Opepen Edition, a Pepe meme themed Ethereum NFT series from conceptual digital artist Jack Butcher which went live in January has seen a huge surge in interest and value since the collection became the focal point of a viral trend on social media this week.
In the past 48 hours, the Opepen Edition’s floor price — or the asking price of the cheapest item in the collection — has risen to a new all-time high of 0.85 ETH or about $1,625, according to data from NFT Price Floor. Currently, the floor is above 0.75 ETH, or about $1,440.
The pieces were originally minted for free earlier this year as an open edition collection, meaning there was no limit on the number that could be made in any given time frame. All told, 16,000 NFTs were eventually claimed.
open threadition
just for provenance purposes, and to redirect some economic energy to a huge contributor to this ecosystem
0.001 (~$2)
all proceeds go to @notthreadguy
↓https://t.co/CAgkKSXc5g pic.twitter.com/H9wzKz6nLT
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) July 16, 2023
Why has the collection suddenly skyrocketed? The answer lies in the depths of Crypto Twitter, where a kind of friendly feud between two crypto influencers sparked a viral sensation that eventually reshaped Opepen’s legacy.
Last week, a vocal fan of Butcher’s artwork was known as the pseudonymous influencer Bored Elon – the top holder of Opepen NFTs –offered to trade one of the project’s earliest minted NFTs to Michael”ThreadGuy“Jeroom, another prominent Crypto Twitter presence, for That influencer-rated Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT.
However, the deal ultimately fell through, but not before ThreadGuy expressed interest in converting his Twitter profile picture to an Open.
This is literally so awesome wtf lmaoooo
— ThreadGuy 👑 (@notthreadguy) Jul 13, 2023
That spark was apparently enough to start a fire. After observing the days-long exchange between the influencers, Butcher created a custom Open for ThreadGuy based on the color scheme of the influencer’s Mutant Ape. Overwhelmed by the gesture, ThreadGuy immediately changed his profile picture to the new image.
Soon after, Butcher took the next step by releasing an open edition coin of the custom ThreadGuy Opepen, with all proceeds from the Opepen Threadition sale (about $2 each) reportedly sent directly to ThreadGuy as a gesture of generosity . More than 42,000 of the NFTs – created on Zora’s new Ethereum scaling network – have been minted to date.
The goodwill sparked by Butcher’s involvement in the saga quickly left Crypto Twitter residents giddy. Renowned digital artist Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann commemorated the moment of camaraderie within the often overcrowded Web3 ecosystem with multiple digital compositions shared on Twitter.
FOR THE CULTURE pic.twitter.com/5buTkIVQss
— beep (@beeple) Jul 17, 2023
Long-running NFT marketplaces OpenSea and Rarible even turned their own Twitter profile photos into custom Opepens avatars in solidarity with the trend, which quickly found a tagline: “For the culture.”
To many, Butcher’s act of kindness represented the true — or perhaps ideal — nature of the crypto community, one that should take precedence over the ever-dominant impulse to maximize profits over everything else.
Opensea and Rarible changing PFPs to open is the culture. It happens pic.twitter.com/EnsbIe93Do
— ThreadGuy 👑 (@notthreadguy) Jul 17, 2023
However, Butcher’s generosity regarding the Opepen saga has led to an increase in value for the primary Opepen project and its more than 4,100 unique NFT holders. His original Opepen collection has been embraced, referenced and adopted by many of crypto’s top since Sunday businesses And celebrities.
While the artist only charges a modest 0.5% maker fee on all secondary sales of his pieces, those royalties add up: The Opepen Edition Collection has racked up nearly $44 million in sales per CryptoSlam to date. It is also the second most traded collection in the past 24 hours in terms of trading volume, with sales of approximately $853,000 in that period.