WGMI #1

WGMI STUDIOS Any fool can know. The point is to understand.

WGMI STUDIOS let’s say: February 2022, Edition 1

Karafuru

NFT of the Week: I

nspired by the exceedingly popular contemporary Japanese art style, Karafuru is an NFT project consisting of 5,555 generative arts. With a unique art style that uses vibrant colors to bring stimulating characters to life, Karafuru is bound to be a staple in every art enthusiast’s collection.

Karafuru in numbers

5,555 NFTs

1,000

Trait combinations

12 Characters

0.2 ETH Mint price for those

on the karafuru whitelist

[5] ETH

Current floor price on 15th Feb 2022

Artist: Wede (@WD_Willy) Wede is digital art visionary with over 50,000 followers on Instagram and 32,000 followers on Twitter. This professional artist based in Indonesia is creating tremors in the NFT community.

Socials Twitter: 160k Discord: 83k

Karafuru’s roadmap is split into “Acts”.

Analysis Karafuru boasts an extremely strong community of passionate fans and dedicated supporters.

Act 1: Release of 5,555 vibrant NFTs. That means we are currently in Act 1.

Discussions in Karafuru social channels reveal a base of loyal enthusiasts that are likely to believe in the long term value of the project.

The scarcity of only 5,555 tokens, together with the substantial base of engaged followers, means Karafuru is likely to hold value in the long term.

RoadMap

Founder: Museum of Toys Museum of Toys is the first and largest museum of designer toys in Indonesia, and houses some of the most sought-after collections of both local and international toy artists. Founded as a toy production company, MoT has now earned a reputation as one of the leading pioneers in the toy industry.

Community

Team

Karafuru analysis

Act 2: Karafuru will release official merchandise, host special events, and seek innovative partnerships.

Act 3: Karafuru will release 3D NFTs. Act 3 (+1): Karafuru will turn their NFTs into real life physical toys. The Museum of Toy’s track record of producing high quality merchandise suggests these figurines will be nothing but fire.

WEEKLY PICKS Karafuru WGMI’s NFT of the week, and for good reason. The exceptional quality of the art and team was equally matched by the technology and execution of the launch. The whitelist process was flawless, and the minting functionality on their website was second to none. The minting page featured a fun innovative animation, and allowed minters to choose the virtual machine that would provide the minted NFT. It is this kind of attention to detail which has helped Karafuru to earn its hype and reputation.

People on the whitelist could mint for 0.2 ETH, followed by a Dutch auction starting at 0.5 ETH selling out instantly. Predictably, the floor price rocketed before gently coming down to earth and stablazing at around 5 ETH.

Pixelmon The launch of Pixelmon was a resounding success for the developers, but not so much for their community. While 1,700 people on the whitelist were able to mint their Pixelmon for 0.6 ETH, 7,750 Pixelmons were sold in the 3 ETH Dutch auction - raising more than $70 million USD. Since the launch, the floor price has fallen to around 1 ETH. This plunge in value could be a sign that the hype surrounding the project was inflated to unsustainable levels through aggressive marketing strategies. Whatever the cause, Pixelmon has absorbed a lot of liquidity from the NFT market and left a sour taste in the mouth of some investors.

Pixelmon is striving to become the best game in the NFT space. The Pixel Vision plans to provide its holders a virtual metaverse where users can play with friends, battle and train their Pixelmon. If Pixelmon pulls this off, the team will be pushing the frontiers of gaming in the NFT space, attracting innovation and hoards of newcomers. If they fail, it could seriously harm the market optimism for NFTs to provide an effective way to raise funds for upcoming games and creative projects

Generative Dungeon Without much hype surrounding the project before launch, Generative Dungeons quickly became an exciting new project on many NFT enthusiasts’ radar. Each Generative Dungeon is a game that you can actually play on OpenSea - meaning every GD holder owns their very own game.

This interesting and innovative use of NFTs was quickly recognised by the NFT community, with Gary Vaynerchuck picking up two Generative Dungeons and broadcasting the project on his Twitter. The resulting euphoria pumped the price beyond 2 ETH, before falling back down to just below 1 ETH.

UPCOMING NEW PROYECTS BANGERS

WonderPals WonderPals is a collection of 10,000 cute NFTs with cool and calming aesthetics. The founder and artist, Mina, is a professional artist and product designer with experience working for household names including Tiffany & Co., Target and Pinterest. As well as the pleasant visuals and excellent vibes, the WonderPals team are pulling off some monster partnerships with the likes of Cool Cats, Alien Frens, Funcles and many more. These partnerships not only add special 1/1 NFTs to the WonderPals collection, but also reveal the team’s competence for planning and execution.

Through good vibes and astute partnerships, the team has organically grown their Twitter following to over 75,000. Launching on 26 February, WonderPals appears to be a certified banger.

TOTAL SUPPLY 10,000

LAUNCH DAY February 26, 2022

www.wonderpals.com

SoulZ

I

MINT PRICE 0.08

@WonderPals

Anime-style NFTs are soaring right now. The current top 20 projects by volume in OpenSea are dominated by Anime projects. SoulZ is a high-quality addition to this Anime meta. SoulZ’s beautiful art and unique colors are not too dissimilar from the astounding art of Azuki, a project which currently enjoys a floor price of over 11 ETH. SoulZ are differentiating themselves from other Anime projects with an interesting roadmap. Reminiscent of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, SoulZ holders will be able to claim a dish from the SoulZ Ramen Shop to transform their SoulZ NFT. The later stages of the roadmap promise 3D playable characters, parties in the Metaverse, and even a P2E Anime game.

The gamified whitelist process, where whitelist hopefuls must engage with the SoulZ community to earn orbs, has helped to grow a strong community backing. The Discord channel has over 160,000 members, and their Twitter page has over 120,000 followers. With a growing hype in a popular NFT niche, this project is certainly one to keep an eye on.

TOTAL SUPPLY 10,000

LAUNCH DAY

February 20, 2022

www.wonderpals.com

I

MINT PRICE TBA

@WonderPals

HIDDEN GEMS

Defi Frens Defi Frens is a cute 3D project that continues to regularly pop up in many alpha channels. The next level 3D art gives serious Nguyen Nhut-vibes (the renowned artist behind the 3D Clayboy and 3D Invisible Friends collections), a style that is widely loved in the NFT community.

With a closed Discord channel and just over 14,000 followers on Twitter, this promising project is a real hidden gem. If you want to get in early on this project, make sure to follow Defi Frens on Twitter and turn on post notifications to be the first to hear about any opportunities to gain access to their Discord.

@defi_frens

NFT MARKET NEWS AND TRENDS Coinbase is ready tolaunch their NFT marketplace Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. with over 73 million verified users, will soon be launching their eagerly-awaited NFT platform.

In its bid to become the dominant NFT marketplace, the crypto colossus has alerted two million members on the Coinbase NFT marketplace waiting list that “it’s almost here”. The email featured thrilling teasers, familiar faces, and an expert guide on how to set yourself up for success in the marketplace.

With its scale and reputation as a crypto industry leader, Coinbase is well positioned to bring NFTs into the mainstream by making NFT technology more accessible. To add to the excitement, Coinbase has announced a partnership with Mastercard which will allow Coinbase users to purchase NFTs without having to first buy cryptocurrencies.

The expectation in the industry is huge, and many NFT enthusiasts are skeptical whether it will live up to the hype. Whatever the outcome, Coinbase’s recent announcement suggests we will not have to wait long to find out.

First U.S. home sold as an NFT On February 8th 2022, the first U.S. property was auctioned and sold as an NFT. The auction started at $650,000, with the 2,164-square-foot house in Gulfport, Florida finally being purchased for $654,000 (210 ETH).

The online auction was held by Propy, a real estate tech company based in Palo Alto, California. Propy plans to mint at least 10 more properties in the near future, with the next mint being a condominium in Tampa. The real estate start-up also plans to provide DeFi mortgages to its customers in the coming months.

As a means to prove ownership inextricably, NFTs and blockchain technology are considered by some to be the future of land transfer and ownership. The successful sale of this property is evidence of the growing and varied real-life use cases for this revolutionary technology.

Polygon raises $450M in funding round Polygon, a layer-two scaling solution, has raised $450 million in a funding round led by some of blockchain’s largest venture funds. With a market cap of $13 billion, this recent investment round will help Polygon to expand its portfolio of Ethereum scaling solutions.

Ethereum’s blockchain has one of the largest development ecosystems, but is often criticized for its slow speeds and high gas fees. Polygon is a layer-2 (or side-chain) solution that is attempting to help Ethereum to increase the number of transactions it can process per second.

There are over 7,000 decentralized apps that have deployed on Polygon.

This includes the NFT marketplace behemoth OpenSea, metaverse projects Decentraland and Sandbox, and other DeFi protocols including Aave, Sushiswap and Curve.

With their strong track record, a team of influential investors, and a fresh round of funding to continue their growth, Polygon is set to continue improving not only the NFT ecosystem, but the user experience for the entire crypto industry.

WGMI INSIGHTS

Should I sell my NFTs when the price of ETH increases?

T

he rally of ether (ETH, Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency) last week led to a decrease in transaction volume on OpenSea. This has raised concerns that a major pump of ETH’s value could significantly harm the value of NFTs. This WGMI Insight article will explore the relationship between the value of ETH and NFTs. As two members of the crypto family, ETH and NFTs are inherently connected. However, the data suggests that NFTs can be a reliable store of value in shifting market conditions, and that it might be worth holding on to them when cryptocurrency prices rise or fall.

Ether and NFTs: Blood brothers Most marketplaces for NFTs are powered by a blockchain. Currently, the most popular marketplaces in both awareness and transaction volume are powered

by Ethereum. Therefore, if you want to purchase an NFT on a popular marketplace, you are likely to need Ethereum’s native currency, ether, to conduct a transaction. Despite this familial relationship, history shows that not all NFTs track the value of their underlying cryptocurrency.

The value of NFTs when ETH increases Steady ETH growth: During periods of steady ETH growth, there is usually an inverse relationship with the price of an NFT - meaning NFTs are worth slightly less ETH. This makes sense, because although the NFT is worth less ETH, the NFT maintains its dollar value. For example, let’s say 1 ETH is worth $3,000, and our NFT is worth 1 ETH. If the price of 1 ETH then increases to $6,000, an NFT worth 0.5 ETH would still be worth $3,000. In this example, it may seem like the NFT is worth less, but has actually maintained its value in fiat terms.

Explosive ETH growth: In the short term, explosive ETH growth may incentivize NFT collectors to sell their NFTs to increase their ETH liquidity and take profits. This sell pressure may cause NFT prices to fall.

However, the 500% growth in ETH value from January to December in 2021 led to an NFT boom. People holding ETH during this time became very wealthy, and deployed that wealth to create new, innovative projects that attracted countless newcomers to the industry. This suggests sustained ETH growth would only benefit the NFT market in the long term.

Conclusion

As the crypto market booms or crashes, the effect on cryptocurrencies and NFTs is likely to be similar as optimism for the industry grows or fades.

In steadier market conditions, it is evident that the price of cryptocurrencies has limited effect on the price of an NFT. Rather, much more determinant factors of an NFT’s value are its cultural impact, scarcity, utility and community benefits. This suggests that NFT holders should not allow short-term ETH price changes to affect their NFT strategy, especially for the projects they believe will deliver long-term value.

Weekly Whale

In the Weekly Whale column, we speak with some of the industry’s most prominent and influential individuals. We ask them for their insights on the market, to provide you all the alpha you need to level up your NFT game and eventually become a crypto whale yourself. Our mission is to turn our WGMI readers into one of our next Weekly Whales!

This week’s Whale is none other than WGMI Studios’ very own Kosher Plug.

What three projects are you most excited about?

Three projects that I have a close eye on right now are Invisible Friends, Imaginary Ones and Mutants Kaijus.

What was your first NFT purchase?

Some kind of random penguin derivative.

What has been your best NFT investment?

Wolf Game, a P2E strategy game. In Wolf Game, players can buy a sheep or wolf NFT to partake in a strategy game and earn $WOOL. $WOOL is the game’s currency, and can be used within the game to boost your $WOOL-generating capabilities, or can be traded with other players for ETH. What is your advice for those new to the NFT industry?

Only mint whitelists. Trying to flip with limited knowledge of the industry will lead to a lot of mistakes, and probably losses.

If you only had $500, what would you buy?

The answer is simple. Find and buy an alpha pass that will get you spots on whitelists.