Azuki Implosion Continues Following Ill-Advised Elementals Drop

On Jul 3, 2023

Such is the volatility of the crypto sphere, that in the blink of an eye, the seemingly untouchable can see their worlds come crashing down around them, just ask Sam Bankman-Fried! This time last week, the Azuki NFT collection was riding high following a lavish Las Vegas meet up, only for a miscalculated NFT drop to send the project into total disarray.

The trouble all began when Azuki launched its latest set of ‘Elementals’ NFTs, an initially successful drop that raked in $38 million. The wheels swiftly came off, however, when the big reveal uncovered 20k NFTs featuring eerily similar art to the flagship collection, and more than a few duplicate artworks.

From there, the backlash was unparalleled, worse even when the founder flippantly revealed a journey littered with abandoned projects. This latest mishap, however, has had a catastrophic impact on the Azuki collection, with the floor price dropping from a steady 17 ETH per token, to a lowly 6 ETH in a little over a week.

The Misfortunes of Azuki Permeate the NFT Landscape

As bad as all that may seem, it continues to get worse for Azuki. The recently launched Elementals NFTs have already begun trading for significantly lower than the original mint price of 2 ETH, (0.8399 ETH as of writing). Meanwhile, Azuki’s companion project, Beanz, has also seen a similar decline in floor price, dropping from around 1.4 ETH to a lowly 0.399.

That’s not all however, as the backlash continues, the team is facing a mutiny from the newly formed AzukiDAO, who are essentially voting whether Azuki should reallocate the 20k ETH raised in the Elementals sale. While elsewhere, the founder of the CryptoPhunks NFT project has threatened to launch a lawsuit against Azuki founder, Zagabond, over a series of alleged misdemeanors.

So, as Azuki quickly scrambles to pick up the pieces following a very swift and spectacular implosion, only time will tell if it can eventually recover. However, the more immediate concern surrounds a number of Azuki-backed ETH loans that were issued through the Blend lending platform.

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*All investment/financial opinions expressed by NFT Plazas are from the personal research and experience of our site moderators and are intended as educational material only. Individuals are required to fully research any product prior to making any kind of investment.