PROOF Signal: Week of September 4

Welcome back to PROOF Signal, your exclusive gateway to the world of all things PROOF. Let's dive into the latest updates.

TL;DR:

• Diamond Exhibition: Over 3/4 of Moonbirds reached Diamond Nest status, celebrating with tradable Mint Passes. A look into the art from diverse artists and styles. Don't miss the Foundry celebration in September.

• Deafbeef Grail Physicals: Deafbeef Grail holders can win physical art exploring material symbolism.

• Inside Look: Memecoins: Explore the history, evolution, and tools to navigate the memecoin market.

PROOF Updates

Diamond Exhibition

Over 3/4 of the entire Moonbirds collection has now reached Diamond Nest, a 365-day nesting streak! To celebrate, eligible Moonbird holders were airdropped a Diamond Exhibition Mint Pass, giving holders the opportunity to explore new artists and drop styles (editions, series, and generative collections). If you're a Day 1 Moonbird and haven’t seen the airdropped Mint Pass in your wallet, make sure to check your hidden folder.

The Diamond Exhibition offers a wide variety of artists and styles across 20 collections, with varying supply sizes, ensuring every Moonbird holder has a chance to mint a unique piece of art. Not a holder, but want to take part in the action? Not a problem! The Mint Pass is a tradable NFT and you can scoop one up on the secondary market. There are still pieces available to mint from some incredible artists!

Also, don’t miss the Diamond Exhibition at Foundry. The celebration continues throughout September, with a grand finale planned for September 29th. RSVP here.

ALPHA ALERT - Don't worry if you won't reach Diamond Nest this month; minting will remain open AND we will be doing some Mint Pass giveaways over the next month!

Deafbeef Grail Physicals

Attention Deafbeef Grail holders! You’ve been entered into a raffle to win a physical piece of his “GRAILS'' collection! If you're one of the lucky seven winners, you will be contacted soon. The collection includes seven physical pieces made from precious metals, exploring the historical symbolism of “grails” and their interpretation in the NFT space.

A deeper look into the collection:

Entitled “GRAILS”, these pieces are represented by various materials, each with its own unique symbolism. From pure silver and gold to iron and copper, these pieces detail the significance of materials in art. They represent a fusion of raw physical craftsmanship and the intangible aspects of NFT art, reflecting on the meaning and value of "grails." Want to learn more about the collection? Here is a detailed write-up from the artist.

Art Home Update

Quick update: The PROOF art home page has received some UI touch-ups to make it even easier to discover all of our art collections. Explore the changes at proof.xyz/art.

Toobins Run Reminder

Now is a perfect time to catch Toobins, let's get him on the move again. Toobins Run, the community activation in collaboration with the Worm team, allows participants to "mint" a wallet-bound charm by passing on the Toobins NFT. Everyone who participates has a chance to win a Mythic Egg in the weekly raffle. Learn more at proof.xyz/toobins.

Marfa Meetup Details

Get ready for Art Blocks Weekend in Marfa! PROOF is hosting an exclusive meetup and a live 100 PROOF. For details, visit events.proof.xyz.

Some more alpha? At the PROOF meetup, there's a special mint by r4v3n, PROOF's Engineer and AB artist, titled "Marfa: Middle of Somewhere," in collaboration with his brother, @brettsylviafilm. Below is a thread detailing the backstory of the sibling collaboration.

Community Updates

Moonbirds Curated Art?

Command + A is now live! Moonbirds holders can submit their art until September 14th, with voting beginning on September 15th. Explore the submissions at commanda.xyz/gg/september-2023. To make communication easier, a new channel has been added to Discord for discussing each month's collection. Congratulations to Dead Birds Society on your launch!

Inside Look: ‘The Past, Present, and Future of the Memecoin Market’

This week’s research piece comes from PROOF’s @WarDaddy, highlighting the historical relevance of the memecoin market within crypto and the expanding opportunities that exist across blockchain ecosystems.

Intro to Memecoins

Memecoins have played a pivotal role in the crypto world since the launch of Dogecoin in late 2013. Dogecoin quickly gained a passionate community and even surpassed Bitcoin in daily transactions within two weeks of its launch. Notably, Dogecoin often signaled the bottom of the alt-coin market and catalyzed significant pumps in the market during events like the 2020 pandemic crash and the $GME short squeeze, fueled by Elon Musk's praise.

The Evolution of Memecoins

The memecoin landscape has evolved, but we still see some fundamental mechanics persist. While not as obvious as a ‘Doge @ 20 sats’ call, there is some validity to analyzing previous ‘Shitcoin SZNs’ as they have notoriously pulled some of the most significant pumps. Memecoins still trigger massive market movements (think $PEPE, $MRI), typically with one major winner that rallies over 1,000x and ignites a domino effect of liquidity and volume for other projects.

How To Play The Game

In response to increased volume, numerous ERC20 contracts are deployed, ranging from legitimate projects to rugs and honeypots, all capitalizing on the increased interest in the market. This is why it’s important to have some go-to tools to keep track of memecoins.

Succeeding in the memecoin market is challenging. It requires luck, timing, and a strong social push, often led by Crypto Twitter. As a trader, two primary strategies emerge: being an early adopter or buying the first significant dip in a well-supported social token. Tools like Dextools, Tokensniffer, and EtherScan help traders analyze and reduce their risks.

• Dextools: For early adopters, focus on "Live New Pairs" to monitor new tokens to hit Ethereum Mainnet. For dip buyers, DEXTboard, Big Swap Explorer, and charts provide valuable insights.

• Tokensniffer: Offers a concise contract analysis with a score out of 100, assessing ‘swapability,’ the contract, holders, and liquidity factors.

• EtherScan: Provides real-time holder counts, on-chain transactions, token contract details, and unique token analytics.

New Ecosystems On The Rise

In early March, developer DomoData introduced BRC-20, a fungible token standard on the Bitcoin blockchain, initially considered valueless. Yet, the Ordinal ecosystem has since exploded, boasting nearly 29 million inscriptions, with BRC-20s accounting for 94% of them.

In just two months, over 18,000 BRC-20 tokens were launched, accumulating a total market capitalization of $1 billion. However, this growth remains top-heavy, with only around 213 BRC-20 tokens fully minted, and a mere 12 possessing market caps exceeding $2 million.

Compare the BRC-20 ecosystem with the potential of Ethereum L2 ecosystems like Base or Arbitrum. The low gas fees lower the barrier to entry to playing the memecoin game, and could potentially unlock a ‘Shitcoin SZN’ on Eth L2s. To this point, the only memecoin success we have seen on an Ethereum L2 was the 48 hours of extreme volume we saw on Base, mostly in part to eventual rug $BALD.

What’s To Come

As the memecoin market continues to evolve, it remains a potent force in the crypto space. The emergence of BRC20s on the Bitcoin blockchain and $BALD’s rapid rise and demise on Base, have added an intriguing dimension to this landscape, demonstrating that memecoin-inspired concepts can transcend individual blockchains. While challenges and risks persist, the memecoin market's ability to capture attention and generate volume and value remains undeniable, leaving us eagerly anticipating what the future holds..

This Week in PROOF Media

Here is a quick rundown of some of the top highlights from PROOF’s weekly content!

PROOF Daily NFT Countdown

This week, our Director of Research, Sam, highlighted MachiBigBrother, who bought 2 of the 13 Mega Mutants in existence for $1.2 million on PROOF Daily NFT Countdown. Catch the insightful discussion here. 

100 PROOF

Be sure to tune in to this week’s live 100 PROOF, Friday at 10am PST with special guest and PROOF Engineer r4v3n on Youtube or Twitter Spaces.