Battle of the Brands
Some of the world's biggest brands are headed to Indianapolis for VeeCon. Find a preview inside.
GM! Top news today:
VeeCon preview
Pudgy Toys
Axie's App Store entrance
Marketplaces keep innovating
and more...
Logie's Market Summary
It's Logan again, filling for Tyler as he and many of our web3 friends head to Indianapolis, Indiana for VeeCon.
A Quick VeeCon Preview
Speaking of VeeCon, I should probably provide a small preview.
What's VeeCon all about? Well...according to this special press release I received, VeeCon "is a multi-day super conference for business, innovation, technology, marketing and pop culture." As an active web3 participant, it might pain you that there is no mention of web3 or NFTs. But I think if you just smashed all those words together...bizinnotechmarkculture, or something like that—you'd have a synonym for web3.
Nevertheless, VeeCon, which will kick off today with community events, followed by educational sessions and more in the next two days, is a bit more business than party, and despite never attending, here's how I know:
The brand attendee list is very strong (more on this below)
There aren't articles circling about the "best VeeCon parties"
But back to that brand list...
While the NFT NYC conference speaker stage was dominated by consultants from Ernst and Young, Gary V has brought out the big guns to land ALL of the following:
Anheuser-Busch
Bose
Gala Music
Lids
Meta Quest
Tubi
Visa
Cheetos
Coach
Coinbase
Crown Royal
FamilyGuard
Flowcode
Fritos
Mattell Creations
Pepsi Zero Sugar
PLANTERS
STARRY
The Honest Company
and more..
The list goes on. There are speakers from LVMH, Crocs, and Kraft Heinz, among others. Hell, even Tim Tebow is going to be there! Tim Tebow!
You may notice that many of the brands above have already made some sort of web3 play as well. Anheuser-Busch partnered with ZED RUN on multiple occasions; Visa bought a Punk; Mattell was just in the news with a Barbie/Boss Beauties collab…and it goes on and on.
I don't mean to drone on about the subject, but while the near certainty of web3's death has been staring us in the face (I'm joking), it's a great reminder that many of the world's biggest and brightest companies are manning a booth (not literally, but maybe) alongside Pudgy Penguins.
For more on VeeCon, make sure you're following Tyler who will be strolling around Indianapolis and hopefully dropping a Lucky Trader business card in every fish bowl offering prizes.
Pudgy Toys
I mentioned Pudgy Penguins above because today will mark a significant step in its IP expansion with the release of Pudgy Toys.
I've been skeptical about expansion in this manner on our daily news show (which you should listen to today) but I've been thoroughly impressed with the commentary from project owner, Luca Netz, in the last week.
It starts with the comment above and extends to comments like this...
There is no question that the Pudgy Penguin IP has the potential to appeal beyond just web3. Evidence of this has emerged as more and more people comment on the fact that Pudgy Penguin content is now organically trickling into their "non-web3" feeds.
Where other projects have needlessly created physical collectibles or merchandise with no real plan, that doesn't appear to be the case here.
Formal details about the Pudgy Toys have not yet been shared by the Pudgy Penguin team, but it does appear that some of the collectibles leaked out a bit early for purchase.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
Trading volume fell back down, clocking just more than 10,000 ETH on Wednesday.
ALTS by adidas airdropped NFTs to holders ahead of Chapter 2.
Axie Infinity: Origins was approved in Apple's App Store in select geographic locations.
LooksRare's Raffles officially went live.
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
The crypto market was up; BTC 2.4% to $27,362; ETH +1.6% to $1,824
Bitcoin Frogs charged to top of NFT volume leaderboards.
🚀 NFT Total Volume
HV-MTL (928 ETH, 1.03 ETH Floor)
BAYC (832 ETH, 47.22 ETH)
Wrapped CryptoPunks (825 ETH, 49 ETH)
Milady Maker (803 ETH; 5 ETH)
MAYC (441 ETH, 9.95 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase
0N1 Force (38%, 1.50 ETH Floor)
Sewer Passes (27%, 0.5 ETH)
HV-MTL (16%, 1.03 ETH)
Valhalla (14%, 0.49 ETH)
Forgotten Runes Wizard's Cult (7%, 0.64 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Invisible Friends Phyiscal Collectible (11:00 a.m. ET)
GENERATIONS by Anna Lucia and Gee's Bend Quilters (noon ET)
DeGods Live Auction (not before 8:00 p.m. ET)
Enjoy this write-up? Follow along with me on Twitter @lhitch09 or reach out via email logan@luckytrader.com.
For all volume and floor price data, see Lucky Trader's Project Rankings page.
For all upcoming mints, see Lucky Trader's Project Schedule page.