ZenCaps: Edition #37
Your weekly NFT recap to cut through the noise
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 - FTX Collapse Turns Crypto Market Red as the NFT Royalties Debate Continues To Rage On
It’s been another rollercoaster week in the world of NFTs as the Art Gobblers debacle was quickly overshadowed by the crypto markets plummeting in response to the ongoing FTX debacle. The impact was felt across the board, but Solana was hit harder than most due to its positioning in relation to the FTX insolvency. This led to a huge uptick in Solana NFT trading as investors looked to offload their assets in fear of SOL devaluing even further.
Binance seemed to be stepping in to acquire FTX at one point, but after a very short-lived due diligence exercise, they quickly withdrew interest. Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the CEO of FTX, was in the process of raising capital to rescue the situation and took full responsibility, but FTX has now filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and SBF has resigned as CEO.
Creator royalties were another big talking point as OpenSea broke their silence on the topic. They experienced a huge backlash from the creator community in doing so, and have already back-tracked on their intentions in an effort to quell the unrest. BAYC founders also entered the discussion proposing a royalties model of their own.
Bored Ape Yacht Club, which got swept by BAYC whale jimmy.eth, tops the weekly volume charts, followed by CryptoPunks. Mutant Ape Yacht Club was in third spot, Otherdeed for Otherside was fourth and Friendship Bracelets was in fifth.
Friendship Bracelets by Alexis Andre, a free mint for Art Blocks holders, had a very strong week of sales, KPR had a successful reveal, Meebits hit a 10-month low in terms of floor price and vintage collection Curio Cards saw a string of huge sales go through, courtesy of a single buyer.
For articles on all the above plus much more, please see the links in the below sections.
Curated News - the biggest stories of the past week
BIGGEST NFT Sale: Bored Ape Yacht Club #5718 sold for 350ETH
Binance Backs Out of Deal to Buy FTX: 'Beyond Our Ability to Help'
Report: FTX Used Client Funds & FTT Tokens to Prop Up Alameda
From $26 Billion to Nothing: The Rise and Fall of SBF and FTX
Elon Musk: SBF 'Set Off My BS Detector' When He Approached About Twitter…’
BAYC Founders Propose NFT Royalties Model, Decry OpenSea’s Stance as 'Not Great'
OpenSea breaks silence on NFT royalties, but creators don't like what they hear
OpenSea Pledges to Enforce NFT Royalties After Creator Backlash
Magic Eden CEO: Royalties-Enforcing NFTs Could Be 'New Asset Class'
New tool mirrors Optimism NFTs to Ethereum mainnet for use in verified apps
Metaplex Backtracks, Apologizes After Initially Announcing Beeple NFTs on Solana
Educational: From Web2 to Web3: A Guide to NFTs on Facebook and Instagram
Educational: ZenAcademy’s 30 Days Of NFTs - Entry Level NFT Course
Project news & things we’re keeping an eye on
Memeland tweeted that they've "messed up" and that stage 5 of the art will be delayed
Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Prices Fall After FTX Sinks Crypto Market
FTX Blowup Puts Trove of Prized Bored Apes at Risk of Liquidation
MetaMask announced a new bridge aggregator which is integrated into its native portfolio dapp
Adidas Invites Customers to ‘Unbox The Impossible’ with Metaverse Phase 2
Adam Bomb Squad Cancels OpenSea NFT Drop Over Royalties Dispute
VeeCon 2023 will be in Indianapolis, Indiana, from May 18th till 20th
Doodles holders can now register for DoodlePutt, an event taking place in Miami, Florida, from Dec. 2nd-3rd: https://doodles.app/events/doodleputt
Instagram has enjoyed a run of sell-out drops including artist Sara Baumann
Cointelegraph Historical Collection launch nears as waitlist reaches 460K
Help Us Help You - Calling all founders and core team members of web3 projects
As was touched upon during our ZenAcademy Town Hall last week, part of our broader plans for ZenLabs includes building out an advisory house for brands and projects launching in the space, with a view to becoming the best web3 consultancy agency over the coming years.
In order to run the best advisory service possible, we need feedback from those we hope to be advising. Primarily we anticipate this being potential project founders, project founders and core team members of web3 projects.
In an effort to help us be the best we can, we have created a survey to gain insights into the issues faced when launching a project in this space. The survey will take around 7 minutes to complete and we’d absolutely love to hear your feedback.
To help incentivise participation and as a thank you for taking the time to fill out the survey, two entrants will be selected at random and offered a 30 minute advisory call with Zeneca. Please be aware that you must supply us with your email address when filling out the survey to be eligible to win the prize.
It should also be noted that the survey is intended specifically for web3 founders, future web3 founders and core team members only.
We kindly ask that if you are none of the above, please do not fill out the survey.
You can find the link to the survey form here and we thank you for your participation in advance: https://xp9ja3iyxv6.typeform.com/to/AZLAjnWJ
Tip Of The Week - Understand NFTs like a Pro
Community member Swombat (aka Daniel Tenner) has produced his second educational video in collaboration with ZenAcademy, which is a perfect starting point for beginners to get a handle on what NFTs actually are. Please check out this latest offering linked below.
Daniel has his own YouTube channel, which houses the ZA collab videos, so make sure to show some support and ‘Subscribe’ to keep across all of his content. He also has a Twitter account which is full of insightful musings on the NFT space, so follow him there too for the full package.
ZenAcademy and 333 Club Noticeboard
Regular Event Reminders
Don’t miss the 333 Club’s weekly ‘This Week in NFTs’ Twitter Spaces, each and every Sunday. Follow the 333 Club Twitter page here for more info.
Don’t forget to keep across the Giveaways Discord channel, with plenty of allowlist spots up for grabs on a regular basis.
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.
There’s a new ‘global-events’ forum in the ZA Discord to help facilitate IRL meet-ups amongst the community. Find more details here.
Irregular Events and Community News
Zeneca announced the introduction of a coaching initiative for community members. There was overwhelming demand and applications are now closed. However, if the trial period is successful, there may well be opportunities to join in a future program.
We’ve just launched ZenDaily, a Newsletter that goes out Monday - Friday to help keep you on top of this fast moving market. These are posted in our Discord too but we appreciate not everyone likes Discord, so we added an email option. It’s completely free and you can subscribe here.
333 Members - Thank you all for the patience as we adjust to this new normal with merged Discords. The reaction has been largely positive but there has been some constructive criticism, and Zeneca wants to make sure everyone’s opinions are heard. To that end he’s created a quick feedback form that anyone can fill out. We’d really appreciate if everyone took the time to fill it out. It should only take 30s if you don't have much feedback to give: https://forms.gle/5RCRSdKSFzdanSMV6
333 Members, please click here to access the recording of the latest town hall as well as get an update on the Epoch Advisory initiative discussed a few months back.
ZenAcademy is already gearing up and preparing for Zenmas #3 to go out at the end of the year. Zenmas is an initiative which aims to support new artists and creators, especially those struggling to get noticed and find an audience. If you’re an artist who might be interested in taking part, please fill out this form: Zenmas #3 Artist Application Form.
Additional ZA Content
YouTube Video: Welcome to ZenAcademy! and why to join
YouTube Video: ZenAcademy Town Hall (PFP, our future, and much more!)
YouTube Video: How To Communicate With Your Community - ZenAcademy Mentorship w/ Sociedade Mecânica de Futebol
YouTube Video: Episode #60 of Two Bored Apes is now available, featuring a Twitter Q&A covering Allowlists, PixelVault, 10 Undervalued projects, Inequality in the NFT space and the next Blue Chip NFT project.
YouTube Video: Swombat discusses TEN awesome NFT use cases FROM THE FUTURE
YouTube Shorts: The Future Of Creator Royalties In NFTs
YouTube Shorts: How The Creator Economy Will Change In Web3
YouTube Shorts: Creator Royalties Are The Biggest Disruption From Web3 and NFTs...
Zeneca’s latest Newsletter is now out, entitled ‘How We Onboard Billions to Web3’. Click here to read the full article.
The ZenAcademy GITBOOK is now live! It’s a repository for everything ZA (values, the team, partners, perks & plenty of helpful resources). Visit 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.