This week Clone X got a lot of attention, a slime-green Corvette got none, WAGMI United landed somewhere in the middle, and James Cameron gets name-checked twice for no good reason at all.

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Right, let’s get straight into it!

DYOR 🧐

RTFKT, the design studio Nike acquired last December and the creator of the Clone X NFT project, announced two interesting pieces of news this week. The first is that it’s granting Clone X holders full commercial rights to the characters they own. The second is that RTFKT has shared 3D files of each Clone X which owners can do with as they please.

The company announced the move in a Medium post entitled, “A new Era Begins: the start of the Avatar Economy,” and on Twitter, and explained that the combination of 3D files and commercial rights will enable holders to — among other things — mint fan art, create merch, use their Clones in videos or as models for digital fashion, build businesses with… or whatever else their imaginations can come up with.

The files are available from the Inventory section of the Clone X website, and come in .max .blend .c4d .gltf and .fbx formats for use in 3D creation platforms Unity or Unreal Engine. The company has also created a dedicated Discord channel for those looking to work out how to use their 3D files (or show off what they’ve done with them).

RTFKT says it expects the move will lead to a whole new generation of creators emerging, alongside adjacent industries, like “collectors commissioning creators to build their Clone IP and brand,” new digital wearable brands, fanart NFTs, and some Clones becoming famous — whether as Gorillaz-like virtual musicians, Lil Miquela-like virtual influencers, or as online video stars.

Of course, the company admits the move is great for its own brand recognition and ecosystem, too:

Since its inception, RTFKT has been a trailblazer when it comes to what a web3 brand can look like and what it can offer to consumers... which is why Nike bought it. We don’t expect many Clone X holders will actually download and create games with their Clones… or 3D print them… or do anything else with their 3D files, but those who do will likely share their work, which makes for free and valuable marketing for the project.

Similarly, by offering 3D files of Clones, RTFKT is setting a new bar that some other projects will necessarily feel obliged to match… and that’s good news for every NFT fan, whether they have a Clone X in their collection or not.

👀 Keep your eyes on the prize 🏆

Sounds rare 😲

Art of the Matter 🌐

On Monday’s episode of their weekly Twitter Spaces series, Art of the Matter, Metaversal’s Jessica Angel and Craig Wilson will be talking to Spheroid Universe about the possibilities AR, VR, and XR unlock… and the ones they’re going enable in years to come.

Probably nothing 🤔

More avatars 👽

Self-proclaimed “front page of the internet,” Reddit, is adding “Collectible Avatars” to its platform which it will sell to users via a new storefront (and which they’ll be able to use on their profiles on the platform). Pricing hasn’t been revealed, but Reddit says the independent artists tasked with creating the avatars will receive almost all of the proceeds, and that buyers won’t have to use cryptocurrencies, but will instead need to use their local currency (like dollars for US buyers).

Like a number of other big-name projects of late, Reddit’s chosen Polygon for its forthcoming avatars, and it says this is just the start for its blockchain-powered initiatives:

Another win for generative art 🏁

Auctioneer Phillips (not to be confused with the Dutch lighting, electronics, and healthcare company of the same name) is putting on an exhibition entitled “Ex-Machina: A History of Generative Art” and hosting an accompanying auction of the featured works, with reserve prices starting at $2,400 and topping out at $1,3 million.

The online auction runs from 13 - 20 July and features unseen works by pioneers and luminaries Vera Molnar, Herbert W. Franke, and Gottfried Jäger, alongside contemporary legends of the space (and drivers of the NFT generative art movement) Erick “Snowfro” Calderon and Dmitri Cherniak. It’s another win for gen art, which remains a nascent but burgeoning sector of the wider NFT market and one to watch.

Stay vigilant, anon 🥷

You may recall that in March, the play-to-earn game Axie Infinity lost more than $600 million in cryptocurrency thanks to an exploit of Ronin, the Ethereum-linked sidechain the game uses to enable players to move money in and out of its ecosystem. Well, this week The Block revealed the machinations of how the hack went down. TL;DR version: It came down to a fake job offer.

A senior engineer at Axie Infinity was approached on LinkedIn to apply for a job that didn’t exist. After multiple “interviews” they were sent tests to complete that looked like PDFs but were actually malicious software that granted the sender access to the misled employee’s computer.

The lesson here is twofold: Don’t do personal things on work computers… and always be suspicious… especially of PDFs, which are the tools of corporate taskmasters, Adobe, and would-be hackers.

Bag boosters 💰

The week that was (July 1 - 8, 2022) 🗓

Last week we laughed at Moonbirds-knock-off Moonrunners rise to prominence. This week, there’s no sign of it in the top 10, but there’s a new surprise leader… ENS (the Ethereum Name Service) has had a stellar week. We go into the details a little later in this very newsletter.

In short: LOL. In long: Laugh Out Loud. People snapping up ENS domains to flip is the epitome of web3-acting-like-web-2.0 tomfoolery. Do you know whether the sites you’re looking for are .com or .net? Or do you simply type them into the address bar and let Google do the rest? Exactly.

💸 And… the hoodie usually sucks 🙊

NGMI ☄️

One Corvette, zero bids 😢

If you’re a regular reader of The Metaversalist you’ll remember a few weeks back we wrote about Chevrolet’s plans to auction an NFT artwork of a green Corvette Z06 in a unique shade of green that would come with a matching, real-world Z06 in the same Slimer-hue. Well, no one wanted it. Or, more accurately, no one wanted to pay 206 ETH ($250,000) or more for it.

Had Chevy gone with a far lower reserve price (or none at all) its first foray into web3 might’ve had a happier ending… especially for the educational charity DonorsChoose, which was the intended recipient of whatever was raised. Instead, Chevolet is left with proverbial egg on its face and an actual unsold Corvette.

To the moon 🌜

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) — the entity that manages .eth domain names — saw over 100,000 new domains registered this week, a more than 200% increase over the previous week.

DeFi lender Teller has launched a “buy now pay later” service for NFTs called Ape Now which requires a downpayment of between 25% and 50% of the face value of the NFT, depending on its pedigree. Supported projects include Bored Ape Yacht Club (and its Mutant Apes offshoot), Moonbirds, Doodles, Cool Cats, Azuki, Meebits, Adidas Originals: Into the Metaverse, RTFKT-MNLTH, and Murakami Flowers Seed.

Cyberbrokers put out casting call:

Bored Ape Yacht Club owner Yuga Labs ran a stress test of its in-browser multiplayer metaverse and the results were impressive, albeit filled with too many forward flips for comfort.

NFT Now put out a list of the NFT sectors’ most (in)famous rug pulls.

🪡 Thread of the week 🧵

Bedtime reading 📚

Right Click Save has an excellent (and unnerving) story on why you ought to be thinking more about where you’re backing up your NFTs and what the current system of storage and curation might mean for many NFTs’ longevity. Spoiler alert: it’s not a pretty picture.

Meanwhile, Artnet has a really interesting piece on what makes for a compelling (and successful) NFT project, including choice of audio, whether or not it includes animation… and other surprising revelations.

And if you feel like really getting into the weeds, this research report entitled “Investor Experience Matters: Evidence from Generative Art Collections on the Blockchain” argues that one of the most likely indicators of success in generative art trading is the trader’s previous experience.

Goats only 🐐

Whether you know the best football-related show is Ted Lasso or you’re a muppet, you should be watching or listening to Goats and the Metaverse.

In each episode, collectibles OG and entrepreneur Stan “The Goat” Meytin and Metaversal co-founder and CEO Yossi Hasson talk about digital and IRL collectibles, NFTs, and the week’s news worth knowing.

This week, they take a look at Moonbirds’ Raven rumors, The Otherside, and WoW Capacitors, and looked at WAGMI United’s mint. Check out the latest episode here:

Aside from providing invaluable insights into digital art and collectibles, Stan and Yossi are also putting together a collection of NFTs dubbed “The Goat Vault.” When the show hits 5,000 subscribers on YouTube, one of those lucky subscribers will win the contents of the vault which, at last count, was valued at over $18,000.

Prefer listening? Check out Goats and the Metaverse on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.

LFG 🎉

Money <> mouth 💸

Each week we’ll offer you a look at an NFT project we’ve invested in and the motivation behind it. This week we’re looking at “vibrant octopoid (443/1023)” by Pindar Van Arman.

Van Arman builds robots and systems that create art semi-autonomously. As he explains, “When I began with my first machines fifteen years ago, they were only capable of simple tasks, like connecting dots and painting by numbers. My most recent robots, however, use deep learning neural networks, artificial intelligence, feedback loops and computational creativity to make a surprising amount of independent aesthetic decisions.”

Help wanted 🥷

Metaversal is building out a world-class team to help bring our partner projects to life, provide market analysis for our investment team, and further our mission of creating the community of communities for web3. You can see our full list of open roles here. But this week, we want to highlight the following vacancy:

📐 Graphic designer ✐

We believe in creating an open, inclusive metaverse that empowers creatives and represents diverse points of view. We help existing IP holders and the creators of brand new ones to bring their projects to life. We’re always curious, and always creator-first. We’re looking for a graphic designer to help us create projects for clients, produce promotional materials for projects and events, generate visually arresting content for social media, and own Metaversal’s visual identity.

If graphic design is your passion and you think you’d be a good fit, please apply by sending a cover letter and resumé to [email protected]. If you know someone who might be a good fit, please share this newsletter with them.

IYKYK 😉

Until next time, see you in the Metaverse.