DYOR 🔬

In the midst of a bear market, New York-based digital artist Sam Spratt sold nearly $2 million worth of digital art this week via his project, “IX. The Monument Game.” How did he manage it? By finding a novel use for Web3 technology, by fostering a community, and by coercing that community into investing part of itself into his vision.

But to understand how we got here, we need to rewind a bit. Spratt’s been working on his “Luci” series for more than a year, building its lore, slowly growing the body of work, and — crucially — curating a highly influential, deep-pocketed, and extremely loyal collector base.

Early Luci works were auctioned by Christie’s, and a collection of 50 pieces, “The Skulls of Luci,” followed. Those have since become highly coveted, with many owned by some of the most prominent artists and collectors in Web3, and a current floor price of 192 ETH (~$314,000).

The Skulls now get holders a seat at the table at a super-exclusive, super-insidery, collectors’ club. For Spratt, it means direct access to some of the sector’s key tastemakers, both as a sounding board for ideas, and as a readymade market for his work. And there are three Skulls of Luci that don’t have owners… which is where “XI. The Monument Game” comes in.

The enormous, 20,000-pixel-wide work sold as a 1/1 early this week for 420.69 ETH (~$690,000) to Ryan Zurrer’s 1OF1 collectors’ group (which also bought Beeple’s “Human One” sculpture).

But that wasn’t really the interesting part. Alongside the 1/1, Spratt created 256 “Player” tokens. A fifth of them were distributed to carefully chosen artists and collectors, with the rest sold via Dutch auction for 3.3 ETH each (~$5,400). Each Player NFT allowed the holder to drop a pin on a part of the epic artwork and leave a comment — usually in the form of a story or poem.

Skull holders — dubbed “The Council of Luci” — are voting to decide the best three player submissions, each of which will get a Skull and, in the process, a seat at the table of heavyweights Spratt has built.

At the same time, there’s now a burgeoning secondary market for Player tokens, which have had their respective submissions added to their metadata. When the voting closes on Monday, whoever holds the winning ticket gets the Skull, even if they didn’t create the submission.

What can we learn from Spratt’s mega-success in the least ideal market conditions anyone could wish for? Innovation will always find a market. Incredible art will always find collectors. And if you can reach the sector’s tastemakers and make them believe in your vision, they’ll support you regardless of macro-conditions.

Congratulations to Spratt and his wife, Rachel (who, as he explains, played a key role in bringing the project to life), because with The Monument Game, they’ve raised the bar for what a Web3 project can be, doubtless inspiring countless other creators in the process.

The project’s influence is going to be felt for decades to come. It’s a monumental achievement. And it’s exactly the sort of thing we imagine we might one day see in a major museum.

Headliners 🤘

• Our friends at the generative art institution Le Random have a must-read piece on the artist, academic, and theorist Philip Galanter and the definition of generative art he offered 20 years ago:

• Online retail infrastructure giant Shopify has added support for Solana Pay and will support USDC payments at first, with additional cryptocurrencies expected to follow in coming months, TechCrunch reports.

• Pudgy Penguins and limited collection collectibles designer Mighty Jaxx have teamed up to create a collection of *checks notes* 300 pineapple-clad pengus priced at $199 each:

• Threads, the X (formerly known as Twitter) clone from Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook), is now available on desktops for most users. I’m sorry / You’re welcome.

• In other tongue-twisting news, Patrick Mahomes’ Museum of Mahomes project will offer exclusive physical trading cards to Azuki holders. The collection will include a 1/1 card that’s likely to be instantly worth a pretty penny the moment its unwrapped:

If someone sent you this edition, consider subscribing and joining the 7,200+ Metaversalists learning about the power of decentralized ownership each week. As always, thanks for reading!

NGMI ☄️

Diamonds might be forever, but @RecurForever isn’t. Well, this is awkward. The company, which raised $50 million and NFTerized all sorts of notable IP — from Star Trek to Care Bears — announced it can’t keep the lights on anymore and it’s shutting shop. Many people are, unsurprisingly, calling it a rugpull.

If you bought a RECUR pass, or any related NFTs, there’s an FAQ on how to hang onto your NFTs before the platform is fully deprecated on November 16. If you’re at all sympathetic to RECUR’s plight, pour one out for the latest victim of the bear, and remember, iconic IP doesn’t a strategy make. As collectors become more discerning — and times tougher — merely digitizing nostalgic brands isn’t going to be enough to build a sustainable Web3 business.

Metaversalism 🔥 

• In this week’s Metaversal IRL, we played a little “hot or not” with ScarJo, MarRo, our Zombie CryptoPunk, and the people of Times Square:

• Back at Metaversal HQ, we sat down with the inimitable Olive Allen to touch on more serious topics:

• And, in our From the Collection series, we looked at Roop Rainisto’s time-space-and-mind-bending AI art:

This is the last newsletter of (northern hemisphere) summer. So long, linen trousers and Panana hats. So, if you’re above the equator and reading this… you should probably go and touch grass… in your swimwear... while you can. Good-bye, my Speedo and I are heading to the park. 🌿👙

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Until next time, see you in the metaverse… or on Bluesky, or maybe even on Threads on desktop! 👀