Ether vs Azuki Elementals

We're dropping our newsletter a day early this week because we've got some major events on the horizon, including a massive NFT mint happening today. We want to ensure you're armed with all the information you need to win. Let’s dive in!

Today we cover:

• 💰 Debt is rising: Blend is introducing significant leverage into the system

• 🦁 Ether vs Azuki Elements. Who will win the mint wars?

• 🙊 See the real faces behind the DeGods NFT project

Market Update: Debt Is Rising

Chart above: Outstanding debt on Blend (NFT lending protocol)

Ever since Blend was introduced, the amount of leverage in the system has only been increasing. Most notably, Azuki saw a steep rise with >7,700 ETH ($14M) in outstanding debt just a week ago. Does this introduce more risk into the system? For sure, we can expect NFT prices to be more volatile.

Ether vs Azuki Elementals

This week is shaping up to be a pivotal one for the NFT markets.

It's like the season finale of your favorite show, where you're on the edge of your seat, wondering if your favorite character will make it or not.

This week, two new NFT mints are stepping onto the scene and they're creating quite the buzz - Ether and Azuki Elementals.

First up, we have Ether, an anime-inspired "metaversal brand" by @visionofviii & @CValley_, launching on June 30th.

The first phase of the Ether sale is a whitelist mint at 0.35 ETH, with 1,700 NFTs up for grabs. If you're on the whitelist and willing to lock up the NFT for 10 weeks, it’s free.

The second phase is a public mint of 8,000 NFTs at 0.65 ETH each. If Ether mints out, that's over $10M for the team to build out their vision. That's not just a chunk of change, that's a whole treasure chest, especially for a newer team without a large pre-existing community.

Next, we have Azuki Elementals. Just announced over the weekend, this new Azuki NFT collection will go on sale on June 27th at 9 am PT.

If you're an Azuki holder, you get to mint first, followed by Beanz, and then the public if there are any left. It's like a VIP line at a club, and the sale will be via a Dutch Auction, starting from 2 ETH and dropping to 0.1 ETH over an hour or so.

If Elementals sells out at 2 ETH each before the public mint, that's a sweet $42M in revenue. It's crowd-sourcing from its community instead of raising funds from VC firms.

If Elementals is successful, Azuki will be writing the playbook for consumer NFT teams. Build a passionate community, sell them products to fund new IP, expand the community of fans with the new IP, and sell even more products. Rinse and repeat.

🤑 Why it matters: The secondary markets for NFTs have been quieter than a library during finals week. Organic trading volume and weekly active traders are hitting their lowest points for the year. The only action we're seeing is Blur farmers tossing NFTs at each other.

So the primary markets are our only hope right now. We’ll be watching these mints closely, especially at what price point they sell out. It's like reading the tea leaves to gauge the market appetite for paid NFT launches.

If they sell out (and at a good final price), it indicates that there's still a lot of capital interested in NFTs: they're just waiting for a good reason to deploy capital.

But if even these highly-anticipated mints don't do well, strap in tight. We could be in for a pretty deep NFT bear market.

Today's News

• LooksRare launched an affiliate program where users can earn up to 50% on every trade their referred users make.

• CyberKongz releases ERC-721x token standard, introducing additional security features such as Locking and Guarding to prevent NFTs from being stolen.

• Gary Vee announces his creator challenge, winners get to join Snoop Doog and Wiz Khalifa in a reunion concert.

• IYK, a infrastructure provider for phygital goods, rolls out a digital autograph feature at Paris Fashion Week

• Notable NFT sales: "Pop Art" from Alpha Centauri Kid’s Broken Keys, which sold for 27 ETH, and "Trail of Fire" by Other World, which sold for 50 ETH.

Education Corner

PHYGITAL

This is a blend of two words: Physical & Digital. It refers to objects that have a presence in both the online and physical worlds.

For example, there are “phygital” Nike shoes that are actual shoes which you can wear for a run, and they can also be worn on your avatar in the Metaverse (e.g. in a Fortnite game)

Our Favourite Tweets

🐥 See who is behind the team at DeGods (Hint: it’s real humans)

🐥 Mindmaps of the top NFT ecosystems, if you’re a visual person

🐥 Llamas is an interesting NFT x DeFi crossover project IMO

🐥 Gamers don’t want to play

🐥 The Chromie Squiggle buying guide

That's it for today folks, see you tomorrow. If you want more, follow us on Twitter (@the_metadata). If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can subscribe with just one-click:

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for educational purposes only. None of this is financial or investment advice. It is not a solicitation to buy or sell any assets. Minting and buying NFTs is risky. Please do your own research.