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How To Create And Mint Your Own NFTs On The Ethereum Network

The allure of creating your own NFTs and BRC-20 tokens is undeniable. For artists, owning and monetizing their digital creations through NFTs offers a new level of control and potential financial reward. Beyond the realm of art, NFTs can foster passionate communities, grant exclusive access to events, and even act as fundraising tools. 

However, stepping into the world of token creation isn’t without its challenges. It demands both a technical understanding of blockchain technology and smart contracts, along with a careful consideration of financial risks and potential regulatory implications. Before diving in, it’s crucial to assess your goals, resources, and risk tolerance. While the possibilities are vast and exciting, responsible and informed action is key to navigating this rapidly evolving landscape.

NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, are digital assets that represent ownership or proof of authenticity for specific items or content. Unlike fungible cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, NFTs cannot be exchanged on a one-to-one basis due to their unique nature.

NFTs are typically created and traded on blockchain platforms such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and decentralized marketplaces like OpenSea. These platforms utilize smart contracts to establish ownership and enable transparent and immutable transactions for NFTs.

NFTs can represent a wide range of digital items, including artwork, music, videos, virtual real estate, and collectibles. Each NFT has metadata describing the item it represents and a unique identifier that sets it apart from other NFTs

Creating NFTs On The Ethereum Network

The primary stage in the creation of NFTs involves identifying the content you wish to associate with your NFT. Consider the specific representation you desire for your NFT, whether it be digital artwork, collectibles, virtual real estate, or any other distinct digital item.

In this article, we will use illustrations from OpenSea to guide you on the steps you need to create your own NFTs. OpenSea stands as a leading decentralized marketplace built on the Ethereum blockchain, dedicated to NFTs. It creates a space where users can engage in buying, selling, and discovering an extensive array of digital assets, encompassing artwork, virtual real estate, collectibles, and more.

OpenSea delivers a user-friendly interface, showcasing a vast selection of NFT listings curated from diverse creators and projects. Through OpenSea, users gain the ability to explore the NFT community, partake in auctions, and securely manage their digital assets. With a commitment to fostering the expansion and accessibility of the NFT market, OpenSea ensures a seamless experience for enthusiasts and collectors alike.

This step-by-step guide covers how to create an NFT collection and mint directly to your wallet. 

First, visit the original OpenSea website, and click on the “Login” button at the top to connect your preffered wallet.

To figure out the best wallet to use on the Ethereum network, check here.

NFTs

Next,  click on your “Profile Icon” at the top right of your OpenSea interface in order to deploy a smart contract and select “Studio” through the pop-up options.

NFT OpenSea

To initiate the creation of a fresh NFT, simply click the “Create” button located at the top right corner.

OpenSea

When you explore the options, you will find the choice to either Drop a collection or Create/Mint an NFT. Selecting “Create an NFT”. This will enable you to mint an NFT directly into your wallet.

NFTs

Once you proceed, a fresh “Create an NFT” screen will be presented. If you are using OpenSea Studio tools for the first time to create an NFT, select “Create a new collection.” You will be able to add one NFT to this collection initially, with the option to include more NFTs at a later stage.

NFT

After selecting “Create a new collection,” you will be guided through the steps on your screen to deploy a smart contract. This process will enable you to create NFTs for your newly created collection.

To customize your contract, you need to add a logo image, choose a contract name, and designate a token symbol. Additionally, you will need to choose an EVM blockchain. It’s important to note that deploying a smart contract incurs gas fees, and the estimated fees for each blockchain will be displayed. If the fees are higher than anticipated, you can revisit the process at a later time, as they are subject to change based on network activity.

NFTs 

When you are prepared, proceed by clicking on “Continue”. This action will prompt a transaction signature request in your wallet, which will necessitate gas.

NFTs

Once the process is finalized, you will receive a confirmation message. Proceed to the next step by selecting “Create an NFT” as shown below.                                  :

NFT OpenSea

Having successfully created a smart contract, you are now prepared to generate an NFT. It is important to note that once your item is minted, further editing becomes impossible as it permanently resides on the blockchain. In this case, you will be creating an ERC-1155 NFT, which allows for the creation of multiple copies of the same item.

To begin this phase, upload the media for your NFT, which represents the artwork associated with it. Next, choose the collection in which you wish to mint your NFT.

Subsequently, provide a name for your item and set the desired item supply. The item supply determines the number of copies you wish to mint for the NFT. If you choose 1, then the item will be a one-of-one. 

NFT name

Next, click on the “Create” button at the bottom right, as shown in the above image.  A loading message will appear as the item is being minted. To proceed with the minting process, you will need to approve the transaction using your wallet.   

NFTs

Congratulations! You have successfully minted your very first NFT!

NFT OpenSea

Conclusion

Although NFTs and BRC-20 tokens have distinct functions and operate on separate blockchains, they both contribute to the growing realm of blockchain-based digital assets. NFTs have captured widespread interest for their exceptional nature and capacity to represent ownership of digital assets. 

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Solana Dominates Ethereum, Bitcoin In NFT, Activity: What’s Next For SOL?

According to on-chain data from SolanaFloor, Solana is dominating other blockchains, including Ethereum and Polygon, across various non-fungible token (NFT) activity metrics in the third week of January.

Solana Dominates Ethereum, Bitcoin In NFT Activity

In a post shared on X on January 23, Solana maintained its NFT dominance among competing blockchains, mainly Ethereum and other high throughput alternatives. Thus far, the blockchain has the highest numbers in unique wallets, transactions, unique buyers, and first-time wallets over the past week. 

Solana unique wallets | Source: SolanaFloor via X

To illustrate, Solana had over 106,000 unique wallets by the third week of January 2024. This is more than twice those created in Ethereum. Meanwhile, there were over 22,000 first-time wallets on Solana, roughly 3X those in Ethereum and 2X in Bitcoin.

At the same time, more than 2.8 million transactions were posted on Solana. This figure is over 20X those in Ethereum during the same time frame. 

Extrapolating from this data suggests that the blockchain is increasingly popular among NFT projects, collectors, and traders. Several factors could be contributing to Solana’s NFT success. 

The platform is known for its high throughput and low transaction fees. Considering how minters and active traders are sensitive to trading fees, Solana is emerging as a layer-1 option for projects wishing to enjoy the security of the mainnet while also benefiting from low transaction fees.

Legacy chains, including Ethereum, continue to struggle with on-chain scalability. Minting on the mainnet often translates to high fees, which can decrease profitability, especially for active traders and collectors.

Beyond scalability advantages, Solana’s ecosystem is rapidly expanding. Despite the catastrophic drop of SOL prices at the end of 2022, the spectacular revival in 2023 activated on-chain activity with meme coins blooming and NFT projects opting to launch on Solana.

The ongoing recovery of SOL and the increasing number of projects opting to deploy on the mainnet could further drive on-chain activities, including NFT minting and trading, to new levels in 2024.

Developers At Work, Will SOL Reclaim $125?

As the network draws users, its developers are also working to make the platform more robust and decentralized. In 2024, Solana developers plan to activate Firedancer, a validator client developed by Jump Capital. This client will help further decentralize Solana’s infrastructure, improve performance, and substantially improve reliability, eliminating network hitches that plagued the blockchain in 2022 and early 2023.

Solana price trending downward on the daily chart | Source: SOLUSDT on Binance, TradingView

SOL is cooling off, trading at around $80 when writing. The coin is down 34% from December 2023 peaks and below the dynamic 20-day moving average, pointing to bears.

Key support remains at around $70. If there is demand at this price point, SOL may recover and retest $125 in the sessions ahead.

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Bitcoin Dominates: Overtakes Ethereum In 24H NFT Sales Volume For The First Time

In a turn of events within the non-fungible token (NFT) market, Bitcoin (BTC) has achieved a significant milestone by surpassing Ethereum (ETH) in 24-hour NFT sales volume. This marks the first time that Bitcoin has outperformed Ethereum in this aspect.

BTC’s NFT Breakthrough

Bitcoin’s recent achievement of surpassing Ethereum in 24-hour NFT sales volume signals a changing trend and growing interest in the NFT market. 

While Ethereum has long been recognized as the dominant blockchain for NFTs, Bitcoin’s entrance into the space demonstrates its increasing relevance and appeal to NFT enthusiasts and collectors.

The data highlights that Bitcoin accounted for $17,291,694 in NFT sales, with 575 buyers participating. On the other hand, Ethereum recorded $26,689,252 in total sales, with 11,225 buyers. 

Bitcoin

Despite Ethereum maintaining a higher total sales figure, the relatively lower wash percentage of Bitcoin suggests a potentially healthier and more organic market activity.

However, when it comes to volatility, data from Deribit, the leading crypto derivatives exchange, shows that the spread between ETH and BTC volatility, commonly referred to as the ETH DVOL vs. BTC DVOL spread, has narrowed significantly since October 23rd from -11.6 to just -0.6. This shift indicates a change in investor sentiment and increased attention towards Ethereum and altcoins.

In light of this development, Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin over the past fourteen days. ETH has seen significant price movement, gaining over 2% in the last 24 hours, 6% in the last seven days, and 4% in the last fourteen days, bringing its current price to $1,899.

Bitcoin

Meanwhile, Bitcoin has exhibited a slowdown in its upward momentum and is currently consolidating above $35,400. It has seen a 2% increase in the past 24 hours, 3% in the past seven days, and 1% in the fourteen-day timeframe.

However, it is important to note that BTC has gained more than 82% year-to-date, while ETH has only increased by 30% during the same period, according to CoinGecko data. 

Nasdaq 100 Correlation With Bitcoin Plummets

According to recent Kaiko data, BTC has witnessed a significant decline in its correlation with traditional assets throughout the year. One notable development is the diminishing correlation between Bitcoin and the Nasdaq 100 index. 

Over the past year, Bitcoin’s 60-day correlation with the Nasdaq 100 has substantially declined, plunging from over 70% in September 2022 to approximately 19% as of last week. 

Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s negative correlation with the US dollar, which ranged from 40% to 50%, has also weakened. Currently, the correlation is around 11%, signifying a reduced tendency for Bitcoin’s value to move in the opposite direction of the US dollar.

While Bitcoin’s correlation with gold has seen some upward momentum since August, the average correlation throughout the year has remained relatively low at 12%. 

This suggests that the relationship between Bitcoin and gold has been modest regarding price movements and indicates a potential divergence in investment characteristics between the two assets.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

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Blue Chip NFTs 101: Cool Cats Lands On Its Feet And Does It In Style

Do the Cool Cats still have Blue Chip status? The collection fell on hard times lately, but so has any other NFT project out there. We’re in a bear market, after all. A Hollywood agency manages the Cool Cats project, they had the coolest exhibit in NFT NYC, and collaborated with TIME magazine in a weird NFT drop. Still, the collection’s floor price is down to levels not seen since the project’s conception.

The Cool Cats started spreading good vibes in July 2021. It’s a PFP collection consisting of 9.999 unique cats assembled from various traits that could form 300K possibilities in total. The ecosystem expanded in two major ways a while ago. They launched their secondary collection, the Cool Pets, and their own token, $MILK. The new coin is the blood that powers the gamified experience that the collection’s creators have been releasing.

Speaking about those, the core team are: the smart contract programmer Tom Williamson, web developer Rob Mehew, creative director Evan Luza, and illustrator Colin Egan AKA The Cartoonist. The unofficial fifth member of the band is Mike Tyson. A few days after launch, the eternal heavyweight champion changed his Twitter profile picture to a Cool Cats and that propelled the collection when it needed it the most. 

The Relationship Between Cool Cats And CAA

The Cool Cats went Hollywood on March 2021. In a move unprecedented at the time, the creators signed with leading talent agency CAA. In a press release from the time, the partners explained the deal in detail:

“Leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has signed Cool Cats, producers of the widely known Cool Cats and Cool Pets NFT collections. In collaboration with the gamified NFT company, the agency will identify and create opportunities for Cool Cats characters across an array of areas, including licensing and merchandising, animated content, brand partnerships, live events, publishing, and more.”

So, there’s serious money and interests behind the cats. Why are they fading away into the background, then? Is it just an effect of the bear market? 

ETH price chart for 09/24/2022 on OkCoin | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
Cool Cats ’ got utility

First of all, Cool Cats holders get their NFT’s property rights. That means, they can produce commercial projects with their NFT’s images. Cool Cat owners also get access to the project’s Discord server, and priority for all of the exclusive Cool Cats events and mints. Holders can stack their  NFTs and get yield in $MILK.

Another benefit is access to Cooltopia, a project they define as “a gamified ecosystem built on interactivity and utility, community rewards and growth, collaboration with brands, and much more.” Another self-definition has Cooltopia as a “place where having a Cool Cats NFT grants you evolving access to games, tokens, community events, collaborations, and more.” 

Plus, there’s the Cool Pets side project. A reward to NFT holders and a way for newcomers to enter the ecosystem at a lower price point. The Cool Pets collection has 19,999 units. Every holder got a pet for free and the general public bought the other half. The Cool Pets first come as an egg image that hatches and reveals the final NFT. The pets are divided into four elements: Fire, Water, Air, and Grass.

The $MILK token

The $MILK is an ERC20 token on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. It’s the oil that greases Cooltopia’s gamified economy. According to the documentation:

  • “$MILK is the key to all sorts of functionality and fun in the Cool Cats ecosystem, from buying Battle or Housing chests to going on quests.” 
  • “$MILK is also how you’ll enhance and evolve your Cool Pets.”
  • This one describes the NFTs staking-like mechanism: “Your Cool Cat is earning $MILK just by being cool (the $MILK claiming clock begins as soon as the contract is deployed), and that $MILK will accumulate over time.”

Controversy And Suspicion

There might be something strange going on with this project. In April, the newly-appointed CEO stepped down after just three months. There was never a credible explanation given. The collection just tweeted, “Chris Hassett has stepped down as CEO. We thank him and wish him the best moving forward.” Is there problem brewing in the Cool Cats headquarters? 

And then there’s the price. At its height, in October 2021, the Cool Cats floor price was around 26 ETH. Almost a year later, the floor Cool Cats are trading for 2.9 ETH. That’s not all, the Cool Pets’ floor price is currently at  0.18 ETH. Are those Blue Chip numbers? Even though we’re basically in the middle of a crypto winter, the collection seems to be falling off a cliff… 

Will the Cool Cats land on their feet?

Featured Image: screen shot from the collection’s site | Charts by TradingView

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Blue Chip NFTs 101: Art Blocks Does It Differently And Frequently

Unlike other NFT collections, Art Blocks is a platform. Its focus is generative or algorithmic artworks. The artists create the style of the collection, the colors, and forms, or the “blocks” if you will. Each mint sorts through endless possibilities to create a unique piece. At minting time, the customer interacts with a generative script and the result is a randomly generated, unpredictable work of art. Depending on the collection, the resulting NFT can go from a static image to a multimedia experience.

In most of the other Blue Chip collections, like World Of Women or Doodles, an artist or a group of artists creates the art and its different traits. In contrast, multiple artists constantly create Art Blocks collections. As you might imagine, some of them are more valuable than others. The platform’s creator is Erick Calderon, better known as Snowfro. He’s the artist and coder behind Art Block’s first and flagship collection, Chromie Squiggle. You’ve probably seen them around, and one of the squiggles serves as the logo for the whole platform. 

Other iconic and multi-million dollar collections launched through the platform are Fidenza by Tyler Hobbs and Dmitri Cherniak’s Ringers. Of course, those are the stand-out, incredibly successful ones. New collections and projects launch through Art Blocks every week, as you can see in this very busy calendar. To avoid gas wars at minting time, the platform uses the Dutch Auction method. That is, the sale starts at a high price that lowers as time goes by. The clients wait for their ideal price, if it ever gets there.

How Does Art Blocks Work?

So far, the platform has generated $277M in primary sales and a whopping $1320M in secondary sales. The platform royalties are 10% for primary and 2.5% for secondary market sales. The artist receives a fair 5% for each secondary resale. From primary sales, there’s a mandatory 25% donation to the artist’s favorite charity. Which is interesting, but wow.

According to Art Block’s website, they offer “genuinely programmable on demand generative content that is stored immutably on the Ethereum Blockchain.” That’s not entirely true. The script and the NFTs are there, presumably forever, but the art is too complex to be stored on-chain. The files are in IPFS or other storage solutions.

Art Blocks also claims that “collectors actively participate in realizing an artist’s vision by generating unique algorithmic artworks,” which is debatable. The mind-blowing thing is that an Art Blocks holder with access to the script and Ethereum’s ledger could theoretically reproduce the NFT. So, technically, everything they claim is true. 

Even though Art Blocks is a platform, it’s not open to everyone. A team curates the collections and selects the artists worthy of participating. They offer three tiers of collections, each with different characteristics. Let’s look into them.

ETH price chart for 07/22/2022 on Kraken | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
The Different Collections

  • The Curated Collection: This is the main one, Art Blocks releases it “on a regular schedule.” Only a few selected artists have made it to the seven quarterly series so far. According to their website, “Art Blocks established a curation board to carefully select projects for inclusion in our Curated Collection. The Curated Collection is a group of projects that push the boundaries of Generative Art in their technical innovation and aesthetic beauty.”

The company’s account executive, Druid, expanded on the collections’ characteristics in a Medium post. “Since we launched Art Blocks in November of 2020, our first official set includes all Curated drops in 2020, with full quarterly sets beginning in 2021. Artists have a six-month cooldown between deploying projects in the Curated Collection.”

  • Playground Collection: This one is less formal, “Art Blocks artists who have been previously included in the Curated Collection” can play around and do what they want. Druid expands, “It’s important to note the Playground’s limitations: first, an artist can only launch a Playground project after a Curated project. Second, only one project per artist can be active in the Playground at once, and it must be completed before another can be launched on the Playground.” Also, there’s “a two-month cooldown between deploying projects in the Playground Collection.”
  • Art Blocks Factory: This is more general and it’s for artists that don’t necessarily have participated in The Curated Collection. According to the website, “The Factory Collection includes projects selected directly by Art Blocks and highlights our standards for technical quality and artistic beauty.” And according to Druid, “Factory artists will be required to sell out their entire project before releasing anything else on the platform. They also will have a two-month cool down between projects on the platform.”

Powered by Art Blocks (PBAB)

Last but not least, the company offers this very interesting product. “Powered by Art Blocks (PBAB) is a custom branded solution from Art Blocks. It allows the generative NFT minting technology used by artists at Art Blocks to be integrated with third-party sites”. That means that organizations can use Art Blocks’ “smart contracts and rendering infrastructure” to generate “branded generative projects.” 

PBAB could be huge in the future. Keep your eye on it.

And keep your eye on NewsBTC for other Blue Chip NFTs guides, like this one for CloneX and this one for Goblintown.

Featured Image: Screenshot from Art Blocks website | Charts by TradingView

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Blue Chip NFTs 101 – Let’s Travel To Space With The Doodles Collection

Veterans of the NFT big leagues, the Doodles let the CryptoPunks and Bored Apes take the spotlight and have been constantly working behind the scenes. Even though they’re not a worldwide brand like the other two, everybody’s seen the Doodles. They just don’t remember when or where they saw those little drawings. Don’t let that fool you, though. The collection’s total sales are  $496M, according to CryptoSlam. So far. 

The generative collection consists of 10,000 Doodles that “are made up of hundreds of exciting visual traits designed by Burnt Toast” AKA Scott Martin. The other two members of the team are Evan Keast and Jordan Castro, who in 2017 were part of the company that rocked the world with CryptoKitties. The first NFT project to jam the Ethereum blockchain. This experienced team has been key to the project’s success and constant expansion.

The Doodles exude class through and through. Their smart contract is auditable, their roadmap is public, and anyone can easily find them on the project’s website. An example of great management by an experienced team is that the Doodles invented whitelisting for minting events. The team closed the Discord before minting and gave their first followers, the people who were there from the beginning, the chance to mint first. The community at large saw the move as a mistake, but they quickly realized how smart the system really was.

According to their website, “hand-drawn Doodles include skellys, cats, aliens, apes and mascots. The Doodles collection also includes dozens of rare heads, costumes, and colorways of the artist’s palette.” According to OpenSea, the current floor price for a Doodle is 9.7 ETH and the total volume sold by the whole collection is 133.3K ETH.

The Doodles As A Governance Token

The project doesn’t contemplate NFT staking and it avoids the temptation of creating a new token for their ecosystem. The Doodles utility focuses on access to off the hook real-life events. More on that later. In the virtual world, though, they offer their holders new experiences like the Space Doodles and the Dooplicator. 

In addition to that, each Doodle is a sort-of governance token. A Doodle gives you voting and participation rights in the sort-of DAO that governs the whole project. The Doodle holders decide what to focus on next and control de community treasury, known as the DoodleBank. They have the right to vote on proposals, on the team and hiring, and on what to do in live events. Recently, they decided to fund a 3D Doodles project.

The communication flows through the project’s Discord channel. As it happens with most current NFT projects, this tool is a crucial part of the puzzle. For example, the Doodles server recently created a scam alert channel to protect the community from fraud and to have them monitor the internet for fake Doodles and people misrepresenting their brand.

ETH price chart on Bitstamp | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
What Are The Space Doodles?

As a special benefit to holders, at no cost to them, they can wrap their Doodles and transform them into Space Doodles. These new NFTs put the original Doodle into a Spaceship and in a space-like environment. If you don’t like it or miss your PFP, you can always switch back to Doodles. You might not want to, though. According to Open Sea, the Space Doodles’ floor price is 11.8 ETH. Liquidity is another story, the total volume sold by the whole collection is 1.6K ETH.

All art by Burnt Toast himself.

The company has also given the community free swag like the Dooplicator. At the time of writing, the floor price for these space backpacks is 2.79 ETH.

The Future Of This Blue Chip Collection

You’re only as good as your last hit, and for the Doodles that could be their real-life event in the South by Southwest festival. A warehouse painted with the collection’s characteristic pastel scheme, with screens everywhere, it was the talk of the town. They also distributed an NFT in association with paint manufacturers Behr and illustrated by Burnt Toast. Hopefully, it will be worth something one day. 

The point is, one of the objectives of Doodles as a company is to focus on live events and ultimately become an entertainment company. That’s great for holders that live in the US, it means that they’ll get access to a lot of events where the company will distribute secondary NFTs. It also means that Doodles will be constantly interacting with brands, artists, and other projects. That continuous activity will push the brand name out there. 

Another important benefit for holders is that Doodles plans to give them property rights. Eventually, people will be able to launch their own Doodle-related products for a small fee. Considering that Doodles is a top 10 NFT collection, we would say most of the marketing work is already done.

Read other Blue Chip NFTs 101 guides: Moonbirds, DeGods, Proof Collective, and CloneX.

Featured Image: Screenshot from the site | Charts by TradingView

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What Are The CryptoPunks V1? And, How Can They Disrupt The Market?

Are the CryptoPunks V1 the original CryptoPunks? Technically, yes. According to LarvaLabs, the company behind the collection, the V1s “are not official Cryptopunks,” though. How will the market react now that they’re making a resurgence? This might be the first, but it’s not the last time you’ll hear about the CryptoPunks V1. Let’s explore their history and the controversy around them.

Related Reading | Snoop Dogg Joins The Bored Ape Yacht Club And The Sandbox. Read All About It

What Are The CryptoPunks V1?

Back in 2017, prehistory for the NFT market, LarvaLabs distributed 10.000 CryptoPunks V1. However, there was a fatal mistake in the governing smart contract. After a transaction, it allowed the buyer, not the seller, to withdraw the money. The buyer could literally have its cake and eat it too, leaving the seller completely in the red. 

Here’s a thread explaining the technical details of the faulty contract:

Explaining the V1 CryptoPunks exploit…this one is incredibly tricky so want to share what I learned!

TL;DR – when a buyer purchased a punk, the ETH deposited in the contract could be withdrawn only by the *buyer*, not by the seller. So buy(), withdraw(), repeat. pic.twitter.com/apGwackvMz

— foobar (@0xfoobar) March 24, 2021

What did LarvaLabs do? They disowned the original series and started again. They gave away another set of 10.000 CryptoPunks, the V2, and the rest is history. The almost free collectibles gained traction little by little and became the behemoth they’re today. All of the CryptoPunks in circulation were  V2s, until now…

A Rebel Marketplace Arises

The CryptoPunks V1s still exist, but they had no marketplace to commerce in because Open Sea banned them. However, a new platform came into town and allowed them to reappear. This time, they’re called Classic Punks or Wrapped CryptoPunks V1, because to be able to sell them you have to wrap them in a new smart contract that doesn’t have the know vulnerabilities of the original contract.

The rebel marketplace is LooksRare.org and, so far, these up-and-coming NFTs have made 307.44 ETH in sales. Not bad, considering there are only 116 holders and LarvaLabs owns at least 1000. In LooksRare, only 23 owners are selling 269 items, so they’re pretty rare. The marketplace describes them as:

“A wrapped CryptoPunk from the initial exploited V1 contract version. Buyer beware – if you don’t understand the preceding sentence, this is not the CryptoPunk you’re looking for.”

Another buyer beware has to be, that low number of holders means that a few people have control of the market and can potentially manipulate it as they see fit. So, tread lightly. 

ETH price chart for 02/04/2022 on Kraken | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
LarvaLabs Disowns The CryptoPunks V1

Through their public channels, the only thing LarvaLabs said was: “PSA: “V1 Punks” are not official Cryptopunks. We don’t like them, and we’ve got 1,000 of them… so draw your own conclusions. Any proceeds will be used to purchase real Cryptopunks!”

PSA: "V1 Punks" are not official Cryptopunks. We don't like them, and we've got 1,000 of them… so draw your own conclusions. Any proceeds will be used to purchase real Cryptopunks!

— Larva Labs (@larvalabs) January 25, 2022

However, in the company’s official Discord channel, they are threatening legal action. They also admitted that they sold a bunch of CryptoPunks V1 because they thought that by “selling some of the tokens we would signal our distaste for it.” According to LarvaLabs, they’ve been using the 210 ETH that they received to buy V2 CryptoPunks. And they matched that amount and made a donation to the Rainforest Foundation. 

Here’s trader extraordinaire and crypto influencer Cobie explaining the situation:

wtf is larva labs doing tbh pic.twitter.com/KmgMlBwBGW

— Cobie (@cobie) February 2, 2022

As he puts it, “they dumped on people and now they’re trying to make what they dumped as worthless as possible.” Real people paid those 210 ETH. Why do they have to suffer? However, they might end up with the upper hand. LarvaLabs can use all the legal tricks that they want, but they can’t destroy the CryptoPunks V1 contract. 

The Intricacies Of The V1 Contract

As this pseudonymous Twitter user puts it, “my understanding is the contract code is permanent – you can only update a contract post deployment by calling the selfdestruct() function, if there is one. A function which neither of the two Crytopunk contracts have!”

@larvalabs cannot do that with v1 punks because, both their v1 and v2 contracts point to the same file!

You'll find this identical imageHash in both contracts:

ac39af4793119ee46bbff351d8cb6b5f23da60222126add4268e261199a2921b pic.twitter.com/cg0AFQR7Tt

— Stroudonian (@0xStroudonian) January 29, 2022

Not only that, there’s another way to destroy a contract, and here’s where the big reveal comes. “Because of ETH’s extortionate storage costs, most use external forms of storage (punks are off-chain art!). In layman’s, contracts essentially include a link to specific reference point, which contains the image. LarvaLabs cannot do that with v1 punks because, both their v1 and v2 contracts point to the same file!”

Oh, what a tangled web we weave!

And that’s the story of the CryptoPunks V1.

Related Reading | Will NFTs Kill Traditional Art? Famed Collector Cozomo de’ Medici Makes The Case

The CryptoPunks V2 Market

According to NFT Stats, “The total sales volume for CryptoPunks was $41.42M. The average price of one CryptoPunks NFT was $232.7k. There are 3.373 CryptoPunks owners, owning a total supply of 9,999 tokens.” Let’s check in a few years to see if the CryptoPunks V1 make a dent on that.

Featured Image: Screenshot of CryptoPunks V1 from LooksRare | Charts by TradingView

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A Bored Ape NFT Sold For 0.75ETH By Mistake. Another Sold For 347ETH, But Wait…

The second most popular NFT collection, Bored Ape Yacht Club, is back on the news. On the one hand, a deadly mistake cost a pseudonymous user more than $250K. On the other, a feelgood story of a diamond-hand holder that minted a Bored Ape seven months ago and just sold it for over $1M. Or did he? The deal is tainted by a suspect second transaction that the community immediately detected. 

Related Reading | The Sandbox Purchase Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT for More Than $2.9 Million

Exciting beginning of the week in the Yacht Club, and NewsBTC has all the juicy details on both stories. 

A Costly-Costly Mistake In The Bored Ape Yacht Club

Maxnaut’s membership to the Yacht Club has been revoked. This person’s distraction while listing his Bored Ape for 75ETH, lead him to actually list it for 0.75ETH. A bot immediately snatched it, paying an extra high transaction fee to ensure the extremely profitable buy. Not only that, the bot listed it for 88 ETH straight away. Forget the Roomba and those goofy Boston Dynamics robots, this is the most useful and effective bot ever created. 

The ex-owner, Maxnaut, told Cnet:

“I list a lot of items every day and just wasn’t paying attention properly. I instantly saw the error as my finger clicked the mouse but a bot sent a transaction with over 8 eth [$34,000] of gas fees so it was instantly sniped before I could click cancel, and just like that, $250k was gone.”

A horror story if we ever heard one. Multitasking takes another victim. 

ETH price chart for 12/13/2021 on Kraken | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
From Diamond Hands To Millionaire, But Wait…

Only 10.000 Bored Apes exist. All of them were minted for 0.08ETH each. The photographer John Knopf was one of the lucky people that believed in the project from the get-go and was greatly rewarded. This is his story. “I bought my ape for .08 on minting night and just sold it for 347 ETH. (…) I am crying so much. Thank you Bored Ape Yacht Club for completely changing my life and everyone in the community!”

I bought my ape for .08 on minting night and just sold it for 347 ETH. I am at a loss for words right now. I am crying so much. Thank you @BoredApeYC for completely changing my life and everyone in the community!!!! And thank you @_jeffnicholas_ for telling us all to buy them! https://t.co/BxeexYDmM7 pic.twitter.com/FuKtrFwhdH

— John Knopf (@JohnKnopfPhotos) December 12, 2021

The person who told him to buy completes the heartwarming story. “Going from degening into Bored Ape Yacht Club because I liked the art, to telling John Knopf to ape in that fateful Friday night (…) I’m so so so happy for you. Massive. Massive for you, and for the BAYC community.”

Going from degening into @BoredApeYC because I liked the art, to telling @JohnKnopfPhotos to ape in that fateful Friday night when he was all 🍄🤪, to this result 8mo later. Wow. @JohnKnopfPhotos I’m so so so happy for you. Massive. Massive for you, and for the BAYC community. https://t.co/bJTE83XLKl pic.twitter.com/snhIlLRi63

— jeffnicholas.eth 🍌🏴‍☠️🙏🏼✨ (@_jeffnicholas_) December 12, 2021

But wait, what is this? The Ethereum blockchain shows that John Knopf sent 230 ETH back to the wallet that bought his Bored Ape.

And then he transfer 230E to the wallet that bought the Ape?

I dont get it pic.twitter.com/f2UgKrKS2W

— !etavares (@Eurico_RT) December 12, 2021

But wait, what is this? The owner of the wallet did send a message to John Knopf through the blockchain asking him to return the funds. Apparently, he was trying to make a bid and made a million Dollar mistake.

Yo yo @JohnKnopfPhotos is not in the WRONG

Buyer fucked up the offer. Chill out y'allhttps://t.co/fPOsXeITnr pic.twitter.com/iiG4mD0Tm0

— jiran.eth | Sherblock Nodes (@Jiran_z) December 12, 2021

The New Bored Ape Owner Shared His Side Of The Story

A few days later, Deepak Thapliyal, the Bored Ape 9452’s new owner, told his story. “I decided I wanted this ape no matter what (…) I knew I wanted it, so originally I moved 655 ETH into my wallet because I was actually prepared to buy it at full ask.”

6/ Here comes the interesting part. The message signed in the blockchain wasn’t the __full story__ on how I mistakenly sent the eth but was the high level overview of it as far as anyone publicly needed to be concerned at the time.

— Deepak Thapliyal (@dt_chain) December 12, 2021

He wasn’t actually making a bid, but checking John Knopf’s wallet activity in Etherscan. However, “After I placed my originally bid, I had to move 230 ETH to another wallet in mobile. I _thought_ the copy button for the address I was sending too was pressed properly. PS: I was multi tasking.” Here we go, multitasking takes another victim. 

11/ I finally took spaces out manually via a mobile phone (took a few mins) then missed a space and had to do it again (mind you I’m moving quickly to try to get the message out ASAP). Finally getting the message out but no funds were sent back. Thankfully I found Johns Twitter.

— Deepak Thapliyal (@dt_chain) December 12, 2021

Deepak found Knopf’s on Twitter, and “I tweeted at him and he followed so I could DM him. I explained my story and told him how I wanted his ape. He quickly informed me he had no intentions to keep my money and would send it back. He asked if I wanted the ape still which I said “yes”.” They agreed on a price and the rest is history. “Funny story to tell my kids one day when I give them this ape.  Thanks to John for being a standup guy and returning my ETH.”

14/ Odd way to start but very nostalgic to “aping in” as it goes. Funny story to tell my kids one day when I give them this ape. Thanks to John for being a standup guy and returning my ETH and giving me a discount of what I was prepared to spend already.

— Deepak Thapliyal (@dt_chain) December 12, 2021

Facts And Burning Questions

And that’s pretty much it. Do you buy Deepak Thapliyal’s story? Was it an innocent mistake? Or do you think he and Knopf were up to something? The high price buy raises all of the Bored Ape’s prices, specially Bored Ape 9452’s value. However, the blockchain doesn’t lie and Knopf ended up with 347 ETH total.

Related Reading | Miramax Sues Quentin Tarantino Over “Pulp Fiction” NFTs. Tarantino Moves Forward

You have all the facts and every side of the story. Reach your own conclusions.

Featured Image: Screenshot from the Bored Ape’s website | Charts by TradingView

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Bleeple’s “Human One,” A Sculpture + NFT Hybrid, Sold For $28.9M At Christie’s

Digital artist Bleeple cemented his place in the history books with this one. Auction house Christie’s sold his human-size 3D video sculpture and NFT hybrid in their first live event since the pandemic. The piece exceeded expectations, the projections had “Human One” selling for $15M and it almost doubled that. Does this hybrid format open a new chapter for NFT art? We wouldn’t know, but Bleeple’s piece sold alongside works from Jean-Michel Basquiat, Banksy, and Peter Doig.

Related Reading | NFTs And Play-To-Earn Are The Future Of Gaming, States EA CEO

A better question might be, are NFT artists willing to put this much effort into their pieces? 

What Do We Know About “Human One” By Bleeple?

The real-life installation is almost 7 Ft. high and consists of four screens. It has a computer at the base. The environment the astronaut-like figure walks through is ever-changing. According to Christie’s “it’s drawn at random from a data pool of the artist’s visual creations that is accessed via the Ethereum blockchain.” Not only that, Barrons.com informs us that “Beeple’s plan is to shift the generative art images over time “in response to current events,” Christie’s said. The result will be “an eternally contemporary work of art.” 

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ https://t.co/5phhwNZaxV

— beeple (@beeple) November 10, 2021

But wait, why would they use the Ethereum blockchain where a normal database would suffice? We hope that the owner doesn’t have to pay gas fees for that. The clips are one minute long and the piece keeps changing 24 hours a day.  In any case, Ethereum hosts the NFT attached to “Human One.” A crucial piece of the pie, since Bleeple is known for his record-breaking “Everydays – The First 5000 Days.” It was the first NFT Christie’s auctioned and it went for $69M.  

In any case, Mike Winkelmann AKA Bleeple described “Human One” as “the first portrait of a human born in the metaverse.” He told Christie’s, “I want to make something that people can continue to come back to and find new meaning in. And the meaning will continue to evolve. That to me is super-exciting. It feels like I now have this whole other canvas.”

ETH price chart for 11/10/2021 on Kraken | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
What Do We Know About The Auction And The New Owner?

According to Barrons again, “the auction focused on art created since 1980.” The event was “live-streamed to the world with specialists in London and Hong Kong manning the phones and projected on video screens in New York.“ The following videos capture all the action. In the first one, Bleeple himself gives us a backstage tour to Christie’s headquarters. In the second one, a fan screen-captured the moment in which the auctioneer sells Bleeple’s piece.

pic.twitter.com/mrBrYZfXOM

— Alex Roman (@3rd7th) November 10, 2021

Related Reading | Why Chainlink Labs Is Collabing With Palm Network NFT Space’s Development

Why do they say $25M in the video but the official Christie’s page says $28.9M? That information is above our paygrade. We did find who the lucky new owner is, though. Crypto-focused family office Dialectic’s Managing Director, Ryan Zurrer. A notorious NFT collector that used to be the Web3 Foundation’s director. In his announcement tweet, Zurrer thanked Bleeple “for the visionary innovation, amazing new energy and hilarious positive vibes that you’ve brought to both crypto and art.”

Secured the ONE. Thank you @beeple for the visionary innovation, amazing new energy and hilarious positive vibes that you've brought to both crypto and art. gn pic.twitter.com/XfhmxM9Luj

— Ryan Zurrer (@kukulabanze) November 10, 2021

In his response tweet, Bleeple said “INSANELY HONORED to be in this collection.”

That’s the “Human One” story so far.

Featured Image: “Human One” screenshot | Charts by TradingView

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17% Of Ethereum Addresses Hold Majority Of NFTs

Ethereum NFTs have gained the most clout in the crypto space. These NFTs have recorded sales of up to 69.3% for a single piece of artwork. Investors are moving towards owning NFTs as a form of long-term investment in addition to their cryptocurrency holdings. Although other blockchains are coming up where NFTs can be minted, the majority of it still happens on Ethereum.

This is why investors have flocked towards non-fungible tokens minted on the blockchain. Its growing popularity has led to some striking similarities with the pattern of holding seen in cryptocurrencies. For example, the same way whales are a thing in cryptocurrencies, there are also NFT whales, and new data coming out of the market shows that whales are dominating NFTs the same way they dominate cryptocurrencies.

Related Reading | Five Hidden Gems in NFTs – Well, Not Hidden Anymore

Whales Take The Lead On NFTs

Moonstream published a report on Github analyzing the movement of non-fungible tokens over the past six months. This time period has been very significant in the growth of the NFT space and the report had some interesting findings.

It found that over 80% of all non-fungible tokens are held by only 17% of wallets. Leaving less than 20% of NFTs for the rest of the market. NFT platforms, exchanges, and most importantly, whales, have been grabbing up non-fungible tokens at an increased rate over the past six months, putting them at an advantage over the rest of the market. This is mirroring the cryptocurrency market which shows similar figures for volume held by whales and smaller investors.

Moonstream analyzed over 7 million NFTs transactions for the past six months on the Ethereum blockchain. This analysis led to the conclusion that the remaining 83.29% of the NFT market holds only a handful of it.

Creating Room For Nuance

The data presented in the report included NFT platforms where investors buy and sell their NFTs. It is important to note that since these platforms also offer storage services, NFTs being stored on the platforms are factored into this.

Small-time NFT investors could very well decide to leave their acquisitions on these platforms to enable them to sell easily, much like cryptocurrency investors leaving their assets on exchanges in order to move very quickly with the market.

Related Reading | CryptoDragons: A Unique NFT Project With Entertainment and Earning Elements

In the report, Moonstream explains that more nuance is needed in the interpretation of the data presented, “as many of those owners are marketplaces and clearinghouses lie OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, and other platforms of the same ilk.”

Nevertheless, just like in any market, there are always stark inequalities. A small percentage usually controls the largest market share and given the barriers to entry in the non-fungible token market, small-time investors will control an insignificant portion of the market.

Featured image from Forbes, chart from TradingView.com