We’re one week into May and I’m about to cover my 11th NFT drop of the month. I already wrote about three of the best to kick off the month and five more a few days after that. And I expect to cover a lot more before June.
As always, I review hundreds of projects a month and pick out the most promising ones. I mainly assess each project’s art, utility, team, community, and launch mechanics. You can read more about it here if you’re curious.
While these projects might turn into great investments, you should first and foremost buy NFTs because you like them and want to own them regardless of their monetary value. The NFT market is extremely risky so please do your own research and never view anything I write as financial advice.
Lost Eden Origins
Lost Eden aims to be recognized as an esports brand and partner up with gamers, game producers, esports organizations, event organizers, and more. While the roadmap is still quite vague, the theme is pretty clear.
The first step is the launch of their Origins collection consisting of 8,888 3D avatars. Owning one of these avatars will let you have a real impact on what the team is going to build. We have yet to find out exactly how.
Lost Eden’s roadmap
What’s more clear is the team’s intention to build a betting engine and a metaverse casino. The former has been in development since 2020 and could go live within the next few months. As an Origins holder, you’ll receive a share of the profits from this betting engine.
Another interesting item on the roadmap is the possibility to earn NFTs and whitelist spots for other NFT projects through the betting engine. Again, it’s not clear exactly how this would work in practice, but the team seems to have some exciting ideas for combining NFTs and betting.
The utility comes with some really incredible 3D artwork! I love the darkness, the simplicity, and many of the cool details. Check out the crown, the textured skin, and the dice neckless, for instance.
Lost Eden is founded by two people, one named Alexandra and one known as Avershion. We don’t have a ton of information about them, unfortunately, unless they’ve shared something in an AMA that I’m not aware of.
While I do feel some key information is lacking, I also see the appeal of the project and why it’s gained more than 180,000 Twitter followers and 120,000 Discord members.
There will be a 24-hour presale with a mint price of 0.18 ETH. The public sale will be a Dutch auction with a starting price of 0.6 ETH, decreasing by 0.05 ETH every 10 minutes. If the Discord numbers are to be trusted, this auction could easily sell out at 0.6 ETH.
- When? May 9, 2 pm UTC
- How many? 8,888
- How much? 0.6 ETH starting price (Dutch auction)
- Discord: 120,000 members
- Twitter: 182,000 followers
GENE_SIS
GENE_SIS is an anime project based on the story of a deadly virus that has destroyed the environment and human civilization. The space on Earth where mankind can survive has become extremely limited. I’m unsure if the creator was inspired by recent real-world events, but it sounds a little familiar…
The few people that are left live in small colonies around the world. They have now found a way to create girls with combat skills and antibodies against the deadly virus. The girls grouped into six different classes based on their unique characteristics and abilities. Now, these classes must fight for survival.
When you buy one of the 10,000 GENE_SIS avatars, you buy into the lore, the art, and the potential for it to turn into a much larger anime franchise. Think comic books, an animated series, etc.
The team also wants to make a clothing line, physical toy figures, custom skins and weapons for existing games, and maybe even their own GENE_SIS game later down the line.
There’s a huge team behind GENE_SIS, albeit all pseudonymous. The artist and director behind GENE_SIS, known as GHARLIERA, makes up for it with their experience and a huge following on Instagram and Twitter. Just browse their Instagram posts and stories to get a sense of it.
The GENE_SIS Twitter account has more than 200,000 followers while the Discord server counts 53,000 members. The engagement is great as well and fans are already sharing their love for the art and dressing up as their favorite characters.
After a mintlist and whitelist sale at 0.1 and 0.15 ETH respectively, the public sale takes place on May 13 with a mint price of 0.2 ETH. I’m a little concerned about the large collection size and high mint price, so it will be interesting to see how the launch goes.
- When? May 13, 5 pm UTC
- How many? 10,000
- How much? 0.2 ETH
- Discord: 53,000 members
- Twitter: 202,000 followers
If you want to find drops like these early, check out this guide I wrote👇
Sneaker Heads
With more than 260,000 Twitter followers and coverage by all the big NFT influencers over the past few months, Sneaker Heads is arguably the most highly anticipated drop of the three.
The creator wants to bring sneaker culture and the passionate community of sneakerheads into the NFT space. He’s doing so with some really unique and interesting artwork: A collection of 10,000 literal sneaker heads.
The artist behind the project is Ali Dawood, a 3D artist living in LA with 22 years of experience in various kinds of creative industries. Sneaker Heads started as a passion project but has now turned into his full-time thing. The upcoming drop is just the first of many.
Ali is very focused on the community aspect of sneaker- and street culture and aims to support this in both the digital and physical world. He also wants to turn Sneaker Heads into a recognized brand with collaborations, new NFT drops, metaverse wearables, and a clothing line.
Although the Discord server is private, it’s still home to more than 70,000 sneaker fans. Every announcement gets thousands of reactions.
We’re still waiting for the launch details, but I wanted to put it on your radar now as it’s been scheduled for the end of May. More than half of the NFTs will be sold in a presale and I expect the mint to sell out with ease. And that’s even with a price that’s most likely going to be higher than average.
- When? End of May
- How many? 10,000
- How much? TBA
- Discord: 71,000 members
- Twitter: 263,000 followers
Project recaps
Lost Eden comes with some incredible 3D art and unique utility associated with their betting engine. The focus on esports is an interesting one and the prospects of earning passive revenue share seem to attract a lot of people.
GENE_SIS is created by an experienced artist with a large fanbase who loves their artwork. I believe the dystopian lore and the anime theme can do very well, although there’s certainly no lack of anime projects in the NFT space.
Sneaker Heads is in my opinion the most unique and interesting of all these projects. The focus on sneaker culture and the literal sneakerhead avatars set the project apart from everything else and has attracted a huge audience over the past couple of months. I hope I’m able to buy one myself!
