#74 How A Rolex Loan Will Change Lending
The beginning of fine physical goods becoming on-chain assets
GM - this is The Snapshot, edition #74.
Welcome to the new subscribers this week - we are now at 1,860 subscribers!
I write about NFTs/crypto, and solopreneurship in web3.
This is what I’ve got for you:
This Week In NFT/Crypto World - Rolex NFT Lending
Sponsored Post - Lil Nouns Sponsors $60,000 Cartoon Proposal
Notable Sales - Fidenza, Claire Silver, CryptoPunk, XCOPY
Creator Corner - Two essential creator tools
For sponsorship enquires, please DM me on Twitter.
Disclaimer: The content covered in this newsletter is not to be considered as investment advice. It is for informational and educational purposes only.
Have a great day,
B
This Week In NFT/Crypto World - Rolex NFT Lending
An individual recently secured a $14,500 loan against two Rolex watches, at 60-65% LTV, and an annual interest rate of 12% from an entirely unknown person. *Almost* the entire process was executed on the blockchain.
The actual watches were transferred to a trusted third-party escrow service. After which the borrower received NFTs recognising their ownership of the watches.
The borrower then placed those NFTs into a smart contract to access global financial liquidity: offering a superior alternative to resorting to high-interest loans from local pawnbrokers.
If the borrower defaults on the loan, the smart contract will automatically dispatch the NFTs signifying ownership of the watches to the lender.
Pretty outstanding example of getting IRL assets on chain to unlock global liquidity!
Adidas x Fewocious
Adidas has partnered with the young, web3 artistic prodigy, Fewocious, on a new sneaker.
On June 22, certain Adidas and Fewocious NFT holders will get early access to buy a Trefoil Mintpass NFT - which will be redeemable for the physical sneaker later in the summer AND a digital twin which will become “interoperable as a virtual wearable within the upcoming avatar projects: FewoWorld and ALTS by adidas.”
This shows Adidas’s commitment to build out VIRTUAL experiences - as well as tap into the underlying web3 technology.
Crypto & NFTs are down…so down…
Not only is crypto down bad in the last 7 days…
NFTs are down too…
Why?
For one thing, there appears to be increased enforcement action by the SEC against crypto, as we discussed last week (though we have discussed the general anti-crypto stance over many weeks).
In addition, the Fed decided to leave interest rates unchanged - with some indication that there could be additional smaller hikes towards the end of the year. (Typically crypto responds better to news that rates are likely to reverse and go back down, because that means the fight against inflation is being abandoned - to some degree - and that the money printer might go brrrr again….)
I can’t claim to know more of the precise reasons, but one of the most seasoned and successful traders, KBM seemed to know this was going to happen while “stocks and other risk assets were flying.”
Meanwhile a16z move to London…
One of the biggest tech investors in the world, a16z, decided to open an office in London.
Why is this important?
In their statement a16z said:
“the UK policymakers and regulators are taking an approach that is uniquely tailored to blockchain and digital asset regulation…Working constructively with industry to identify the unique attributes of blockchain technology and how those attributes shape the risk profile of decentralized services vs. centralized services”
To me this sounds like a recognition that others (the US) are NOT “working constructively” with industry to foster web3 innovation.
As such, the UK has emerged (along with Dubai in my opinion) as a location which has a chance to craft crypto regulation to attract crypto-capital without the political baggage of the US (and without the bureaucracy of the EU.)
I look forward to welcoming a16z to London and seeing how our city can build around this positive news.
Sponsored Post - Lil Nouns Sponsors $60,000 Cartoon Proposal
Lil Nouns DAO has sponsored a $60,000 proposal by Arash Negahban to to create 15 educational music videos, every seven days for the next fifteen weeks.
So how did Lil Nouns DAO help Arash with his proposal to try to get these cool cartoons into into the world?
Lil Nouns DAO sponsored the proposal - you need to have 2 Nouns to even submit a proposal to the Nouns DAO (which has over 27,000 ETH in its treasury). Lil Nouns DAO has the Nouns to support quality creators and proposals.
Extensive feedback and dialogue with those experienced in the Nouns universe - The Nouns ecosystem is complex. The amount of knowledge and wisdom in Lil Nouns DAO proved super helpful to Arash - who has extensive experience of working with the DAO in the past.
Voting power - With 17 Nouns, Lil Nouns were able to support the proposal when it came time to vote - giving Arash a strong start to his vote.
The vote for Arash is live now. We wish him the best!
If you are curious about contributing to a cutting-edge DAO and getting paid to bring your ideas to life:
Check out the Lil Nouns DAO website for more details or reply to this email with any questions you’d like me to answer.
Notable Sales - Fidenza, Claire Silver, CryptoPunk, XCOPY
Tyler Hobbs, Fidenza #158 - 212 ETH ($368,000)
Claire Silver, Entropy - 31.69 ETH ($55,000)
VR CryptoPunk - 135 ETH ($233,000)
XCOPY, Five Eyes - 137 ETH ($238,000)
Creator Corner - Two essential creator tools
One of the most resilient skills humans have against AI is brand/story telling - and the human connection created as a consequence.
Legendary has been an expert in crafting a personal brand - experiencing more than 50% Twitter growth in the last 3 months.
But how does he do it?
Here are two of his key tools for building his personal brand.
Canva is for visuals. Not just images - but animations too (which perform much better on social media).
Legendary recommends not complicating things - you must select a colour palette and a maximum of 2 fonts.
Why?
So your designs will be consistent and you become recognisable.
Although it could be seen as inauthentic to plan ALL of your tweets, there are CERTAIN tweets which make way more sense to schedule.
For high effort threads which take more time to write, it becomes useful to have an app like Typefully.
Why?
Planning ahead builds consistency
Automatic tweet numbering
Thread finishers
AI assistant for ideas
Excellent data on tweet performance (and profile performance!)
Hope that was a helpful insight on how Legendary levels up his profile (much of which I do too!)
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