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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 – What Is The Proof Collective And Who’s Behind It?

The mysterious organization known as The Proof Collective defines itself as “a private members only collective of 1,000 dedicated NFT collectors and artists.” To join the Proof Collective someone would have to, you guessed it, own their NFT. So, in theory, anybody can be a part of it. In practice, though, the floor price for one of their passes is around 88 ETH at the time of writing. The size of the investment keeps the undesirables away.

The Proof Collective is all about NFTs. Because it’s the law, they run a private Discord in which you can probably receive the biggest alpha available. The organization also provides NFT info via its social media, produces a podcast in which they interview the biggest names in the NFT world, and, reportedly, owns a huge NFT collection.  At least its members do.

According to the website, those members own 153K NFTs, including 148 CryptoPunks and 817 Bored Apes. Who are those members?  We wouldn’t know for sure. Its founders are Kevin Rose, of Diggs fame, and illustrator Justin Mezzell. And it has been widely reported that the Proof Collective gave free memberships to digital artist Bleeple and motivational speaker and NFT millionaire Gary Vee. 

Enter The Influencers

In the following video, one of the Proof Collective founding members, Internet legend and Diggs co-founder Kevin Rose, says. “This is the very beginning of what’s going to be a multi-decade journey to build a new media company.” 

He also promises that Proof will combat FUD that comes with success by constantly shipping product. Moonbirds holders can expect benefits, airdrops, and physical objects related to the nascent brand.

What Is The Proof Collective?

The Proof Collective NFTs’ main benefit is the world’s most valuable currency: information. Besides a social club of sorts, the organization believes in “group bottoms-up-driven research.” Plus, some members are early NFT adopters that own all of the projects you hear about on social media and are actively looking for the next one. If you play your cards right and the gods smile in your direction, that  Proof Collective NFT might pay for itself in a few months.

The organization takes things one step further, though. As “a new media company,” The Proof Collective produces and releases its own NFT masterpieces. Their first product where the Grails, which mint was solely for the members of the organization and had the slogan, “20 artists. 20 unique pieces of art. Artist names revealed after the mint.” So far, they’ve unveiled art by Tyler Hobbs, Claire Silver, Mike Shinoda, Larva Labs, Rachel Ryle, and Gary Vaynerchuk among others.

The Proof Collective’s second product was the incredibly successful Moonbirds, who conquered the world on a bearish market. “There are a total of 10K Moonbirds, they were issued under the ERC-721 standard on the Ethereum blockchain. The mint price for each one was a whopping 2.5 ETH. That means that, at current prices, the Proof Collective made over $70M on that first day,” our report said.

At the moment, the floor price for the Proof Collective NFT is 88 ETH, which at today’s exchange rate is more than $200K. And the prices of the listed for sale ones go up to a whopping 700 ETH. Currently, these NFT tickets sit at #17 in Cryptoslam’s “NFT Collection Rankings by Sales Volume” list. The project has sold more than $800K in the last 24 hours and more than $52M since the Proof Collective’s creation. 

BTC price chart for 05/10/2022 on Gemini | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
We Need A Little Controversy

Look, they don’t have any proof (no pun intended), but NFTethics suggests there’s something shady going on. “Some mentioned that we should check the purchases of proof collective, as many wallets only contains the proof collection and the floor is now 88 ETH. Wash trading is so common (…) these days that it’s not even noteworthy anymore.”

3/ Also nepotism is completely standard in the NFT space, so the fact that GaryVee (Gennady), his brother AJ, Beeple and some old friends received the Proof collective for free is standard. We saw quite a lot of other "old" friends that received the proof collective for free/$3. pic.twitter.com/o20NOgfIM4

— NFT Ethics (@NFTethics) April 15, 2022

Wash Trading is the process of buying and selling an asset in order to increase its perceived price. “In some situations, wash trades are executed by a trader and a broker who are colluding with each other, and other times wash trades are executed by investors acting as both the buyer and the seller of the security,” according to Investopedia.

Could the Proof Collective have done that? Maybe. But there’s no evidence, all of this is mere speculation.

In Conclusion

The Proof Collective entered the NFT space with a bang. The space has never seen an ascension this fast and a track record this clean. So far, they’ve done everything right. Does that guarantee future success? No, it doesn’t. But it certainly is impressive.

Check the previous edition of the Blue Chips NFT 101 series, Solana’s “DeGods.”

Featured Image: Proof Collective NFT, promotional image from their site | Charts by TradingView

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The Top 5 Most Valuable NFT Collections And A Tool To Track Them Down

Some of these NFT collections are so ever-present that they are already part of the collective unconscious. Others, the general public has not even heard about.  What makes an NFT collection valuable? Market capitalization is the potential value of the whole collection, based on its size and the value of the individual pieces. In the case of NFTs, it’s hard to pinpoint, because it’s a volatile market with lots of action all-day-every-day.

Agreeing on which are the most valuable #NFTs collections is certainly hard.

We created a matrix called "Most Valuable NFTs Collections" and it shows the 20 most valuable collections, sorted by their market capitalization.

Access this data for free here: https://t.co/wXJyMCmRBD pic.twitter.com/PyzbPMDKCk

— IntoTheBlock (@intotheblock) April 21, 2022

When IntoTheBlock announced their list, they presented it by saying, “Agreeing on which are the most valuable NFTs collections is certainly hard.” Besides market capitalization, the “Most Valuable NFT Collections” list tracks number of owners, volume trade, average price, and number of sales. All of those stats are pretty common when discussing NFTs, but it’s certainly helpful to have them all on an interactive database.

The page also displays useful graphs that put everything into perspective, like “All-time Most Traded Collections,” “Collections With Most Unique Owners” and “Booming NFT Collections.” With that being said, let’s dive into each of the collections in the Top 5 and give some insight about them.

#1 NFT Collection: Bored Ape Yacht Club

At the moment, the BAYC surpassed the all-powerful Cryptopunks as the most valuable NFT collection. This is not surprising, since the Bored Apes became part of popular culture and are on their way to becoming mainstream. On their official site, they describe themselves as “A limited NFT collection where the token itself doubles as your membership to a swamp club for apes. The club is open! Ape in with us.”

As with most successful products, the Yuga Labs creation doesn’t come without its share of controversy. 

#2 Cryptopunks

They might not have been the firsts, but the Cryptopunks are certainly responsible for spearheading and popularizing the NFT movement. At first, you could mint them for free. Nowadays, the average price is 76.64 ETH. On their official site, they describe themselves as “The Cryptopunks are one of the earliest examples of a “Non-Fungible Token” on Ethereum, and were inspiration for the ERC-721 standard that powers most digital art and collectibles.”

The creators recently sold the whole collection to Yuga Labs. And, of course, controversy follows this project as well. And, they’re also on their way to mainstream adoption.

ETH price chart on Capital.com | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
#3 NFT Collection: Mutant Ape Yacht Club

At first, these ones were free as well. They came into the scene as a way to reward BAYC members. Owners received an airdrop of “Mutant Serum,” using it they could mint a mutant version of their ape as a completely new NFT. Nowadays, the average price is 32.99 ETH. They don’t have an official site, but this is the NFT collection’s Open Sea page. As you can see by its place on this list, the interest in this collection keeps growing.

#4 CloneX

The collaboration between legendary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and “digital artifacts” creator RTFKT is a success like no other. This might have to do with Nike’s recent acquisition of the company. The NFT collection ’s official site doesn’t describe itself, but NFT News does, “CloneX NFT collection is not only equipped for the Metaverse and features high-end avatars, but also marks the beginning of a community-focused environment ”

#5 NFT Collection: Moonbirds

The newcomer of the bunch is the Moonbirds NFT Collection. Their official site describes them as, “a collection of 10,000 utility-enabled PFPs that feature a richly diverse and unique pool of rarity-powered traits.” Since they’re so new, they’re easily beating all of the other collections in number of daily sales. Of course, the NewsBTC team has been covering the story as it happens.

Other NFT collections in the Top 10: Azuki, Sandbox’s LANDs, Doodles, Veefriends, and Meebits.

Featured Image: the most valuable list, taken from this tweet | 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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$2M+ In Bids Already Placed For The First Dolce & Gabbana NFT Collection

The auction for the digital items of Dolce & Gabbana ’s Collezione Genesi ends tomorrow. From a total of nine pieces, five have a physical and a digital version, which reportedly are wearables that can be used in the metaverse. This is the first high-fashion meets NFTs moment, but it certainly won’t be the last. Besides the competitors that are surely going to pop out soon, Dolce & Gabbana themselves are planning a whole lot more in the space.

Related Reading | NFT Project To Donate 100% Of Income To Help Afghan Women Access Education

But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The official auction site describes the collection as:

“In a historic moment for the NFT ecosystem, Collezione Genesi is the first luxury NFT collection that involves both digital and physical works, truly bridging the physical and the metaphysical.”

The legendary fashion brand, Dolce & Gabbana, is working alongside UNXD, who describe themselves as “a curated marketplace for the best of digital culture.” They inform us that “All pieces were personally designed by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana exclusively for UNXD.” Here’s a phenomenal video showing the nine available items, but, make sure to notice that since it was published the bids have doubled up. And the number will probably increase tomorrow.

.@dolcegabbana's Genesi collection already has $1M+ in bids, 5 days before the end of the auction! 🔥

The collection is amazing and sets new standards in many ways.

Bidding is live at https://t.co/yy33o56Vxs; powered by @0xPolygon so everything is fast and there are no fees. 💫 pic.twitter.com/hdeJ8qjMJC

— Mihailo Bjelic (@MihailoBjelic) September 25, 2021

Also, notice that the tweet comes from Polygon’s co-founder Mihailo Bjelic. The Dolce & Gabbana ’s NFTs live on the Polygon network.

MATIC price chart on Bittrex | Source: MATIC/USD on TradingView.com
Dolce & Gabbana Hits First And Hits Hard

Even to the casual observer, it’s obvious that Dolce & Gabbana ’s Collezione Genesi is a well-thought-out project. Their advisors knew what they were doing.  As we said, the NFTs come with a digital wearable piece. They also include a handmade sketch of the piece, and, more importantly, access to a community.

As NewsBTC established when analyzing Gary Vee’s Christie’s auction, community and access might be as important as the art when it comes to NFTs. The Dolce & Gabbana team obviously understands that, so they’re offering two crucial items with their genesis collection. 1.- A 3-day pass to Dolce & Gabbana ‘s “Alta Moda couture,“ the brand’s own biggest event for next year. The pass includes access to all the shows and parties. Plus, a private atelier tour. 2.- Membership to the DGFamily NFT community.

For a better explanation of that last item, let’s quote UNXD:

“Dolce & Gabbana will next roll out the #DGFamily NFT community. 4 exclusive levels, including an ultra-exclusive gold level whose inaugural members will be the winners of this Genesis auction. A similar approach to digital + physical + experiential access.”

So, this auction is the first step in a journey of a thousand miles, so to speak. Dolce & Gabbana is all in on the NFT space.

1/8 The bids for the magnificent @dolcegabbana's NFT collection have reached $2M+! 🔥

This game-changing collection offers items, utilities and experiences that have never been seen in the NFT world before! 💫

The auction for the four digital items ends tomorrow.

A quick 🧵 pic.twitter.com/O6lwIudCXd

— Mihailo Bjelic (@MihailoBjelic) September 27, 2021

High Fashion And NFTs Belong Together

When our sister site Bitcoinist announced Dolce & Gabbana ‘s NFT collection, they made a great point:

“What’s more, high fashion and acquiring expensive items is not about necessity. Rather, it caters to being part of the luxury culture and communicating status. In many ways, NFTs also fit this bill, in that, they too have become indicative of status.”

However, for the fusion to succeed, there needs to be a landmark case. A moment that makes everyone involved see the light. Is this Dolce & Gabbana collection it? Well, it mixes the crypto universe with the real world and it’s backed by a legendary brand, but, is that enough? 

1/Bids on the @DolceGabbana x UNXD collection have already crossed 500 ETH (~$1.5M). This collection took an insane 16,000 hours of collective time to create, and the offer is unrivaled (digital, physical, experiential). What makes it so historic? 🧵👇https://t.co/DJnXW8YW5j

— UNXD (@UNXD_NFT) September 26, 2021

According to UNXD, the collection took the creators “an insane 16,000 hours of collective time.” It consists of “9 one-of-a-kind pieces that will never be made again.” So, you know?, it’s rare. Also, “Many of the pieces used creation techniques that are only known by a handful of people alive today. This is museum-grade work.” To top it all off, they promise, “These pieces look and “feel” real and will change how people think of digital assets.” 

Related Reading | How Polygon Will Seek To Strengthen DeFi With $2 Million Bug Bounty

That sounds incredible, but, it also opens a question. In what metaverse will they be wearable, exactly? Which one of your digital avatars will you be able to crown with “The Impossible Tiara” or “The Doge Crown”?

Featured Image by NeONBRAND on Unsplash – Charts by TradingView

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Christie’s Will Auction Original Art From Gary Vee ‘s Veefriends NFT Collection

Notorious entrepreneur and social media personality, Gary Vee, is now a full-blown artist. The legendary auction house Christie’s crowned him as so by announcing the sale of five of the original pieces from his Veefriends NFT collection. Is this new development positive for NFT mania? Is it positive for Veefriends holders? What does it say about the current state of the arts? So many questions.

Related Reading | In The Mood For Auction: Wong Kar-Wai ‘s First NFT Available At Sotheby’s

First of all, these are the five pieces that Christie’s will auction:

Christie’s pic.twitter.com/YGxkeyZ3KE

— Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) September 14, 2021

On the Veefriends official site, the NFT collection is defined as:

“VeeFriends is the name of Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT collection. He created VeeFriends to bring to life his ambitions of building a community around his creative and business passions using NFT technology and their smart contract capabilities. By owning a VeeFriend NFT, you immediately become part of the VeeFriends community and get access to VeeCon.”

So, maybe Gary Vee ’s credentials as an artist are lacking, but he’s a titan at generating value. Maybe his childlike drawings are not that aesthetically pleasing, but Gary Vee’s ability to generate community around an idea is a proven fact. And his drive to win is unmatched. Which characteristics are more important for an NFT project? What are Veefriend’s holders investing in?

At the moment of writing, Open Sea informs that the floor price for a Veefriend is 18,4 ETH. According to CNN, Veefriends “amasses $70M in sales since launch in May.”

ETH price chart for 09/14/2021 on Bitstamp | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
CNN’s First Move Announces Gary Vee/ Christie’s Auction

The man himself, Gary Vee, went on CNN to announce that Veefriend’s original art is to be auctioned by the legendary Christie’s. How much value for his NFT holders did this move create?

“People underestimated this project in the OG NFT-land, and this is another execution that’s not going to allow them to underestimate it anymore.”@garyvee announces he's bringing five personal artworks from his #NFT collection @veefriends to @ChristiesInc!@IsaCNN | #NFTart pic.twitter.com/dikTsu5iW8

— First Move CNN (@firstmove) September 14, 2021

When host Isa Soares asked Gary Vee about the reasons behind partnering with Christie’s, besides dedicating the win to his parents, he said:

“Why? Because it elevates the brand. I have people who are watching right now that own the gorilla, own the tiger, own the “you’re gonna die” fly. This is my Disney. This is my Pokemon. This is my character IP based reality and I’m going to build this for the next 40 to 50 years.“

Isn’t that exactly what you want to hear if you’re a Veefriends holder? Commitment. Through a huge platform. Gary Vee ’s community appreciated and understood the impact of the moment, as this video shows:

Jeeez! The @veefriends discord is on fire! 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🔥🔥🔥🔥😭 @garyvee! pic.twitter.com/QdxYFSbuTQ

— ℂ𝕒𝕡𝕦𝕥(ℂ𝕣𝕪𝕡𝕥𝕠)𝔻𝕣𝕒𝕘𝕠𝕟𝕚𝕤🦋 (@CryptoDragonis) September 14, 2021

Another quote from the CNN interview:

“People underestimated this project in the OG NFT-land, and this is another execution that’s not going to allow them to underestimate it anymore.”

In light of the announcement, it’s hard to argue with that.

The story behind the slabs and the drawings and the auction at @ChristiesInc pic.twitter.com/7ZNLWD9kAY

— Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) September 14, 2021

The Veefriends Are Doing It In Their Own Way

Not everything in NFT-land is about the art. Not everything in the Veefriends is about childlike drawings. As we learned from Bitcoinist’s “The Andy Milonakis NFT Show,” “The NFT world has got its own characteristics, though, and a sense of belonging is one of the main ones. The Bored Apes are part of a Yacht Club. The Gutter Cats are part of a Gang.”

Related Reading | New To Bitcoin? Learn To Trade Crypto With The NewsBTC Trading Course

Gary Vee understands this better than everyone. From the Veefriends site:

“VeeFriends are all about utility and access, meaning each NFT will have different levels of access and activities through the smart contract attached with each investment thus giving them “utility” through metadata. Over the last 15 years, he has spent time interacting with hundreds of thousands of people — what VeeFriends will allow will be a structure around these interactions.

The token is the key that unlocks you into Gary’s world.”

The drawings somehow connect to the hundreds of meetings with entrepreneurs young and old that Gary Vee has had through the years. And give you access to that world. The NFT collection is an extension of Gary Vee ‘s work.

It will always be “AND” when it comes to art 🖼 .. “OR” always losses historically pic.twitter.com/jQaIYV0mJG

— Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) September 14, 2021

“There’s just so many ways to do it, and I cheer for them all,” says Gary Vee regarding NFTs. In light of the Christie’s announcement, it’s hard to argue with that.

Featured Image: The five Christie’s pieces as per this tweet | Charts by TradingView