The $38 mil Azuki Elementals Breakdown
A 15-minute sellout brings confusion
corporate trash
June 28, 2023
I was the one who initially didn’t think a sellout of Azuki Elementals at the steep price of 2 ETH each in this market was possible. But they did and raised $38 million in 15 minutes.
However, many buyers were not happy that the previously unrevealed NFT art was revealed as extremely similar to Azuki.
The Twitter timeline abruptly turned to disbelief and disappointment, and some are convinced that it isn’t their final form (although I kinda think it is?).
Here’s a breakdown of some of the unique characteristics of the mint, and what happened in the aftermath.
SOULBOUND TOKENS & VEGAS AIRDROP
During the Vegas event “Follow the Rabbit” last weekend, the Azuki team showed a teaser video to introduce what Azuki Elementals were.
Every Azuki and Beanz owner got a soulbound token to commemorate the announcement (which can’t be sold).
Each Azuki owner was also dropped an unrevealed Elemental Bean token, which can be one of 4 Elemental tiers. The floor for these tokens are currently 1.8 ETH at the time of this post.
This was another exciting “Check your wallet” moment, which first debuted for the Beanz airdrop at NFT LA.
THE 10-MINUTE MINT WINDOWS
The mint for Elementals, a 20K NFT collection, was compressed into 10-minute mint windows of opportunity for Azuki and Beanz holders. This turned out to be an issue when the website was rate-limited. It never got to the public sale (though many didn’t expect that it would anyways).
The team did a last-minute delegate.cash solution, plus a snapshot for tighter security. The strategy of stoking FOMO and capitalizing on attention by making 10-minute windows with an immediate reveal was an interesting one. But of course, it cuts into valuable time if there’s even a couple-minute delay, which there was.
On the bright side, the mint contract was optimized for low gas, so that’s always a good thing. An Azuki co-founder addressed the mint problems in a thread, but there were more issues to come.
The mint didn’t make it past 9:15am
MINTING DURING THE NFT LENDING ERA
It’s a sign of the times. Azuki gave specific instructions for those whose Azukis were being loaned out. They had to repay their loan and withdraw their Azuki ahead of mint, so they could ensure eligibility for Elementals.
There was a rush of people paying their loans before the snapshot. Over 4,300 ETH of loans were repaid on Blur Blend on Tuesday.
Liking this so far? Subscribe for content like this every Wednesday.
REVEAL DYNAMICS
Before the reveal, one of the Azuki co-founders compared the random rarity draw to the excitement of opening up an NBA Top Shot pack, and wanted to underscore their belief that JPEGs aren’t just “shitcoins with pictures.”
The reveal happened soon after mint, and many were left confused. Unlike some of the more anime-style previews that appeared on the Elementals website, they look very similar to the original Azukis. Exact duplicates were discovered. Some were even found with “two mouths.”
A game was even was spun up on Tuesday which challenges people to choose which one is the Azuki and which is the Elemental. I am not good at the game.
Say what you will, but some of the memes about the situation cracked me up.
The Azuki team eventually responded with an update in Discord. 👀
THE WHALES KEEP SHOWING UP
Regardless of the entire mint situation, Azuki whales continue to show up for the community. According to the legend NFTstatistics, the top 10 minters spent $7.8mn on their own, buying 20.3% of the mint day’s supply.
It’s kind of wild when you think about it. I generally like to look at unique holders for NFTs to gauge community strength, but in the days of Blur farming and lending, that’s not really a reliable stat anymore.
But Azuki rewards and elevates its whales. SpiritDAO exists to amplify the IP and Azuki as a whole, and they definitely did for the Elementals mint.
Azuki Spirit reading the DAO Comic
At the time of this post, Azukis have dipped below 10 ETH, Beanz are down bad, and Elementals are trading below mint price.
But we have all seen Azuki overcome nearly insurmountable FUD before, time and time again. There have already been sales for 36, 35 and 30 ETH for some Elementals. They’ve done about 5,000 ETH in secondary sales in 12 hours.
Is this the final form for Elementals? Will Azuki triumph again? Will I keep accidentally calling their universe Hilaria instead of Hilumia?
You know I’ll be around to find out.
CHECK OUT MY LATEST POSTS:
Interested in sponsoring BxB to reach a highly influential subscriber base? We’re a woman-owned publication here to help elevate web3. Reach out on Twitter.
If you enjoyed this, you’ll also enjoy: