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 Dominate End Of Year Volume Charts, China To Roll Out State-backed NFT marketplace and DeGods & y00ts announce a move away from Solana
Welcome to a bumper edition of ZenCaps, which includes a look back at 2022, as well as forwards towards 2023.
The top collections by volume over the past week are largely dominated by the Yuga Labs ecosystem, with CryptoPunks in top spot, Bored Ape Yacht Club in second, Otherdeed for Otherside in third, Mutant Hound Collars in fourth and Mutant Ape Yacht Club in fifth.
Pudgy Penguins narrowly missed out on a top five spot, having had a very impressive week of sales which saw its floor price move from around 4.6ETH up to 7.3ETH, before retracing back to 6.3ETH at the time of writing.
This week DeGods and y00ts announced they will be bridging off Solana in a move which casts doubt over the future of the Solana NFT ecosystem. Meanwhile, SOL drops out of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap, sinking below $10USD for the first time in two years.
China announced its plans to roll out a state-backed exchange for digital collectibles, whilst Turkey pushed ahead with its Digital Lira.
OpenSea confirmed its ban on Cuban artists saying it’s enforcing U.S. policy by removing artists from sanctioned countries. Blur announced another new stance on creator royalties which will see will see the platform “enforce a minimum royalty on immutable collections”.
For full articles on all the above and much more, head into the sections below and click on the relevant links.
If you enjoy ZenCaps, don’t miss out on ZenDaily. It’s published Monday to Friday and provides a short recap of the past 24hrs in the NFT space. Subscribe for free here.
Curated News - the biggest stories of the past week
BIGGEST NFT Sale: CryptoPunk #5924 - 199.950ETH
Fidelity plans NFT marketplace and financial services in the metaverse
Italy to create the crypto art Renaissance: NFT market report
NFT Market Will Bounce Back With Lower Interest Rates, Digital Artist Says
North Korean hackers stealing NFTs using nearly 500 phishing domains
Cathie Wood's Ark Invest Buys the Dip, Scoops Up $5.5M in Coinbase Stock
US election agency approves use of NFTs as campaign fundraising incentive
Steve Aoki Is Selling All Of His NFTs: Is The Bottom Finally in?
NFTs Volume On VeChain’s VeSea Surpasses 100M: 2023 To Be A ‘Banger’?
SBF Denies Moving Alameda-Linked Funds: ‘None of These Are Me’
Educational: How To Start Your NFT Journey FOR BEGINNERS
Educational: What is an NFT whitelist, and how can you join one?
Educational: ZenAcademy’s 30 Days Of NFTs - Entry Level NFT Course
A word from our Founder: Welcome to ZenAcademy! and why to join
Project news & things we’re keeping an eye on
NFT Collection on a Comeback: Pudgy Penguins Just hit a new all-time high
Meebits, WarpSound Team Up To Launch NFT Music Album For Holders
PROOF Collective announced “Grails III is live. Choose wisely”
Yuga Labs released the next phase of the Trial of Jimmy the Monkey
X2Y2 announced X2Y2 Pro, with details on how to increase your waitlist chances
Blur announced they “will enforce a minimum royalty on immutable collections”
Yuga Labs Sets Date for Exciting Second Trip to the Otherside
The ApeCoin DAO Special Council was decided yesterday. Click to see results
Pod Burning, key for RTFKT’s Lore and 2023 Roadmap, will begin in January
Top 10 NFT collections from 2022 by sales volume (ETH):
Bored Ape Yacht Club: $1.57 billion
Mutant Ape Yacht Club: $1.14 billion
Otherdeed: $1.1 billion
Azuki: $849.9 million
Moonbirds: $613.4 million
Clone X: $600.5 million
CryptoPunks: $575.2 million
Doodles: $391.6 million
Beanz: $229 million
Bored Ape Kennel Club: $219 million
Top 5 NFT biggest sales of 2022:
Clock (Pak): USD 52.7 million
Cryptopunk #5822: USD 23.7 million
Cryptopunk #5577: USD 7.7 million
UkraineDAO PartyBid: USD 6.7 million
All Time High In The City (XCOPY): USD 6.2 million
A Quick Glance Back At 2022
Wow! What a year. Undoubtedly Yuga Labs stole the show, owning 5 of the top 10 collections across 2022, with Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) topping the charts. BAYC reached a phenomenal floor price of around 150ETH at its peak. This translated to roughly $430,000USD at the time. Yuga Labs also claimed the number one mint of the year, with their Otherside for Otherdeed release, which has generated over $1.1Billion in sales. Their acquisition of CryptoPunks, Meebits and V1 Punks further cemented their position as goliaths within the space, and they provided holders of their BAYC and MAYC collections with unprecedented rewards in the form of ApeCoin. Towards the end of year, Yuga Labs also acquired web3 ecosystem WENEW and its flagship NFT collection 10KTF. But it wasn’t all plain sailing for the giants of the NFT ecosystem. They came under heavy fire for the Otherside mint, with exorbitant gas fees, long wait-times and phishing attacks aplenty. The company also came under scrutiny by the SEC, were unceremoniously doxxed and faced accusations of being racist by artist Ryder Ripps. Despite all this, they still came out on top and continue to feature heavily in the top trending collections, often seeing some of the biggest NFT sales on a daily and weekly basis.
Other big stories of the year include the high profile collapses of Terra Luna and FTX. Both of these lead to capitulations in the crypto market as confidence took a heavy hit, and exposure to the protocols across the board, came into light. Numerous firms went bankrupt and the full extent of the FTX fallout is still unfurling.
Art Blocks continued to lead the pack when it comes to generative art. The platform turned two last month, with its new projects regularly featuring in the top trending collections after launch. We’ve also seen a comparatively strong resilience to the bear market by “blue-chip” generative art projects, with periodic flurries of activity helping maintain floor prices to an extent not seen in many other types of project.
Reddit garnered much attention after impressively onboarding millions into the NFT space via their Reddit Avatars project. They were lavished with praise for creating an easy onboarding process, using simple payment methods and no-fuss storage solutions. You can read more here.
Hacks and exploits, unfortunately, were a huge part of the 2022 NFT landscape. The top 10 hacks saw over $2.1B stolen, with the largest being the Ronin bridge hack in March. This one event saw a whopping $612M stolen. Online sleuths were able to identify the nefarious parties on the odd occasion, and some were brought to justice, but the majority still roam free. Here’s a rundown of the most notable hacks of 2022.
The Ethereum Merge went off without a hitch in September, leading to the largest NFT blockchain consuming over 99% less energy than before, due to the elimination of resource-intensive mining. And ETH-scaler Polygon surfaced as the blockchain of choice for a number of global brands including Starbucks, Reddit, Meta, Nike, Disney, and Coca-Cola.
The Solana NFT ecosystem made solid progress over 2022 with some notable mints such as Okay Bears and y00ts. The leading marketplace Magic Eden (ME) performed very well, and with an excellent team behind them, made a vast number of improvements to their platform, further cementing themselves as the dominant player for Solana NFTs. As OpenSea announced they would support Solana NFTs on their platform, you might think there’d be cause for concern, but if there was, it was unwarranted. ME continued to completely dominate proceedings with very little activity on OS at all for Solana NFTs. ME then announced it would open trading for ETH NFTs on its own platform, but similarly, there was relatively low interest. In light of the FTX collapse and continuing price destruction of Solana, it seems like several high profile SOL projects, most notably DeGods and y00ts, will migrate over to Ethereum in early 2023, casting doubt over Solana’s future as a leading NFT ecosystem.
Blur.io entered the NFT marketplace towards the end of the year, offering a marketplace and aggregator combination. It’s seen very impressive numbers since its launch, with a series of airdrop incentives fuelling the fire. It’s currently doing over twice the volume of OpenSea on a regular basis, and it will be interesting to see how they perform in 2023.
The creator royalties debate has been raging on for months now and has been one of the biggest topics of 2022. NFT marketplaces have altered their stances countless times in an effort to appease creators and collectors alike. I’ve included a range of articles on this topic below, as it’s a complex affair, in a constant state of transition.
Also in relation to creators and collectors, IP rights were another big debate in the earlier part of 2022. Zeneca’s Letter 26: On cc0, Intellectual Property, and NFTs, provides a nice overview of the topic.
In Q2 of 2022 we experienced a large pullback and the official start of the NFT bear market. It was a dark time, and many were hurt in the process. Mental health became a focus within many communities as members who’d overexposed themselves were feeling the pain.
This bearish trend is still with us, but despite it, we’ve seen a lot of positives too. One of the most obvious is the relentless influx of global brands piling into the space on a regular basis. From Nike to Starbucks, and Meta to Coca-Cola, we’ve seen a considerable number of big companies getting accustomed to the web3 space. We’ve also seen a large number of others applying for trademarks to be used in web3. With platforms such as Instagram and Twitter integrating NFTs and Apple planning to allow external iOS apps to be downloaded on devices under new EU regulations, NFTs seem certain to stay very much in the foreground of modern tech.
Aside from this, we’ve also seen some great examples of NFT communities building for the long-term, and having success experimenting with value-add initiatives for their holders. Collections such as Pudgy Penguins, OM, PROOF Collective, Wolf Game, Cool Cats, Bored Ape Yacht Club, DeGods, Meebits, RTFKT and of course, ourselves, have all made impressive progress in pushing the boundaries of what web3 communities can offer, and how they can thrive. Even in a bear market.
Plenty more happened than I can possibly cover above. There was the free mint craze which was headed up by goblintown.wtf, the Moonbirds launch and the Larva Labs DMCA against V1 Punks, to name a few. But this is a brief recap, and the above, in combination with the links below, will give you a fairly rounded look at how the NFT space unfolded in 2022.
A Few Major Headlines From 2022
(Note: some stories, such as those discussing the royalties debate, may include outdated information. They are here to serve as context with regards to how things developed over the year).
Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Yuga Labs Acquires CryptoPunks IP From Larva Labs
$70 Million Later, Pixelmon's Founder Calls Artwork Reveal 'Horrible Mistake'
Top Solana NFT Projects Are Jumping Ship to Ethereum, Polygon
Why NFT Creators and Collectors Can’t Stop Talking About Artist Royalties
OpenSea breaks silence on NFT royalties, but creators don’t like what they hear
OpenSea Again Changes Course on NFT Royalties After More Creator Pushback
Introducing OM (Open Metaverse), by punk6529
Yuga Labs Acquires Beeple's WENEW and its Flagship NFT Collection, 10KTF
A Look Forward At What 2023 Might Offer
Here at ZenAcademy, we’re extremely excited about what 2023 will bring for us as community. But below you can find some of the most prevalent themes amongst those making predictions for what to expect from the NFT space in 2023:
We will see a continuation of major brands entering the space. It seems inevitable that companies big and small will utilize NFTs for customer engagement purposes, including rewards programs, POAPs, membership tokens, marketing efforts, loyalty programs, raising brand awareness and more.
AI technology will continue to flow into all sectors of tech, with NFTs no exception. For a rundown of AI and its potential, see the most recent newsletter by Zeneca, published just 2 weeks ago.
Strong, stable existing NFT communities will grow stronger over the coming year, and will lead the way in experimentation with holder/member retention and expansion.
More regulations will come into force for NFT and crypto assets across the globe.
Web3 games will start to attract “serious” gamers, and will develop into a thriving sector of the NFT industry.
NFTs will provide real-world utility and solutions in industries such as ticketing, medicine, personal documentation and chain supply logistics.
The NFT projects that thrive will be those that provide utility and value adds to their holders, keeping them engaged and loyal to the community.
ETH and BTC are tipped to become reserve assets, particularly for nations focused on exports.
With some of the most notable Solana NFT projects looking to migrate over to the Ethereum blockchain, the future looks fragile for their ecosystem.
Coinbase has predicted another boom for NFTs, suggesting the space will provide innovative solutions with regards to personalized IDs, ticketing, subscriptions, real-world assets (RWA) tokenization, and supply chain logistics. In addition, they also believe more companies will integrate NFTs for brand building and customer engagement, in a similar fashion to what Starbucks have achieved with their loyalty program.
Cumberland DRW LLC expects challenging market conditions and clear regulatory frameworks in 2023 that will lead to innovative solutions. As three emerging narratives, the company identifies Bitcoin and Ethereum as reserve currencies, NFTs for IP tokenization, loyalty programs, and customer engagement, specifically citing MATIC, LOOKS, XMON, and GameFi.
ZenAcademy & 333 Club Noticeboard
Looking Back At ZenAcademy In 2022
We’ve achieved so much as a community in 2022, and it’s thanks to the members just as much as it to the team, that we were able to do so. It’s due to your support and belief in the ZenAcademy vision, that we could grow and evolve in ways we could only have dreamt of at the beginning of 2022. And with this foundation, we’re now perfectly positioned to make 2023 an incredible year for everyone. We’ll do the very best we can to continue providing value to existing members as well as onboarding new ones, with the simple outlook of wanting to help and support as many people as we can in a meaningful and impactful way. Here’s a look back at just a few our achievements of the past 12 months:
Zeneca continued to produce his much-loved Letters - He published 9 of them in total throughout 2022, with the highly coveted Infinite Regret letter being one of them. You can subscribe to these for FREE by clicking here.
30DaysOfNFTs - In mid-October, we launched the 30DaysOfNFTs initiative. This is a FREE NFT course designed with the beginner in mind. Each day for 30 days users will be emailed a short (3 minute read) piece of content about crypto and NFTs. Starting from what an NFT is, and what a blockchain is, to how to set up a wallet, what Discord is, how to buy an NFT, and beyond. We had an amazing response to this educational tool, and there’s much to come in 2023.
The Summoning and ZenChests - At the end of November The Summoning went live. This was part of the transition to facilitate the upcoming PFP project. Everyone who had a ZAG or 333 Club token was able to burn it in exchange for a ZenChest/s. At a later date, these ZenChests will be used to acquire your ZA PFP NFT. If you’d like to read more about the PFP project and the mechanics, please click here.
Soulbound Memories - Days before Christmas, everyone who’d burnt a ZAG or 333 Club token, was airdropped a Soulbound version of their original letters. This is a non-transferable collectible item, serving as a memory of the “early days” of ZenAcademy.
ZenCoaching - This initiative was launched as a means to offer help and support to community members in need. The offering was Personal & Professional Development Coaching over six one hour sessions. The initial trial concludes at the end of February 2023.
Office Hours Expanded - The Office Hours, which provide 333 Club members access to 1-on-1 video calls with Zeneca, were expanded to include 3 other Z-Team members. This provided the 333 Club community with access to an invaluable wealth of knowledge and expertise.
ZenAcademy “on tour” - Zeneca and the team were at global gatherings such LAS VEGAS: W3BX Expo., NFT NYC and Amsterdam MET, amongst others. Zeneca described these IRL as extremely powerful and wanted to facilitate more in-person interaction between the community and people in general. This led to the global events initiative.
A Global Events initiative was started, whereby community members could propose a meet-up anywhere in the world, and ZenAcademy would help fund it.
ZenAcademy Town Hall - In early November, the ZA Town Hall was live streamed on YouTube. This is a great resource for understanding where the community is headed, and includes information regarding the upcoming PFP project too.
Z-Team Expansion - As the ZenAcademy vision grew, the team required to fulfil these dreams, needed to expand with it. To that end, several more team members joined the ranks, from a wide variety of backgrounds, all dedicated to making ZA the best it can be. We can’t wait to deliver in 2023.
ZenCaps Weekly Newsletter - In early March, ZenCaps was born. We can assume you know what that is, since you’re currently reading it. It’s become a much-loved resource within the NFT community and will continue into 2023 and beyond.
ZenDaily Newsletter - In early November, ZenDaily was launched. This is a short daily recap of the past 24hrs in the NFT space, published Mon-Fri, and has very popular with those short on time but with an appetite to stay across the most important news. You can subscribe for free here.
ZenChats Launched - In January, Zeneca launched a video series called ZenChats. In these videos, he talks to people within the web3/NFT industry about their projects and the state of the space in general.
Donations to support Ukraine - Towards the end of February, Zeneca donated 11.11ETH to help those affected by the war in Ukraine.
ZenAcademy One Year Anniversary - On the 28th July 2022, ZenAcademy turned one. It was a year to the day since Zeneca opened up his Discord and started inviting people in.
Zeneca Keeps Educating - One of the focuses of ZenAcademy is to provide educational material for the web3 community. Zeneca’s been part of numerous initiatives on this front, partnering with the likes of InPeak and Nas Academy to create high quality content for their communities.
Two rounds of Zenmas - 2022 saw two rounds (one in Aug/Sept and one in Dec/Jan) of the popular Zenmas initiative. The idea behind it is to support new and aspiring artists in the web3 space by commissioning them to do artworks which are then airdropped to our community. There’s also additional promotional efforts by ZA to further push the artists in the space, raising awareness around what they do.
ZenAcademy Gitbook - After much work, the ZA Gitbook was launched in 2022, and acts as a repository of information for everything ZenAcademy.
Founders Calls, Orientation and more - Continuing along the theme of community interaction, ZenAcademy launched weekly online gatherings, whereby community members can join in to discuss and learn from each others experiences. These have proved very successful, and will continue in 2023.
ZenAcademy/333 Club Discord Merge - The two community servers associated with ZenAcademy merged into one to create a more cohesive environment for all, and despite some initial hesitation, has been a resounding success.
Huge Range Of Partnerships - ZenAcademy has forged partnerships far and wide within the web3 space, often resulting in great benefits for our community. There’s simply too many mention, but we’d like to thank all of our beloved partners for choosing us, and we look forward to building on these relationships throughout 2023.
ZenAcademy YouTube Channel is Launched - In January 2022, Zeneca took the decision to launch a YouTube channel. It’s home to a huge amount of completely free content, with new material dropped every few days, and has been a great addition to the ZenAcademy ecosystem.
We have so many exciting things planned for 2023. Much of which was shared in the Town Hall, but in this space, things move fast, and we’ve got more and more things we’ve been adding to the list in the meantime.
I’ve a sneaky feeling that Zeneca will provide a detailed update on what 2023 may hold for ZenAcademy, and there’s no-one better positioned to deliver that message than him. So i’ll leave you in eager anticipation for that upcoming announcement.
From everyone on the ZenAcademy Team, we wish you all the best for 2023 and beyond.
ZenAcademy Community News
We’re launching a new show in a few weeks: The ZenDaily Twitter Space. Zeneca will be co-hosting it with @emileevee, and it’ll go live 5 days a week Monday to Friday. The goal is to connect with the community in a more meaningful way, and to expand the community by finding new people who align with our values and ethos. It's gonna be fun, it's gonna be educational, it's gonna be great, it's gonna be zen.
We have successfully airdropped ZAG and 333 letter remnants to everyone who burned their original letters. These are a way for us to remember where we started and signify your role in shaping the future of ZenAcademy. They are forever connected to the wallet that you used to burn your ZenChests. The tokens are soulbound, meaning they cannot be transferred or sold. The intention is to keep Remnants as true collectibles (mementos), as opposed to a tradable or speculative commodity. If you haven't burned your letters yet, don't worry — roughly once a month we'll take a snapshot and airdrop the soulbound NFTs directly to your wallet. Enjoy!
The 12 Days of Zenmas is upon us! "What is Zenmas?" you ask. Let us explain: Zenmas is a celebration of art and a chance for us to support creatives in the space. For each of the 12 days, we'll be airdropping commissioned artworks to anyone holding one of our NFTs. We'll also be sharing the artists work and their personal stories in Discord and on our socials. Zenmas was started in December last year, modeled after the 12 days of Christmas. As well as a great way to highlight and support amazing artists, we also get to provide our incredible community with some beautiful art pieces in the process.
The first six artworks have already been airdropped. For more details, see the full Zenmas announcement here.
We asked interested 333 members to share their on cyber gallery with us a while back in order to create a 333 Neighbourhood in the Open Metaverse by Punk 6529. We have completed the neighbourhood in collaboration with the OM team, and we are excited to share it with you. The 333 neighbourhood and your linked galleries can be found here. This space may be used in the future to host events and other cool initiatives, but for now, we'll leave to you explore.
You might notice a few changes in our Discord happening over the next couple of weeks. Discord is making some nice improvements with regards to channels and discoverability/organization of channels. A significant one we already implemented was to bulk out our ART sections a bit more. You'll now see there's an entire category dedicated to art, with four channels. More to come.
ZenAcademy - Latest Content Releases
YouTube Video: ZenAcademy Town Hall (PFP, our future, and much more!)
YouTube Video: Episode #65 of Two Bored Apes is now available - SBF is Back, Yuga Labs New CEO, Artificial Intelligence
YouTube Video: 3 Key Factors to Look for Before Investing in an NFT - Female Pleasure Society
YouTube Shorts: What Does Minting an NFT Mean?
YouTube Shorts: How To Buy Your First NFT
ZenAcademy Regular Events
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.
Wellness Wednesdays - Every two weeks (keep across Minor Announcements Discord channel for specifics) @Kit777🔮 will chat with one of our highly esteemed members. This is a time to pause, take a break and discuss all things related to mental health / wellness and our shared human journey in life.
Join Poker Nights via our Discord. Events held weekly, with prizes to be won.
There’s a new ‘global-events’ forum in the ZA Discord to help facilitate IRL meet-ups amongst the community. Find more details here.
Look out for our weekly community events in the Discord Announcements channel. Each and every one of us has something to offer and through interaction, learning and networking as a group, we undoubtedly level up both on an individual level, but on a community level too. Come get involved.
Follow RogueRaven on Twitter here: @RogueRavenNFT
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.