Rare Club Nifty Newsletter #7
NFTs more popular than ever, 'David vs. Goliath' and Adidas topping the sales charts
Welcome to the ‘Rare Club Nifty Newsletter’, a curated snapshot of what matters most. We provide informative and easily digestible content about the NFT space, with one publication a week. Subscribe for free at the bottom of the article.
We include NFT news, info on trending narratives, educational info, tips on how to keep your assets safe, projects to watch, occasional deep dives and more.
HEADLINE GRABBER - ‘NFT interest outstrips that of major cryptos’
The crypto market in general has been experiencing a largely sideways and downward trend over the past month or so, with only a few exceptions. The NFT marketplace has also seen a reduction in sales volumes compared to a month ago.
Interestingly however, ‘NFTs’ are returning a perfect score of 100 on Google Trends on the worldwide search query for the past five years. Comparatively, ‘Bitcoin’ and ‘Ether’ have both dropped, and are hovering around the 50 mark.
Despite this not translating into actual traffic in the marketplace, it would suggest more people are finding out about NFTs. And once they do, they’re interested enough to explore further.
But is this the beginning of a public fascination with NFTs? Or is this trending behaviour actually a top signal? History would tell us it’s the latter. That said, NFTs are generating appeal on multiple levels, and with progressively more utility being integrated into them, and strong communities forming around them, maybe they won’t fade as much as some believe.
For the full article on this topic, please click here.
BEST OF THE REST
A curated selection of other NFT headlines. Click to read.
TALKING POINTS - ‘Big brands versus startups’
As more and more big brands pile into the NFT space, people are expressing mixed feelings.
On the one hand, global brands bring credibility, communities and additional exposure to the industry. But on the other hand, their dominant presence and in-exhaustive funding could be construed as stifling and suffocating to the burgeoning independant project scene.
Fast forward 5 years: Every major global brand is releasing NFTs quarterly and providing cool benefits for holders. OpenSea has been outpaced by Apple’s NFT Store, and the top 20 collections is comprised of household brand names. This is great. NFTs have made it mainstream. But would BAYC have got a look-in in this environment? Will cool, innovative projects be able to compete on the marketing front when faced with this type of competition? Some don’t think so, and are unhappy about it.
Surely it’s just the inevitable outcome though. Where there’s money to be made, the big players will always jump in. Undoubtedly though, there will continue to be a demand for independant projects, just like there is for independant films. And there will certainly never cease to be investors keen to fund “the next big thing”.
In my mind, yes, these global brands alter the landscape somewhat, but the market will ultimately benefit. They will attract more artists and money to the space as well as other big brands, and as the customer base grows, niche marketplaces will pop up catering for everyones needs accordingly.
The market will both demand and support smaller projects, just like in any other investment space. There’s enough of an appetite to go around, and NFTs are only just starting to be accessed by the masses.
Fear not, it’s all progress.
RARE.NEWS
Updates regarding the Rare.club NFT DAO fund
Discord is set up. Check out the updated FAQ section
New logo is finished
New website should be completed within 2 weeks
Pitch deck is completed. Will be released soon
Two projects lined up for incubation: a Solana project and a launchpad
MOVERS & SHAKERS
This section gives an overview of what NFT collections have been making moves in the past week. For transparency, I do not own any of the NFTs mentioned below.
Adidas - Adidas Originals Into The Metaverse collection has dominated NFT sales this past week. For more info on their plans, click here.
CloneX - The avatar collection associated with RTFKT, the company recently bought by Nike, has maintained strong sales this past week with a higher volume than BAYC and MAYC combined.
Sandbox - Virtual land sales for the Sandbox platform have remained strong whilst main competitor Decentraland has seen a decline.
My Pet Hooligan - These guys had a very successful launch, and have seen sales of over 4k ETH in the past 9 days. Their cool art coupled with the promise of NFTs packed with utility seems to have caught the publics attention.
Shiba Social Club - Although still unrevealed, this hotly anticipated collection has seen a high sales volume across the past week. That said, they have been declining day by day.
THE WATCHLIST
This is a selection of projects we are monitoring for their long-term potential. DYOR. Not Financial Advice.
Star Atlas NFTs (Gaming, reducing supplies through in-game mechanics, AAA-team, big ambitions, play-2-earn elements)
CryptoDads (strong community, low entry price, solid roadmap, doxxed team, mass appeal)
Mutant Ape Yacht Club (strong community, extension of BAYC, long-term HODL, established)
Meebits (same team as CryptoPunks, mass appeal, solid long term investment)
Cool Cats NFT (very strong community, respected collection, mass appeal)
Lost Poets (created by famous artist ‘Pak’, strong community)
Art Blocks Curated/Playground/Factory (simply can’t be overlooked, long term HODL)
PUNKS Comic (reduced entry price, solid community, good roadmap)
Parallel (gaming, TCG, strong team, incredible backers, already established, big ambitions)
TIP OF THE WEEK - Winning Gas Wars
Most NFT enthusiasts will likely know a thing or two about gas wars. But if you’re new, you may not know you can get a big edge with just a little knowledge.
Check out the two links below. The first is to a Twitter thread by @thedigitalvee and is for use with the old version of Metamask, which some people prefer for speed minting.
The second is a Medium article by ‘NFT Siblings’, which offers a more in-depth option, and covers both the new and old versions of Metamask.
Gas Wars Info - Short Twitter Thread - 2mins
More Gas Wars Info - Longer Medium Article - 7mins
Links to our socials and website coming soon,
Thanks for reading, and see you next time
Always DYOR (do your own research). Nothing in this or any other article in this series should be construed as financial or investment advice. We do our very best to provide useful information for our readers. What you do with that information is up to you.
Remember to exercise caution within the NFT space. The community is full of amazing people, but there are unscrupulous ones too. Keep your wits about you, and act responsibly. As always, good luck.