GM Scoop Family. As our good friend & writer Dawa Jets of to New York. You have me @Thebarbell_ Now let's dive in.

CPI data came out yesterday (Consumer Price index) for September which is a measure of inflation was higher than expected in fact it's the fastest pace in four decades. This sent shockwaves into the stock markets (Both the S&P500 & Dow Jones) and had them both acting like meme coins.

So is crypto finally becoming more stable than traditional finance? WTF is going on?!?

As of October 7th the Dow Jones index which is an Index that monitors the top 30 companies in the US became more volatile than Bitcoin. Who would have thought it? The news and markets seem to get crazier with happenings that just a few years ago would have seemed like make belief. This could be a sign that Bitcoin is maturing as an asset class showing the drop in volatility and decoupling from traditional asset classes, this may also imply that $BTC has found a temporary bottom following its historic bull run in 2021.

As far as the NFT markets go, the blue-chip index has trended down as have volumes. We seem to be beating the same drum here. Given the macro economy at present, new Innovations & utility in the NFT world are needed to re-ignite the fresh bull cycle. With assets as nuanced and as volatile as NFTs, you will often find that bull cycles will be sparked when you least expect it & from events not yet foreseen given the little historical data we have on them.

Our advice: - Keep learning, stay engaged in the market, network with people & enhance your knowledge & skills so that when the tide shifts you are prepared and ready.

🍦SCOOPS OF THE WEEK

🍦 Yuga Labs probed by the SEC - What is the Scoops take?

🍦 TamaDoge NFT Collection takes flight

🍦 Google & Coinbase - What does this mean?

🍦 Major Artist Damien Hirst burns how much?!?

Tamadoge NFT Collection

Tamadoge Twitter

Who remembers Tamagotchi? They were the playground's favorite friends if you were old enough to remember them.

Well, they have made a comeback, but not how you may expect. This time its Tamadoge. Yup the meme is back! It seems the Doge meme will be with us forever. Tamadoge launched a token a few weeks back that ripped a 6x from the listing price to all-time high. Most recently now Tamadoge has dropped a collection of 100 ultra-rare Doge pet NFTs.

Tamadoge is a playable game & metaverse world they have dubbed the Tamaverse, with this virtual world, users will explore, play, interact with others & view their animated NFT Tamadoge pets. Players can earn Dogepoints and increase their rankings which will be tracked via a leaderboard. They will also have the chance to upgrade their NFT pets with items through the in-game store. The higher a player is on the leaderboard the larger the share of the rewards pool.

If you weren't able to scoop one of the 100 ultras rares then there is a new collection of 1000 rares dropping on October 17th, with the auction running until October 24th. This will then be followed by a collection of 20k common Tamadoge NFTS.

The reason we bring Tamdoge NFT to light is that firstly it is a meme and memes typically do well in NFT land. But secondly, It did hit the number one trending collection on Opensea with the floor price ripping as high as 8ETH per NFT with an extremely thin floor.

Play-to-earn games have pumped & they have dumped in popularity before and so have their NFT assets / native tokens, however, if the game can prove popular & fun we have seen games like this before work in web2, and if people are compelled to spend on in-game assets it could be a success. Time will tell, but certainly, one to watch.

Yuga Labs is probed by the SEC

The SEC fined Kimi K last week & now they are targeting our beloved Apes. "SEC Can't you just leave us alone in happy NFT land". Nope.

The SEC is probing the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club Yuga Labs on whether the distribution of their NFTS violates federal law and is also interested in the method of distribution of their token $Ape coin. What is really in question here is do Yuga Labs NFTs have characteristics that are closer to stocks rather than Non Fungible tokens which would deem them as securities.

So what's our take?

In order for something to be deemed as security the SEC uses a test, this test is 'The Howey Test'. If an asset fits all of the criteria listed below it will be deemed security or (Stock) and if they are deemed a Stock, it must then follow much more follow legal constraints. Below are the criteria for the Howey Test.

1. An investment of money

2. In a common enterprise

3. With the expectation of profit

4. To be derived from the efforts of others

Ok so based on the above, was there an investment of money when minting the original Bored Ape NFTs? Yup, 0.08ETH Mint price so we can tick that one off. Was it in a common enterprise? Yes, you could say so.. The ETH was sent to Yuga Labs, so we will tick that one off too. Was there an expectation of profit? Well, we can guess that those who saw the price of Apes mooning in the early days bought with the expectation of profit, but from what we understand this wasn't the case in the grassroots days of BAYC. NFTs were new, and this was before the mania period & Individuals in the community simply loved rocking a cool PFP and enjoyed the online community & vibezzz. We cannot say for certain that there was an expectation of profit, especially for holders right from day one. Those who bought on the secondary? maybe, but they bought from holders, not from Yuga. And finally, the profit / expected profit must be derived from the effort of others. This is an interesting one. Sure Yuga's masterful storytelling and ability to market built hype & a strong online presence and brand. But the community E.g the holders certainly had an individual a huge part to play in the success of BAYC and the wider Yuga ecosystem. It could therefore be argued that the expectation of profit (If any) wasn't derived solely from the efforts of others.

It's a tough one, and certainly a grey area. One thing is for sure we will be keeping you up to date with how things unravel.

🍦 Google & Coinbase partnership

Well, two giants have come together Coinbase & Google. Need we say more? No? We're going to anyway.. It's bullish as F*#K for web3. But can you imagine even 3 years ago seeing such headlines? For those who are new to the space, believe us when we say it would have been a dream come true for us degens.

Well, here we are, living the dream.. Arnt we? So what does it all mean?

Essentially Google has selected Coinbase to facilitate payments for Google Cloud software with cryptocurrencies in 2023. Google will initially accept payment from innovative Web3 start-ups who want to pay for Google cloud services with cryptocurrencies and then roll it out to a wider cohort of businesses.

The interesting part? Coinbase has agreed to move its data-based applications to Google cloud over from major competitor Amazon Web Services. So if Web3 is the future, which if are reading this you are probably in the boat who agrees it is and Web3 start-ups can pay for Google cloud services with Crypto, then you expect as web3 has adopted more & more the next wave of unicorn companies will choose Google Cloud over Amazon Web services. In our opinion, a highly strategic move from Google in a bid to make a major mark in Web3 infrastructure whilst taking market share from Amazon.

One thing is for sure, it's a builder's market, and tech giants are preparing accordingly for the future.

🍦Damien Hirst burns $10 Million worth of Physical art

World-renowned artist Damien Hirst has recently burnt a combined $10M worth of his Physical Art 'The Currency'.

Who is to decide what is of value and what's not? Damien let his fans decide with his recent experiment to test the value of physical paintings against digital works.

The 'Currency' is 10,000 Piece collection, with 10k physical versions made & 10K NFT virtual twins. Fans who purchased a piece were given a year to decide whether they would like to receive an NFT version or The Physical. Out of 10k, 5149 individuals chose the physical piece and 4851 individuals opted for the NFT version. Nearly a 50/50 split.

For those who opted for the physical piece (5149), the digital versions have been deleted. For those who chose the digital NFT version, their physical counterparts are now going up in smoke as Damien is now personally burning them at his Newport Street Gallery in South London.

He has explained that rather than burning the art he feels he is transforming it. Certainly experimental, but we must add this guy won a prize for his sculpture displaying a real-life dissected cow & calf in formaldehyde, so we are hardly surprised. It actually makes the 'The Currency' seem quite vanilla in comparison.

ALPHA

WenLamp?

Alpha is few and far between these days given the current state of the market. But one project that seems to be making headway on Twitter is WenLamp A.K.A Mothz.

The project is offering out spots to the Lamplist but they're running out fast. The project will consist of 6333 NFTs which looks like they will follow the same path as Potatoz with a phased style reveal in which the NFTS evolve from an egg through to a moth. If you are lucky enough to be part of the Lamplist (of which there are 3000 spots) you will be able to mint a free NFT. The remaining 3333 NFTs will then go for public sale at the price of 0.024 ETH, which you may have noticed is 420 backward. A popular number used as a meme in the NFT and crypto world.

The project claims to be made by the top Alpha groups in the space, interestingly they are also followed by 9GAG CEO - Founder of Memeland. The art is pixelated, they are certainly a meme and well just a little bit weird. who likes Moths? But then again who thought Goblins would pop so hard?

The project is certainly one to watch, but air on the side of caution in this market, whilst we can see things flying for a period and have degens flocking like 'Mothz to a lamp' literally, research is important in this market & we recommend placing your bets on blue chips holds with long term potential.

🤡 WHOEVER CONTROLS THE MEME CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE

Disclaimer

The NFT Scoop newsletter or podcast is not financial advice, it is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only.

NFT’s can be highly illiquid markets, causing sharp drops in prices due to changes in narratives and trends.