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 worldwide group working collectively behind the scenes as a kicker. Azuki defines itself as a “decentralized model for the metaverse.” This model’s most important product is a group of 10K anime-style avatars in NFT kind. The gathering can also be known as Azuki and at inception was one of many NFT area’s greatest success tales… 

… till admissions and revelations by one of many undertaking’s creators solid a shadow on Azuki as an entire. 

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

Azuki’s Origin Story

The undertaking exists since January twelfth, 2022. The group behind Azuki is Chiru Labs, their slogan is “Born in Los Angeles. Constructing for the metaverse.” Many of the members use pseudonyms and preserve their identities non-public. Just a few use their actual identify, 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 printed by Blizzard Leisure.”

The group’s help is a key a part of the undertaking. 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, reside occasions, and far more that might 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 immediate traditional standing. The preliminary success made their identify recognizable and despatched the gathering’s flooring value to double digits. At one level, it reached a most of twenty-two ETH. These days, the ground value at Opensea is 7.4 ETH, what occurred? Regardless of the cause, 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 House’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 tasks that didn’t finish effectively. It virtually gave the impression of they had been rug pulls, and folks freaked out accordingly. The gathering’s flooring value began falling and it hasn’t recovered but. 

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

• CryptoPhunks, the unique CryptoPunk copycat assortment. The primary assortment to obtain a DMCA takedown from Larva Labs. Due to that, the CryptoPhunks had been delisted from OpenSea. Zagabond deserted/ transfered the undertaking to all of the holders in July, 2021.
• Tendies, a undertaking 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 fuel charges.

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

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

ETH value 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 web site 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 can we amplify this expertise for Azuki members? How can we distribute the model to locations which have essentially the most consideration at this time? Extra importantly, the place will the metaverse be one yr+ from now?”

Is easy social media a part of the metaverse? How does Azuki not know the place the metaverse might be one yr 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 response to the corporate, they’re exploring the opportunity of creating a online game. “Few groups have the expertise and background to construct a genuinely nice recreation with mass market attraction and scalability. Although the core group has the expertise, it’s an enormous endeavor nonetheless.”

The Azuki assortment is down, however not out. The group 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