ZenCaps: Edition #4
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 - Yuga Labs Raises $450M at $4B Valuation
It’s been another busy week in the world of NFTs, but no matter which way you look, the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Yuga Labs continue to dominate headlines.
The biggest news this week was that Yuga Labs raised $450 million USD in a fundraising round spearheaded by some of the most notable investors in the web3 domain. These included Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z crypto fund, Animoca Brands, The Sandbox, FTX, MoonPay, Samsung, Snoop Dogg and Timbaland, amongst others.
The fundraising round gave Yuga Labs a valuation of $4 billion USD.
Yuga Labs intend to use the money to build a media empire around NFTs. They’ll start with games and their own metaverse project, called Otherside, a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) meant to connect the broader NFT universe.
Additionally, the founders said they plan to “use the funds to scale its rapidly growing team, attract the best talent across creative, engineering and operations functions, and for joint ventures and partnerships it has planned”. For a more detailed look at this story, please click here.
The fundraise, on top of the acquisition of the CryptoPunks and Meebits IP rights last week, was the catalyst for complete domination by the ‘Yuga Labs’ collections in volume sales on OpenSea. BAYC, MAYC, CryptoPunks and Meebits stole the show for days on end until recently succumbing to strong efforts by ‘Azuki’ and ‘MURI by Haus’.
It also resulted in a whopping 13 of the top 15 highest NFT sales of the past week being Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. The other 2 sales were Chromie Squiggle #890 and V1 Punk #7458.
The Otherside trailer, which you can view here, also featured several other prominent NFT collections. They were Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, CryptoPunks, CrypToadz, Meebits, Nouns and World of Women. These all pumped after the video release as onlookers interpreted this to mean some form of collaboration with Yuga Labs and the Otherside project.
Also turning heads was the leaked Yuga Labs pitch deck, which can be seen in full here. All in all, a busy week for Yuga Labs, and we can clearly expect a lot more to come.
Curated News - the best of the past week
TIME Magazine piece on Vitalik Buterin’s life and his current concerns
GameStop Eth NFT Marketplace Beta Launches With Loopring Integration
How Rare Pepe NFTs Reclaimed Pepe the Frog—And Why They Remain Relevant
Malaysian comms official calls on the state to legalize crypto and NFTs
DeFiance Founder’s USD 1.76M Loss is a Lesson For NFT Investors
Universal Music label acquires ape NFT to lead virtual music group
Marvel NFT partner Veve closes its marketplace after an in-app token exploit
Maybe Something - things we’re keeping an eye on
The ‘Otherside’ project by Yuga Labs simply can’t be ignored. Read a summary of the what’s currently known here.
Gutter Juice (Zen DYOR Pick) - The Gutter Cat Gang is one of the OG PFP collections with a passionate community. The new Gutter Juice collection is a great opportunity to get exposure to this ecosystem. Check it out here.
Martian Premier League (Zen DYOR Pick) - Read Zeneca’s thread below on why he’s bullish on MPL.
The Lost Glitches (Zen DYOR Pick) - They're building an epic world and ecosystem with a collectible card game/role playing game. They have a full team that has been building for months and will be continuing to build. Nice entry at the moment. Check out collection here.
PridePunks mint is LIVE - link to it here from official Twitter account. 1st CryptoPunks derivative from 2018. Forgotten and resurrected today.
XCOPY announced a new drop on NiftyGateway called “Gourmet Spicy”.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic launches NFT collection ‘Adrenaline’ on MakersPlace on March 24th @ 6:30pm ET.
NFT Worlds announced a new upcoming collection for the NFT Worlds ecosystem - NFT Worlds Avatars.
Creature World launched ‘The Travelling Creature’ concept, a gamified experience with potential rewards.
Talking Point - ‘Satoshi Island’ crypto utopia
This isn’t so much a talking point, but instead a look at developments within an ongoing project that’s interesting, innovative, somewhat low-key and leveraging NFTs to make it all work.
For those who aren’t aware, the “Satoshi Island” project can be described as an enormous socio-economic experiment, funded by crypto enthusiasts, for crypto enthusiasts.
The project idea was conceptualised during the 2017 bull run. The first step was to buy an uninhabited island which fit certain metrics, primarily that it was suitable to live on and feasible to build on. Once purchased, the intention was to create a home for crypto professionals and enthusiasts, with a goal to be considered the crypto capital of the world.
One notable characteristic of the projects ambitions was that it would be run exclusively with cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. FIAT currencies would not exist at all.
The chosen island ended up being in the tropical paradise of Vanuatu, tucked between Australia and Fiji. The island is now owned by Satoshi Island Holdings Limited, and development is well underway. Watch their introductory video clip about the project by clicking the link below.
A “private opening” of the island is planned for Q4 this year. This will only be for short-term visits, but by early 2023, NFT homeowners will “be able to begin residing on the island” full time.
The Pacific Island nations are certainly developing a reputation for being crypto-friendly. To date, approximately 50,000 people have registered interest in the ‘Satoshi Island’ project, buying into the vision of a “community where they can live, work and visit all year round.”
However, it’s still not possible without Vanuatu citizenship, which comes at a cost of around $130,000 USD.
The reason this project resurfaced on my radar is because there was recently an article about it in Cointelegraph. I’ll admit when I first heard about this several years ago, I was skeptical to say the least.
However, after taking another look, it’s certainly and interesting prospect, and it’s clear NFTs will play a pivotal role in the distribution of property ownership across the island. And i’m sure they’ll be used for way more that. I’ll be following the progress to see what they come up with.
For a look at the full article, please click.
Top 5 NFT Sales of the past week
Bored Ape Yacht Club #3250 (250 ETH or approx. $720.43k)
Bored Ape Yacht Club #5552 (188 ETH or approx. $551.73k)
Bored Ape Yacht Club #4435 (188 ETH or approx. $529.85k)
Bored Ape Yacht Club #6016 (189 ETH or approx. $522.49k)
Bored Ape Yacht Club #1289 (180 ETH or approx. $512.14k)
Note: The above list is in descending order of USD value. This is not necessarily true of the ETH/WETH value due to ETH/USD fluctuates throughout the week.
Tip Of The Week - Go to NFT conferences
As the NFT industry continues to grow exponentially, NFT conferences are popping up around the globe. Unbeknownst to you, you may have one happening on your doorstep in 2022, and it’s a very good idea to go along.
Why? NFT conferences have global leaders from every sector of the space giving talks on the latest innovations and newest ideas. This usually takes place over several days. The information provided in these sessions are an extremely good way to gauge upcoming trends and keep informed on what’s hot in the NFT space. And speakers will often use conferences to share information for the first time.
Not only that, but it’s an excellent opportunity to network with like-minded individuals. Many projects and collabs have happened through chance meetings at conferences. By immersing yourself in the community, you’ll certainly leave better off than when you arrived.
And don’t despair, if you’ve not got one near you, some offer live streams, or else you can hop on a plane. I myself am eyeing up NFT.NYC despite being based in Asia. I think the trip will be well worth the time and money.
Some of the bigger NFT conferences in the world are:
NFT LA - March 28th - 31st (Los Angeles, CA)
Non-Fungible Conference - April 4th - 5th (Lisbon, Portugal)
VeeCon - May 19th - 22nd (Minneapolis, MN)
NFT.NYC - June 20th - 23rd (New York, NY)
Art Basel - December 1st - 3rd (Miami, FL)
As you can see, most of the bigger ones are US-based, but for a more detailed rundown of what’s on offer globally, see the link below, courtesy of @fractional_art.
Try and make the time to attend at least one NFT conference this year. All the amazing insight and alpha aside, it can also be a lot of fun simply meeting the IRL people behind the avatars you’ve spent months talking to online.
Maybe see you at NFT.NYC.
ZenAcademy and 333 Club Noticeboard
Regular Event Reminders
Join our poker nights via our Discord. Events held every Saturday 10pm GMT, with prizes to be won.
Join our weekly community initiative Weekly Creative Prompts! Find out more in our Discord by clicking here. This week is an Artistic challenge.
Our Book Club has started up. Join in on the discussions here.
Reminder: As a ZenAcademy member, you get exclusive access to market health statistics and analysis updated every 12hrs. For a full rundown of how to get the most out of these charts, click here.
Check out our Sports Chat channel in Discord. If that’s your thing, jump in here.
Irregular Events and Info
Congratulations to @DancingEddie on his new role as The 333 Club Ambassador. He'll be helping to schedule and run our events: twitter spaces, casual chats, drop-in sessions, AMAs, and more.
A new ‘Collab Form’ is available in The 333 Club Discord to help streamline the process for giveaways/collabs between other projects and both The 333 Club and ZA.
Our first Movie Night kicks off today/tomorrow (dependant upon timezone). To get the exact time in your location, please check here. Starting off with Harry Potter of course.
Zeneca’s course on 'How to Launch an NFT Project' is now available for purchase at https://nasacademy.com/zeneca. This will be free for anyone that holds a ZA Genesis or 333 Club NFT (access will be given closer to when the course goes live in early April).
Keep an eye out for our new ‘Getting Started’ guide in Discord to help you better navigate all the great info on offer.
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.
Very helpful this is. ty