Bullish: A Sappy Seals Breakdown

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gm, guess what today is?

THE 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE DROP!

Exactly one year ago we sent our first newsletter. From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank everyone who has been with us from the beginning, in the middle, or just signed up today. We would be nothing without YOU <3

• Disney just posted a job listing for a Web3 lawyer position. (LI)

• Epic Games is on a roll, partnering with tech start-up Hadean to integrate metaverse capabilities into Unreal Engine. (TB)

• Pixelmon returns with a new take on its art and fresh leadership. (DC)

• Sephora holds its second annual metaverse event called Sephoria, welcoming thousands of attendees to a colorful virtual setting. (RS)

• Apple is making it possible for app developers to integrate NFTs into apps, possibly onboarding thousands. Their 30% cut still stands. (TWT)

• Chiru Labs (Azuki) closes $30m in VC funding on an approximate $300M valuation. (BW)

• Coinbase teams up with Hypebeast, offering traders the chance to win a $4K shopping spree. (@CB)

• CryptoPunk #7273 sold for 369.69ETH (almost 500K) over the weekend. (OS)

• y00tsNFT rules out the y00ts reveal happening in September. Says an announcement will be made once everything will be ready, and promises to make the whole experience worth the wait. (@yOOtsNFT)

• Sensei Labs, a Web-3 model software company joins Debuilders as they plan to keep building and deploying in the midst of DeGods. (@SenseiLabsNFT)

Sappy Seals Continue to Shine 🦭

Arf arf arf. The time to talk about the beloved Sappy Seals has finally come. Along with the culmination of shit posts throughout Twitter, their community is what sets them apart. Let’s dive into it.

What are the Sappy Seals? The Sappy Seals are a collection of 10,000 seals that are quite possibly some of the most adorable NFTs in existence. Started by @wabdoteth in September of 2021, this project focuses on metaverse and community building with memes, cringe posts, and outright engagement farming. Some NFT investors love that, while others think that it’s tacky and annoying. Hell, they even have an account, @camolNFT, that is labeled as a “performance art piece” and tweets constantly throughout the week. Regardless, the Sappy Seals flood Twitter’s timeline, and they do it in an efficient manner. If that isn’t active engagement, we don’t know what is. And this has been going on for well over a year. How many NFT projects are still active even two months after mint? Not many.

What do the Seals do for you? Well, first and foremost, the Seals are a part of the Pixlverse, a metaverse play that was also started by @wabdoteth. This means that you can stake your Seal for the $PIXL native token, which can then be used on the Pixlverse marketplace. Because the staking metric is based on the rarity of your NFT, the rarer your NFT, the more $PIXL you farm through staking. While the price of $PIXL is negligible currently ($0.007070), the real value comes from the future of Pixlverse and the metaverse ecosystem that they are continuously building out.

Why the Seals? At The Drop, we like to spotlight projects that we truly believe have a future. This is to give exposure to our readers and show them projects that they might just gaze over in transition. The Sappy Seals aren’t ones that you want to miss. With a floor price of 0.84 ETH, at the time of writing, the Sappy Seals ecosystem isn’t going away, and they have proved that with their constant engagement on social media. If you like community engagement and constant memery, the Seals might be a project that you want to hop in on. Along with the memes, if you want exposure to the Pixlverse, the Seals are your entry. Congratulations to the Sappy Seals on just over a year of being active, and we can’t wait to see what is coming from their team in the future. In the meantime, keep arfing around, as usual. WAGMI, Seals.

Epic Games CEO Fights For Web3 🎮

Tim Sweeny has been an outspoken critic of centralized platforms that abuse their roles in facilitating user experiences and he's back at fighting the good fight. Earlier this year when Minecraft and Steam categorically rejected NFTs, Sweeny made it explicit that Epic games will never be so top-down that it stops the users that depend on its platforms from expressing themselves with technological innovation. Outside of being vocal for decentralized futures he also doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty in court. After losing an anti-trust claim to Apple the case has been opened again to reassess if Apple is abusing its power by demanding 30% of Epic’s sales on its play store. In other words, Epic has been and will fight the likes of Google and Apple in order to keep the metaverse a truly open space.

Apple is now allowing in app purchases of NFT insofar as it receives 30% of sales. This is indeed grotesquely overpriced especially when one considers that NFT marketplaces charge roughly 2.5%. Tim Sweeny has been correct to point out that dominant Web2 players like Apple Google and Facebook will be quick to shape their instantiations of the metaverse in as much of a monopoly-like fashion as possible since that is effectively the basis for their success IRL. Optimists are pointing to the one billion plus users that the Apple store will introduce NFT purchasing. While mass adoption is of course a desirable end, it should never come at the expense of the principle idea of Web3, namely the assurance of decentralization.

AC Milan Partners With The Monkey League ⚽️

MonkeyLeague joined the league of strategic partnerships in Solana last week after announcing its collaboration with the Italian giants AC Milan. This new partnership with the Esport franchise shows the Serie A champion’s latest step to working with experts to create unique digital experiences for its fans, which aim to give them more access, and more ownership and bring them even closer to their beloved Club. And also the plan to develop MonkeyLeague into a franchise adopted by the masses and played for a lifetime to come for the Esport game.

The collaboration is expected to cover game assets such as MonkeyPlayer NFTs, Stadium NFTs, in-game wearables, design and game collaborations, game playtests with AC Milan players, sponsored esports tournaments, community giveaways, and many more. AC Milan will lead the MonkeyLeague's initial breeding season and the partnership will kick off with an auction for 16 of the most iconic, Limited Edition Retro AC Milan MonkeyPlayer NFTs on Magic Eden come October 6th.

"We are thrilled to kick off this partnership with MonkeyLeague, a collaboration that allows us to strengthen our positioning in the field of digital innovation,” Casper Stylsvig, chief revenue officer of AC Milan, said in a press release as reported by Coindesk.

Sponsored Content: There is no sponsored content in this newsletter.

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Disclaimer: The Drop DOES NOT provide financial advice. All content is for informational purposes only. The Drop is not a registered investment, legal, or tax advisor or a broker/dealer. Trading any crypto-related asset is extremely risky and could result in significant capital losses.

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Gannon Breslin, Kayla Kilbride, CryptoVonDoom, Naveed Lalani, Alex Reed, Naman Patel, Big Tuna

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