Blue Chip NFTs 101 – Azuki, A New Kind Of Brand For The Future… And A Scandal

The concept behind Azuki is phenomenal. To combine NFT tradition with anime-style drawings, with a world group working collectively behind the scenes as a kicker. Azuki defines itself as a “decentralized model for the metaverse.” This model’s essential product is a group of 10K anime-style avatars in NFT kind. The gathering can be referred to as Azuki and at inception was one of many NFT area’s greatest success tales… 

… till admissions and revelations by one of many challenge’s creators solid a shadow on Azuki as a complete. 

Let’s evaluation the challenge’s historical past, its traits, and the interview that modified all of it.

Azuki’s Origin Story

The challenge exists since January twelfth, 2022. The crew behind Azuki is Chiru Labs, their slogan is “Born in Los Angeles. Constructing for the metaverse.” Many of the members use pseudonyms and hold their identities non-public. A couple of use their actual title, like Azuki’s co-creator and illustrator Arnold Tsang from Toronto, Canada. He’s well-know for his participation in “Overwatch,” which Wikipedia describes as “a 2016 team-based multiplayer first-person shooter recreation developed and revealed by Blizzard Leisure.”

The group’s assist is a key a part of the challenge. On Azuki’s website, they use slogans like “A brand new form of model that we construct collectively” and “A model for the metaverse. By the group.” Possession of one of many 10K Azuki NFTs provides the person entry to The Backyard. A digital place Azuki guarantees “begins with unique streetwear collabs, NFT drops, stay occasions, and rather more that will probably be revealed over time.”

Azuki is a digital model. A “decentralized model of the longer term.”

At first, it appeared just like the NFT assortment was going to propel them to on the spot traditional standing. The preliminary success made their title recognizable and despatched the gathering’s ground worth to double digits. At one level, it reached a most of twenty-two ETH. These days, the ground worth at Opensea is 7.4 ETH, what occurred? Regardless of the motive, the Azuki assortment will get round. It has moved a complete quantity of 260.2K ETH up to now.

We Want A Little… Controversy

The turning level for Azuki was a Twitter Area’s dialog, of all issues. On Might tenth, crypto influencer Andrew Wang interviewed Zagabond, one among Azuki’s founders, who similar to that exposed that he was half of some NFT initiatives that didn’t finish properly. It nearly seemed like they have been rug pulls, and other people freaked out accordingly. The gathering’s ground worth began falling and it hasn’t recovered but. 

It was a thriller at first, however in accordance to Cryptoslate, the initiatives Zagabond was concerned with have been:

• CryptoPhunks, the unique CryptoPunk copycat assortment. The primary assortment to obtain a DMCA takedown from Larva Labs. Due to that, the CryptoPhunks have been delisted from OpenSea. Zagabond deserted/ transfered the challenge to all of the holders in July, 2021.
• Tendies, a challenge that did not seize the NFT tradition’s creativeness and shut down in the course of the minting course of. 
• CryptoZunks, a group that defines itself as “the primary Punks to be generated on-chain with randomized attributes. Every Zunk is assured to be distinctive from any Punk.” Apparently, it failed due to Ethereum’s costly gasoline charges.

In accordance with Cryptoslate, “Like the primary two initiatives, this failed one was additionally a lesson. Zagabond mentioned these three initiatives taught him that “blindly following the NFT meta doesn’t get you far.” He claims that each one the teachings from these initiatives are actually being utilized to make Azuki successful.” None of these claims helped and the gathering’s ground worth fell downhill. 

The query right here is, have been these initiatives rug pulls or easy failures with no unhealthy intentions? 

ETH worth chart for 09/08/2022 on Bitfinex | Supply: ETH/USD on TradingView.com

Azuki, Constructed For The Metaverse

The definition of metaverse in Azuki’s website is controversial, to say the least.

“The metaverse at this time is the place we at present spend most of our time: Discord + Twitter. How will we amplify this expertise for Azuki members? How will we distribute the model to locations which have essentially the most consideration at this time? Extra importantly, the place will the metaverse be one 12 months+ from now?”

Is straightforward social media a part of the metaverse? How does Azuki not know the place the metaverse will probably be one 12 months from now? Different blue-chip NFT collections are already constructing their model, laying their chips on the desk. Is Azuki too late? Or are Chiru Labs simply quietly engaged on one thing nice? In accordance with the corporate, they’re exploring the potential of creating a online game. “Few groups have the expertise and background to construct a genuinely nice recreation with mass market enchantment and scalability. Although the core crew has the expertise, it’s an enormous endeavor nonetheless.”

The Azuki assortment is down, however not out. The crew appears to have shaken the stink that Zagabond’s revelations introduced, however did so in the course of a bear market wherein the entire NFT market is down. Azuki stopped the bleeding. Can Chiru Labs reclaim and even surpass previous glories?

Featured Picture: Azuki banner from their site | Charts by TradingView