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 - Huge NFT sales amid bearish sentiment
This week saw several huge NFT purchases including 300ETH for ENS Domain 000.eth, 400ETH for a Pudgy Penguin and 500ETH for Don’t Panic by XCOPY. ETH slumped further to sub $1,500 amid a bearish FED outlook, Nike revealed jaw-dropping NFT revenue, UniSwap looks towards NFT financialization and Telegram founder eyes ‘NFT-like smart contracts’ to enable username auctioning. For full articles of these stories and more, check out the ‘Curated News’ section below.
It’s been a week of mixed emotions in a very choppy market. Most mints have performed poorly despite some showing early promise, suggesting a lack of confidence by investors. Quick pumps and flips seems to be the current trend, with very few collections able to maintain any serious momentum. DigiDaigaku Genesis was one of several exceptions and saw great price action with a lot of strong hands (only 0.07% of collection on sale) leading to an impressive price pump over the course of the past 10 days.
ENS registrations experienced yet another pump after the 300ETH sale of 000.eth. You can read a full article on this story here: ENS Registrations Surge. And UniSwaps continued foray into the NFT space was met with varying degrees of positivity. Some deemed the decision as a step towards solidifying the future of decentralized finance whilst others saw it as a means to capitalize on liquidation profits. For a full article on this story, please click here.
Curated News - the biggest stories of the past week
BIGGEST NFT Sale: Don’t Panic by XCOPY Sold for 500ETH
Pudgy Penguins Ethereum NFT Fetches 400 ETH Despite Bear Trend
Coinbase eyes long-term growth of subscription revenue, NFTs still a focus
Uniswap eyes NFT financialization, in talks with lending protocols
GameStop NFT daily fee revenue falls below $4K as markets go down
Netflix Is Using NFTs to Harvest Engagement Data. And TV May Never Be the Same
Telegram founder suggests ‘NFT-like smart contracts’ to auction usernames
Eminem and Snoop Dogg to perform Bored Apes track at MTV music awards
Beijing announces two-year Metaverse innovation and development plan
Cybercriminals Have Stolen Over $100 Million in NFTs: Report
Project news & things we’re keeping an eye on
CryptoPunk Ethereum NFTs Floor Price Flips Bored Apes for First Time in 5 Months
Meebits has joined World Wide Webb Land, meaning they’re eligible to be used as an avatar within the WWWL metaverse from August 23rd
KINGSHIP announces a collaboration with M&M'S with a trailer
Alien Frens releases Issue 1 of the Alien Frens Comic Books along with a new website and roadmap
Autograph’s New Signature Experience Program Debuts With Tom Brady
Creator of The Sims franchise, Will Wright, recently announced a raise of $6 million to fund Gallium Studios, his company’s next gaming venture “powered by the blockchain”.
Parallel released more details about PDV, including The Manifest process, which starts on 5th September.
Muse: Everything to Know About the New Chart-Eligible NFT Album
Loot, One Year Later: The NFT Hype Is Dead—But 'Lootverse' Hope Lives On
More details of the upcoming Tyler Hobbs project, QQL, were released. Mint pass auction will start on 28th September with a 50ETH starting price for the dutch auction.
Historical Insight: The Spells Of Genesis card ‘BEARWHALE’ is a tribute to the infamous Bearwhale, who dumped 30,000 Bitcoins in one sell order, and at well below the market price, in 2014. This caused the market to plummet, but Bitcoin believers eventually slayed the Bearwhale, bringing the price back to where it had been. Which at this time was around $320. The NFT was created on July 24th, 2015, with a supply of 3,000, but 2,570 were subsequently burnt, leaving a supply of only 430. This makes it one of the lowest supply cards from the inaugural 2015 SOG set, and it has the best distribution of all the 2015 cards. One to watch.
Talking Point - Should Victims of NFT Hacks Be Compensated by Creators?
This is an ongoing topic of debate and the NFT community is somewhat divided on what the appropriate response should be.
The circumstance which creates the majority of conflicting opinions is when a high-profile individual or company has their social media accounts compromised. Following this, the general public are duped into interacting with malicious links posted by the hacker/s which results in the loss of NFTs/crypto assets.
From the general public’s standpoint there’s an argument that substandard security measures were likely a factor and therefore the owner of the hacked accounts should compensate any losses incurred. From the standpoint of the individual/company who had their account/s hacked, there are arguments along these lines, voiced by @punk4156 in this thread, posted after the @nounsdao Twitter hack:
“While it sucks to say that people shouldn't be reimbursed for being tricked via your account, these users are engaging in zero-due-diligence activities in an attempt to make fast money, and are ultimately the ones signing messages that authorize [withdrawals] from their wallets”.
An article published last month provides an overview of the general sentiment surrounding the idea of compensation after account hacks. Zeneca was heavily featured in the write-up after his Twitter hack last month and found support in his decision not to fully compensate victims. He wrote in a post-mortem thread that “The buck and responsibility lies with each individual participant in this space”.
For the full article on this topic, by the guys at Decrypt, please click here.
Save The Date - ‘NFT in Europe’ Is Happening on September 17th
It’s always nice to try and attend an IRL NFT event. If you can’t make the Las Vegas event in October (mentioned below), which will feature Zeneca and ZA, then maybe NFT In Europe could be an alternative option.
“NFT in Europe” is taking place on September 17th at Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris. The events start at 10 a.m. and continues until 6 p.m., followed by a party that brings together artists and event attendees.
The event boasts an impressive list of curators and speakers with full-access day tickets starting from 49 Euros each. VIP tickets are 299 Euros.
For more information about the event and ticket purchasing, please visit their website by clicking here.
ZenAcademy and 333 Club Noticeboard
Regular Event Reminders
Don’t forget to keep across the Giveaways Discord channel, with plenty of allowlist spots up for grabs on a regular basis.
As a ZenAcademy member you get exclusive access to periodic market health statistics in the Discord content channel.
Join poker nights via our Discord. Events held weekly, with prizes to be won.
Weekly Movie Nights are going strong. Click here for the latest info.
As part of the ZA community you have free access to the Misfit Robot Discord (focused on mental health & recovery), and several of their “Members Only” rooms. Check them out here: https://discord.gg/misfitrobots
Season 2 of the ZA Trivia Challenge is underway. Click here for more info.
A ‘global-events’ channel was launched in the ZA Discord to help facilitate IRL meet-ups amongst the community. Get involved by clicking here.
Irregular Events and Community News
Zenmas is upon, with airdrops starting from today. Zenmas is an initiative started in December last year, modeled after the 12 days of Christmas. The idea is to commission art from 12 up-and-coming NFT artists and airdrop their work everyone who holds a ZA/333 token. This is to support art, and support artists, and give our community some awesome art .See full Twitter announcement here.
The 333 Club office hours have changed to 30mins per session, and are now bookable for September and early October.
Zeneca will be speaking at the web3 conference, W3BX, being held in Las Vegas from Oct 10-13. ZenAcademy are going to be running a 4 day workshop on "Building a web3 / NFT business". They're also planning to have some side events exclusive for ZAG / 333 token holders. Click here for more info.
The ZenAcademy's Mentorship Program has been launched, an initiative geared exclusively towards helping ZA token holders with their NFT projects.
Attention ZA token holder members: token verification will be moving from Collab Land to Vulcan (Premint). Click here for more details.
The 333 Club formed a partnership with the amazing Unfiltered project, who have provided the community with free access to their paid subscription services. Unfiltered look to bring high-quality analysis and educational content to the NFT space.
Additional ZA Content
YouTube Video: Episode #51 of Two Bored Apes is now available, where the guys discuss Tornado Cash, Royalties, Burps and a Zancan. Click here to watch.
YouTube Video: Watch ZenChats #40 where Zeneca talks about Turning Web3 into a Habit w/ Mikey Ahdoot from Habit Nest.
Zeneca’s latest Newsletter is now out, entitled ‘Creator Royalties in NFTs’. Click here to read the full article.
YouTube Video: How to grow and foster an NFT Community - Zeneca's Mentorship Session with Guava Girls
Video: An Introduction to FX Hash on TEZOS in collaboration with InPeak
YouTube Video: Dutch Auction Strategies For Beginners
The ZenAcademy GITBOOK is now live! It’s 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.