NFT Insights – Seeking The “Next BAYC”, Akutars

Airdrop & Upcoming Mints

Retail · APR 6TH, 2022

Teng Yan

Aku azuki BAYC CloneX Cyberbrokers Doodles

Metaverse NFT /
Gem Immutable X LooksRare NFT
Musings Gaming

NFT | Insights OpenSea

Disclosure: Members of our team may own NFTs or tokens related to the projects
mentioned here and may participate in the upcoming mints. This statement is
intended to disclose any conflict of interest and should not be misconstrued as a
recommendation to purchase any token or participate in any mint. This content is
for informational purposes only and you should not make decisions based solely
on it. This is not investment advice. Please exercise extreme caution if you intend
to participate in these opportunities.
State of the Market

This marks the 3rd week in a row of increasing NFT transaction volume, with
OpenSea’s weekly volume breaking above the $1B mark again. Could this mark
the beginning of a new bull cycle for NFTs? Some indicators seem to suggest so:
1) weekly transaction volumes appear to have bottomed out.
2) macro sentiment around crypto seems to be improving.
3) Azuki’s rise as a trigger point for a new wave of interest (see later section).
If we look at the change in NFT sales volume over a 7-day & 30-day period, we
can see that Ethereum and Solana show relative strength compared to the other
chains. This is most apparent over the last 7 days, with volumes rising over 40%
and 18.5% on Ethereum and Solana respectively. Ronin (Axie Infinity) saw the
largest decline in volumes over the same period.

Interestingly, there has been a significant rise in trade volumes on Immutable X

over the past few days. On closer inspection, more than 90% of the volume is
driven by a single collection: Gary Vee’s Book Games. This is likely due to the fact
that having a Book Games NFT acts as a possible avenue to join the whitelist for
the upcoming VeeFriends Series 2 launch (the snapshot has already been taken
on April 5th, however).

After filtering for wash trading, real transaction volumes on LooksRare continue to
slowly grow, indicative of a sustained level of usage. A few new features were
added in recent weeks, including the LOOKS compounder (automatically
compounds WETH rewards into $LOOKS), and several optimizations to improve
the speed of mint reveals and image loading.

If you have bought NFTs using Gem in the past month, you might have earned
some $LOOKS which you can check here.

Top NFT Collections This Week

Azuki has been blazing hot, with floor prices jumping up another 50% after last
week’s already meteoric rise. BEANZ Official is the mysterious item that was
airdropped to Azuki holders on 31 Mar and has seen heavy demand ever since —
it already has more unique owners than Azuki. This has also re-ignited the anime
art narrative, with attention spilling into projects with a similar art style like
KIWAMI and Akuma, propelling them into the top 10 for this week.

CyberBrokers, a fully on-chain NFT by Josie & team, did well for the week. It is a
collection I like a lot and has the potential to be culturally significant in the future.
One reason for the increased interest may be the launch of their community
quests, where everyone works together to solve a series of cryptic puzzles. It is
reminiscent of the CloneX’s MNLTH drop, and has served as a centerpiece to
bring the community together.

Notable Upcoming Mints

Please note that this is purely for informational purposes only. This is not
investment advice and does not represent an endorsement of any particular
project. Minting of new projects is high-risk. The projects chosen below are
subjective and determined by the author based on the ones they find most
interesting and/or have sparked early interest from other NFT participants. We do
stress to DYOR given the risk associated with any new NFT drop.

Akutars is a collection that we mentioned in last week’s NFT insights, but we

are dropping a reminder here because the snapshot for the Akutars airdrop
closes on 7 Apr at 10 am ET. If you own an Aku Chapter or certain other Aku
NFTs at the snapshot time, you will receive airdrop passes based on the
number of Aku related NFTs held in your wallet. At Delphi, we love Aku
because it shows what is possible when visionaries and communities unite.
The founder, Micah Johnson, is building one of the first web3-native media
companies centered around community, inclusion and empowerment. In
the future, this can serve as a web3 gateway for many non-crypto natives.

Akutars

MOAR by Joan Cornellà is a collection by the popular Spanish cartoonist

who is known for using powerful black humor and satire in his artwork and
comics. Holders get access to Joan’s exhibitions, exclusive purchasing
rights to future digital and physical artworks, and can enter a raffle to win a
3D avatar. The drop is managed by FWENCLUB. 40% of the public
distribution will be sold at 0.5E each and locked up until reveal. The
remaining will be sold via a Dutch Auction. You need to register your wallet
on the website to participate in the sale.
froyoverse is a collection of generative chonky froyo cats by Jessie Morii,
artist and creative lead for Crabada (a P2E game on Avalanche). This
 collection of big-eyed kittens in a yogurt bowl will appeal to people who
love cuteness. They are doubling down on the cuteness factor by
collaborating with other animal PFP projects including Cupcats, Tubby cats
and Sappy seals. There will be 10 unique 1/1s for lucky minters.

froyoverse

Moonbirds is the official PFP collection by PROOF Collective, a private

membership of NFT collectors and artists helmed by prolific investor &
collector Kevin Rose. PROOF is one of the most coveted memberships in
the NFT space, with the floor price for entry at 60E+ (>$200,000) now. There
will be a nesting mechanic where the longer you hold the NFT, the higher
the status you accrue which will have future benefits. Holders will also have
access to PROOF discord’s Moonbirds channel. The Dutch Auction starts at
2.5E and there is a good chance this will sell out extremely quickly, given
the interest we have been seeing. A raffle for 3 free Moonbirds is currently
happening on the website.
Drift’s First Day Out is the first open edition drop by Drift, an NFT urban
photographer famous for his breathtaking photography from very high
places in cities. The drop date has special meaning – it was the same day
he was released from prison a year ago. His collection “Where My Vans Go”
has a floor price of 50E so this drop will provide an opportunity for many
more people to own a Drift. The sale will be conducted on his custom
contract and 15% of the proceeds will be donated to the bail project in
Cincinnati.
Everseed is a Farm-to-Tabletop MMO game that is in development by
Amihan Entertainment, a game studio formed by a group of former Riot
Games developers. The genesis NFT will be reproduced as 3D avatars that
holders will be able to use in the game once the open beta is live. Players
 will be able to customize the personal details of their avatar, like facial
features, hair and skin tone. The mint will be happening on Solana (Magic
Eden) via an allowlist, which you can apply for on the discord (#apply-to-
chat).

Weekly Highlight – PFPs & the “next BAYC”

In the previous NFT boom, BAYC was the big winner. Anyone who purchased and
held a BAYC from last year would have received at least 60E worth of free drops
(Mutant Apes, Bored Ape Kennel Club, $APE airdrop etc.), not to mention the
heavy price appreciation of their ape — now at 100+E floor. With regards to
branding building, Yuga Labs played the perfect game.

Given such success, it’s natural for everyone to start looking for what could be
the “next BAYC”, especially now that majority of people have been priced out of
a Bored Ape. Any such successor will need to be an NFT project that delivers
immense value over time while growing a solid, engaged community.

There are a few key contenders here – Azuki, Doodles, and RTKFK’s CloneX. I’ve
highlighted these 3 because they have already built a strong community around
their brands, and can maintain a floor price of >10E, indicating a strong level of
demand.

Let me summarize some key developments for each of these projects.

CloneX

Collaboration with artist Takashi Murakami: Clones with Murakami Drip trait
(15%) get on the Flowers whitelist.
RTFKT x Murakami x Gagosian event on 11 May, where Murakami will be
presenting paintings and sculptures based on CloneX in his exhibition in
NYC. Open to holders.
MNLTH was airdropped to CloneX holders and is the first Nike-RTFKT NFT
drop since the acquisition. It is a 20K collection with an inbuilt reveal
mechanism, that will trigger upon a secret date.
According to the team, MNLTHs will reveal after the successful completion
of the community quests, which have been ongoing since mid-Feb. The final
quest (Quest 4) was supposed to be in the last week of March but was
delayed. Interestingly, the collective experience of doing and completing
the quests has brought the community together in a positive way.

There is speculation that the MNLTHs could be Nike-branded “sentient

shoes” — animated digital sneakers with utility. No one knows at this time.
Roadmap: unspecific. The team has mentioned broadly that they are
working on a wearable pipeline for the Clones as well as future NFT drops
and building out the Pod ecosystem.

CloneX holders have received ~9.66E in free drops so far:

Loot Pod (0.88E)

 Space Pod (1.68E)
MNLTH (7.1E)

Upcoming drops: None officially announced. The team does have a history of
giving airdrops to CloneX holders, so we could expect more to come later this
year.

Doodles

Doodles has been focused on community growth through IRL events: “We
are showing the world by example what we believe the future of brands to
be: communities becoming stakeholders.”
They hosted a well-received showcase event at SXSW in March. Doodle
owners were able to unlock token-gated experiences, including skipping
the queue, having your Doodle painted on your nails, coffee with Doodle art,
and limited-edition merch such as figurines and shirts (via a Shopify
integration). There were over 6,000 visitors.

While the focus of events has been on the US thus far, there will be other
IRL global brand appearances this year: NFTNYC, Hong Kong, Vancouver,
and Miami
On the product side, building out the Space Doodles universe is their
primary development goal. When the game is built out, owners will be able
to climb the ranks, earn new NFTs based on the Doodle world, and also
 receive an extended license to commercialize their Doodles in Doodles’
future experiences.
One doodle = 1 vote. It operates as a DAO, and the community can submit
proposals. The Doodlebank (treasury) currently has 1500+ ETH.

Doodles holders have received no free airdrops so far. Although, we were

introduced to Space Doodles: where you could wrap your Doodle and turn it into
a spacecraft with a random set of traits. You can unwrap it back to a normal
Doodle any time, but it is the same NFT.

Upcoming drops: None officially announced.

Azuki

Azuki conducted their first major IRL event, the Garden Party, on 31 Mar at
NFT LA. Wiz Kalifa performed.
The team’s flair for showmanship was apparent when they announced and
initiated an airdrop of 2 BEANZ NFTs to every Azuki holder during the
Garden Party.
BEANZ has not been revealed yet, so far we have only seen a teaser: a
strange blue bean-like figure with a spray can.
 Bobu the Farmer (Azuki #40) was fractionalized by the team as part of an
experiment in decentralized IP and governance. The team holds 30K out of
50K Bobu Fractions but has said they will abstain from voting on proposals
that are within the scope of the experiment.
The team intends to open up new revenue streams beyond royalties and
their vision includes a clothing line, an animated series, and possibly a
game. Merch is already being designed, including this bomber jacket.

Azuki holders have received ~10E in free drops so far:

BEANZ x 2 (5E each)

Upcoming drops: None officially confirmed. On their mindmap, the team states
that there are exploring a $BEAN token that could be used in the Azuki-verse

My thoughts

All 3 projects are taking unique and thoughtful approaches to build out a
web3-native global brand.
 CloneX is focused on co-creating cool digital products for the
metaverse together with their community. They will continue to
leverage their partnership with Nike to grow their brand presence.
Doodles has decided to take a grounds-up, community-building
approach through in-person events, and by providing unique
experiences & utility to its members. The founding team has also been
the most public among the 3, appearing at many events, fireside chats,
and media articles.
Azuki has garnered a lot of support from crypto OGs and influencers,
particularly Asian investors. Their creative & artistic abilities are
fantastic, as shown by the detailed aesthetics of their anime artwork. It
remains to be seen how they intend to reach out to mainstream, non-
crypto audiences.
In my opinion, Doodles seems to have the clearest direction among the 3
projects. Also, they have yet to launch a dilutive airdrop, which could be
something to speculate on. The team posted in their Discord on 5 Apr: “in
short, we will make the f*cking biggest announcement of an announcement
soon. give us the time to deliver.“
Just for fun, I conducted a quick poll on Twitter and these were the results:

It will be fascinating to watch all 3 projects progress through the year. As

they each carve their own paths, their successes and failures will provide
future NFT founders with a solid playbook on community & brand building.
Top News

Visa launches Creator program to help entrepreneurs incorporate NFTs;

Micah Johnson (Aku) is one of the first participants.
OpenSea partners with MoonPay to roll out direct credit card payments for
NFTs.
FEWOCiOUS launches FewoWorld project (open edition) on Nifty Gateway
and raises ~$25M
Pudgy Penguins gets new management: acquired by Luca Netz for 750 ETH.
0xmons announces the imminent launch of SudoAMM concentrated
liquidity protocol for NFTs
Blur_io raises $11M to build the best NFT marketplace for Pro traders.

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