Author: flowie, ChainCatcher
While the crypto community was wailing everywhere, many "Qing Dynasty veterans" born in the last two cycles officially announced the issuance of coins one after another.
Last night, OpenSea announced that it would launch the $SEA token, and then Doodles also announced that it would launch the $DOOD token on Solana. This is another two major NFT leaders involved in the coin issuance craze after Fat Penguin and Azuki.
Not only the NFT track, but also the privacy projects that were also very popular in the last cycle but almost disappeared in 2024 seem to have begun to seek survival through the issuance of coins. Last night, the Ethereum privacy layer Aztec Network, which was collectively bet on by investment groups such as a16z and Paradigm, also established a foundation, perhaps to prepare for the upcoming TGE.
Will the community pay for the “late” coin issuance?
Fat Penguin, which issued coins when no one was interested, saw its NFT floor price rise from 11ETF to 35ETH at one point because community players provided extremely high profit expectations, and its token PENGU's opening FDV also peaked at over 6 billion US dollars.
Under the demonstration effect of the Fat Penguin's coin issuance, many blue-chip NFTs have also been attracted to collectively announce the issuance of coins. However, compared with the Fat Penguin, other NFTs that followed suit did not seem to receive such great attention, and their NFT and token popularity was far lower than that of the Fat Penguin.
In mid-January, after another blue-chip NFT Azuki announced the launch of the ANIME token, although NFTs within the Azuki ecosystem have rebounded, the increase is generally not large, far less than that of the fat penguin. The Azuki series NFTs increased by 17.42% on a daily basis, and other peripheral series NFTs also did not show significant increases.
Last December, after Burnt Toast, the founder of Doodles NFT, posted a tweet hinting at the issuance of a coin, the floor price of Doodles rose in a short period of time, reaching a maximum of 8 ETH, and then fell back to 6.7 ETH, with a 24-hour increase of nearly 60%. After the official announcement of the issuance of the coin this morning, as of press time, the floor price of Doodles NFT was still 4.449 ETH.
After the former Dragon One NFT platform OpenSea revealed the news of its coin issuance, the community had mixed reactions.
When NFT became popular in 2021, OpenSea raised funds crazily, and its valuation reached 13 billion US dollars. When the community was actively trading in anticipation of airdrops, OpenSea insisted on going the IPO route, which was criticized by the community. Now that the NFT market has long cooled down, OpenSea has followed the example of the fat penguin to issue coins without an IPO.
In this regard, crypto KOL @BroLenoAus criticized, "This is the last harvest before OpenSea completely turns into a zombie, which is basically equivalent to its death throes." After receiving the OpenSea airdrop, it will firmly choose to short.
OpenSea 2.0 (OS2), a new platform launched earlier by OpenSea in preparation for TGE, is also only accessible for free to Gemesis NFT holders during the private beta phase. Other users need to join the waiting list, which has caused dissatisfaction among community members. They believe that it favors early users and ignores the existing user group.
But @ElvisPoldark believes that there is also a good side. The new features of OpenSea2.0, which use the token issuance to create momentum, may provide a new experience and compete with competitors such as Blur. For example, OpenSea2.0 provides a one-stop service for NFTs and tokens, allowing users to purchase NFTs and tokens from multiple blockchains across chains without manual bridging.
At present, more airdrop details and TGE of Doodles and OpenSea have not yet been implemented, and it remains to be seen whether users can pay for them.
From NFT to privacy track, "issuing coins" has become a magic weapon for old projects to survive
With the precedents of the Fat Penguin issuing coins and Trump issuing coins, "issuing coins" may become a magic weapon for old projects to prolong their lives rather than recreating narratives.
However, the businesses of the former leaders that these VC teams bet on are already facing huge bottlenecks and a crisis of trust.
As the largest NFT trading platform in the past, OpenSea’s monthly trading volume peaked at $5 billion in early 2021. However, according to data from Dune Analytics, its NFT trading volume last month was approximately $190 million, less than 4% of its peak.
Faced with challenges from competitors such as Blur and Magic Eden, OpenSea's market share has dropped from 90% in 2022 to around 30%. OpenSea also faces the challenge of regulatory compliance.
The floor price of Doodles has dropped from the highest 25 ETH to 4.449 ETH. During the previous bear market, Doodles also saved itself by selling IP and its peripherals, but the effect is minimal.
As a star project of Ethereum privacy, Aztec Network has received over US$100 million in investment in four rounds of financing. Top investment teams such as a16z, Paradigm, Coinbase Vuntures, and HashKey Capital have all participated in the bet.
However, after Aztec Network raised $100 million in financing, it suddenly announced a business transformation in March 2023, shutting down its DeFi privacy bridge project Aztec Connect and focusing its attention on two new major products, namely Noir, a general development language that supports zero-knowledge proof, and a brand-new privacy-oriented blockchain.
Faced with the transformation and the delayed airdrop, community users were disappointed with Aztec for a time, and the project has not made much progress or splash since then.
At present, with the overall market lacking liquidity and model innovation, and market attention no longer easily captured by old narratives and VC coins, old narratives and old projects that have lost some trust basis face huge challenges in turning things around by issuing coins.
