GM - this is the BCheque Papers, edition #51.
I write about NFTs/crypto, and trying to make it independently in web3.
This is what we’ve got this week:
This Week In NFT World - The NFT Market Is On Fire
Sponsored Post - Clarity Creative
Risk On - The Memes: The $60,000 Full Set And Its Significance
Memes of The Week
The winner of last week’s NFT Paris ticket was….Toasterboyz! Congrats! I have one more spare ticket to giveaway. Please reply to me if your community would be interested in it.
For sponsorship enquires, please DM me on Twitter.
Have a great day,
B
This Week in NFT World - The NFT Market Is On Fire
Zombie CryptoPunk sold for 1,155 ETH ($1,381,010.46 USD)
This Zombie CryptoPunk was sold for a dollar loss but a huge ETH gain.
It was bought in 2021 for 500 ETH when that was $1.46m.
Now it was sold for 1,155 ETH ($1.38m).
Controversially, I think if you are “denominated in ETH” then this is a win…
After multiple triple digit ETH sales in the last couple of weeks, an XCOPY edition of ten sells for 100 ETH.
This was bought by the same collector who bought The Last Selfie for 200 ETH last week. XCOPY market is very, very hot right now…
10x in less than 24 hours for Meme Card 49
The second Meme Card in Szn 2 of Punk 6529’s Meme Cards went from a 0.06529 mint a couple of days ago to a 0.6 ETH floor price. It sold out instantly in a gas war during the allowlist period.
Meme Card 49 is by the artist kartjust and is the first card in the new Survive winter theme of cards. More on these in this paper today!
69.42 ETH ($85,000) sale of Citrus by Grant Yun
This is Grant’s first 1/1 released through AOTM (Art of This Millenium) gallery, who now represent Grant and several other top 1/1 artists.
Vincent Van Dough, prominent collector in the space, was outbid by confusedcollector.
NFT Lending market booming for Bored Apes
NFT Stats reports almost 300 new loans have been issued against Bored Apes in the last week, which is the most loans ever issued in a week.
BendDAO recently increased the loan to value ratio available for Bored Apes and Cryptopunks to 60%. Lenders appear more than comfortable with taking on greater risk when lending at the moment.
This is AMAZING liquidity. But I sense the market is getting a bit too euphoric at the moment…
Sponsored Post - Clarity Creative
Do you know how to get more traffic to your website and convert those opportunities into inquiries, leads and sales?
Clarity Creative is a digital marketing agency specializing in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Wordpress website builds, and comprehensive site support.
The 3 key ways Clarity Creative can help you
Since SEO is essentially just "generating quality traffic via search engine keywords and phrases," we write, edit, and optimize content for maximium visibility.
We love to help people find out what their site currently ranks for and jam with them on how they can acquire more web traffic and convert those opportunities into inquiries, leads, or sales.
So, drop us your email address and website URL via the link below and Craig, the Clarity Creative founder, will make you a free video outlining your current keyword rankings!
Reach out to Craig here for your free website consultation: iwantclarity.com
Risk On - The Memes: The $60,000 Full Set And Its Significance
When you can mint something for 0.06529 ETH ($70) and it instantly be worth $400 - $600, it’s probably worth paying attention.
This is The Memes collection by Punk 6529.
What are The Memes and why are they valuable?
The Memes is an NFT collection by one of the most prominent people in NFT world: Punk 6529.
With more than 420,000 followers on Twitter, one of the largest funds who routinely purchase some of the finest pieces of digital art in the space, and more influence than anyone else in Web 3, 6529 has become a leading voice to those involved in crypto and NFTs.
He advocates for decentralisation, self-sovereignty, and the freedom to transact.
The collection reflects these ideals: each piece (an edition usually in a supply range between 300 - 1200) uses famous images from both outside and inside of internet culture to engrain the ideas of decentralisation and self-sovereignty into our minds.
They have become very valuable for a few reasons:
i) People love memes
ii) 6529 is one of the biggest people in the space
iii) 6529 has brought together a number of talented artists to produce the art
iv) 6529 has brought together a number of talented builders to help execute a thoughtful plan to ensure that the collection is evenly distributed
v) Prominent collectors have bought into the ideas which 6529 preaches and like the art
vi) Community has formed around the collection with quality work being produced to service that community
What are the numbers?
There are 49 Meme Cards right now.
They always mint at 0.06529 ETH, around $70.
There are 47 Meme Cards in Szn 1. The price of a card now ranges from 0.2 ETH ($250) - First GM - to 10 ETH ($12,000) - The Nakamoto Freedom Card.
The reason for the difference in price is usually either the supply and/or relative fame of the producing artist.
These are the three genesis cards from Szn 1.
There are 2 Meme Cards so far in Szn 2. The price for both are in the 0.6 - 0.7 ETH ($700 - 800) region.
The genesis card of Szn 2 is by Cath Simard.
The team will try to release Meme Cards on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays each week. You can find out the details before each drop from 6529 Collections.
From this brilliant dashboard by the amazing crypto art data expert Catherine, we can see that the cost of a full set of Meme Cards is currently 46 ETH ($57,000). It looks like we currently have 101 full set collectors.
Who has been supporting The Memes and why is that important?
For collections to become successful, it is imperative to capture the imaginations of a variety of people.
In this instance, influential collectors and personalities in this space have had the ideas presented in the Meme Cards resonate with them.
Dfarmer is a highly respected collector and trader in the space and had this to say:
Dfarmer goes on:
“Punk understood the importance of this battle early, of an Open Metaverse and the fruits of it’s imagination vs the dystopia that Zuck and Co are cooking. Those “memes”, that story, THE narrative of what we stand for is one of our most powerful weapons in this battle: freedom, positivity, openness are all key concepts reiterated through the collection.”
DFarmer, prominent collector and NFT “turbodegen”
Farokh, leader of Rug Radio with more than 300,000 followers, similarly caught The Memes bug too.
But it is not just “big accounts” who make collections and movements. If an idea is strong enough, it will capture the imaginations of everyone.
A whole host of talented people have been attracted to the Memes ecosystem, who I want to highlight because it is all of these people too who contribute to my thesis on The Memes: without talented builders actioning points of interest for the community the ecosystem cannot thrive.
There seems to be no danger of that, since you have people like Web3_50 providing brilliant routine breakdowns and charts of collector actions after each Meme Card drop.
You have people like Catherine who have not only made informative dashboards for The Memes, but also done amazing work curating all of top artists’ work like XCOPY into one helpful place. (I have stashed this away for safekeeping so I can revisit!)
You have talented creators like @pandelic writing passionately about The Memes regularly. The articles convey a deep appreciation of the themes of The Memes.
And you have creatives taking the culture into their own hands, and remixing The Memes in playful ways.
All of this suggests to me that The Memes are bigger than any typical “collection”; they represent an idea which resonates with many across the spectrum of collectors because it speaks to the common desire for self-sovereignty.
What do I trade, hold, and sell?
Since many enjoyed my “investment thinking” for the recent Manchester United collection, here is a bit of breakdown of how I think about this collection.
(Numbers are sometimes approximate, as I have not laboured over checking the chain for every detail; and remember, all types of collectors are good collectors - the collectors, the nibblers, the flippers, and the hybrids!)
I got in early on these because I was allowlisted right at the beginning. So I paid 0.06529 for each of the genesis cards. Total spend: 0.195 ETH
Being someone who cannot yet afford to fund endless collecting (and someone who perhaps should have sold more than they did earlier last year), I thought “these genesis pieces are sick, think this collection will be great, I will keep the chickens and sell the eggs.”
So I vaulted my genesis collection and thought I would sell any other pieces I was airdropped or for which I had an allowlist.
NakamotoFreedom was free - Airdrop 1 was free, sold for approx. 0.3 ETH - current price 10 ETH ($12,000) - oops.
Airdrop 2 cost was free, sold for approx. 0.3 ETH - current price 1.2 ETH ($1,500) - oops.
Airdrop 3 cost was free, sold for approx. 0.3 ETH - current price 0.37 ETH - less oops but still oops.
OM Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
Minted Cath Simard’s Freedom to Explore for 0.06529 ETH. Had always wanted a piece by Cath, and this is a genesis piece, so was a hold. Current price 0.6 ETH.
Cath Simard - Freedom to Explore
Minted K-art’s ’s survive in virtuality for 0.06529 ETH. A cool piece but sold for 0.4 ETH. Current price 0.6 ETH - oops again.
K-art’s - survive in virtuality
Separate to this I bought 9 First GMs (total spend 1.35E) and 4 rekt6529s (total spend 2E).
So in summary:
Total spend (2 + 1.35 + 0.06529 + 0.06529 + 0.195) = 3.67E
Total ETH received after fees: (0.35 + 0.26 + 0.26 + 0.26) = 1.48
Current value of portfolio: 7.8E
(2ETH of rektguy worth 2.8ETH; 1.35 ETH of First GMs worth 1.8ETH; 0.06529 of Freedom to Explore worth 0.5 ETH; 0.195 of Genesis cards worth 2.7E)
(Value of portfolio + ETH already realised) - total spent = 5.6 ETH
This figure would be my profit if I sold everything.
I have not though - so I am currently “down” (3.67 - 1.48) 2.19 ETH.
But I am happy - and confident - and you can’t put a price on that!
What is my plan now?
I would like to pay more attention to how the distribution works, collect more cards, profit more, and collect more.
What is not noted enough about this collection is how it has created a whole new distribution method: a combination of airdrop, allowlist, and public mint.
The hybrid approach has led to some of the best distribution ever seen in large NFT collections - with unique holders being as high as 80% or so.
The interesting thing about the collection’s approach is that it changes with each drop.
This means that collectors need to stay alive, keep engaged, read, and discuss with each other to see how to get that coveted allowlist. I will definitely do this.
How can you get your hands on The Memes?
The criteria does slightly change each drop but it appears that you may be more likely to get an allowlist if you are one of the following:
A 1/1 holder of the artist
An edition holder of the artist
6529 Gradient / Raw / 1/1 Holder
Meme Cards Holder
It now looks like you may need to hold a certain number of Meme Cards to stand a chance of getting on the allowlist (in this instance you can see it was in the top 969 holders). That may not be the case always though - we don’t know for sure!
As such it strikes me that we have 3 options:
Own art from the artist (fine for holders but hard to action for others because announcements on which artists are dropping are late and snapshots are already taken)
Become one of the top holders - this is getting increasingly expensive but you’ll have a maths exercise to do consider if the allowlists are “worth it”
Relax and buy off secondary the pieces you like most - the most chilled option (obviously) but also the most costly (after saying everything I have said above I am actually pursuing one of these now lol)
A final point: you can check how many cards it takes to get into the top 100, 200, whichever number, in Catherine’s dashboard. You can also input your own wallet in the ‘search’ section and see how you rank.
The Memes Dashboard By Catherine
Good luck - I hope you can seize at least one meme of production!
Memes of The Week
Have a great day,
B
Please do leave me any questions or thoughts here - I respond to every one!
And if you thought this was interesting, please consider subscribing to this Substack and following me @BCheque1 on Twitter for more on NFTs and Web 3.0.
Disclaimer: The content covered in this newsletter is not to be considered as investment advice. It is for informational and educational purposes only.
I hold some of the NFTs mentioned in these newsletters.