We Are Drowning In Supply 🌊
We Are Drowning In Supply 🌊
Featuring a rant about greed, funny banking memes, pokemon going web3, and Sorare bringing out the MLB stars.
I feel like a broken record when I say this, but I’ll say it again:
We are oversupplied to the max.
At this point, even the purest of collectors will have to admit that every platform has far overestimated demand. And even worse: none of them are showing signs of slowing down.
Candy announced weekly, monthly, and historical drops for Season 2.
UFC Strike announced packs for Pride FC, an MMA league that went out of business 26 years ago.
Sorare made $200k alone on NBA Auctions this past week, when most cards only have another few weeks of utility.
Sidenote: Sorare is still selling Mac McClung cards, a dude who has played 2 games ever in the NBA and only matters because he won the dunk contest.
And now Top Shot has dropped another 28k+ NFTs into the ecosystem, on their 3rd straight week of pack drops.
Come on guys.
It’s not that releasing supply is inherently bad - after all, its part of the game.
But given market conditions, and what we’ve been told publicly, I find it obscene to continue to ask customers to pay up for the product.
Think about it.
In the last few months, every single one of these companies has:
Made cuts to staffing
Made cuts to events, prizing, and other benefits
Made cuts to community funding (yes, Top Shot has reduced their budget for Team Captains, NLL, and VIP Programs).
And the resounding message has been “we need to reshape our business to survive these conditions”, which, when translated, means “NFTs are dead, so we need to save money until they come back to life.”
AND YET.
They continue to extract millions of dollars of liquidity from the ecosystem. They continue to net profits despite reducing the benefits and the effort.
It’s like we’re passengers on the Titanic. The boat is sinking, dinner has been cancelled, but the crew is asking you to pay extra for the lifejacket.
I know they are businesses and need to make money.
And I know that if I don’t like it, I don’t have to buy it!
But it’s a hard space to cover right now.
The bear market is a time to build. It’s a time to listen to the most hardcore of fans (i.e. the small group that’s still here), and move forward with progress in mind, not short term profit.
Please. It’s too much.
Make these special again.
Or at least let that liquidity go into market, not your pockets.
breathe
Alright that was intense. Lets relax by taking a look at everything that happened this past week in the world of sports and web3.
Here is what’s on tap:
👕 Win a FREE Top Shot Tshirt | 30 seconds
Top Shot in finally releasing merch in partnership with HOMAGE. They are running a FREE raffle for 2,500 collectors to win. Limited to Canada/US.
👑 Open a FREE Draft Kings PGA Pack | 30 seconds
To celebrate its launch of the PGA product, Reignmakers has a free pack available right now with NFTs that can be used towards upcoming tournaments.
📛 Claim your username on FLOOR APP | 1 minute
Hopefully by now you’ve gotten access to Floor App to oversee your ETH portfolio. And now, a new update lets you claim your username!
📦 Draft a FREE Team in Sorare MLB | 2 minutes
Listen, I’m all about the FREE stuff mmmmk? Even though I’ve got issues with how Sorare MLB has been rolled out, I’ll still pump the fact that they have a free product.
💗 Donate to Charity Vision | 2 minutes
It was Roham’s birthday this week, and to celebrate he is matching all funds given to Charity Vision, which is run by community member Robbie S.
🌋 The Banking Crisis is Getting Wild
Man, what a time to be alive.
I know this is a sports newsletter, so I’ll be quick on the parts about the banking crisis in the US. If you need an accurate breakdown, here’s the simplest way to explain it (sorry its CNN lol).
I only want to mention two parts:
Banks vs Crypto vs Fed
Despite the banks seeing far greater issues than crypto companies (and the impact being far bigger), the Fed continues its war on crypto - this time, going after Coinbase, where the SEC has sent the company a Wells Notice.
Its no secret that basically ALL governments secretly hate crypto (they don’t you to have full control of your money), but now the US is attempting to go back on its word and come down hard on the leading crypto institution (Coinbase) by claiming that staking constitutes illegal securities.
Brian Armstrong (Coinbase CEO and Founder) put it best when asked for a sports analogy:
History Repeats Itself
Although many of us may be thinking “Another banking problem, just like 2008”, some are saying that thinking is wrong.
In fact, it may be much worse than 2008.
Which brought me to this fun little tidbit from one of my favorite follows, Kyla Scanlon, on the first ever banking crisis which occurred literally within four years of the first bank ever opening.
🏟️ Sorare Launches on MLB
As noted in Making Moves, you can now go and start a FREE team on Sorare MLB. The cards you can claim are NOT on chain, but occasionally you can win on chain rewards (i.e. valuable cards) for winning their weekly fantasy contests.
Although Sorare is not going nearly as big as they did on the NBA launch, which featured a 20-minute video hosted by Jay Williams explaining the product, they are at least bringing out the stars with this cute little spot.
If you look closely, you’ll notice some of MLB’s biggest stars in there: Juan Soto, Julio Rodriguez, and even Canadian legend Joey Votto.
You’ll also notice John Nellis, host of the Sofar Sorare podcast, the primary community show in the Sorare ecosystem. John has been a pillar of Sorare for years now, and its great to see him get recognition.
Putting the content creators, born out of the community, right in the ads?
What a wild idea…
🕹️ Pokemon is Going Web3
Ummmm, so breaking news to everyone’s childhood.
Did you know that Pokemon ended last night?
Well not exactly, but the Anime series (which is still running?) has officially ended Ash’s journey, after more than 25 years of striving to be the top pokemaster in the world.
Ash and Pikachu will not be seen for a long time.
Meanwhile in web3…
The journey continues, as the Pokemon Company is officially hiring a web3 lead to explore its efforts in blockchain.
As someone who bought the original pokemon game the day it came out in North America (not to flex on you too hard), I for one would absolutely welcome this.
Pokemon is essentially designed for NFTs, as the game focuses on catching rare items and evolving them. Tokenizing that experience, returning value to the gamers, and create a cross-platform ecosystem would be incredibly beneficial - and one that could be incredibly lucrative for Pokemon.
After all, Pokemon is the HIGHEST GROSSING MEDIA FRANCHISE OF ALL TIME
Tons of awesome highlights this week.
Let’s start with the WBC, which saw back to back nights of incredible endings. First, the semi final":
And of course, the literal dream matchup: Ohtani vs Trout for the title.
Over to NCAA, with the round of sweet 16 providing some beauts:
Over to MLB, where teams are now advertising (??) the fact that the league has made some major rule changes.
Please watch this entire ad. Its super weird.
I’m not sure if this falls into Highlights or Memes, but if you must watch any video in today’s newsletter, this is it.
In other memes:
**This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter, podcast, or publication should be considered financial or trading advice of any kind. Please do your own thorough research and make your own trading decisions. This is not advice.”
About The First Mint
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Great rant LG!!