Why Musicians Need NFTs, Mutant Ape Yacht Club & More
🎙️ Why Musicians Need NFTs With Ed Young
As a co-founder of storied hip-hop magazine The Source, Ed Young has been at the forefront of music culture for decades. Now as the founder and CEO of nft.hiphop, he’s evangelizing NFT technology to a new generation of creatives.
In our latest podcast episode, we caught up with Young to discuss why NFTs change the game for musicians, how hip-hop artists can credibly enter the space, and how the community can flourish in web3.
Be sure to hit subscribe and watch the full episode here.
🧪 Mutant Ape Attack
Bored Ape Yacht Club launched its Mutant Ape Yacht Club collection on Saturday, and it’s already making major waves in the market. MAYC has exploded on OpenSea, racking up a staggering 62,748 ETH ($235,975,691) in sales volume.
The launch mechanics were relatively simple: Bored Ape owners received mutant serum NFT airdrops that could be sold, held, or used to mutate their ape. Those who opted to mutate their ape would essentially burn the serum to create a new Mutant Ape NFT (without affecting the original Bored Ape NFT). Those who didn’t own an ape prior to launch could also mint a mutant for 3 ETH via a public sale that raised $96 million and sold out in under an hour. There can be a total of 20,000 total mutants — 10,000 possible mutations of Bored Apes and 10,000 new mutants minted in the sale.
Serums come in three variations in increasing rarity: M1, M2, or M3 (Mega Mutant). Apes mutated with an M1 or M2 serum retained the traits of the original ape — with the artwork evolving alongside it. The ultra-rare M3 mutations create an entirely new Mega Mutant Ape with eye-popping artwork (and prices). One Mega Demon has already sold for 350 ETH ($1,319,807).
With the successful mutants launch in the rearview and an upcoming 3D avatar airdrop with Polygonal Mind, the Yuga Labs team continues to set the bar for what a community-based NFT project can be. — Langston Thomas
📈 Floor to Ceiling
Floor to Ceiling is a weekly section that tracks the price action of prominent NFT projects, featuring a handpicked assortment of blue chips and trending collections. Below you’ll find the current lowest price (floor), and highest sale (ceiling) for a single token in a given collection, as well as the original mint price for reference.
Prices are listed in ETH with “floor” USD value relative to ETH at time of publish and “ceiling” USD value relative to ETH at time of sale.
💥 Quick Hits
UTA signs Larva Labs projects CryptoPunks, Meebits and Autoglyphs.
Hacker returns $336,000 after selling fake Banksy NFT to collector Pranksy.
Fractional.art to fractionalize original Doge meme NFT purchased by pleasrDAO for $4 million.
Sotheby’s reveals “Ape In!” auction details from September 2-9, featuring 101 Bored Apes, 101 Bored Kennel Club dogs, and six M1 and M2 mutant serums.
Christie’s announces auctions for full Art Blocks Curated sets 1-3 and full Curio Cards set starting October 1.
This newsletter is purely for educational purposes and is not financial advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any investment decisions. Please do your own research!