And just like that, it’s May! You didn’t think HUG would just put our feet up after the mint, did you? It’s been a huge week for the HUG family, and what better way to celebrate than with a wrap-up of everything we’ve achieved as a community.

ICYMI... Key Highlights of the Week

• HUG perks announced! We dropped huge alpha this week with the announcement of the perks that come with each of our collectable, huggable HUG NFTs. Every single HUG NFT comes with a base utility of accessing our Discord community of creators and collectors, our HUGhub community research platform, and an exciting calendar of IRL and virtual events. But if you collect a matching pair of hugs, you get additional perks and access to dedicated committees within our HUGfam, each with its own unique role in the community. There's too much detail to go into in one email so catch up on it all here.

• HUG enters the Metaverse The HUG community made its Decentraland Debut this week showcasing our amazing HUG artists at the Crypto Valley Art Gallery, and celebrating the launch of Randi’s new music video (no denying, it’s a bop!).

We also announced some groupHUG wins:

• Our artists-in-residence Power of Women and Chipped Pixels join an impressive line-up of artists including HUG’s own Lisa Chow, to support The Cova Project, raising funds for women's sanitary health in developing communities across Africa.

• Boss Beauties founder Lisa Mayer sat down with none other than Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran in her latest podcast to talk about juggling a family and an NFT empire.

• Sad Girls Bar is partnering with indie music festival Cruel World Fest featuring the likes of Morrissey, Bauhaus and Blondie. 

• WoW Pixies founder Lily Wu will be speaking at the UN in May as part of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Summit.

• HUG also held our first bilingual Twitter Space to welcome groupHUG Japan! 

Speaking of which, applications for the next cohorts of groupHUG, hedgeHUG, and 1/1 artist-in-residence program are officially closed! We can’t wait to welcome a whole new group of diverse creators, artists, builders and innovators into the HUG fam.

Things to look forward to this week 👀

• May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month Heritage Month and all this month we are highlighting the incredible Asian founders and artists we are working with at HUG, including Nicole from 8sian, Lily from WoW Pixies, Onogiri and Dekz from Meemo’s World, Leah Sams from Power of Women, RJ and Nell from Chipped Pixels and of course, our very own Debbie Soon! Keep an eye out for special Twitter Spaces, VIP guests and plenty of fun surprises along the way.

• Join Randi and Debbie for all the alpha at their regular Monday on/airHUG to hear more about what we have planned for our recently announced perks.

• The fun in our HUG community continues! Come hang out in our Discord to critique Met Gala red carpet looks... POAP incoming!

That's it from us. Have a wonderful week ahead full of hugs!