Azuki's support for Milady is strong, but does the project really need an NFT for the avatar?

Azuki's new series "Azuki Elementals" messed up.

This is already Azuki's third NFT project. According to the official announcement, this new project called "Azuki Elementals" spans four different domains (Lightning, Earth, Water, and Fire) and rarity levels, totaling 20,000 pieces. During the recent Vegas event of the project, the first batch of 10,000 were airdropped to Azuki holders, and the remaining 10,000 will be auctioned off to Azuki and Beanz holders in the Netherlands.

As predicted by many, this sale was very popular and the presale of 10,000 "Azuki Elementals" sold out at a price of 2 ETH, which means the project received a revenue of 20,000 ETH.

However, a series of subsequent operations left people stunned. After opening the image, users found that the "Azuki Elementals" they had purchased for 2 ETH were almost identical to the original Azuki, and the project party also directly transferred 20,000 ETH shortly after the sale ended, causing the price of "Azuki Elementals" to plummet.

According to data from 0xScope, Azuki team (0x3A...6305) received 20,000 ETH worth approximately $37 million through sales of Azuki Elementals. The funds were subsequently transferred to Azuki team's multi-signature address (0x2a...60AA).

Interestingly, due to the high popularity of Azuki Elementals, 10,000 "Azuki Elementals" NFTs were sold out during the pre-sale phase. This means that the holders of the second generation Azuki are almost all original Azuki community users, including Azuki and BEANZ holders.

As the third project initiated by the project party, it still cut off the original community users (community holders and new users who purchased beans) at a price as high as 2ETH (there were no new users entering, which means that old users are paying for the project party). On the other hand, after the launch, it was found that the image recognition of the third version was extremely low, even reducing the scarcity and social value of the previous generation.

As a PFP project without any utility attributes, and almost entirely taken over by existing users, not only is the scarcity and market value of NFT diluted, but the faith of Azuki community players has also been largely diluted.

According to data from NFTGo.io, the floor price of Azuki has dropped by over 28.16% in the past 24 hours, with a current price of 9.89 ETH. In addition, the trading volume of Azuki NFT series has exceeded 11,230 ETH in the past 24 hours, representing a growth of 304.16%.

萎靡不振的蓝筹 PFP 市场

Weakened Blue Chip PFP Market

The NFT project has been lackluster, including blue-chip projects.

NFTGO's data shows that in the past 3 months, the overall market value of NFT has dropped significantly by 23.64%, from 5.1 million ETH to 3.9 million ETH. With the exception of a brief rebound between May 31 and June 5, the NFT blue chip index has generally shown a downward trend, dropping from 85,000 ETH to 75,000 ETH, a decrease of 12.22%.

Blue-chip PFP NFT projects in the NFT market have almost been wiped out. Whether it's the highly anticipated Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), the fastest rising Moonbirds through capital operations, or other blue-chip NFTs like Doodles, none have been able to escape the bear market's baptism.

According to data, the floor price of Doodles has dropped from a high of 22ETH to 1.5ETH, while the floor price of Moonbirds has fallen below its issuance price of 2.5ETH from a peak of 40ETH, currently hovering around 1.5ETH. BAYC has also dropped from its peak of 150ETH to 40ETH, and even fell to around 34ETH at one point, with a 14.92% drop in the past week. After this confusing move, the community seems to have lost confidence in Azuki, with a drop of over 28.16% in 24 hours.

"Zero Project Party" NFT community remains strong

When blue-chip NFT projects are falling one after another, there are still some NFT projects that continue to exist and remain strong in the market.

For example, Milady and Punk, which are known for "not doing anything," with the gradual decline of BAYC, Punk has returned to the throne of the highest-priced blue-chip NFT, and even Milady has been favored by Elon Musk. Pudgy Penguins, on the other hand, took a different approach and, after completing a 9 million financing led by 1kx, announced that it would break through the circle by transmitting its IP to the real world. Its peripheral product, Pudgy Toys, sold 20,000 units within 48 hours of its launch and even won the Toy Insider's Best Summer Toy Award for 2023.

Self-contained Meme Effect Milady

Milady has always been a unique presence in the NFT industry.

Regardless of its bizarre aesthetic style, reverse ideology, or controversies and topics triggered by various events, it has selected a group of loyal followers with specific interests and identity recognition through reverse screening in this community. They follow objects that are self-righteous and speak a language that only people in the circle can understand. The official describes this spirit as "Angelicism", which is different from BAYC's rebellion expressed on the face. Milady advocates using the subconscious/unconscious to resist authority.

In a sense, the players attracted by the Milady community have a unique user profile, with each member having a "performative identity" and being a skilled creator. They have high levels of engagement, activity, and viral marketing potential.

The popularity and spread of the video created by the Milady community, Milady vs. Bored Ape, speaks volumes. (Recommended to click: the original video is even more exciting.)

Milady is also actively encouraging "right-click" behavior and actively supporting derivative projects such as Remilio. Its Miladycore Bootlegs, which sells designer replicas, also gives it a meme effect. The recent community project Milady FUMO has risen more than 10 times within 12 hours of its launch, reaching $40,255 and a 24-hour trading volume of over $33.7 million.

As a type of meme culture financial asset, Milady is arguably the best choice for crypto speculators, with each hot topic igniting countless discussions on the internet and causing sharp price fluctuations. Whether it's the scandal of team founder Charlotte Fang causing a sharp drop in prices, or the surge caused by Elon Musk's tweet effect, it has led to instant buying and selling of spot/futures transactions. By predicting and buying or selling its market trends, one can either profit or lose. For example, the existence of financial tools such as decentralized market maker Floordao, nftperp, and NFEX further promotes the financialization of NFTs.

On May 11th of this year, due to a tweet from Musk, the floor price of the Milady Maker NFT series briefly surged to 7.1 ETH. Currently, the floor price is 3.12 ETH, which is about 6 times higher than the lowest point within the past year.

Blue Chip Crypto Punk: Back to the Highest Unit Price

Cryptopunks is one of the earliest NFT projects on Ethereum. It was launched in June 2017, and at that time, anyone with an Ethereum wallet could receive a Cryptopunk for free.

Cryptopunks adopts a pixel art style and represents the "anti-establishment spirit" of the early blockchain movement. It is also one of the first widely accepted NFT avatars and OG NFT projects in history. As the earliest blue-chip NFT series, Cryptopunks pushed NFTs into the mainstream and many celebrities have used them as their avatars.

With strong historical, community, and cultural support, its holders include many Twitter accounts with a large fan base. Its influence has had a positive impact on both NFT culture and broader internet culture, making CryptoPunks a top player in the NFT field with a market capitalization of up to $2.4 billion, although it has since been surpassed by BAYC.

CryptoPunks represents a "punk spirit" and can basically be called the "Bitcoin" of NFTs. "Doing nothing" is the biggest "action" and it maintains its position in the ecosystem. Although the NFT market has plummeted, CryptoPunks' floor price in ETH remains stable.

As BAYC continues to decline, CryptoPunks has regained its position as the highest-priced blue-chip NFT. Data shows that CryptoPunks currently has a market value of 499750 ETH, with a floor price of 48 ETH, ranking first.

After the PFP NFT era, a new narrative of practical value

A large number of low-quality and speculative NFT projects flood the market, which not only depletes the liquidity of the market, but also creates misunderstandings about NFTs among outsiders, making the already sluggish NFT market even more lifeless and unable to attract incremental users.

It can be said that, except for a few NFT community projects that rely on Vibe to gather members, most PFP blue-chip projects that rely on capital operation and expected management have gradually lost their momentum.

Considering this, Nike took a cue from Nintendo's approach of using entertainment systems to replace "video games" and tried to avoid using terms like "NFT" as much as possible when promoting new projects, instead using words like account-linked achievements and virtual collectibles.

Nike's NFT platform .SWOOSH, in collaboration with "Fortnite," has created the metaverse Airphoria inspired by the Air Max sneakers. However, there is no mention of NFTs in this context.

After PFP, what is the next new narrative in the NFT market? Enterprises such as Starbucks and Nike are trying to create more practical value NFTs, hoping to bring more users and value into Web3 through member tokens and Open Loyalty. Please refer to NFT Open Loyalty for more information.

Although Nike is a big brand that has entered the NFT industry, its sales strategy for OF1 NFT will adopt a low-price, high-supply approach to attract more members to participate in Swoosh, rather than selling NFTs once for quick returns, which is opposite to the practices of most brand owners. As its founder reflected in a leaked PPT, "This high-heat hype is eroding the culture of sneaker consumers and driving our users to New Balance and smaller independent brands."

After experiencing the burst of the market bubble, perhaps "practical value" is the antidote to the NFT market.

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