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Aleksandra Artamonovskaja

NFT visionaries are doubling down on community ethos amid a bearish cycle

Time Magazine, Rarible and Aleksandra Artamonovskaja share insights into the values and visions that leading NFT projects and figureheads seek to uphold as the market enters a financial downturn.

The fever-pitch euphoria of nonfungible tokens (NFT) reached its proverbial all-time highs in the hours preceding the calamitous gas wars of the Otherside metaverse land sale. 

But by most reputable accounts, following almost a year of frantic exponential growth, rife speculation and cultural spotlighting, the market was long overdue a respite. A hiatus from minting drama. It has now subsided and officially entered its inaugural bearish cycle.

Statistical data from OpenSea paints a sorrowful assessment of the market's financial fortunes, with the floor prices of some highly popular collections more than halving since peak highs.

The eminent Bored Ape Yacht Club is down from its peak floor price of 156 Ether (ETH) from the beginning of May to 98.8 ETH at the time of writing. Similarly, CryptoPunks dropped from 125 ETH on Oct 2 to its current value of 50 ETH.

Other profile picture projects (PFP) such as RTFKT Studios’ CloneX, Azuki, Doodles, and even metaverse lands The Sandbox and Decentraland have all suffered similar fates.

The highly revered Cool Cats and World of Women — which just six months ago were categorized as blue-chips for their innovative approach to intellectual property and community spirit — have experienced the most drastic reductions in the value of the top collections.

However, the NFT market is by no means alone in this trend. Macroeconomic factors of inflation, stock declines, and a lack of consumer affordability have been compounded within the crypto industry this week by the devastating collateral damage of the Terra (LUNA) stablecoin crisis. 

And yet, despite the mellow social atmosphere and cultural admission of the falsehoods of WAGMI, the underlying sentiment among experienced artists, founders and advocates of the space is that the bear market will provide an opportune moment for reflection and rebuilding.

Alongside this, founders and core holders are welcoming the moment to broaden the conversation from greed-obsessive floor prices to more conscious subjects such as utility, societal impact, and IRL interactions.

Much like in the 2017-18 crypto winter, humbleness, resilience, and determination are the core pillars needed to cultivate a revival.

For a comprehensive overview of the ways in which NFT projects can preserve, and continue to fulfill their founding philosophy, community values and roadmap visions, Cointelegraph’s tech reporter Tom Farren conversed with a number of expert thought leaders within the space. 

Aleksandra Artamonovskaja, a passionate NFT spokesperson and newly appointed partnerships lead at Joyn, spoke candidly about the importance of recognizing the opportunities presented within bearish cycles, sharing her belief that it’s the “perfect time to align your vision", before stating:

“When the market is hot, it’s hard to focus because there is so much noise [...] This [downturn] has acted like a cleaning mechanism for all the speculation that’s taking place. It will now be more clear, especially for investors, which projects are continually building and sticking to their values. It’s a good test to show that they are going to persevere no matter the circumstances.”

On the topic of 1/1 artists, Artamonovskaja reflected that "two years ago, artists that were selling 1/1’s didn’t have that much support," but that now "it’s a completely different case because of NFT galleries, marketplaces, artists residencies, exhibitions, competitions, and more."

"It’s not perfect," she says, "but it’s an opportunity for artists to look at how they can engage, not just with the buyer, but within the ecosystem itself," before concluding that "connection is a really good direction to explore.”

Related: NFTs could mark a resurgence in art galleries

TIME Magazine, recognized as one the most progressive organizations championing the leap into the decentralized sphere, announced a flurry of crypto adoption initiatives throughout 2021, including adding Bitcoin (BTC) to their balance sheet, and accepting crypto payments for their 18-month digital subscription option in partnership with Crypto.com.

In March this year, the historic 99-year-old magazine published a revelatory interview with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin alongside a commemorative genesis NFT magazine issue

TimePieces, a Web3 creative subsidiary of TIME, has equally embraced the culture and ethos of the space, launching a number of artistically diverse and culturally relevant NFT collections such as Slices of TIME and Build a Better Future, among others.

President of TIME Magazine, Keith Grossman shared his anticipations for the future prospect of NFT projects based upon their intentions - monetary or value-orientated, assessing that many "greed-based communities [won't] survive over the next year as the focus of these are primarily quick, monetary return - not a greater cause or belief system."

“Values-based communities” have the highest capacity to thrive according to Grossman because “their members are focused on building something together that is bigger than any one individual or immediate economic return and share a common belief that values creates value over time.”

Later in the conversation, he openly revealed the areas of growth that TimePieces will attentively seek to develop throughout the bearish cycle in order to best serve their community and the wider ecosystem, stating:

“TIMEPieces will focus its energy on continuing to invest in building its Web3 presence and continuing to lean into our brand to provide strong programming and access for its community members [...] Our view will not change due to market conditions: we are evolving our brand within this space for the next 100 years - not 100 minutes, weeks or months. Years!”

TimePieces is actively recruiting for five roles, including a head of collector relations and a manager with metaverse experience - all of which come with a strong affinity for applicants within the TIMEPieces community. 

Related: The NFT sector is projected to move around $800 billion over next 2 years: Report

Acknowledging the current market dynamics, coupled with the relatively high risk of NFTs within an investment portfolio, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Rarible, Alex Salnikov, declared his opinion that “NFT collections which are bought for user enjoyment or artistic appeal, and which offer valuable utility, will hold relatively steady.”

Rarible is the the fourteenth leading marketplace by volume traded over a 30-day period with $2.81 million according to data from DappRadar. Speaking on the question of aiding their community through what can be an uncertain time for many, Salnikov said:  

“We pride ourselves on being a community-centric marketplace, and this principle has never been more important to uphold than during a bear market. Our team is placing a particular emphasis on supporting community-focused NFT collections.”

Citing their work with Solana-based Degenerate Ape Academy, and Meta Angels to develop and launch bespoke marketplaces for their ecosystems, Salnikov noted that this supports their overarching ambitions to “dedicate a greater proportion of fees earned on the marketplaces to the project’s treasury or DAO, and have overall greater flexibility as opposed to larger, more centralized platforms.”

5 times crypto appeared in pop culture in 2024

Web3 initiative Reli3f has raised over $1.5M for Ukrainian aid efforts

Established in the days following the conflict's outbreak, the project has received considerable acclaim from the Web3 community for its conscientious intentions.

Reli3f, a humanitarian initiative birthed upon the innate artistic commitment to narrate stories in times of hardship, launched their second nonfungible token (NFT) collection Thursday, raising over $300,000 for recognized Ukrainian charities and taking their total to over $1.5 million.

Founded by several esteemed Web3 entrepreneurs — Satvik Sethi, Andrew Wang, Giovanni Gussen, Aleksandra Artamonovskaja, Raskalov, and developer SignorCrypto — in late February this year, Reli3f has unified the talents of 62 artists across the world to showcase the enormous philanthropic potential of NFTs for social good. 

The team chose to distribute the first collection's fund across a range of enterprises, including 46.25 ETH each to Razom Ukraine, Serhiy Prytula Foundation, Valery Sozanovsky Headquarters, and CEO Club — as evidenced by the Gnosis multi-sig wallet. An additional 40 ETH was also equally gifted to Outright Action International and Web3 For Africans in Ukraine via the royalties fund.

Reveling from the momentum and cultural advocacy of their inaugural collection — which included the likes of renowned artist fvckrender, co-founder of Cool Cats, Clon, and creator of Creature World, Danny Cole — the team reiterated their dedication to supporting the cause with the release of a second series.

Drop 2 featured Reli3f team member Aleksandra Artamonovskaja, alongside the creator of the Coolman Universe, Danny Casale, and music icon Sia under her alias Bianca 'de Medici, among many others.

According to Sethi, only five of the thirty-seven artists featured in the debut collection opted to retain their revenue royalties and, in those cases, solely to transfer funds to their loved ones in Ukraine or to elevate personal circumstances.

All other funds were redistributed back into the charitable treasury, a trend that was replicated in the second collection.

Drop 2 showcased a multitude of artistic disciplines from a generative algorithmic piece based upon the artist's unique hash seed as in Gavin Li’s ‘Motherland,’ a defiantly symbolic photograph depicting a righteous protester during the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine in Feb 2014 in Den Didenko's 'Ray of freedom out of darkness,' through to a visually playful, thematically intricate wimmelbilderbuch as seen in Sergius' 'Revelation.'

Pictured: Gavin Li’s Motherland

Cointelegraph's tech reporter, Tom Farren spoke to Aleksandra Artamonovskaja, Satvik Sethi and Andrew Wang to understand more about the initial origins of the project, the receptiveness of artists to participate, as well as the future of Reli3f amid operationally agile models for the decentralized autonomous organization (DAOs).

This Zoom interview has been slightly adjusted for clarity, and condensed to suit reading constraints.

“What’s interesting about this drop is that there are a lot of artists that haven’t minted works before, or don’t consider themselves traditional NFT artists. We tried to be really balanced and not just take famous people, but people who are from different regions and have different life stories.” - Artamonovskaja

Recognizing the occurrence of gas wars in drop 1, the team agreed to alter the mechanics for drop 2, deploying a blind-mint open edition whereby all interested parties had the opportunity to purchase as many as desired within a fifteen-min time period for a price of 0.05 ETH.

In total, the drop 2 raised 86 ETH, equivalent to $260,000, during the minting period, and has since traded an additional 21 ETH on OpenSea at the time of writing.

Artamonovskaja: "I was in Ukraine between mid-January to mid-February and was feeling a bit depressed because reading the news, and seeing the stuff people were writing would kind of scare you. And then I remember that one moment my dad came home and gifted me this set of pastels and black paper. I’ve minted photography before and done some glitch art, but I haven’t really drawn with pastels since middle school."

"One day I was feeling sad, so I started drawing. I shared my art on Instagram, and one of the collectors that follow me said that if you mint this, I’ll buy it. I was like what, really?! [laughs]." Those two pieces subsequently sold for 0.25 ETH each on OpenSea.

Her piece for Reli3f’s drop 2, titled 'Alba Dreaming of Home,' was dually inspired by a stencil mural of a dog in her home city and Banksy’s infamous 'Balloon Girl' and sought to capture the sorrow of displacement and lack of belonging through the eyes of a domestic companion so integral to the lives of many modern families.

Speaking from personal experience as a Ukrainian citizen, Artamonovskaja stated that "without having momentum, it can end up being a war that is stuck on our territory and just becomes a norm. We just want this to end, so people can go home and start rebuilding."

Sharing some insights on the accomplishments of the first drop, Sethi revealed that they had "tons of artists that were reaching out to us saying ‘why didn’t you ask us to be a part of this, and we’d love to help’" after witnessing the viral exposure.

Sethi also detailed that drop 2 has been "a month in the making," and that "we didn’t give ourselves a time constraint" like this first collection, but to allow the process of creation to occur organically. 

The blossoming of Web3 digital communities, originally on Clubhouse and now predominately on Twitter, has empowered what Wang refers to as the "power of network effects" to occur. In other words, the easily-accessible and rapidly-scalable capacity for influencers and luminaries to catalyze social and cultural innovation within the space. 

“I think what made Reli3f interesting to a lot of people was that it wasn’t just a use-case for freedom to transact via crypto, or even a use-case for using art to donate, but a use-case for how community can be called upon, almost at a moment's notice, to act.” - Wang

Related: The DAO is a major concept for 2022 and will disrupt many industries

Specifying the principles of both investment and social DAOs, Wang shared an insightful perspective that DAOs "don’t have to exist forever, or for the long-term," continuing to say that "sometimes DAOs can be really effective at putting out a use-case or doing something towards a specific goal at a specific moment in time, and then afterward either disband or slow things down until they are needed again."

He cited Constitution DAO as a prime example of an initiative founded solely to purchase the United States constitution. Although unsuccessful in their first endeavor, they could utilize the oscillating nature of their model to reform if and when required.

With that ideology in mind, he concluded the conversation by saying, "I think Reli3f can help build the future, but it doesn’t have to be the future."

5 times crypto appeared in pop culture in 2024