gm folks!
NFT markets remained pretty quiet last week, with the attention of the market shifting towards DeFi 2.0 and meme coins. However we are starting to see a pick-up in some ‘blue-chip’ projects, with 0N1 and Mekaverse prices rising after news of them being listed on Coinbase’s NFT marketplace, and Mutant Apes dominating OpenSea volume for the day after Jimmy Fallon started sporting a Bored Ape as his Twitter profile pic.
On the fine arts side of NFTs, Naufal Abshar’s genesis collection ‘The Invitation’ just dropped on 12th November, with a limited run of only 150 pieces which sold out within 48h. He is a prolific artist in the physical arts scene, whose works go for up to 6-figures, and has exhibited in countries all around the world.
If you like the style of Doodles but missed the mint, a new derivative project called ‘Noodles’ was started by 2 Doodles members and sports a similar design and colour palette. The mint date has not been announced yet, which means there’s a high chance of getting your hands on one if you so desire! Good thing about bear markets is there are fewer gas wars and you'll usually be able to mint a project you like :)
Last but not least, we take a look at Loopy Donuts, one of the popular “passive income” projects that gives donut holders $CHILL tokens daily just for holding the NFT. These utility tokens act as in-game currency that grants holders the ability to modify and enhance their donuts.
Enjoy guys!
P.S. - Join us in Discord to share and discuss alpha :)
Project #1 - Naufal Abshar’s “The Invitation”
Contributor: c___hello
Credits: Naufal Abshar / https://naufalabshar.com/nft
Project Details Mint Date: 11 Nov 2021
Mint Price: 0.07 ETH + Gas
Collection Count: 15 pieces (10 tokens each)
Team: Naufal Abshar, Dan Segalamacan (Developer)
Opensea | Discord | Twitter | Website
About
Naufal Abshar is a rising star in the art world (He has 141K followers on Instagram, has conducted Ted Talks in Indonesia). He is considered to be among Indonesia’s prominent contemporary artists — with exhibitions held all over the world (most recent one is in Art Taipei). Apart from his works, he has collaborated with many brands including Indofood, the company who brought you Indomie). Born in 1993, you can consider Naufal an extremely young artist whose art is VERY MUCH coveted even by the younger generation. This is one of the reasons why he has done so many partnerships outside of just his paintings.
Credits: Naufal Abshar’s Opensea Page
“The Invitation” is his first-ever NFT collection consisting of 15 digital pieces with 10 editions each. Following Facebook’s announcement on their shift to the Metaverse, it seems to have come at the right time. All 150 tokens were sold out in less than 48 hours.
Strengths
There’s a lot on the line for artists venturing into the metaverse. First of all, traditional contemporary artists are afraid to venture into Web3 as the medium of communicating their work is now completely different. Instead of just listing his digital pieces directly on Opensea like many other artists, the mint happened on https://naufalabshar.com/nft. On Discord, he explained that there was a reason for this process (one that took a lot more effort than listing his pieces directly on Opensea). Many people, he explained, including his real life collectors are keen on collecting digital art pieces but are not sure how to do about doing it. With his website, he wanted people to experience the appeal of NFTs and Web3. He wanted his collectors to be able to learn the process of creating a Metamask account, go into his website and mint his art pieces.
His team also conducted lessons to teach his art collectors about NFT. He explained that it was similar to his personal journey of learning about NFTs. Partnering up with his friend, a developer, they created their unique smart contract alongside an awesome UX/UI page to purchase these pieces (they even took the liberty of sending this contract to an external auditor). The whole process was easy, thoughtful and a unique experience for his collectors, compared to just purchasing through Opensea.
Credits: Naufal Abshar / https://naufalabshar.com/nft
Naufal’s strength also lies in his experience and network in the real world — all of which he brings into the metaverse. There are so many things that he can do including providing real life utility to his holders (prints authenticated and signed off by him), creating an education platform for those curious about the contemporary art world, as well as collaborations with other NFT artists - 0xCulture has already announced an upcoming collaboration with Naufal. More announcements will also be released soon in his Discord!
Credits: Instagram / https://www.instagram.com/naufalabshar/
Potential Risks
Well, this project is an art and collectible project. It might not promise any DAO, any tokenomics, or gaming element for its holders. For people in the metaverse, this might be an issue. People are generally so eager to earn passive income or to flip their NFTs. I’ve observed that the world of NFT appeals to such different target market that having none of these elements might affect the project’s floor price. The floor price currently sits at 4ETH but very few people have actually listed theirs for sale. It’s safe to assume that many people collect these art pieces as they like the art.
The bear market is here and it is indeed refreshing to see a project beyond a normal PFP.
I’m not sure if this is the case for many but art-centric NFT projects get me excited. I have always loved art and always had to worry about physical limitations such as space. From what I’ve heard, his paintings cost at least USD 100,000 and to be able to obtain these digital pieces at only 0.07ETH is a steal. I am pretty excited to see what Naufal has in store for his holders and from the sound of it, there seems to be a lot planned. As for now, I hold one and I am a big believer. The tokens are also extremely limited (only 150...) and I do believe that these will be highly sought after as he continues to build his name in the Metaverse. Disclaimer: I am also part of the strategy team in launching Naufal’s project!
Project #2 - Noodles (Launching Soon)
Contributor: @chris_sirise
Project Details Mint Date: TBD
Mint Price: TBD
Collection Count: 6,000
Team: Justin, Ethan, Fidel
About
Noodles is a derivative project of Doodles, started by 2 Doodle members and supported by the Doodle community. The fun idea started as a joke but eventually gained traction among the Doodle community and has since evolved into a serious project with the objective of setting a precedent for how derivative projects can be done in partnership with the source project. If you missed our previous analysis of the Doodles project, you can read it here.
Credits: Noodles Derivative Formal Proposal
A formal proposal was submitted to the Doodle community for voting on 6 November which outlined the objectives of the project and the benefits it will bring to both holders of Noodles and Doodles.
Firstly, 20% of mint revenue will go back to the Doodlebank, which has the objective of making the Doodle brand and NFTs in general mainstream. Part of that would include funding other derivative projects in future, akin to a seed fund for artists and developers who would like to build in the NFT space.
Secondly, 15-20% of mints will be reserved for Doodle holders who have been early supporters of the project. This ensures some overlap in the communities but also leaves a sufficient number of Noodles for the public, acting as a lower entry point for anyone who would like to be a part of a community that could shape up to be similar culturally to the Doodle community.
Lastly, the art is fun and funny regardless of where you might be from. The Noodle founders have stated that they hope it will bring some “comic relief” in the midst of a slow NFT market.
Strengths
The team has the right mix of skill sets to run an NFT project and community in the long run. Justin is the team’s artist and backend Developer who has been illustrating and photoshopping for a decade. Ethan is the Community Manager and a coffee roaster who hopes to open his own specialty micro-roastery and café in the future. Fidel is the team’s front-end and DApp developer who has founded and ran multiple businesses, specializing in e-commerce and fashion.
The team has been earnest and engaging with the Doodle founders and community to ensure all the concerns around producing this derivative project have been properly thought through. Some of the concerns that were addressed range from brand dilution to operational issues like the complexity of shared recurring revenue through royalties. In each case the team is working out an acceptable solution which could very well serve as inspiration for other derivative projects in the NFT space.
The team has also been very engaged in the Noodles discord with their community which has grown to 1,500 strong within the span of a week. The discord community is very active and seems to have achieved its objective of having a good mix of some Doodler holders but also a large proportion of folks who like the Noodles as a project of its own. It has become a running trend for members to post pictures of noodles they are cooking and it has been amazing to see a simple dish take so many shapes and forms in different countries all around the world. Truly it is a microcosm of the larger NFT space that is so culturally diverse and accessible.
Potential Risks
Ultimately this is a derivative project that will take it’s own shape and direction that will be different from the Doodles project. As of now, there has not been a roadmap announced, but we can expect more details soon as the team is working on the second and final proposal for voting in the DoodleDao.
The project is setting a new benchmark for how derivative projects can work with their source projects in a way that benefits both and that is a promising start. The team will likely continue setting the standard for ongoing engagement between both projects in the future as well, which other derivative projects in the NFT space can take reference from. There is currently a negative connotation to derivative projects in the NFT space and that need not be the case if better models of partnership can be created. I personally think it will be an interesting journey to be a part of.
Project #3 - Loopy Donuts
Mint Price: 0.05 ETH
Mint Date: 3rd September 2021
Lead Artist: Xenia Sova
Opensea | Discord | Twitter | Website | Whitepaper
About
10,000 Loopy Donuts managed to escape the shelves of boring, stale donut shops, to frolic around the Ethereum blockchain. Although it may seem like our Loopy Donuts are all about fun, they are here to make your day just that much sweeter. – Loopy Donuts Whitepaper
In a universe of Apes, Punks, Cats, the Loopy Donuts team proposed something different: to provide its owners with a cute and easily identifiable treat that will live in the LoopyLand metaverse.
Since the sell-out, Loopy Donuts has had an exciting journey. The initial proposition of the team was to give a part of the profit back to holders, which was quickly removed after the incident of OpenSea removing collections that were promising passive income. With this risk in mind, the team decided to go back to the drawing board, consult with lawyers and finally redesign their white paper/roadmap. The floor price of the collection suffered with that move (from ~0.3 to ~0.05 ETH), as many people were expecting this feature to be available after selling out. Gladly, this risk was worth it, as it resulted in one of the most well-thought and detailed white papers I have seen for an NFT project (check links above).
Strengths
One of the main strengths of Loopy Donuts is the solid and consistent work delivered by the founders, with a spotlight for the Lead Artist Xenia Sova (Xenia Sova🧜♀️ (@Sovacado)). She shows a lot of passion for this project and is constantly working on the artwork to expand the LoopyLand metaverse. The next drop for Loopy Donuts will be companions, which has an expected drop date of late November.
After a renewed roadmap, the team deployed the $CHILL token, which will be used as an in-game currency to breed, customize, and enhance your Loopy Donuts. Each Donut earns 10 $CHILL per day. One of the most exciting things about the system developed by Astrid is the absence of staking. With this mechanism, holders only need to pay gas when they wish to claim $CHILL. It is worth noting that there are currently 1.4k Loopy Donuts listed for sale on OpenSea, with the majority (987) priced at 0.2 ETH or higher, so the current floor price is a bit misleading.
This relatively small number of listed items brings us to the biggest strength of this project: the community. Right now, there are ~3.8k unique owners with some wallets holding up to 240 donuts. After spending over a month inside their discord I can definitely say that the community is just $CHILL(ing).
With a lower entry price (0.05 ETH +gas), enthusiastic team, community void of “moonboyz”, cute and sellable artwork, and many more utilities for $CHILL to come, Loopy Donuts might be an excellent sleeper to keep your eyes on.
Potential Risks
The most significant associated risk with Loopy Donuts is the collapse of $CHILL. This might be offset by the many burning mechanisms the developers are aiming to deploy, but as any token, a significant sell-off or dump could collapse the prices.