Alpha Schedule #2 - Selling NFTs from a vending machine
*Read this newsletter on the web for the best experience*
Welcome back, Frenz!
Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who tweeted, posted, or messaged me about last week's launch edition of the Alpha Schedule newsletter!
It was awesome to read so many great comments about how useful and insightful you found the newsletter. It was also very exciting seeing so many of you subscribe - we've hit over 110 subscribers already .. mind-blowing 🤯 !
As mentioned last week, my aim is to make it easier to find the latest news, updates, launches, and tools for every NFT collector out there. No more hopping around the web to stay up-to-date with the latest developments, just one Alpha Newsletter that brings it all :-)
PS. As always - I welcome feedback about the newsletter (what you like or dislike, what I might have missed, what you want more or less of each week etc.)
Reply to this email, or drop me a Twitter DM 💬
— 🩸💀 AMERICAN RADASS
✨ NEW IN THE SPACE
Sportswear brand Puma has joined the NFT space and follows in the footsteps of competitors Nike and Adidas. The popular sports company renamed to Puma.eth on Twitter, weirdly reserving the ENS domain only for 6 months until October 2022.
Aside from purchasing Puma.eth, the sportswear company has also teased a partnership with the Gutter Cat Gang NFT collection. Details about this collaboration have not been made public yet. However, a very poignant message appeared on the Gutter Cat Gang’s Twitter feed.
OTHER COMPANIES ENTERING THE SPACE
Puma isn't the only company entering the metaverse; FTX, Warner Music Group, Manchester City, Salesforce, and Gamestop all released news about their next steps.
Earlier this week, US-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX announced its launch of a new blockchain gaming unit. The new unit, dubbed “FTX Gaming,” represents FTX’s aspiration of bridging the gaps between mainstream game publishers and everything that matters in the blockchain world. [Blockonomi]
Warner Music Group has entered into a partnership with the blockchain-based trading card game Splinterlands. The deal marks the game’s first significant music partnership. [Cryptobriefing]
The metaverse is set to have its first football stadium, and it is going to be built by the English Premier League (EPL) football club, Manchester City. [Cryptoslate]
Hundreds of Salesforce employees globally are rebelling against plans by the U.S. enterprise software giant to enter the non-fungible token (NFT) market, calling them "unregulated, highly speculative financial assets." [Trust]
GameStop is embracing NFTs, and many of its employees worry this will lead to anger among customers. The company is attempting to dismiss those concerns with some internal messaging. [Venturebeat]
📰 NEWS
Neon - an NFT marketplace and gallery built on Solana - recently rolled out the world’s first NFT vending machine–located just off Wall Street in New York.
The machine operates 24/7 and facilitates NFT purchases with no cryptocurrency, crypto wallet, or specialized knowledge required.
Upon purchase, it allegedly dispenses a box containing a unique code for the chosen NFT, redeeming it on the Neon platform. [cryptoslate]
IN OTHER NEWS
The highly anticipated Invisible Friends NFT collection launched earlier this week, and while the artwork wasn't revealed yet ... it started at a 5,000% mark-up on the secondary market (15ETH). A special edition piece from the collection also sold for 496.69 Ethereum (nearly $1.3 million), with the proceeds set to go to charity. [Cryptobriefing]
Splinterlands, a popular blockchain game, has announced that its latest NFT drop featuring US rapper Waka Flocka Flame, sold out in just 30 seconds. [Invezz]
Axie Infinity has become the first NFT collection to surpass $4 billion in total sales, ahead of CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club. [Invezz]
Britain’s tax watchdog has seized three non-fungible tokens during an investigation into a suspected value-added tax (VAT) fraud case worth £1.4 million ($1.9 million). Three suspects have been arrested on suspicion of attempting to defraud the taxman. [CNBC]
Earlier this month, an artist called Shl0ms blew up a Lamborghini worth just shy of $250,000. They are now turning the charred parts into a collection of 999 NFTs – to protest crypto’s get-rich-quick culture. [TheBlockCrypto]
🥰 DEADFRENZ COMMUNITY AT ITS FINEST
Earlier this week, Deadfellaz revealed their Deadfrenz collection, which generated a lot of engagement and a strong sense of community.
Since the artists of Deadfrenz are known to hide "Secret traits" (that aren't listed in the OpenSea filters) in their art, the community came together and researched the entire collection of 13.000 frenz.
This research resulted in an extensive Googe Document, which was compiled @NonFixableToken and lists every secret trait from the collection, ordered by species.
💀 POTENTIAL RUGS
A “rug pull” is a wildly used term within the crypto world and NFT space to describe a scam in which the founders of a project don’t fulfill their promises after receiving funds - essentially, running away with the money.
Looking back on the past week, we stumbled upon some shady business activities in the NFT scene. We recommend being extra careful with these projects.
NBA Star De'Aaron Fox Rug Pulls his NFT Project
In December 2021, De'Aaron Fox began posting on his social media accounts about an upcoming NFT venture. He laid out a roadmap of those promises upon the initial launch of the SwipaTheFox project in January.
Among other things, he would establish five or more scholarships to the University of Kentucky, give benefits to members such as creating space in the metaverse to host basketball tournaments, raffle off All-Star Game tickets and merchandise, and have one-on-one personalized experiences with him.
By Feb. 23, around 3,000 people had signed up for Fox’s project. It had raised an estimated 475 eth, worth roughly $1.2 million. That is when the project was unexpectedly canceled. Fox issued a statement in his Discord, explaining that he had stretched himself too thin and would be unable to continue working on the project. [Sportingnews]
OTHER RUGS
Sotheby got rugged! A collection of 104 CryptoPunks expected to be sold for up to $30 million was put on ice Wednesday during a much-anticipated auction at Sotheby’s because the seller decided to withdraw the lot. [Coindesk]
The NFT marketplace Opensea has been named in a $1 million lawsuit filed by an individual who allegedly lost his Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT due to a bug in the code. [CryptoDaily]
📅 UPCOMING MINTS
This chapter of the newsletter functions as the extension of my public NFT mint calendar, which is meant to highlight projects I’m looking forward to.
Below are the projects I'm looking forward to the most, but don’t forget to do your own research into them if they sound interesting because this shouldn’t be considered as financial advice.
TURTLE TOWN
Date: Feb. 25th (Today)
Supply: 10.000
Price: Ξ 0.025
Twitter: @TurtleTownNFT
Roadmap: turtletownnft.com
There are various reasons why we are excited about the Turtle Town NFTs, going from the small mint price to an exciting roadmap.
The cute art is what caught our eye, but the planned airdrops (such as Pixel Turtles), merch plans, and purpose projects (A donation to the "Save the turtles"-foundation) are what'll make us mint.
The team isn't doxxed, but the key members are known as active Deadfellaz who've proven their worth in the past.
WONDERPALS
Date: Feb. 26th
Supply: 10.000
Price: Ξ0.08
Twitter: @WonderPals
Roadmap: wonderpals.com
They're on a mission to “spread kindness and joy” and are minting tomorrow, with over 8300 unique owners!
You can read last week's research around Wonderpals here.
THE SUNNIES
Date: Feb. 28th
Supply: 9.141
Price: Ξ 0.05
Twitter: @thesunniesnft
Roadmap: sunniesnft.com
The Sunnies is another profile picture project with simple art but a great vibe. Their reasonable mint price, cool partners (Cool Cats, Cryptomories, Alien Frens,..), and roadmap are proof that it's a great community Community driven project.
CARTOONS
Date: March 1st
Supply: 7.777
Price: Ξ 0.07
Twitter: @cartoonsnft
Roadmap: cartoons.io
The Cartoons NFT, managed by a fully doxxed team, is a colorful and straightforward cloud-based profile picture collection containing various animations and a specific art style, similar to Doodles.
The roadmap for Cartoons is pretty basic and does not contain any utility (so far).
RUBBER DUCK BATH PARTY
Date: March 1st
Supply: 10.000
Price: Ξ0.08
Twitter: @RubberDuckBP
Roadmap: duck.art
We mentioned it last week already; Rubber Duck Bath Party has a doxxed founder, unique art style, unique roadmap … and an active community on social media.
LOSER CLUB
Date: March 4th
Supply: 10.000
Price: Ξ 0.088
Twitter: @loserclubreborn
Roadmap: loserclub.io
The Loser Club NFT collection is led by a fully doxxed team founded by musician and artist J’von, who surrounded himself with various other creatives that share the same values. People might still know J’von as the artist behind the initial Fishy Fam sketch.
According to their websites, they "are committed to building something for the long term" and planning to "Under promise and over-deliver".
🔮 LOOKING FORWARD
We are already looking ahead to the next few weeks, meaning we’re currently doing our due diligence and researching the projects listed below.
It’s no financial advice at all, but you might want to start doing your research and grinding for these allowlists before it’s too late.
PS - Don’t hesitate to tell them you found out about them via this newsletter ;)
🛠️ FARCASTER - A WEB3 SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK
Dan Romero, former Vice President at Coinbase, has revealed his newest project Farcaster: A "sufficiently decentralized social network for web3. It’s an open network that promises that users will always own their relationship with their audience and that developers will always have the freedom to extend the network. "
We've been trying out this new social media network ever since January, after filling in this registration form (it took us a few weeks to get in tho).
Dan Revealed the name, social media handle and information about Farcaster in a tweet meant to recruit engineers for the project.
📖 LEARN HOW TO DO YOUR RESEARCH
An essential step of your research should be to look at the founders of a project. Additionally - and especially - if you are trading NFTs directly with a collector, you'll want to research them as well.
While researching this, keep in mind that having a “verified account” or 100K followers on Twitter isn’t much worth since they are easy to buy.
😂 LAUGH OUT LOUD
If you've seen The Tinder Swindler, you'll understand 😂 😂 😂
Everyone has been there, right? 😬 😬 😬
😊 ENJOYED THIS WEEK'S ALPHA?
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🤓 DISCLAIMER: NFA & DYOR
This newsletter is a curated overview of the most interesting things I’ve read the past week, the projects I’ve researched, and the NFT’s I’ll be trying to buy.
This means I’m - per definition - biased, so don’t consider this as financial advice and keep doing your own research if you see something you like.