2nd August 2022 > > Tiffany.

tl;dr

CryptoPunks jewellery is an interesting use-case of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Market Snap

Market moves shown above relate to the last CCC published a week ago, due to holiday constraints (my very old laptop could not connect to my phone hotspot out in the country).

Market Wrap

On the 12th July 2022 I reported ETH at $900, on the 28th that had gained 92% in under a fortnight to $1,725 in anticipation of The Merge (see CCC 7th and 22nd July 2022 amongst others). This kind of rapid appreciation inevitably draws in a lot of sellers – exchange inflows have outpaced outflows since the recent peak in price. On the 16th July 2022 I expressed my thoughts that The Merge is a classic sell the rumour, buy the fact situation, a scenario (*) that appears to be playing out so far, though of course that was simply an opinion and not investment advice.

Occasional Series – Campo Sancho

A wonderful festival with some very lovely people.

See y’all there next year.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Tiffany and non-fungible tokens (NFTs)

Tiffany announced on Sunday night that:

“We’re taking NFTs to the next level. Exclusive to CryptoPunks holders, NFTiff transforms your NFT into a bespoke pendant handcrafted by Tiffany & Co. artisans. You’ll also receive an additional NFT version of the pendant. Learn more: https://nft.tiffany.com #NFTiff#TiffanyAndCo”

What is being sold is an NFT - dubbed NFTiff - for 30 ETH, currently close to $40,000.

Anyone can apply to buy one of these, but with only 250 being made available, I suspect the entire collection will be sold out immediately.

The twist is that unless one is an owner of a real CryptoPunk (yes, NFTs are real – we can debate this point later), there is nothing more one can do with your NFTiff, except sell it to someone else who does.

Those who find themselves in the fortunate position of owning a CryptoPunk and an NFTiff will be able to claim a physical pendant fashioned to look like their CryptoPunk and a digital art NFT of the pendant:

The constituent parts of the pendant are described as follows:

“Each piece will have at least 30 stones. Pieces may include gemstones and/or diamonds. Carat weight per piece will vary based on the attributes.

Most designs will include bead set round cut pave diamonds and/or gemstones. Select custom pendants will include fancy stone shapes. For example, to create the 3D glasses, Tiffany designers will leverage baguette stones.

All stones will meet Tiffany & Co.ʼs ethical and sustainability standards.

CryptoPunk colors are represented as closely as possible using the natural colors of various gemstones.

ENAMEL: Enamel will be placed individually in square wells that represent the pixels that make up the NFT image. Each pixel will be outlined with a gold border.

For enamel application, 159 HEX color codes were matched to over 70 shades of enamel, scaling digital pixels into pixelated enamel wells.

Each piece will be polished by hand down to a mirror finish before enameling. Every enamel color will be precisely mixed and applied to the piece using syringes for accuracy.

THE CHAIN: The pendant will be on a 18k gold adjustable chain between 18”-20”-22” of rectangular links, which take inspiration from the shape of square pixels.

The bail (connective device to pendant) allows for fluid movement of the pendant and is accented with 5 pave diamonds.”

Someone with more jewellery experience than I can tell you whether that is $40k’s worth of precious stones and workmanship or not.

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Tiffany has some previous form in the crypto space, with two earlier announcements, one of which was an April fool. See if you can guess which one without recourse to Google if that’s possible.

First up, Tiffany claimed to have bought this NFT for …. drum roll … $380,000:

Second, Tiffany debuted its own “TiffCoin” crypto, with this physical rendition:

If I tell you that in the 1970s Tiffany really did mint silver and gold coins called Tiffany Money that could be exchanged in-store for its products, does that help you decide which was the April Fool?

Answers on a postcard please to CC Towers, you know where to find us.

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Following the announcement trading in CryptoPunks has been brisk with a 250% spike in volume, according to data from CryptoSlam.

There are many who express doubts about the world of NFTs, including crypto enthusiasts. This is a real life example of how the physical world and the digital world can interact with each other for mutual benefit.

It also touches on the thorny issue of copyright, a murky and ill-defined concept in the crypto world. This is a topic that the CCC research team is investigating in depth. We hope to report back in the relatively near future.

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(*) Using Dollar Cost Averaging which works both on the way in and on the way out and is the only sensible and reasonable way to invest, according to many studies of performance returns.