Do You Want Your NFTs Tall or Venti?

Today’s newsletter is written by Austin.

Estimated read time: 5 minutes 30 seconds

Time for a Market Correction

As you may have noticed, the cryptocurrency market has been a little shaky the last few days. For a time, nearly everyone’s holdings were skyrocketing. This week's news has me thinking back on some past conversations with my dad when I asked him for his thoughts and advice on my investments at the time. In each of those conversations, my dad would mutter something to the extent of, “a market correction is coming… I don’t know when, but it’s coming” as if he were a mob boss predicting the death of his only son. I’m not saying my dad is an omniscient, stock market savant, but he was certainly right about a market correction on the horizon. Now, months after those conversations, the market correction he and many others predicted has arrived.

The Bad News→

As an NFT-centered newsletter, it’s our job to report on newsworthy topics in the space—good or bad. We can say that in the last seven days, sales in NFT markets have dropped by more than 40%. This is mainly due to the incredible falloff of nearly every cryptocurrency. The drop in NFT sales is by no means catastrophic, but it definitely draws attention to the symbiotic relationship between crypto and NFTs. The relationship between the two is a strong one with many benefits, but sometimes we see how that relationship can go a little haywire.

The Good News→

The NFT market is still a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Just last week, consumers pumped over $1 billion into a single project, Otherside, a game where players can use specific NFTs as in-game characters or avatars. So no, NFTs are not going to disappear into the sunset, but the prices and trading volume will be lower than normal until the market is corrected.

Instagram Adds NFTs to its Arsenal

“The more different tools that creators have to be able to make money, the more they’re going to be able to do their work and hire people to join their team, to build out even more use cases. And that will propel all these platforms forward,” - Mark Zuckerberg

Everyone’s favorite image-sharing platform is adding NFT capabilities. On May 9th, Mark Zuckerberg announced the breaking news in a string of videos on his Instagram account. This news has been a long time coming—Zuckerberg announced that NFT functionality would be coming to the platform while speaking at a conference back in March. At that conference, Zuckerberg was still unsure of what kind of NFT functionalities Instagram would include. Flash forward to now, and Instagram has created a go-to-market strategy and is rolling out the new program as we speak.

The Program→

The program is currently in a “beta phase” for a small set of digital creators and artists. Said artists can now post NFTs from their digital wallets on their profiles to show them off to all of their followers. NFTs will show up a little differently on the feed so you’ll be able to pick them out from other media.

Why Does This Matter?→

In the first quarter of 2022, there were 950,000 unique cryptocurrency wallet addresses, which represent users conducting transactions, that bought or sold an NFT, Chainalysis found. As of today, Instagram has 1.3 billion users. 500 million of those users are active every day. That means that once this program is moved to the masses, NFT projects will see an exposure that’s never been seen in the space. Imagine the growth we will see! Artists, businesses, musicians, and countless other content creators will be able to display and maybe even sell their work to their followers on the platform. This is huge news, and we anticipate other social media platforms to follow suit.

Would you like an NFT with your Shaken Espresso?

Starbucks’ interim CEO Howard Schultz recently discussed in an open forum how he thinks NFTs and blockchain technology could improve the overall customer experience and give the company a new arena to grow its brand. 

Project Rundown→

Starbucks has plans to launch its own NFT collection this year. The company said that their NFT collection will include coffee art, and storytelling, and will aim to “initiate community membership, and allow for access to exclusive experiences and perks.” The company hasn’t shied away from projects like this in the past. They have frequently collaborated with artists to release Starbucks- branded mug collections, sold art in their stores, and even have their own art program.

The Future CEO is... NFT Savvy?→

In the same open forum where Schultz talked about the company's Web3 plans, he discussed how he thinks this new industry will affect their search for a new CEO.

“I think the next CEO will be a creative person who’s going to understand that the equity of the Starbucks brand has real legitimacy and relevance outside of our stores…Our customer base is getting younger, they’re digital natives, and they expect Starbucks to be as relevant outside of our stores as we are inside,” - Howard Schultz

It was nice to hear such a prolific CEO say something like this, and it kind of confirms how we feel at The Mint. The Web3 space continues to grow, and having some level of knowledge about the space will be vital for every future executive.

How does The Mint staff think Starbucks could use NFTs? →

• Caitlin dreams of getting an early release of the red holiday cup because she holds the holiday NFT.

• John wants to be able to buy, sell, or trade his Starbucks stars as NFTs.

• Austin thinks Starbucks NFT holders will get exclusive access to unique drinks and experiments.

Artist Spotlight

Although NFTs are constantly evolving, the first touchpoint for many in the space continues to be digital artwork. One artist who has been at the center of the digital art scene is Beeple. You might remember hearing that name in the news about a year ago when a collection of his sold for $69 million at auction. The sale was groundbreaking on numerous levels. It was the first time a major auction house listed an NFT for sale and was also the first time that one accepted cryptocurrency as payment on one of its listed items.

Since that collection was sold last year, Beeple has continued his tradition of making one piece of digital art every day. As such an important figure in the space, we’d recommend giving him a follow on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with his work.

That concludes this week's version of The Mint! Thanks for reading, and make sure to share your freshly-minted knowledge with your friends and coworkers.