Weekly CNFT Brew

Your 15-minute catch-up on the CNFT world as you enjoy a nice brew, sponsored by QUEEN ADA stake pool and CNFT Jungle. Through research and help from my community, I bring you CNFT news, upcoming drops, market analysis, and more.

The Weekly CNFT Brew just reached 500 subscribers 🎉 Thank you all for your support and being here before it becomes the biggest newsletter in the CNFT space.

The Highlights

DING! Staking your DeadPXLz now accrues $Ding tokens for holders. This went live last night, May 2nd at 7PM UTC. This is a historic moment for the CNFT space as it is the first successful implementation of smart-contract NFT staking.

BrightPalz and PastelBudz were at the center of a lot of drama last week. PastelBudz announced that they had bought the BrightPalz project. The takeover was anything but smooth and caused some concern and confusion about what would happen to the $350k+ fund that BrightPalz possessed.

JPG Store reached two impressive milestones last week: reaching 30k followers on Twitter and paying out 5M ADA in royalties.

Clay Nation revealed the coordinates of their Pitches last weekend, something that holders had been anticipating for a while. See the Tweet below for more details.

It was an exciting week for Chilled Kongs and The Goat Tribe as both projects experienced some serious volume on the secondary market. The Goat Tribe's pump was undoubtedly spurred by the upcoming $Grass airdrop, but the snapshot was taken this weekend.

Yummi Universe released the $YUMMI Season 1 Airdrop dates last week. The snapshot and airdrop will happen on the 10th while Narus can be staked on the 15th.

Multiple highly anticipated mints sold out last week. Big congratulations to:

We also saw some very impressive 3D art introduced to the Cardano blockchain last week, including the highly anticipated Over Exposed project. Other impressive projects include BrightLeaf Laboratories and Vudu Brigada.

Phoenix Arena announced that their staking mechanism is up and running last weekend. Holders of either Max or Diver NFTs can now send a transaction to their vending machine and receive accumulated $WARI in return.

Derp Birds were invaded by PREDs last week. Unfortunately, their Discord was also invaded. Despite the Discord hack, the drop was generally successful and has now sold out of its 2500 supply. The community is also getting excited about the upcoming $PRED token, although no details have been released yet.

Mocossi announced their land sale yesterday, which is set to take place from the 8th-14th. Mocossi is a virtual pet game that is following in the footsteps of many successful CNFT projects by selling property in their upcoming virtual space.

CryptoDino has opened up their breeding mechanism on their website. Holders can now breed two of their NFTs, either two compatible Dinos or a Dino + Savior for a Dino egg, which will hatch in 7 days.

El Matador announced perhaps their largest collaboration to date with the popular Ape Society. Owners of Ape Society Cabins will be able to stake their EL Matador NFTs in their cabins to earn $SOCIETY tokens.

EIKONIKOS opened their Discord this week. It was one of the biggest Discord openings in CNFT history, with the first 2k roles filled almost instantly. This is undoubtedly one of the most hyped up projects yet to mint.

CNFT Jungle made some exciting updates this week. Most notable was the addition of a stats table for all collections on their front page, giving a detailed and convenient overview of top projects. See more feature updates in the tweet below.

The first Viking Games were held last Friday by yours truly on Twitch. The Vikings Games are a weekly stream event where CNFT degens compete in various games, such as marble racing and trivia, for prizes from CNFT projects. At the end of the event, the overall winner receives the Viking Games medal. Next games will be held this Friday at 7PM UTC.

The Gizmoe Project made the sad announcement last week that they will not continue operating under the current ownership. The transparency from the team has been widely praised and the word "rugpull" has rarely been mentioned (and won't be listed in that section below). The team refunded everyone who minted a Gizmoe.

Bored Ape Yacht Club dropped their metaverse plots last week, "Otherside". It might have been a success for Yuga Labs' (creators of BAYC) bottom line, but not for their reputation. With millions paid in gas fees and many failed transactions, it left many people frustrated. Cardano fans pointed out an obvious solution.

This Week

This section includes all the drops that I’m excited about this week and feel comfortable recommending. In other words, this is a curated list. To see a more complete list, check out wencnft.com.

Drop Overview:

  • Ugly Bros

  • Safari Squad

  • CryptoKnitties

  • CardanoRobin

  • CardanoVillage

  • ClayPez

Ugly Bros is by far the biggest drop this week. With over 14k Twitter followers and 42k Discord members, this drop is looking likely to sell out fast. The holders mint has already started earlier today but public will open tomorrow.

When: Tuesday, 6PM UTC (Holders) - Wednesday, 7PM (Roles + public raffle)

How much: 60 (WL), 70 (roles + public)

How many: 7,500

Safari Squad has received a lot of attention lately with their AI generated animal collection. The collection will have 12 different species with different characteristics and attributes.

When: Today, 8PM (WL), Wednesday 8PM (Public)

How much: 50 ADA

How many: 6,666

CryptoKnitties is having two separate drops this week, S2 Raven and Knittimals. These limited Raven drop is only available for verified accounts on Discord, so make sure to take care of that asap if you'd like to mint one.

When: Raven - Wednesday, 6PM UTC, Knittimals - Friday, 5PM UTC

How much: 50 ADA (Raven), 25 ADA (Knittimals)

How many: 250 (Raven), 2,500 (Knittimals)

Cardano Robin is celebrating the 1-year anniversary of his first mint. This OG CNFT creator is airdropping the NFT to holders of his OG Blue Stamp but is also selling a limited number to interested buyers. The collection will include 5 varieties with 2/tx maximum.

When: Wednesday, 6PM UTC

How much: 60 ADA

How many: 100

CardanoVillage is dropping their Season 2 collection this week. The whitelist mint is currently over but the public mint will start this Friday.

When: Friday, 2AM UTC

How much: 60 ADA

How many: 7,500

CNFT Radar

Here is where I list all projects that are not minting this week but are already on my radar. New additions in bold.

The ArtBeat

Market Analysis

We finally have some signs of the CNFT market cooling down after a few consecutive big-volume weeks. Despite these signs, we are still staying above 2M ADA traded on the 24-hour timeframe and a slight increase on the 7-day timeframe. This is most likely due to the drops of multiple high-profile projects, such as Over Exposed, Cabins by Ape Society, Dead Rabbit Resurrection Society, and others.

With a much more low-key minting week coming up, Ugly Bros being the only high-profile mint, I'm anticipating a sharper downtrend moving forward. Lower volume can sometimes breed pessimism in the market, which will reflect in floor- and avg. prices.

The general crypto market is also experiencing extreme fear. Some analysts are anticipating a further downside for BTC, perhaps testing the 30k mark again. This could add fuel to the fire and produce a worst-case scenario. Others, such as Nicolas at DataDash are continuing to share a bullish narrative for 2022. A bull run for BTC would not only minimize a CNFT downtrend, but would most likely completely reverse it.

The numbers (last 7 days)

  • Total ADA volume: ₳17.2 million (+14%)

  • Total CNFT Volume: 59,414 (-6%)

Top 5 Marketplaces

  1. JPG.store: 16.6M, 96% market share 🏆

  2. SpaceBudz: 266k, 1.5% market share 🥈

  3. PXL.org: 245K, 1.42% market share🥉

  4. CNFT.io: 132k, 0.8% market share

  5. Epoch.art: 7K, 0.04% market share

Top Volume Gainers (%)*

  • Cardano Proxies 🥇

  • Visage 🥈

  • AboveOlympus 🥉

  • BattleCats

  • Old Money

Top Volume Losers(%)*:

  • Unwanted Ones

  • Invisible Buddies

  • ADAPunks3D

  • ROBOROBO

  • MELD Diamond Hand

Top Newcomers

  • Boss Planet Vox Cats: ₳922k volume, ₳317 floor

  • Space Pugs Alpha: ₳180k, ₳120 floor

  • Cardano Proxies: ₳122k, ₳105 floor

*Only projects that record at least ₳1k over the past 7 days are included

Underrated

These are this week’s most underrated investment opportunities and artists. This is a highly subjective section so please DYOR

Some of my previous blue chip picks are still relevant and would be my choice today if I hadn't picked them already, including Clay Nation, Yummi, and others. Check out my undervalued picks from previous issues.

Investment Opportunity: Phoenix Arena (Diver)

Phoenix Arena is a P2E project that also happens to have a solid team and good-looking NFTs. I have interviewed the team and was impressed with their vision and approach. I have been a fan of their project since their first Max mint. Compared to other P2E projects on Cardano, this one still seems to be going a bit under people's radars. NFT staking is live and I just received my 13k $WARI yesterday. If they continue to deliver, there might be a significant upside in this project.

More specifically, I want to point out the Divers, who are currently sitting below mint price at 45 ADA and 10 listed below 50. Only 6% of the collection is listed and once all flippers have exited the project after the recent mint, this is more likely to reach the impressive 3% level of the first Max drop. Although cheaper, the Max floor is already at 55 ADA. Until Divers have caught up with Max, I will be buying some off the floor.

If you've heard of this artist, you are a CNFT master - well done. If not, I'm glad you're reading this section of the Brew. Zachary Mojica has 4 major collections on Cardano, all of which were sold on Artano. You can see more of his work on Instagram and website.

Zachary is based in Texas and works full-time as a nurse. He "scribbles" in his free time. His pieces can be quite emotional, tackling subjects such as mental health and emotional intelligence.

Thor's Thoughts

It can be easy to get caught up in the traditional NFT market indicators such as volume, floor prices, etc. What project is pumping this week and what PFP trends will we see this year? These questions and indicators can be useful to gauge the overall demand and progress of the industry. However, if we're not careful, it can also make us lose sight of the forest because we're focusing too much on those trees.

I am bullish on the NFT space because of the problems it can solve for humans; not because the next ape project is going to moon and will make me rich. NFTs, as a technology, is still in its infancy with new use cases being discovered and tested every week. The fundamental change it can bring to entire industries and modern society as a whole is why I'm excited about the future. We have already seen great potential in the events/music, medical, financial, art, and gaming industries to name a few.

NFTs get a bad reputation because it is still the wild West. There is a lot of shady business happening; scams, rugpulls, cashgrabs, etc. Much like the early days of crypto and altcoins. It's being led by the community with little regulation and only recently has retail started to show any sort of interest, and that's only on Ethereum. Although this is a popular point made by NFT critics, it's actually a good sign in my view. It tells me that we are early enough to be surrounded by growing pains and relevant enough that people have strong opinions about it.

The future is bright for NFTs. Not because your pfp project is going to the moon but because it can solve important problems and make a real difference in how we live.

Viking Squad Updates

Discord Server:

Nearly 1,000 Vikings talk about different projects, share ideas, and have fun. Special thanks to the following Vikings for contributing to this week's issue:

YouTube: Up to 3 new videos every week. Weekly CNFT Brew is coming out in video format tomorrow, Wednesday.

Support my work:

If you'd like to support what I do and help me build a new career in the CNFT space, please consider the following:

  • Individual: Twitch Donation/Tip/Sub

  • Projects: Sponsor the Viking Games with prizes (DM or send to $vikinggames)

  • Others: Join CNFT Jungle and QUEEN ADA staking as an official sponsor on all channels. (DM)

Twitch Streaming Schedule:

  • Fridays, 7PM UTC