One of the most popular and stylish NFT projects released in January 2022 was Azuki. This NFT Profile Picture (PFP) project was one of the most hyped in the space, and blew away expectations with its beautiful, anime inspired art and ambitious roadmap. Almost a year after launch, Azuki remains to be one of the most desired NFTs for any collector.
What are Azuki NFTs?
Azuki was launched on January 12, 2022 with 10,000 generated avatar NFTs in the entire collection. It was created by Chiru Labs, which is a Los Angeles- based group of artists and developers. The company consists of four members, all under Metaverse pseudonyms.
Azuki’s artwork takes inspiration from both anime and skateboarding culture. In fact, their website claims that they “…are the skaters of the internet”. This is apparent in the collection as many of the avatars are dressed in punk clothing and holding skating or rebellious accessories. Similar to other PFP NFT projects, each Azuki has a set of randomized traits. Some traits are rare than others, which is the more expensive Azukis derive their value.
Originally, the NFT collection went on sale via Dutch Auction. In this style of sale, there is a starting price, and it slowly descends until a predetermined floor is hit, or the collection sells out. For Azuki, the mint price was set at 1 ETH, and was set to decline by 0.05 ETH every 20 minutes to the floor of 0.15 ETH. This floor was never hit, though, as the entire collection sold out in only 3 minutes.
Azuki released 8,700 in its public sale, meaning the team raked in 8,700 ETH ($29 million at the time). There later was a private whitelist sale of 0.5 ETH for the remaining 1,300 NFTs, netting the team an additional $2 million.
The project’s popularity only skyrocketed from here, with over $300 million in secondary sales. Today, the floor price on Open Sea is 11.555 ETH, or just under $18,000! With Azuki’s 5% royalty fee in place for every sale, Chiru has profited well since the initial launch.
What is the Azuki Garden?
Azuki aims to be more than just a PFP project, however. The vision for the project is far more expansive, with the goal of becoming the premiere anime project and universe of web3.
The metaverse of Azuki is called The Garden. An avatar grants membership into The Garden, granting access to streetwear collaborations, new NFT drops, events, and more. The goal is to be a premiere metaverse community and brand reaching into many different verticals.
Right now, much of the community is based in Discord and Twitter, however as projets are launched this is expected to expand.
The Future of Azuki and Roadmap
Any good NFT project will have a solid roadmap. Azuki has posted their “Mindmap“, which is an outline of the brand’s future. This includes community initiatives, like grants for creators, and further Metaverse integrations.
The full Mindmap is available on the Azuki website, however one of the most exciting launches of from the Azuki team is BEANZ, a sister NFT project. BEANZ will be essential to the launch of Azuki’s own currency, $BEAN, in the near future.
