#186 - Gemesis NFTs: OpenSea's pitch to hardcore traders

GM and welcome to Decentra Daily.

We're the web3 newsletter that doesn't just say GM – we give you the best morning update in the space.

But also:

Today,

1. OpenSea relaunches Gem as "Pro"

2. Asprey & Bugatti's Egg Collection

3. A Web3 game from the Director of District 9

Plus, all the web3 headlines, memes, and Tweets of the day.

D-Daily takeaway 🥡We've seen some significantly below-floor sales in the past few days.

What's this? 🤔Our floor price index tracks the biggest, most influential pfp projects, art collections, and gaming assets.

OpenSea wants its pro traders back

If you've been anywhere near secondary NFT markets in the past months, you'll know that OpenSea – traditionally the biggest marketplace around – has been losing vast amounts of business to its rival, Blur.

Blur is an NFT aggregator platform for serious traders. They've been attracting those VIP customers through a controversial rewards program that dishes out a token, $BLUR.

Some traders have accrued $hundreds of thousands$ in $BLUR by mass-bidding, buying, and selling.

Now, OpenSea is making a pitch to those VIP traders – attempting to draw them back with a revamped aggregator.

They've rebranded their "Gem" platform as OpenSea Pro, and are teasing exclusive incentives for those who use it.

The Pro version of OpenSea offers all the features needed to match Blur: no fees, fast speeds, real-time cross-marketplace data, and powerful filtering and organization tools.

But what about a $BLUR-style rewards program? 🤔

Gemesis NFTs

Instead of a token airdrop announcement, OpenSea is launching its Pro version with a free NFT, which they're calling Gemesis.

It's claimable by anybody who used Gem (the older version of Pro) before March 31.

About 40% of eligible wallets have claimed the NFT at the time of writing.

And what are Blur farmers doing with these Gemesis NFTs?

They're farming them, ofc.

One farmer got so excited, they accidentally made a 100 ETH bid for one – which was promptly accepted. 💀💀💀

So, no $SEA token?

The Gemesis NFTs may not be much of an incentive to those who want to collect rewards tokens.

– But, based on one of the tweets in OpenSea's announcement thread, more freebies may be on the way...

No token then. And it's not clear if this tweet refers to the current Gemesis NFTs – or future exclusive offerings.

But either way, it seems hard to imagine an NFT-based rewards program that will distribute real financial returns in the same way as $BLUR.

Thanks to its fee structure, OpenSea has plenty of money in the bank if it does choose to offer more financial rewards to traders.

Although, distributing rewards to Gemesis holders could attract unwanted attention from the SEC.

Worth noting - OpenSea Pro is domiciled in Singapore, which would be pretty convenient for future rewards programs...

Notable Tweets ✅

On the web3 wire

Off The Grid: the web3 battle royale shooter made by the Director of "District 9" 🔫 OTG will launch on Avalance later this year with an accompanying 7-part miniseries.

A Pfizer-backed DAO considers creating a "longevity research" company 🩺The company would be called VitaTech and will license longevity tech developed in US universities.

Substack launches a "subscription network" ✍️The social media-style feed lets subscribers see notes and posts from Substack authors.

Asprey & Bugatti's phygital Egg Collection

Supercar makers Bugatti and luxury design studio Asprey have teamed up to produce what might just be the ultimate digital collectible.

The Asprey Bugatti Egg Collection Royale Edition is a limited series of sculptures made from premium materials, which come with proof of ownership in the form of generative art Ordinals.

The list of features sounds like somebody tried to dream up the ultimate NFT collectible 😂

• collectors receive physical sculptures and "generative" artworks

• those artworks will be Ordinals or "BTC NFTs"

• the sculptures are made from carbon fiber and sterling silver

• they're branded with a 3D scan of an early Bugatti mascot

• they may or may not have a chocolatey core

This some fancy s***. I feel like I'm not rich enough to even look at the pictures.

Asprey is a centuries-old luxury goods house that goes by the nickname, 'the Queen's souvenir store.'

They launched a digital studio a few years ago, and have since partnered with premium brands like Bang & Olufsen – and made web3-themed jewelry.

This is Asprey's second collab with Bugatti, after selling out a previous collection of 3 ETH sculptures.

I'm a distinguished degen. 🧐 How do I get an egg?

Visit aspreybugatti.com and register for updates. (The page doesn't seem to be fully active yet.)

But, you'll need to be lucky/rich. There'll only be 111 eggs and ordinals.

Decentra Daily is brought to you by Illuvium

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Meme of the day

Til the next Decentra Daily! 👋

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