Blue Chip NFTs 101 – Down, Down, To Goblintown. An unlikely success story
Goblintown’s climb to the top is one for the books. The Moonbirds became prominent in a bearish market, but the elves took over in the midst of a global recession and the NFT’s first winter. How did these maladaptations work? By using confusion, bug fixes, FOMO and a great marketing plan that surprised everyone. People were not sure what was happening, but they did not want to stay out of the party.
The creators of Goblintown made it easy for them. First and foremost, the project was a free mint. Second, it uses a Creative Commons Zero license, which means no copyright and the ability to commercialize Goblin drawings as needed. Third, even though the hype was there, they did not use influencers, cross-campaigns or whitelists. Perhaps because of this, the coin did not generate a gas war like many other successful projects.
Goblintown’s unusual launch
The generative collection was launched on May 22, 2022 and runs across the Ethereum blockchain. From the beginning, Goblintown promised: “No road map. No discord. No use. CC0. Contract was not actually written by goblins. “The second sentence that stands out from Goblintown website is: “Do not be fucking greedy. That’s how we got here. ” This suggests that the collection serves as a commentary on the NFT market and culture. And it’s not the only clue pointing that way.
On the slightly negative side, the royalties are as much as 10%, and the creators have set aside 1000 NFTs for the owners of the other projects. Given that Goblintown was a free mint, these two factors do not seem so bad. So far, the main collection has generated 43.9K ETH in total sales volume and has a floor price of 3.1 ETH at Opensea. A moment there, Goblintown was so hot that it turned the almighty Bored Ape Yacht Club and became the best-selling collection for a day or two.
The mystery of Goblintown’s creators
At first they thought it was infamous NFT artist Beeple. So that the infamous Yuga Labs was behind the project. For a time, people even thought that the brain and voice behind “Beavis And Butthead” and “King of the Hill”, Mike Judge was the creator of Goblintown. And since one of the elves looks like Snoop Dogg, that rumor circulated as well. It made sense because people still think Snoop is the famous NFT collector Cozomo de ‘Medicieven though it the story turned out to be untrue.
The only one who came forward and addressed the rumors was Beeple, who tweeted“Madness, I have to say this, but I have not joined any shockingly low-impact pump and dump projects that will remain anonymous.” Later, when the Goblintown project proved its worth, the creator changed the tune and tweeted the piece “The rise and fall of Goblintown” along with the hashtag “#iamthefounder”.
GOBLINTOWNS RISE AND FIXED #iamgrunnleggeren pic.twitter.com/oHWlm3IduY
– beeple (@beeple) June 5, 2022
However, Beeple was not the founder. When they saw Goblintown’s enormous success, the mysterious creators had to doxx themselves. Just in time for the NFT NYC conference, they released a message in which they admitted that Truth Labs was behind the project. The company was behind the mildly successful NFT collections Illuminati Collective and The 187, and won gold with their third outing.
On Truth’s website they define themselves as:
“We are dedicated to sharing wonderful blockchain accidents, exploring creatively, developing rich, fun worlds and experiences (both IRL and in the digital realm), and providing a platform for new voices and visions in this space.”
In a strange turn, while the creators doxxte themselves, Goblintown’s floor price fell from almost 5 ETH to just over 3 ETH.
ETH price chart for 07/16/2022 on Binance | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
The The collection Iconography
The Goblintown name comes from The Hobbit, specifically from a JRR Tolkien poem called “Down, Down, To Goblin Town.” That name also suggests that the collection serves as a commentary on the NFT market in the crypto winter. Are there other clues? Several. For example, a pixie like DJ and producer Steve Aoki, which is a notorious NFT collector. Another you are wearing a t-shirt which says “Phunks, Zunks, Tendies, Azuki,” a clear reference to Azuki’s creator and all his robust past projects.
Another feature is a reference to the infamous Mike Novogratz’s Luna tattoo, and thus a commentary on Terra’s collapse.
Then we have a pixie with a tattoo that says $ LUNA.
This is probably a reference to @terra_money and the $ 83B collapse of stablecoin $ UST. pic.twitter.com/D5vj54rqbk
– tansan.eth – ₜₕₑ bₑₐₙ Gₒbₗᵢₙ (@tansanDOTeth) May 30, 2022
And what about this image that refers to many blue chip NFT projects and is titled “Up, Up, To Goblintown.”
ₙ ᵤₚ ₜₒ gₒbₗᵢₙ ₜₒwₙ pic.twitter.com/zjngNZc1en
– goblintown.wtf (@goblintownwtf) May 22, 2022
And well, when we talk about Steve Aoki, he was the DJ at Goblintown’s highly coveted NFT NYC party. There he premiered the gruesome NFT song “Piss On the Dance Floor (Goblintown Anthem).” You can still buy it on a reasonable price here. And when we talk about NFT NYC, too better or worseGoblintown managed to be the center of attention throughout the conference.
What a story.
Featured Image: Screenshot from their site | Charts by TradingView
