Azuki - the first global metaverse brand?
Welcome to the Garden.
Every now and then, a new project comes along that elevates the entire NFT space.
Azuki is one of them.
The artwork, the team, the vision and the attention to detail is on another level.
Let’s go deep.
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#4 Azuki
Azuki aims to be a global metaverse brand, breaking into fashion, music and maybe gaming.
What is Azuki (NFT project)?
10,000 unique avatars with anime styling.
Art by Steamboy
NFT holders get access to ‘the garden’
Access to future streetwear drops, new NFTs and events.
Visit the official website
See collection on OpenSea
Azuki is already one of the top-ten projects of all-time on Opensea (by volume). And it’s only two weeks old.
Let’s start with the reveal…
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The Reveal
At the beginning, there was nothing but a red bean.
The team minted 10,000 red beans.
They rolled out a few slick videos and teasers about the project.
The floor price was roughly ~1-2 ETH at this point
On January 20th the beans evolved into their full characters.
The idea was to recreate the experience of opening a pack of Pokemon cards. You don’t know what you’re going to get so it creates this nostalgic feeling of excitement.
I was initially sceptical of this approach after the Mekaverse launch (they did a similar thing but the artwork was… underwhelming).
Azuki was different. The avatars are incredible. Just like we did with Cool Cats, let’s take a look at the traits.
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Azuki traits
Types
There are four different ‘types’ of Azuki. The Spirit type is beautifully styled.
Human (9018)
Blue (444)
Red (441)
Spirit (97)
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Special traits
There are nine ‘special’ traits that look straight out of an anime movie.
Lightning (48)
Water (49)
Earth (53)
Fire (58)
Sakura (80)
Smoke (81)
Fox Fire (86)
Butterfly (86)
Fireflies (88)
Note: combining these ‘special’ traits with other features creates some 1/1 rarities (more on that later).
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Rare clothes
Golden cat kigurumi (5)
Golden sloth kigurumi (6)
Golden red panda kigurumi (6)
Golden frog kigurumi (10)
Yellow jumpsuit (24)
Red panda kigurumi (25)
Cat kigurumi (25)
Black oversized kimono (32)
Black perfecto jacket (35)
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Rare hair
spirit long (12)
Spirit bob (12)
Black blonde half bob (12)
Spirit ponytail (15)
S[irit fluffy (15)
Spirit goddess (20)
Water (21)
Brown dreadlocks (21)
Spirit spiky (22)
Fire (22)
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Rare offhand features
Golden zanbato (11)
Golden sheathed katana (12)
Golden monkey king staff (12)
Golden Katana (12)
Golden umbrella (13)
Golden ticket 13
Golden fishing rod (13)
Golden bat (13)
Golden skateboard (14)
There are some epic combos possible here, like the Golden cat kigurumi (5) + Golden bat (13).
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Other rare features
Red bean earring (14)
Blue bean earring (16)
Lightning eyes (46)
Fire eyes (57)
Glowing eyes (78)
Golden headphones (35)
Red panda beanie (28)
Heart eye patch (65)
Lipstick kiss (72)
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Hidden rare combos
There are some hidden rare combos out there too. The four Azukis below each have 4 matching animal traits (headband, earring, headphones, clothing)
Red panda
Blue cat
Brown sloth
Green frog
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The elements
The Azukis below each have 3 or 4 matching element traits.
The artwork details
Even the floor Azukis are amazing. Each one feels unique and special. Check out some of the details across the collection.
Look at the intricate ETH contract address tattoo
The shadow of the hat on Spirit types
The bashed up guitar.
The expressions - this guy is so determined.
The art is stunning. It draws you in, but the vision and mission of Azuki takes you even deeper.
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'Dope shit only'
Azuki has an ambitious vision: to create the biggest metaverse brand on the planet.
The mission is simple: Make dope shit only.
In a world of derivatives and copies, Azuki wants create a totally new aesthetic and vibe.
But the team is also grounded. It will take time and they’re here for the long-haul.
They have another saying: 'Trust the process'
It reminds them to stay focused in the crazy, fast-paced world of NFTs.
A true web3 brand
Azuki also has this concept of ‘taking the red bean’
It means embracing the world of web3
Azuki’s manifesto promises a commitment to a new world ‘owned by all’
They are the ‘skaters of the internet’
Of course, it’s easy to write this on a website or manifesto…
Words alone don’t mean much.
But it's easy to see that the Azuki team is already executing on this vision.
Let’s take a closer look...
The Team
Zzzagabond - Founder
Steamboy - Artist
2pmflow - Developer
Locationtba - Developer
Hoshiboy - Design (website)
Njoo - Art
GenghisKwan - Art
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Zzzagabond
Zzzagabond has a history in DeFi and ‘big tech’ (although it’s not clear what projects or companies he worked on previously).
He’s active on Twitter Spaces and thoughtful and passionate.
Gives credit to others where it’s due.
Wants every project in the space to succeed.
I don’t know much more about him but these are good signs of character in my mind.
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Steamboy
Steamboy is the lead artist.
He's the former character art director at Overwatch (Activision Blizzard)
He’s one of the most established artists to enter the pfp space.
Check out some of the raw sketches he started with.
Steamboy began working with the other two artists 20 years ago. They've been honing their craft for two decades!
The developers (breakthrough technology)
The developers (2pmflow and Locationtba) created a new token standard for Azuki: ERC 721A
It allows for minting multiple NFTs with lower gas fees.
They made it open source for the whole community.
The website
Built by Hoshiboy
Go check it out - it’s epic (dope shit only, remember).
Slick design, artwork, manifesto and mind map.
Check the music player with lo-fi beats.
Everything about this project has an extra little flair or detail.
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Community team
Azuki has a dedicated community team… and you can tell. They are meticulous about building a core community first.
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The Azuki roadmap / mindmap
Azuki doesn’t have a roadmap... which is a genius move.
The NFT space moves too fast. Committing to any strict plan is suicide.
Instead they have a ‘mind map’ (check it out)
It’s fluid and changeable but it has a clear vision and direction.
"We believe roadmaps are a restrictive and linear way of planning in a space that moves as quickly as web3. By committing to a rigid plan we limit our creativity, versatility, and ability to move quickly as the market moves. Instead, we created a Mindmap - a way of showing the core teams’ vision, ideas, and the different directions in which the Azuki brand will grow."
Although they haven't committed to any major events, there is one thing confirmed...
Azuki streetwear
Azuki holders will get access to streetwear drops.
Partnership with bigger brands?
It’s in progress.
As the ‘skaters of the internet’ you know this is going to be good.
Coming in the future?
There’s a lot of options on the mind map
Gaming (rpg anime gaming?)
Metaverse integration (Decentraland, Sandbox etc.)
$BEAN cryptocurrency for the Azukiverse
More NFT drops.
Fractionalisation of Azuki to make it more accessible (There's a rumour that this could be an ERC20 so you could trade it any other token: $BOBU)
Raising the game for NFT teams
This section is a little longer than I normally write, but there's a lot to say.
Everything about Azuki is a level of professionalism higher than anything else I’ve seen. Here are just some of the examples:
The devs created a new token standard and gifted it to the community. They didn’t rush to mint it, they worked to push the technology forward. And instead of keeping the new token standard gated, they made it available to other projects.
The artwork is detailed and intricate. None of it feels auto generated like many other 10k projects.
The community is carefully protected. Even to get into the Discord you need to verify a phone number and turn off your dms. There’s a strong emphasis on protecting the community from spam and scams.
There’s more…
Check out the professionalism of the teaser video. It’s like a cinematic trailer.
And look how much thought went into the drop itself. Locationtba wrote a 15-tweet thread about how they researched waitlists and optimised it to make sure it couldn’t be abused or gamified by traders who only wanted to flip the NFTs quickly.
It helped make sure the project was focused on reaching long-term holders.
“I believe we have put in far more work into [waitlists] than 99% of the projects… There are entire communities dedicated to dissecting exactly how to get waitlist spots in various projects, and supporting each other in gaming various project's mechanics, in order to obtain a waitlist, usually with the intent of a quick flip. These are not the people who are dedicated to building something substantial long term.”
The launch
Even the launch itself was carefully considered. It began with a dutch auction at 1eth (it sold out almost immediately). The mintlist followed at half the price of the last dutch auction sale. And the public sale followed, starting at the last price of the dutch auction.
If this sounds complicated, it just means they made sure the price didn’t pump and dump immediately with flippers cashing out from the mintlist.
Every detail considered
Every small detail of this project has been carefully considered. I can’t imagine how much patience and discipline this required while the NFT bull market was raging.
Most teams are cutting corners and rushing to launch. Azuki took the time to make sure everything was perfect.
Trust the process…
This is what I mean when I say the Azuki team is (so far) sticking to their manifesto. They are making dope shit and they are ‘trusting the process,’ taking it slow in order to build a true community and long-term metaverse brand.
Any downsides?
I always look for any downsides or potential problems in any project.
The team is not fully doxxed. This isn’t personally a big deal for me and I respect any person or team that uses pseudonyms in crypto (I'm not fully doxxed myself). But after recent events in DeFi it pays to be extra diligent. We know that Steamboy is the character art director at Overwatch but the rest of the team have pseudonyms and vague backgrounds. Like I've explained, I think the team has proved they can execute with professionalism and it’s clearly not a cash grab. But if you want a fully doxxed team then you might want to look at a different project.
Lots of hype. I'd be cautious about any project that went from 1eth to 15 eth floor in two weeks. That doesn’t make Azuki any less impressive, but remember you can invest in a great project at the wrong time. I have no idea how to time the NFT markets so this is definitely not advice! But I’m slightly cautious at this point in the cycle.
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People to follow in the Azuki world
I learnt a lot from the following accounts and Azuki holders:
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IP and copyright (what do you actually own?)
“Azuki holders get their full IP” - Zzzagabond
It appears Azuki holders can use their Azuki and monetise it without a limit.
Similar to the BAYC and Cool Cats approach.
I'm a big fan of this approach. It allows the brand to spread even more organically and triggers new creative ways to exand.
Market stats 📈
Floor: 11.85 eth (~$31,675)
Unique owners: 5.5k which is quite well dispersed for a project that’s only a few weeks old.
Volume: 34,323 eth
Final thoughts
The NFT space feels kind of crazy and chaotic at the moment.
There are scams and low-quality projects everywhere.
It's getting harder to find true quality and long-term values.
Even if you're not interested in Azuki, look for teams that execute like this.
Azuki is an example of a long-term project with real values and vision. Look for the details. Look for thoughtfulness. Look for how the team contributes to the wider ecosystem. Look for how they treat their community.
My biggest takeaway from researching Azuki is this:
Even if you don't resonate with Azuki, this is the standard we should demand and expect from the best NFT projects.
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Thanks for reading!
If you like this report, please share it with others! And feel free to reach out on Twitter to say hi. Let me know what projects you want to see in the future.
See you next week!
Kaspar