Beeple goes mega-viral with robot dogs

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analyzes and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s most important news:

• Crypto majors jump 2-4% to weekly open; BTC at $91,800
• Beeple’s robot dogs go mega-viral at Art Basel; free NFTs now $35,000
• Coinbase reopens in India after a two-year hiatus
• National Bank of Canada announces $273 million BTC position via MSTR
• Doodles announce accompanying mint with doopie cubes, 25k supply

🎨 Beeple’s robot dogs go mega-viral at Art Basel

Beeple was the winner of Art Basel last week.

And now the question is: will he spark a new renaissance of digital art, like in 2021?

📌What happened

In a large industrial-style space at Art Basel, Beeple unveiled an interactive installation built around a series of Boston Dynamics-style robot dogs.

The kicker? Each robot dog sported an oversized celebrity head featuring Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Andy Warhol and more (and of course Beeple himself).

Robot dogs with faces of celebrities and billionaires.

But it gets better.

The robots went through a choreographed routine and then “pooped” unique physical art prints on the ground.

Each print was a fully designed Beeple artwork, paired with a matching copy NFTeffectively turning the robots into physical art (and NFT) coin machines.

The art itself was selected via AI algorithms within each dog and then put through various filters linked to famous artists before the final piece was created, which in theory makes the collection a generative art collection.

Visitors could activate the prints, collect them and later claim the linked digital version.

The installation mixed robotics, satire, physical art, digital art and NFTs in a way that only Beeple really attempts.

And it immediately went viral.

Crowds gathered non-stop, videos exploded on social platforms and coverage in major art, technology and culture publications made it one of Basel’s main attractions.

🗣️ What they say

“Few works have aroused as much wonder as Beeple’s REGULAR ANIMALS. These autonomous sculptures challenge everything we think about perception, culture and influence.” – Cozomo de Medici, on X

“The analogy here is that our worldview has been influenced by artists in the past. I mean, the way Picasso painted changed the way we looked at the world, and Warhol, through his artwork, changed the way we looked at capitalism. Now our worldview is increasingly being reshaped by tech giants, especially Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, who control powerful algorithms. They decide what we see and what we don’t see. I also wanted to put forward the idea that we are increasingly seeing the world through the lens of AI.” – Beeple, in an interview with the WJ

🧠Why it matters

Beeple put NFTs and digital art on the map in 2021 when his ‘Everdays: The First 5,000 Days’ sold for $69 million.

And maybe he just did it again.

Rumor had it that the Beeple exhibition stole the show in Basel.

Rightly so, because the robot dogs with the NFT poop were simply a brilliant concept.

It only dawns on you when you see the results of the dogs, where the crowd recordings are put through various filters and then converted into the Regular Animals NFTs.

And the market has responded, with those NFTs now at a bottom of $35,000.

Regular Animals highlights how different digital (and generative) art can be, and its power when used wisely.

It is an iconic collection and could well go down as his most important NFT collection.

Perhaps it will even go down as a pivotal point in digital art history.

Time will tell…

🌎 Macrocrypto and memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my attention:

• Crypto majors are green and up 7-10% this week; BTC +3% at $91,800; ETH +3% at $3,130, BNB +2% at $907, SOL +4% at $138
• CC (+17%), ZEC (+11%), Fartcoin (+10%) and SPX (+9%) top movers
• SEC Chairman Paul Atkins noted that he believes all US markets will be onchain in two years
• Coin base reopened in India after a two-year hiatus, will allow cash deposits in 2026
• The National Bank of Canada announced a $273 million indirect Bitcoin position via Saylor’s strategy, with 1.47 million shares of MSTR
• French banking group BPCE moved to offer BTC, ETH, SOL and USDC trading to approximately 2 million retail customers
• Terra Classic (LUNC) rose more than 160% in a week, with traders leading the way in Do Kwon’s upcoming sentencing

In corporate bonds/ETFs

• ETFs in general have broken records this year in terms of inflow, volume and launches
• Strategy Cantor saw Cantor cut its 12-month price target 59% to $229 but maintain an Overweight rating and a “long-term bullish” stance

In Memes / Onchain movers

• Memecoin Leaders are mostly green with Fartcoin leading; DOGE +2%, Shiba +1%, PEPE +5%, PENGU -1%, BONK +1%, TRUMP +1%, SPX +9% and FARTCOIN +10%
• Franklin (+100%), Whitewhale (+60%) and WOJAK (+27%) were notable movers

💰 Token, airdrop and protocol tracker

Here’s an overview of the top token, protocol and airdrop news of the day:

• Aztec has raised $60 million+ via the new Uniswap auction model among 16,741 participants
• Plasma has announced a partnership with Bridge to improve its payments infrastructure

🚚 What’s happening in NFTs?

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

• NFT Leaders were largely flat; Punks even at 30 ETH, Pudgy +1% at 5.39, BAYC +2% at 5.69 ETH; Hypurr’s -1% on 510 HYPE
• Infinex patrons (+3% to 1.92 ETH) led to notable gains
• Beeple’s common animals have settled at an ETH bottom of 10.9 after their opening weekend of trading
• XCOPYs bubbles finished minting coins with a supply of 2.39 million, now at the bottom of $0.30
• Doodles has announced a new “doopie cubes”, 25,000 in stock, priced at 1 SOL for the collectible cube and 3 SOL for the hypercubes