May 12, 2021

11 min read

Whale Mail 11

Welcome back to Whale Mail, edition 11. The quickest way to catch up on the happenings in the $WHALE community, and NFT space in general. From celebrity NFT drops and cameos, to Emoji contests, darkness themed artworks, and fantasy basketball — April was an action-packed month! As always, check out our page for previous editions. Let’s get started!

$WHALE Events

$WHALE Poker

Nothing in life is certain except for death, taxes and $WHALE poker three times per week! Throughout April Hold-to-Play (H2P) members battled it out for their thrice weekly shot at the 100 $WHALE bounty. The victors of all that sweet $WHALE are listed below:

Poker Sharks

While everyone gave it their best shot, a few worthy foes rose above the pack. Poker MVP for April has to go the LANGE (Not Dutch), who was lethal when running deep, posting a 1st and 2nd finish. na30l, Gutsberserk, DanielSolomon and AleScoffield all were hugely consistent, posting three top 10 finishes throughout April. Honorary mention to Junior Mod .Nytmare, who finished in the top 10 twice throughout the fool’s month. Be wary of these Poker Sharks next time you are on the felt!

Marbles

Every Saturday without fail, rudem00se gets the community together for some rolling balls of luck, fun and pure chaos! If you are keen to relax, hang out, have fun with the community and roll your luck for some easily earned $WHALE, check out the weekly stream every Saturday here: https://www.twitch.tv/rudem00se

Swyysh Top Shot $WHALE Fantasy League

Swyysh is a third-party application that utilizes moments from NBA Topshot for a weekly fantasy point contest. Users battle each other through devising the best 5-person line-up comprising of: assists (one player), 2-pointers (two players), 3-pointers (one player) and blocks/steals (one player), bringing unique utility to the Top Shot moments. The weekly $WHALE league is open to all H2P members, and offers a generous $1,000 USD in $WHALE each week!

The ballers of April were as follows:

Congrats to all the winners and their big brain basketball knowledge! If you’re keen to get started you can hop into the Topshot-fantasy-league-lounge to discuss all things Swyysh and basketball. Please note that Week 16 is already underway and for Week 17 Swyysh will be on maintenance so no league will be running.

My $WHALE Journey 1 year Anniversary

It has been one year since the legendary event My $WHALE Journey, which gave more insight to our fellow community members on their journey to becoming a part of the $WHALE community as well as crypto and NFTs in general. To celebrate this anniversary, the team has announced a second iteration of the event, with a goal to either get an update on your $WHALE journey (for the OG’s) or to introduce yourself as a new member.

Many great stories have already been submitted and the contest closes very soon — May 2. So if you have not already started, what are you waiting for? Get your writing hand warmed up and some pen to paper! A 200 $WHALE prize pool awaits you!

Paris x $WHALE Emoji Contest

The Emoji contest is a celebration of the $WHALE community’s close relationship with Paris Hilton and her early foray into NFTs. The goal of the event was to create a set of emoji’s of a pet, to pay homage to her first NFT, which was a drawing of her beloved cat.

Open to H2P members, the contest officially ended on 30th April and there are many great entrants! It will be tough for the judges to choose a winner, but stay tuned for the announcement!

E1337 Launch

E1337 kicked off their official launch with a party consisting of live music, epic guests, giveaways and of course some Blankos and Axie Infinity gaming! A new line of physical and digital clothing was announced, along with monthly drops and payments only in $1337! Check out the new website at: e1337.pro or re-watch the livestream here!

$WHALE Guests

When you’re the coolest NFT community going around, of course you get the coolest guests passing by, and April was no different! Here is the star-studded line up of all our esteemed guests in April (It’s a long list, because what can we say? We are popular!):

Interviews:

Paris Hilton

The Whale community’s BFF caught up with Annissa and the community for a candid, no-holds-barred interview about her journey through cryptos and NFTs, her rise to fame and her thoughts on fan connectivity and digital wearables. Check out the full interview here:

Collector’s Insights w/Collin 100 x Art

Gian sat down with Collin, owner of the 100 x Art initiative, to discuss their mission, the NFT space in general and to give a tour of the 5th Dimension Gallery that the initiative has in Decentraland. 100 x Art is a consortium of 100 of the world’s leading NFT collectors and artists.

Artist Fireside Chats:

Cöco Mamba

Cöco Mamba is prolific filmmaker, recording artist, vocalist, songwriter, and creative producer. She talks about her NFT journey, her artistic background and so much more!

Shelly Soneja

Shelly is an Art Director for mobile and blockchain games with 10+ years of game art experience. She has worked independently as a freelance artist tackling a variety of creative projects such as comics, illustrations, and game art assets. She sat down with HeatherHz to discuss her journey into Crypto art.

Natural Warp

Natural Warp is a visionary artist whose psychedelic artwork channels universal energies using ultra chromatic vibrations and soul-inspired geometry as common language. Natural and Nytmare kicked it, discussing his art journey.

Alessandro Pautasso

Alessandro aka Kaneda Pautasso is a graphic designer and illustrator whose specialty lies in digital art and mixed media. He began drawing when he was a child. When Alessandro discovered an illustration book about the Beatles by Alan Aldridge, he realized that he wanted to become a designer/illustrator.

Urs Fischer

Urs Fischer is a giant of the contemporary Art world and undoubtedly one of the most important Artists working today best known for his large scale sculptures and installations. He discussed with Annissa his art journey and eventual foray into NFTs.

Alberto Mielgo

Alberto Mielgo is a 4 times Emmy Award winner who has worked with the likes of Sony, Disney and Netflix. He sat down Gian and Jordan from MakersPlace to discuss his art journey and upcoming MakersPlace art drop!

MERDA

MERDA is a GRAFFITI retiree, DIGITAL Pensioner, and NFT Newborn. He hung out with Alegria to discuss his first NFT drop.

Marcel Van Luit

Marcel is known for his stunning modern surrealism style & ability to capture dreamy scenarios. He sat down with rudem00se and had a rapid fire interview!

Artgerm

Stanley Artgerm Lau is an illustrator & co-founder of Imaginary Friends Studios — a world acclaimed digital Art studio producing artworks such as DC Comics, Marvel Comics and more.

Ryan Tedder from One Republic

3 time Grammy winner Ryan Tedder, who has sold 420 million records internationally, with several #1 hits including “Counting Stars” & “Apologize” took some time out of his schedule to talk to the $WHALE community and his new NFT drop!

Elec

A new face in the crypto space, Elec is a young 3D-artist who is making a name for himself through otherworldly digital dreamscapes and cheeky social commentary.

Project Showcases:

Somint

Farouk and Azeez from Somint came through to discuss the yet-to-be-launched art marketplace on the Cardano chain.

Pixelated & SaveArtSpace w/ @gmoneyNFT

Pixelated & SaveArtSpace is a project that launched 65 public art installations of CryptoPunks on bus shelter and billboard ad spaces in Miami & Miami Beach.

The Animoca universe

The team from Animoca pulled up to give a unique look into their entire Universe which comprises of, but not limited to, F1 Delta, The Sandbox and GP Moto Ignition.

PixaLyfe and PixaWyverns

PixaLyfe is a traditional artist/engineer duo, that has an amazing Discord community around their generative pixel art NFT projects PixaWizards and PixaBrews.

Live Creation & Insights Streams:

Live Art Creation w/ John Orion Young aka Joy

Cryptoartist OG John Orion Young hosted a live art creation session into his wild and colorful world.

3D Animation 101 — The 12 Principles of Animation with Florian Tappeser (Genies, Sony, Hotel Transylvania)

Animator Florian Tappeser teaches the $WHALE Community how to animate! Florian is an animator for Genies and has worked on many acclaimed films such as Hotel Transylvania 3, Kafka’s Doll and more!

PXCLive: Improv Pixel Art with Rob Levy

Pixel artist Rob Levy gives a tutorial of improv pixel art.

Music:

Blockchain Beats w/ PLS&TY

PLS&TY is a Chart-topping Florida native that has captivated the electronic dance music scene with his unique sound, and has now paired that sonic allure with visuals in the world of NFTs.

Blockchain Beats w/ Humble the Poet

Humble is a multi-disciplinary artist that does film making, rapping, spoken word and poetry, writing, you name it!

Blockchain Beats w/ Lupe Fiasco

Lupe is a man that needs no introduction. He slid into the $WHALE community DM’s to discuss his upcoming NFT drop, crypto and music in general.

Blockchain Beats w/ Connie Digital

Connie is a true pioneer of NFT music and social tokens, multi-faceted lyricist and web3 content creator. Connie Digital continues to blaze pathways unlocking the future of the movement.

Blockchain Beats w/ Bassjackers

Nytmare talks with Bassjackers on their genuine passion for blockchain and how they are bringing absolute BANGERS and energy to the NFT space.

$WHALE Discord Highlights

The art curation event that ended at the end of March has finally had the winners chosen. The theme was darkness, and winners would have their piece hung in the Gallery in the House of M in CryptoVoxels. The announced winners so far are:

— Jaime Byrd and their piece titled “Ozark”

— lolwtferic and their piece titled “late night ghost parade”

— thecryptory and their piece titled “Old City Doorway 1”

— virus69 and their piece titled “Rebirth”

— rukeink and their piece titled “Awaken, SIN”

— SpazzehMan and their piece titled “Alone in the Dark”

— DynamicIStudios and their piece titled “The Dark Side of Hawai’i — HR Giger’s Coastline”

— danielkcrossan and their piece titled “Rabbit in the Headlights”

— D4RK_84 and their piece titled “Corvus (1/7)”

— figurativesNFT and their piece titled “Phantom Queen”

— jNifties and their piece titled “Stereoportrait #05 Emo”

— ohhhbaby4 and their piece titled “Love me, Love me not”

— l_am_potato_l and their piece titled “Her Soul”

— @makeyouhowell and their piece titled “UNSTABLE EMBODYMENT”

— Roon_VT and their piece titled “Take Me Home”

— Artemis_Wylde and their piece titled “The Universe Is”

— purpletariat and their piece titled “Dynamics” Livescapes #001 PurpLeTariat X John Knopf”

Congrats to all the winners!

DAO Proposals

.Zorro brought forward proposal #24, which aims to alter the current reward system for accepted DAO Proposals. Previously, the reward was set at a flat 30 $WHALE, however this was sometime ago when the price was significant less. Given the current price action, a more sustainable $300 flat US is now being offered as the proposed reward. At time of writing, the proposal passed and is awaiting judgement in the senate.

Vault Acquisitions

The Ultraviolet NFT collection from 3LAU, the first full NFT album, has entered the vault. The collection of 33 special edition NFTs, each packed with a number of physical goodies, unreleased music and unique experiences (top bidder receiving a creative input into 3LAU single) was a heated auction, with Whaleshark just missing out on the top spot. His $3.5 million bid was edged out in the dying seconds by Bidder 65. A total of 8 NFTs from the collection now call the Vault home. Check out all the goods here.

NFT Market Recap

After quite possible one of the most heavily advertised, promoted and volume packed month, April was quieter in comparison. Nevertheless, the NFT space continued to advance.

The Sandbox voxel platform is officially open for business! Voxels are in-game assets in the Sandbox ecosystem, that can be created by anyone, and now sold in the Voxel marketplace.

The anticipated Murat Pak x Sothesby x Nifty Gateway drop happened midway through April. Called the Fungible Collection, Pak introduced many exciting mechanisms, puzzles and coded messages. In their words, It was a digital performance. They sold about $17million in NFTs over three days, and the linchpin of the collection, is the mysterious burn.art component, which will allow NFTs to be burned for tokens, essentially converting non-fungibles back to fungible. The use of these tokens is still not 100% clear, but we are sure Pak has something grand in store.

The Team behind Gods Unchained finally rolled out their much anticipated Layer two solution, Immutable X. The software will significantly reduce the cost of gas fees, in many cases to $0, which is a great need for their trading card game Gods Unchained, that has millions of minted NFTs.

NFT mania went more and more mainstream through April. From the Golden State Warriors, to Edward Snowden, Eminem, Damian Lillard and even the NYSE, everyone is minting NFTs! However, a lot of criticism has come up about these institutions/celebrities trying to use NFTs as a money grab, and the sales are showing. For some, the market reaction was underwhelming, however for others, it was strong. Edward Snowden is one such winner, who tokenized the landmark US court decision ruling the NSA’s mass surveillance violated the law, which sold for $5.4 million!

In the News

Whaleshark will front a shark-tank like show about NFTs with celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, Snoop Dogg and Mark Cuban. Up to $1 million in potential investment is available to budding NFT projects.

Forefront is a new tool in providing valuable resources and data about the social token world. Their arrival on the scene was combined with an airdropped token called Forefront ($FF), and holders of specific social tokens were eligible to claim. $WHALE, $MORK, and $1337 were all on the list, so if you have not already, check to see if you are eligible for the air drop!

Ressos Crypto Attorneys were announced as the Chief Legal Partner for the Whale Community. Based out of Singapore, the team will provide $WHALE with invaluable visibility, knowledge and guidance on legal, contractual and regulatory matters.

The $WHALE Vault March audit was released from our partners at Non-Fungible. The reports shows a massive increase of about 96% to the value of the Vault (month on month), largely backed by Top Shot valuations, Ethereum price increases, and overall NFT asset valuation increases.