NFTs in special times

Gm gm fam,

On Thursday 24th, I woke up and saw Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine. I felt many mixed feelings, including sadness and frustration, that this type of aggression happened on the continent where I was born. We live in the most extraordinary times in history, yet we let a man spread aggression and kill innocents. I was frustrated that the world is abundant, yet some want to conquer it all.

At the same time, it was a moment of a harsh reality that, for a second, took me out of our love and WAGMI culture. Over these months, we got so used to cheering and supporting one another that we sometimes no longer realize what else is going on in this world. And how much work still needs to be done to achieve a better future.

I soon realized that sadness and frustration help nothing, and it is time to move on. Take a deep breath, think what can be done and how to support, and let's go. Sometimes, no matter how much we want something to happen, the world goes the other way. And we cannot dwell on the past. Learn and move on. Wishing so much love and strength to Ukraine, and let's now jump into the weekly summary!

See you next year, Denver!

ETH Denver 2022 is now history. If you feel the event ended over a month ago, you are not alone, haha. In reality, the last day was Sunday 20th, crazyy. I couldn't join but based on the comments, the vibe was good, and the number of people attended doubled compared to the previous year. Recommend watching Vitalik's panel where besides his Bufficorn costume lol, he drops some Ethereum alpha. And Danny Ryan's panel to get ready for Proof-of-Stake coming this year. He goes through typical misconceptions, and though it is technical, there are a lot of exciting concepts. See you next year, Denver - wen ETH $10k??!

Hype times cheering. Quiet times building

NFT hype times that started towards the end of November 2021 are getting to the standard & healthy states. NFT projects can finally focus on building instead of satisfying new entrants through daily sensational updates. This space will be built in cycles, and this was a great example of how the path towards mass adoption will look. We will see waves of excitement, cooldown, excitement, and cooldown, and after some months and years, we look back and be like - "wow, what crazy progress this early web3 space has made". We are here for the long term, and we are fortunate to have the opportunity to be in the new era of the internet before 99% of the population.

Love this slide by Chris Dixon below. In reality, most of the leading crypto companies and protocols started after the 2017 ICO craziness not during or before. While I am not expecting a crash to come it's indisputable that quiet times are the builders times.

NFT Lands are flying

NFT Worlds and BYOLAND go insane. The Minecraft compatible metaverse platform NFT Worlds hit record price floors exceeding 18 ETH on Monday. The same day, BYOLAND saw the highest trading volume, hitting the ATH floor a few days later. Not surprisingly, the less known real estate acquisition project Council of Kingz experienced the same trajectory. People think alike, and when a new trend is set, all projects from the particular segment go crazy.

Good to know. I am sure the question now is - "so, what is the next trend?" well, I believe we still haven't explored almost anything from what the NFT technology allows. AI and Music NFTs are still waiting for their fame, but it is hard to say when it happens. My strategy is to buy over different categories before the majority comes and (try to) hodl.😉

Newly launched NFT PFP projects are flying

We have got into an NFT market where the price floors of new PFP projects tend to be higher than the established ones. People no longer ask how something works but rather "what is the next one to get." I had never seen the number of people apeing into new PFPs for over 5 ETH pre-reveal yet unable to answer basic NFT questions.

It was infrequent to see a price floor to move earlier last year unless some bigger event occurred. Punks went to Sotheby's let's gooo. Smilesss and Robotos going to be on TV, yaaay! Celebrities are joining the club, and Mutants are also Apes! It seems like this is no longer needed, and it is enough if the new PFP project is "cute" or "the art is dope" to hit a crazy floor price. Patience and long-term thinking is the king tho🙏

Crypto and NFTs to support Ukraine

We have seen many NFT and crypto initiatives being launched to support Ukraine. Pussy Riot, Trippy Labs, PleasrDAO and CXIP quickly formed UkraineDAO, raising over $3M so far. Andrew Wang and other NFT community members, including 37 artists, practically within a day launched an NFT project RELI3F UKR that was sold out within 30 seconds and raised over $1M for the people of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Government tweeted their BTC and ETH (USDT) accounts. The biggest contributor from the NFT community is the artist Pak who transferred the 670 ETH ($1,875,906) Vanguards treasury of Censored to human rights. Binance agreed on $10M support, and FTX sent $25 to each Ukrainian on FTX. Much love Ukraine💛💙

Random news

• Grateful dropped a new weekly Twitter Spaces Show called Grateful Show! Every Thursday different NFT topic, yaaay🔥

• M3 serum chugged and new Mega Trippy Ape revealed!🌶🧪 Seems like these live mega reveals are now a part of the culture

• Starcatchers, Invisible Friends, and WonderPals launched🎉

• Invisible Friends auctioned 1/1 friend for $1.3 million to kick off the launch. And a 13-year-old kid got a whitelist and then sold his pre-revealed one for $30,000. Wild…

• mfers cooled down after hitting over 6 ETH floor. The current floor is 2.88 ETH. The gang is still strong tho💪

• Snoop Dogg launched his Doggies for the Sandbox game

• ETH dropped below $2,400 on Wednesday after Putin ordered troops into Ukraine and bounced back to the current $2,800

• Sotheby’s auction “Punk It! got rugged. The estimate for the lot was $20 million–$30 million but was canceled in front of everyone because the owner of the Punks decided to hodl🤷‍♂️

• Hape announced a new Roadmap that wasn't really appreciated by the NFT community. Floor 2 ETH

• OpenSea contract migration has ended and seems like everything is finally secured again. Uffff🙏

• Drifter record sale for 69.69 ETH and heading to Sotheby's next week👌

I wish you a wonderful start to the new week and much love in these special times. And as always, LGGGG!💙