September 15, 2022

What is the Azuki NFT collection?

Aug. 2022, Vincy

Data Source: Footprint Analytics — Azuki Collection Stats

The Azuki NFT collection, an anime-inspired profile-photo NFT series, was launched on Jan. 12, 2022 by Chiru Labs.

During the public sale, 8,700 NFTs were released with an initial minting price of 1 ETH (then approximately $3,379). However, within three minutes of the public sale, Azuki sold out at a mint price of 1 ETH, generating revenue of $29.3 million.

Azuki’s popularity has grown rapidly, with daily trading volumes reaching over $30 million, and the floor price has risen from 1 ETH in the public sale to 28 ETH in early April.

Despite the initial success, the project fell into a crisis of confidence on May 12 due to the founder’s “self-exposed scandal”, (more on that below,) which caused the project to face ups and downs.

Who created Azuki?

source — Azuki Official website

Azuki was created by a group of artists and developers at Chiru Labs. According to the official website, they have backgrounds in major technology companies such as Facebook and Google, and have experience in games.

They all share the same goal of creating a unique metaverse brand — one built and owned by their community of holders.

Azuki issued 10,000 NFTs with the following main allocation.

  • Legendary: 235
  • Rare: 745
  • Classic: 180
  • Common: 8,840

Why Azuki experienced a “rollercoaster” of price fluctuation

According to Footprint Analytics, since its launch on 12 January until early May, Azuki has repeatedly surpassed CryptoPunks in terms of daily trading volume and has quickly become one of the blue-chip projects in the NFT space.

Footprint Analytics — CryptoPunk vs Azuki Volume

Interestingly, Chiru Labs receives a 5% royalty on each Azuki NFT resale, which means a 5% royalty in addition to the initial offering of approximately $34 million. So as long as the Azuki project continues to maintain the hype, the value of the project is likely to remain, or even rise, as well.

In April, Azuki launched the Azuki Beanz series of 20,000 NFTs. Holders of Azuki can get Beanz NFTs for free via airdrops. Beanz was created to:

  • Giving back to Azuki holders. Lowering the barrier for new users to enter the Azuki ecosystem, Beanz-holding NFTs will have access to a holder-only Discord channel in the Azuki server and will be eligible for airdrops of future Azuki merchandise.
  • Continued market expansion. Like BAYC and MAYC, expand your own brand.

However, the good times did not last long.

On May 10, Azuki founder Zagabond outed himself as the founder of, and disbanded three, failed projects — CryptoPhunks, Tendies and CryptoZunks. This caused community sentiment to quickly decline.

As shown in the data below, the trading volume quickly tanked, followed quickly by the collection’s floor price.

Footprint Analytics — Azuki Floor Price Trend

What is Azuki’s “The Garden”?

Azuki starts with a collection of 10,000 avatars that give you membership access to The Garden: a corner of the internet where artists, builders, and web3 enthusiasts meet to create a decentralized future. Azuki holders receive access to exclusive drops, experiences, and more.

Footprint’s Azuki’s NFT collection dashboard

Footprint Analytics — Azuki Dashboard

This piece is contributed by Footprint Analytics community.

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