists and
brands to release their NFTs, and Ledger customers will be able to connect to it
and clear sign their transactions securely. Genesis pass holders will get a limited
edition black-on-black Nano X (only 10,000 will ever be made), preferred access
to collaborations, and airdrops from their Artist in Residence program. A few
expected collaborations in 2022-2023 include RTFKT, Tag Heuer, Deadfellaz,
Brick & Jen Stark. Coming from a very legitimate company in web3, this project
could have legs.
Ledger Market’s Limited Edition Nano X
Mystics is a collection of animated PFPs that will be the gateway into The Pier, an
ecosystem of web3 art and gaming projects. The animated art style is somewhat
reminiscent of Invisible Friends, and the concept was probably born out of the
PFP frenzy earlier this year. Mystic holders will get automatic allowlists for all
future projects within The Pier. The majority of allowlist spots have been
distributed to major NFT communities, such as Doodles, CyberKongz & Karafuru.
It remains to be seen if Mystics will be able to get any meaningful interest from
them.
Mystics
You can join the Premint public raffle here. (1500 spots)
Also, a reminder of mints this week which we already covered in last week’s NFT
Insights:
Citizens of Tajigen (22 Jul)
Magic Folk (22 Jul)
Potatoz by Memeland (21 Jul)
Weekly Highlight — Gen Art Summer, Part II
Last week, we discussed Art Blocks. We talked about how generative art has
sparked a new wave of interest. Fidenzas and Chromie Squiggles have been
flying off the shelves, with floor prices climbing to 5 and 6-figures sums,
respectively. However, you do not need to be a millionaire or spend large sums
of money on becoming a collector of generative art: anyone can experience the
magic of minting & collection without breaking the bank. This week, we cover 2
platforms that offer beautiful generative artworks at affordable prices.
1. gm.studio
gm.studio is a relatively new launchpad for generative artists, started in Feb 2022.
It aims to be a full-service platform that guides artists through the steps of
launching a successful project: from defining the scope, to smart contract
deployment and marketing. A curation team comprising 6 resident artists (Tengil,
Ike, Rich Poole, Cyber Sea, nodallydude & cxkoda) steers the studio’s art
direction.
gm.studio is built by gm.DAO, is a community of NFT collectors, artists, and
investors, who are passionate about NFTs and art. The DAO comprises 900
members who are holders of the gmDAO NFT. The NFT provides access to the
private community and acts as a governance token to vote on the direction of the
DAO.
So far, there have been 4 collections launched by gm.studio, released at an
affordable mint price of 0.15E (~$230) each. While the first collection, Mind The
Gap, was not particularly ground-breaking (it appears inspired by Fidenza),
gm.studio appears to be finding its artistic direction over time.
The most successful collection is arguably Factura by Mathia Isaksen. It is
described as an act of balancing pairs of opposing qualities — monolithic and
minute, structure & disorder, intricate & plain. Part of the reason for its success
could be attributed to its launch during a period of heightened interest in art.
Some people have also drawn parallels between Factura and Kjetil Golid’s
Archetype, a well-regarded and popular Art Blocks Curated collection.
All 4 collections have done quite well on the secondary market with floor prices 2
– 15X from the mint price. Based on the previous history, the cadence of new
releases is approximately 1 – 2 months. gm.DAO token holders get 1 guaranteed
mint for each collection, so owning a gm.DAO token is one way to avoid missing
out. There is usually a raffle or contest for public allowlist spots, so following their
Twitter account or joining the Discord server is one way to stay informed of the
next art drop.
2. GEN.ART
GEN.ART is a generative art platform that takes a different approach from Art
Blocks, focusing on a membership and community-driven model instead. There
are 5,000 standard member passes and 100 Gold member passes, which can be
purchased on OpenSea.
A few key differences from Art Blocks:
You need to own a member pass to mint GEN.ART collections. Gold
members are generally given priority to mint.
Drops are small in size, typically between 100 – 1000.
Fixed price per mint, typically between 0.1 – 0.2 E, but will be shifting to a
Dutch Auction style drop soon.
DAO model with a live governance token. Community members get to vote
on major decisions.
GEN.ART has been struggling to grow collector demand for its artworks. There
have been under 2,000E in secondary sales on all its collections on OpenSea.
Except for Toha and Fjall, the rest of the collections have less than 100E in
secondary sales volume. To put this in context, a single ABC collection like
Memories of Qilin has done more volume (2,400E) in secondary sales than all the
GEN.ART collections combined. In that sense, many GEN.ART collections appear
to be comparable to Art Blocks Factory collections.
Toha by Rich Poole can be considered the top collection on GEN.ART, with the
highest secondary sales volume of ~600E and a floor price ~4X from the mint.
Toha explores the beauty of constrained motion. 500,000 particles trace
independent paths to create an endless array of beautiful patterns, evoking
forgotten memories and discoveries. The outputs from the algorithm are quite
varied and interesting, and they are beautiful when printed out. It has also seen
interest from high-profile collectors, including Cozomo di Medici & Pranksy.
GEN.ART has found a niche by providing a more affordable platform for
collectors of generative art, with most collections available for purchase for
under $500, some even <$100. Many are aesthetically pleasing and would make
for a great display piece at home or in a virtual gallery. It also has a print shop that
makes it easy to order high-quality printouts of your art so you can hang them on
your wall.
At this time, it is difficult to imagine its current collections becoming as culturally
important as ABC collections like the Fidenzas or Chromie Squiggles. As a
platform, GEN.ART has its work cut out — it needs to source great new artists to
work with while managing a DAO and a membership token. It remains to be seen
if this approach will enable them to become a key player in the generative art
space in the future.
Are you interested in learning more about the opportunity in generative art? FYI
we released a deep dive report for Delphi Pro members this week:
Generative Art Takes Off — Is It The Defining Art Movement Of The Century?
The report covers:
Overview of the gen art landscape today.
Analysis of various Art Blocks Curated & GEN.ART collections.
fxhash on Tezos, & the rise of AI generative art.
A framework for thinking about the cultural value of art.
Highlights of several collections we believe are culturally important or have
the potential to be culturally significant in the future.
A curated list of generative artists, collectors, and influencers to follow.
Top News
PROOF acquires divergence to expand the engineering team.
OpenSea founder Alex Atallah leaves the company.
Gap/Old Navy sells T-shirts with Bored Ape.
UnCaged Studios raises 24M to build better crypto games.
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