The FEWOCiOUS Interview, Bored Apes & More
🏳️⚧️ FEWOCiOUS on Coming Out as Trans and Christie’s Auction During Pride
FEWOCiOUS (aka Victor Langlois) has emerged as one of the NFT space’s first medium-native superstars. Known affectionately to fans as “Fewo,” the bubbly 18-year-old artist rose from obscurity to rarified air over the past year, earning millions in sales on Nifty Gateway while channeling his emotions into eye-popping paintings that contrasted child-like wonder with deeply-rooted melancholy.
That sadness stems from a very real source. In addition to overcoming two abusive households with family members who did not support his passion for painting, Langlois struggled with understanding and accepting his transgender identity while growing up. His first major auction house collaboration with Christie’s, entitled Hello, I'm Victor (FEWOCiOUS) and This Is My Life, is a five-part series of NFTs with physical paintings and archival drawings inspired by the painful and precarious process of gender transition. The auction will run from June 23-30 during Pride month with each artwork representing a different year in Fewo’s development from ages 14 to 18.
In an emotional interview on our podcast, Fewo walks us through his Christie’s collection and recalls the highs and lows in his journey to owning his identity, speaking to the impact he hopes to make by baring his soul to the world.
“So I'm trans. I'm transgender. When I was born, my name was Victoria. And I hated that. I hated who I was, who I was told I was. And I never felt right. I hated wearing dresses. I hated that I couldn't cut my hair. I hated that my mom would say that I can't be a certain way, because it's not girly enough, I'm not a true woman, or ‘why am I trying to act like a man?’ And I hated that it hurt. And my whole life, I felt like I was an actor acting from my family. In all my art, you see a woman and a man fighting, and they look like love stories, but none of them are love stories. It's Victor and Victoria.”
Be sure to hit subscribe and watch our full interview with Fewo here.
🦧 Bored Apes Gaining Steam
In a constantly growing sea of digital collectible projects, Bored Ape Yacht Club has clearly separated itself from the pack. It’s now the top project on OpenSea over the past week, moving nearly $6 million worth of ETH in sales volume. Originally launched with a flat .08 ETH minting rate, Bored Apes now command an average price tag of 1.08 ETH (+1,350%) with a new all-time high sales mark of 55 ETH set this week.
Why are Bored Apes getting traction when so many others have faltered? Supporters point to the highly active community and Discord server, as well as the adoption of Bored Apes as social avatars by numerous artists and influencers in the space. Accessibility plays a considerable role as well. For many new entrants to the space who can’t afford to shell out $35K for a floor CryptoPunk, Bored Apes offers them an opportunity to be part of a burgeoning NFT community. Finally, the disparity in rarity traits between Bored Apes is less steep than CryptoPunks or Meebits, meaning there’s more room to select an avatar based on aesthetics rather than pure ROI calculus.
⚠️ Notable Artists Targeted by Scammers
From the earliest days of Bitcoin’s rise, there have always been bad actors looking to prey upon others with scams and hacks intended to compromise private keys and empty wallets. While many crypto veterans have long adhered to a litany of security measures in order to minimize risk, the NFT boom has brought an influx new users to the space who are not as well-versed in defense against the dark arts.
At least three artists (including FVCKRENDER, Nicole Ruggiero and Suryanto Sur) fell victim to malicious hacks disguised as commissioned art opportunities over the past week, while numerous other artists have reported being contacted with similar messages. In each case, the scammer reached out via Twitter DM and encouraged the artist to download a .SCR file purporting to be a project proposal. Once opened, the hack compromised the recipient’s MetaMask wallet and enabled the scammer to steal their assets. In this case, FVCKRENDER was robbed of nearly $170,000 worth of AXS, but was fortunately able to transfer his most prized possessions to safety.
It’s a cautionary tale and an important reminder to stay vigilant and never open files sent from strangers. Please take a moment to review some of the security best practices shared by manifold’s Richerd Chan below.
Get involved — follow nft now on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
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!