Morning Drop - Issue #22
Your weekly issue of what’s minting, popping, and dropping - straight to your inbox every Saturday morning.
🥩 NFTs leak into meat-world.
The Matrix enters the real Metaverse
Warner Bros. and Nifty Gateway have teamed up to launch a Matrix NFT collection to go along with the upcoming 4th installment of the movie franchise.
The drop will take the form of a massive 100k piece collection of PFPs, allowing minters to choose to take the “red pill” or “blue pill” to determine the type of avatar they receive.
The project promises a “multi-year experience” that will include activities for owners to participate in to earn upgrades and rewards.
Simpsons coming to make some Doh
Everyone’s favorite cartoon family is moving from Springfield to the blockchain as Disney and Veve team up to launch a new Simpsons collection of NFTs
The collection comprises 12,333 pieces representing iconic moments and iconography from the storied history of the Simpsons, and is sure to bring waves of nostalgia amid the NFT millennial clan who grew up watching the series.
The drop is far from the only NFT entry from Disney, and is included in a larger “golden moments” series that will also draw from its IP in Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars among what are sure to be many more. For better or worse, the media behemoth has big plans in store for the NFT space.
Hello Kitty enters the chat
The legendary Hello Kitty franchise is coming to the blockchain in partnership with Recur, a platform for designing on-chain brand experiences.
Details of the launch have yet to be announced, but the global marketing phenomenon is among the highest-grossing media franchises of all time and is sure to bring with it an enormous fan base.
Interestingly enough, the market of NFT collectables is an all-too-perfect fit for the aesthetic of the brand - one which may even represent a stylistic precurser to many existing collections like Cool Cats and Winter Bears.
The Web3 Report
ENS
Ethereum Name Service became Twitterverse’s best friend when it announced on Nov 3 that it’s governance will become decentralized, shifting its structure into a DAO and sending $ENS tokens to those in the community who own an ENS address. The token drop sent waves of joy across the NFT world, and even had some comparing the event to a crypto stimulus check.
In the Weeds
The popular web3 service offers custom domains that can be used as a crypto wallet address along with decentralized websites.
The token drop coincided with a call for delegates for the ENS DAO, seeking individuals that are willing to take the lead in defining the growth and direction of ENS governance.
The platform also released a public ethics policy as a set of guiding principles for the DAOs, along with encouragement for other blockchain projects to do the same for the sake of community transparency.
Bird’s Eye View: How it fits in larger NFT context
The move to decentralized governance is a model that threatens the traditional corporate world, placing ownership and voting rights in the hands of the many. Keep a close eye on when ideological collisions begin to take place as DAOs enter the mainstream consciousness.
The lucrative token drop has us all revisiting dreams of other web3 platforms like MetaMask and OpenSea following suit - not only to reward their respective user-bases, but to embrace the ideals of decentralized governance that is at the center of the Web3 economic promise.
Just a week after its launch, the token was listed on Coinbase, marking the fastest adoption of a new token for the platform and a bullish sign that there is industry-wide trust in ENS as a backbone of Web3 infrastructure.
RAW DAO
Photography in the NFT space took a massive leap forward with RAW DAO’s Party Bid launch, allowing bids on Twin Flames #49 with a goal of raising 1000 ETH, and in return allowing purchases of fractionalized shares of the NFT along with the DAO’s native token, $RAW.
In the Weeds
Founded by Luiz DT (also the founder of Fingerprints DAO) and a small group of NFT photographers, RAW DAO aims to build the largest collection of photography in the NFT space and, perhaps, the world.
Bids of 1 ETH or more are rewarded with enough $RAW tokens to earn voting rights for the DAO, which includes the ability to vote on new acquisitions and general governance.
The group also recently curated a drop by famed art/documentary photographer Cristina de Middel, and is expected to help onboard other blue-chip photographers from the IRL photography world.
Bird’s Eye View: How it fits in larger NFT context
The way things are going, it appears that 2022 will become the Year of the DAO. In light of the recent effort by ConstitutionDAO to buy an auctioned copy of the actual US Constitution (they came up a bit short), the world is waking up to the potential of DAOs as a means of transforming corporate governance.
Given the application of DAO-based models to virtually any endeavor, from art collecting to investing, fundraising, and even entrepreneurial ventures, the world of DAOs will be a major trend to watch as the crypto community continues it’s push toward a decentralized world.
Along with the launch of Quantum, RAW DAO is the latest signal in the NFT community that NFT photography is beginning to both mature and consolidate influence and guidance in the space.
Since it matters...
US Regulators Fire First Shot Toward the NFT Market
The recently passed Infrastructure bill in the US House of Representatives included a regulatory provision that the crypto community is none too happy about.
The bill will require any person who executes a transfer of digital assets to report those transactions to the IRS, much like how security brokers must do for stock trades.
The biggest kicker in the bill is a requirement that transactions over 10k USD include disclosures of personal information, including social security numbers. This means that the sale of a Cool Cat would require that the purchaser provide their SSN to the seller for tax reporting.
The bill cites IRS code 6050i which was implemented in the 80s to fight money laundering, and failure to comply with ID reporting is classified as a felony.
We look at this as the first messy attempt by Congress to implement regulations on crypto assets, regulations that clearly demonstrate that most (though not all) representatives and senators do not really grasp the nature of blockchain transactions
The law doesn’t actually take effect until 2023, and the provision will most likely be amended in future legislation to reflect a much more reasonable form of transaction reporting.
Still, it’s a bit unsettling how such an obviously impossible requirement could have gotten through congress to begin with, which leaves further crypto regulation in the near-term subject to more unreasonable demands.
Feature: Shiboshis
If we’ve learned anything from this crazy crypto space, it’s that we should never, EVER, underestimate the power of memes. With the parabolic success of Shiba Coin and it’s 100% certified loyal degen community, it’s no surprise that a NFT project like Shiboshis have come into being. The project spawns from the official Shiba ecosystem, which includes not only the token, but an exchange allowing for staking and swapping.
Floor: 1.169 ETH Highest sale: 50 ETH (2) Value Traded: 9.1k ETH
Issues: 10,000 Unique Wallets: 3600 Average Owned: 2.77
Fundamentally Speaking
The Shiboshi artwork consists of 10k pixel/cartoon hybrid renderings of shiba inus decked out with an abundance of traits. Browsing through the collection we see scarf-wearing fire breathers, pizza eating beach-goers, dogs wearing ponchos, party hats, and covid masks - smoking cigarettes, donning cyborg eyes, and blowing bubble gum. It’s a well-crafted, delightful collection with the backing of a strong and passionate community,
On the Radar
The collection promises to form part of an upcoming game release for the Shiba ecosystem that will allow holders to use their NFTs in “strategic gameplay”, with each trait corresponding to special abilities.
The project also offers a “private club” for owners providing exclusive (yet unnamed) perks within the shiboshi roadmap.
The project, belonging to the Shiba Coin ecosystem, is well positioned for continued high visibility as the token itself continues to receive press in major editorial outlets.
Technically Speaking
Since its launch just over a month ago, Shiboshies have enjoyed relatively stable price movement with average sales prices fluctuating in a narrow band between .77 and 2.7 ETH. Ownership distribution is fairly low so far in the project’s life cycle, suggesting that supply is held in the hands of the few with the market potentially subject to the whims of whales. Still, the broader SHIB community is a loyal one and there’s little indication that the NFT community is any different. We’ll be eager to follow the project in the coming weeks for any large movement signals.
Photographer of the Week
This week we highlight the genesis drop of Matthew Morrocco, titled Complicit.
Coming from an editorial background, the photographer has appeared in range of high-profile publications such Vice, New Yorker, W Mag, Vogue Italia, and Paper Magazine among many others.
The series is a beautiful and intimate collection of portraits of older men the photographer has formed relationships with over the past 8 years. Borrowing from themes found in 19th-century French Romanticism, the photographs are awash in golden light, delicate human gestures, and a sense of theatricality as Morrocco carefully directs the poses of his subjects and the details of his scenes.
Complicit represents the first NFT photo collection that explores queer identity, which in and of itself carries significant historical weight. But far beyond that, the sophisticated visual language that Morrocco employs, and the richness of emotional and art historical depth of the project, make Complicit a standout series in the NFT ecosystem. A quick visit to the artist’s website further illustrates Morrocco’s impressive resume along with other stunning photographic projects.
Also brewing...
The NFL is dipping its toes into the NFT pool while the NBA has long been swimming laps – football gmi?
With a legit NFT gaming ecosystem a long way away, the hype continues to build day by day.
Jack Dorsey is making moves for Square to create a crypto exchange. Wen TwitterDAO ser?
GenZ is VERY optimistic about Web3, who can blame them?
Crypto enclaves are popping up all around US thanks to bitcoin-friendly mayors. That’s an issue we’d vote for.
Crypto.com made a huge play in securing the naming rights for what was previously known as the Staples Center
Someone somehow downloaded all the NFTs and made them available for right-click-saving-as through a bootlegged Pirate Bay website - it’s an apparent attempt to make a statement about NFT valuation - fun?
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