Metaversal is Here
Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, & collectibles
Dear Bankless Nation,
Welcome to 2021.
Why are we creating a weekly subnewsletter focusing on art, collectibles, gaming items, and virtual worlds? Three reasons:
Digital scarcity is bigger than money.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are about to have a massive year.
The community needs a dedicated program to level up on NFTs.
Our goal at Bankless is to help you front-run the opportunity and it’s become clear to me that there’s massive opportunity in the NFT space.
This is Bitcoin in 2015. This is DeFi in 2018. This is a new frontier.
This is why we’re launching Metaversal.
Metaversal is a once or twice weekly newsletter edited by Bankless and curated by our friend William Peaster.
When you subscribe you’ll get:
A weekly recap of news and opportunities
Occasional posts with tactics and thought pieces
We’ve designed Metaversal to complement the regular Bankless program and help you front-run the NFT opportunity.
How to subscribe to Metaversal for existing Bankless subscribers:
Go to Newsletters
Click the “Subscribe" button next to Metaversal
Just click Subscribe to start receiving Metaversal in your inbox Check My Account page to confirm email notifications are on for Metaversal
You can subscribe or unsubscribe to Metaversal on your Accounts page
You ready?
Ok…let’s get started.
- RSA
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🏆 Digital Collectibles
CryptoPunks achieved a new all-time sales record this week with the 189.99 ETH ($137.5k) purchase of Punk 3307, an extremely rare punk because of its lack of attributes. We also saw sizable sales in recent days around Punk 2681 (83 ETH), Punk 6649 (36 ETH), Punk 777 (18.99 ETH), Punk 9998 (15 ETH), Punk 8320 (14 ETH), and Punk 7777 (10 ETH) …
Aave’s Tamagotchi-inspired NFT game Aavegotchi is hitting the Ethereum mainnet on Jan. 4th. Ahead of that, the project is hosting its 3rd and final pre-launch Aavegotchi Raffle contest.
🎨 Cryptoart
Grammy-winning musician and record producer RAC sold Elephant Dreams Part III, a collaboration with artist Reisinger Andres, for 25 ETH on SuperRare …
Acclaimed cryptoartists Carlos Marcial and XCOPY just sold their collab piece Infinite CONSUME for 7 ETH to collector Basileus (who notched their 200th piece collected on SuperRare in the process).
NFT farming project Meme Protocol hosted its “Rug Pull” auction last month, which saw 12 NFTs auctioned with only one of them containing 1 BTC inside. The artist byma published a great write-up this week on how the auction was seemingly the victim of a “sophisticated smart contract attack.”
Speaking of Meme Protocol, the artist FEWOCiOUS just sold Nobody Knows Me for 52 $MEME (~$23k) through the project.
🕹️ Blockchain Games
Ethereum’s most popular game Axie Infinity published its year-end review post. The project enjoyed explosive growth in 2020, and the horizon is looking bright with the coming launch of the franchise’s Ronin sidechain.
AxieTree, a borrowing and lending protocol for Axie monsters, unveiled the details of its Alpha Program.
The NFT game with the most 7-day volume this week was fantasy ⚽ game Sorare, which facilitated $395.5k of volume in that span according to NonFungible.
🌐 Virtual Worlds
Messari’s Mason Nystrom published a great tweet thread on the Metaverse. Therein, the research analyst noted virtual world projects currently “account for over a third of all NFT sales activity.”
Never one to slow down, RAC headlined an epic set at Decentraland’s End of Year Party ...
I'm playing a NYE show today in @decentraland ✨ It's my first show in a metaverse, come hang out! events.decentraland.org/en/?event=66d9… >> 3PM PST / 23 UTC also, here's me and the cybertruck.
🛒 NFT Marketplaces
Popular NFT marketplace OpenSea just rolled out a new feature, Collection Manager, that lets users mint NFTs without needing to pay any gas. Powered by the ERC-1155 token standard and OpenSea’s API system, this service mints NFTs on-chain only after they’ve been purchased.
Upstart NFT marketplace Cargo is rolling out its Cargo NFT Reward System in early 2021. The program will let users stake Cargo Credits (and other assets for reward multipliers) for the chance to earn exclusive NFTs from popular cryptoartists.
💎 DeFi x NFTs
NFTfi, a marketplace for NFT collateralized loans, added Async Art NFTs as a supported collateral type this week.
NFTX, a new NFT index fund project, just hosted the second phase of its Community Raise. The open bounties available are dwindling!
Action steps
Try minting an NFT through OpenSea’s updated Collection Manager dashboard
Read Metaverse-Native VS Incumbent by Andrew Steinwold
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Not financial or tax 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. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. I’ll always disclose when this is the case.
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