On June 28th at midnight, the well-known NFT project Azuki launched a new series called Azuki Elemental Beans. The sale was divided into three rounds: presale for Azuki and Beanz holders, as well as a Dutch auction for regular users, with a starting price of 2 ETH. The final price depended on the auction phase, and if there were no sales before the public auction, the price would remain at 2 ETH.
During the sale, Azuki Elemental Beans quickly sold out after the presale for Azuki and Beanz holders, resulting in the closure of the public auction window for regular users. Regular users could only purchase through the secondary market.
Prior to the release, the Azuki project did not disclose the actual use of this series of works. They only released a promotional video, which led to various speculations within the community. However, with the unveiling of Azuki Elemental Beans' content, the new series was almost identical to the original Azuki works, causing significant dissatisfaction within the community and leading to a widespread decline in Azuki series prices. At the time of writing, the floor price of Azuki was 9.87 ETH, down 28.29%; Beanz's floor price was 0.67 ETH, down 43.06%; Azuki Elementals also experienced a price drop, currently at 1.59 ETH. Due to the probability of rare editions, the floor price of Azuki Elemental Beans without opened images is slightly higher, currently at 1.81 ETH.
According to monitoring by 0xScope, the Azuki team completed the transfer of 20,000 ETH (approximately $37.5 million) obtained from the presale of their new NFT series, Azuki Elementals, to a multi-signature address starting with 0x2ae6 at 00:16:35 today.
Liquidity issues are not only detrimental to the development of DeFi but also affect the NFT sector. The sale by Azuki not only poses a significant threat to the already poor liquidity of the NFT market but also sparks considerable controversy within the NFT market's narrative system.
Although NFTs are gradually integrating with traditional fields such as art, sports, entertainment, and social media, the main narrative surrounding NFTs still revolves around images. The similarity between Azuki Elemental Beans and its original works reinforces the notion that the vast majority of NFTs still lack inherent value.
While the Bitcoin Ordinals and NFTFi lending markets have brought some recovery to the overall market, the NFT market is still in a deep bearish phase. According to data from The Block, in May, the trading volume in the NFT market on Ethereum was $652 million, hitting a new low since December of last year, with a month-on-month decline of 48.7%. Compared to January 2022's trading volume of $5.35 billion, the drop is as high as 87%. Starting in April, Blur accounted for 50% to 60% of the NFT market, while OpenSea accounted for 20% to 30%.
It is undeniable that the narrative of "anything can be an NFT" is highly imaginative. However, as digital products, NFTs are generated through a standardized software code executed on the blockchain and heavily rely on the properties of the underlying blockchain protocol. The security issues surrounding NFTs should not be underestimated. Most NFTs are minted on the Ethereum network, and while Ethereum Layer 2 solutions are actively being developed to address scalability issues, the current state of blockchain technology is in a rapid development phase, and security and privacy aspects are not yet fully matured. There have been instances of hackers engaging in theft, network attacks, or counterfeit activities within the NFT space.
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