NFT gains: While the world of crypto assets experiences a prolonged dive into a growing pool of red, a number of NFT projects are bucking the trend. NFT collections are a strange chimaera of crypto technology, digital art and online community building combined in a way that provide many of the top-tier collections with a sense of economic robustness, even in the face of what’s widely being called a bear market.
The NFT space is well known for its insane swings in value and outrageous price tags, so without further ado let’s dig into what popped off and what flopped this week in the wild world of NFTs.
NFT gains: Here’s what’s poppin
1. Rektguy
Rektguy NFTs have been having a very good week. After news broke that Snoop Dogg and his NFT alter ego ‘Cozomo de Medici’ had purchased a number of the NFTs, the project went wild with investors rushing to get their hands on one of the obscure NFTs. Cozomo De Medici is a namesake which Snoop borrowed from the Italian banker Cosimo de Medici who famously established the Medici family as the defacto political and financial rulers of Florence for much of the Renaissance.
Despite the project witnessing a whopping 800% increase in sales volume over the course of the last seven days on Magic Eden, there is surprisingly little detail about the project. As of right now, a single Rektguy NFT will set a buyer back roughly 2.5 ETH (US$3,100). There are 8,814 Rektyguys in existence.
On its official website, the project is described with minimalism in mind. Rektguy is described sparsely as “art and pfps and stuff”. At the time of writing there is literally zero specific information about its roadmap and utility.
However, the founders claim that Rektguy NFTs have a CC0 licensing agreement. This means that holders can modify and distribute the work however they wish, even for commercial purposes. Such CC0 projects tend to perform well as derivative works appear and drive value back into the original project.
The creator of the Rektguy collection is Ovie Faruq, who is more well known by his pseudonym ‘OSF’ in the NFT space. He launched the collection alongside prominent digital artist Alien Queen. The fact that OSF and Alien Queen are doxxed — crypto parlance for having a public-facing profile — and well-known in the NFT space lends additional credibility to the Rektguy project.
The Chainsaw Rank
Utility: 1 / 5
Longevity: ? / 5
Vibe: 5 / 5
Innovation: 3 / 5
2. The Potatoz NFT Collection
The Potatoz Collection has gone on a massive upwards surge over the past few days, witnessing a whopping 500% gain in overall sales volume on the NFT marketplace OpenSea.
At the time of writing, the cheapest one of these animated little dudes will set a nifty NFT investor back roughly 2.5 ETH (US$3,100).
The Potatoz project is the next step in a major NFT move from global content giant 9GAG who burst on the NFT scene midway through last year with the introduction of their “Memeland” project. 9GAG has marketed Memeland as a ‘meme-taverse’ where participation is enabled by owning one of its numerous NFTs projects, of which Potatoz is the most recent addition.
At the time of writing, owning one of the 9,999 available ‘Potatoz’ NFTs will grant a holder the distinct benefits of being a member in the private Memeland club as well as receiving, alongside exclusive access to an exclusive 9GAG marketplace for NFT creators.
While the Memeland project doesn’t share extensive details on its roadmap, it sports an incredible team of advisors including the likes of They include VeeFriends’ Gary Vee, Moonbirds’ Kevin Rose, Hypebeast’s Kevin Ma and many other big names in the space. It’s hard to imagine how a project receiving guidance from names like these could go too wrong.
The Chainsaw Rank
Utility: 3 / 5
Longevity: 3 / 5
Vibe: 3 / 5
Innovation: 3 / 5
3. CryptoPunks
The CryptoPunks NFT collection went off this week with a 107% increase in overall sales volume on OpenSea. CryptoPunks are one of the OG NFT projects being launched on the Ethereum blockchain back in 2017. As such, many of the biggest names and founders in the crypto space still rep a Punk as their PFP (profile picture) on Twitter.
With a current floor price of 65 ETH, a CryptoPunk isn’t exactly in reach for everyone. Even still a whopping 107% increase in overall sales volume shows that demand for the Punks is still raging.
Owning a CryptoPunk doesn’t grant the holder any ‘utility’ beyond being the member of the highly exclusive and expensive CryptoPunk club. In this sense the real utility of owning a CryptoPunk comes down to being part of internet history, and owning one of the very first NFT collections ever minted.
While it might seem esoteric or strange to those looking in from the outside, this can’t be overstated, and the project has cemented itself as a premier ‘bluechip’ project in the NFT space.
The Chainsaw Rank
Utility: 4 / 5
Longevity: 5 / 5
Vibe: 5 / 5
Innovation: 5 / 5
NFT gains: Not. Here’s what’s floppin
1. Logan Paul’s CryptoZoo
Despite witnessing a 1500% surge in price, Logan Paul’s Play-to-Earn (P2E) NFT project dubbed ‘CryptoZoo’ lands decisively on this week’s Flop List. Why? For starters, Logan Paul has a proven track record of swindling his followers when it comes to NFT projects, and it seems as though this foray into NFTs is no different.
CryptoZoo is an NFT project built on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and is a Pokemon-esque themed collection, where holders will allegedly be able to breed, trade and battle their CryptoZoo animals. The underlying value of CryptoZoo rests upon the speculative release of this Play-to-Earn game which is scheduled for sometime in 2023 or 2024. Not only does the question of whether Paul will actually decide to deliver on the project hang heavy in the air, but the level of design that has gone into this project is simply laughable. I mean just look at it.
Paul’s previous ventures into the world of blockchain technology have borne some pretty interesting fruit, namely a spring-themed cryptocurrency called ‘Dink Doink’ which did … nothing.
Well that’s not entirely true. Paul’s ‘Dink Doink’ project did make him and his team quite wealthy after sucking up hundreds of thousands of dollars from his followers with a mega-hyped token launch on June 17 of 2021.
Unfortunately for investors that were duped into investing in Dink Doink, the price of the DINK token then dropped a touch over 99% and has stayed there ever since. It goes without saying but Logan Paul is not a trustworthy figure in this space. He’s got a lot of work to do before anyone can approach his ventures in the world of NFTs with any real confidence.
This thread from blockchain detective ZachXBT goes through everything you need to know about Paul’s ability to deliver on long-term promises.
NFT gains: The Chainsaw Rank
Utility: 0 / 5
Longevity: 0 / 5
Vibe: 0 / 5
Innovation: 0 / 5
2. Donald Trump’s ‘Digital Trading Card’ NFTs
The Donald’s premier NFT collection has been suffering in the wake of a mega-hyped launch that saw the collection sell out inside 24 hours. Over the past few weeks Donald Trump’s NFTs have fallen 80% from a December 18 high of 0.8 ETH (US$1,000) to today’s price of 0.16 ETH (US$200).
Buyers were initially encouraged to buy into the project in the hopes of winning a number of exclusive Trump-related prizes, including a one-on-one dinner with the former President at the Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s 20-acre Palm Beach resort home.
Apart from being criticised for combining two polarising topics: Donald Trump and NFTs — the project was also slammed for reportedly using stolen artwork, with some commentators claiming that you can still see watermarks from stock photo imagery.
Making matters worse, according to a Twitter thread, the NFT projects’ creators retain roughly 25% of all the ultra rare ‘one of ones’ and 33% of all the equally rare ‘autograph’ NFTs. This means that the game has been somewhat rigged against collectors who bought into the project believing they had a good chance of striking it lucky.
Regardless of the potential cost to users, Trump has been raking it in from creator royalties on the secondary sales of the trading cards on platforms like OpenSea. Unlike most NFT projects which typically take a rate around the 5% mark, Trump elected to take a 10% cut of all secondary sales on NFT marketplaces that still enforce royalty payments.
NFT gains: The Chainsaw Rank
Utility: 3 / 5
Longevity: 1 / 5
Vibe: 1 / 5
Innovation: 1 / 5
