The countdown has begun.

$2B+ in TVL gets unlocked on @Blast_L2's mainnet launch today.

Here are the most useful threads I've found on Blast (+my personal thoughts): Earlier, Blast held a 'Big Bang' competition for new projects launching on Blast.

There were 47 winners out of 3,000+ teams.

@jenndefer breaks down the 'Big Bang' winners in this extremely informative video. I learned a lot.

https://x.com/jenndefer/status/1761842745080258763?s=20

Blur gets dunked on a lot.

Token price is down only. Haters are out in droves.

But herein lies the opportunity.

Let me describe exactly what I'm watching for.. 👇 Many @blur_io takes are focused on where it is today.

But I think it's important to pay attention to the future.

There are 3 positive catalysts ahead that could rekindle interest in a big way.
/3

The killer feature that hooked me onto Bitcoin Ordinals: Recursion.

When I finally understood Recursive Ordinals, it blew me away.

I'll tell you all you need to know in a few tweets, and why it's a game-changer: 👇 2/ Before Recursion, Ordinals were like islands - isolated and limited.

You could inscribe text, images, and code, but they couldn’t interact with each other.

tbh that wasn't too interesting to me.

Vietnam has the highest crypto adoption rate in the world.

A 98M population country, with almost 50% of people having used crypto before.

A few things I've learned from my trip to Vietnam 🧵👇 2/ When you're in Vietnam, there's an energy, vibrancy that you feel.

People are young and willing to hustle.

Language is still a barrier, but locals who can converse well in English will go very far internationally.

Everyone's talking about The Goose.

It's the Mona Lisa of NFTs.

Here's why, and everything about yesterday's landmark $6.2M sale: 🧵👇 2/ The Mona Lisa, with her enigmatic smile and timeless allure, has become more than just a masterpiece of Renaissance art.

She's a symbol, a beacon of artistic achievement that transcends cultures and time.

Spent an extraordinary amount of time in NFT finance this year (research, working with teams etc).

Firmly believe that the sector is poised for explosive growth.

But founders are in a difficult spot now.

My weekend thoughts on what's going to happen next: (1/21) 2/ The total addressable market for NFT finance (lending as the backbone) is small and shrinking today

On eth, there are ~69,000 weekly NFT traders: a proxy for potential NFT lending users today (I will explain why in a substack post)

It's dropped 60% from January this year.

"Solana Summer" might be late, but it's in full swing in 2023!

The @solana NFT ecosystem is flourishing, with new protocols launching tokens and NFT floor prices on the rise.

Here's why, and what we're excited about (Part I): @solana 2/ As we delved into earlier this year, @solana is now the second-largest NFT ecosystem, just behind Ethereum.

We predict robust NFT development & trading activity on Solana throughout 2023.

Why selecting the right distribution model can make or break your NFT project.

(And how you should be thinking about it)

// THREAD // 2/ Unlike fungible tokens that govern a separate product, NFTs are often the product themselves (e.g. art)

Supply and demand have to match, a prerequisite for stable and rising prices.

A large mismatch in supply and demand results in price volatility and an unhappy community

AI art has been booming, with some NFTs selling for 5-digit sums.

It's a $75M industry today that could easily expand to $10B+

One AI project especially caught my eye. Here's why:

(1/14) 2/ With the ability to create original pieces indistinguishable from human artists, generative AI is opening up new possibilities for creativity

BUT instead of just collecting AI art, what if you could own the AI artist instead? 🤔

I spent hours this weekend digesting @davidzhorvath 's substack. It's an absolute gem.

Made me completely rethink my thesis around NFTs, especially PFPs.

Here's why, and my key takeaways: 🧵 FYI David Horvath is the creator of the well-known @uglydolls characters, an enduring brand of 20+ years.

And more recently, Bossy Bears — now a Nickelodeon series.

***Below are notes I took while reading his blog, interspersed with my own interpretation/thoughts

/2

Took some time to curate the February NFT highlights.

A quick recap of the key trends worth paying attention to 👇 2/ Highlight for Feb was the launch of BLUR, intensifying the fight between @blur_io & OpenSea ⚔️

- $240M+ worth of tokens were airdropped to 110,000 recipients
- Kicks off bid farming craze
- Highest level of liquidity for NFTs, ever

@opensea responded by lowering fees to 0%

Seeing a lot of takes on how @blur_io is eating up OpenSea / Blur has the best product / @opensea is going to 0

I don't think so. Many arguments are flawed.

Here's why: 👇 2/ BTW, I have deep respect for @blur_io & @PacmanBlur's execution . They've gone from nothing to hero in the short span of a few months.

There's lots to be excited about.

My aim is to steel-man counter-points to balance out CT's views

The Blur airdrop, Bitcoin NFTs & Open Edition meta show how everyone has the chance to make it in the NFT space, as long as you pay attention and stay engaged.

My thoughts on Blur & what I'm personally doing: 2/ Marketplaces are great businesses and make good money no matter what the flavor of the month is for NFTs.

If you believe that NFTs will be a $1T+ asset market in the future, owning a piece of the top marketplaces makes a lot of sense.

I wasn't a huge fan of Solana NFTs

But over the past few weeks, I spent a lot of time immersed in the @solana NFT ecosystem and it has changed my views.

Here's what convinced me that it will grow and thrive: 🧵👇 2/ Solana has grown significantly, doubling from 6% to 14% of total NFT sales volume in less than a year.

NFT sales volume on @solana has significantly outperformed chains like Ronin, Avalanche, and Flow, which were hot a year ago

Happy weekend, my frens — it's time again 🥳

Identifying narratives, gaming, fashion & more

My top 10 list of must-read NFT tweets/threads from this week (12 Feb): 1) @1kxnetwork shows how NFT lending is still largely retail-driven and concentrated in a few top collections

https://twitter.com/1kxnetwork/status/1623362988693499904

Everyone's caught Ordinal fever and having fun with Bitcoin NFTs.

So I hung out in shady discord groups and google sheets. Digested the implications of all of this.

Here's what I think will happen: All of the activity right now is from:

(1) tinkerers experimenting with new tools available to them
(2) crypto speculators trying to grab a piece of what they believe is going to be a valuable historical artifact in the future.

Just inscribed my @AzukiOfficial as an Ordinal!

Feeling pretty good knowing that the Azuki will be stored on Bitcoin, forever. ⛩

Here's how I did it for less than $30 (and without a Bitcoin node): Ordinalsbot is pretty slow and buggy right now so I used @trygamma

It was a smooth and easy process. Gamma's interface was very intuitive to use, two thumbs up to them!

gamma.io/ordinals

Happy Friday, my frens — it's time again 🥳

Bitcoin NFTs, private botnets & NFT grifters, and more

My top 10 list of must-read NFT tweets/threads from this week (3 Feb): 1/ @pandajackson42 investigative masterpiece on how Blur bypassed OpenSea's blocklist

https://twitter.com/1361517582092701699/status/1620081518575235073

I haven't seen people mention this much...

but @NFTfi launched just launched a feature that could save users a tidy sum of money in fees

Here's how: I've been both a borrower and lender on @NFTfi.

One reason why I haven't been using it as often as I like is that it's time-consuming to make bids or take out a loan.

I have to do it one NFT at a time. And every transaction cost gas fees.

Lately, there's been more sophistication in how NFT teams are distributing their tokens.

They're injecting a healthy dose of fun into the process while giving themselves more flexibility. Love to see this!

Here's how they're doing it: Example #1: @yugalabs' Sewer Passes are part of an upcoming interactive skill-based mint. Sewer Pass holders can play a runner-type game to earn a high score.

The expectation is that the higher your score/skill, the rarer and more valuable NFT you get in February mint.

I spend a lot of time on Twitter. Thought I'll share a few of my favorite data-driven insights I came across this week. Might do this weekly if you like it.

Warning — chart porn ahead: 2/ My favorite: The majority of new people's first wallet transactions in 2022 were for NFTs. Shows how people really want their JPEGs.

https://twitter.com/RyanWatkins_/status/1616214232789385216