Morning Minute | Film Investing Comes To The Blockchain

TylerD's Market Summary

🤯 'American Psycho' Studio Launching Film Fund on Avax

Imagine combining the power of Hollywood with blockchain tech to revolutionize film funding.

This isn’t a sci-fi plot—it’s happening now with some big names from Wall Street and American Psycho.

What Happened?

On Thursday, Pressman Film announced a new investment platform called Republic on the Avalanche blockchain.

Pressman is a notable studio, behind legendary titles like Wall Street and American Psycho, which gives more weight to this headline.

Through their new Republic platform, fans and investors can contribute to film production with as little as $200, buying a stake in the film slate.

So far, they have raised $314,000 of a $1.5M goal.

The new fund will support 6 potential films on the initial slate (3 based on existing IP and 3 originals), and investors will receive payouts only if one or more of those films makes it into production.

Returns look like this:

• If a film makes it to production, investors receive a portion of Pressman's producing and rights fees
• If a film makes it to release and distribution, investors receive a portion of net profits

Given the low odds of these outcomes, Pressman is also offering investors perks like set visits, producer credits and premiere tickets (though at higher investment tiers).

As for the crypto component, it is definitely behind the scenes.

Investments are taken in fiat with blockchain tech mostly involved in the backend, though still pushing forward on transparency.

What Are They Saying?

Enter Sam Pressman, head of Pressman Studios:

“My father, Edward R. Pressman, is widely considered a pioneer in our industry for the innovative methods he brought to financing film production across his five-decade career.

Now, with the entertainment marketplace amid unprecedented change, it's clearly the time for innovative, new ways to fund creativity and film innovation once again.”

Why It Matters

This story highlights how blockchain and crypto can redefine more than just finance—it could change how we create and consume media.

Blockchain enables transparency and opens up investment opportunities that were once reserved for insiders.

Tokenized investing like what Pressman is offering democratizes the film investing process - anyone can participate, and one can see all of the other investing parties as well.

It's also another feather in the cap for Avalanche, who's chain is being used for this.

Now - will it be a good investment?

That's a trickier question.

Pressman's last film "The Crow" (a reboot of the 1994 original) bombed this year at the box office. It had a $50M marketing budget and netted just $4.6M in opening weekend.

So this is not a slam dunk by any means.

But still a really cool new use case for crypto and blockchain.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• ETH led NFT trading volume with $4.7M on the day; Solana was next with $2.1M, and then BTC with $1.9M
• ETH NFT leaders were mostly red; Pudgy -2% at 10.5 ETH, BAYC +4% at 11.84 ETH, Azuki even at 4.77, Milady -6% at 3.15
• Anata (+110%), Nakamigos (+20%) & CrypToadz (+20%) were other notable top movers
• An Ape CryptoPunk sold for 620 ETH ($1.5M), the lowest ape sale since Feb 2021 and 2,000 ETH below recent sales
• BTC NFT leaders were red; NodeMonkes -8% at 0.105 BTC, Puppets +1% at 0.079 BTC, Quantum Cats -2% at 0.234
• The Runes leaders were also red; DOG -1% at $250M mc, RSIC -7% at $56M mc, PUPS -10% to $25M
• Solana NFTs were mixed; Mad Lads +2% at 63 SOL, SMB Gen 2 even at 24.2, DeGods -1% at 25.4, Claynosaurz -8% to 16.5
• BAYC announced Season 2 of its collaboration with BAPE, featuring an online exclusive sale for BAYC/MAYC holders opening on Sept 14

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors are slightly red this morning ahead of a big jobs report; BTC -1% at $56,150; ETH -1% at $2,370, SOL -2% at $130
• Memecoin majors are also slightly red with DOGE even, PEPE -3%, WIF -1%, BONK -5%, MOG -8%
• Drift protocol added a new prediction market bet on whether Iggy Azalea or Eric Wall will win their upcoming celebrity memecoin debate (with her odds at 23%)
• Mercuryo launched a Mastercard-enabled crypto debit card for European holders, allowing holders to convert crypto into fiat at up to 90M merchants

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

• $NEIRO (+55%, $95M market cap, ETH)
• $wDOG (+38%, $17M market cap, SOL)
• $Squidgrow (+27%, $14M market cap, ETH)
• $DADDY (+7%, $49M market cap, SOL)
• $TOSHI (+6%, $35M market cap, Base)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

• Anata (110%, 0.59 ETH Floor)
• CyberV (42%, 0.34 ETH)
• Cryptomneia (40%, 1.4 ETH)
• RumbleKongLeague (29%, 0.18 ETH)
• OSF RLD (26%, 2.84 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming Mints and Events

Today is another slower day of new mints.

The most important thing to watch today is likely the jobs data that gets published this morning. Pending those results, we should have insight into whether the Fed will move towards a 25 or 50 bps cut in rates this month - which should move markets one way or another.

See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor. 

• Jungle Seed (12:00 p.m. ET)
• Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
• Milady in Christ (12:00 p.m. ET)
• Datura x Nubplus - Sunken (2:30 p.m. ET)

Enjoy this write-up and/or want to sponsor the Morning Minute? Follow along with me on Twitter @tyler_did_it or reach out via email to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.