It’s the last issue of the year! So long, 2022, and thanks for all the stress and anxiety! Despite this year’s best efforts, we’re still standing, smiling, and firm in our belief that NFTs represent a tectonic technological shift in culture. To say we’re excited for 2023 is an understatement.

Right, let’s get straight into it!

DYOR 🔬

It was a big week for Bored Ape Yacht Club parent company Yuga Labs. First it announced a new CEO, Daniel Alegre, a veteran of gaming behemoth Activision Blizzard. Alegre will replace outgoing CEO Nicole Muniz when he takes over the role in Q1 of 2023.

Though the market didn’t react to the news, Twitter did, with many degens enthusiastic about the implications of Alegre’s appointment for Yuga’s forthcoming Otherside metaverse/game, which has already been fairly impressive from the demo events the company has hosted.

Next up, it indulged in some toilet humor, dropping a trailer for a forthcoming addition to Yacht Club lore it’s dubbed “The Trial of Jimmy the Monkey.”

There’s not a lot of information to go on, but there is a new website, which teases December 28 as the next reveal, January 18 as the “multi-week interactive mint,” and February 8 as the “mint reveal.”

Yuga’s also said that those holders with both an Ape and one of the pooches from the Bored Ape Kennel Club — which hasn’t seen any activity at all this year, really — will enjoy special privileges. That news sent the Kennel Club floor price climbing immediately, and it almost doubled overnight.

Whatever Yuga has in store you know it’s going to attract hype and attention, and you can bet it’s going to be carefully thought out. Are we excited to learn more? How could we not be?

🐾 We voted “yes” 👍

Looks rare 🖼

Taking stock 🥫

This year’s been a rollercoast ride, for the markets, for NFT projects, and for the team at Metaversal. Last week we showed you our madcap recap video of the wider web3 sector’s highs and lows. This week we’ve got a more personal look at what we got up to this year, and more importantly, what we learned along the way.

You can read the Metaversal year in review for 2022 here.

Probably nothing 🤔

Charge it 💳

Last week, PayPal announced a partnership with MetaMask that enables PayPal users to buy Ethereum. This week, Uniswap announced it’s partnered with MoonPay to enable similarly frictionless cryptocurrency purchases.

One of the big pain points this alleviates is access time. Uniswap says purchased cryptocurrency is available immediately. Depending how prone you are to aping into projects on a whim, that’s either a really good or a really dangerous thing. But it’s definitely another sign that, little by little, mainstream adoption is nearing.

The power of HODLing 👊

Roughly a year ago, generative art wunderkind, Dmitri Cherniak launched an audacious project called “Wrapture.” There were only 50 editions, and if even a single one was sold, Cherniak would bolster supply to 666. Despite plenty of demand, diamond hands prevailed, not a single edition was sold, and to celebrate, Cherniak auctioned off one of the collection with all of the proceeds going to charity.

Collector group Curated was the eventual winner of the auction for 169 ETH (~ $206,000), Cherniak added to the funds raised, and even the fee Art Blocks received from the sale was added to the donation. If that doesn’t show you the power — and generosity — of web3, we don’t know what does.

🛋️ Always check under the sofa cushions 💰

NGMI ☄️

Sort of freed, definitely fried 🍳

Famous fan of short trousers and hater of risk assessments, Sam Bankman-Fried, has had a really bad week. He’s been extradited to the U.S., where he’ll appear in court in the Southern District of New York and is likely to be found guilty of a shopping list of indiscretions. At the same time, two of his former colleagues pled guilty to charges of fraud and are now cooperating with prosecutors. Oh, and bail cost him $250 million (but not really). But hey, at least he’s still flying business class.

To use a technical term, the founder of failed crypto exchange, FTX, and sister company/gambling outfit Alameda Research is “screwed.” To use a slightly lengthier technical term, he’s “really, really screwed.” That’ll be scant consolation for the people who saw a sizeable chunk of their net worth in SBF’s now defunct enterprises, but it is an important reminder when deciding where to allocate your capital to consider the ratio of trouser length to age.

To the moon 🌛

• DeGods is revamping how its forthcoming Rewards Center will work and is releasing a DeLabs video outlining new roadmaps for DeGods and y00ts on Christmas Day.

• Decentraland unveiled Decentraland Worlds Beta, 3D spaces people can experiment with without need to hold any of the company’s LAND token.

• Blur decided it may not have gotten its airdrop rewards calculations quite right and redid them to try and account for wash trading:

• Axie Infinity released a new selection of holiday season-themed accessories.

• Twitter rolled out a controversial new “view count” metric that it displays alongside more established and easier-to-parse metrics like retweets and likes.

• Cool Cats has a plan for 2023… and it’s mostly blue.

💘 It’s a match! 🫶

Bedtime reading 📚

You know it’s the end of the year when the Messari Crypto Theses drops… so, good news, it’s definitely the end of the year, because here it is.

🎁 Share in the upside 📈

Goats only 🐐

Whether you’re a casual gamer or you’ve been fragging n00bs since the days of VGA, 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 dive into the world of vintage games in web3 with Polycade’s Tyler Bushnell, and unpack former U.S. President Donald Trump’s sold-out NFT collection.

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 9.35 ETH (~$11,400).

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

IYKYK 😉

Until next year, see you in the Metaverse.