This is not financial advice. It is insights on what we see in the market and how we, personally, will act accordingly.

This is not financial advice. It is insights on what we see in the market and how we, personally, will act accordingly.

XCOPY - Siblings Skip to main content

This is not financial advice. It is insights on what we see in the market and how we, personally, will act accordingly.

This is not financial advice. It is insights on what we see in the market and how we, personally, will act accordingly.

This is not financial advice. It is insights on what we see in the market and how we, personally, will act accordingly.

XCOPY: Long Term HODL

June 7, 2021

Who

  • OG crypto artist and pioneer from London; started on Tumblr
  • “If I had to name one creator of #cryptoart origins it would be @XCOPYART” -PAK (Mar 13, 2021)
  • Collected by all major whales: 888, Pablo, Ape Punk, 33,etc.
  • Second artist to mint on SuperRare
  • XOPY uses a limited color palette and is often abstract/vibrant against a dark background; has kept an irreverent approach towards art from the beginning. Influenced by Tumblr’s display setup and file size limitations
  • Sotheby’s Natively Digital auction (June 3-10, 2021) features XCOPY’s NGMI, a 1/1 which lets the owner’s wallet address determine the color of the piece

 

Quantitative

  • Top 5 crypto artist by sales, totaling nearly $20 million with the highest sale of $3.5 million (Death Dip). Reflection 9th most expensive NFT ever sold 1.678M
  • AFTERBURN OE by XCOPY used to be Top 5 most traded NFTs in Nifty Gateway, currently still sitting at top 20. 
    • Afterburn mkt cap = $870,000 (peaked $1,500,000)
    • Guzzler mkt cap = $618,000 (peaked at $1,030,000)
  • Widely collected at the high end
    • Dissolution $414,860 / 100 ETH; Skin, Bone & Blood $348,070 / 90 ETH; $LAVE $390,380 / 99.99 ETH; Feeding $414,310 / 110 ETH

 

What We Think

    • Won’t be doing OEs for while and no longer taking 1/1 commissions
      • Potential NiftyGateway collectors exclusive drop
      • AFTERBURN: Low chance of dramatic price drops and high chance price is firm/will increases
    • Blue chip: art style that is unique and will stay relevant through the NFT space when >99% of NFTs will likely not hold value
      • Art is identifiable and conversation sparking and XCOPY galleries are popping up
      • Solid foundation for further growth and entering retail wallets
    • Sotheby’s auction will bring wider appreciation
  • Long term HODL

There is already a gallery forming around XCOPY. Galleries are formed around art and artists that can spark conversation and good public engagement. Punk 3333 absolutely will be the start of XCOPY collections – this on top of his OG Factor and his ICONIC and identifiable art style will make the difference when 99% of NFTs gets eventually filtered out. 

 

X by Pak 

Replicator which COPIES

XCOPY HAS TO BE NEXT

Death dip 5th most expensive NFT ever sold at 3.533M

 

You know who else has 2 

 

Dissolution $414,860 / 100 ETH 

Skin, Bone & Blood $348,070 / 90 ETH 

$LAVE $390,380 / 99.99 ETH

Feeding $414,310 / 110 ETH

 

Siphon of 50: $480,000

Traitors of 51: $433,500

Bottom Feeders of 38: $513,000

DISRUPTOR of 10: $394,200

Afterburn of 870 = $870,000 

Guzzler MC of 206 = $618,000

 

Now usually that is not indicative as the whole NFT market was up. However for an OG and deserving artist with foundation like XCOPY it gives you a sense of potential ceiling. 

 

I am bullish on XCOPY. Period. 

 

There has been auction news for many OG crypto artists, however not XCOPY? I feel something is off. 

 

Recent higher acquisitions from whales on XCOPY too. 

Daniel Arsham’s May 22 NG OE Drop

License to Mint: 10 Editions Is Not Enough

 

Takeaways

  1. Mass appeal and reachable: Arsham has achieved commercial success bringing art to Millennials / Generation Z; let’s people afford and enjoy artsy things at home
  2. Cannot manage scarcity: Arsham’s 2020/21 pieces in the $1k-$5k range have been prone to overminting and prices for many have subsequently dropped 
  3. Beautiful but non-unique NFT: Arsham’s time-based NFT, while beautiful, will be joined by many other NFTs that incorporate changing temporal, dimensional, etc layers
  4. Lack of NFT community engagement: Arsham does not appear to use Discord / engage with “everyday” buyers. Even Eminem spent more time engaging pre-drop

 

Who

 

  • For more than a decade, Daniel Ashram has blurred the lines between art, architecture and fashion while blending the past, present and future. Cool fact: Arsham is colorblind
  • Recognized for his time erosion sculptures: making everyday objects appear old and used 
  • Many collaborations in the fashion industry such as Ronnie Fieg and Kim Jones at Dior; collaborations with Adidas and Pharrel Williams
  • Makes the audience question their relationships to their surroundings
  • Bought by a lot of “young, hip collectors,” who identify with Arsham’s recreation of familiar objects from their childhoods—most notably iconic Gameboy and Pokémon sculptures
  • Ashram for a long time pushed the hype factor, extreme scarcity + publicity (pre-2014)
    • Post-2019, frequency and mint numbers have gone up exponentially, saturating his market and depressing prices
    • 43 lots (non-NFTs)  auctioned in 2021 alone (as of mid-May)

 

Quantitative

 

  • Sales in 2020 accounted for more than half of Arsham’s all-time auction appearances 
    • High demand for Arsham’s work on the secondary market is a very recent development – picked up in 2019 after a major Shanghai exhibition (Asian buyers)
  • Survey of all secondary sales on StockX (>$600 price pieces) found that 50% of physical pieces with active sales fell in price after listing, and about ~40% rose in price 
    • Among the pieces that rose in price, the vast majority were 3-4x increases issued before 2020. Majority of pieces that went down in price were issued in 2020/21 
  • Likely to continue overminting. Too much of a good thing is not wonderful

 

The NiftyGateway OE Drop

 

  • Collaborating with Six N. Five, Arsham’s NFT digital sculpture changes with the seasons 
    • $1500 Open Edition (estimated). NFT contains 4 images that erode and reform
    • First of 10 drops (some limited edition)and 11th NFT will be rewarded to collectors
  • Pro: brings in a contemporary audience that is less familiar with NFTs; good storyteller
  • If the physical data is of any correlation, we caution everyone to be careful and not overcommit. The NFT is a very cool art piece, but might not be great in terms of investment. The fact there will be 10 Editions will make it unlikely the average collector can collect all 10. People love Arsham to collect, not to flip

 

Daniel Arsham

Background

 

Focusing on mass culture and large mint #s

 

collaborated with Uniqlo’s UT division to produce a range of Pokémon T-shirts that sold for $14.90 on Uniqlo’s website

 

recent boost in Arsham’s market coincided with his 2019 “Perpetual Present” exhibition at the HOW Museum in Shanghai—his first solo exhibition in China 

With collectors in North America, Europe, and Asia

 

Christie’s held its “Archeology of the Future” online sale of Arsham’s work in June 2020 in Hong Kong: proportion of new buyers participating in the Christie’s sale—65% of all buyers—is also telling – shows that people who are not usually interested in collecting art in the very broad sense were interested in collecting Daniel Arsham works

 

Prone to overminting 

Biggest buyers of Arsham are Asian

 

The Drop

xx

Eroded Brillo Box White Historical Sales Prices (2020)

Archeology (2019)