Thread by Cozomo de’ Medici

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Bernard Arnault acquired Christian Dior, and turned it into Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy

Christian Audigier acquired Von Dutch, and turned it into Ed Hardy

Now that @YugaLabs has acquired Cryptopunks, what will they do?

🧵👇
Mid 2021. Cryptopunks are the # 1 NFT project, by every metric

In July, researching for my first NFT, I heard things in chats like

"You buy a bored ape if you can't afford a punk",

or

"Ape = poor man's punk"

What happened next would shake the NFT world to its core
I cave and buy a Cryptopunk on July 31

A wild day in history. The highest punk sales day on record - 2 Cryptopunk "ape" sales, 2 zombie sales, & a "sweep" buy of 88 floor punks in a single day

(Floor punk = the lowest priced punks)

And with this, the Jpeg Summer of '21 begins
Spurred on by wise words from @punk6529 @vince_van_dough @kevinrose @VonMises14 + other noted collectors, a hunt was on for the most historically significant NFTs

Those with the richest history, were the most valuable

And all are put on a timeline related to @larvalabs projects
"Klees were one week after Autoglyphs!"

"Pepes are the real OG. Came before punks"

Or

"Twitter Eggs and Blockheads came before all"
And then, other collections began to "rank" chronologically

"Squiggles" were the most significant Art Blocks project, because they were 1st

Ringers and Fidenza were important, because they were beautiful, complex, but also "early"

Meebits were the "first" 3D avatar project
But Cryptopunks... being both early, artsy, and having the most mainstream penetration... became the "bitcoin" of NFT

Punk floor price was used to determine how the NFT market was holding up, during crypto downturns

It's said punks will be first accepted by lending protocols...
The first to have many assets "fractionalized", so they can held by millions

And punks are even starting to be considered a "store of value"

In fact, I was first "sold" on NFTs, when I saw punks held up better than ethereum & bitcoin, during the "Elon fud crash" of May '21
Come July, August, September, more celebs are entering NFT via punks than any other

And across NFT, even punk RUMOR prices become a gauge of just how much a high-end NFT could be worth

What is a punk "rumor" price?
"There have been multiple offers to cryptopunk ape owners of 6,000 - 7,000 ETH. ALL turned down."

"It is impossible to get an alien for under $60m. Don't even ask."

"That will be the last zombie we ever see under 1000 ETH."

All exact quotes I heard, in Q3 2021
which led to comparisons like...

"Fidenzas # 612 and # 938 are the 'aliens'. Will be worth $100m+"

"@XCOPYART's 'x12' works are the 'aliens' of @SuperRare"

"Only 46 gold fur bored apes. That's rarer than zombies"
The significance of what Larva Labs created cannot be overstated

Not just punks, but Meebits and Autoglyphs too

Matt and John are some of the important artists, not just in NFT, but imo, all of human history
While it's easy to get caught up in prices, what they built transcends money

And in my opinion, transcends branding. Transcends commercialization

History will show that Cryptopunks were the catalyst of the entire NFT movement
But one day in November, one seemingly little thing @BoredApeYC gave you that Cryptopunks didn't, started to mean something

You see, Bored Ape owners "owned" commercial rights to their ape
So ape holder @j1mmyeth & A-list music manager @nickyads get together, and form an ape "band"

@jenkinstheval and 10x best-selling author @neilstrauss get together, to make an ape book

Now, for the first time, people are seeing what is possible with commercial rights to an NFT
and while most don't plan to go commercial with their own bored ape

They know people like J1mmy & Jenkins doing things w theirs, will bring eyes to all

and let's be honest, I know some of you dreamed your ape would one day be discovered by an "ape agent", and made into a star
Plus Bored Ape now has a manager, @GuyOseary, one of those "all he do is win" types

Madonna + U2's manager, crushed venture investing

And Guy is managing the broader brand

He immediately starts putting big ape W's on the board

while Larva Labs for the most part, do nothing
But what was happening behind the scenes in punk land, is also noteworthy

@gmoneynft and Punks Comics sign a big deal to bring Adidas into NFT

G is not allowed to use his infamous ape punk though. Because punks are repped by United Talent Agency
And they want to save the rights to the punks to make a movie or something, that most punk owners not secretly fear will be cringe

So GMoney is told he cannot use his ape punk

And is forced to hire a branding company, to instead create a new logo for himself
And rumor has it that United Talent tries to push our fren Gmoney out of the deal, and do it Cryptopunks + Adidas with no Gmoney... but that is a story for another day

Anyway

Gmoney + Punks Comics gets the deal done w Adidas. Another W for NFTs
But in the community's eyes, another L for Larva Labs and Cryptopunks

as they see Gmoney has spent much time building a brand around his punk - billboards, major podcasts, the guy is a machine

but then come game time his punk is on the bench
Again, 99% of Cryptopunks community is likely not building a commercial enterprise around their punk

but as project after NFT project launches with commercial rights to owners... the knife twists...
Then, one of the brightest minds in NFT, @punk4156 decides he is no longer having it

Protest-dumps 40+ punks, including his ape, which he dutch-auctions

Where were the buyers who were supposedly offering 6,000 ETH for an ape just weeks before, when his sells for 2,500 ETH?
It turns out either "rumor prices" are just that

or punks are... at least temporarily, bleeding value fast

In the meantime, celebrity after celebrity is entering the NFT space
... but no longer via punks.

Via Bored Apes, and a project called "World of Women" - which is now also under the master hand of Guy O'Seary

Then, the unthinkable:
The floor price of Bored Apes flips the floor price of Cryptopunks

The derivative has surpassed the original

The mighty king has fallen

and wtf do we do now?
In summary, I feel this "flippening" happened because:

- The great commercial rights debate

- Larva Labs "devs not doing something"

- BAYC devs doing lots of somethings

- The resulting fud of these somethings and nothings
But the real unthinkable is what happens next:

Apes flipping punks not only kicks cryptopunks from the # 1 spot

It kicks the entire "historical is most valuable" thesis out the window
Early Art Blocks collection prices begin to fall

Rare Pepe prices begin to fall

Early 1/1 sales slow

Prices of "historical" NFTs sag across the board, the archeological dig is over... as mass money both old and new makes a rapid run towards...

Finding "the NEXT Bored Apes!"
I was speaking w the founder of a successful mid-2021 profile picture project (known in NFT land as "pfp")

who told me when asked in mid 2021, his thesis for future 10k pfp projects:

"99% will launch zero and stay there. Too many already. No room for more."
Yet the opposite happened

Punks dethroned kicks the rock out from under the historical thesis

And full-blown pfp money grab mania ensues

Collectors turn into flippers

Robinhood traders turn into pfp'ers
Opensea user count go up

but "legacy" nft price go down

Now even the floor prices of the new darling, Bored Apes

As all seek the rush of the quick ETH
It brings back memories of 2017 crypto trading days

When bitcoin is flat, shitcoins gonna moon

When btc rises, people fomo back into btc, and shitcoin go down

But then btc go down, and ALL go down.

That is what we saw when punks fell from # 1
In Oct/Nov, broader crypto was strong

But NFTs, as punks sagged, other than Bored Apes, & some "next Apes", were much pain

and today, for the most part, ALL are down from historical highs

Though certain "shitcoins" (e.g. low effort pfp collections, sorry not sorry) are mooning
Ok, so that brings us to now

On Friday, the biggest acquisition in NFT history, as Yuga Labs acquires Cryptopunks and Meebits

So what happens next?

Does Yuga Labs steward our greatest collection of NFT artifacts, and preserve its integrity?

Or turn it into the next Ed Hardy?
And with their new rumored war chest, raised at a $5B valuation, does Yuga Labs build the LVMH of NFT?

Or do they stay focused on the apes and punks eco-systems... but now bring all of the pluses of apes, over to punk land?
I cannot speak on the broader future of Yuga Labs, for while I have much respect for the team, I am not an investor, did not see their plans, etc

I know nothing outside of their statement made on closing day

But my thoughts for Cryptopunks, Meebits, Apes and Mutants are this:
Everyone is coming for NFTs

Literally, every man woman and child

Kids are growing up w in-game items

All real world luxury items will have a digital twin
There are 10,000 Cryptopunks. But there is room for more blue chip than just that

Now let’s say there are 60,000 (punks, meebits, apes, mutants, kennel club)
Still a very tiny number, compared to the number of entrants coming

All 60,000 can still be OG pieces

and now all have an able manager

Which wasn’t important until Bored Apes showed what having an able manager can do.
Punks are now a brand, not art, some are saying.

No longer counter culture

But art gone big, always becomes a brand.

Basquiat, warhol, banksy, koons

All appear on hats, pillows and mugs

and in homes of boomers everywhere

Nothing good counter culture stays

and such is life
Plus let's face it:

Buying a punk in 2017-20 was an OG move. Maybe even early 2021.

But by mid 2021 punks had already gone mainstream

And buyers were mostly fresh NFT entrants, like me
In a way Yuga buying punks is an acknowledgement that punks are the real OG

"Apes” themselves are based off of a type of punk

Bored Ape traits are derived from punks

And there is no denying LL's art created this movement

But now there is no fud

Since there is an able manager
Could the brand be tarnished? yes. But Yuga has said they aren’t going to do anything fast

Which means they are respecting them as art

Not aiming to make dumb moves

But giving commercial rights was a smart move

An instant up of utility

And I presume they let go United Talent
Either way, they just raised a boatload

So they don’t need money

Essentially they just removed any fud around punks

Other than the "too commercial" thing, which was already circling
Plus, they removed the perceived boost bored apes had, of having an able manager

So this, imo, could make punks more valuable than apes, short term

But great for both long term
And great for Yuga Labs, because if they play their cards right -

Which basically just means "don't f it up"

They own the epicenter of NFT

And, they just increased the strength of their moat

The reach of their net

And took out their strongest competitor
What happens next will shape the definition of "art" vs "brand"

Because NFTs have merged the two.

With a sprinkle of gambling, investing, community, and collecting

It's a fascinating new world, and Yuga Labs just made a god mode move.
So yes, I'm excited for the future of Punks, Apes, Meebits, and the now Yuga Labs eco-system.

60,000 is a very small number.

And if we've learned anything with both the Super Bowl and Coachella giving out NFTs this year...

It's that the whole world is coming.
And whether you were a 2017 cryptopunks OG, a 2021 minter of Bored Apes, or just getting in the game now, today.

We are all early.

And this ride will not disappoint
I'm hopeful Yuga Labs will be strong stewards of Larva's creations

And grateful to Larva for the innovation

Who also made a strong move in recognizing their strengths

So they can now focus on what they are best at - creating game-changing art
I'm thrilled to see what they do next.

Thanks for reading.

~CdM

*** Disclaimer: I hold many of these assets now. Nothing here is to be taking as investment advice.
P.S. Something else that has crossed my mind

If the "OG" collection is now a "commercial" collection, where does one go seeking exposure to the real OGs?

My thoughts are 3 places (and disclaimer again, all are in my bags already)

- XCOPY

- Rare Pepes

- Early SuperRare 1/1s
*Edit: I still personally feel Cryptopunks are a "real OG", and I should have described this differently. But you get the point⚡️
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