Not just the high-value Bored Ape Yacht Club sales improved trading volume and overall NFT sales in January. Because of gamification and FOMO over potential rewards, open edition mints with poor artwork are currently creating a buzz.
There is no restriction on the amount of identical artwork pieces that can be sold throughout the availability period of an open edition NFT mint.
In the beginning of 2021, open edition drops were widely used on Nifty Gateway, but they were expensive. Both The Currency by Damien Hirst and Merge by Pak contain gaming elements.
Open edition NFTs, on the other hand, are sold by the meta (or trend) for $10 or less, just like prints or posters. It is thus easier to invest in a project thanks to gamified collection mechanisms that let holders trade multiple copies to access potentially more valuable NFTs or other expected future benefits.
The second most expected NFT release for 2023 is Checks by Jack Butcher of Visualize Value. Early in January, the campaign, which mocks Twitter’s verified user checkmark, held an open edition mint on Zora and sold over 16,000 identical editions for $8 each.
Due to a gamified trading technique that allows holders to burn (or permanently destroy) a set number of editions in exchange for a rarer NFT, the value of Checks NFTs has since increased. NFTs are now priced at 2.45 ETH ($4,085 approximately), a gain of about 51,000% in a single month. Secondary check trading has surpassed $26 million.
Checks has sparked a wave of remixes, including Vincent Van Dough’s version with a Pepe meme theme. The project sold over 238,000 versions over the weekend for a total of $1.6 million for 7 ETH each.
The metadata, or internal information that establishes an NFT’s characteristics, was then changed by Butcher to correspond to the Pepe versions. The artwork was later offered in an open edition by Sean Bonner. Checks by other musicians have been adapted countless times.
— @jackbutcher (@jackbutcher) January 4, 2023
According to Bonner, the open edition explosion is “It’s memes being made in real-time. We’re seeing how the ideas morph from one thing to the next, and people who can tie together the right cultural references at the right moment are being celebrated.”
Butcher was commended by Bonner for encouraging and advancing derivative ideas. Contrast that with the strident legal actions taken by some NFT manufacturers, such as Larva Labs’ DMCA takedown letter for V1 Punks, a project built on Larva’s abandoned on-chain assets.
Checks expansion is not the only open edition boom. As a stepping stone to NFTs, artists have been producing accessible, affordable open editions since the beginning of the year.
In late January, Alex Ness made $2.2 million in ETH by selling 20,300 copies of his digital artwork “M0N3Y PR1NT3R G0 BRRRRRR” for $110 (0.069 ETH apiece). Players can trade up for rarer components because of the burn mechanic.
DAWN OF CHECK pic.twitter.com/2h9ogj5a6S
— beeple (@beeple) February 6, 2023
Since December, multiple open editions with clues of a significant burn event have been released by Jeremy Fall, the former restaurateur-turned-Web3 entrepreneur behind Probably Nothing and its Warner Records collaboration Probably a Label. Over the weekend, Snoop Dogg sold 10,500 music NFTs on Sound. xyz for $8 ETH each.
The open edition trend is feared by some to be a bubble that would harm traders. Initially selling for $8 each, checks are now worth roughly $4,000 in ETH on secondary markets. Those seeking to flip at or close to the top may be unsuccessful.
On his 100 Proof podcast last week, Proof co-founder and NFT collector Kevin Rose observed that people are migrating from game to game here. “dominating the NFT mindshare right now,” he claimed. “I worry that it’s not going to end well, and it rarely does.”
The past few weeks, Crypto Many artists and well-known collectors have argued on Twitter that buyers should purchase art they enjoy from producers they want to support rather than for speculative value in response to the open edition NFTs’ skyrocketing costs. But rising secondary sale prices show that expensive pickups are still being driven by fervor.
An open edition sale of a single image by @Ness_Graphics just generated more ETH than the last Zombie punk sale.
— NFTstatistics.eth (@punk9059) January 28, 2023
(1405 vs 1155) pic.twitter.com/9Q21RKClpC
Web3 startup Manifold, which creates customized smart contracts for decentralized apps and NFT projects, is one of the biggest winners of the open edition boom. Dune’s on-chain data reveals that 223 million NFTs, including some of the biggest open edition dumps, were claimed via Manifold mints.
Eric Diep, a co-founder of Manifold, said that open editions make gathering NFTs more accessible. He believes that even if prices don’t go up, the trend will continue and that there will be even more open editions the next year.
In a few weeks, the bubble will pop, according to Diep’s prediction. The baseline will be raised, though, and the long-term trend is upward.
Because of its low mint fees, game-like dynamics, and openness to derivative riffs, the open edition mania is the ideal remedy for an NFT space that was beset by declining sales and pricing last year, according to Bonner.
“It’s fun and it’s smart and it’s simple and that’s something the space needed.” Bonner said.
Content Source: decrypt.co