Welcome to the first issue of The Metaversalist of 2023. This year we’re going to continue to bring you the very best of the world of web3 in an easily digestible format, augmented with unique insights from our team. But we also want to go deeper.

Look out for a new weekly deep-dive from a passionate web3 advocate who’s ridden the peaks and successfully navigated the troughs… coming soon.

In the meantime, let’s not waste any more time. We know why you’re here, so let’s get straight into it!

DYOR 🔬

In a massive blow to the Solana blockchain, DeGods (Solana’s biggest project) and its sister project, y00ts, have announced they will bridge away from the chain. While DeGods is moving to Ethereum, y00ts will be heading to Polygon.

For Solana, it’s bad news insofar as seeing your biggest project go elsewhere is always bad news, and bad for optics. The move will inescapably affect how many new projects choose to launch on it while also making existing Solana-based project leads to wonder whether they should make contingency plans to do likewise.

But DeGods leaving doesn’t mean the death of Solana. Plenty of other projects with loyal followings remain, and many DeGods and y00ts holders are invested in the Solana ecosystem beyond those two projects.

Nonetheless, it’s been a rough couple of months for Solana, which also had exposure to FTX’s collapse, and which faced a hack in August 2022, and other technical problems that have inevitably worried some users. But some Solana loyalists have chosen to couch the recent headline-grabbing as a way to generate more interest in an ecosystem that provides a comparatively affordable onramp to web3 compared to Ethereum.

There’s another silver lining to the news, which is that the ability to move projects between chains, while still no easy undertaking, is precisely the sort of flexibility an open metaverse is meant to offer. DeGods and y00ts’ moves will be keenly watched by other projects and could provide valuable lessons for them. Eventually, it’s likely most holders of digital collectibles won’t even know which chain their wares exist on.

Then there’s the other Solana-related item that’s been garnering headlines this week: Bonk!. The Solana-powered meme coin has exploded in popularity (and, for a time, in price) and has had numerous overlaps and intersects with DeGods. First, Frank apologised for badmouthing $BONK and said he supported it, then he sold the share he was airdropped, only for the Bonk! team to announce it had burned the tokens allocated to DeGods holders.

In other words, drama, drama, and more drama… but lots of attention for Solana. However Bonk! plays out, it’s not going to be dull. Early Friday, Bonk!’s developers burned their allocation of $BONK to try and head off the token’s downward trajectory. While Bonk! may not last, to count Solana because of the last 10 day’s excitement would be premature.

Further reading:

• NFT Now has a great Bonk! explainer over here.

• Decrypt reports y00ts received a $3 million grant from Polygon to choose it as its new home.

Drop alert 🚨

“Matriarchy Now” | Wednesday, Jan 11

Nadya Tolokonnikova (of Pussy Riot fame) and iconic photographer Ellen von Unwerth have teamed up to create a collection of NFTs for Rolling Stone. The “Matriarchy Now” collection includes 11 pieces, which will be auctioned on the Coinbase NFT marketplace. The auctions start on January 11 at 3pm ET.

🤠 Robo wranglers needed 🤖

Probably nothing 🤔

RECUR offers web3 as a service 🧱

With projects for the likes of Hello Kitty, Paramount, and Nickelodeon on its roster, RECUR is no stranger to the challenges of launching (and maintaining) NFT projects at scale. Now it’s enabling other companies to use the tools it’s built in-house for its own projects with a newly launched service called RECUR Builder.

RECUR says its service is designed to offer everything from creating a website for a project to contracts, minting, metadata management, support for multiple payment methods — from a range of cryptocurrencies to Apple Pay and Google Pay — while also ensuring KYC compliance, royalty management, and more.

DayAway is bringing the lux 🛩️

Asking for $2,500 to mint an NFT in current market conditions is a bold move, but DayAway is confident it’ll get away with it, because it’s promising all sorts of real-world utility from its forthcoming Genesis Founder’s Key NFT. Dropping on January 12, there’ll only be 500 of the NFTs, and each will entitle the holder to exclusive access to preferential rates at thousands of hotels, invites to events at private membership clubs around the world, and discounts on luxury brands.

Holders are also guaranteed a lifetime platinum membership to DayAway’s existing $500/annum membership tier and a free NFT from every future DayAway NFT collection. The company is so confident in its offering that it’s promising to buy back any Genesis Founder’s Keys at their full-mint price if a holder has buyer’s remorse. Interested parties can apply for a whitelist spot here.

Zoom out, breathe out 🧘

Last year was a rollercoaster ride for mainstream markets, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs, but new data out of DappRadar this week (and reported by Decrypt) suggest 2022 wasn’t as dire as it felt while it was unfolding. While the bull run of 2021 saw $25.1 billion in trading volume (excluding wash trading), 2022 saw $24.7 billion.

In terms of actual trades, 2021 saw 58.6 million, according to DappRadar’s research, while in 2022, that number was significantly higher at 101 million. Not only does that indicate that more NFTs were traded last year at lower prices than in 2021, but it could suggest more players participating in the space, which is good news despite the downturn.

To the moon 🌛

• Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu told Bloomberg this week the company is still aiming to raise around $1 billion for a web3 and metaverse-focused fund. That’s half what it was aiming for when it announced the planned fund last year, but still, nothing to sneeze at.

• Nouns made an appearance at the 2023 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on Monday thanks to TV studio Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, which initially proposed the idea to the Nouns DAO last year.

• A group of Chinese government agencies launched the country’s first NFT marketplace called the “China Digital Asset Trading Platform” on January 1.

• Sappy Seals released a browser extension called Sappy React that uses a service called Meme Machine to create memes using users’ own Sappy Seals. We’re not sure which stage of the simulation this is… but we like it!

• More than 2.2 million ENS domains were registered in 2022, representing roughly 80% of all the ENS domains in circulation.

• Doodles has released more info about the forthcoming Doodles 2, the most interesting of which (if not the most revolutionary) is the ability to customize a Doodle with accessories using the Dooplicator.

• Bored Ape Yacht Club revealed it won’t be hosting its annual ApeFest event at NFT.NYC after the conference moved its event up to April from its usual summer slot.

• NFT marketplace Magic Eden promised to refund users affected by an exploit that temporarily allowed fake NFTs to appear as part of verified collections on the platform.

🪡 Thread of the week 🧵

Goats only 🐐

Whether you’re a Solana maximalist or a Polygon purist, 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 collectibles, digital art, access passes, and the rest of the week’s NFT news worth knowing.

This week, they unpack the first week of 2023, look at what Doodles has in store for holders, and consider the state of the market. Check out the latest episode here:

Aside from providing invaluable insights into digital art and collectibles, Stan and Yossi have assembled 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 is valued at more than 10.3 ETH (~$12,700).

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

IYKYK 😢

Follow for more 🐦

You can find more rapid-fire updates, insights, memes, and other malarky from the Metaversal team on any of your preferred platforms, we’re on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Mastodon, and TikTok.

This week’s edition was compiled by Metaversal’s content director, Craig Wilson. You can find him on Twitter or Mastodon.

Until next time, see you in the metaverse!