The Open Edition Boom 📈
Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, & collectibles Dear Bankless Nation, There are a variety of NFT drop styles. Of those styles, open edition (OE) releases have been surging in popularity lately. OE drops involve a creator or project releasing an NFT with no hard supply cap, and they can come in different styles. For example, “timed” OEs are only open during customizable periods of time, while “infinite” OEs never close. For today’s post, let’s get you up to speed on the basics of the ongoing open edition boom! -WMP 🙏 Sponsor: Kraken — the most trusted and secure crypto exchange in the world✨ From rarity to abundance: the shift in the NFT market toward OE drops
What’s up ❓OE drop stats are up and to the right recently as more creators are turning to “do it yourself” NFT minting systems like Manifold and Zora, both of which activated their latest editioned NFT drop infra in Fall 2022. The context 💯
By the numbers 📊Manifold Claim Pages, which is the system within Manifold that lets creators easily create limited edition or OE NFT drops, has seen some impressive growth since publicly launching last October. According to the Manifold Claims Dune dashboard, there have been nearly 12,000 distinct Claim Pages drops that have accounted for over 40 million NFT mints and nearly 9,000Ξ (or +$11M USD worth) of total volume to date. Not too shabby right! As this same Dune dashboard shows us, the number of volume, Claim drops, and Claim mints over time have also been uptrending considerably over the past couple of months: Some of these stats are from “limited edition” drops and not OE releases, of course, but there’s no question that OEs have been a massive driver of this recent growth. As for Zora, the NFT protocol now has among the best daily active user (DAU) numbers in all of crypto, and the growing popularity of Zora’s Editions and Drops services are big contributing factors here. Recent OE examples 🆕To give you a better idea for how many OE drops are launched, here are a few examples I’ve recently seen announced on Twitter: 
gm 💀🐈⬛ HELLO, WE ARE DEAD CAT 48hr. timed Open Edition A celebration of making art every day. Everyone who wants a Dead Cat can get a Dead Cat 🖤 Link below 👇
Gm! ‘The Fallen’ is now LIVE as an open edition on Manifold ✨ I’m excited to share with you a piece that showcases my love for pastel salt lakes and unique subjects. Available for 0.04ETH ❤️ Link and details below
Finding OEs 🔍Following the social media accounts of creators you’re fans of is probably the best way to find OE mints that will be tailored to your tastes. However, if you’re not one to be glued to social media, there are discovery services you can check from time to time to try finding ongoing OEs. One of these services? The NFT marketplace aggregator Gem. If you go to the “Discover” tab on Gem and surf through the real-time mints, you can periodically come across OE drops right as they’re happening. This route obviously takes some digging, and many of the mints that appear won’t be OEs, but this dashboard is still really useful UX-wise.
Another similar service is mint.fun, where you can use the “Minting Now” dashboard to also periodically discover OE drops.
The bottom line 🧠
Nouns just made 6 days of auctions with an edition release of a video it commissioned. The original creators were paid upfront and received a split on sales. All onchain. We might be looking at the blueprint for crypto native movie studios, production houses and record labels.
Collector vs. investor tensions 💢Nouns DAO recently conducted its first OE drop for “This Is Nouns,” an incredible ad created for the Nouns ecosystem. The mint was purely commemorative and no additional promises were made around it, but that didn’t stop some investors from complaining afterwards once they realized no roadmap or direct utility was in store.
Notice there that I said “investors” and not “collectors,” and that distinction is important when it comes to expectations. Betting on OEs financially isn’t wise. Collecting OEs as digital memorabilia and to provide patronage to creators you like is the ticket, though, and anything that comes beyond that is just icing on cake. 
Alpha degen discords getting into Open Edition is very bearish imho. OEs are not good investments in this environment, tho they are great ways to support artists, just be careful out there folks.
Who knows? Maybe in 50 years or less the near-free OE you grabbed in 2023 will be extremely valuable. In many cases that likely won’t be true, though, so if you treat OE mints as interesting souvenirs rather than financial instruments, you’ll spare yourself some frustrations. Similarly, some investor types don’t like OEs because they argue the larger supply influxes can dilute the value of a creator’s existing 1/1s and small series. This is a short-sighted take, and in my opinion the opposite is more often to be true. When done shrewdly, creating and publishing NFTs via OEs is a viable way for creators to strategically grow their communities and potentially achieve that much more success. 
When investors see an artist putting out an abundance of work they get nervous. When collectors see an artist put out an abundance of work they are thrilled.
Action steps
Author BioWilliam 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! Subscribe to Bankless. $22 per mo. Includes archive access, Inner Circle & Badge. 🙏Thanks to our sponsorKRAKEN NFTKraken NFT is built from the ground up to make it 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.
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