GM - this is the BCheque Papers, edition #62.
Welcome to the 14 new subscribers this week - we are at 1,717 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/Crypto World
Notable sales
The Arbitrum Airdrop
For sponsorship enquires, please DM me on Twitter.
Have a great day,
B
This Week in NFT/Crypto World
A foreword: there is a lot of macroeconomic/political news at the moment which is highly relevant to NFTs and crypto. As such, I will cover that as necessary.
American states fight back against CBDCs
Florida and Texas fought back against the idea of Central Bank Digital Currencies this week.
Ron DeSantis gave a speech about how he wanted centrally issued digital currencies to have no place in the state over which he governs, and Ted Cruz proposed a bill to prohibit them.
The argument against CBDCs is that they invade personal privacy; extend the power of the state to surveillance of every financial transaction; and could be “programmed” to withhold goods and services from people.
As if America was not divided enough, it appears that digital currency may drive a wedge deeper between those who are more for central planning vs those who are more libertarian.
Russia and China reduce dependence on the dollar
The Chinese yuan will now be used instead of the US dollar to settle Asian, African, and Latin American trade between China and Russia.
This is important in the broader context of the US dollar maintaining its position as the world’s reserve currency.
The US has been able to “export” its inflation abroad for many years because it knows the rest of the world needs its money.
If it cannot do that, because the world needs the dollar less, then other currencies - including crypto - start to become more attractive as the dollar starts to lose its relative value.
SEC goes on the attack against cryptoexchanges, billionaires, and celebs
The SEC went after Coinbase, Justin Sun, and Soulja Boy, Neyo and Jake Paul.
Whilst Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron Blockchain, is accused of price manipulation, the celebrities are accused of promoting without proper disclosure.
Coinbase on the other hand has been served a Wells Notice, which typically precedes enforcement action.
Most agree this latter action is done in bad faith, as Coinbase, more than any other exchange, has repeatedly sought regulatory clarity and done its best to work with regulators to be compliant.
Alas, that is not enough.
The battle lines are being drawn against crypto - although…
NFT businesses go mainstream
Clemente, Head of Growth at Nifty Portal, noticed this week that a number of “NFT projects” have been really going after audiences outside of “Web 3”.
I have to agree - and think this strategy is essential to building a proper Web 3 business.
Pudgy Penguins filed trademarks for candy; cereal-based snack food; printed comic books; online social networking services; & more.
Chimpers continue its expansion on to TikTok with their character, Chimpi.
Nifty Portal continue to build their Instagram and TikTok account.
The NFT market dives off a cliff
The NFT market itself has felt very manipulated with inorganic volume this week.
We have seen collections do insane volume and floor prices rise and fall dramatically: CryptoPunks rose from low 60s ETH, to almost 75ETH, and are back down to 62 ETH - all in the space of one week.
Why?
Because Blur, the most popular NFT market at the moment, is incentivising “bids” for their future airdrop, which means many wealthy traders are trying to “farm” bid points by keeping bids in the market.
As such, every now and again floors are collapsing as traders realise no-one actually wants the asset!
Notable sales
XCOPY - And how does that make you feel? - 355.0 ETH ($619,418.20)
Hoodie CryptoPunk - 209.95 ETH ($365,737.10 USD)
Otherside Gold Koda Land - 208 ETH ($374,000)
The Arbitrum Airdrop
Many people made thousands of dollars this week from a “free” airdrop by Arbitrum.
Me and my business partner, Legendary, had been working towards this for a long time by creating tutorials for people who want to “get exposure” and learn about interesting new protocols.
I had more than $10k of tokens in the end, and Legendary had more.
You can find out about what we do here. (DM me if you have any questions as always!)
This is the lowdown on how to understand and capitalise on these airdrop opportunities.
What is Arbitrum?
Arbitrum is a L2 (layer 2) on Ethereum - this means it allows Ethereum (layer 1) to scale by batching transactions together so they are much cheaper and faster.
Why is Arbitrum better than the other L2s?
Arbitrum has become the most popular L2, and it has attracted the most TVL (total value locked). There is more than $2b on Arbitrum.
Why is it giving away so much free money?
When protocols want to “decentralise” they give governance tokens to their users to (i) reward them for early participation and (ii) to spread out governance to the real users. These tokens do not represent equity, but do trade for a value of real money.
How can you participate in these opportunities in future?
To participate you need to routinely use new protocols/L2s which may decentralise.
There are no guarantees - very rarely do people specifically tell you “we are doing an airdrop for sure and it’s going to make you s”.
If they did, the opportunity would be lost because everyone would pile in and the reward would get diluted.
Instead you need to use your brain, think, and discuss with knowledgeable people where airdrops may be “likely” - knowing there are no guarantees.
But more than that, you need to actually do something!
The biggest reason people do not take advantage of these opportunities is not because they do not know about them: they do know about them. They simply know and are too lazy to take action or too busy to take action consistently.
How much money could I have made by participating?
It depends how much you actually do - always remembering, there are no guarantees!
Our holders appeared to get between 1k tokens ($1,500 at current prices), and 5k tokens ($7,500 at current prices). I got 8500 tokens ($12,750 at current prices) on one wallet.
But you can jump in our discord to ask if you are more curious or check out our website for a more comprehensive overview of what we do.
In the end, I decided one year ago when we started this project: there is no way I am going to be in this space all the time and miss all these free airdrops. So I dedicate a period of time (still not enough) to actively participate on new protocols in a routine manner.
Aka - you get out what you put in.
This is the way to win. Not just with airdrops, but with life.
Have a great day,
B
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