Azuki Elementals’ $38M Success Not Reflected in Market Performance as Floor Price Dips Below Issue Price Within 24 Hours
In Brief
Chiru Labs, the company behind blue-chip NFT project Azuki, released its new Elementals collection on Tuesday.
The collection sold out within 15 minutes and generated $38 million in transaction volume.
The floor price of the collection has since dipped from 2ETH to 1.65ETH today.
Despite the ongoing NFT market slump, Chiru Labs – the company behind the blue-chip NFT project Azuki – launched a new collection dubbed Elementals on Tuesday. It was an instant sell-out success as the 20,000-piece collection raked in $38 million in 15 minutes.
During its initial mint, 10,000 pieces of Elementals sold for 2ETH each, while another 10,000 were airdropped to Azuki holders for free. Subsequently, the floor price of the collection began to decline after the artwork was unveiled, exposing the fact that certain images bore a striking resemblance to the Azuki collection.
“Azuki really sold a 20K collection at 2 ETH exclusively to their own holders extracting $40MM only for the art to be revealed as basically identical to the main collection, immediately trading below mint and dragging its main collection down 40%. Bluechip bagholders in disbelief,” tweeted Charlotte Fang, creator of Milady NFT collection.
Wu Blockchain has identified several image pairs that exhibit similarities between Azuki and Elemental collections. Examples include the NFTs numbered 2210 (Azuki) and 10744 (Elemental), 1077 and 8600, 16046 and 8914, 16580 and 5613, 19697 and 2475, among others.
According to the on-chain data analytics platform Watchers, the biggest spenders on the Elementals collection were luggis.eth ($1.53 million), christian2022.eth ($1.39 million), beanwhale.eth ($1.09 million).
In the last 24 hours, the collection has failed to sustain the floor price, dipping below the issue price to as low as 1.31 ETH on OpenSea before rising back up to its current floor of 1.78 ETH.
Concerns surrounding the Elementals collection potentially diminishing the value of the original Azuki project have also triggered a widespread sell-off of those NFTs. The floor price of Azuki NFT has experienced a decline of approximately 43% in the past 24 hours, currently standing at 9.8 ETH on OpenSea.
Members of the NFT community have also criticized Elementals’ minting process for its 10-minute mint period and network congestion. In response, “Location TBA”, the pseudonymous co-founder of Azuki and Chiru Labs, admitted that the team “dropped the ball.”
Azuki holders and BEANZ holders had a 10-minute mint window, respectively. According to “Location TBA,” 7.6k Elementals were minted by Azukis, and the rest were minted during the BEANZ presale.
“We should have extended the duration to more than 10 minutes to allow a sufficient buffer in the case of any issues (of which there were). We were hoping for a smooth and streamlined experience from mint straight to reveal, but that didn’t happen,”
he explained.
“Next, our site is hosted by vercel and we had worked with them prior to the mint to ensure we could handle the expected load. Our estimates were off and we were quickly rate limited.”
“Location TBA” said that he “takes personal responsibility for what happened” and promised “an amazing reveal experience planned that will kick off soon.”
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About The Author
Cindy is a journalist at Metaverse Post, covering topics related to web3, NFT, metaverse and AI, with a focus on interviews with Web3 industry players. She has spoken to over 30 C-level execs and counting, bringing their valuable insights to readers. Originally from Singapore, Cindy is now based in Tbilisi, Georgia. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communications & Media Studies from the University of South Australia and has a decade of experience in journalism and writing. Get in touch with her via [email protected] with press pitches, announcements and interview opportunities.
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Cindy is a journalist at Metaverse Post, covering topics related to web3, NFT, metaverse and AI, with a focus on interviews with Web3 industry players. She has spoken to over 30 C-level execs and counting, bringing their valuable insights to readers. Originally from Singapore, Cindy is now based in Tbilisi, Georgia. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communications & Media Studies from the University of South Australia and has a decade of experience in journalism and writing. Get in touch with her via [email protected] with press pitches, announcements and interview opportunities.
