The NFT space can feel like information overload at times, so we’ve cut through the noise to deliver you a curated dose of what matters most. Your all-in-one weekly companion.
Headline News - NFT Marketplace 'Wars' Heat Up as Firms Acquire Startups
The race to dominate the NFT marketplace sector is certainly hotting up. OpenSea has been the front runner in recent years, with volume sales and transaction numbers far surpassing those of its competitors, but is that about to change?
We reported on the acquisitions of Gem, Genie and KnownOrigin by OpenSea, Uniswap and Ebay respectively, but with Magic Eden announcing a Series B fundraising round, putting its valuation at $1.6B, combined with it’s intention to expand into other blockchains, there’s no shortage of big players looking to acquire a larger market share. X2Y2 has also seen impressive growth with its rewards system, overtaking LooksRare in trading volume.
Marketplaces are developing improved user experiences at lightning pace with updates and new tools being introduced to platforms on a weekly basis. With the likes of Meta on the cusp of entering the space too, it’ll certainly be interesting to see who thrives and survives, and who falls short.
CoinbaseNFT, despite its innovative efforts geared towards social aspects of the marketplace, seems to be struggling to onboard users so far, and its volume sales are uninspiring to say the least.
Uniswap’s track record in the DeFi sector has been very impressive, so it’s their foray into the NFT space i’m most excited to watch.
For a more detailed look on the topic of marketplace wars, please click here for an article by the team at Decrypt.
Curated News - the best bits of the past week
BIGGEST NFT Sale: ENS domain name ‘000.eth’ for 300ETH
Ethereum Name Service registrations surge by 200% amid lower gas fees
What’s Hot on Solana? Nansen Adds Analytics Data for 53,000 NFT Collections
Ethereum Merge Moves One Step Closer Following Sepolia Trial Run
OpenSea Co-Founder Alex Atallah Resigns To “Focus On New Ventures”
For The Culture Founder Threatens God Hates NFTees With Legal Action
Maybe Something - things we’re keeping an eye on
ParallelNFT: The window for caching begins on July 11. $PRIME distributions start after a seven-day grace period, on July 18.
Project Zenogakki - Mint Date: July 7th, Mint Price: 0.24/0.28 ETH
Companions NFT - Mint Date: July 7th, 6pm UTC, Mint Price: 0.069 ETH
FREE MINT: What is Bagners? Well, Now Its An Upcoming NFT Collection
Zed Run Goes for Gold with Acquisition and Imminent Token Launch
Quirkies own marketplace is now Live, allowing for local listings removing third party fees.
WoW holders were dropped Capacitors NFTs. Although vague, there’s some more info here in their FAQ
CoinbaseNFT announced the first 5 of many curated drops to come
On July 10, 2022 at 11:59pm (GMT), there will be a snapshot taken of Murakami.Flower holders. Stay tuned to find out what for.
RTFKT tweeted of a new era with 3D files and full commercial rights
Pre Fame 1977 | MINTING 7TH JULY. 1,977 generative art pieces based on the life and career of Prince. July 7th at 6pm EDT. Pre-sale at 3pm EDT
Historical Insight: Blockheads are among the earliest NFTs in blockchain history, created from late 2014 through to early 2015. They are native to Namecoin, and are often considered the first ever PFP project and a major influence on the CryptoPunk collection. One sold this week for 60ETH.
Feature - Easely.io
Today I’d like to introduce you to a new platform that enables people with no coding experience to mint NFT collections in just a few simple steps. The name of the platform is Easely.io, and it’s the creation of Connor, Michael and Jason.
I recently used the platform to mint an NFT collection for a small business. I have zero coding knowledge, and after a brief voice call with Connor, who gave an overview of how the platform works, I was able to successfully deploy a smart contract and mint the NFT collection with ease.
The platform is very user-friendly and has detailed explanations available for each step of the process as you progress through the various stages. It’s completely customisable, providing users with full control over their collections, and is suitable for anything from 1/1 artworks to 10k PFP collections and beyond.
This video gives a great introduction to the platform and outlines it’s capabilities: EASELY PRODUCT DEMO: NO-CODE NFT DEVELOPMENT
I minted my collection several times on the Rinkeby test network, which at no cost, enabled me to check each element of the collection was appearing as expected, and allowed me to make sure the metadata was being attributed to each NFT correctly.
Once I was happy with the testnet version, I then deployed the contract on the Ethereum Mainnet and minted the 100 NFTs directly to my wallet which was ideal. The NFTs are for a small business which needs to be able to distribute them directly to their loyal customers. Holders will be given them for free and will receive ongoing IRL benefits, so having full control over them in one wallet was exactly what I needed.
It’s worth noting that by using this platform you can opt for the ERC721A standard popularised by the Azuki team. This contract standard vastly reduces the minting costs and was a primary reason I opted to use Easely. The entire contract deployment and collection mint costs were in the region of $20USD for 100 NFTs. This is excellent value for money, and that number would not be vastly different for a much larger collection.
I can recommend this platform and the team were very helpful throughout the process. If you’d like to get in contact with them please do so through the options on their website.
Tip Of The Week - New at Gem: Live Mints!
Last week gem.xyz introduced a new tool which allows users to get real-time data on the hottest mints.
You can sort the data by a range of metrics including newest collections, mint volume, free mints or paid mints. They’ve also included some social indicators like unique minters and notable wallets.
To have a look at the interface and try is out yourself, just click here.
ZenAcademy and 333 Club Noticeboard
Regular Event Reminders
Join poker nights via our Discord. Events held weekly, with prizes to be won.
Weekly Movie Nights are going strong. See more info here.
ZA runs a guided meditation/gratitude circle in Discord for a weekly reset.
As a ZenAcademy member, you get exclusive access to market health statistics on a daily basis in Discord, and you can check out community member Swombat’s daily NFT market health updates on YouTube here.
As part of the ZenAcademy community you’ll also have free access to the Misfit Robot Discord, and several of their “Members Only” rooms. ZA believes mental health support should be accessible to everyone. Check them out here: https://discord.gg/misfitrobots
Irregular Events and Info
Zeneca’s latest course with Nas Academy is now available. It's on "How to Build an NFT Community". It can be taken as a 5-day course along with a cohort of other students, or you can do it at your own pace. The course is 100% free for anyone holding a ZenAcademy Genesis or 333 token. You can sign up here.
The 333 Club is officially SOLD OUT! Here’s a thread of Zeneca’s thoughts on the topic.
Office hours will be expanding for 333 Club members with Emileevee opening up time slots for the community to discuss branding and marketing with her.
Zeneca announced that ZA are officially formalising their relationship as a sister project to Curious Addys. (Note: Curious Addys members as well as any future 'Friends of ZA' partners, while getting access to the Discord server, will not receive the full benefits of holding a ZA token).
InPeak is a life long learning platform for emerging technologies and all thing Web3, and they’ve offered a year of free membership to any 333 Club member. See recent 333 Club Discord announcements for more info.
There’s talk of a Prysm "Squad” being formed by the 333 community. 333 members can delve into the Discord announcements channel for more info.
For everyone that signed up to receive free beer, congrats, you all won.
There were 426 signups for the 500 spots. For instructions on how to claim, please click here and check details in Discord.
The latest edition of ZenChats is available with Fonz from Tokenproof. Check it out here.
Episode #46 of Two Bored Apes is available. Listen on Spotify here.
The good people at Easely are offering a 20% discount to any ZenAcademy token holder. Check out the conversation Zeneca had with their founder here.
Our GITBOOK is now live! It is a repository for all of the information relating to ZA (our values, the team, our partners, perks, and plenty of helpful resources). You can visit it by clicking here.
Nothing in this or any other ZenCaps publication should be construed as financial or investment advice. The views and opinions expressed in ZenCaps publications do not reflect those of Zeneca_33 or the ZenAcademy.
Always exercise caution within the NFT space and adhere to best practices when it comes to making any investments. There is plenty of potential, but this comes with inherent risks.
Stay safe, and as always, good luck.