Welcome to another edition of the Weekend Degen Report.

What to expect: 1194 words a 5.5-minute read.

TLDR: PayPal USD, will you use it? New podcast name. Noble Gallery with two big news events. DeGods tells owners to chill. Lessons we can all learn from GCR and more.

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Creative Corner

GM GM.

This week on the creative front, I decided to rename the podcast from Weekend Degen Podcast to Behind The Screen. After speaking and consulting with many people this felt like the right move. Although having the same name is nice for consistency. The podcast and this newsletter felt different in terms of style and content so it warranted a name change for ease. Let me know what you think of the new cover and name.

Knowledge

Something that seemed useful bit of info for all to know h/t NFTstats. It appears the number of unique buyers went up this past week and this is before the DeeKay drop. I still don’t think a bull is on the way, but it is nice to know newcomers are still joining us in this misery.

NFT Space

Last week, PayPal introduced a new stablecoin called PayPal USD. This is important because PayPal is a big company that helps with payments. They are like a bank and with this new stablecoin they are trying to compete with XRP and any other CBDC. PayPal is currently used for checking out, they own Venmo which should make it interesting for those with business or side hustles to get paid in payusd, they own remittance services Xoom which with their stablecoin could speed up sending and receiving money abroad and a cheaper fee, the possibilities with PayPal USD are endless. It will be interesting to see how the U.S. government reacts to this.

A sample PayPal app screen showing the different crypto offerings

Noble Gallery also announced their own marketplace that respects artist royalties. They are working with talented people in the Web3 space. This new marketplace uses the Seaport protocol, which is battled tested at this point and efficient. Although launching your own marketplace doesn’t create the big hype like it used to, Noble is setting themselves up for the future and while respecting artist royalties. More big Noble new this week was they announced their Season Finale with Des Lucrece, Efdot, OSF, Terrell Jones and Xsullo (not pictured below because didn’t fit on page). As most people know I am a Lucrece maxi so hoping I get that piece, but I would happy with any of those artist so either way it is a win.

Be careful when looking for jobs in crypto or Web3 job boards. Some job ads might be scams that trick you into downloading harmful software onto your computer. Thanks to ZachXBT and NFT_Dreww for warning people about this. I know the allure of working for a web3 company or getting in early and making it rich is super tempting. I know I have looked in the past for web3 jobs. Especially given how the market situations are right now, just be careful with predatory behavior. Even in web2 land, people will interview you to get free work off of you or to take knowledge of you. Stay safe!

Coinbase launched Base, a Layer 2 Ethereum network that makes things faster and cheaper for users. Many companies, like ManifoldXYZ, are already connecting with Base. DeeKay and Cozomo Medici did an NFT drop on Base that got lots of attention (some good and some bad). More than 70,000 were minted at $18usd a pop. At some point it was banned on social media (Facebook, Instagram, even Twitter) and countries like Australia also banned the piece from going more viral.

DeGod's launched Season 3 but faced some problems. People were not happy with the reveal, which led to Frank the creator of DeGods saying it was a joke. The drop was meant to make DeGods simpler and more “serious”. PFP holders were pissed. So now we are getting a redo and as of a couple hours ago of me writing this, it has dropped. The downgrade as it is being dubbed. It seems like collectors don't really know what they want from these projects. Any decision a successful PFP project does, it will lead to a downturn and not live up to hype. Buy the rumor and sell the news.

Speaking of buying on the rumor and selling on the news. Herbie shared an interesting story about GCR and how they made lots of money by being early in projects like Doge and then selling when the hype was high. They made over $26 million by following certain rules. Those lessons from GCR:

Don't be a blind cult member
Sell the run-up & short the delivery
Projects led by egomaniacs rise & fall the hardest
"Inverse invest" in weak coins after the cycle's peak

Although it is very easy to say things in retrospect and look like a genius. There are some valid points made and some that I need to remember when getting emotional. So give that thread a read and let’s see if we can apply some of these learning during this bear and get ready for the next bull.

Finally, AlphaDoggg released their Jeremy Booth drop “Trigger”. CharlierNovember went on to dub a new trifecta with Noble Gallery “Dark Hour” and Money Cliccc’s “Not So Still Life. Exciting times for fans of Jeremy Booth's work.

On a side note, the Zealy.io word for this weeks read is, “trigger'“. Make sure to get in on the fun and giveaways.

Notable Sales

Gen Art continues being hot this Findeza sold for 63eth.

V1 Cryptopunks don’t usually sell for this kind of money, but this V1 Zombie punk sold for 45eth.

Upcoming

Oxdgb announced a new PFP collection with a supply of 70 at .35 ETH each during the pre-sale. This will drop on Monday for those interested. What is dope about this project is that “The Cameras are built on a brand new dynamic TransientLabs contract called Collectors Choice. It works in a very similar way to PatrickAmadon’s Doppelgänger if you’re familiar with those. Pretty interesting project from a “tech/geek” perspective.

I am also keeping an eye out Sam Spratt after seeing this demo/trailer of what is come to. Idk what is coming but CIAHOAD.

Meme Of The Week

The Longest Yard is one of my favorite movies so when I saw this come across my feed, I knew I had to include it for this week.

Fin

Have a great rest of your week!

CIAHOAD-Rick James

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PayPal's Game-Changing Stablecoin & The New Wave in Web3: Everything You Need to Know This Week! | Issue #38