Rug Radio Recap - April 2, 2023

gm! Welcome to Q2, this is where it gets fun. The live event season really picks up with NFT NYC and Consensus this month, VeeCon in May, and NFC Lisbon in June where we tend see a huge morale boost after each event.

Also, we're our kicking off our bi-weekly Town Hall at a new day and time starting tomorrow at 5pm EST on Twitter Spaces and Youtube, and we'll send out the notes the next morning!

Here's what we've got in this week's recap...

• Rug Radio Updates: Stubs Claim, NFT NYC, NFC Lisbon

• DeGods and y00ts migration

• Me Llamo Art charity auction

First Stubs Claim

This past week, we introduced Gabriel Roberts as the first artist for Stubs. Gabriel (who also goes by GDR) is a multidisciplinary artist with a pedigree in fine art photography, painting, animation, film and digital design. His integration of classical tropes and modern practices have made him a favorite in the digital art movement.

If you listened to GM Web3 this past week and claimed a Stubs Mint Pass, you're able to burn 1 or 3 those passes for these pieces of art by Gabriel until today at 11:59pm ET:

• Purple Ledger: http://mint.fair.xyz/stubs/gdrledger

• Purple Ledger - Stubs Edition: http://mint.fair.xyz/stubs/gdrstubsledger

If you weren't able to listen live, the mint passes are available for purchase on OpenSea, which can then be burned to claim a Stub or held for future claims. Tomorrow, we'll meet our 2nd artist on GM Web3 starting at 10:30am EST and open more opportunities to earn a mint pass!

Rug Radio in NYC

We're only 10 days away away from NFT NYC, and the team will be at ZeroSpace in partnership with Proof of People and RefractionDAO on April 12th starting at 12pm EST! Farokh, Mando, and OSF will be hosting GM Web3 live, speaking on a couple of panels, and meeting with the community.

They have also generously given the Rug Radio community the opportunity to purchase tickets for only $20 (60% discount). We'll see you there!

Rug Radio in Lisbon

Can't make it to the states? No worries! In addition to NFT NYC, we'll also be at NFC Lisbon on June 7 & 8, and they're offering holders of a Rug Radio Genesis NFT the opportunity to get a ticket for .025 ETH (~$45 USD, a 95% discount).

DeGods & y00ts Migration

At the start of the week, the most prominent NFT projects on Solana, y00ts and DeGods, began moving to Polygon and Ethereum, respectively, following the controversial announcement by founder Rohun (aka. Frank) in December 2022. As of Saturday night, 81% (12,180) of y00ts and 76% (7,232) of DeGods had migrated to Polygon and Ethereum, respectively, showcasing the strength of both communities.

So why did they decide to move? In a February interview with Decrypt, the co-founders of y00ts and DeGods, Frank and Kevin, explained that the recent NFT initiatives by major brands like Starbucks and Reddit on Polygon were a significant motivation for the migration, and the opportunity for easier access to partnership opportunities as more of these larger brands begin to enter the space.

Additionally, Polygon granted DeLabs, the parent company of y00ts and DeGods, a $3 million USD grant, with a major portion allocated for expanding the team as well as developing an NFT launchpad and technology for Polygon-based projects.

To incentivize holders to migrate, anyone who bridged within the first 24 hours would have their gas fees fully refunded, and 1 person from each collection would be entered into a raffle to be airdropped a Bitcoin DeGod.

What does this mean for Solana, Polygon, and Ethereum? While some view this as a sort of "betrayal" to the Solana ecosystem, most are celebrating the move as a win for every chain. The two collections dominated the Solana NFT market holding the #1 and #2 spot on Magic Eden in volume week over week, but this now means the opportunity for other projects on the chain to flourish and build a community like DeGods and y00ts.

The migration to Ethereum and Polygon has multiple advantages. The y00ts and DeGods community are very active and vibrant, and considering how small the web3 niche is, bringing these communities into the ecosystem creates new opportunities for collaboration. Additionally, Frank and the team have established a strong brand and know how to capture people's attention, which is perfect considering that NFTs are an attention-driven market.

Yuga Labs and luxury fashion brand, Gucci, teased a partnership relating to the Otherside metaverse platform and potential for fashion integrations.

Artist Vinnie Hager, announced a collaboration with Tommie Hilfiger for Metaverse Fashion Week where he created 3 digital wearables.

Ticketmaster introduced NFT token-gated ticket sales, allowing artists and projects to reward holders with exclusive ticket access and experiences.

Andy Warhol, known as a leading figure in the American pop art movement, will have four of his artworks offered as tokenized investments.

Me Llamo Art, a non-profit organization who aims to uplift artists in Web3, announced part 1 of their charity auction series featuring 8 artists across 4 days, starting tomorrow.

Context

• Wrapped Punks and Yuga Labs continued to be volume leaders while Nakamigos jumped into the top 10 as pixel art lovers flocked to the collection, in addition to speculation of a relation to Larva Labs.

• Despite regulatory concerns and agencies cracking down on crypto, it was still a positive quarter with Bitcoin and Ethereum up 71% and 51.5%, respectively, as people started viewing crypto as save haven with the recent banking collapses and concerns.