SweepTank Episode 11: Mooncatz, Rifters, and more
SweepTank Episode 11: Mooncatz, Rifters, and more
Which project received a 0.25 ETH floor sweep?
Sweepers Club returned to Twitter Spaces last night for episode 11 of SweepTank, an innovative NFT show where projects get the chance to showcase themselves to the community and get their floor swept!
How does SweepTank work?
SweepTank is the Web3 version of the hit television show Shark Tank. In this episode, three founders building in the bear market were given several minutes to pitch their NFT projects and answer tough questions from the hosts.
The audience then had ten minutes to vote for their favourite project. Whichever project won the poll took home a 0.25 ETH sweep, followed by a 0.20 ETH sweep for 2nd place, and a Governance Proposal for 3rd place.
At the last second, however, things took an unexpected turn. Let’s dive in!
Strange Connections
First up to pitch their project was Glassy Music, the representative for Strange Connections, a unique NFT collection that stands for a real purpose that anyone can align with: mental health.
The original founders of Strange Connections launched the project back in 2022 with the right intentions, but quickly realized they didn’t have the money, energy, or resources to achieve their goal.
Thankfully, the project’s community manager reached out to Glassy in an attempt to stop an unintentional rug pull, and asked him if he wanted to take over and form a new team.
As someone who has spent his entire life overcoming so much adversity, Glassy knew he was the right person to carry the torch and said yes with zero hesitation.
Strange Connections' mission is to build a mental health hub that can serve Web3 and beyond. By building strength and unity among NFT projects, Strange Connections believe they can do the same with hundreds of Web2 brands and communities!
Holders of Strange Connection NFTs can access support from mental health professionals. The project also hosts weekly Twitter Spaces to provide mental health insights and, most importantly, a safe place for anyone to feel heard, supported, and loved.
Strange Connection’s team is 100% voluntary, with decades of experience in fields like architecture, product management, and 3D design.
No matter what community you belong to, whether it be Sweepers, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, Pudgy Penguins, or any other, you can help Strange Connection accomplish their mission!
Rifters
Next up, Rifters’ unhinged Twitter intern took the stage to cause destruction and introduce the founder and genius behind the project, Andrew Ringlein.
14 years ago, Andrew founded a startup with two others that was acquired by HP in 2010 for $250 million. While this was a big achievement, Andrew didn’t own any shares of the company, and left dissatisfied for himself and the 250 employees who received nothing.
This led Andrew to discover the Web3 space years later, and immediately fall in love with the idea of distributing ownership of a project between employees, holders, gamers, investors, and other participants.
In 2016, Andrew went on to found Communi3, a technology startup designed to revolutionize the way Web2 companies managed their communities. This changed when Andrew and his team decided to focus on Web3:
”When we discovered Web3 and realized this technology would work great in Web3, we pivoted the whole company into the space,” Andrew said. “Then for the last year, I’ve basically just been working in Web3.”
Now that you’re familiar with Rifters' backstory, you’re probably wondering, what is it? Rifters is the first ever MOCERPG (Massive Online Community Event Role Playing Game) designed to get communities playing and competing against each other.
Rifters initially launched on Solana and invited the top ten DAOs/collections to play with their own NFTs and compete for a $1 million cash prize pool.
Similar to Ernest Cline’s novel Ready Player One, only one player can defeat the Rift Lord and claim $1 million. If they do so, the prize money will be split with the DAO they represent.
Andrew and his team are now launching Rifters on Ethereum. On Monday, they launched a collection of 10,000 free-to-mint Keys that sold out and trended #5 on OpenSea. This leads Rifters to its first Characters mint on the blockchain this Friday.
Rifters is only weeks away from launching on Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, and Polygon. There will be four unique versions of the game—fantasy, science fiction, steampunk, and horror—each with a new series of DAOs battling against each other.
Inside the NFT collections that Rifters is dropping, there are special characters that can change the game in unique ways. The best part, however, is that you’ll be able to play alongside any of the collections participating without minting any NFTs.
With Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Azuki, CloneX, Squishiverse, Ethlizards, The Plague, and other blue-chip collections on board, it’s safe to say that Rifters will take Web3 gaming to the next level!
Mooncatz
Last but not least, James Ciesluk talked about Mooncatz, a collection of 5,555 community-driven NFTs on Ethereum.
Mooncatz launched last July with one promise: "No Discord, no roadmap, just good vibes." Despite this, hype drove the project's floor price to a peak of 0.4 ETH after the mint.
When this happened, James could have easily minted hundreds of Mooncatz and flipped them on the secondary market for an insane profit, but he had no intention of doing so.
Instead, James has since swept over 300 Mooncatz on the secondary market, 100 of which he still owns, and the rest he gave back to the community. This is in addition to 15+ ETH distributed among the team and community helpers.
In 2022, Mooncatz donated 20+ ETH to The Giving Block's Animals Impact Index Fund, which supports non-profit organizations that advocate for and rehabilitate animals across the world. This was all thanks to a free mint that raised 30 ETH total capital!
James has also been fully doxed ever since he entered the NFT space and started to post content on Twitter and YouTube. Along with proving that he’s not FrankDeGods, this shows how transparent James really is.
Both of these qualities make James a trusted founder that holders can rely on to go above and beyond for the community and keep building, no matter what.
“The most important thing you can have as a founder is a community. It’s such an important variable to be successful in the space,” said James. “If you don’t have a community that really believes in you, you’re not going to succeed.”
In 2023, Mooncatz will introduce staking, become community-centric, and put the memes out. Earlier this month, James generated every Mooncatz head from the collection without backgrounds, allowing holders to edit them to create the most fire memes.
Mooncatz is currently hosting its first meme competition to give back to the community. The winners will be chosen tomorrow, with 0.069 ETH going to 1st place, 2 NFTs to 2nd place, and 1 NFT to 3rd place.
And the winner is…
After a two-hour show with over 500 listeners, the poll for the winner went live. For nine minutes, Strange Connections and Mooncatz were neck and neck for first place. However, with seconds to go, a wave of suspicious votes came in for Strange Connections.
Of course, Strange Connections wasn’t to blame, and everyone agreed the best solution was to do an even sweep of 0.225 ETH for both projects.
All NFTs swept from Strange Connections and Mooncatz floors are on their way to the Vault, where holders of Sweeper NFTs can win them via an auction or raffle!
Rifters also didn’t leave empty-handed and took home a governance proposal. It’s now up to Sweeper Club members to vote on whether a portion of the Treasury funds should be used to sweep Rifters NFTs on OpenSea!
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