Who's Actually Winning?

Breaking down the projects that are winning in the 2023 bear market...

GM frens,

In today’s edition of the Ground Floor we will be breaking down the projects that are winning in the 2023 bear market...

Who's Actually Winning?

With the once high flying Moonbirds having fallen below their mint price, Doodles below 2 ETH ~ who’s actually winning in Web3 in 2023?

The Bull Market

During the 2021 - 2022 bull market, the projects that experienced the greatest success were the projects that communicated the biggest ambitions.

The bigger the ambitions a project was willing to communicate, the higher the price point collectors were willing to pay to own these assets.

At its peak, owning a BAYC was even sufficient to sell out a collection, and in many cases projects experienced many months of success through the art of emulating other projects playbooks by providing airdrops & eco-system tokens.

These times have since passed as the once abundant sources of capital dried up, and the Web3 world was left with little choice but to change.

What It Takes To Win

Today, it’s infinitely more difficult to launch a successful Web3 project in light of the long list of projects that over promised & under delivered.

Nonetheless, projects are still succeeding so let’s examine what these projects are doing to rebuild collectors trust, and restore a sense of excitement to Web3.

1) Under Promise, Over Deliver

It’s no secret to anyone who follows me on Twitter that the 2 projects that have captivated me the most in 2023 are Checks & Opepen.

Both of these projects had humble beginnings with Checks costing $8 to mint, and Opepen costing $0 to mint.

This was foundational for both of these projects as it created an infinite opportunity to exceed collectors expectations, and it should come as no surprise that Nakamigos, one of the biggest success stories of 2023 also cost $0 to mint.

This approach of purposefully under promising and over delivering comes in stark contrast to the approach that worked so well in the prior bull market, however, it’s a sign of the significant improvements the Web3 world is making.

2) Organic Attention Retention

In the attention economy, it’s essential for projects to create products that organically retain the attention of their holders.

Two very different examples of this organic attention retention are:

1) Memeland ~ it has been long known that Memeland would be releasing a meme coin, and the project has done an excellent job of building towards this moment as means to retain the attention of their community.

The team has also taken the opportunity to share the progress they’ve made towards realizing the release of this token, providing regular updates on Twitter to retain the attention of their community.

2) Opepen ~ as opposed to the entire collection revealing at once, this 16,000 collection is broken down in 200 different drops.

This reveal mechanic has allowed Opepen to organically retain the attention of its community, as collectors are provided with the opportunity to preview the artwork in each drop prior to expressing their desire to participate in the drop.

To date the project has released 4 drops, and on each occasion the community has been extremely engaged in appreciating the artwork that’s been revealed.

3) Storytelling

At its best, the Web3 world is capable of captivating collectors and igniting their imaginations through the art of storytelling.

In the prior bull market, the biggest benefactor of storytelling was Bored Ape Yacht Club, who’s simple narrative of 10,000 Bored Apes that were members of an exclusive club proved to be instrumental to their success.

In 2023, there remains no shortage of projects seeking to create creative stories to capture collectors attention, however, the biggest benefactors are no longer relying on fiction, instead they are winning through transparency.

Web3 participants appreciate transparency, after all the transparency of blockchains has been foundational in the formation of this digital economy, and both Luca Netz (CEO of Pudgy Penguins) & Jack Butcher (Founder of Visualize Value) have continuously taken to Twitter to provide the participants in their project’s with ample opportunity to understand the decisions they are making.

This act of sharing both the process, and the output of a projects process is perhaps one of the most important changes the Web3 world has made in 2023.

Not only does this allow participants to appreciate the process it takes to create products, it also allows creators to engage with collectors, receiving feedback in real time to ensure the products they create find perfect community market fit.

Looking Forward

The Web3 world has a long way to go before projects can provide millions of collectors with products that have clearly defined value propositions, however, if the collectors who are here today lack reasons to remain excited about NFTs ~ then any & all efforts to onboard the next million people to NFTs will be in vain.

Thankfully, we have seen significant progress in 2023 to rebuild the trust that was lost between collectors and creators in 2021 - 2022.

While 99% of the projects that soared in value during this time continue to see their floor prices fall, for the 1st time in a long time, creators in the Web3 world are providing collectors with reasons to remain excited about NFTs.

💡 Web3 Roundup

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This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or business advice to any person or entity.

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