Azuki also wants to issue coins, will it cut leeks again or will NFT revive?

By Pzai, Foresight News

As one of the important targets of the NFT bull market, Azuki also launched its own ANIME token following the wave of Pudgy's currency issuance, and announced detailed token economics. Its total supply is 10 billion pieces, with an initial circulation of 7.69 billion pieces, of which 37.5% will be airdropped to Azuki NFT holders, and the remainder will be used for community funds, ecological development, team incentives, etc.

Boosted by the news of the ANIME token release, NFT prices within the Azuki ecosystem responded quickly, and market sentiment picked up significantly. As of press time, the floor price of Azuki series NFTs has reached 14 ETH, setting a recent high, with an intraday increase of 17.42%. At the same time, other related NFTs in the Azuki ecosystem, such as the Beanz and Elementals series, have also risen simultaneously, showing the market's optimistic expectations for Azuki's future development.

From taking off to falling to the altar

In the development process of Azuki, the past experience of founder ZAGABOND and the launch of the Elements series have undoubtedly cast a shadow on the continuity of the project. As the soul of Azuki, ZAGABOND revealed in May 2022 that he participated in and abandoned three NFT projects - Crypto Phunk, Tendies and CryptoZunks. These projects were widely questioned by the community as "Rug Pull" behaviors. Although ZAGABOND argued that these projects were part of its "learning experience" and emphasized that it did not maliciously collect money, the community did not buy its explanation. This incident directly caused the floor price of Azuki NFT to plummet from about 20 ETH to 7.39 ETH, severely damaging market confidence.

On June 28, 2023, the new series "Elementals" launched by Azuki pushed the community's dissatisfaction to the climax. The release of the Elementals series had high hopes, and the community expected it to inject new vitality into Azuki. However, the actual delivered NFTs are highly similar to the original Azuki series, and even have a large number of duplicate images and low-quality designs, seriously damaging the rarity system of Azuki NFTs. Community members generally feel cheated, especially loyal users who have invested significant amounts of money to support the project. The floor price of the Elementals series quickly dropped from 2 ETH to 1.32 ETH, and the floor price of the Azuki series was also affected, falling further to 9.87 ETH.

This series of events not only severely impacted Azuki's community consensus, but also triggered panic selling by large investors. Many well-known Azuki holders sold their Azuki collections, causing market liquidity to further dry up. To make matters worse, the Azuki team’s response after the incident was considered to be insincere and failed to effectively appease community sentiment. Although the team promised to improve the casting process and fix technical issues, these measures failed to restore the trust of the community. Subsequently, AzukiDAO even filed legal proceedings against the founder Zagabond in an attempt to recover the 20,000 ETH refund. Later, the matter fell silent. In November 2023, AzukiDAO announced that it would be renamed "Bean" and transformed into a memecoin project on the Blast chain.

But perhaps because the recent release of PUDGY tokens has been popular in the market, or because of the experience gained from previous meme operations, they finally chose to conduct an alternative revival through ANIME tokens.

The paradigm shift from NFT to “culture”

In fact, as early as January 6, the Azuki account followed and retweeted Weeb3 Foundation's tweets. Its account introduction was "Building an open metaverse, driven by ANIME." So the community speculated that Azuki might be brewing some release plans. As Azuki switches from NFT to ANIME operations, many people seem to be changing their minds.

Azuki defines ANIME as a "cultural currency": a movement that transforms anime fans with 1 billion fans into a community-owned creative network. From the beginning, Azuki's manga style laid a solid foundation for its future operations. Its unique artistic design combines the essence of Japanese animation style with modern trend elements, successfully attracting crypto art collectors around the world. This style not only makes Azuki stand out in the NFT market, but also gives it a distinct cultural attribute. The launch of ANIME token will further strengthen Azuki's cultural narrative. Through the token economy, Azuki can not only incentivize community members to participate, but also deliver the value of culture to a wider audience.

After experiencing market changes, the mentality and needs of NFT holders have changed significantly, and they gradually regard digital assets as a kind of identity, not just a circulating asset for transactions. Especially in specific communities or cultural circles, the value of NFT has transcended its financial attributes and has become an important tool for users to express themselves and highlight their identity.

Behind this shift, it reflects the gradual transition of the NFT market from early speculation-driven to cultural-driven and community-driven. As Meme becomes more and more popular, just like this time Azuki conducted airdrops for the Hyperliquid community (HYPE stakers), Kaito Yappers, Arbitrum and other communities, more and more projects are using it as a breakthrough to provide support for NFT holders While stimulating, it also expands its ecological organic circle, and even expands its influence to achieve mutual benefit.

Alternative growth

The growth brought by the issuance of tokens to NFT projects is obvious. For example, Azuki's transaction volume increased significantly within the week before and after, and its floor price also increased significantly, attracting the influx of more new users and funds. The Pudgy Penguins team has also implemented this growth path. Since the launch of the coin, its floor price has remained above 23 ETH, and the Abstract Chain airdrop expected to be launched by its team has also provided an effective endorsement of Pudgy’s value. The token issuance not only enhances users’ sense of participation and belonging, It also creates more revenue sources and sustainable development paths for the project. Therefore, the growth generated through tokens will not only be reflected in short-term market popularity, but also inject long-term development momentum into the project through the token economic model. Compared with NFT, homogeneous tokens are also more liquid and composable.

We can see that the trend of NFT "revival" is very obvious, both for the NFT project itself and the benefits of the encryption ecosystem, including:

• Enhance cultural attraction and brand value : Through specific cultural characteristics, the ecology attracts users with common interests and strengthens the sense of community belonging. Give NFT distinctive cultural attributes, and at the same time form a quantification of brand value through tokens, and even form a unique brand narrative through the collaboration between tokens and ecological projects, enhancing the market recognition and long-term value of the project.
• Expand the user base and promote cross-circle cooperation : attract a wider range of cultural enthusiasts, break through the restrictions of the encryption circle, and expand the mainstream influence of NFT. The project links with other communities or projects through token airdrops, cooperation, etc. to form a broader ecological network effect. For example, the paradigm shift from NFT to fungible tokens directly allows users to access from a larger liquidity level (such as centralized exchanges, etc.), thereby providing maximum ecological access.
• Create sustainable value and iterate the incentive mechanism : transform NFT from short-term speculative assets into long-term cultural value carriers, improving the sustainability and risk resistance of the project. Through the token economic model, the project can encourage users to participate in community building and content creation, and then unlock more cultural-based application scenarios (such as virtual events, IP licensing, etc.). For Azuki, the vast market of animation is what it hopes to get involved in and deepen, and tokens have become a key catalyst and lubricant within the ecosystem, providing users with excess income and experience.

To sum up, the launch of tokens provides NFT holders with more rights and incentives, such as governance rights, airdrop rewards, and consumption scenarios within the ecosystem, thus enhancing the stickiness and participation of the community. In addition, the circulation of tokens has also opened up new sources of income for NFT projects, such as transaction fees, potential pledge earnings, etc., further promoting the sustainable development of the ecosystem. However, this growth also comes with challenges, such as the impact that token price fluctuations may have on NFT value, and how to balance the relationship between token economics and NFT scarcity. In the future, NFT projects need to find a balance between token issuance and community culture to truly achieve long-term value growth.