Azuki, which made nearly $38 million, has angered the entire community this time

Author: Azuma, Odaily

At midnight on June 28, the new series of the leading NFT project Azuki, Azuki Elemental Beans, officially went on sale.

This sale reserved a round of presale windows for holders of Azuki and Beanz, followed by a Dutch auction for regular users, starting at a price of 2 ETH. The final price for all three rounds of sales was the same, depending on the final price during the public sale; if sold out before the public sale, the price would be set at 2 ETH.

Originally, it was another explosive night

However, although many regular users were ready with ETH "on high alert," just like that hot early morning on January 13 last year, despite the page experiencing lag and delays, Azuki Elemental Beans were quickly sold out shortly after entering the presale window for BEANZ holders following the presale window for Azuki holders; the public sale window for regular users had not even arrived before it was closed.

With the end of the sale, some users who failed to grab Azuki Elemental Beans attempted to purchase them at a markup through the secondary market. From my observation, the bid wall on Blur was pushed up to around 2.4 ETH shortly after selling out.

Originally, the story was still going smoothly, with a vibrant community and massive funding (a total of 20,000 ETH); everything seemed no different from that night last year. Although the floor prices of Azuki and Beanz experienced some fluctuations, considering that some users bought Azuki and BEANZ for short-term trading to secure their chances of grabbing Azuki Elemental Beans, it was highly likely that they would resell after the sale ended, so these fluctuations were not unexpected by the market.

Opening the images, is it revealing Azuki's underwear?

However, as Azuki Elemental Beans officially opened their images, the story began to take a different turn.

Although the Azuki project team did not specifically disclose what the utility of this series was before the sale of Azuki Elemental Beans, they only released a promotional video with a rather explosive style. However, as a "big move" after nearly a year of brewing for a leading project, this insufficient disclosure gave Azuki Elemental Beans greater imaginative space. Many community users firmly believed that Azuki would take this opportunity to "do something big."

Odaily Note: The well-known Azuki holder "Princess" expressed a judgment before the sale that represented the views of many community users, indicating that the new series "at least won't be too bad."

But as the content of Azuki Elemental Beans was revealed, looking at the pile of "small images" that were almost entirely copied from the original Azuki (there were indeed some new images, but they accounted for a small proportion), even the most loyal community users felt "broken."

The two groups of images above show Azuki and the Azuki Elementals after the reveal. For users who are not particularly familiar with the various traits of Azuki, what exactly is the difference between these two groups of images…

For a moment, disappointment, anger, and a sense of being deceived quickly filled the entire community.

Some users angrily criticized Azuki's "scalping" operation, pointing out that the project team never intended to create something new, but just wanted to harvest again ------ shortly after the sale ended, the Azuki team quickly transferred out the 20,000 ETH raised from this sale.

Even more loyal users expressed their disappointment, directly lashing out, having made a fortune but unwilling to support the market.

Some users dug up old history, claiming that Azuki founder ZAGABOND.ETH, who has a history of two rug pulls, "returned to old practices."

There were also onlookers joking that Azuki could earn nearly 40 million dollars just by Control C + V, questioning who in the entire industry could rival such revenue capability.

Some rational users attempted to objectively analyze the reasons behind Azuki's bizarre operation, speculating that it might be due to the royalty war between trading platforms, making it difficult for the original Azuki series works (Azuki, Beanz) to contribute income to the project team through royalties, as users could completely bypass royalties through trading platforms. However, Azuki Elementals, as a new contract, could lock in royalties, making their trading value greater than that of the previous Azuki and Beanz.

In summary, as community sentiment collapsed, the entire Azuki series saw a decline. As of the time of writing, the floor price of Azuki was reported at 9.87 ETH, down 28.29% for the day; the floor price of Beanz was reported at 0.67 ETH, down 43.06% for the day; Azuki Elementals had also broken below the issue price, currently reported at 1.59 ETH; due to the possibility of rare items being revealed, the floor price of unopened Azuki Elemental Beans was slightly higher, currently reported at 1.81 ETH.

Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it

After the community sentiment erupted, the Azuki team finally responded.

Azuki co-founder location tba tweeted an apology, stating that there were flaws in the minting process of Azuki Elementals, severely underestimating the time required for Azuki and Beanz holders during the first and second phases of the presale. The duration should have been extended to over 10 minutes to allow for sufficient buffer time in case of any issues (which indeed existed).

However, this misplaced apology did not receive widespread understanding from the community, and more users were still waiting for explanations from Azuki's official team and ZAGABOND.ETH himself.

The NFT market was already in a deep bear phase, and Azuki's operation not only drained the already scarce liquidity in the market but also triggered a trust crisis that dealt a heavy blow to the entire market. As the narrative of the small images came to an end, the NFT industry was eager to find new growth directions. As a leading project that had once been filled with infinite expectations, Azuki was supposed to set an example in this regard (the community expected this as well), but this operation regarding Azuki Elementals was indeed hurtful.

With its excellent art style, Azuki had attracted a loyal community of users in the previous era of NFTs, and it was these users who pushed Azuki to its current height. But now, Azuki needs to think about how to comfort these injured "family members."

Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. This is not just a question of good or bad development; it is a matter of survival and death.