Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, & collectibles

Dear Bankless Nation,

Is the worst of the crypto shakeout that started last year behind us?

Who knows, but one thing’s for certain: there is a surging sense of optimism in the NFT ecosystem right now.  

Indeed, more and more people think the bottom’s in, and activity is picking up across the board. The number of NFT traders, the number of NFT trades, NFT volume stats — presently all these metrics are markedly uptrending. 

We’re so back, then?

We’ll have to see how the months ahead unfold, but things are unquestionably feeling more bullish lately. For now let’s recap the past week, as always thanks for reading everyone and have a great weekend! ✌️

-WMP

🙏 Sponsor: Kraken — the most trusted and secure crypto exchange in the world✨

📣 General NFT News

• Easy Company, a web3 social wallet play, raised +$14M in seed funding.

• Jake Gallen published a great primer on the history of NFT marketplaces:

jake.bit @jakegallen_

Have you ever wondered how @opensea became the largest NFT Marketplace? Who were predecessors before them? Who paved the way and who may unseat the champs in the future? This NFT Marketplace Roadmap will take you down the path of of NFT Marketplace History. Here we go! (1/38)

6:58 PM ∙ Jan 4, 2023

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• Lens Protocol introduced support for token-gated publications among “Lensverse” projects. 

• Luiz Ramalho, the founder of Fingerprints DAO, joined Nouns DAO.

• mint.fun introduced Allowlist notifications so you can get email alerts whenever you’re added to new NFT allowlists.

• OpenSea added support for Arbitrum Nova, an L2 specialized for social and gaming use cases. 

• PleasrDAO teamed up with Edward Snowden and Daniel Ellsberg on a Pentagon Papers-themed NFT auction.

• Zora has some of the best DAU stats in crypto right now. 

🏆 Digital Collectibles

• Azuki introduced Hilumia, a new interactive world for Azuki holders.

• Yuga Labs is prepping for its upcoming Sewer Pass mint, which will grant access to the limited-time Dookey Dash game:

Bored Ape Yacht Club @BoredApeYC

Apes, stretch your eyeballs and warm up your scroll muscles — lots of new info about next week. Short version: monkey butthole, Sewer Pass January 17, skill-based mint begins January 18, new power sources. Video explainer coming soon, more at MDvMM.xyz, and the 🧵

12:24 AM ∙ Jan 12, 2023

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🎨 Cryptoart

• Chromie Squiggle #7997, a HyperRainbow, resold for Ξ134 ETH:

NFT Whale Alert @nftwhalealert

Chromie Squiggle 7997 bought for Ξ134 ($170,496.24) opensea.io/assets/ethereu…

11:07 PM ∙ Jan 8, 2023

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• Fidenza #967 resold for 140 WETH.

• SuperRare is integrating Quadratic Voting (QV) into its Space Race DAO votes. 

🎮 Decentralized Gaming

• Bulkis.eth used alpha he learned from studying the mechanics of Wolf Game early on in order to trade up into a CryptoPunk, check this out:

Bullkis.eth @Bullkis1

How I turned 2 eth into a CryptoPunk in 5 days playing @wolfdotgame 🐺 A thread🧵

12:00 AM ∙ Jan 11, 2023

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• Axie Infinity Origin Season 2 gameplay, which will last for +40 days, kicked off. 

• Mavis Hub 2 is now available to download.

• Pirate Nation released its latest series of gameplay updates, e.g. players’ voxel characters can now move around and explore the Pirate Nation world. 

💽 Music NFTs

• Coopahtroopa published This Week in Music NFTs – Jan. 9th.

🌐 Virtual Worlds

• Nifty Island added support for Nouns avatars:

Nifty Island 🏝 @Nifty_Island

Nouns avatars will soon be playable in Nifty Island🏝 We love @3dnouns, a @nounsdao character generator. All it took was an idea, a proposal, and the hard work of @coralorca and @0xFloyd.

9:09 PM ∙ Jan 11, 2023

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💎 DeFi x NFTs

• NFT loan volumes increased 10x over the course of 2022.

Action steps

• 🆕 Read How NFTs Could Upend Copyright Law and The Next Stage of Crypto Airdrops in Bankless

• 🌱 Watch Local Currencies & Basic Income with Alain Brenzikofer on Green Pill 

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

  • ✧ How to Use DeFi-Native Leverage

  • ✧ The Open Edition Boom

  • ✧ Saving NFTs with delegate.cash

Author Bio

William M. Peaster is a professional writer and creator of Metaversal—a Bankless newsletter focused on the emergence of NFTs in the cryptoeconomy. He’s also recently been contributing content to Bankless, JPG, and beyond!

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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.