What is Azuki NFT?: Everything you need to know about this Anime-styled NFT collection

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If you hear the word NFTs, you can definitely imagine an image of a monkey who has a very funky fashion sense or monkeys with quirky styles. That’s because of the popularity The Bored Ape Yacht Club collection of NFTs garnered. These NFTs were sold at mind-boggling prices!

That’s the thing with NFTs, the potential lies in creating something extremely unique or different that someone wants to be exclusively theirs. Bored Ape Yacht is one of the NFT collections that constantly made it to the headlines and even celebrities like Paris Hilton and Jimmy Fallon have flaunted their bored apes to the world. Among this list of popular NFTs, there’s a new entrant of self-proclaimed skaters in the virtual world. Here’s everything that you need to know about the Azuki NFT collection:

What Are Azuki NFTs?

In simple words, Azuki is a hand-drawn collection of digital avatars. These NFTs have a very unique and distinct style and anyone who has watched Anime cartoons or TV shows like Dragon Ball Z will instantly identify the style of these NFTs and fall in love with them. Azuki NFT owners can also use their NFTs like their digital identities in the metaverse.

Hosted on the Ethereum network, Azuki was launched on January 12, 2022, and within four months of its launch, it was among popular NFT collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club and Crypto Punks.

The Azuki NFT collection essentially comprises 10,000 anime-fashioned images and each avatar has around 12 customizable features and 450 attributes, including, the background, neck, eyes, face, hair, mouth, ears, clothing, headgear, offhand, and special. You can view this on their official website, and the price can vary depending on these features or their combinations.

The Azuki NFT collection essentially comprises 10,000 anime-fashioned images and each avatar has around 12 customizable features, including, the background, neck, eyes, face, hair, mouth, ears, clothing, headgear, offhand, and special.

Who created Azuki NFTs?

The Azuki NFT collection was created by Chiru Labs, a startup based in Los Angeles, while the identities of the group of four remain anonymous, this group has extensive experience in gaming, crypto, and art.

The founder of Azuki goes by the Twitter handle – ZAGABOND. The other team member includes Hoshiboy, the lead designer, 2PM.FLOW, an engineer, and Location Tba, a software engineer who claims to have worked at Meta (previously Facebook). Artist and the person behind the popular famous game Overwatch, Arnold Tsang has also been credited as a co-creator.

The Azuki creators are extremely secretive about their identities. Zagabond also told Forbes, “There’s a mystique and magic and allure to something where the project isn’t really about our identities and our past experiences.”

“There’s a mystique and magic and allure to something where the project isn’t really about our identities and our past experiences.”

Within 3 minutes of its launch, it sold out $30 million in total and was launched at a price of $3,400. This was one of the most successful drops in the history of NFTs. There are several reasons why Azuki became so popular. One of them is art; These NFTs are appealing to the eyes and are aesthetically pleasing. The co-creator, Arnold Tsang also described the collection to be designed for the “rebellious culture of skateboarders.”

Holding an Azuki NFT also gives you access to ‘The Garden’ where you can enjoy exclusive NFT drops, streetwear collaborations, live events, and more. This helps in creating a community among these NFT holders.

Their collaboration with the famous South Korean hip-hop group, Epik High, shows the clever marketing strategy the founders have applied. With this, the BEANZ collection also made a super stylish entry into the Azuki community. Two brand new NFTs were airdropped to NFT holders on 31st march 2022. These BEANZ can be paired with your existing Azuki avatars.

Another reason is these NFTs are minted on Ethereum, known as ERC-721A tokens, a variation of the common ERC-721 tokens. This variation allows users to mint multiple Azuki NFTs in one go and users are also benefitted from comparatively lower minting periods and Ethereum lower gas fees.

Where and How to buy Azuki NFTs?

You can find the AZuki NFT collection on major NFT marketplaces like OpenSea, Rarible, LooksRare, etc. To buy it, you definitely need your blockchain wallet and Ethereum. The buying process of NFTs is actually quite simple.

What’s the risk with Azuki NFTs?

In May 2022, when Zagabond wrote in a blog post that he launched and later left three NFT projects, including CryptoZunks, Tendies, and CryptoPhunks, and framed them as a learning experience. The community didn’t seem very happy about it, especially the people who invested in the failed projects. Even though he apologized on Twitter, the price of Azuki NFTs dipped by more than 50%, at that time.

When the failed projects saw the dawn of the day, many people came into the picture who alleged the creator of wash trading, dishonesty, and a lot more. The NFT community was thoroughly dissatisfied.

With their unique offering, strategy, and also the strong community that Azuki is building, we can see this NFT collection grow and at the top. Azuki is a perfect collectible for NFT as well as Anime enthusiasts.

Featured Image Credits: Azuki Gallery (azuki.com/gallery)

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