🚨 Trend Alert: Tokenization of NFT Communities
There’s a rising trend on NFT roadmaps: Utility Tokens.
Utility tokens bridge DeFi with NFTs and offer a different value proposition that captures both social and community value. Functionality varies: $FRKT (Frakt) offers holders liquidity without selling their NFT. $AURY (Aurory) gives players voting power to in-game developments. And there’s $OOGI (BabyApes), a memecoin.
The Financial Value of Community: Like all great and meaningful things in life, the value of community can’t be quantified with dollar signs. But, we got a small sense of it, when SMB's MonkeDAO became the first DAO to operate a node on Solana’s blockchain. Within a week of being a validator and solely going by word of mouth, 10,792 SOL was staked with MonkeDAO. That’s roughly over $2 Million. SMB holders saw staking as working together for the benefit of all members since the commission rolls back into the community that they love. For everyone else, it’s a show of belief in what SMB stands for. The strength of SMB’s community reinforced the chain that it’s on. And, that's powerful.
$OOGI: Delisted BabyApes received $OOGI in an airdrop. 8 hours into the airdrop, almost 50M of $OOGI were staked on their website. Now, $OOGI is one of the most traded memecoins across Solana with liquidity almost surpassing $1.1Million on DEXs. Another utility that $OOGI serves is access to partnerships, like an allocated pre-sale supply to a Turtles NFT project launch. $OOGI is also available on Orca’s Double-Dip pools which are built on top of Orca’s Aquafarms (where liquidity providers earn both $ORCA and trading fees as rewards). By participating, LPs also earn $OOGI. Who wouldn’t want more $OOGI?
Co-Creators: Both $AURY and $FRKT serve as governance tokens allowing holders to participate in key developmental decisions which can influence the direction of a project. Web2 saw users as pure consumers on the receiving end but Web3 enables users to be co-creators in projects they believe in.
DeFi 🤝 NFTs: The intersection of DeFi and NFTs differ from stand-alone DeFi products. NFTs are a culturally-backed asset. There is a greater sense of belonging and community as ongoing personal relationships are being built. It’s more of a shared experience than an individual one.
There's also a degree of trust involved. The usage of utility tokens is a concrete manifestation of a project’s reputation. Holders want the NFT projects they're invested in to succeed. And, DeFi is yet another facet in unlocking value to NFTs, where everyone can win. (Plus, liquidity never hurts)
🪄 Congrats, This Week's Top Performing Collections on ME! (11/16-23)
- Boryoku Dragonz 7,742 SOL
- Pesky Penguins 6,676 SOL
- Angomon 6,413 SOL
- Taiyo Robotics 5,661 SOL
- Degenerate Trash Pandas 4,973 SOL
- Shadowy Super Coder DAO 4,514 SOL
- Thugbirdz 3,228 SOL
- Crypto Cultists 3,228 SOL
- Mutated Monkes 2,866 SOL
- Sakurai Serpents 2,575 SOL
❗ Mint Authority, coming early December!
Mint Authority is our self-service, no-tech-required minting tool that we've been trialling over the last few weeks with an alpha cohort of collections. We will be releasing the tool for public use in early December. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3!
- Prepare your NFT + metadata files
- Fill in an application form including collection + marketing info
- Happy minting!
We're keen to feature collections across the Solana ecosystem. If you're interested, join our waiting list and you'll be the first to receive a notification when we're live!
🐳 Orcanauts NFT for a DeFi Generation
Orca, the user-friendly AMM on Solana, is releasing 10,000 unique Orcanauts. Orcanaut holders will be immersed deeper into the Octaverse.
FYI: The Orca team is not taking any revenues from their NFT sale. Instead, they’re channelling 75% of mint proceeds to charity and 25% to the Orcanauts artist, Cori Huang.
Orca partnered with Alfatoun International, a non-profit that runs social and financial education programmes for children and youth. Revenue from the mint will be used to develop a cryptocurrency education curriculum for youths around the world, teaching them financial literacy and onboarding a generation of DeFi natives.
Orcanauts will be minted in two phases on Nov 27:
- Phase 1, 16:00 UTC: 2,000 Orcanauts available to mint for Orca users at a slightly cheaper price. You're eligible if you’ve used Orca before November 25th!
- Phase 2, 24:00 UTC: The remaining Orcanauts will be available to mint.
Holders will:
- Have access to a gated Discord channel where Orca will host community events and fellow fans of DeFi can mingle with each other.
- Build a deeper relationship with Orca’s team as members of the core team, including co-founders Grace and Yutaro, will drop by regularly for AMAs and ongoing feedback.
- Become a patron of the DeFi arts. Each season, Orca will commission a work of art featuring the Orcanauts, using ideas and suggestions from holders. Orca plans to explore different ways to support digital creators.
🪄 Introducing: Magic Eden Magicians
November NFT Favorites:
- @DJTRIXUK: “Mere Marbles have taken a simple Metaverse concept and delivered it with slickness, flair & efficiency. What could be better than 1,111 Marbles racing on Solana?”
- @The_SOLo_Dolo: “Pesky Penguins continues to boast one of, if not the most outspoken community Solana Twitter has ever seen. With a strong and funny discord and a Noot Noot in every third tweet on Twitter, they are tough to miss!”
📸 On the Gram'
NOOT NOOT! We spoke to Kylie, the Creative Director and Community Lead behind Pesky Penguins. She shared with us her pre-web3 journey, the advantages of pseudo-anonymity and her views on what it takes to be a ‘blue-chip’ NFT.
Fun fact: Kylie trained for the Olympics and is really into horticulture (she has a grow tent full of plants in her basement).
Check it out here!
🗓 Art Basel Miami Beach
Hang with us @ Astra on Dec 2, 4 - 8 PM. Grab a ticket here!
Join us and co-host Faraway, a browser-gaming studio, for a party and conversation on the future of Web3 gaming. Spoiler: the future is bright. If you’re a gaming company going to Basel or you're curious about gaming and NFTs, we want to meet you! 😉
🧠 What Magic Eden is Reading
- Probably nothing: Steve Harvey appears on MonkeDAO’s discord and Wiz Khalifa reps Thugbirdz.
- The Financialization of Fun: Crypto Gaming Thesis. You know, we’re giga-bullish on Crypto Gaming.
- One of our favorite builds: @yellownate wrote a contract that allows a Solana NFT to be an on-chain avatar.
- Some roadmaps are too similar. Others are pretty unique. Mert gathers roadmap findings in this Twitter thread.
🔗 Helpful Links: