😐 This Mfer is normal

Hey frens. Welcome back to The Drop!

Markets still look skittish this week, with the top gaming tokens down anywhere from 1% to 18%. Sui, Ronin, TON, Gala, and Immutable have all fallen more than 10%.

There’s still so much happening, though. Games are being developed, art is being shared, and builders are inspired and pushing forward.

— Kate Irwin

P.S. Let me know how you’re liking The Drop! Send me an email at [email protected].

“Normal Mfer” animated short brings NFTs to life

Throwback time! Remember the Mfers? There’s a new one in town.

He’s messy, he’s shy, he’s a gamer, he’s eating pizza off the floor — he’s the Normal Mfer. 

The team at CC0 Studios pulled inspiration from the November 2021 Mfers NFT collection to create The Normal Mfer, an animated YouTube pilot episode released this month chronicling the life of one young, normal-as-heck mfer who still lives with his parents at 23 years old. 

The Mfers were one of those NFT boom-era collections that launched later into the hype. Attitudes toward NFT PFPs were already shifting toward degeneracy and skepticism at the time. 

By that point, so many NFT collections had made massive promises through elaborate “roadmaps” that were rarely fulfilled. Teams often gave up after a few weeks or months, sparking accusations of “rugpulls” and scam projects. Pseudonymous founders exited and disappeared along with piles of cash.

The Mfers were, in part, born out of that era. There was no roadmap, no utility, and the Mfers were launched in the public domain, meaning anyone could reuse the PFPs for any purpose. Free use was part of the vision.

Mfers creator Sartoshi — a play on the name of unknown Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto — has confirmed the obvious that the “Are ya winning, son?” meme was his favorite and directly inspired the NFT collection. 

I chatted with “Lawl,” whose real name is Joe but prefers not to share his last name publicly. He is cofounder of CC0 Studios and co-created the Normal Mfer project. 

“I definitely resonate with that character,” he tells me of the Normal Mfer. 

The Normal Mfer and his dog Max live in one messy room, dotted with posters, books, and miscellaneous artifacts of life. His mom is an astronaut for some reason, and his dad wants to sell their family home.

The Mfer has a crush on Leaf, the girl next door but is also afraid of her and isn’t sure what to do about it. His daydreams turn the animation from black-and-white into color when he’s around her. Dad walks in on him thinking of her, and well, wants him to move out of the house so his parents can get on with their lives.

The pilot episode is full of references to memes and meme culture. It’s funny, awkward, somehow charming, and, well, exactly what you would expect from an animated short about an Mfer. It has Rick and Morty vibes. It also nods at the self-help “manosphere” course culture that’s created unrealistic — and often toxic — expectations for men. Mfer’s Dad is his villain, and Normal Mfer feels like he’s earning and losing game points through life. 

I won’t spoil the ending for you — you’ll have to watch it for yourself.

“I’ve always wanted to create a show like this,” Joe tells me. He describes himself as a member of the Mfer community (which does have a Discord server), and is hoping the Normal Mfer can get a corporate or brand sponsor so the team can make more episodes. There’s also the dream of appearing on existing animation-focused platforms and channels, too.

Another goal is for the pilot episode to hit 100,000 views — he says that’s the threshold at which the team will consider making a second episode.

Animoca Brands shares deets on portfolio

Animoca Brands, a blockchain gaming investment and development company with a range of titles under its belt, says it made $314 million in bookings in 2024. 

Its digital asset advisory business earned $165 million of that number, a 116% year-over-year revenue increase. It advised at least 21 projects last year, including those behind Pixels, the pixelated farming game on Ronin, and the Pudgy Penguins’ PENGU token.

Animoca has a staggering number of portfolio companies: 540, according to a press release I read. That’s a lot! How do they keep track?

The firm also holds cryptocurrencies including ETH, BTC, APE, and others. It's always interesting to hear how some of the biggest players in blockchain gaming are doing.

Reddit co-founder wants TikTok on-chain

Alex Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit who’s now a VC, is throwing his hat into the ring to try to buy TikTok. 

If he wins, he wants to bring it onchain.

What does this mean, exactly? It means that if he bought it, the social video platform could see crypto transaction functionality added, possibly through TikTok’s shopping and creator revenue features. Ohanian says TikTok users would own their own data, and creators uploading videos to the platform would “own their audience.”

“The list of people who do not want to buy TikTok is much smaller than the list who do,” Twitter/X owner Elon Musk replied, suggesting Ohanian may not get the bid. 

Honestly, who knows at this point. A crypto-powered, All-American TikTok would be pretty cool, though.

• NFT marketplace Magic Eden trolled everyone on Twitter by proclaiming you’ll face tariffs if you don’t reply to their post. Good one? Idk. Making light of politics these days is hard.

• Crypto-powered music distribution platform Unchained Music is working with Sei (not Sui) Network to bring artist royalties onto Sei. Music metadata is stored onchain, and artists can choose from blockchain payouts or fiat payment methods.

The top 5 NFT collections in the past week, per NFTpricefloor data. The usual suspects, plus Autogyphs, the Ethereum art collection that launched in 2019.