Written by: Pzai, Foresight News

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

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

From takeoff to fall from grace

In Azuki's development history, the past experiences of founder ZAGABOND and the release event of the Elementals series undoubtedly cast a shadow over the project's continuity. As the soul of Azuki, ZAGABOND revealed in May 2022 that he had participated in and abandoned three NFT projects — Crypto Phunk, Tendies, and CryptoZunks, which were widely questioned by the community as 'rug pull' behaviors. Although ZAGABOND argued that these projects were part of his 'learning experience' and emphasized that he did not maliciously abscond with funds, the community did not buy his explanation. This incident directly caused the floor price of Azuki NFTs to plummet from about 20 ETH to 7.39 ETH, severely undermining market confidence.

On June 28, 2023, the launch of Azuki's new series 'Elementals' pushed community dissatisfaction to its peak. The release of the Elementals series was initially highly anticipated, with the community expecting it to inject new vitality into Azuki. However, the NFTs delivered were highly similar to the existing Azuki series, and there were numerous duplicate images and low-quality designs, seriously disrupting the rarity system of Azuki NFTs. Community members generally felt deceived, especially those loyal users who had invested heavily to support the project. The floor price of the Elementals series quickly fell from 2 ETH to 1.32 ETH, and the floor price of the Azuki series also suffered, further dropping to 9.87 ETH.

This series of events not only severely impacted the community consensus of Azuki but also triggered panic selling among large holders. Many well-known Azuki holders sold their Azuki collectibles, leading to further liquidity depletion in the market. Worse, the Azuki team's response after the incident was perceived as lacking sincerity, failing to effectively soothe community emotions. Although the team promised to improve the minting process and fix technical issues, these measures could not restore the community's trust. Subsequently, AzukiDAO even filed a lawsuit against founder Zagabond to recover a refund of 20,000 ETH. Later, this matter also ended without resolution. In November 2023, AzukiDAO announced its name change to 'Bean' and transitioned into a memecoin project on the Blast chain.

But perhaps due to the recent popularity of the PUDGY token release, or the experience gained from previous meme operations, they ultimately chose to pursue an alternative revival through the ANIME token.

The paradigm shift from NFTs to 'culture'

In fact, as early as January 6, Azuki’s account followed and retweeted Weeb3 Foundation's tweet, which stated 'Building an open metaverse powered by ANIME.' This led the community to speculate that Azuki might be brewing some release plans. As Azuki shifted from NFTs to ANIME operations, many seemed to be changing their perspectives.

Azuki's definition of ANIME is a form of 'cultural currency': a movement to transform 1 billion anime fans into a community-owned creative network. From the very beginning, Azuki's Japanese anime style has laid a solid foundation for its future operational direction. Its unique artistic design blends the essence of Japanese animation style with modern trend elements, successfully attracting crypto art collectors from around the world. This style not only allows Azuki to stand out in the NFT market but also gives it distinct cultural attributes. The launch of the ANIME token will further reinforce Azuki's cultural narrative. Through the token economy, Azuki can not only incentivize community member participation but also convey the value of culture to a broader audience.

After experiencing market changes, the mindset and demands of NFT holders have significantly transformed, gradually viewing digital assets as a form of identity rather than just liquidity assets for trading. Especially within specific communities or cultural circles, the value of NFTs has surpassed their financial attributes, becoming an important tool for users to express themselves and showcase their identities.

Behind this transformation reflects the NFT market's gradual transition from early speculative drives to cultural and community-driven motivations. As memes become increasingly popular, more projects are using this as a breakthrough point, providing corresponding incentives to NFT holders while expanding their ecological organic circles and even increasing their influence for mutual benefit.

Exploring alternative growth paths

The token issuance has evidently brought growth to NFT projects, such as Azuki, which saw a significant increase in trading volume within a week before and after the token release, and the floor price also rose sharply, attracting more new users and capital influx. The Pudgy Penguins team has also practiced this growth path. Since the token issuance, its floor price has maintained above 23 ETH, and the expected airdrop of Abstract Chain that its team will launch also provides effective endorsement for Pudgy's value, while the token issuance not only enhances users' sense of participation and belonging but also creates more income sources and sustainable development paths for the project. Thus, the growth generated by tokens will not only manifest in short-term market heat but also inject long-term development momentum into the project through the token economic model. Compared to NFTs, the liquidity and combinability of homogenous tokens are also stronger.

We can see that the trend of NFT 'revival' is very evident for both NFT projects themselves and the benefits to the crypto ecosystem, including:

  • Enhancing cultural appeal and brand value: The ecosystem attracts users with shared interests through specific cultural characteristics, strengthening community belonging. It gives NFTs distinct cultural attributes while quantifying brand value through tokens, and even forming unique brand narratives through the collaboration of tokens among ecological projects, enhancing the market recognition and long-term value of the project.

  • Expanding the user base and promoting cross-community collaboration: Attracting a broader audience of culture enthusiasts, breaking through the limitations of the crypto circle, and expanding the mainstream influence of NFTs. The project collaborates with other communities or projects through token airdrops and partnerships to form a wider ecological network effect. For example, the shift from NFTs to homogenous tokens directly allows users to access from a larger liquidity standpoint (such as centralized exchanges), thus providing maximum ecological access.

  • Creating sustainable value and iterating incentive mechanisms: Transforming NFTs from short-term speculative assets into long-term cultural value carriers to enhance the project's sustainability and risk resistance. Through a token economic model, the project can incentivize users to participate in community building and content creation, unlocking more culture-based application scenarios (such as virtual events, IP licensing, etc.). For Azuki, the vast anime market is precisely what it hopes to delve into, and tokens become key catalysts and lubricants within the ecosystem, providing users with excess income and experiences.

In summary, the launch of the token provides NFT holders with more rights and incentives, such as governance rights, airdrop rewards, and consumption scenarios within the ecosystem, thereby enhancing community stickiness and participation. Additionally, the circulation of tokens also opens new revenue sources for NFT projects, such as transaction fees and potential staking yields, further promoting sustainable ecological development. However, this growth also comes with challenges, such as how price fluctuations of tokens may impact NFT values and how to balance the token economy with 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.