gm and happy Tuesday,

TIL that Tuesday comes from the Old English Tiwesdæg and literally means "Tiw's Day". Tiw is the ‘god of single combat, law, and justice’ in Norse mythology. The things you learn, hey?

Alright, back to business. We’ll be bringing you all the latest in digital collectibles from the past seven days in this edition - everything from PROOF Grails IV, to Vera Molnár’s sell out, and Beeple’s Human One.

Sit down, strap in, grab your coffee and read up. That’s an order.

Let’s take you to the moon.

Writer: Vineet
Curator: Koko

Things looking a little different? Well, we have switched things up! Here’s a recap for you:

TL;DR:
Old To The Moon - daily recap of the previous day’s top stories
New To The Moon - Five curated edits focusing on all the Metaverse, NFT, Digital Fashion, AI, and Blockchain Gaming news of the week.

📈📉Biggest Changes in Floor Price (7days)

Digital Collectibles Market Movements: Space Doodles are skyrocketing! At the beginning of July the floor price sat around 3 ETH. Then, following the Doodle Camp announcement on July 20th, the floor peaked at 10 ETH! It’s now settled back down to 2.49. On the other side, Gucci Grail has seen a slight drop in floor price due to increased trading after the Gucci physical merch announcement.

🌚Full Moons - Smashing Records at 99 Years Old, Proof gets mysterious, and the hunt around Human One

99 is the new 21

When (if) I make it to 99 years of age, I expect to be seated in my recliner, watching the world through the window, probably listening to my favorite true crime podcast. Either that or working on a farm for our new robot overlords.

99-year-old artist Vera Molnár is putting as all to shame by hitting headlines last week. The digital creator sold 500 generative NFTs at Sotheby’s auction. They sold out within an hour, and brought in an incredible $1.2 million in total sales.

The auction itself also made history as Sotheby’s Metaverse adopted a Dutch auction format for the first time in its 300 year existence. (If you don’t know what a Dutch auction is, it’s when you start with a high price and gradually lower the bid until someone buys. Like a game of chicken to see how low you dare to go).

• Vera Molnár departed from her traditional geometric style, instead focusing on the letters N, F, and T, with code defining colours, shapes, pixel sizes, and other traits

• ‘Themes and Variations #1’ stood out as the top seller, fetching 19.84 Eth/$37,205.95

• ‘Themes and Variations #444’ with its rare 10 x 10 grid pattern was sold for 10 Eth/$18,753 on OpenSea

As you can imagine, everyone was amazed by the auction, the art, and Vera herself. Now all I can think about is how I will feel pressure to work until I reach 100, because that’s the type of competitive being I am.

PROOF of Grail

PROOF collective announced their latest Grails drop last week. This time, they’ve made it more exclusive, with a shorter minting window - August 7th to August 10th (previous Grails had a 7 day mint window) and a max supply of 1075 NFTs.

That’s not all that the digital-art maxis have changed. They’ve decided to add some ~mystery~ to the entire process by keeping the artist identities a secret until August 11th.

• Previous PROOF Grails artists include ether likes of Tyler Hobbs, Snowfro, Larva Labs, Refik Anadol, Claire Silver, and Emily Xie. Will the new lineup be able to compete with these legends of the digital art space?

This latest instalment of Grails introduces generative artist collections using the Art Blocks engine. Also, there will be an in-person exhibition at Foundry by PROOF in the Arts District of Downtown LA. While the grand opening is sehculded for August 4th, you won’t know who the artists behind the work are until the 11th. To recap on the key dates - Aug 4th, opening of the exhibition. Aug 7-10, minting window. Aug 11th, big artist reveal date.

Scavenger hunt anyone?

NFT daddy Beeple is all smiles as his ‘Human One’ sculpture sits at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The highly prestigious museum is showcasing the artwork in the Contemporary Gallery from July 28th 2023 through to January 2024. Plus, this is completely free to the public!

‘Human One’ sold for a HUGE $29 million at Christie’s in 2021. The buyer was Swiss venture capitalist Ryan Zurrer. Now, the art piece is on American Shores for the first time.

• With four large-scale video screens at 16k resolution, the sculpture is always moving. The explorer, or visitor, within the sculpture ‘walks’ through imagined landscapes. These landscapes can look like earth, like mountains, or look other-worldly, reimagining what different terrains would look like. Plus, the lighting of the environment within the structure changes in response to the time of day.

• Also, Beeple himself can make scenic updates remotely. He has committed himself to making these changes for the rest of this life, every time the sculpture is installed in a new location.

So this artwork is going to evolve and change for the rest of Beeple’s life. If you have had the honour to view ‘Human One’ already, it will not be the same experience that you can now have to Crystal Bridges. You can also look for hidden clues crafted by Beeple. Who doesn’t love a scavenger hunt? Your reward? NFTs of course.

🔭The Scope

This week’s news highlights the beautiful diversity of the digital collectibles space. Vera Molnár’s triumph shows us that anyone of any any can embrace NFTs - while we tend to think of degens as younger millennial and Gen-Z, some of the most important work here is being made by (almost) centenarians. Plus, Beeple’s feature at Crystal Bridges places him even more firmly among iconic artists, as his work sits in the same space as Diego Rivera and Yayoi Kusama. As for PROOF - can this new Grails collection win back the love of their holders? The collective has copped a lot of criticism recently. Let’s hope these top-secret artists flip the script.

🌓Half Moons

Mastercard and Billboard are ALL IN on music NFTs with a fire NFT drop on July 27. They're unveiling 5 all-new singles as NFTs, capping off Mastercard's Artist Accelerator program designed to equip artists for the Web3 era. Get ready to tune in to the latest music tech from WarpSound with the talents of Cocoa Sarai, LerIQ, Manu Manzo, Emily Vu and Young Athena. Fans can cop the NFT singles on OneOf marketplace and own a piece of music history. If you wanted to see how Web3 and AI can reshape music, this is it.

Speaking of which…

Techno Fans Rejoice: Beatport Embraces Web3! The go-to EDM spot just launched its new NFT marketplace Beatport.io with a hot collab. They're also dropping an NFT series called NACHTS by photographer Mischa Fanghaenel. Experience over 175 portraits of Berlin's underground techno scene straight from the eyes of Mischa, who documented the scene when he worked there as a bouncer. The first limited edition NACHTS NFT featuring DJ Len Faki drops at Berlin Art Week.

BAYC & MAYC holders can say goodbye to licensing troubles with ‘Made By Apes’, allowing Bored Ape holders to build as big as they can, as fast as they can! The “M-B-A” allows BAYC/MAYC collectors to get official licenses for their own Ape-related businesses and products. This is a classic example of how new NFT use cases make life easier. Just connect your wallet and register to get certified primary and product licenses to flex your Ape IP. This groundbreaking on-chain licensing by Yuga Labs also lets builders showcase their Ape-based products in their upcoming Bodega directory. From Ape Water to Bored Sauce, you get to drive the BAYC brand your way.

🔭The Scope

Music could just be the future of NFTs. From tracks as NFTs, to specific beats/bars being sold as NFTs, and even ticketing, there are so many ways that this technology can change the way we create (and interact with) music. Selling your music directly as NFTs eliminates the need for a middle-man and the high fees that come with them.

⚪Total Eclipse

💫Shooting Star

This week’s shooting star is Tiffatron

Tiffatronn is an Australian artist hailing from the East Coast, known for her captivating digitally hand-drawn creations. Through her art, she delves into themes of identity, emotion, inner worlds, and imagined realities. Employing abstract mark making and expressive lines reminiscent of traditional media, her work exudes a sense of dynamic movement that captivates the viewer's attention. A unique aspect of her art lies in the discovery of hidden details, waiting to be unearthed by the beholder. Tiffatronn's talent and dedication to her craft have not gone unnoticed, as she was recently chosen to participate in the prestigious Outliers Creator Accelerator, an initiative led by PROOF and Transient Labs.

Meme of the Day