You cant make enormous returns without taking on some amount of risk. This is probably the price range that most people have the most difficulty with because of how much more accessible it is than the 5+ ETH range, and because of how much more choice there is. No Art Blocks collection is complete without a, . How many are currently listed for sale? But they are awesome - I also bought quite a few. How can you know when drops are upcoming? There is. Given the environmental impact of crypto, donations like theirs help to neutralize our environmental footprint while creating beautiful art for the community to enjoy (and amazing community events). At the time of writing there are 54 Factory projects and 6 Playground projects with a floor of under 1 ETH. They look great too - and I promised Rachel I would talk about them in this behemoth of a post because theyre her favourite. But they are awesome - I also bought quite a few. They are, flooding the market with supply for Curated pieces. Maybe not though, it might not be as good as this one - these Algobots are really cute! have to pay more than what they had to a few weeks ago - but ultimately, the market is deciding in real time what the fair price is to pay. They are all incredibly smart individuals and respected by many other incredibly smart individuals. in the long term prospects of Art Blocks and the power in the brand, and want to invest in the future of Art Blocks - then that might be a pretty damn good reason. They simply havent passed muster with the curation board, and their supply isnt as closely controlled as it is with Curated pieces. Spend enough time thinking about the other options and I imagine you will come to the same conclusion. However, the project sold out at the starting price, and ~277, or ~$750,000*, was raised for charity. They were immediately trading for a premium on secondary and so I went huh, maybe I should give AB another go. If you go back a few months, there were still several drops happening per week. People like me. is still available for under 2 ETH at the moment. . Some will turn into art collectors. Boring. I thought, you know what would be a great way to have my cake and eat it too? 26,076 owners have at least one Art Blocks Factory NTF Some of my personal favourite collections are still within this range (albeit only just, for some of them): This is also a price range where you can start to pick up some fantastic pieces in the Playground by the same artists that have released a Curated drop, but for, generally, lower price points. To quote the great Zeneca_33: Oh, you thought that was the end? We all know ETH blockchain is energy intensive and are waiting for transition to Proof Of Stake. This is one way that the community grows. Then again, theres a case to be made that. For his factory project, Libertad Parametrizada, zJorge allocated a portion of primary sales to start a Creative Coding program within the Olga Sinclair Foundation a local Panamanian charity. Talk to others, spend some time in the AB discord, read posts on Twitter. Its worth remembering that a human being created the code that allowed this art to be generated. The total raised was $28,000, which supported 1040 WWCode members for a FULL YEAR giving them access to technical development events and access to life-changing coding scholarships. Art Blocks is hiring. You can get a. of great projects that I didnt mention. Within the Art Blocks brand, there are many smaller brands. The main three being Curated, Playground, and Factory. Supply and demand is all well and good, and in most instances you can count on the market following the fundamental law of demand - but theres a case to be made that as supply goes up.. price can also go up. The most important part of this whole story? These are the ones that really attract the big bucks. These are the ones that really attract the big bucks. How to choose the best NFT projects to buy. A product may be a Veblen good because it is a, So which are the most luxury? That was before we had the little issue of overdemand. The Link is a newsletter by ArtBlocks.io. they invested in the first place is because they saw a lot of what I am talking about happening - the brand of Art Blocks was becoming huge and unlikely to slow down any time soon. This is one persons view and opinion; there are likely contrarian viewpoints out there which have a much less bullish outlook for Art Blocks and NFTs. Huh. The best way is to join the Art Blocks Discord - they post all upcoming projects in a channel aptly named.. #upcoming-projects. compared to every other project (a max of 10k), but in the grand scheme of things.. 10k is not a lot. They understand that the best way to protect their investments is to help grow the entire space. Its worth remembering that a human being created the code that allowed this art to be generated. I dont believe they have been significantly increasing the rate at which new projects drop. Thats fine - break the golden rule. Speaking of art that makes us happy and is affordable and fun -, are another one of my favourites and are even more Entry Level than the above suggestions. A Beeple, an XCOPY. I like them. Not ideal. I didnt look too much into the platform or projects at first, I just minted, got some NFTs, tried to sell them, realized nobody was (at the time) very interested in them, and chalked it up to a loss. Then I will attempt the impossible and try to think about. People that read posts like this one, that have been following the scene for a while, that have been lurking in the discord, but who cant quite afford to buy a piece. I have minted every (Curated) drop since. Soooo.. how do you mint from the website? This has the added benefit of more money going to the artist, more money going to Art Blocks, and less money going to the miners. They are the sections that projects are broken up into based on certain criteria and perhaps its not quite accurate to call them brands, but I think its a fair to say that a lot of people think of Curated as the premier side of AB with PG/Factory being less prestigious. Stats dont lie. From an investment perspective, look for those with lower supplies as they tend to have better price appreciation at least in the short-medium term, and likely long term too. Mark. Lichtensteins original work has separated the brushstrokes from their original context, and now we take another step in the same direction, and separate the artist from the work. There is. It is the defacto go to place for almost all NFTs, AB included. more. And despite what everyone says every week, theres never going to be the next Fidenza. Maybe I might like art after all Around this time my friend Jaime was also on a similar journey and he missed the Elementals drop and was, bummed about it. For starters, if youre able to, you can still pick up some great Curated pieces in this range. They see people buying a piece of AB art and flipping it a week later for 5x. To that end, Dmitri has donated a total of $250,000 this year alone to causes he finds important. If its just because you see all the cool kids on Twitter talking about it, thats probably not a good reason. My incentives are very much aligned with the success of Art Blocks. A buyer is not, a buyer. It makes sense to buy what you like, however, purely from an investment perspective - the value of a piece of work is only going to go up if other people also like and are willing to pay more for it. Lower supply = easier for the price to appreciate. Part of the beauty of AB is that there is so much variety that there is bound to be something to appeal to everyones taste. I had joined the AB discord but I didnt really engage with the community at all at this point, I just used it to get the announcements for upcoming projects. To use a technical phrase - things have gone bonkers, truly, truly, truly bonkers. for which the demand for a good increases as the price increases, in apparent contradiction of the, , resulting in an upward-sloping demand curve. Some of. Make your own golden rule. Yes, the supply is enormous compared to every other project (a max of 10k), but in the grand scheme of things.. 10k is not a lot. Spend some time reading the announcements in the AB Discord or listening to interviews by Snowfro and youll hear about some of the things in the pipeline; youll start to pick up on little thoughts and ideas of what they might be working on. Im willing to be such an outspoken (unofficial) advocate for them because I believe in them so much, but of course, because I too, wish to protect my investment(s). I personally think this is all a bit ludicrous. Art Blocks Curated is the safest bet, to my mind. Why do I think Art Blocks pieces are going to continue to rise in price/value, even after such a meteoric increase as weve seen? Im also going to try and give some advice for people looking to make their first purchase of an Art Blocks NFT, since I know how daunting and overwhelming it can be. They look great too - and I promised Rachel I would talk about them in this behemoth of a post because theyre her favourite. Jake raised 16.2 for Give Directly (which Art Blocks matched), Daniel raised 26 for Every Shelter, and Jeff raised 20 for No Kid Hungry. They now have a vested interest in the success of the brand. These last few weeks they have brought on several new full time staff members, and are looking for more. They have a very large supply, though, with 4,712 minted. I believe in them so much in the first place, and why I have invested and continue to invest so much in them. I think this is amplified in a space as nascent as NFTs. She keeps buying them. Brushpops is a generative system inspired by Roy Lichtensteins iconic work, where a random hash determines the composition of a series of abstract brush strokes. They are exciting the world. We also source NFT community statistics directly from Twitter and Discord. You can find great art, by great artists, at great price points, in the Playground. , etc), and as much as I love them, its hard to imagine them doing better long-term than the earlier, lower supply projects. Fidenza. That was pretty early on. They are all incredibly smart individuals and respected by many other incredibly smart individuals. Is that a thing? Its outside the scope of this post, though. There will be museums and galleries around the world that will feature Art Blocks art. And if the entire thesis of this post is to be believed, as I believe it to be, there is tremendous investment value to be found by buying and holding some pieces of Art Blocks art. Instead of the past scenario where the mint price would be 0.10, the effective mint price would be 0.60, and the artwork would sell on the secondary market for 1.5 ETH, we now have a situation where the artwork could sell for between 1 and 2 ETH with minimal additional gas. I became an art collector. Im trying to illustrate and provide some insight how I approach thinking about buying Art Blocks pieces both from an investors perspective but also from a collectors perspective. Also: how?, and, wtf?!?!. There will be many more Art Blocks drops in the future - but to quote something I read earlier today on the history of digital antiquities: There is no limit to the supply of tokenized assets that will emerge in the future, but there is an iron-clad hard cap on the scarcity of those in the past - @WhiteRabbit1111. Add it to this new thing I had going on - an art collection. For starters, and to reiterate: Next up I think the you should really ask yourself: Really think about it. Source: There is no limit to the supply of tokenized assets that will emerge in the future, but there is an iron-clad hard cap on the scarcity of those in the past -, They are in fact referring to NFTs that pre-date Art Blocks and if you are interested in reading more about the history of NFTs dating back many years then this. Inspired by Roy's sea and landscape paintings, each artwork generates a unique combination of patterns, shapes, and colors. It has been an insane few months. It is the luxury brand of Art Blocks, the flagship collection. I thought they were (and still are) an excellent way for new people to get into Art Blocks with great pieces of art at relatively affordable price points - currently the floor for both are sitting between 0.2 and 0.25 ETH. Why Art Blocks and not xxxx or yyyy project (even other generative art projects). They have all spent many millions on AB. There were 0 Art Blocks Factory NFTs sold in Another personal favourite of mine from the Playground at this price level is, with a current floor of 135 ETH. $1,000 invested into ABC (Art Blocks Curated) would, on average, have returned, . Every piece posted in this thread (aside from the Goose and the Tulip) is from my collection. do I think Art Blocks pieces are going to continue to rise in price/value, even after such a meteoric increase as weve seen? Whether they look at it as purely an investment vehicle or they are coming from the perspective of being an avid art collector and wanting to expand their collection to include generative art, there will be new money wanting to get a piece of the growing AB pie. Im going to try and break it down and give a few different reasons why I think these things - but if I had to sum it up in one word, it would be: branding. They see people minting something and selling it for 2x immediately, and in some cases, 10x within a few days. The downside is that people minting might have to pay more than what they had to a few weeks ago - but ultimately, the market is deciding in real time what the fair price is to pay. Please note that by the time you read this, the landscape and market is likely to have changed. In spite of this, or perhaps even because of this, the price of certain collections is going to continue to go up. Then I will attempt the impossible and try to think about where all this is headed next and what role we might expect AB playing over the coming weeks, months, and years. and in some cases, 10x within a few days. If you havent read the first letter, I highly recommend doing so, as I will be assuming a certain level of knowledge for this one. money and interest in art, and in Art Blocks. Often it is one every two weeks. I am not alone. Its cool, its fun. Perhaps in the future (ideally in the not too distant future) we will have other decent options of marketplaces to trade NFTs on but for the time being we are more or less stuck with OpenSea, for better or worse. The last 3 months have been absolutely absurd for all things Art Blocks. Add it to this new thing I had going on - an art collection. I think this is amplified in a space as nascent as NFTs. The next drop Watercolor Dreams seemed very cool to me, Bubble Blobby was like an amazing lava lamp, and AlgoRhythms just blew my freaking mind. Its. The best way is to join the. Want a project by a Curated artist at a lower price point? She keeps buying them. As absurd as this might sound, I dont think whats happening lately is oversupply. art in those two areas - there is. As the entire NFT space grows, and I think theres no denying that the space is growing at an insane speed right now, more people will eventually set their eyes upon Art Blocks. From that point on I was more or less hooked. Stefano chose to support a charity focused on ocean wildlife conservation. If AB does well financially, their investment does well. There will only ever be 999 Fidenzas, but as long as the AB brand continues to do well, the amount of people that want a Fidenza is only ever going to go up. That turned out to be wrong, because at the end of the day, DeFi isnt fun or exciting to most people. You should always consult with a professional/licensed financial adviser before trading or investing in any cryptocurrency related product. My favourites? So what is a Dutch Auction anyway? The next announcement I saw was for Algobots by Stina Jones. A babushka doll of branding, if you will. That turned out to be wrong, because at the end of the day, DeFi isnt fun or exciting to most people. Unexciting. The more people that enter the ecosystem, the more advocates there are, the stronger the brand becomes, then more people enter the ecosystem, the more advocates there are, the stronger the brand becomes. The current floor for any Curated piece is around 1.6 ETH (for a. Given their recency the floor price is (relatively) low, currently sitting at around 0.4 ETH. Whether you do or dont want to try minting directly when new projects drop, buying from the secondary market is most likely going to be how most people will be buying Art Blocks pieces. Talk to them - many of the artists on AB are very approachable either on Twitter or in Discord. provide you with the data, charts, insights and news you need. This is probably the toughest question to answer, and the one most people want the answer to. is the safest bet, to my mind. Probably not. Art from Art Blocks Curated is a Veblen Good. Fear not, you still have plenty of options. Theyve made significant investments, and they are going to want to protect their investments. One day, long into the future, I will have to stop saying that were early. People that were never that interested in art, but because of NFTs and generative art and the blockchain, have become fans of art. Admirers. A collection of digital artwork stored on NFT stats gives you the latest information about the NFT space. Honestly, first and foremost, its worth reiterating the golden rule - buy what you like (and can afford). Daniel Catt, the local plotter legend, donated 100% of primary sales from 70s Pop Summertime Fun and 70s Pop Ghost to Women Who Code. I wrote this on June 30th: many of us are in the NFT world at least in part for financial reasons, and so if it is monetary value that you are looking for, you would be hard pressed to find better value than buying and holding a piece of Art Blocks art. Honestly, first and foremost, its worth reiterating the golden rule - buy what you like (and can afford). This is all well and good but its ignoring the elephant in the room: some people simply arent artistic and dont care at all about art. Daniel Catt plans to continue giving to WWC since the donation is helping so many women close the gender gap in tech. The more people that enter the ecosystem, the more advocates there are, the stronger the brand becomes, then more people enter the ecosystem, the more advocates there are, the stronger the brand becomes. Some of that money is going to flow to art blocks; perhaps a lot of it. Further breaking down the brandedness of things, you could consider individual collections or artists to be brands. 0 subscriptions will be displayed on your profile (edit). Im willing to be such an outspoken (unofficial) advocate for them because I believe in them so much, but of course, because I too, wish to protect my investment(s). so. The still images dont do them justice (as is the case with a lot of AB pieces) - if you view them in the live-viewer you can see the brush strokes animate. There were increasingly more vicious gas wars to the extent that if the mint price was 0.10 the effective cost that someone would pay would be 0.60, the bulk of the cost being gas paid to Ethereum miners. Given their recency the floor price is (relatively) low, currently sitting at around 0.4 ETH. There are prestigious items not in the Curated collection too. No friend. At the time of writing the current standard is to reduce the price every 5 minutes, but I believe they will be moving to an automated system soon where the price gradually decreases constantly and consistently. I dont think anyone expected things to blow up as much as they have. Last, RVigs project, Flowers, was an open edition Factory project available for 1 hour at 0.1 per piece. Something I have repeated over and over throughout this letter is the idea of branding. No (or at least, not entirely). Stumble into any conversation on Twitter where people are arguing over what is construed a blue chip NFT and almost every person will include Art Blocks at the top of the list, along with Crypto Punks, Autoglyphs, and probably the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The main three being Curated, Playground, and Factory. Many that I love, many that dont quite appeal to me as much as they do other people. Beervangeers, has a floor of 10+ ETH, but you could get an. I really liked it. This is almost unfathomable to imagine to someone that has only been around the AB scene for the last couple of months, but it really was a different era back then in the good old days of forever ago aka June 2021 (lol). I have always said that the golden rule of Art Blocks is: buy what you like (and can afford). Some things to consider when youre looking at things to buy: Would you hang this on your wall? Youll find information about the project, the artist, a sample mint to get an idea of what it looks like. While theoretically you could buy and sell AB on any secondary marketplace (or even in private sales not using a marketplace), in reality 99% of all secondary market sales currently take place on. Part of the beauty of AB is that there is so much variety that there is bound to be something to appeal to everyones taste. Rockland made the first attempt at a Dutch Auction on Art Blocks for his project, Speckled Summits. Probably the single most asked question I get in the NFT space these days is how someone might get their foot in the door with Art Blocks. A lot of the success of a project is, for better or worse, dependent on the right people talking it up on social media. Its hard to imagine going too wrong with a Fidenza or Ringers at this point. There have been more people entering the ecosystem, and this is unlikely to slow down any time soon. When people found that there were still projects open to mint, they eventually sold out, and every subsequent dropped has more or less sold out incredibly quickly. So which are the most luxury? Theres value in a piece of art simply because its a Warhol, a Hirst, a Picasso, a Koons, a Rizzolli, a Hobbs. These are only my own opinions and ideas. Ive heard them being called the index fund of Art Blocks. I had joined the AB discord but I didnt really engage with the community at all at this point, I just used it to get the announcements for upcoming projects. Okay, so presuming youve thought about it and decided yes, you would like to buy some Art Blocks. Ok, ok. themselves. They are fascinated by it and are more than happy to pay a few thousand, or a few hundred thousand dollars, for some incredible pieces of art. Theyve recently invested big into Art Blocks. CryptoPunks started it all, CryptoKitties had their role to play, as did curio cards, ether rocks, avastars, mooncats, rarepepes, lost robbies, hashmasks, apes, of course autoglyphs, and oh. Basically, the price starts high and every x amount of time it reduces. Well, it might be. That value is there. You could break it down further and say within those projects, certain specific pieces or. Back in May, I wrote the first Charity on Chain article about three artists and their projects that raised 85, or around $300,000 at the time. Some of us have a bit of money, some of us have a lot of money. Of course, it also makes it dangerous. *~277 was raised, and until the Ethereum is converted to fiat currency, the price fluctuates around $750k. The floor for Subscapes is now almost 40 ETH. manually force a refresh of the information. Hell, I wrote an entire Letter yelling about how much I love and believe in AB and how strongly I felt about it being a good place to park some money and what has happened has still exceeded even my wildest imagination. I was minting them and instead of being astonished by the fact that someone would pay me 4x mint like they did with Subscapes, I started to become astonished that people werent snapping these up on secondary. Beervangeers HyperHash has a floor of 10+ ETH, but you could get an EnergySclupture for 1.5 ETH (and even an UltraWave for around 0.6 ETH atm). What does the future hold for Art Blocks? Three that come to mind are. The global art market has been hovering around $50bn per year and this, to flow to the NFT art space; perhaps a lot of it. and peruse the various projects and look into the artists and see if anything appeals to you. You can venture into other channels in the discord to talk to collectors, artists, fans, investors, to see what everyone thinks of the project before its launched, and decide if you want to try your hand at minting one. They have a. large supply, though, with 4,712 minted. What. It. I didnt really want to sell it. When it comes to buying on the secondary market you have, again, two main options. Mainstream adoption hasnt even begun to begin. If AB does well socially, their investment in terms of social currency and status does well. Is that a thing? The Brushstroke was detached from the painting, and its now detached from the artist as well. In May, Jake Rockland, Daniel Calderon, and Jeff Davis were responsible for raising ~85. How on earth are you meant to decide what to buy given there are 150+ projects on Art Blocks, and counting? Some of us have a bit of money, some of us have a lot of money. We enjoy them. The next announcement I saw was for Algobots by Stina Jones. The fact that supply is. Simply due to the fact that its the only way to get your hands on any piece that has already dropped. They might be saving up; they might just be fans. The more recent a project, the more likely it is to still be in a price discovery stage. We are at the crescent of a worldwide art and cultural revolution, and Art Blocks has found itself at the heart and soul of it. Fragments of an Infinite Field #256 by Moniza Rizzolli, Algobots #133, #152 and #298 by Stina Jones, Elementals #374 and #107 by Michael Connolly, Fragments of an Infinite Field #326, #970, #481 by Monica Rizzolli, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good, Watercolor Dreams #449 by NumbersInMotion, Brushpops #284, #367, #337, #704 by Matty Mariansky, https://theartmarket.foleon.com/artbasel/2021/the-global-art-market/. For starters, and to reiterate: read my first post on the topic. in their wallet. turns out I do like art after all! - its quite remarkable to see. In fact, they are even going so far as to set up a fund dedicated to educating people about NFTs and increasing exposure for Artists and art work. We are at the crescent of a worldwide art and cultural revolution, and Art Blocks has found itself at the heart and soul of it. Thats perhaps a touch insulting to the art itself and is separating art from investment to the extreme, but its also not entirely absurd to think of it that way, I think. Its easy to look at the projects and pieces of artwork as just NFTs, assets that are being traded back and forth. Now, this is going to sound a little uppity, perhaps, but I really love.. Ode to Roy Hear me out, and its not just me - these are clearly a fan favourite. Maybe I might like art after all Around this time my friend Jaime was also on a similar journey and he missed the Elementals drop and was really bummed about it. She has a problem. Everyone thinks AB is blue chip, so more people buy AB. A rising tide lifts all ships. It is also unavoidable, and inevitable. They are the first mint. As more people have found NFTs, and as more people have found Art Blocks, demand has understandable risen. Its hard to imagine going too wrong with a. at this point. Make your own golden rule. Art Blocks Factory allows artists who do not wish to wait for approval by the Curation Board a place to launch their generative art. How can you know when drops are upcoming? Unexciting. Many that I love, many that dont quite appeal to me as much as they do other people. Im not sure how to say I told you so without saying I told you so, but perhaps looking at the numbers will highlight just how absurd the prices have gotten since I first wrote about them. Ive never been a particularly artsy person, and when I first found out about AB it was essentially via friend saying hey this project seems cool, you should mint some, you will probably be able to sell them for a few x in a few months. They could very easily just sit back and let the market do its thing and their investments are probably gonna do just fine, but they all have large audiences, they all love their AB art and investments, and they probably arent going to stop talking about them. Who is the artist? for 2.33 ETH at the moment. you can see the brush strokes animate. Freaking. Somewhere along the road it stopped being just about the money. Yet here we are. Occasionally the features script for a project gets updated on Art Blocks, when this happens we will The two highest selling pieces of Art Blocks are already getting into borderline priceless territory. . It just.. did. Three that come to mind are Vincent Van Dough, Punk 6529, and Zhu Su from the investment group Three Arrows Capital. Especially if it was Curated. Want a project by a Curated artist at a lower price point? Aka, I came for the money. If you went back a month further you could have gotten a Fidenza for 0.5 ETH or a Squiggle for 0.2 ETH. Speaking of odes to Roy, a more recent Factory drop was also inspired by Lichenstein: Brush Pops.