Paper 54: $38,000,000 Volume In The Sewer
Why Yuga Labs Sewer Pass is jetting to all-time-highs
GM - this is the BCheque Papers, edition #54.
Welcome to the 80 new subscribers this week - we are at 1,350 subscribers now!
I write about NFTs/crypto, and trying to make it independently in web3.
This is what we’ve got this week:
This Week In NFT World - The Memes 10x again
Risk On - Sewer Passes surge through $38,000,000 secondary volume
Creator Corner - Write With Me
On The Horizon - Art exhibitions, The Memes, Catch Ups
For sponsorship enquires, please DM me on Twitter.
Have a great day,
B
This Week in NFT World - The Memes 10x again
1. Rare black and white Fidenza sells for $240,000
Last weekend a rare black and white Fidenza sold for 145 ETH ($240,000).
Black and white is always a classic (and expensive) purchase!
2. Porsche suspend mint and cut supply
After only selling a fraction of the 7500 supply, Porsche decided to suspend the mint of its premium NFTs.
The NFTs were an expensive mint at 0.911 ETH ($1,500) and only 2210 NFTs were sold.
This made the community complain A LOT - so Porsche stopped the mint and the floor price has now risen to 2 ETH ($3,000 - a quick 2x!) after the supply reduction.
After a lot of criticism at the beginning, hard not to think this has worked out pretty well for all parties…
Floor, an app that helps you track NFT floor prices, has acquired the NFT analytics platform, WGMI.io
WGMI’s analytics features will be incorporated into the Floor app.
I think the market for “NFT analytics” is really going to heat up in 2023 and I am very much on the lookout for the best user experience to track and monitor price action.
4. Art Blocks and Bright Moments partner up
Artblocks and Bright Moments, two digital art titans, announced an “experimental collaboration”.
It will include a “series of NFT releases on Art Blocks, coupled with Bright Moment’s remarkable exhibition experiences throughout the world.”
The first collaborative release will be Metropolis by @mpkoz which will be a long-form generative art collection.
5. Kevin Rose suffers disastrous hack
Kevin Rose, founder of Moonbirds and Proof, was hacked for millions of dollars worth of NFTs.
He tweeted that he lost 25 Chromie Squiggles and more NFTs including an Autoglyph.
Here is a thread to dive into some of the technicals of what happened and how you can avoid it:
6. Meme Cards continue to more than 10x after mint
The much anticipated Dirty Robot Meme Card teleported to a 2 ETH ($3,000) floor after a 0.06259 ETH ($100) mint.
The Copepe card has gone to a 0.7 ETH ($1,100) floor from a 0.06529 ETH ($100) mint.
7. Chat GPT passes US medical exam
On the AI side of things, Chat GPT has performed at more than 50% accuracy across all of the US medical exams.
This is not the first exam Chat GPT has passed: it also recently passed the Wharton MBA exam.
It will soon be writing all of this newspaper, instead of just some of it…!
(Just kidding, I wish it could do more - it doesn’t have access to live NFT market data…yet!)
Risk On - Sewer Passes surge through $38,000,000 secondary volume
The Yuga Labs ecosystem continues to put the NFT market on its back and do insane volume.
Across their portfolio of assets, they have accounted for almost 50% of total NFT volume on Ethereum.
In this article I’ll explore what looks so promising for the latest addition to the Yuga ecosystem, as well as air some concerns.
Dookey Dash, the game Yuga Labs launched last week exclusive for its Sewer Pass holders, is looking like a raging success.
Remember from last week, the name of the game is to get the highest score so you can win The Key which has got stuck in the butt of an ape (web3 storytelling for you!). Early price estimates are that The Key will be valued at $1m (!).
Here is a short video of the game by a white hat, Cygaar, who managed to play the game and hit every obstacle but still post a high score (he reported the issue to Yuga Labs so the problem could be solved!)
People have been getting so into it on Twitter and sharing their scores, which is always one metric of success.
But more than that, the seriousness with which it is being taken has gone to the next level: Tropofarmer, a well known Bored Ape holder, explained how those who were ineligible could use his pass to play for him.
There has also been rumours of people hiring pro-gamers to play for them, with the current market rate for a pro-gamer to give your score a boost around 4 ETH ($6,500).
So Yuga are succeeding on the first metric of any game: players have to want to play, and players have to want to win.
But there is an additional economic success on the back of this gaming success.
According to beast.eth, over $850,000 has been spent by players on in-game boosters.
This has created more demand on $ APE coin (the native coin of the Bored Ape ecosystem) which has continued to rise from under $5 last week to more than $6 this week because the boosters need to be paid for in $ APE coin.
Ultimately, this is how monies become valuable: by making them useful and necessary for real economic activity.
To summarise the scale of what Yuga has achieved, Degentraland provides a nice comparison with Fortnite.
As the success became clear as the week progressed, the price action on the assets started to heat up.
When I reported on the four tiers of Sewer Passes last week, these were the prices:
There are four tiers of passes and they trade at approximately 2 ETH ($3k) for Tier 1, 2.7 ETH ($4k) for Tier 2, 3.4 ETH ($5k) for Tier 3, and 6.4 ETH ($10k) for Tier 4.
Now these are the prices:
2. 89 ETH ($4.5k) for Tier 1 - a $1.5k increase
3.39 ETH ($5.4k) for Tier 2 - a $1.4k increase
4.25 ETH ($6.7k) for Tier 3 - a $1.7k increase
7.6 ETH ($12k) for Tier 4 - a $2k increase
These are very healthy price increases in just one week.
Why?
The above gaming and economic factors have clearly contributed to its success.
I believe long-time supporters, like DFarmer, and new participants have (i) been emboldened by what they have seen and (ii) understand this will be a mintpass for another Yuga Labs character.
When Yuga Labs released these details excitement and speculation reached a high point.
As OG NFT collector and prominent Bored Ape holder Ben Jammin indicates, the belief out there is that Mecha Apes and/or Mecha Dogs are on their way to Sewer Pass holders in some way.
So the question is: do you buy in after such an increase in price?
If you are still unsure, just ask ChatGPT as @boredape93 did (!)
A final contrarian take to balance the above analysis:
The new 30k Yuga collection sought after by Dookey Dash players will be the dilutive straw to break the ape's back and cryptopunks will overtake Apes in terms of FP for a sustained period of time
I was speaking to TSF, an OG collector in the space.
It lines up with another conversation I had where someone pointed out that the number of NFTs in the Yuga Labs ecosystem is approaching 200,000.
When does that increase in supply begin to dilute present valuations?
This is something to keep in mind moving forward. My take is that if anyone can handle the supply, it is Yuga - and if they can’t, it does not bode well for others. (I have been impressed - and frankly pleasantly surprised - with their management of $ APE coin so far…)
Hope that was helpful!
Would love to hear your thoughts on the Sewer Pass. Comment below or DM me.
Creator Corner
Many people ask me about growing the newsletter, the writing process and how I have monetised.
Growth and money should really be separated out. These are completely different phases.
Having said that, there are things which you realise once you start monetising that should inform your practice in smart ways.
I want to reveal a bit more of the process for the writers, creators, artists out there who want to understand what it takes to write quality but quickly.
(People do not know that it usually only takes me 4-5 hours to write this newsletter now.)
As such, I will start on YouTube a Write With Me session on Thursdays from 1PM - 4PM GMT.
It’s something relaxed. Me, sharing my screen, some calm music, and writing.
You will literally see me writing next week’s article.
If you want to peak behind the scenes, have some writing to do yourself, or just want something to relax and concentrate with you can join me on my Youtube channel.
On The Horizon - Art exhibitions, The Memes, Catch Ups
Things I am looking at / thinking about in the next week
Going to the Verse exhibition in London next week
Trade duplicate Meme Cards - The Meme cards minted this week for $100 each are worth $1,000 and $3,000 respectively. As I wrote last week when I dove into how to get involved in this collection, it is better to have more unique cards (I think!). So I want to trade a couple of the duplicates I have. Let me know if you want to trade!
Catch up with old friend - Diego has been crushing it as an advisor in Web3. We go back some way in our early NFT collecting days so I am excited to catch up with him next week. Recommend listening to him speak on brands in the metaverse.
Have a great day,
B
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Disclaimer: The content covered in this newsletter is not to be considered as investment advice. It is for informational and educational purposes only.
I hold some of the NFTs mentioned in these newsletters.