Saying Goodbye to The Airdrop

Hi, everyone.

I have the unfortunate duty of informing you that this is the last edition of The Airdrop. We are enormously grateful to Rosie Perper for leading this project and to various other members of the CoinDesk team who helped pull it together each week. Sadly, after a round of layoffs and cost-cutting at CoinDesk this week, we will be unable to continue the newsletter. Rosie, along with other Web3 specialists Cam Thompson and Toby Bochan, will be sorely missed.

This is not to say that CoinDesk is abandoning Web3 content. While, for now, we are paring back our dedicated beat coverage of happenings in the NFT, Metaverse and DAO arenas, we remain committed to covering the technological, economic and cultural developments that underpin the Web3 vision for a new, decentralized version of the internet and creator economy. The sector may have lost some of the hype that surrounded the NFT boom of 2021, but this lull period has seen developers create a range of real-world applications of these exciting new technologies.

So, our mainstream coverage will continue to dive into this space as news warrants. We’ll also continue the weekly Gen C podcast with Sam Ewen, head of CoinDesk Studios, and Avery Akkineni, president of Vayner3. And as we prepare for Consensus 2024 in Austin, Texas, next May, where the Gen C stage will host three summits addressing Web3-related themes, our features team will deliver plenty of dedicated long-form and opinion content to drive that Consensus Web3 conversation.

Before we sign off, it would be remiss of me not to highlight some notable Airdrop editions:

• The $11M NFT Auction and Snoop Dogg’s Evolving Collection. Some brands and entertainers get it, others don't. Hip hop legend Snoop Dogg definitely belongs in the former category. Not only has he raised tens of millions of dollars with his NFT drops, but, as per the item highlighted here about his “evolving” tour-tied collection, Snoop has turned them into their creative outlet in their own right.
• Nike Trips Up .SWOOSH Launch While Bitcoin NFTs Soar. One of the consistent themes of the NFT market since The Airdrop launched is that some of the projects that were launched during the boom period had some pretty serious teething problems. Nike’s high-profile SWOOSH platform is one such project; its digital sneaker launch didn’t exactly go all that smoothly.
• OpenSea Goes Pro, Ralph Lauren Takes Crypto. Another big theme was the platform wars, as Blur sucked away a large amount of NFT sales from OpenSea by slashing fees and making it optional for traders to honor secondary-market royalty commitments to creators – features that were more appealing to active NFT traders rather than collectors. In April, OpenSea launched its attempt to take back some of that high-churn business, with OpenSea Pro.

That’s all for The Airdrop. Thanks for subscribing to it. If you’re interested in other CoinDesk newsletters, such as our dailies, First Mover and The Node, feel free to sign up for them here.