Dear Bankless Nation,

Over the past month, the Opepen collection by Jack Butcher and co. has done ~6,300 ETH worth of trading volume.

Yet ~4,200 ETH, or 66% of that sum, has come in just the last week alone, so what gives?

The sudden activity surge has coincided with the initial “Opepen Drops” starting to pick up steam, that’s what!

If you’re not sure what that means, no worries — for today’s post let’s quickly run through the basics of the Opepens and explore the collection’s current state!

-WMP

Understanding the Opepens 🧠

Opepens Overview

Inspired by the geometric works of the artist batz, Opepen was brought to life by the artist, designer, and writer Jack Butcher on January 8, 2023.

The project, characterized by a 60-minute "open edition" NFT drop, saw an impressive 16,000 pieces minted within its brief window, but the evolution of Opepen didn't stop there.

In February 2023, Butcher unveiled plans for a second phase of the collection, and by March, Butcher confirmed this new era would see Opepen metamorphose into mint passes for 200 drops across a new profile picture (PFP) collection, the "PFPs of Check collectors," a nod to Butcher's other acclaimed open edition project.

Along the way, this expansion of Opepen into the “Opepfp” effort has been marked by Butcher’s style of transparent leadership, as he’s evolved the project largely in public via routine updates and discussions on Twitter.

How Do Opepen Drops Work?

The new Opepen Drops system is unique in the NFT space. Initially, Opepens are unrevealed, appearing as blank canvases with the signature Opepen frame like so:

However, the reveal process is not a one-time event as we typically see from PFP collections. Rather, it takes place over a series of drops, each involving 80 Opepens out of the total 16,000. And unlike other NFT projects, Opepen owners must opt-in to have their NFTs revealed during these drops.

Zooming in here, the drops are not scheduled at fixed intervals but occur periodically, with each drop transforming the metadata of its 80 selected Opepens. These 80 Opepens are divided into five rarity groups with each group containing a specific number of Opepens: 40, 20, 10, 5, 4, and 1.

An Opepen can only opt-in to its corresponding group, which can be identified in the NFT’s metadata, i.e. the “Edition Size” trait that’s easily viewable on OpenSea and other NFT platforms. This edition size was assigned based on a combination of an algorithm + the number of Checks NFTs held at an initial snapshot time.

Each drop will be unique and feature works from Butcher or community or guest artists. The distribution of art to those who have opted-in is entirely random, and if one’s Opepen is not selected during a drop, the owner can opt-in for the next set or any later one.

Notably, the demand for each drop must be at least 200% for the drop to occur, at least as things stand this early on. If the demand doesn’t reach that high, the set will be replaced with a new one. Opepen owners can check the demand status on opepen.art and also opt-in to drops there by signing a gasless wallet verification message.

The First Drops

Only four Openen “Sets” have been dropped to date, meaning the wider collection is only 2% complete at the moment. So far thanks to major demand, all Sets were considerably oversubscribed with opt-ins. The first four were:

• ✅ #001: 8x8 by Jack Butcher | Current floor: 32 ETH
• 💡 #002: Brought to Light by Stable Diffusion 2.1 | Current floor: 2.5 ETH
• 🦇 #003: Full Circle by batz | Current floor: 3.55 ETH
• 🖖 #004: Consensus by Visualize Value | Current floor: 8 ETH

For comparison, the floor price of an unrevealed, “Edition Size: Forty” Openen is presently trading around 0.9 ETH.

Additional Opepen Resources

Interested in diving deeper into the Opepen ecosystem? Be sure to check out these tools as potential starting points:

• 📸 Opepefy.art by visualzare.eth — “Opepefy” any image into the style of an Opepen using this simple resource
• 🧮 Opepen Selection Odds Calculator by 0x3689c.eth — A tool for figuring out your chances during an Opepen Drop by inputting your NFT info
• 🎊 Opepening.art by 0x3689c.eth’s brother — A site that makes the metadata reveal for new Opepens fun, like a pack opening experience

Zooming Out

The rise and evolution of the Opepen collection is among the most interesting stories to have come to the fore in the NFT space so far this year. Spearheaded by Butcher, jalil.eth, and others, the collection’s team have pioneered a flexible drop system and fostered a vibrant community of fans and contributors, the combo of which have made this a project that can’t be ignored going forward. And with the evolved Opepen collection just 2% completed so far, the innovation and excitement here is surely only just beginning!