Mangas, future pillar of the NFT industry?

Booming in the world of blockchain, the NFT market has experienced a meteoric rise in recent years with nearly $24.8 billion in sales in 2022. Within it, certain collections have emerged and imposed new trends, new waves and lots of euphoria. We can cite among them the very famous Bored Ape released in April 2021 which popularized and gave this “degen” mood to the NFT market on the market, or the Goblin Town NFTs released in May 2022, which were able to establish the trend of “free mints”. Between these two collections, we find a very particular project featuring illustrations in a new genre that is still little exploited in the field of blockchain: the Azuki project.

Launched on January 12, 2022, Azuki is now one of the best-known Web3 projects, alongside the very famous Bored Ape and Crypto Punk. Moreover, this is the project that started to popularize the manga style in the NFT universe.

In this article, we will try to understand why the anime and manga market could greatly impact the NFT market in the coming years.

To do this, we will first dive into the heart of the AZUKI project, observing the difficulties that this project faces today. We will then study the impact that this collection may have had around the world, before seeing why and how it managed to impose itself.

What is the Azuki Collection?

Released on January 12, 2022 with 10,000 copies, Azuki is the first authentic collection to be launched by approaching the world of manga in an original style, with solid fundamentals and a very singular slogan: “Take the red bean”.

Immediate success upon its release, the 10,000 NFTs all sold very quickly at the price of 1 ETH per unit and knew how to ignite the secondary market by reaching incredible prices, the floor price exceeding 30 ETH after 2 months.

The reasons for such success? We can name several!

First of all, there are many advantages to holding an NFT Azuki, but especially to keeping it:

ranging from obtaining physical clothes until receipt of NFT by airdropsAzuki even offers real events, as was the case on June 23, with a party organized at Vegas !

By owning an Azuki, you are also part of the first Web3 community exploring the world of manga : a sector in constant growth and booming over the years.

Founded in Los Angeles by a mysterious team made up of several talents in tech, gaming, but also cryptos, this project has not always gone as planned for its developers.

A project that learns from its mistakes

Currently, the floor price of this collection is hovering around 5 ETH, a drop that reflects the current state of the market if we refer to its peak which had very easily exceeded the symbolic cap of 30 ETH.

There are several reasons for this:

• Between a launch in the midst of a bear market and suspicions of a rug pull due to poor communication following a message published by the project’s founder, “Zagabond“; these are not the opportunities that have failed to collapse the blue chip of 2022.

• More recently, we can also cite the team’s somewhat questionable choice to dilute the 10,000 Azuki collection by offering a sub-collection with the same type of art as the main collection, but this time for a total of 20,000 copies.

Although this practice has already been done many times, notably by Yuga Labs with their flagship collection “Bored Ape” which saw the birth of a secondary collection called “Mutant Ape”, in the case of Azuki, many members of the community decried that the illustrations looked too similar.

This last event, which is also the most recent, caused the prices of the main collection to drop drastically, dropping it from 15 to 5 ETH at the time of this writing.

However, despite doubts, uncertainties and several difficult moments, today the project is still alive and benefits from a well-engaged community.

For good reason, it is quite difficult to question all that Azuki has been able to accomplish in the space of a little over a year.

Azuki’s impact in Web3 and beyond

Interesting observation: it will have barely taken a few months after the launch of Azuki to allow the emergence of many collections in the same style on the NFT market.

Released in 2022, we can mention: Hikari, haki, PxN, Anero or Valhalla … All collections which were able to make a lot of noise when they were released and which were able to demonstrate with more or less success all the potential and enthusiasm that this type of universe can arouse.

Thus, we no longer count the Azuki-like and new projects that have been able to fit into this new trend that the manga blue chip has been able to establish.

However, it would be innocent to consider Azuki as a simple fad or as a big collection among others.

More than a simple collection, Azuki is a project that has impacted the real world in addition to that of the blockchain, and this on several occasions:

• January 2022 : Azuki launches its collection through a new innovation in the field of blockchain, the ERC721A, which corresponds to an improved version of the traditional ERC721 and which allows to mint several tokens at a price similar to that of the mint of a single token ;
• April 2022 : Azuki becomes the first collection to send one of its NFTs into space during a NASA mission in which a ledger containing NFT #40 was sent into space via a rocket from NASA SpaceX;
• October 2022 : Azuki innovates with “Scan-to-Own”, a new feature intended to allow the transfer of a digital object at the same time as obtaining a physical object via the scan;
• November 2022 : Azuki became in November the first NFT collection present during a Formula 1 race on players’ cars, thanks to a partnership with Red Bull Racing during the race for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The combination of all these achievements in a single project largely explains the reasons that have allowed Azuki to remain in the limelight until today.

Why and how did this collection succeed in establishing itself?

Before wanting to impact the world, it is necessary to understand that to become N°1, it is necessary to have something more than the others.

A large community, incredible art or even an exceptional roadmap are not enough. It takes something unique, and this Azuki, seems to have it right.

It is first of all through a very gamified project that Azuki knew how to develop its bases as well as its audience. This concept is also very present, whether through the mini-games organized on their official Twitter account or via multiple implementations directly on their own site!

By going to Azukiyou can have fun exploring their universe in an original way using a interactive mini-mapor by going around all NFTs that make up their ecosystem.

In October 2022, a brand new integration then saw the light of day, with the implementation of the collector profile in which it is possible to find all the NFTs held by each user, as well as the badges and equipment obtained following various events and achievements from the Azuki universe.

For example, each owner of an Azuki has received on the occasion of the partnership with Red Bull a digital outfit of the F1 drivers of Red Bull Racing which can be directly equipped on the NFT Azuki.

The goal here is clear: to become the first decentralized anime universe.

The objective seems interesting when you know that the anime market is just colossal, with demand and consumers constantly growing for years.

In terms of numbers, the anime market was valued in 2022 at nearly US$30 billion, and forecasts place it at more than 50 billion by 2032.

Thus, what was previously perceived as a geek culture quickly seduced the general public. Future projects in this area therefore seem to have a promising future.

At the time of writing this article, the author held the following position: Yanis Aimeur – Entrepreneur and founder of MangaChain, I also animate in the shadows several YouTube channels on Web 3.0 and manga.