#032: Recapping NFT News and Ukraine Relief Efforts
Welcome to the 32nd edition of the NFT Drops Newsletter! In this edition we will cover NFT news as usual from the past two weeks. Then, we shift focus to the efforts of many in the NFT world to provide relief to Ukraine via web3.
Here we go!π§
NFT Drops Recap
Several OpenSea users fell victim to a phishing hack as the platform transitioned to an updated smart contract. The update was meant to fix a bug that made old listings improperly expire, which resulted in blue chip NFTs being accidentally sold for way under the floor price. Unfortunately, the transition fell victim to attacks that cost those affected millions of dollars in ETH.
The NFT Worlds project has caught the attention of the NFT world for a few reasons - double-digit floor price, unprecedented utility, and multiplayer Minecraft compatibility. Each world is a unique Minecraft landscape that can be fully customized by holders/players.
The Tubby Cats project featured a staggered release using a white list and pre-mint before the public mint on Wednesday 02/23. They sold out in a matter of minutes, and public attention quickly shifted to OpenSea where Tubby Cats could be scooped up for around 0.4 ETH. Now, the collection sits at number 3 of all NFT projects for volume in the past 7 days with a floor price of .5 ETH.
Sothebyβs planned to auction 104 CryptoPunks in a landmark sale Wednesday night. The fine arts company saw lots of success engaging with NFTs in 2021, and hoped to build on it by bringing in estimates of $20-30 million for all of the punks. Unfortunately for Sothebyβs, their partner (the owner of the punks) pulled on the auction at the last minute! Here was his take:
Pixelmon is a mega-hyped collection that dropped over this weekend (02/25). The mint price was 3 ETH, and the team is putting together a pretty good application for the priciest NFT project to tank after reveal (Γ la Mekaverse). Many were upset with the art, and with the creatorβs post-drop shopping spree:
Last week, we covered a few upcoming drops that we were excited for: βentretiemposβ from Art Blocks, as well as the Weather Report and Degen Toonz mints. As an update, each project sold out and has made positive progress on the secondary market and all sit within OpenSeaβs top NFT rankings.
Relief for Ukraine
Following Russiaβs invasion of Ukraine, many in the crypto community felt empowered to make a change. We saw Ukrainians reaching out for help via twitter, and in response countless initiatives have begun to fund humanitarian support.
Today, Binance announced a $10 million donation as well as an Emergency Relief fund. Their funds will be donated to βmajor intergovernmental organizations and nonprofit organizationsβ such as UNICEF and the UN Refugee Agency. See their twitter statement below:
Members of the web3 community have banded together to create RELI3F, a humanitarian aid initiative focused on support for Ukraine. The secondary market sales have earned more than $1.5 million, and you can purchase pieces from the collection here (floor is only 0.025 ETH).
Notable figures like fvckrender, Andrew Wang, and sartoshi have signed on to the project, auctioning 1/1 pieces and advertising the fund on twitter:
Fvckrenderβs limited edition βONEDAY//β is a hallmark of the collection. It can be viewed here
Another funding group aimed at providing aid to those in Ukraine is UkraineDAO. Most notably, they are currently auctioning an NFT of the Ukrainian flag. The current highest bid is 1,103 ETH ($2.9M), and the auction ends on March 2. 100 percent of proceeds go to Ukrainians in need.
The auction is set up via Party Bid, where anyone can participate with a donation of any size and receive tokens proportional to their contribution.
Additionally, UkraineDAO is making is easy for anyone to send help. They set up a wallet, UkraineDAO.eth, where donations can be sent in crypto. 100% of donations sent will go to Ukraine.
Thatβs It!
Thank you all for reading, see you in two weeksπ§