Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, and more!

Dear Bankless Nation,

Right now, the floor prices of many profile picture (PFP) projects are down bad compared to their previous all-time highs. This has more than a few people rethinking their approach to investing in NFTs. 

At the same time, there’s an ongoing trend in the NFT space away from simple static collectibles toward “NFTs as apps,” i.e. interactive, dynamic onchain media that can be used for certain utilities and/or unlock unique experiences. 

For example, I’m reminded of the sporeᵒⁿᵉ audio remixer I highlighted in last week’s Metaversal roundup that can mint new song remixes. Or the JPG Canonicon that’s sort of like a free onchain Pokedex for tracking one’s decentralized curation activity. 

In these cases, the app + cultural value outweighs flipping considerations. Sure, there will always be free enterprise here, there will always be a profits to turn. But pure financial opportunity no longer reigns supreme is all I’m saying. 

In other words, the “Buy/sell/hold” meta is steadily being joined by the “Mint/use/unlock” meta. We’re moving away from a simple market to a full-fledged programmable cultural frontier where more and more NFTs are expressly usable and open up unique experiences. 

For now, though, let’s just get you caught up on the highlights from the past week in the NFT space. Thanks as always for reading everyone, and have a great weekend ✌️

-WMP

🙏 Sponsor: Kraken — Kraken NFT is built for secure NFT trading ✨

📊 The big picture

The past week saw a slight dip in the NFT market. The floor-based market cap of the NFT space decreased from 8.08 million ETH to 7.88 million ETH in that span, while in USD terms there was a slight decline from $14.74 billion USD to $14.68 billion USD.

🔝 7D top collections by volume

via pro.opensea.io

📰 General news

• Bankless announced a commemorative free mint NFT for all Genesis Collection holders. 

• Pixel Penguins, a collection that claimed to be raising money for cancer treatment funds, was a scam and rugged. 

• Zora unveiled its first partner projects for its upcoming NFT-centric L2.

🏆 Digital collectibles

• diid released Cartae, an onchain trading card collection. 

🎨 Cryptoart & music

• Harm van Dorpel collaborated with FingerprintsDAO and Mercedes-Benz NXT on the launch of his latest series Maschine.

• SuperRare introduced new mechanisms called Rarity Pools and Staked Lists for $RARE.

🎮 Decentralized gaming

• Axie Infinity launched its Let The Starters Guide You contest.

• Aavegotchi published its latest development update.

• Kamagotchi, an onchain pet RPG, is now planning to hold its mint on Optimism rather than Canto.

• Pirate Nation published a new roadmap.

🌐 Virtual worlds

• Decentraland unveiled an updated marketplace experience.

🪙 NFTfi

• Astaria added support for DeGods loans. 

• Uniswap interface users just hit an all-time high since Uniswap V3 launched.

🎆 Mint spotlight: Opepenguins

Did you get hit by the Pixel Penguins rug? As a consolation to the minters who thought they were doing a kind deed, The Boneys project dropped a Manifold burn-to-redeem mint where the original NFTs could be burned to mint new commemorative Opepenguin NFTs for free minus gas. No roadmap or utility, just good vibes after a bummer.

🙇 New insightful threads to level up your web3 knowledge!

1. apix on NFT games with big potential.

2. quit on the “Pink drainer” Blur attacker.  

3. 4156 on Nouns DAO offering a firsthand tour of how the project was created. 

✨ My NFT tool of the week: bridgetozora.world

Built by web3 developer and experimenter gregskil.eth, Bridge to Zora is an experimental bridge that lets you move Goerli testnet ETH over to the Zora L2 testnet, which was announced late last week and quickly generated a lot of excitement in many NFT circles. There’s nothing much to do yet on the L2 testnet yet, but if you’re also excited for the new NFT frontiers ahead and want to be one of the first pioneers to leave a trace on the project, then this bridge will be right up your alley. 

Join Bankless Citizens with exclusive episodes, airdrop guides, and Token Hub!

Become a paid subscriber today

😜 Bear or bull, rain or shine, make sure the squad knows how to cancel stuck transactions…

via bob

Action steps

• 🆕 Read Getting Started with the New Matcha, Stablecoins: 1 Year After Terra, and Is Lido Unstoppable? in Bankless

• 🙇 Catch up on my other NFT write-ups from this week: 

  • ✧ ERC-4337: Simpler, Safer NFTs

  • ✧ Opepen Explained

Author Bio

William M. Peaster is the creator of Metaversal — a Bankless newsletter focused on the emergence of NFTs in the cryptoeconomy. He’s also a senior writer for the main Bankless newsletter and a contributor to NFT curation platform JPG!

A Bankless Citizen ⚑ turned $264 into $6,077 last year. A 22x ROI 🚀 in a bear market!

Level Up

🙏Thanks to our sponsor

KRAKEN NFT

Kraken NFT is one of the most secure, easy-to-use and dynamic marketplaces available. Active and new collectors alike benefit from zero gas fees, multi-chain access, payment flexibility with fiat or 200+ cryptocurrencies, and built-in rarity rankings. Learn more at Kraken.com/nft

👉 Visit Kraken.com to learn more and open an account today.

Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.