Posted on

Google Plays Nice With NFTs, Starbucks Puts Ex-MLB Star’s NFT Project on Deck

This week, Google made a big shift in their policy towards NFTs, allowing apps in the Google Play store to include the ability to buy, sell or earn tokenized assets. Meanwhile, Starbucks Odyssey, the brand’s Web3 loyalty program, announced their next Stamp would be “designed by Aku,” the NFT character launched by former LA Dodgers player-turned-artist Micah Johnson. In other news, Snoop Doog and a16z-backed decentralized music venture Sound announced a $20 million funding round and we got another “phygital” sneaker drop.

Posted on

Blue Chip NFTs 101 – Down, Down, To Goblintown. An Unlikely Success Story

Goblintown ‘s rise to the top is one for the books. The Moonbirds came into prominence in a bearish market, but the Goblins took over in the middle of a global recession and the NFTs first winter. How did these misfits do it? Using confusion, misdirection, FOMO, and a great marketing plan that took everyone by surprise. People weren’t sure of what was happening, but they didn’t want to stay out of the party. 

The creators of Goblintown made it easy for them. First of all, the project was a free mint. Second, it uses a Creative Commons Zero license, which means no Copyright and the possibility of commercializing the Goblin drawings as needed. Third, even though the hype was there, they didn’t use influencers, cross promotions, or whitelisting. Maybe because of that, the mint didn’t generate a gas war like many other successful projects.

Goblintown ‘s Unusual Launch

Launched on May 22, 2022, the generative collection runs over the Ethereum blockchain. From the beginning, Goblintown promised, “No roadmap. No Discord. No utility. CC0. Contract wasn’t actually written by goblins.” The other sentence that stands out from Goblintown’s website is: “Don’t be f*cking greedy. That’s how we got ourselves here.” This suggests that the collection serves as a commentary on the NFT market and culture. And that’s not the only clue pointing that way. 

On the slightly negative side, the royalties are a whopping 10% and the creators set aside 1000 NFTs for their other projects’ holders. Considering Goblintown was a free mint, those two factors don’t seem that bad. So far, the main collection has generated 43.9K ETH in total sale volume and has a 3.1 ETH floor price at Opensea. For a moment there, Goblintown was so hot that it flipped the almighty Bored Ape Yacht Club and became the highest-selling collection for a day or two. 

The Mystery Of Goblintown’s Creators

At first, they thought it was notorious NFT artist Beeple. Then, that the infamous Yuga Labs was behind the project. For a time there, people even believed that the brain and voice behind “Beavis And Butthead” and “King of the Hill,” Mike Judge was Goblintown’s creator. And, since one of the Goblins kind of looks like Snoop Dogg, that rumor circulated too. It made sense because people still believe that Snoop is famed NFT collector Cozomo de’ Medici, even though that story proved to be false.

The only one that came forward and addressed the rumors was Beeple, who tweeted, “insane I have to say this, but I have not joined any shockingly low effort pump and dump projects that will remain nameless.” Later, as the Goblintown project proved its worth, the creator changed his tune and tweeted the piece “The rise and fall of Goblintown” together with the hashtag “#iamthefounder.”

However, Beeple was not the founder. Seeing Goblintown’s immense success, the mysterious creators had to doxx themselves. Just in time for the NFT NYC conference, they released a message in which they admitted that Truth Labs was behind the project. The company was behind the mildly successful NFT collections Illuminati Collective and The 187, and struck gold with their third outing.  

On Truth’s website they define themselves as:

“We are dedicated to sharing delightful blockchain mischief, exploring creatively, developing rich, fun worlds and experiences (both IRL and in the digital realm), and providing a platform for new voices and visions in this space.”

In a strange turn of events, as the creators doxxed themselves, Goblintown’s floor price fell from almost 5 ETH to a little over 3 ETH. 

ETH price chart for 07/16/2022 on Binance | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
The Collection’s Iconography

The Goblintown name comes from The Hobbit, specifically from a J.R.R. Tolkien poem called “Down, Down, To Goblin Town.” That name also suggests that the collection serves as a commentary on the NFT market in the crypto winter. Are there other clues? Several. For example, one goblin like Dj and producer Steve Aoki, who’s a notorious NFT collector. Another one wears a t-shirt that says “Phunks, Zunks, Tendies, Azuki,” a clear reference to Azuki’s creator and all of his rugged previous projects.

Yet another one of the traits is a reference to the infamous Mike Novogratz’s Luna tattoo, and thus a commentary on Terra’s collapse. 

And, what about this image that references a lot of blue chip NFT projects and is titled “Up, Up, To Goblintown.” 

And well, speaking about Steve Aoki, he was the Dj at Goblintown’s highly coveted NFT NYC party. There, he premiered the horrible NFT song “Piss On the Dance Floor (Goblintown Anthem).“ You can still buy it at a reasonable price here. And, speaking about NFT NYC, for better or worse, Goblintown managed to be the center of attention throughout the whole conference. 

What a story.

Featured Image: Screenshot from their site | Charts by TradingView

Posted on

Blue Chip NFTs 101: The World Of Women Collection, Including And Conquering

The World Of Women NFT collection has great marketing, strong leadership, and first-mover advantage. Plus, a flourishing community. Also, behind the punks and the apes, these ladies seem to have the biggest celebrity support. From World of Women’s partner Reese Witherspoon to Eva Longoria, to Bryce Dallas Howard; from Snoop Dogg to Gary Vee, everyone wants to be a part of the club. 

Launched in July 2021, the WoW digital collectibles are technically ERC-721 tokens. The collection lives in the Ethereum blockchain, and its high-quality images are hosted on IPFS. Like most successful NFT collections, the images aim at becoming profile pictures or PFPs. The World Of Women consists of 10,000 unique algorithmically generated pieces. The collection’s main artist is Yam Karkai.

Among other things, World Of Women holders get immediate intellectual property rights over the piece they own. And they can download a high-resolution version with ease to use it as they please. They become automatic voting members of DAWOW, the DAO that controls the World Of Women community. And they’re part of a club that each month receives “ArtDrops,” free NFTs from interesting artists from around the world directly into their inbox. Plus, they also get members-only discounts, raffles, pre-sales, and mint passes. 

So, utility is strong in this NFT collection. The main reward, though, is being part of an organization that’s a net positive for women and inclusion worldwide. So far, World Of Women has donated over $250K from the collection’s royalties to women-centric charities all over the world. They even have their own nonprofit, Too Young to Wed’s “mission is to empower girls and end child marriage globally.” World Of Women also commits a percentage of their royalties to buy 1/1 NFTs from women-centric artists.

Recent World Of Women Projects

According to World Of Women’s About Us, this is the organization’s vision:

“WoW’s vision is to build an inclusive web3 through its collection and community. According to research published in Nov. 2021, female artists accounted for just 5% of all NFT art sales in the prior 21 months. WoW is on a mission to change this.”

The original World Of Women collection is only available on the secondary market, the floor price at OpenSea is 4 ETH and the collection has a total transaction volume of 70.8 ETH. Recently, the organization sold out its second collection, World Of Women Galaxy. Holders of the originals got a free mint and retail customers could mint them for 0.3 ETH. The idea was to lower the entry price to get new people into the community. Currently, the secondary market values the WoWGalaxy collection at a 0.47 ETH floor price at OpenSea. So, the entry price is still low.

Related Reading | Blue Chip NFTs 101 – How Did Moonbirds Conquer The World In A Bearish Market?

More recently, in March this year, World Of Women announced a partnership with the Sandbox metaverse. Both organizations launched the WoW Foundation with the objective of promoting diversity both in the NFT world and the metaverse.

The organization has also created derivative pieces, like the Mother Earth Muse collection. For these limited-edition NFTs, they gave eight photographers the task of recreating some of the classic original WoW pieces. With actresses, in the real world. All of the profits from this endeavor went to the artists, the WoW community, and charity organizations.

ETH price chart for 07/01/2022 on Poloniex | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
WoW As Art Collectors

The WoWFund curates the collection, places bids, and acquires. The fund announces all of its moves through the organization’s Twitter feed. The funding comes from 15% of the primary sale royalties. The WoWFund’s focus is 1/1 NFTs, as opposed to generative art collections like World of Women. 

The organization recently unveiled the World of Women Museum in the metaverse. The Sandbox described it as “a breathtaking shrine that will highlight the work collected by the WoW Fund, which aims to bring visibility to outstanding artists in the Web3 space.”

World Of Women ’s Real-World Impact

The organization is committed to bringing more women into DeFi and Web3. Reportedly, World of Women will create an academy geared toward educating women and guiding them through this wild-wild world. The academy will focus on minority and underrepresented groups. 

Besides that, the organization recently held a meetup in meatspace, more specifically in Los Angeles. The event was such a success, that WoW’s community manager tweeted: “WoW & WoWG holders, if you’re interested in hosting meet-ups in your city but don’t know where to start – tag me on our discord! let’s do more of these.” And announced a meetup in NY and another in Toronto.

Last but not least, World Of Women recently closed its participation in the NFT NYC conference with a performance by no other than Madonna.

On the left there, Yam Karkai, WoW’s main artist. Oh, and speaking about celebrities…

What Does Reese Witherspoon Have To Do With It?

The actress’ production company, Hello Sunshine, signed “a storytelling partnership” with World of Women. The idea is to create “entertainment properties” based on their IP and produce a “live event” in conjunction with other women-centric NFT projects. Variety quotes Reese Witherspoon detailing the plans:

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

“We’re proud to partner with WoW to expand their universe of characters and to develop innovative scripted and unscripted content. We look forward to engaging with the remarkable WoW community at every step of this partnership and creating opportunities for WoW holders to work collaboratively with Hello Sunshine on transforming the WoW art into powerful stories.”

Will something come out of it? Will the public react favorably to it? Hollywood is a harsh mistress, nothing is guaranteed. If Reese and World of Women succeed, though, it could translate into big things for this collection’s holders. The WoW story is just beginning.

Featured Image: Screenshot from WoW’s website| Charts by TradingView

Posted on

ApeCoin Climbs 22% After Snoop Dogg-Eminem Bored Ape Video Launch

ApeCoin (APE), the native Ethereum currency of the famous NFT collection, is one of the fastest-growing NFT and Metaverse crypto projects in the blockchain ecosystem today.

Upon its March 18, 2022 launch, ApeCoin instantly began a parabolic climb. The rally’s apex allowed Apecoin’s market capitalization to reach $7.45 billion.

The APE token was valued at $4.92 at the time of writing, down marginally from its morning high of $5.26. In the past week, ApeCoin has increased by more than 35%.

As of Friday, intraday trading volume for APE has plummeted by 43%. This indicates that APE is receiving peer selling pressure and is approaching the consolidation phase’s bottom trendline. The volume to market cap ratio of the coin is 0.3129.

Suggested Reading – Uniswap Slingshots 45% – Can UNI Blaze Past Its 7-Day Rally?

ApeCoin Getting Some Lift From Rappers

The price of ApeCoin reached an all-time high of over $27 in late April ahead of virtual land NFT sales for the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Otherside metaverse game.

ApeCoin holders can vote on ApeCoin DAO governance proposals using ApeCoin.

The recent price increase of APE may have been partially prompted by the release of a new music video featuring Snoop Dogg and Eminem as animated versions of their Bored Ape avatars.

In the music video for their new single “From The D 2 The LBC,” Snoop Dogg and Eminem get stoned and transform into animated versions of their BAYC avatars.

The song debuted at the conclusion of this year’s ApeFest, an annual New York event for BAYC NFT holders.

At the end of last year, Eminem purchased his Bored Ape for 123.45 ETH (USD $452,000). His OpenSea account, Shady Holdings, displays 26 additional NFT purchases.

APE total market cap at $1.47 billion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com
Snoop Dogg & Eminem Video Fly High

Snoop Dogg possesses numerous NFTs and has long been steeped in cryptoculture. He exposed himself to be the popular NFT Twitter user Cozomo di Medici a year ago. In February, he declared his intention to transform Death Row Records into an NFT label.

The duo’s music video, which was trending on YouTube over the weekend, has received more than 7.5 million views.

ApeFest, which occurred in New York the same week as NFT NYC, featured performances by, among others, Haim, LCD Soundsystem, Lil Wayne, Future, and Lil Baby.

Over the past 24 hours, the price of ApeCoin has climbed by 12.68 percent because of strong positive momentum.

Despite the fact that APE has produced its second consecutive green weekly candle on the price charts, it is still 82 percent below its all-time high reached in April 2022.

Suggested Reading | Sandbox (SAND) Blows Up 20% Over Last 24 Hours Following ‘Takeover’ Rumors

Featured image from SouthPawer, chart from TradingView.com

Posted on

Eminem And Snoop Dogg Team Up, The Video Features Bored Ape Yacht Club Imagery

Is the Bored Ape Yacht Club responsible for this collaboration? Hip hop legends and worldwide icons Snoop Dogg and Eminem join forces once again for the single “From The D 2 The LBC.” The video is basically a BAYC ad and the duo premiered the song at Apefest, the Bored Ape Yacht Club multi-day party that was part of the NFT.NYC conference. This is a huge win for the BAYC, at a time when the NFT collection lost 60% of its value in a flash.

The last time we saw this duo collaborate was on the track “Bitch Please II,” from Eminem’s 2000 outing The Marshall Mathers LP. Besides Snoop Dogg, that track features their mentor Dr. Dre, Xzibit, and the late Nate Dogg. After that, the legend says that Eminem’s camp denied a request for collaboration from Snoop and the pair never worked together again. Until now. Did the Bored Ape Yacht Club accomplish that?

Eminem And Snoop’s Bored Ape Yacht Club Story

It’s worth noting that both Eminem and Snoop Dogg come from Dr. Dre’s lineage, so a collaboration between both artists makes all the sense in the world. They are also both part of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Approximately six months ago, Eminem paid $425K for a BAYC specimen inspired in him. At the time, NewsBTC reported:

“The NFT, named “EminApe,” depicts Eminem’s iconic Bored Ape figure wearing a khaki army cap and a gold chain necklace, both of which he frequently wears in real life. BAYC member GeeGazza sold the digital artwork for 123.45 ETH, which is around $450,000 USD. In November 2021, GeeGazza tweeted, “I still think Eminem is destined to buy my @BoredApeYC one day.”

Took too long to reconnect with @snoopdogg– you know we had to make a movie! https://t.co/087W2OZJOI #FromTheDToTheLBC #curtaincall2 @BoredApeYC pic.twitter.com/k443JqXHON

— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) June 24, 2022

For his part, at approximately the same time, Snoop Dogg got a full set and announced “When I APE in I APE all the way in!!.” A full set, for those not in the know, consists of a Bored Ape, an M1 and an M2 Mutant, and a Bored Ape Kennel Club with similar characteristics. In Snoop’s case, those were a military helmet, leopard skin, and a pink and fluffy garment. At the time, NewsBTC reported on the story behind the purchase:

“It all came from a deleted tweet. What did it say? We wouldn’t know. However, NFT strategist Just1n.eth brought another rapper into the conversation. “He needs to link up with Waka Flocka to talk about the NFT collection that he should be looking into!” And Waka Flocka went straight to the BAYC. “Uncle Snoop you need a Ape mane!!! Join the yacht club.”

Eminem. Snoop. From the D 2 the LBC. Out now. https://t.co/fcZqaniRxQ pic.twitter.com/bmTpKNXtjq

— Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) June 24, 2022

The Video, The Song, The Premiere

The psychedelic video mixes video of Em and Snoop in the studio with Bored Ape Yacht Club-inspired animation. It was directed by James Larese. They premiered it at Apefest, an all out party that featured performances by hip hop legends like Lil Wayne, Bun B, The Roots, Future, and of course Eminem and Snoop Dogg. 

The videos abound. Check this one out:

WORLD PREMIERE: Snoop & Eminem show their new song featuring at ApeFest @BoredApeYC @SnoopDogg pic.twitter.com/8lLVY9mRng

— cr0ss.eth @ NFT NYC (@cr0ssETH) June 24, 2022

And this one:

What the actual fuck? @SnoopDogg @Eminem @BoredApeYC #apefest pic.twitter.com/1KDZ5rxHGc

— Leonardo Viti (@leovitiart) June 24, 2022

The Bored Ape Yacht Club team will also sell merchandise related to the single, but no one knows what it actually looks like. “Snoop x Eminem merch drop pushed. We’ll tweet here with timing updates,” they announced through Twitter. 

APE price chart on Coinbase | Source: APE/USD on TradingView.com

This is not Snoop Dogg’s first musical collaboration with the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The rapper appeared in Colombian producer and singer Esther Anaya’s single “BAYC,” a dance music track that sounds like this:

Last but not least, NewsBTC has to point out that Eminem and Snoop appeared on stage together earlier in the year at Dr. Dre’s presentation at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. So, maybe the Bored Ape Yacht Club is responsible for this single, but the two artists probably had already squashed their beef.

Featured Image: Screenshot from the video | Charts by TradingView

Posted on

Snoop & Gary Vee Got “Ownership” Of A Basketball Team With Ice Cube’s BIG3 NFTs

These BIG3 NFTs might become one of this year’s most entertaining stories. The 3-on-3 basketball league created by Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz offers utility beyond belief for its “BIG3 Ownership” NFT collection. The Fire tier NFTs holders will get to effectively affect the game and the league via video calls with the team and coaches. They’ll also get the chance to be Team CEO, which is what Snoop, Gary, and the other projects seem to be looking for.

“A BIG3 NFT holder is effectively a part of the team from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep,” claims the league. These Ethereum-based NFTs come with “ownership-like benefits” in “two-tier options comprising 12,000 editions – 1,000 for each of the league’s twelve teams that include 25 Fire priced at $25,000 each and 975 Gold priced at $5,000 each.” From those 25 Fire ones, a Team CEO is selected. So, each of the prominent buyers got all of the available ones for particular teams.

The BIG3 league’s season five starts on June 18th, and it will receive live coverage on CBS and Paramaunt+. Will the owners and their NFT collections receive some of that coverage? And will they bring their own particular audiences to the BIG3 basketball league?

The BIG3 League Announces Its NFT Series

Recently, “Ice Cube guaranteed on a recent Twitter space that the league will be around for 100 years”. Considering the BIG3 is going into its fifth year, what we have here is a low time preference situation. In the blog post announcing the superpowers that the BIG3 Ownership NFT collection contains, they presented the project comparing Web 2.0 to Web3.

“You can read a blog, comment on a blog, or even start your own blog. You can follow your favorite players on Twitter or Instagram. All of that is fine, but none of it allows you to make an actual impact on your favorite players, team, or league. Web 2.0 provides engagement. Web 3.0, which the BIG3 is diving into with this NFT drop, takes you past engagement and into an empowering experience.”

The NFT excels in utility, among many other things it guarantees: attendance to parties after gamedays and invites to practices. Reserved owner suites, backstage access area, player and coach meet-and-greets. Plus, a championship game experience and “even a championship ring if your team wins the whole thing.” Plus, because it’s the law for NFT projects, “a dedicated Discord page for BIG3 owners.”

However, the killer app is ownership.

How Do The BIG3 NFTs Guarantee Ownership

The new Team CEO is chosen among the 25 Fire tier NFT holders. Besides that, every one of those 25 will have “a direct and tangible impact on the league” by:

  • “Access to weekly calls with your team to talk strategy leading up to each game”

  • “Weekly video calls with referees to discuss rules and how you think their calls impacted the last game”

  • “The unique opportunity to connect with commissioner Clyde Drexler as well as league founders Jeff Kwatinetz and Ice Cube three times a year to discuss fundamental strategy, changes, and ideas for the league”

So yeah, owners will get to speak with Clyde the Glide and Ice Cube. 

ETH price chart on Kraken | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
The New Owners: Snoop Dogg, Gary Vee, And More

This is where it gets interesting. Since we’re talking about an NFT, members of the community came out in full force to support the idea. And to get into the conversation. So far, the celebrity owners that bought the 25 Fire tier NFTs from their respective teams are:

  • Snoop Dogg and co-founder of PayPal Ken Howery got the 25 for team Bivouac.
  • Gary Vaynerchuk and his VeeFriends NFT collection got the Triplets, who won the 2019 Championship.
  • As referenced in our article about them, NFT community DeGods bought Killer 3.
  • Bill Lee from MyDoge wallet brought the Dogecoin community by purchasing the 25 Fire-Tier for Aliens using DOGE. This was “the largest commercial transaction in history for the cryptocurrency.”
  • Krause House, a basketball-focused Decentralized Autonomous Organization, got the Ball Hogs.

Relevant Quotes From BIG3’s Site

Speaking on the phenomenon, BIG3 co-founder Ice Cube said:

“We are absolutely thrilled to have Snoop, Ken, and their communities on board with the BIG3. Having someone with Ken’s knowledge and experience wanting to be a part of our league demonstrates that we are moving in the right direction. Snoop is an undisputed legend who has jumped headfirst into the Web3 space and clearly understands the importance and the value of what we are trying to create. Together, I know they will take Bivouac to new heights and we can’t wait to get started.”

For his part, GaryVee said:

“I’ve been incredibly impressed with the pop culture relevance of the BIG3 league. Over the last several months I’ve been able to get closer with Cube and the rest of the team and I’m extremely excited about the impact of the Blockchain on professional sports. All of those ingredients create a scenario where I am excited to join this incredible league.”

And BIG3 co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz contributed:

 “We are thrilled to partner up with Bill and have the MyDoge and Dogecoin communities be represented by the Aliens. We have made history with this transaction, and we hope it inspires others in the Doge world to support the team whether by purchasing the Gold-Tiers, by attending games, or by tuning in.”

As you can see, everyone is focusing on communities and the merging of the audiences. This is a win-win situation if we ever saw one. There could very well be enough star power in this deal to take both the BIG3 League and the NFT community to new heights.

Featured Image: BIG3 Ownership NFT promotional image from the site | Charts by TradingView

Posted on

New Wallets Surge On Cardano, What’s Behind This?

The Cardano network is no stranger to accelerated growth but every now and then, there is a spike that causes the market to take a pause. This has been the case with the number of new wallets added on a daily basis which had reached a high of 7,600 new wallets added in a single day. While this is going on, speculations abound as to why the network is now seeing this rate of accelerated growth compared to when the market was still in a bull trend.

More Adoption Coming

The adoption of the Cardano network has been one of the reasons behind this increased interest in the blockchain. More users are coming to know Cardano as a major contender in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, thus prompting them to start using the network. The result of this was not only had daily new addresses hit 7,600 in a single day, there had been more than 200,000 new addresses added to the network in the space of a month.

Related Reading | The Young Turks Embarrass Themselves Trying To Discuss Crypto Regulation

One solid reason behind this has been the adoption of the network for its NFT capabilities. Now, like with much else, the Cardano network offers cheaper and faster transactions compared to its biggest competitor, Ethereum. This has led some prominent figures to choose the network as the platform to launch their NFT projects. One of these is legendary rapper Snoop Dogg who announced that he would be launching an NFT collection on the blockchain.

ADA price falls below $1 | Source: ADAUSD on TradingView.com

No doubt the entrance of such a prominent figure into the Cardano space has spurred interest from followers of the superstar, who would want to take advantage of the network the rapper is using. Blockchain Insights also draws this same conclusion, tying the increased interest in the network to the rapper’s NFT launch. 

Today 7687 new ADA wallets per day.

Hard to be certain what caused this massive spike of new ADA wallets per day but we will take a guess and attribut this to @The_ClayMates and @SnoopDogg partnership. https://t.co/MWDH2hCgeO pic.twitter.com/vWwZa7O4k6

— Cardano Blockchain Insights (@InsightsCardano) April 18, 2022

More People Building On Cardano

The Cardano DeFi space is still very young compared to its competitors but that has not meant that the network has staggered in its growth. IOHK, the developer behind Cardano, in a recent report, revealed that there are almost 900 projects that are currently being built on the Cardano network, and what’s more, this number is growing by the day.

Related Reading | Conquering Terrain: Terra’s Stablecoin UST Is Now Crypto’s Third Biggest

This accelerated rate at which developers are building on the blockchain shows interest from different parties. These projects which are set to launch on the blockchain will no doubt make it one of the top contenders in the future.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has said that the network is “just getting started” in response to a tweet that shared the milestone of more than 100,000 wallets added in a month. The founder also recently proposed building a decentralized social media platform that would compete with Twitter on the Cardano blockchain, as well as other leading blockchains in the space.

Featured image from CoinFunda, chart from TradingView.com

Posted on

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

It’s official, Snoop Dogg joined the apes. The rap superstar and all-around businessman made a substantial NFT investment and is now showing a Bored Ape as his avatar on Twitter. Not only that, Snoop Dogg bought a full set, a Bored Ape, an M1 and an M2 Mutant, and their correspondent Bored Ape Kennel Club. They all match with each other and tend towards pink fur. 

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

In the announcement tweet, Snoop Dogg claimed: “When I APE in I APE all the way in!!,” and he wasn’t lying. This buy puts him among the top celebrity NFT collectors. At least the ones who are public about their buys. 

When I APE in I APE all the way in!! pic.twitter.com/3XB3Jo5Fb6

— Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) December 21, 2021

How Did Snoop Dogg Get Into The Bored Ape Yacht Club?

It all came from a deleted tweet. What did it say? We wouldn’t know. However, NFT strategist Just1n.eth brought another rapper into the conversation. “He needs to link up with Waka Flocka to talk about the NFT collection that he should be looking into!” And Waka Flocka went straight to the BAYC. “Uncle Snoop you need a Ape mane!!! Join the yacht club.” This was Snoop Dogg’s answer:

So who sendn that ape. My shit better have all gold everything.

— Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) June 25, 2021

This was in June. Which shows how much of a patient businessman Snoop is.

Snoopverse In The Sandbox

Snoop Dogg is launching himself into NFTs with two feet. A couple of weeks ago, the superstar rapper announced a partnership with The Sandbox metaverse. There, he will have his own piece of the virtual world. There will be Snoop avatars and other Snoop-inspired NFTs for sale. And he will even perform live, and event that’s already selling early access passes for. 

Early peak of the @SnoopDogg Avatars! https://t.co/ckEOApZwL6 pic.twitter.com/l8gYQVASFc

— Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) December 11, 2021

Not only that, the rap star even made a song about the whole ordeal.

And if you look closely, there are Bored Ape Yacht Club pieces on the walls in Snoop Dogg’s virtual mansion. Did he buy the set of apes to decorate his house? Maybe he did.

SAND price chart on Kraken | Source: SAND/USD on TradingView.com
But Wait… Wasn’t Cozomo De’ Medici An Alias For Snoop Dogg?

Notorious NFT collector Cozomo De’ Medici once did a publicity stunt that seemed to suggest that he was Snoop Dogg. However, since then, the prevailing sentiment is that he isn’t. Artnet’s .pdf mag about NFT culture, Artnet NFT 30, broke down the story:

“Is Cozomo really Snoop Dogg? That was the rumor that swept the internet after the collector announced that a celebrity would reveal Cozomo’s true identity (with the first to spot the announcement winning 1 ETH), only for Snoop Dogg’s official account to tweet shortly thereafter, “I am @CozomoMedici.” The frenzy of investigations that followed, however, cast doubt on the link, pointing to a selfie that Cozomo posted from Lake Como with the musician Jason Derulo that obscured their face but not their short, Caucasian body.”

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

If Snoop was Cozomo, he would be the biggest celebrity NFT collector without a doubt. But he isn’t. Or is he? Following Snoop Dogg’s BAYC announcement, Cozomo tweeted:

Oh and btw 😉 https://t.co/zn2ajWZFS4

— Cozomo de’ Medici (@CozomoMedici) December 22, 2021

What does that mean? You be the judge of that. 

Featured Image: Snoop Dogg on The Sandbox title screen | Charts by TradingView